State, Free Will, and Historical Determination: The Tripartite Tensions in Chinese Nationalism, 1900-1911

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Abstract

This paper focuses on two opposing theories of nationalism that emerged in late imperial China. Zhang Binglin (1869-1936), an idiosyncratic traditionalist and revolutionary, developed a theory of Han-Centrism that emphasizes the historical-ethnographical predetermination of the Chinese nation. His theory delivered a Herderian critique of universalism and state imperialism, and played an active role in the Chinese national revolution. His major opponents, Kang Youwei (1858-1927) and Liang Qichao (1873-1929), endorsed a modernist concept of state. They developed a theory of political nationalism that contains Weberian insights on state priority. Their theory, ironically, exemplified an attempt to claim the continuity between empire and nation-state. While contesting both political nationalism and an incipient marginal civic nationalism, ethnic nationalism presented itself as an effective counterbalance to the persistent imperial universalism and the rising ideology of nation-state in late imperial China. My paper thus elucidates the entanglement and competitions of three key principles of nationalism, i.e. free will, the state, and historical determination, within the Chinese context. In so doing, my study recovers the moral grounds of ethnic nationalism in a particular historical context, and questions the moral devaluation of ethnic nationalism entrenched in the social science tradition.

Author

• Liping Wang, The University of Hong Kong