The Researching Of ChangYansheng's Nationalism Ideology

Since the mid 19th century,the Chinese culture and its western counterpart have been engaged in a historical period of clashes and exchanges.As the western cultures were gradually introduced into China,the idea of "nationalism" was also widely spread on this ancient country.Usually when a new 'though is borrowed in,it will integrate with the local culture and produce a theoretical "mutant",and that was the case with China's nationalism.After the introduction,western nationalism was coalesced with the historical and cultural contexts of modern China,and a unique Chinese version of nationalism took shape after three theoretical shifts.Understanding nationalism as a power mechanism to arouse public patriotism and cohesion under the framework of Social Darwinism was the very first theoretical shift.Viewing nationalism as a means to achieve national unity and integration among various ethnic groups was the second major shift of nationalism in China.The last shift occurred after the May Fourth Movement in 1919,when nationalism was regarded as a theoretical weapon to bring about national independence,domestic prosperity as well as political democracy.Chang Yansheng,the illustrious Chinese thinker,has devoted his whole life to studying nationalism in China and was largely involved in the third theoretical shift of Chinese nationalism almost a century ago.Chang's ideology on nationalism—one essential achievement of Chinese nationalism in modern China--contains various elements such like process philosophy,biological view of history,the Chinese-centered cultural theory and the national political perspective.Chang absorbed some best western thoughts such as Darwinian social evolutionism,Herbert Spencer's social organism,Auguste Comte's social theory,as well as various other schools of thought of humanities,social sciences and even natural sciences,and then assimilated them into his biological view of history.He saw a similarity between the evolution of human history and that of living creatures:from nothing to tissue,and from simple tissues to complex tissues.Till now,the progress of human history can be roughly divided into four stages:familial society,tribal society,ethnic society and national society,and presently we are in the fourth stage of society.From late 1930s to early 1940s,Chang drew some essences from western modern natural sciences and put forward his "organic philosophical theory",which helped him improve and perfect his biological view of history.Chang and other young revolutionists advocated a "national politics" which calls for that a nation should belong to its people,all politics is for its people,and the people have the right to participate in political affairs directly or indirectly.Moreover,nationwide revolution proves to be an effective means to achieve such national politics.For Chang,there are two kinds of revolutions:one is nationwide revolution that unites farmers,workers,merchants,students,and all walks of life,and the other is class revolution-one led by the Communist party.Nationwide revolution aims to unite all walks of life and to realize harmony among classes,thus building a nation of democracy.In late 1920s,Chang regarded provincial autonomy as an important approach to such democratic state.In the various discussions on the founding of the new China in 1930s,Chang objected to authoritarianism supported by Jiang Yanfu and Sa Mengwu,and proposed a democratic constitutional government instead.After the Mukden Incident in 1931,Chang wrote an article in which he analyzed the nature of Sino-Japanese War and put forward some strategies of China's war of resistance.Chang believed that the war between China and Japan is one that could truly determine the fate of China and Chinese civilization.He appealed for a national war of resistance that combines frontal assaults with guerrilla attacks from behind the enemies.Chang Yansheng,along with many other young revolutionists,was an indispensable driving force of the democratic constitutionalism movement during the war period.After the victory of the anti-Japanese war,several regional blocs emerged on the globe,and as a result,the global vision and nationalism have once again sprang up in China.Based on his biological view of history,Chang thought the human society was still in the stage of national community,therefore state/nation was still the very basic of the political unit.Chang's nationalism centers around the country and emphasizes that country comes before nation,class,as well as individuals,and the country is a significant carrier of cultural development.In the meanwhile,his idea of nationalism has some distinguished features:firstly it boasts of more extensive theoretical resources than the traditional western nationalism;secondly,it is more inclusive that breaks through the limitation of the narrow nationalism;finally,its aim is to modernize China,which does not necessarily pose a threat or conflict with a global vision.However,due to the fact that the political objective of Chang's nationalism deviated from China's reality back then,and that there was no solid class foundation for the school of nationalism,Chang's ideal of a nationalist country,after two decades' endeavor,was finally disillusioned,along with the downfall of the Kuomintang regime in mainland China.