Contesting the Truth of Revolution, Democracy and Good Governance in the Land of Confucius: The Chinese Reception of Rousseau's 'The Social Contract', 1898-1906

Why did Rousseau's The Social Contract first gain popularity in China among classics of Western political thought? To what extent did its reception pave the way to the triumph of Marxism-Leninism in the land of Confucius? This dissertation scrutinizes the Chinese reception of Rousseau's work from 1898 to 1906 to explore its legacy in the foundational period of Chinese political thought.;I focus on how Rousseau's critical notions of revolution, democracy and good governance were transplanted into the Chinese cultural context and responded to by the most influential voices of the emerging Chinese intelligentsia. Chapter One and Two study how The Social Contract was translated into Chinese. Whereas Nakae Chomin's translation contributed to the rise of modern notion of revolution in China, Yang Tingdong's seems less radical by emphasizing the necessity of a strong state, which, however, could be interpreted as advocating revolutionary dictatorship. Chapter Three investigates the reasons behind Liang Qichao's swift conversion away from Rousseau's theory. As it reveals, Liang withdrew his support once he found that the theory encouraged anarchism and radicalism, which had replaced despotism as the main threat to China's progress. The last chapter examines Liu Shipei's revaluation of the Chinese populist tradition according to social contract theory. It contends that Liu's embrace of anarcho-communism later was prepared by his reading of Rousseau's doctrine of equality.;The Chinese reception of Rousseau was a historical practice of comparative political theory (CPT) and is useful to test presumptions and methods of CPT as an emerging academic field. A significant question I investigate is the way in which the first generation of Chinese intelligentsia reconciled Rousseau's theory with Chinese culture. On the one hand, they had to make sense of Rousseau's theory by referring to Confucian languages and metaphors. On the other hand, they turned it into a powerful instrument to reflect upon and re-evaluate the Confucian tradition. Consequently the Chinese reception of Rousseau became the practice of comparing and integrating Rousseau's theory with Confucian moral and political teachings.