Marching To A Modern State: Intellectuals And State-Building Of The Early Modern China

State-building embodies the political aspect of modernization in a society. The modern form of "state" was brought by the West to the developing countries in the colonization process. So the principal task of state-building in developing countries is to build an independent and stable sovereign nation-state. In the early modern China, the political mission of state-building was completed by political parties, manifested in the path of "state-building by the Party".All the emerging classes in early modern history chose political parties to conduct state-building and attempt ultimate solutions of social problems. In China, most political parties, esp. those that were influential in Chinese politics were founded and led in their early stages by certain representative intellectuals. Hence intellectuals became one of the most active political forces in China's party politics. The transformation of intellectual elites into political-party elites greatly influenced China's state-building process. What are the inner drive and social drive of Chinese intellectuals' undertaking the state-building process in the early modern China? Why is it inevitable that modern nation-state-building requires the path of "state-building by the Party"? Why is ideology so important to state-building and China's political development? How did intellectuals accomplish the historical mission of state-building by participating in political parties?This dissertation argues that politics is the principal drive of China's modernization and the primary political task of early modernization is modern nation-state-building. But a dual political dilemma existed for state-building in the process of China' modernization. One is the none-existence of the ultimate spirit driving the overall social development, while a set of common beliefs which can be accepted by the whole society is needed as the foundation of state-building. The other is the non-existence of a leading social force for state building: in early modern China, there was no single social class who could complete the state-building mission independently. How to respond to this dual political dilemma became the core concern of the historical mission of state-building. Hence the primary and inherent requirement of state-building is to conduct belief-rebuilding and organizational reconstruction by the means of political power.During the process of state-building in countries conducting modernization that is late-coming and brought from outside, intellectuals, the army and peasants are the three most important social groups. In early modern China, state-building was led by intellectuals. A political cultural tradition of "transcendence" and "involvement" was formed for Chinese intellectuals in traditional intellectual-bureaucrat politics. The pressures of nation-defending and nation-enlightening in early modern China strengthened this tradition and motivated Chinese intellectuals to become the leading force of state-building in early modern China.Intellectuals employed political power to complete belief-rebuilding and organizational reconstruction that were needed by state-building. They accepted and chose from different ideologies to shape the common belief which was needed by state-building, because the historical choice from traditional Confucianism through nationalism to socialism satisfied the need of social development for a spiritual force. They organized and participated in political parties to shape the leading force which was required for state-building. Hence the path of "state-building by the Party" became an inevitable historical choice.With the emergence of CCP, Chinese intellectuals began their gradual transformation from intellectual elites to political elites, and chose socialism as the common belief for state-building and CCP as the leading force for state-building. They succeeded in integrating themselves with peasants and other classes. Finally intellectuals completed the historical mission of state-building and modernization. The above are the social an...