Competition And Mutual Support:Evolution Of Connotations Of The Evolution Theory In Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of China

At the end of the 19 th century,the evolutionary theory in the W est was introduced into China,which,combining it self into Save the Qing Dynasty from Subjugation and Ensure Its Survival,the them e of the times in the late Qing Dynasty,became one of the important social t houghts during this perio d.During its dissemination of the evolutionary theo ry across China from the Hundred Days' Reform to the May 4th Movement,its connotations underwent the evolution from the view of survival through com petition to view of m utual support.This was a tremendous sociopsychological change among the Chinese people,indicating that the Chinese people had critically absorbed the Western evolution theory.The first evolutionary theory introduced into China was the vie w of survival through competition by Darwin,which represented the m ain content of the evolutionary theory during the Hundred Da ys' Reform.The national crisis after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894 provoked the self-reliance sense of the elites of the Hundred Days' Reform,and they encouraged the Chinese people to save their country and ensure its s urvival with the competition and evolution theory.However,the view of survival through com petition at this time and the Western evolutionary theory were different in two aspects.Firstly,the view of survival through competition was more focused on gregarious com petition,and the Institu te of 1898 was the important manifestation of gregarious co mpetition;secondly,influenced by the Western democratic thoughts,the view of competition embodied the spirit of equality,including equality between the m onarch and his nationals and equality between m en and women.At the beginning of the 20 th century,the view of m utual support by K ropotkin was introduced into China and advocated by some revolutionary factions,enabling the coexistence of competition and mutual support in the evolutionary theory.On the one hand,self-reliance am ong the Chinese people encouraged by the view of survival through competition was necessitated by the times;on the other hand,mutual support was a powerful weapon to resist powers.The view of survival th rough competition and mutual support at this time was tinged with revolutionary elements.During the May 4th Movement,the influence of mutual support exceeded that of the view of survival th rough competition.In addition to active prom otion of mutual support by the press and intelle ctuals,many associations pr acticed it,such as the Mutual Support Association,the W ork-Study Mutual S upport Association,the Evolution Association and so on.The r easons why m utual support was advocated were as follows.Firstly,bullying by imperialists prompted Chinese people to question the view of survival through com petition.Secondly,with the deepening of understanding of the W est,the idea of seeking an equal status with the W est was enhanced among the Chinese peop le.At this time,young intellectuals becam e the backbone of mutualism propaganda,and they made a close integration of m utualism with the idea of transforming society.The evolution of the evolution ary theory from com petition to m utual support could be attributable to the internal c onsistency between them because they both sought social progress and national prosper ity.The view of m utual support was the reflection of the view of survival through competition by the Chinese people in the era of imperialist aggression and warlord strife as well as an important supplem ent to the evolutionary theory.Such a conversi on was the driving force behind social transformations.