The Theory Of Nationalism And The Chinese National Identity In The Late-Qing

In the contemporary world, the concept of identity politics is popular. Identity politics is essentially a politics of differences, the so-called identity is self-defined and the embodiment of the difference and the relationship between the subject and the other.In the Chinese history of more than 2,000 years, "Differentiation between Cathay and Barbarians" and "Etiquette China", the two models agreed with a strong influence. These two concepts both can find support from the ideas of Cathay and barbarians in "Annals".Does "China" refer to a Han country? Is a minority dynasty the "Chinese" one? Similar problems in a minority dynasty in China often become the most important political issues. Qing Dynasty as a minority one, because of this, but also because of their access to power, was considered to be illegitimate by Han. But then Qing Dynasty established its own legitimacy on its relatively good rule and the theory of New Test Scholarship which believed barbarians could convert to Cathay.In the Late-Qing, for the distress of the reality and the importation of the Western theory of nationalism, the legitimacy crisis of Qing Dynasty erupted again. In that era, the theory resources of political legitimacy were complex and in a state of entanglement. For one thing, the local knowledge contained the Old Text Confucianism and the New Test Scholarship. For another, the Western knowledge contained the theories of nationalism and stateism. People who accepted different theories might hold different opinions about the Chinese national identity. So, people in that era had controversy for 4 knowledge factors: ancient, modern, local, western.Zhang Tai-yan and Sun Yat-sen, representatives of the revolutionary faction, mainly drew their conclusion from the traditional "Differentiation between Cathay and Barbarians". Besides, they absorbed the Western nationalism to make their theory better. They held a Han nationalist's position that only the State by Han was Chinese. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary theory is composed of three people's principles: Nationalism, Civil Rights, and Livelihood, but Nationalism itself is not necessarily associated with the principle of Civil Rights.Kang You-wei, a constitutionalist, according to the knowledge of the New Test Scholarship, refused to recognize the identification model based on nationalism. He sought a Chinese identification model based on culture, and expected that Qing Empire could be directly converted to a sovereign country. Liang Qi-chao, after the Reform Movement of 1898, hesitated to stand on the side of constitutionalists or the revolutionary faction in a time. When he came back from the United States in 1903, he accepted the theory about state of Johann Caspar Bluntschli. When the revolutionary and anti-Manchu ideas rose, Liang Qi-chao alone became the main arguer against the revolutionary. He named the Han nationalism of the revolutionary faction "incomprehensive nationalism", and his own view regarding various ethnic groups as one large nation "comprehensive nationalism". In fact, it was because of the Western nationalism theory itself that Liang Qi-chao had to use the phrase "comprehensive nationalism" which essentially meant stateism.Legitimacy crisis in the Late-Qing eventually led to the collapse of Qing Empire. The establishment of the Republic of China marked the initial shape of the modern Chinese national identity.