Zhang Taiyan: the Republic of China As an Image

chapter 2 Zhang Taiyan: The Republic of China as an Image

所以容異族之同化者，以其主權在我。

It is only possible to allow other ethnicities’ assimilation, if sovereignty is in our hands.1 Zhang Taiyan (1907) ∵

It has been repeatedly claimed that Zhang Taiyan (Zhang Binglin, 1868–1936) and Liu Shipei (1884–1919) were anti-Manchu revolutionaries whose political attitudes have to be classified as being opposed to those of nationalist reformers like Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei with regard to several aspects.2 What is of interest here is their frequently mentioned territorial image of the future nation-state that was allegedly narrower than that of the reformers. Zhang and Liu are supposed to have favoured a Chinese nation-state containing only China proper, or in Zhang’s words “our Zhongxia clan’s” (wu Zhongxia zhi shi) land.3 Its territory would not be inherited from the Qing. It was legitimated historically by referring to the territories of dynasties considered to be ethnic Chinese. In what way Zhang’s and Liu’s images of a Chinese nation-state and of non-Chinese people differed from Liang’s will be analysed in the following two chapters. A crucial feature of the revolutionaries’ thinking was the anti-Manchuism that distinguished it from reformist thinking. However, Liang had strong anti- Manchu tendencies, too. It seems in fact to have been common among all Chinese nationalist thinkers in late imperial times. Still, not all wanted to sup- port or stir up the “hatred of the Manchus” (chou Man). Liang was strongly against a “doctrine of revenge” ( fuchouzhuyi), which according to him would worsen China’s opportunity to become a strong nation-state.4

1 Zhang T. 1984 [1907_1], 255; translation based on Cassel 1997, 25. 2 See e.g. Laitinen 1990, 66; Leibold 2007, 34; Zarrow 2005, 66–68. 3 Zhang T. 1984 [1904], 195 (ch. 20 “Zu zhi”). 4 Liang Q. 1983 [1903_1], 75–76.

Kauko Laitinen writes that the keyword “hatred of the Manchu” was “a means of modern propaganda, and the Guomin bao (= Chinese National Magazine)5 was the earliest publication to advocate it.”6 In fact, one of the most important publications in this respect was Zhang’s essay “Zheng chou Man lun” (On the correct hatred of the Manchus, 1901), published in Guomin bao.7 Zhang wrote:

則滿日皆為黃種。而日為同族。滿非同族。載在歷史。粲然可知。[. . .] 則日本先有漢字。而後制作和文。今雖襍用。漢字有居大半。至滿洲則自有清書。形體絕異。

Both, the Manchus and the Japanese belong to the yellow race, but as can be clearly seen from history the Japanese are of the same ethnicity8 [like us], while the Manchus are not. [. . .] Japan first used Han [Chinese] characters, and later developed the Japanese script. Although now both are used at the same time, Han [Chinese] characters still make more than a half of the script. The Manchus, on the other hand, have their own writ- ing whose form is completely different.9

Anti-Manchu sentiments grew after the official reaction to the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). The Manchus came to be seen as the reason for the Qing Empire’s inability to defend itself against the imperialist powers. The Qing Dynasty’s weakness was explained as the Manchu people’s racial and cultural weakness. It was suggested that because of their rottenness and corruption, the Qing Empire was confronted with internal problems, in addition to European imperialism. In anti-Manchu thinking, the Chinese were perceived as one of the world’s superior civilisations and races or ethnicities. They felt that a Chinese nation- state’s position in the global network of states should accordingly also be superior. Only due to the disaster of Manchu rule were the Chinese forced into undue inferiority and weakness. Therefore, a strong Chinese ethnic feeling was promoted to oppose the incompetent minority rule of the Manchus. But the Chinese themselves were also to be criticised, as it was obvious that they had to be incompetent or weak, too, in order to accept the Manchu rule in the first place. Anti-Manchu thinkers like Zhang Taiyan and Liu

5 Published monthly in 1901. 6 Laitinen 1990, 80. 7 Zhang T. 1901; see also Laitinen 1990, 80; Murthy 2011, 62. 8 Laitinen translates “nation.” 9 Zhang T. 1901; see also Laitinen 1990, 81.