Body Discipline: The State Power And The Body In The Progress Of The Modernity In China

The body is the material basis of life and a part of the natural environment. At the same time, it's also one of the manifestations of our existence and a product of social construction. While, the body has been seen the subject of medical science, biology, anatomy and other natural science for a long time, it's also in the "absence" status then gradually been "problematic" in the social sciences and humanities until the 20th 80's. It has been appeared not only in philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, aesthetics, art and other subjects, but also in the areas such as post-structuralism, postmodernism, feminism, psychoanalysis and cultural studies, and formed many subjects and research interests about body which continues to this day.The mainly methods of this paper is documentary research and interviews. Then take Jiange County in north Sichuan Province as the example, to research the discipline power of the state on the body in the process of China's modernity, to analyze the reasonableness and unreasonableness of the discipline, to explore how to understand and respect then to achieve the liberty and comprehensive development of the people. The first chapter introduces the paper's research background, theoretical and practical significance, also the literature review in western and Chinese research of the body. Then finds out these studies provide a variety of micro material and analytical framework for the paper but also some shortages theoretical and empirical research in their research. This provides a depth of space for the present study. Chapter II focus on the development, the main contents and significance of sociology of the body and Foucault's discipline theory, which are the theoretical basis of the paper. The subsequent three chapters begin to discuss the body discipline situation in three different historical stages in the development process of Chinese modernity, and analyze them form the body idea, the state's system settings and discipline performances in everyday life. Chapter III is on the stigma and transformation of the body, which douses on body disciplinary from the late Qing to the republic of china. It's the enlightenment period of Chinese modernity. With the stigmatic body idea of "sick man of Asia", people believe in "transformation of people are the basis to reform all", and try to create a strong body by cultivating new citizens, women's liberation movement, attention to sports, military training, the New Life Movement and other reforms movement, so as to achieve the purpose of "defend the nation". Chapter IV is on the revolution and mobilization, which focuses on the body discipline in the early time of new China of the. It's the initial stage of the exploration of the modernity. In the background of revolutionary idea of the body, the state tries to achieve the national goal of the value rationality by maximum mobilizing and using the physical resources of the body. Then to elaborate from a totalitarian political organization and mobilization of the body, the body politics in the revolutionary atmosphere and the daily forms of body discipline in the collective society. Chapterâ…¤is on the secularization and consumption which is concerned about the body discipline after the reform and opening-up. It's the building period of Chinese modernity. The logic of market economy and instrumental rationality has replaced the status of the traditional state authority and value rationality, which make the political symbols such as revolution, sanctity, nobility and grandeur attached to the body before tend to disappear. The body has been endowed with real content about the secular life. This time the body ides is secularized. Then discuss the relationship between the state and the individuals in the atmosphere of post-totalitarian politics, the time the space and the body, the consumerism and the body. Chapter VI is on the review and reflection. Review on the relationship among the rationality and freedom and body in the western history. Then reflect on the reasonableness and unreasonableness of the discipline in the development of Chinese modernity:the mission-based and the instrumentalized of the body in the building process of nation-state, the independenized, the desirized and the commercialized of the body in the construction of democracy-state.By the previous research, the paper concludes that:in the process of modernity in China, the way of state power to discipline the body transforms from direct discipline to indirect discipline, from characteristic discipline to recessive discipline. This progress brings to the individuals not only freedom and liberty but also "alienation" and "colonization". It's also the gradually passing away progress of the human subjectivity. So we must to cultivate human subjectivity, to construct independent body of our own, to achieve the liberty and comprehensive development of the people.Compared with the existing studies, there are two main innovations of the paper: the one, in the theoretical research, is to promote the understanding and the development of social theory by researching the history, the theoretical logic and significance of the sociology of the body. It's including to divide the history of the body to three stages definitely, to summarize the current research of body to two models of structural model and action model, to find out the body is the metaphor of the relationship between the individuals and the society which is the fundamental problems of sociology, the purpose of concerning about the body is to rescue the human from the hegemony of modern rationality to the status of freedom, liberation and comprehensive development. The other innovation, in the practice research, is to provide an analytical framework of the disciplinary body to research on social changes by researching the dynamic process of state power disciplining the body in the development of modernity in China. Compared to the previous studies, it's finds out the mission-based and the instrumentalized of the body in the building process of nation-state, the independenized, the desirized and the commercialized of the body in the construction of democracy-state. Also the body is not only the passive products of disciplinary power but also the subjective feelings and mental experience of the people in these situations, the body not only the product and passive objects of disciplinary power but also adopt various strategies to express their resist to the discipline in specific fields overtly or convertly.