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Wang Tʻao and Incipient Chinese Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Paul A. Cohen
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The first emergence of modern Chinese nationalism is usually placed in the A period just after China's defeat by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. It was in 1895 that the youthful Sun Yat-sen made his initial revolutionary attempt to destroy the Manchu house. In the same year the nationalist-minded interpreter of Western political and social thought, Yen Fu, published a series of important essays which brought him for the first time before the public eye. Something of the spirit of the gathering tide of nationalism could be seen in the forceful editorials of Wang K'ang-nien (1860–1911) in Shih-wu pao (“The Chinese Progress”), a newspaper which he founded in August 1896 with Liang Chʻi-chʻao as chief editor. In one of his editorials (1896) Wang listed the components of China's national sovereignty that had been whittled away by the West and implored his countrymen to view this as the common shame of China's four hundred millions, rather than the shame of one or two persons alone. Wang struck a similar chord in another piece in which he argued that since the interests of all members of society were linked together, people should look upon the whole of society as one family and identify the common interest as their own.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , August 1967 , pp. 559 - 574
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1967

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References

1 “Lun chin-jih Chung-kuo tang i chih-chü chih-chʻih wei pen” [“Present-Day China Should Take as Its Basis a Consciousness of Fear and of Shame”], Shih-wu pao (The Chinese Progress), Vol. XI (Kuanghsü 22/10/11 or Nov. 15, 1896)Google Scholar; “Wei-jen wei-chi pu-fen wei erh-shih shuo” [“Acting on Behalf of Others and Acting on Behalf of Oneself Are the Same Thing”], ibid. These editorials were reprinted in Huang-chʻao ching-shih wen san-pien [Third Collection of Chʻing Essays on Statecraft], Chʻen Chung-i, comp. (Taipei, 1965), I, 246–49, 386–87Google Scholar.

2 For biographical information on Wang Tʻao, see Hummel, Arthur W., ed., Eminent Chinese of the Chʻing Period, 2 vols. (Washington, D. C., 1943–1944), II, 836–39Google Scholar; Ching-shan, Wu, “Wang Tʻao shih-chi kʻao-lüeh” [“A Brief Examination into the Life of Wang Tʻao”], in Shang-hai yen-chiu tzu-liao [Materials for the Study of Shanghai] (Shanghai, 1936), pp. 671–91.Google Scholar

3 Cohen, Paul A., “Wang Tʻao's Perspective on a Changing World,” in Feuerwerker, Albert, Murphey, Rhoads, and Wright, Mary C., eds., Approaches to Modern Chinese History (Berkeley, 1967), pp. 133–62.Google Scholar

4 Joseph Levenson develops some of these thoughts more fully in his Liang Chʻi-chʻao and the Mind of Modern China (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), pp. 109–13Google Scholar.

5 Wang's relationship with most of these men is briefly touched on in the biography of him in Hummel, II, 836–39. Less well known is his association with Young J. Allen, editor of the reform-oriented missionary periodical, Wan-kuo kung-pao (The Globe Magazine). Between September 1890 and December 1893, one or two essays by Wang (some of them reprinted from WLWP or Shen-pao) appeared in each monthly issue of WKKP save one. Wang was one of the Chinese judges of an essay contest sponsored by the magazine in 1895 (see WKKP, No. 74 [March 1895], p. 29a). Allen also asked Wang to write a preface to his influential Chung-Tung chan-chi pen-mo [A Complete Account of the Sino-Japanese War], first published in Shanghai in 1896. The preface was reprinted in WKKP, No. 89 (June 1896), pp. 5b-7a.

6 Wang singles these four out for special praise in his letter (ca. 1868) to Stanislas Julien, CT, p. 94.

7 CT, p. 92.

8 Wu Ching-shan, pp. 686–89.

9 FKCL, preface, pp. 1b, 3a-b; CT, pp. 94–96.

10 Oka Shikamon (Senjin), Fa-lan-hsi chih [A History of France] and Okamoto Kansuke's Wan-kuo shih-chi [An Account of World History]. See FKCL, fan-li (“Directions to the Reader”).

11 FKCL, fan-li, p. 1b.

12 See Cohen, “Wang Tʻao's Perspective on a Changing World,” pp. 148–53.

13 See his letter of 1865 to Li Hung-chang, in CT, p. 83.

14 See, esp., Wang's general survey of the history of Western cultural and scientific developments, “Hsi-hsüeh yüan-shih kʻao” ["An Inquiry into the Beginnings of Western Learning”], in HHCTLC.

15 “Hsi-kuo tʻien-hsüeh yüan-liu” [“The Genesis and Growth of Western Astronomy”], ibid., p. 29a. See also Chʻüan Han-sheng, “Chʻing-mo ti ‘Hsi-hsüch yüan chʻu Chung-kuo’ shuo” [“The Late Chʻing Theory That ‘Western Learning Originated in China’”], in Li Ting-i et al., eds., Chung-kuo chin-tai-shih lun-tsʻung [Collection of Essays on Modern Chinese History], Ser. 1, V, 216ʻ58.

16 “Ko-lun-pu chʻuan-tsan” [“In Praise of Columbus”], WKKP, No. 42 (July 1892), pp. 11a–12b.Google Scholar

17 WLWP. 7.18b.

18 See, e.g., ibid., 7.17a-b.

19 “Ko-lun-pu chʻuan-tsan,” p. 11b.

20 More on Wang's “ta-tʻung thought” can be found in Cohen, “Wang Tʻao's Perspective on a Changing World,” pp. 156–58. The relationship between it and his protonationalistic thought is discussed in Yen-nan, Wu, “Shin lun Wang Tʻao ti kai-liang-chu-i ssu-hsiang” [“A Tentative Discussion of Wang Tʻao's Reformist Thought”], Shih-hsüeh yüeh-k'an [Historical Studies Monthly], 1958, No. 4 (April), p. 18Google Scholar.

21 San Min Chu I: The Three Principles of the People (Shanghai, 1927), p. 148. Chiang Kai-shek in a speech of Oct. 1942 stated: “Our aim is a gradual advance of all nations from the stage of equality to that of ideal unity.” Quoted in Chang, H. H., Chiang Kai-shek: Asia's Man of Destiny (N.Y., 1944), p. 78Google Scholar.

22 See his In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (Cambridge, Mass., 1964), esp. Ch. IIGoogle Scholar.

23 Letter to Kiangsu Governor Hsü Yu-jen (ca. 1859–1860), CT, pp. 38–39; WLWP, 12.31b-33a.

24 CT, pp. 84–85.

25 Letter to Ting Jih-chʻang (ca. 1870), ibid., p. 112.

26 WLWP, 2.14a-16b, 3.22a, 4.25a; “Lun i hsing chih-tsao i kuang mao-i” [“On the Need to Promote Manufacture in Order to Expand Trade”], WKKP, No. 45 (October 1892), pp. 3a-b; “Lun Chung-kuo mei-tʻieh chih fu Mei-kuo chin-yin chih fu” [“On China's Abundance of Coal and Iron and America's Abundance of Gold and Silver”], ibid., No. 57 (October 1893), p. 9a.

27 See, e.g., “Mei-kʻuang lun” [“On the Mining of Coal”], in Wang Tʻao, Weng-yu yü-tʻan [Gossip from a Poor Man's Window] 8 chüan, in tsʻe 119–20 of Chʻing-tai pi-chi tsʻung-k'an [Collection of Chʻing Dynasty Notebooks] (Shanghai: Wen-ming shu-chü ed.), 3.5a–6aGoogle Scholar.

28 Ibid.; WLWP, 3.22a; “Lun Chung-kuo mei-tʻieh chih fu Mei-kuo chin-yin chih fu,” WKKP, No. 57 (October 1893), p. 9a; CT, pp. 107–08.Google Scholar

29 WLWP, 4.19a; FKCL, 16.18b; “Hua-Ying tʻung-shang shih-lüeh” [“A General Account of Sino-British Trade”], in HHCTLC, p. 15b; CT, p. 124.

30 See, e.g., WLWP, 2.14a–16b, 3.22a, 10.22a–32a; “Lun i hsing chih-tsao i kuang mao-i,” WKKP, No. 45 (October 1892), pp. 2b–4a.

31 WLWP, 4.17a; see also ibid., 3.6b–8b.

32 Ibid., 4.25a, 11.13a; CT, p. 130.

33 “Lun so tʻan yang-wu chung nan tso-yen chʻi-hsing” [“On the Difficulty of Getting the Actions of Those Who Discuss Foreign Matters to Accord with Their Words”], WKKP, No. 59 (December 1893), p. 4bGoogle Scholar; see also ibid., p. 5b, and “Lun i te-jen i li-tsʻai” [“On the Need to Obtain Men of Ability to Deal with Economic Matters”], ibid., No. 46 (November 1892), p. 7b.

34 These essays are in chüan 12 of WLWP. The circumstances of their composition are revealed in Wang's concluding note.

35 Wang was familiar with Huang Tsung-hsi's Ming-i tai-fang-lu [A Plan for the Prince], in which this strain is quite pronounced. See CT, p. 93.

36 WLWP, 12.30b–31a.

37 Ibid., 12.29a–b, 29b–30b, 30b–31b.

38 Ibid., 12.15b–17a.

39 “One has but to observe the war between France and Prussia,” he wrote, “to know that one cannot rely only on firearms. Prussia's victory over France resulted from her ability to fuse north and south Germany into one nation.” Wang Tʻao, Pʻu-Fa chan-chi [An Account of the Franco-Prussian War], 20 chüan (1895 ed.), 6.15b–16a. See also ibid., 1.24b–25b, 3.18a, 15.138–143.

40 Ibid., 2.9b–12a.

41 FKCL, 16.13b.

42 WLWP, 4.18a.

43 HHCTLC, preface, p. 2b.

44 See, e.g., ibid.; letter to Li Hung-chang (1865), CT, p. 85, letter to Cheng Kuan-ying (ca. 1880), ibid., p. 156, letter to the authorities, ibid., p. 214; “Lun so tʻan yang-wu chung nan tso-yen chʻi-hsing,” WKKP, No. 59 (December 1893), p. 5bGoogle Scholar; WLWP, 3.7b–8a.

45 For a quite radical expression of these sentiments, in a letter written around 1880, see CT, p. 170.

46 WLWP, 3.7b.

47 FKCL, 16.23b–27b.

48 See, esp., ibid., pp. 27a–b, and WLWP, 4.17a–18b.

49 Wang made this point even more succinctly in a letter written in late 1880, at a point when China seemed to be on the verge of war with Russia: “The fact that the countries of Europe, though no match for China in territory and population, are able to have their way throughout the empire is attributable to the unanimity of sentiment prevailing between ruler and ruled and to the sharing of governmental power between the sovereign and the people [chün-min k.ung-chih]. The fact that the Chinese people, though more numerous than the people of any other country, are nevertheless treated with contempt by powerful neighbors and ruthless enemies stems from the failure of communication between ruler and ruled and the distance separating the sovereign and the people. On top all power is lodged in the hands of one man, while below the common people are unable to participate in the formulation of policies. If the system of the Western nations prevailed in China, the entire population would rise up and come to China's defense.” CT, p. 170.

50 Kung-ch'üan, Hsiao, Chung-Kuo cheng-chih ssu-hsiang shih [A History of Chinese Political Thought], 6 vols. (Taipei, 1961), V, 684–85Google Scholar.

51 Levenson, Liang Chʻi-chʻao and the Mind of Modern China, p. 111.

52 Letter to Kiangsu Governor Hsü Yu-jen, 1859, CT, p. 33.

53 Letter to Hsü Yu-jen, 1859–1860, ibid., p. 39.

54 See, e.g., Wang's long letter to Chou Tʻeng-hu, 1859, ibid., pp. 25–32; and an essay of around the same date in WLWP, 6.12a–14b.

55 WLWP, 7.25b–27b, 10.27b–29b.

56 Ibid., 3.27b–29a; CT, pp. 109, 136; “Li-chüan pi lun” [“On the Likin Evil”], in Huang-chʻao ching-shih wen san-pien, I, 739.

57 WLWP, 3.28a, 10.28a.

58 Ibid., 10.26b; CT, pp. 108–09.

59 “Chiu-shih chʻu-i” [“Proposals for Saving the Times”] (Aria), WKKP, No. 44 (Sept. 1892), p. 14b; WLWP, 5.10b, 10.2a, 7a, 12a; CT, pp. 109, 123. Chinese Communist historians are quick to praise Wang's views here. See below, n. 62.

60 Kuan-ying, Cheng, Sheng-shih wei-yen tseng-ting hsin-pien [Revised and Expanded Edition of Warnings to a Seemingly Prosperous Age], 2 vols. (Taipei, 1965), II, 753–66Google Scholar.

61 See n. 5 above.

62 Predictably, Communist historians emphasize this side of Wang, regarding him as an early representative of reformist thought expressing bourgeois economic demands. See Chih-chün, Tʻang, Wu-hsü pien-fa shih lun-tsʻung [Essays on the History of the Reform Movement of 1898] (Wuhan, 1957), pp. 55, 58, 64, 66Google Scholar; An-shih, Mou, Yang-wu yün-tüng [The Foreign Matters Movement] (Shanghai, 1961), p. 84Google Scholar; Sheng, Hu, Imperialism and Chinese Politics (Peking, 1955), pp. 106–07Google Scholar; Chün, Shih, Chi-yü, Jen, and Po-kʻun, Chu, comps., Chung-kuo chin-tai ssu-hsiang shih chiang-shou tʻi-kang [A Teaching Outline for the History of Modern Chinese Thought] (Peking, 1957), PP. 53–56Google Scholar; Wei-chʻeng, Wang, “Wang Tʻao ti ssu-hsiang” [“Wang Tʻao's Thought”] Chung-kuo chin-tai ssu-hsiang shih lun-wen chi [Essays on the History of Modern Chinese Thought] (Shanghai, 1958), pp. 42, 47–49Google Scholar.

63 WLWP, 10.23a, 25b–27b, 31b–32a; “Lun i she shang-chü i wang shang-wu” [“On the Need to Establish a Bureau of Trade for the Promotion of Commerce”], WKKP, No. 49 (Feb. 1893), pp. 6a–7bGoogle Scholar.

64 WLWP, 2.14b–15b, 10.31b–32a; CT, pp. 107–08.

65 WLWP, 2.15b, 4.20b “Lun i hsing chih-tsao i kuang mao-i,” WKKP, No. 45 (October 1892), p. 3a; CT, p. 107.

66 Letter to Li Hung-chang, 1865, CT, p. 86. Wang, at other points, urged the adoption of a variety of measures aimed at prohibiting opium-smoking. See WLWP, 2.11b, 4.12a–14b, 12.13a–15a; “Chiu-shih chʻu-i” (shang), WKKP, No. 43 (August 1892), pp. 12a–13bGoogle Scholar; “Chieh-yen hsin-lo-fu” [“A Treasury of New Pleasures for Those Who Break Off Smoking”], Weng-yu yü-tʻan, 3.11a–b; CT, p. 107.

67 “Lun i hsing chih-tsao i kuang mao-i,” WKKP, No. 45 (October 1892), pp. 2b–4a; “Lun i she shang-chü i wang shang-wu,” ibid., No. 49 (February 1893), pp. 6a–7b; “Lun i te-jen i li-tsʻai,” ibid., No. 46 (November 1892), pp. 8a–9a.

68 “I-yen yüan-pa” [“Postface to Original Edition of I-yen”], in Cheng Kuan-ying, Sheng-shih wei-yen tseng-ting hsin-pien, II, 1297; also in WLWP, 11.13b–14a.

69 Chung-Tung chan-chi pen-mo (Shanghai, 1897); reprinted in WKKP, No. 89 (June 1896), pp. 5b–7a. This is also a frequent theme in Tzu-chʻiang-chai pao-fu hsing-kuo lun chʻu-pien [First Collection of Essays from the Self-Strengthening Studio on the Safeguarding of China's Wealth and the Revival of the Nation], 6 chüan (Shanghai: Chʻiang-hsüeh-hui, 1897)Google Scholar. Compiled by Wang Tʻao on the eve of his death, this is a collection of essays on reform and related matters by Wang Kʻang-nien, Liang Chʻi-chʻao, Chʻen Chʻiu, Chʻen Chih, and others. The two editorials by Wang Kʻang-nien cited at the beginning of this article (see n. 1 above) were among the pieces included by Wang.

70 This may be compared with Joseph Levenson's formulation: “A culturalism bars foreign ideas, but it may actually invite or not actively oppose foreign material force. Nationalism reverses these relations; it may admit foreign ideas, but it will blaze against foreign material incursions.” See Liang Chʻi-chʻao and the Mind of Modern China, p. 110.

71 This current of thought has been apdy labeled by Benjamin Schwartz as “muscular Confucianism” (see In Search of Wealth and Power, pp. 15–16). Despite its ultraconservative orientation, there seems to be a considerable community of spirit between it and certain strands of Chinese Communist thought. See, e.g., Cohen, Paul A., China and Christianity: The Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Antiforeignism, 1860–1870 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), p. 344, n. 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 CT, pp. 155, 161, 162, 174, 204–05, 224–25; WLWP, 3.21b–23b, 10.11a–13a, 12.12b–13a; on Kuo, see Hummel, I, 438.

73 Schwartz, p. 19.

74 Teng, Ssu-yü and Fairbank, John K., China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), p. 137CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 WLWP, 1.10a, 13a, 11.13b (also in Cheng Kuan-ying, Sheng-shih wei-yen tscng-ting hsin-pien, II, 1295–96).

76 See WLWP, 1.2a, 1.11a, 11.13b (also in Cheng Kuan-ying, II, 1296); “Hsi-kuo tʻien-hsüeh yuan-liu,” HHCTLC, p. 29b. For a fuller discussion of Wang's conception of tao, see Cohen, “Wang Tʻao's Perspective on a Changing World,” pp. 157–58.

77 Robert Bellah has described the Chinese bureaucracy as being “not oriented to political goal-attainment values, but to the maintenance of an existing system of interests.” (Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan [Glencoe, 1957], p. 190.) The members of such a bureaucracy would tend, as a rule, to be hostile to basic political reform. It would be interesting to determine the extent to which exceptions to the rule in nineteenth-century China were officials with uncommon knowledge of the West or—which could amount to the same thing—ones whose activities in the bureaucracy were of an untraditional nature (e.g., service as an envoy abroad).