The Research Of Zhang Xiruo's Political Thought

As an important figure during the development of liberalism in China, Zhang Xiruo, whose ideological course and transformation in thinking deserve a thorough study. He have threw oneself into Xinhai Revolution in his early life, and then studied overseas in Britain and America. Affected by western political thought deeply, Zhang had the greatest esteem for Rousseau and Lasiki. When he came back to motherland, he disseminated freedom and democracy which have been fluency in western political ideology. With a positive attitude, Zhang devoted himself to the education and took it as a career for life. Meanwhile, he attached great attention to the development track of the history of western political thoughts, in order to trace it back to the source. At the same time, he kept a close attention on current affairs, trying to call on the people to maintain the sovereignty of their own land; in another way, he insisted persistently on the idea of democratic politics, emphasizing that the significance of democracy in debate about"Democracy and Dictatorship".Zhang Xiruo completed his transformation in thinking from Liberalism to People's Democracy before the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is rational for him to have such a choice, which differentiates him from other Chinese liberalism intellectuals in the same period. So the research of Zhang′s political thought also possess typical significance to the ideological research of the Chinese liberalism intellectuals in modern times. In essence, the transformation of Zhang resulted from an adaption of his internal political thought to external political environment, and what he expressed about the pursuit of democracy as well as the demand for economic equality and national independence in his academic research accelerated the accomplishment of the transformation of political stand in an active way.This essay aims to construct a system of Zhang Xiruo′s political thought, systematically elaborates the origin and characteristics in three aspects like sovereignty, liberalism and democracy, particularly pays more attention to the degree of his acceptance and understanding about the thoughts of Rousseau and Laski. In this paper, the transformation in thinking of Zhang Xiruo has taken as the sequence of thought that goes throughout the full text, making an attempt to clearify the relationship of his political thought and political practice, so as to excavate important connotation of his political thought.