The Entanglement Of Confucianism And Liberalism In The Early Republic Of China

The relationship between Confucianism and liberalism is an important academic issue in the history of modern Chinese thought,as well as a major theoretical issue that must be faced in the inheritance and development of China’s excellent traditional culture.To deepen the research on the relationship between Confucianism and liberalism,we should not only continue to deepen the theoretical cultivation from the perspective of philosophy,politics and other theories,but also fully summarize the relevant practical experience since modern China from the perspective of history.From the perspective of theoretical attribute,both Confucianism and liberalism have the ideological attribute of "comprehensively arranging human order";Therefore,liberalism,as a foreign ideology in the Republic of China,has the characteristics of continuous localization,while imperial Confucianism,as a traditional ideology,presents a process of modernization.The different practical orientations of Confucianism and liberalism were one of the reasons why they have presented a form of struggle in modern China.Specifically,the process of interaction and entanglement between Confucianism and liberalism from struggle to blending in the early Republic of China was,to a large extent,synchronized with the turning of Sun Yat sen’s political thought in his later years.After the 1911 Revolution,the establishment of the Nanjing interim government,which took liberal democratic politics as the organizational principle,marked the beginning of political practice of liberal ideology in China.At this time,the phased characteristic of the relationship between Confucianism and ideology was that the old order of "one respect" stipulated by imperial Confucianism was in a state of all-round confrontation with the new order of the concept of "equality and freedom" of liberalism.This critical spirit’s rejection of the old order of imperial Confucianism,which was "fixed in one respect",constituted the initial appearance of the contradictory relationship between Confucianism and liberalism in the early years of the Republic of China.In the transitional period between the old and the new during the period of Beijing’s provisional government,Sun Yat sen and other revolutionary parties formed a short state of cooperation with Yuan Shikai and other Beiyang factions.During this period,the new and old factions,Confucianism and liberalism reached a political consensus on "a strong and powerful government" in politics,and also reached a consensus on promoting Confucianism and etiquette to stabilize social order.The initial cooperation between Confucianism and liberalism during the Beijing Interim Government provided valuable practical materials for exploring the consensus between Confucianism and liberalism.After the failure of the second revolution,Sun Yat sen reflected on liberalism in the dilemma of "imitating Europe and the United States" in the practice of democratic politics,and made profound adjustments to the implementation measures of democratic politics in China.At the same time,after the second revolution,the centralization of the Beiyang government and the restoration of the imperial system were the last large-scale self rescue movement of the imperial Confucianism ideology in China.The hierarchical order principle of position of king and his men\Saint get the throne,power succession method of Rule the country by family\father’s power to son,Confucian classics order of Regard Marquis Lu as king\One wrist commands five fingers in the restoration movement in the early Republic of China was the manifestation of institutionalized Gongyang School in the imperial period.At the beginning of Republic of China,some scholars of Confucian classics and history,such as Lao Naixuan,Song Yuren,Kang Youwei and Yang Du,also tried to accept democracy partially on the basis of keeping the order logic of Confucian classics.This also provides an excellent observation window for us to understand the theoretical foundation of imperial Confucianism.In his later years,Sun Yat sen realized the ideological change in his later years on the basis of reflecting on liberalism,summarizing the political practical experience in the early Republic of China to accept Confucianism and absorbing the organizational effectiveness of the Soviet Communist Party.It was in the process of Sun Yat sen’s theoretical construction of the Three People’s Principles in his later years that the interaction between Confucianism and liberalism got rid of the entanglement of the confrontation and formed the evolutionary direction of mutual learning and even blending.In the process of Sun Yat sen’s conscious theoretical re creation of "gathering the essence of China and foreign countries",a new mode similar to the basic framework of the Three People’s Principles to accommodate the core of the spirit of Confucianism was gradually formed.Although there are many disagreements and contradictions in the theoretical system of the Three People’s Principles created by Sun Yat sen in his later years,it still has important significance in the history of thought.The interaction between Confucianism and liberalism in the early Republic of China highlighted the theoretical connotation and practical orientation of their respective propositions,exposed fundamental differences in the struggle and emphasis on their respective positions,and formed a basic consensus in mutual compromise and reference.The differences and consensus between Confucianism and liberalism in the political and social practice in the early Republic of China can also provide reference for the creative transformation and innovative development of Confucianism in contemporary China.