Table Of ContentSCANDINAVIAN INSTITUTE OF ASIAN STUDIES
MONOGRAPH SERIES
GENERAL EDITOR: KARL REINHOLD HAELLQUIST
CHINESE NATIONALISM IN THE LATE QING DYNASTY
Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies
Monograph Series
China:
No. 16 Trygve Lötveit: Chinese Communism, 1931-1934
Sources for the understanding of contemporary China
No. 21 Robert Tung: Proscribed Chinese Writing
A textbook for students of the modern Chinese language
No. 38 Hans J. Hinrup: An Index to Chinese Literature 1951-1976
Alphabetical and subject indexes to this Chinese journal
No. 42 N. H. Leon: Character Indexes of Modern Chinese
Reflecting recent developments of the Chinese language
No. 43 Göran Aijmer: Economic Man in Sha Tin
Chinese immigrant gardeners in a Hong Kong valley
No. 45 Christoph Harbsmeier: Aspects of Classical Chinese Syntax
The basic problems of classical Chinese grammar
No. 50 S. A. M. Adshead: Province and Politics in late Imperial China
Viceregal government in Szechwan, 1898-1911
No. 52 Donald B. Wagner: Dabieshan
Traditional Chinese iron-production techniques
No. 54 Knud Lundbaek: T. S. Bayer (1694-1738)
A study of a pioneer sinologist
No. 55 Elisabeth Eide: China's Ibsen
From Ibsen to Ibsenism
No. 57 Kauko Laitinen: Chinese Nationalism in the late Qing Dynasty
Zhang Binglin as an anti-Manchu propagandist
SCANDINAVIAN INSTITUTE OF ASIAN STUDIES
MONOGRAPH SERIES Ne 57
Chinese Nationalism
in the late Qing Dynasty
Zhang Binglin as an Anti-Manchu
Propagandist
Kauko Laitinen
Curzon Press
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
84 Njalsgade, DK-2300 Copenhagen S
in association with
Curzon Press Ltd.
42 Gray's Inn Road, London WCIX 8LR
First published 1990
© Kauko Laitinen 1990
ISBN 0 7007 0193 1
ISSN 0069 1712
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii
A NOTE ON ROMANIZATION AND CALENDAR ix
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I. VARIOUS ANALYTIC DIMENSIONS OF
ANTI-MANCHUISM
I. ANTI-BARBARIAN PREJUDICE 9
Concerning the Nature of Ethnic Prejudice 9
Sinocentrism and the Myth of Barbarian Absorption 11
Some Semantic Notions Concerning “Racist” Terminology 12
IL ANTI-MANCHUISM OF THE EARLY QING
CHINESE LITERATI AND GENTRY 15
The Importance of the Chinese Scholar-gentry to the Manchu
State 15
The Early Qing Rule: from North-South Antagonism to
Policy of Appeasement 16
Ming “Loyalism” or Anti-Manchuism 19
The Mid-Qing Literary Persecutions 26
The Neutralization of the Scholar-gentry Anti-Manchuism 29
III. TRADITIONAL AGRARIAN DISCONTENT WITH
THE REIGNING DYNASTY 31
Secret Societies as Channels 31
The Taiping Rebellion and Anti-Manchuism 33
The Confines of Traditional Peasant Ideas 34
The Impact of Western Penetration 35
IV. MODERN DISCONTENT WITH THE WHOLE
IMPERIAL SYSTEM: THE BIRTH OF EARLY
CHINESE NATIONALISM 38
The General Situation: Dynastic Decline and Imperialist
Penetration 38
Transformation of Ideas: From Culturalism to Nationalism 42
Intellectuals and Students as an Anti-Manchu Propaganda
Force 48
PART II. THE EARLY POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
OF ZHANG BINGLIN: FROM ANTI-IMPERIALISM
TOWARDS ANTI-MANCHUISM
V. YOUTH: EARLY INFLUENCES AND
EDUCATION 55
VL RÉFORMIST PERIOD, 1895-1900: CONCERN
ABOUT WESTERN INVASION 59
Initial Political Activity 59
The First Exile, 1898-1899: Rising Doubts about the Manchus 64
PART III. ZHANG’S GROWING ANTI-MANCHU
PROPAGANDA, 1900-1903
VII. TURNING INTO A REVOLUTIONARY 77
Public Denunciation of Manchu Rule 77
The Second Exile 81
The Revised Qiushu 83
VIII. CONFIRMATION OF ZHANG’S ANTI-MANCHU
DETERMINATION: THE SUBAO CASE 90
The Subao: Publicity for Revolution 90
Choosing to Become a Martyr 99
PART IV. ZHANG’S THIRD EXILE, 1906-1912:
FROM ANTI-MANCHU ARDOUR BACK TOWARDS
ANTI-IMPERIALISM
IX. BECOMING THE EDITOR OF THE MINBAO 107
The Aims of the Tongmenghui and the Minbao 107
Propagating the Need for Racial Consciousness and Patriotic
Spirit 115
X. SWING TOWARDS ANTI-IMPERIALISM—
WITHERING OF ANTI-MANCHUISM 127
Anti-imperialism and Unity of Asia Re-emphasized 127
Withering of Anti-Manchuism 133
XL ZHANG BINGLIN AND THE GUANGFUHUI 140
XII. SUMMARY 145
APPENDIX: A FEW NOTES ON THE THOUGHT OF
ZHANG BINGLIN 150
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES 162
NOTES 163
REFERENCES 201
viti
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A generous scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education made it
possible for me to carry out this research in 1980-1984 at the University of
Tokyo, where I was fortunate to have as my adviser the well-known sinologist
and international relations specialist, Professor Eto Shinkichi. In his rigid
seminars many of my main research hypotheses were tested. These en
deavours, written in a dissertation form, were accepted by the University for
a doctoral degree. I am grateful to Professors Hirano Kenichiro, Ishii Akira,
Kondo Kuniyasu, Maruyama Matsuyuki, and Watanabe Asao for the devo
tion, which they, as the members of the examination committee, showed in
going carefully through the work, and pointing out a number of drawbacks in
it. The responsibility for any remaining flaws in this revised version of the
original dissertation, however, is solely mine.
Thanks are also due to Ms. Barbara Brooks for her valuable suggestions
concerning the language of the manuscript, and to Mrs. Winnie Asmussen for
checking the Chinese characters.
Espoo, Finland
Autumn 1988
Kauko Laitinen
ix
A NOTE ON ROMANIZATION AND CALENDAR
In transcribing the Chinese language, pinyin 1# the system used in the
People’s Republic of China, has recently become almost universally accepted
in English-language publications either as the sole standard of romanization
or as an optional alternative to the previously common Wade-Giles system.
For the sake of uniformity, the present work follows the trend, and gives all
Chinese names and terms in pinyin. Exceptions, however, are made in the
cases of Beijing JtJR, Nanjing iWÄ, the Changjiang ftü (River), Guang
zhou Xianggang SflB, Aomen and Sun Yixian in favour
of the conventional forms Peking, Nanking, the Yangtze, Canton, Hong
Kong, Macao, and Sun Yatsen, in order not to impede the reader’s under
standing by a rigid adherence to the pinyin system. (Many of the conventional
renderings mentioned follow the earlier Chinese Post Office standard or are
based on the pronunciation of southern Chinese dialects.) Likewise, I have
written Kongzi -fL T and Mengzi £ f in their conventional Latinized forms
Confucius and Mencius (while, for instance, Laozi < f and Zhuangzi £E T
do not have such forms). In order to reduce the number of explanatory notes
within direct quotations which use a romanization system other than pinyin,
the author has for the sake of consistency taken the liberty of changing those
non-pinyin renderings into pinyin. However, whenever this has been done,
the corresponding reference note acknowledges it (e.g. “Quotation rendered
in pinyin”). Should the reader wish to consult a pzny/n-Wade-Giles con
version table, it is conveniently available, for example in Joseph Needham’s
Science and Civilization in China, vol. 5, part 5 (Cambridge University
Press, 1983), pp. 566-70.
Japanese names and terms are rendered according to the Hepburn system.
The Chinese and Japanese practice of placing family names before given
names is observed throughout.
Also for the sake of consistency, all the dates in this work, except where
otherwise specified, are given according to the Gregorian calendar. Therefore
ages of persons are also calculated without adding the customary extra year(s)
at the person’s birth and at the following Lunar New Year.
Fig. 1. A portrait of Zhang Binglin taken before the 1911 Revolution.
