“Gongyang San Shi(公羊三世)”theory With Political Reform In The Late Qing Dynasty

The Opium War in 1840 opened the prelude of modern Chinese history,China failed in each of the war,and signed a series of unequal treaties,the colonial powers were attempting to carve up china,the country was in the downfall of crisis.In such a social crisis,the advanced intellectuals began to realise if they want to richen people and strengthen the state,there must be a social reform.But the social reform need a theoretical tool to rely on,and so comes the“Gongyang San Shi(公羊三世)”theory.“Gongyang San Shi”theory is one of the New Text Confucianism,it originated in the“different speechs in three eras”in Gongyang Zhuan(《公羊传》),which means people should use diffirent words in diffirent eras.The word“Gongyang San Shi”was start from He Xiu in Han dynasty,in He-Xiu’s theory,the history is developed through three diffirent eras,“Chaos”,“quietness”,and“peace”,so“Gongyang San Shi”began to have its historical meaning.With the decadency of the New Text Confucianism,“Gongyang San Shi”theory had been valued until Qing dynasty,and Kang Youwei made it becomes a current in the Late Qing.Kang Youwei is a famous thinker in the modern Chinese history,he combined the Chinese traditional thought and the Western evolution theory up,established his own unique concept of social evolution system:human society is in accordance with the“Chaos”,“quietness”,and“peace”,and achieve the good"Datong(大同)"ideal society.Kang Youwei argues that human society evolves overtime and could be divided into three phases.The first stage is marked by political chaos and social anomy,the second stage is characterized by the reestablishment of legitimate political order,and the third stage is when the world as a whole experiences great harmony and every individual is able to fully realize their potential.The development of Kang-Youwei’s“Gongyang San Shi”theory is divided into two stages.Before and during the Reform Movement of 1898,Kang wanted to emphasize the importance of restructuring most,so he thansformed the traditional“Gongyang San Shi”theory:firstly,promoted the traditional theory to a evolution of history,argued that the human society is in accordance with the“Chaos”,“quietness”,and“peace”,breaking the history theory of fall-back and cycling;secondly,combined the Chinese traditional thought“Xiaokang(小康)”and“Datong”theory up,in order to obtain the public support,and to proof the rationality of the reform movement;thirdly,combined the Western thought,and proposedt he theory of constitutional monarchy,pointed out the direction of the political reform.After the failure of the Hundred Days Reform, Kang Youwei fled through over 30 counties, and found that the westen country is not what he thought before, they are not such better than he used to think. So his mind had change, and began to change the “Gongyang San Shi” theory further more.Firstly, he changed the corresponding to the period of “Chaos”, “quietness”, and “peace”, he used to think that China is in the “quietness” stage, but after the experience in many countries, he changed his mind and expounded that China in Late Qing is still in the stage of “Chaos”.Secondly, the theory of “San Shi San Chong” appeared, and according to this theory, every stage can involve all the three stages, all the three stages can also be in one country, so the society development can be more meticulous.Thirdly, the theory began to focus on the reform movement should be progressive, and should not overstep, he stressed that the development of all things require a certain process, so there must be the constitutional monarchy first, and then there can be the democratic republic.“Gongyang San Shi” theory is the significant thought resources for the reform in Qing dynasty, which is also the profile of the western culture impact on traditional culture in the process of modernization, showing the difficulties of traditional cultural transformation. At the same time, it also symbols the decline of the last generation of scribes, which describes the old intellectuals’ ideological and academic characteristics of ideas in temporary shortage in the late Qing dynasty as clear as a mirror.This article is composed of five parts:the first is the background in Late Qing dynasty and how the Kang-Youwei’s “Gongyang San Shi” theory came out; the secend is how did “Gongyang San Shi” theory change in the diffirent dynasties; the third is to discourse Kang-Youwei’s “Gongyang San Shi” theory before the failure of the Hundred Days Reform; the fourth is is to discourse Kang-Youwei’s “Gongyang San Shi” theory after the failure of the Hundred Days Reform; the fifth is evaluation and thus leads to investigate the relationship between theory and ideological restructuring of political reform.The conclusion part is mainly to Kang Youwei thoughts of social evolutionism historical position and contemporary value of overall evaluation.