The Conceptual History Of "Capitalism" In China's Revolutionary Context

Since the Opium War in 1840,because of the progress of Western learning spreading to the East,the western civilization has been widely spread into China.During the period,a large number of new words and new terms have entered into China,thus they have not only greatly broadened the Chinese horizons,but also become the pivotal vehicles to understand the modern civilization.Among them,there are a bulk of terminologies that have made the profound influences in the Chinese society,penetrating into the daily lives,internalizing into the knowledge structure and oral expression,and even acting as the vital discourse for various political forces to power struggle and political mobilization upon the political development in the modern times."Capitalism" is one of the typical representatives therein.The dissertation tries to center on the concept of Capitalism and explore its transmission and acceptance in the Chinese context.As for the research question consciousness,considering that the conceptual history approach focuses not simply on the semantics changes in the unitary concept,but also placing the concepts into the theoretical frameworks or conceptual schema and discerning the historical transformation via the changes in their applications,the study aims to investigate the semantics' transformation of the capitalism as the unitary concept,on one hand;and on the other hand,it also takes into account its application in the revolutions as well as its knowledge production function.The dissertation firstly inspects the conceptual origin of the Capitalism as well as its conceptual transformation in the western society.Specially speaking,notwithstanding plenty of reference books directly traced the concept,as some certain form of economic production,forward to 15th or 10th centuries,when introducing the concept of Capitalism,in fact,till the second half of 19th century,the concept emerged sporadically upon some scholarships or research works,and till the 20th century,with the flooding socialist revolutionary movements,the concept,as the opposition of socialism,began to spread widely and become the popular terminology.Secondly,the dissertation turns its towards to the introduction and transmission of the term Capitalism in Modem China.During the period of Western learning spreading to the East,between the end of 19th century and early 20th century,these concepts,like'Capital''Capitalist',have stepped into the Chinese eyesight broadly,the compound word'capitalism' has arisen in the Chinese references sporadically at the beginning of 20th century,and been extensively used,growing into the popular political concept,since 1920s.Then the dissertation turns to the ideologicalization course of the Capitalism in the modern revolutionary context.Put it schematically,in the national revolution,Capitalism mainly connected with the early-introduced concept of Imperialism,and was marked as the concept of 'Capitalist-Imperialism'.With the strong promotion from the 'anti-imperialism'slogan,China was described as the 'semi-colonial and semi-feudal' state,aggressed by the foreign capitalism and imperialism.The concepts of 'capitalism' and 'imperialism',together with the 'semi-colonial and semi-feudal',have depicted such historical image that the modern Chinese suffered from the threats and also resisted the threats positively;while in the class revolution,the concept of Capitalism then coupled with the series of derivativeconcepts upon the 'bourgeois',involving the bureaucratic bourgeoisie(like the giant-bourgeoisie,comprador bourgeoisie),national bourgeoisie,petty-bourgeoisie,and narrated a historical story that the modern Chinese suffered and then overthrew from the class oppression.As the one of the most important political concepts,the discussion pertaining to the concept of capitalism in the modern China also relates with what China should go along in the political paths and what China should choose in the political regime.It has been reflected in"the Path Struggle" in 1920s,and become clearer owing to the political operation in the later revolutionary development.Overalls,Mao Zedong's concept of "Neo-Democratic Revolution" set the optional order and practical path between "Capitalism" and "Socialism"under the communist revolution context.In this regard,via the fermentation in the revolutionary context,the concept of Capitalism has entered into the Chinese context and transmitted rapidly in the political mobilization,thus going into the ordinary Chinese's view-sights.The Capitalism,as the compound term,then realized its transition from the foreign word towards the basic concept,through the intersections with the series of surrounding concepts in the course of persistent applications,increasingly elevating its degree of abstraction,and greatly aggravating its ideological color.