Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 517 Proceedings of the 6th Annual International Conference on Social Science and Contemporary Humanity Development (SSCHD 2020)

The Origin and Development of and Its Practical Implications Xiangbo Zhu*

School of Marxism, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, P. R. School of Marxism, Henan Mechanical and Electrical Vocational College, ZhengZhou, 410000, P.R. China *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT The various nationalist trends in contemporary China have played an important role in political movements and local conflicts around the world, but the reasons for their origins and trends vary widely. Contemporary Chinese nationalism, however, is often expressed in terms of ‘patriotism’ because of its stressful character. By tracing the origins of Chinese nationalism and sorting out the development skeleton of Chinese nationalism, analyzing the current situation and its profound historical background, with the aim of providing basic theoretical support for the construction of contemporary nationalism theories.

Keywords: Nationalism, Origin and development, Influence on reality.

1. INTRODUCTION development of countries and nations over the world but also hampers the global peace and development. The Nationalism, i.e. an idea or movement based on the extent of its influence is deeper than one might expect, interests of the national interests, was born in the West and it has become a focus of real concern and a hot and as the source of modern international society topic of academic research today. promoted national liberation and equality. It is a social trend that has influenced the political ecology of the 2. DEFINITION OF CHINESE world. Many patriots have used nationalism as an NATIONALISM, TRACING IT FROM ideological weapon to explore the way to save the ETYMOLOGY country and make the country prosperous after it was introduced to China in the late 19th and early 20th Nationalism is a less systematic theoretical form as a centuries, thus becoming an important ideological political trend. It is a widely debated issue, both in power that has influenced Chinese politics. China and abroad, among the folk and in the theoretical Since the 1990s, various nationalist trends have community. For example, Ernest Gellner argues that played an extremely important role in political "nationalism is primarily a political principle which movements and local conflicts around the world. It is insists that political and national units must coincide" predicted that nationalism will be the most important and that "without modern state power, there is no political trend of the twenty-first century. In the post- question of nationalism"[1]; John Bourgeois argues that: Cold War period when the East-West Cold War ended "nationalism is a political form that refers to a political and the trend of world multi-polarization developed, a movement that seeks and holds state power and uses torrent of nationalism originating in Eurasia is once nationalism as a reason to justify this behaviour [2] and again spreading rapidly around the world, forming the so on. In contrast, according to Marx and Lenin, third wave of nationalism in the twentieth century. The nationalism is a narrow national consciousness, a struggles and frictions marked by nationalism can be preference for one's own nation; and although felt in almost every corner of the planet. Nationalism nationalism can be divided into progressive and shows no sign of dying out in globalization. Instead, it reactionary, but in essence, nationalism is the core of the has witnessed the most widespread and powerful bourgeois national view, and as such, as a historical development since the Second World War. phenomenon, it will gradually disappear with the Contemporary nationalism not only affects the internal development and progress of society. [3]. The American

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 925 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 517

historian and diplomat Carlton Hayes pointed out that "a which had long restricted the Chinese people's vision of complete and systematic study of the attributes and the world. The idea of "Tian-Xia Doctrine"or the idea of history of patriotism, nationhood and nationalism does the world was a long-standing pattern of understanding not exist in any language." [4] the world in ancient China. According to the oldest Chinese literature, it dates back to ancient times. We can look at the chart of ethnic and national According to this idea, the "world" i.e. the whole world, identities in Anthony Smith's Nationalism: Theory, was equated with the realm of the orthodox dynasty, and Ideology, and History. (Table1.Characteristics of ethnic the phrase "Every place under the whole heaven is the groups and peoples)From this point of view, religious king's land. Every man within the is a subject beliefs can not be a criterion for defining ethnicity.This of the king"[6] typifies this idea. This is a typical is relatively objective. The precise "common reflection of this idea. The ruler of the dynasty ruled the mythology", "shared history", "common public culture", world according to the mandate of providence, and was etc. , which are the basic conditions for national called the "Son of Heaven". Everything under the Sun, identity, and thus it is clear that the 56 nationalities of that is, everything in the world should be subordinated China refer more to ethnic groups, while the Chinese to the "Son of Heaven" and the ruler chosen and ordered national concept is a more precise definition of the basis by the "Heaven". of China as an ethnic nation. The ancient idea of the world was secondly Table 1. Characteristics of ethnic groups and peoples [5] expressed in the concepts of geography and culture. According to the understanding of orthodox dynastic Ethnic group Ethnicity thought, the "world" could be divided geographically Appropriate name Appropriate name into two parts: the 'Kyushu part' and the 'four seas beyond Kyushu'. In terms of location, it can be divided Common myths and A common myth ancestors, etc. into "China", that is, "Huaxia" and "the four ", Shared memories A shared history i.e. "Man, Yi, Rong and Di". This brings us to an important proposition in ancient Chinese political A different culture A common public culture doctrine, the "distinction between barbarians and Connected to the Possession of ancestral Huaxia". As the name implies, it means to distinguish homeland lands(homeland) between "Huaxia" and barbarians. The term "Hua" Solidarity of certain Common rights and (elites) obligations refers to the Huaxia nationality (Han nationality); the refers to all non-Han nationality. The main Single economy purpose of the distinction between barbarians and Xia is to identify the superiority and inferiority of cultures, i.e. 3. TRACING THE ORIGIN AND the Chinese culture (Han culture) is superior and DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALISM IN civilized, while the barbarian culture is inferior and CHINA FROM A MATERIALISTIC barbaric. The distinction between barbarians and Xia HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE constitutes the traditional Chinese ‘world view’ centred on China. The core of the modern state is the nation state, and in China nationalism began to sprout at least in the Song 3.2. From "the World" to "all Nations", the dynasty, which collided violently with various minority Enlightenment of Chinese Nationalism regimes and produced fantastic reactions. Ouyang Xiu, for example, wrote The Theory of Orthodoxy, and while Later on, it gradually became a 'world view' centred pro-war and anti-war poems were both good in the Tang on China or Chinese civilization. This view was that Dynasty, pro-war poems, such as those of Xin Qiji and China, as the most civilized country, was the center of Lu You in the , were politically correct. the world, while outside China were the barbarians, The idea of Shu Han orthodoxy has already enjoyed the whose culture was barbaric and inferior. The influence great influence. Rather than being a view of history, it of this idea was so profound that until modern times. was a search for a realistic identity. The song Dynasty When the doors of the ancient empire were forced open sought the rationality of political power and state, which by the West, many Chinese people still thought of was a far-source of nationalism in modern China. themselves as the empire of heaven. It was difficult for ancient China to develop a sense of national self- 3.1. Perspective of the World consciousness and a modern sense of nationhood based on civilizational and racial differences, and it lacked the From a cultural point of view, the main reason for modern national concepts based on the forest of nations the absence of nationalist thinking and movements in in the world. ancient China was the narrow concept of "Tian-Xia Doctrine" and the"distinction between yi and xia", The emergence of Chinese nationalism dates back to the modern imperialist invasion. The traditional Chinese

926 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 517

nationalist ideology was mainly based on a sense of world's greatest empire if the largest nation on earth can national superiority, the belief that the Chinese nation build a country suitable for the evolution of heaven?'' was at the centre of the world and that civilization was [9] Although Liang Qichao still had a glorious dream of of the highest order. As is well known, China faced a Chinese empire that would be the first in the world, deep external and internal strife from 1840 to 1950s, the future China he depicted was no longer a China namely the First Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion, registered the view of Tian-Xia), but a national state "fit which led to the rise of the ideological trend of practical for the evolution of heaven". statecraft as the official ideology, replacing the From Sun Yat-sen's interpretation of nationalism in traditional Ching- philosophy. The traditional terms of "the government of the people, by the people, conception of the world finally underwent some kind of for the people" to the Communists' Marxist change during the foreign affairs movement. interpretation of nationalism, the development of It was only in the 1860s that Chinese officials and Chinese nationalism was basically based on the idea of gentlemen began to realize that the world situation in getting rid of the control of other powerful which China found itself had changed dramatically. nationalities,with obvious exclusiveness. The May From the 1860s onwards, the foreign affairs movement, Fourth Movement, which broke out in 1919, was an which was characterized by the pursuit of worldly important milestone in the history of Chinese values, was launched. During this period, the principle nationalism. In the 1930s, the Japanese invasion of of practical statecraft was also applied to the rules and China led to an unprecedented unity and development of methods of foreign relations. We refer to this traditional nationalism in the war against Japanese aggression. view of the world that has been transformed by the After the founding of People’s Republic of China, application of the world, as the China-centred view of Chinese nationalism was closely aligned with a strong world. Marxist-Leninist ideology. In summary, Chinese nationalism derives from a 3.3. From "Nations" to "World", the number of ideological sources that differ greatly from Formation of Chinese Nationalism each other, including: traditional Chinese thinking, American progressivism, Marxism, and Russian The Sino-Japanese War ended in a crushing defeat populist ideas. This ideology itself also presents many for China, which not only could no longer control and differences, and even often conflicting, manifestations. dictate Korean affairs, but also signed the power- defeating Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, so that even in East Asia, there could no longer be any 4. CONTEMPORARY CHINESE extravagant talk of China as the centre. We call this NATIONALISM AND ITS REALISTIC change the de-centring of the all nations' view. The INFLUENCE defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War meant the complete collapse of the remaining world order in East After 1949, the characteristics of Chinese Asia, and proved the futility of relying on nationalism have been closely related to the ideological to achieve the goal of enriching the country and gaining orientation of the . For a foothold in the world's nation states. The result was example, after the establishment of the CCP, it held the that the scholars began to doubt the desirability of Marxist ideology with an internationalist ethos. Under Confucian ethics and led to a dramatic change in the the influence of this internationalist ideology, Chinese concept of Chinese cultural legitimacy, and the modern nationalism since modern times has become transformation of traditional Chinese society began to increasingly marginalized and, although it has not accelerate [7]. It became clear that China was not the completely disappeared, "nationalist aspirations have only power; China was no longer the ‘centre’ that been directly and forcefully restrained and suppressed Western countries were even more advanced and by the tenets of ideological philosophy"[10]. However, civilized than China, and that traditional Chinese it was only after the break-up of Sino-Soviet relations nationalism was under attack. and the opening up of China, especially after the dramatic changes in the Soviet Union and the end of In the early twentieth century, intellectuals such as the Cold War, that nationalism began to become Liang Qichao introduced Western nationalism into the focus of people’s concern again, through global China, which, together with traditional Chinese internationalism. nationalism, formed the basic source of modern Chinese nationalism. Li Hongzhang, an important minister of the Firstly, the rise of contemporary nationalism in late , once said that modern China was in China is still, to some extent, a stressful social trend. the midst of "a great change in more than three thousand Modern Chinese nationalism was formed in years"[8]. Liang Qichao said in 1902, "Therefore, there response to acts of aggression and plunder by the is no other way to save China today than to build a Western powers, and was undoubtedly of a very nationalist state. Who can usurp the emblem of the pronounced stressful nature. In contemporary China,

927 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 517

although there is no smoke of gunfire, the international revolutionary utopia and recognized itself as a member pressures caused by the economic rise have been of the nation states in the reform and opening-up after repeatedly appeared. The international "threat theory" the disintegration of New . and "collapse theory" of China are incessant, and these At the dawn of the 21st century, with China's phenomena, with their exceptionally obvious modern growing power, it is not surprising that nationalism and "nationalism", cannot be dispelled in today’s world narrow nationalism tendency appears in mainland where there are many international coordination Chinese thinking; but the possibility of integrating the organizations. It is undeniable that the law of the future international order with Chinese world view and jungle, the "Nature selection, and survival of the fittest" culture, as advocated by individual scholars, is worthy predetermined by Western evolutionary theory, is still a of our reflection. Indeed, traditional Chinese civilization reality for contemporary Chinese nationalism, which and intelligence can certainly provide rich intellectual cannot escape the stressful fate. Under the pervasive resources for the future development of mankind, but in "jungle mentality" since modern times, the international tapping these resources, we should also pay due situation is changeable is changeable and the motivation attention to what history has already taught us. of Chinese stress-based nationalism are undoubtedly unsustainable. In general, nationalism at the national level in China is still only a pervasive part of the national mood Secondly, at a time when ideologies adhering to the towards foreign threats, and has not yet risen from its tenets of "internationalism" were prevalent, Chinese native state to become an important spiritual force that nationalism was either hidden or embedded in it, and can lead the healthy development of society and guide expressed in the concept of 'patriotism'. As Xiao people to view the world rationally, and form a Gongqin puts it, "The ideological symbols of socialism complete set of value systems, social institutions and are the expression of Chinese nationalism. Since the behavioral norms. Nationalism now remains developing concept of nationalism does not enter directly into the and it is not mature or rational enough. But while it is ideological symbol system, the connotation of far from theoretical thinking, it is very close to the nationalism is characterized by the specific concept of people. One cannot understand modern China and look patriotism."[11] In other words, the notion of to her future without the involvement of nationalism or nationalism was still an undercurrent in China at this without a nationalist perspective. However, among the time, poised to take hold. In fact, there was a large Chinese classified as nationalists, there are those who degree of inherent tension between internationalism and advocate authoritarianism and those who advocate the nationalism. For example, the slogan "Chinese expansion of democracy; those who advocate more Marxism" was raised at the Sixth Plenary Session of the government intervention and those who advocate a Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of completely laissez-faire market economy; those who China in the 1930s as a tactic of internal political advocate a return to tradition and those who oppose it. struggle, but we could also feel the intensity of the Therefore, it is perhaps more realistic and urgent to conflict in the combination of the two. In a sense, integrate the existing ideological resources than to internationalism was the means, while nationalism was explore new nationalist orientations. the essence. This was evident in the liberation movements of the world's colonies in the 20th century. Thus, when the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, REFERENCES people were eager to abandon the internationalist banner [1] Ernest Gellner. Ethnicity and Nationalism [M]. they had carried for so many years, and went straightly Beijing: Central Compilation Press, 2002, pp.1 and unabashedly into the arms of nationalism. This is the reality of contemporary Chinese nationalism. [2] John Bugeoli. Nationalism and the State [M]. Manchester University Press (English edition), 5. CONCLUSION 1985, pp.3

The nationalism that developed within this modern [3] The complete works of Marx and Engels (Vol. 1) Chinese value system of the "world" was always only [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1972, instrumental and phased. As soon as nationalism pp.319 achieved its mobilizing purpose, or ceased to take social [4] Carlton J.Hayes. Essayson Nationalism [M]. New Darwinism as an evolutionary axiom, the moral ideal of York: The Macmillan Company, 1928, pp.2 world harmony would overshadow nationalism and China could even become the centre of a new world [5] Anthony Smith. Nationalism: theory, ideology, morality once again, which was the New Sinocentrism history [M]. : Shanghai People's of the Cultural Revolution, with China as the centre of Publishing House, 1972, pp.319 the world revolution[12]. It was only after the Cultural [6] Shi Jing - Xiao Ya - Bei Shan Psalm [Z] Revolution that the Chinese realized the falsity of the

928 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 517

[7] Jin Guantao Liu Qingfeng. A study of the history [10] Xiao Gongqin. The History and Prospects of of ideas:The formation of important political terms Chinese Nationalism. Strategy and Management in modern China [M]. Beijing: Law Press, 2010, [J]. 1996, No. 2, pp.60 pp.239 [11] Xiao Gongqin, The History and Prospects of [8] Li Hongzhang: "Prepare to discuss the manufacture Chinese Nationalism [M], pp.60 of ships cannot be abolished, the 15th day of the [12] Liu Qingfeng, "The New Huaxia Centrism in the 5th month of the 11th year of the Tongzhi era", in Cultural Revolution", Twenty-first Century [J], Li Hongzhang Quanji - Zaozhi V, Anhui Education General No. 15 (February 1993 issue), pp.55-59 Publishing House, 2008, pp. 107 [9] Liang Qichao, "On the Great Trend of National Competition" (1902), in The Tenth Collection of the Drinking Ice Room, vol. 4, pp. 35

929