Ou Jujia’s Idea Research

Ou Jujia, one of the Kang yu-wei’s followers, actively advocates Kang yu-wei’s idea of reform and claims to emulate of Japan and Russia. After the Reform Movement of1898, he fled to Japan where he became the editorial writer of the "The China Discussion" and advocated the thought of "safeguard the emperor". In the year of1899between the summer and fall, he had close contact with Sun Yat-sen in Japan and gradually in favor of the revolution. He even praised that "Only the revolution can change China". He was rebuked by his mentor Kang Yu-wei for this fierce remark. Kang Yu-wei reproved Ou Jujia for "Made a monstrous crime!". In1901, Ou Jujia wrote an article named "New Kwangtung", which preached Guangdong should be independent and called the citizens to "Set up the flag of independence, strike the bell of freedom." Ou Jujia, who has been overseas for many years, had deeply known that the monarch system was hopeless. In order to make the country prosperous and strong, the only way is to establish industry. Thus he had found ZhenHua Industrial Corporation and GuangMei Company in Guangxi province. However, he was not well-known and there was no systematic study of him in China’s modern history. This paper, which based on textual research of the historic data, is the first comprehensive study of Ou Jujia.There are five parts in this paper. The first one is a systematical examination of Ou’s life, with the aim of clarifying some historical facts. The second aspect introduces Ou Jujia’s Reform idea that focused on the Confucian thought, reform "social theory" and education thought. He claimed that "Reform form Confucian" and considered the education as the root of our country. The third part of the paper states his revolutionary ideas and the changes from reform idea to revolution. It describes his performance and the reasons. He thought revolution was the only path of salvaging the country and the nation. The fourth section mainly describes his idea of saving the country by enterprise and education, and changes from Revolution to Industrial Salvation. It also analyses the reasons. The last part is the conclusion that discusses the variety and complexity of Ou Jujia’s thoughts.