Zhang Shi-zhao: The Transformation of the Social Role of the Intellectuals in Modern China, 1903-1927
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Huang, Chong-Kai
Abstract
Among the research on the history of modern China, a core inquiry is the uniqueness of the Chinese modernity. The period from the late imperial to the early Republican China is the most significant intellectual transformation in modern China. In this transformative process, the new intellectuals initiated a lot of thoughts on the Chinese modernity. Zhang Shi-zhao, in this historical context, could be an appropriate example to understand how the Chinese intellectuals comprehended and interpreted the modernity of China. By applying the concept of “social role”, this research tries to represent the images of Zhang and his contemporaries in 1903-1927. The key idea of Zhang’s thought——“cultivating modern China on the foundation of agriculture”(yi nong li guo,以農立國)——sparked a controversy that should modern China be built on the foundation of agriculture or industry. According to this study, the issue actually reflects the China’s unique idea on “the advantage of the backwardness”. This idea reveals the faith that the backwardness of China would be transferred into a source of energy for modern China to chase even to transcend the modern West. In addition, we can grasp the intellectuals’ condition in modern China through examining Zhang’s dilemma between theory and practice. Furthermore, this dilemma encountered by him was also shared by all other Chinese intellectuals in his time.
Subjects
late imperial China
Republican China
intellectuals
social role
modernity
Zhang Shi-zhao
Type
thesis
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