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Nazionalfascismo and the Revolutionary Nationalism of Sun Yat-sen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

A. James Gregor  and
Maria Hsia Chang
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Abstract

This article attempts an assessment of the putative similarities between generic fascism and the revolutionary nationalism of Sun Yat-sen. Whatever characteristics the two ideologies have in common can be traced to similarities between Sun's thought and pre-Fascist Italian Nationalism. The latter was only one of the elements that contributed to Italian Fascism. A distinction is then drawn between Sun's ideology and that of the Italian Nationalists by identifying the latter nationalism as “exacerbated.” Further distinctions are attempted between such nationalisms and the mature ideology of Italian Fascism. Italian Fascism is viewed as a subspecies of revolutionary nationalism, while revolutionary nationalism itself is understood to include a relatively pacific and potentially democratic species and an exacerbated, potentially authoritarian one.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , November 1979 , pp. 21 - 37
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1979

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References

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21 Kuo-fu nien-p'u [Chronology of Dr. Sun Yatsen's life] (Taipei: Committee for the Centennial Celebration of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Birthday, 1965)Google Scholar; Tsou Lu, Kuo-min tang shih-kao, pp. 22, 30, 31; see also Schiffrin, Harold Z., Sun Yat-sen and the Origins of the Chinese Revolution (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1968), pp. 42–44.Google Scholar

22 Yat-sen, Sun, Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi [Complete works] (Taipei: Party Historical Archives Committee, 1973), 1: A174–75.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., p. A173. See also Sharman, Lyon, Sun Yat-sen: His Life and Its Meaning (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1968), pp. 74–79; Wittfogel, pp. 56–59.Google Scholar

24 See Corradini, Enrico, Discorsi politici (1902–1923) (Florence: Vallecchi, 1923), pp. 17, 36, 38, 41, 43, 46, 47, 74, 87.Google Scholar

25 No attempt can be made here to trace the evolution of these ideologies. DeGrand; Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen; and Bernal, Martin, Chinese Socialism to 1907 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1976)Google Scholar, provide some of the substance of that process for the Italian Nationalists and Sun Yat-sen, respectively.

26 For a discussion of this background period, see Chong, Key Ray, “Cheng Kuan-ying (1841–1920): A Source of Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist Ideology?”. JAS 28, no. 2 (February 1969); Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen, ch. 2.Google Scholar

27 In his political testament Sun indicated that one of the principal planks of his program was the “material reconstruction” of China. The reference was to the text of the International Development of China which he had published in 1920; the text appears as “Material Reconstruction” in his Collected Works. Sun, Compare, International Development of China (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1920)Google Scholar; and “Wu-chih chien-she,” in Chien-kuo fang-lüeh [The strategy for national reconstruction], in Sun, Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi, 1:507–654.

28 “The industrial development of China should be carried out along two lines: 1) by private enterprise; and 2) by national undertaking. All matters that can be and are better carried out by private enterprise should be left to private hands which should be encouraged and fully protected by liberal laws.” Sun, International Development of China, p. 9; see also pp. i–iii, 1,2, 137, 144, 145, 147, 153–55. 159. 160.

25 Ibid., p. 165.

30 Ibid., pp. 1–3, 147.

31 Sun, Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi, pp. A175–76; cf. Bernal, pp. 185–87.

32 Rocco, Alfredo, “II problema economico italiano,” Scritti e discorsi politici (Milan: Giuffre, 1938), 1Google Scholar: 15, 17–19, 21; and “Economialiberale, economia socialists ed economia nazionale,” in the same work, 1: 54, 56. All subsequent references to essays by Rocco are to the same work unless otherwise indicated.

33 Rocco, “Economia liberale,” 1: 57, 62; see also Corradini, Enrico, La mania dei produttori (Rome: L'ltaliana, 1916), pp. viii, ix–xi, 6, 62.Google Scholar

34 Rocco, 1: 76.

35 Rocco, “La resistenza civile,” 1:412–13; “II momento economico e sociale,” 2: 586–87; see also “L'ora del nazionalismo,” 2: 516; and Corra-dini, “Sindacalismo, nazionalismo, imperialismo,” Discorsi politici, pp. 54, 60, 63. All subsequent references to essays by Corradini are to this volume unless otherwise indicated.

36 Corradini, “II nazionalismo e i sindacati,” p. 423.

37 Rocco, “L'oradel nazionalismo,” 2: 513–14; “II programma politico dell'associazione nazionalista,” 2: 477–81; “II programma nazionalista,” 1:502–4.

38 Rocco, “L'oradel nazionalismo,” 2: 512.

39 Rocco, “Replica agli oratori,” 2: 486; Corradini, “Nazionalismo esocialismo,” pp. 227–28; idem, “Stato liberale e stato nazionale,” p. 235.

40 Corradini, “L'emigrazione italiana nell’ America del Sud,” pp. 74, 87; “Principii di nazionalismo,” pp. 92–93, 100.

41 Sun, “Die Drei Prinzipien in der Manifests des Reorganisationsparteitages der Kuo Min Tang (1924),” in Wittfogel, p. 318.

42 Corradini, “Le nazioni proletarie e il nazionalismo,” pp. 107, 114; “Per la guerra d'ltalia,” P. 272.

43 Corradini, “La guerra e la lotta di classe,” 5. 365.

44 Corradini, “Politica ed economia della nazione e delle classi,” pp. 374–90; “II nazionalismo e i sindacati,” pp. 421–25; Sun, “Chung-kuo kung-jen suo-shou pu-p'ing-teng c'iao-yueh chin hai” [The disabilities suffered by Chinese workers under the unequal treaties], Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi, 2: 683–84, and as “Rede an die chinesischen Arbeiter,” in Wittfogel, pp. 328–29.

45 Sun Yat-sen, San-minchu-i, trans, in Hsü, Leonard Shihlien, Sun Yat-sen: His Political and Social Ideals (Los Angeles: Univ. of Southern California Press, 1933), pp. 168–69, 179, 231Google Scholar. We have occasionally retranslated some passages, without altering the intent, to accord with contemporary usage. See also Linebarger, pp. 62–63.

46 Rocco, “Che cosa è il nazionalismo e che cosa vogliono i nazionalisti,” 1: 80; see also the entire exposition, 1: 69–89.

47 See Keith, Arthur, A New Theory of Human Evolution (New York: Philosophical Library, 1949).Google Scholar

48 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 242–43, 247. The situation was not so simple, of course. The relationship between family and clan names in China is considerably more complicated. See P'eng Kueifang, Wu-pai-nien-ch'ien chih i-chia [Five centuries ago: a single family] (Taipei: National Defense Press, 1972), 1: introduction, particularly pp. 8–9. Moreover, Sun recognized that the China of his time was composed of at least five etbnie: Manchus, Mongols, Tibetans, Mohammedans, and Han. He was convinced, nonetheless, that political integration could be effected, and that biological affinity was one of the “natural” grounds of such a union. See Sun Yat-sen, “Die drei Prinzipien,” in Wittfogel, p. 230. There are many difficulties in trying to explicate Sun's “natural” or “biological” basis of Chinese nationalism, not the least of which is the variable meaning to be assigned the Chinese terms tsu, kuo-tsu, and tsung-tsu, for example. For the purposes of this account, however, the conceptual similarities shared in this regard by Sun and the Italian Nationalists are notable.

49 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 167–68.

50 Corradini, Enrico, L'ombra delta vita (Naples: Ricciardi, 1908), pp. 285–86.Google Scholar

51 Corradini, Enrico, L'unita e la potenza delle nazioni (Florence: Vallecchi, 1922), pp. 89–91Google Scholar; see “La vita nazionale,” Discorsi politici, pp. 36, 37, 43.

32 Corradini, “Principii di nazionalismo,” p. 101; Corradini, Enrico, Il volere d'ltalia (Naples: Perrella, 1911), pp. 164–65.Google Scholar

53 Sun, San-min chu-i, p. 213.

54 Corradini, L'unità, p. 231.

55 Sun, San-min chu-i, p. 177.

56 Ibid., pp. 178–79.

57 Rocco, “Che cosa è il nazionalismo,” 1: 71 see also p. 83.

58 Rocco, “II valore sociale del femminismo, 1: 62–63.

59 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 208–9.

60 Corradini, “Le opinioni degli uomini e i fatti dell'uomo,” pp. 28–31. Interestingly enough, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao made the same assessment of the origins of Chinese and Roman “cosmopolitanism.” See Liang, “Chung-kuo ch'ien-t'u chih hsi-wang yü kuo-min tse-jen” [China's hopes for the future and national responsibilities], Yin-ping shih wen- chi, p. 18.49b.

61 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 240–43, 274, 353, 285.

62 Ibid., pp. 291, 293, 295, 297. See also Yat-sen, Sun, “Five Power Constitutionalism,” in Fundamentals of National Reconstruction (Taipei: Sino-American Publishing, 1953), pp. 35–36Google Scholar. This edition provides a parallel Chinese text.

63 Sun, San-min chu-i, p. 299.

64 See Rocco, “Cause remote e prossime della crisi dei partiti politici italiani,” 1: 6; “Economia liberale, economia socialists ed economia nazionale,” 1: 30–33, 42, 51.

65 Rocco, “Che cosa è il nazionalismo,” 1: 78; “Esamedi cosienza,” 1: 98; see “L'imperod'Italia,” 1: 257.

66 Corradini, “La vita nazionale,” p. 46.

67 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 184–85; Rocco, “II problema econbmico italiano,” 1: 14; Corradini, “Principii di nazionalismo,” pp. 92, 93, 100; “Nazionalismo e democrazia,” p. 161.

68 Sun, San-min chu-i, p. 186; Corradini, “Le nazioni proletarie e il nazionalismo,” pp. 109, 111; La mania deiproduttori, pp. 4, 5, 16.

69 Corradini, La macia dei produttori, pp. 6, 7, 21.

70 Sun, San-min chu-i, p. 405.

71 Ibid., p. 407; Rocco, “Economia liberale,” 1: 35–36.

72 This is most explicit in Giovanni Papini, “Un programma nazionalista,” in Papini and Prezzolini, Vecchio e nuovo nazionalismo, pp. 6, 14, 15. 39, 42. Papini speaks of the nation as an “organism” and the “elite” as performing “directive functions.”

73 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 301, 310, 314, 330, 331.

74 Ibid., p. 317.

75 Schiffrin, “The Enigma of Sun Yat-sen,” p. 465. See also Friedman, ch. 4.

76 Gaeta, Franco, Nazionalismo Italiano (Naples: ESI, 1965), pp. 136 ff.; Sun, “Five Power Constitution,” Fundamentals, pp. 20–38.Google Scholar

77 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 314, 330, 331.

78 Ibid., pp. 361, 364. 377. 385.

79 Corradini, “Sindacalismo, nazionalismo, imperialismo,” p. 63; “Nazionalismo e democrazia,” pp. 158–60, 162, 165.

80 Corradini, “Liberali e nazionalisti,”pp. 192, 194.

81 Rocco, “Che cosa è il nazionalismo,” 1: 79; and “II programma politico dell'Associazione Nationalista,” 2: 475, 478.

82 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 284–85, 490–91.

83 Rocco, “Ordine del giorno,” 2: 491; “Che cosa è il nazionalismo,” 1: 79.

84 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 400–401, 419; Rocco, “L'ora del nazionalismo,” 2: 515; and “Economia liberale,” 1: 33.

85 Sun, “Statement on the Formation of National Government,” in Fundamentals, p. 162. See also in this regard, Ch'en Kung-po, Chinese Students' Monthly 24, no. 2 (December 1928), 113.Google Scholar

86 See Kautsky, John, “Neo-Maoism, Marxism and Leninism,” and “From Proletarianism to Modernizing Movement,” in his Communism and the Politics of Development (New York: Wiley, 1968), pp. 42–102.Google Scholar

87 Dino Grandi, “La libertà communista,” and “La cosienza nationale,” in Giovani (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1941), pp. 85, 86, 94–96Google Scholar; this is a reprint of articles of the pre-Fascist period; see also “Lettera a un socialista,” pp. 224–25.

88 This theme runs throughout Italian Nationalist literature. See Corradini, La mania dei produttori, pp. ii–iii, 27, 180–81, and 184–99 for characteristic treatment.

89 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 227, 257–58.

90 Ibid., pp. 216, 253. For early evidence of Sun's cultural “chauvinism,” see Chong, pp. 253–54; but compare this with Cheng Pao-nan's review of Ch'ui-yen, Tsui, “An Explication of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Thought,” in China Forum 2, no. 2 (July 1975): 307–9.Google Scholar

91 Rocco, “II problema economico italiano,” I: 18–19; “Economia liberale,” 1:45.

92 Sun, San-min chu-i, pp. 485–86; Rocco, “Economia liberale,” 1:40, 47.

93 Rocco, “II problema economico italiano,” 1: 21; “Economia liberale,” 1: 56; “II programma politico dell'Associazione Nationalists,” 2: 475, 477; “L'oradel nationalismo,” 2: 513.

94 Rocco, “II programmanationalista,” 2: 496.

95 Rocco, “Economia liberale,” 1: 54.

96 Sun, “How to Develop Chinese Industry,” in Fundamentals, p. 186. See also “International Development of China,” Fundamentals, p. 173; and The International Development of China, pp. ii, 47, 85, 135, 138.

97 Rocco, “L'ora del nazionalismo,” 2: 511–12.

98 Sun anticipated the extension of suffrage rights to the various regions of China only after each local administration had “succeeded in getting more than half of its population to understand the Three Principles ofthe People …,” that is to say, when they had agreed to conform to the ideological criteria of the Kuomintang. Sun, “History of the Chinese Revolution,” Fundamentals, p. 84.

99 Sun, “Statement on the Formation of National Government,” Fundamentals, pp. 161–63.

100 This theme is developed more fully in Gregor, The Young Mussolini.

101 In this regard, see Panunzio, S., Diritto, forza e violenza (Bologna: Cappelli, 1921).Google Scholar

102 Corradini, preface to Discorsi, p. 13.

103 Sun, “Ueber die Notwendigkeit der Reorganisation der Kuo Min Tang,” in Wittfogel, pp. 313–16.

104 One can find an account of “charismatic leadership” in Michels, R., First Lectures in Political Sociology (New York: Harper, 1949)Google Scholar, ch. 6. There is no analogous treatment in Sun's writings. It is clear that Sun was convinced that only disciplined obedience to his personal leadership could serve the revolution, but he does not develop the specific and complex notion of charismatic leadership. See also Friedman, pp. 57–58, 60–61, 64–68. Sun found support in Michels's ideas, but incorporated little of their theoretical substance into his arguments. Cf. Sun, “Letter to Hung Men Comrades in the South Seas,” 5 July 1914, in Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi, 3: 290.

105 See Gregor, A. James, The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1974), ch. 6.Google Scholar

106 Eastman, Lloyd, The Abortive Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1974), pp. 80–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar