Consciousness Of History And Utopia In Late Qing

It seems that the political transformation of Late Qing has no difference with the replacement of imperial power. With the progress of Opium War, although the crisis of Qing governance is appearing, the situation still dies hard. Qing regime ends in the way of "Revolution", not in the way of cyclical dynasty replacement, it raises a urgent question need to be answered:What does Revolution of 1911 means? Does it has any difference with the traditional regime transferring? Why does the "Revolution" movement becomes the main trend in 20th Century?As for Late Qing, political crisis didn't just begin from 1840, it's seeds has already be buried in the flouring age of Kangxi and Qianlong's ruling time. Under this circumstance, Confucian Scholar-bureaucrat must have some response to it, but they are obviously limited by the tradition. Although they are trying to change the situation, paying attention to "Jing Shi"(经世),they still can't develop any unorthodox and radical idea. With the confrontation of Eastern and Western culture, political crisis growing, Confucian Scholar-bureaucrat have opportunity opening eye to see the world, so it leads to the radical idea of "Jing Shi"'(经世),and the idea was distorted to modern idea of "Revolution" and all kinds of Utopia ideas.Under this intellectual history background, I am trying to answer several questions below:in the aspect of consciousness of History and Utopia, what kinds of change does the growing radical political transformation bring to? What kinds of resource doe they absorb? What kinds of attitude when they face this kind of modern consciousness of History and Utopia?This study focus on the period from 1883 to 1910, an important phrase for the idea of Reform and Revolution competing with each other, and it is also a period for Confucian Scholar-bureaucrat and newly-emerging intellectuals have different opinions about the scheme of future political transition. What's more, they take advantage of every kind of resource of thought, such as Buddhism, Daoism and Western thought, trying to explain this historical situation, and point out a ideal way of transition of politics and culture, and with the progress going further, the consciousness of History and Utopia are gradually radicalized. The main part of this study is divided into five chapters. There are two parts for the first chapter, the first part is to comb the intellectual atmosphere before 1883; the second part is focused on the debate between Dai Zhen (戴震)and Peng Shaosheng(彭绍升),Zhang Xuecheng(章学诚).On the one hand, the debate between Dai Zhen(戴震)and Peng Shaosheng(彭绍升)means an obvious character of Confucian in Qing dynasty, the aspect of transcendence are becoming thin and weak, even falling into the predicament of Qian-Jia School(乾嘉学派)；On the other hand, the debate between Dai Zhen(戴震)and Zhang Xuecheng(章学诚)shows that some Confucian Scholar-bureaucrats are beginning to challenge the conservativeness and passiveness of Qian-jia School, and turning to the historiography which emphasize the aspect of Jing Shi(经世),refreshing the spirit of Confucian. From the angel of the Consciousness of History, it is to say that an attitude of focus on Worldly-life and Shi Gong(事功)is gradually emerging.As for the first part of second chapter, it focus on Gong Zizhen(龚自珍)and Wei Yuan(魏源),two prominent pioneer in GongYang study(公羊学),trying to describe that how they illuminate the consciousness of "Changing Situation''(变局),how they follow and accept the newly emerged GongYang study(公羊学)and how they describe the Consciousness of "Changing Situation"(变局)in the aspect of Jing Shi(经世)；The second part is to introduce the thought of Pure Land (净土)of Gong Zizhen(龚自珍)and Wei Yuan(魏源).It is trying to explain that although the Confucian Scholar-bureaucrats are starting to pay attention to Jing Shi(经世)and Shi Gong(事功),they still keep the strong consciousness of transcendence, which has strong character of Chu Shi(出世),remaining a kind of fierce tension with Jing Shi(经世).Once frustrated in Ru Shi(入世), they will seek for the world of Pure Land(净土),which has huge difference with modern consciousness of Utopia that emphasize worldly perfection.The third chapter focus on Liao Ping(廖平)and Kang Youwei(康有为),discussing how Liao and Kang develop the consciousness of Jing Shi(经世)into a kind of consciousness of "Respect Contemporary Demean Ancient" (尊今抑古)and "Political Reform with the excuse of Ancient form"(托古改制),not put the goal of history focus on "Three Dynasty''(三代),but emphasize the "Saint initiation", weakening the meaning of gradual political reform.There are two parts for the fourth chapter. The first section starts from the origin and process of Yan-Fu's(严复)translation of Tian-Yan Lun(天演论),to elaborate that Yan-Fu was stimulated by Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and begins to understand and illuminate the Social-Darwinism which was mentioned in Huxley and Spencer's works, developing a kind of naturalistic consciousness of linear history evolution. In this section, it also tries to explain,why the human history from the eye of Yan-Fu looks so cruel and pitiless, and why Yan-Fu develops a kind of "demoralized" consciousness of history; The second section mainly introduce that how the Social Evolution combine with the idea of society, nation and state and to develop different types of consciousness of history.The fifth chapter is divided into two sections, mainly introducing the questioning and challenge addressed to Social Evolution. The first section focus on Kang Youwei (康有为),Yan Fu(严复)and Zhang Taiyan(章太炎), elaborating how the consciousness of civilized progress of Yan Fu was challenged by Kang Youwei and Zhang Taiyan. In case of Yan Fu, he is trying to develop a type of view of axiom evolution based on Competition and Freedom, but Zhang Taiyan manage to describe a nihilistic "Wu Wu Shi Jie" (五无世界), totally denying the value and meaning of human progressing and secular history. However, several anarchists, such as Li Shizen(李石曾),accept the idea of scientific progress, believing that human history will progress consistently, imaging the future as a perfect world. For some anarchists, just like Liu Shipei (刘师培), he believes that only "equality" is the ultimate value and goal from human being, so he is trying to construct an ideal of primitive utopia in restoring ancient ways.