“You Don’t Wear a Fur in Summer”: Kang Youwei’s Impartial Words on Republicanism (1917) and the Fate of Chinese Democracy
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Federico Brusadelli
Abstract
This article aims to discuss Kang Youwei’s 康有為 (1858–1927) position on democracy and republicanism in China through the analysis of two major works of his late production: Datongshu 大同書 (Book of Great Concord, drafted in 1902, but only published posthumously in 1935) and Gonghe Pingyi 共和評議 (Impartial Words on Republicanism, 1917), seemingly presenting two opposite views on the same issue. Whereas in his most “esoteric” production, represented by the Datongshu, Kang prophesied the spread of democracy on a global scale (China included), he remained loyal to the prospect of a Chinese constitutional monarchy in his public appearances after 1911 – the same he had abortively sponsored during the Hundred Days’ Reform of 1898. In 1917, playing an active role in the short and somehow farcical restoration of the last Manchu emperor on the throne orchestrated by warlord Zhang Xun, Kang published Impartial Words on Republicanism, a significant essay through which he intended to explain the apparent contradiction between his republican utopia on the one hand and his “imperial” project on the other. Through the translation and discussion of some extracts from the two aforementioned works, I will try to shed more light on Kang’s complex views on the issue and on the ambivalence of his political and theoretical agenda. Finally, I will also suggest that Kang’s reflections may appear to have been successively echoed by later intellectuals in the debate on the possibility and nature of a “Chinese democracy”.
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf – Obituary – Nécrologie
- Nachruf auf Sadik Jalal al-Azm
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- “You Don’t Wear a Fur in Summer”: Kang Youwei’s Impartial Words on Republicanism (1917) and the Fate of Chinese Democracy
- Ein Fischlein mit Lästermaul Ibrāhīm al-Miʿmārs liebster Feind, Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl as-Sumayka
- Auf der Suche nach einer verlorenen Zeit? – Visuelle Perspektiven der Kindheit in Mittelasien vor 1917
- Übersetzungen – Translations – Traductions
- Über die Idee und das Wirkliche (1890)Sō jitsu ron 想実論
- Josef van Ess Unfertige Studien II
- Unfertige Studien II: Bemerkungen zum Korankommentar des Aṣamm
- Beiträge zur 8. Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft, Crêt-Bérard Puidoux, 27.–29. April 2016 Contributions aux 8èmes journées de la relève de la Société Suisse-Asie à Crêt-Bérard Puidoux, 27–29 avril 2016
- L’assujettissement des textes: quelques réflexions sur le classement par catégories dans les « encyclopédies » (leishu 類書) en Chine ancienne
- Se servir de la fiction comme guide: l’exemple des « romans de carrière » chinois contemporains
- Le commentaire de Tankuang sur l’Eveil à la Foi dans le Grand Véhicule: la probable influence de Wonhyo
- Le « film d’exploration » dans les textes de la critique de cinéma en République populaire de Chine
- The Ṣaḍakṣara-vidyā: A translation and study of the Tibetan version of the six-syllables spell
- Special Section: “The convergence of soul substances in Southeast Asia, and the spillage of blood: notions of personhood and health in transition” Edited by Elisabeth Hsu
- Introduction
- Permeable Personhood and Techniques for Negotiating Boundaries of the Self among the Luangans of Indonesian Borneo
- Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China
- Tying the Hand: Life Sustaining Technique in Northern Thailand
- The Dynamics of lennawa: Exchange, Sharing and Sensorial Techniques for Managing Life Substances in Ifugao
- The Shuhi House between Reformist China and Revivalist Tibet
- Sondersektion: Myanmarforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum Hrsg. von Georg Winterberger
- Einleitung
- Myanmar-Studien: Ein Überblick
- Vom sanktionierten Pariastaat zum Joint-Venture der Welt. Aspekte der ökonomischen Dynamik Myanmars
- How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone
- The Point of View Makes the Difference. Explaining the Position of Women in Myanmar
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf – Obituary – Nécrologie
- Nachruf auf Sadik Jalal al-Azm
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- “You Don’t Wear a Fur in Summer”: Kang Youwei’s Impartial Words on Republicanism (1917) and the Fate of Chinese Democracy
- Ein Fischlein mit Lästermaul Ibrāhīm al-Miʿmārs liebster Feind, Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl as-Sumayka
- Auf der Suche nach einer verlorenen Zeit? – Visuelle Perspektiven der Kindheit in Mittelasien vor 1917
- Übersetzungen – Translations – Traductions
- Über die Idee und das Wirkliche (1890)Sō jitsu ron 想実論
- Josef van Ess Unfertige Studien II
- Unfertige Studien II: Bemerkungen zum Korankommentar des Aṣamm
- Beiträge zur 8. Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft, Crêt-Bérard Puidoux, 27.–29. April 2016 Contributions aux 8èmes journées de la relève de la Société Suisse-Asie à Crêt-Bérard Puidoux, 27–29 avril 2016
- L’assujettissement des textes: quelques réflexions sur le classement par catégories dans les « encyclopédies » (leishu 類書) en Chine ancienne
- Se servir de la fiction comme guide: l’exemple des « romans de carrière » chinois contemporains
- Le commentaire de Tankuang sur l’Eveil à la Foi dans le Grand Véhicule: la probable influence de Wonhyo
- Le « film d’exploration » dans les textes de la critique de cinéma en République populaire de Chine
- The Ṣaḍakṣara-vidyā: A translation and study of the Tibetan version of the six-syllables spell
- Special Section: “The convergence of soul substances in Southeast Asia, and the spillage of blood: notions of personhood and health in transition” Edited by Elisabeth Hsu
- Introduction
- Permeable Personhood and Techniques for Negotiating Boundaries of the Self among the Luangans of Indonesian Borneo
- Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China
- Tying the Hand: Life Sustaining Technique in Northern Thailand
- The Dynamics of lennawa: Exchange, Sharing and Sensorial Techniques for Managing Life Substances in Ifugao
- The Shuhi House between Reformist China and Revivalist Tibet
- Sondersektion: Myanmarforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum Hrsg. von Georg Winterberger
- Einleitung
- Myanmar-Studien: Ein Überblick
- Vom sanktionierten Pariastaat zum Joint-Venture der Welt. Aspekte der ökonomischen Dynamik Myanmars
- How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone
- The Point of View Makes the Difference. Explaining the Position of Women in Myanmar
