The Important Concept Of Nationalism And Its Influence In Late Qing Dynasty

The focus of this dissertation is in the area of nationalism in late Qing.This dissertation illustrates the idea of race, organic state and evolution,including historic impact of these ideas. The distinction betweenbarbarian and Huaxia in the traditional Chinese culture graduallyemphasized on the disparities of race instead of the disparities ofculture from the Pre-Qin Period to Ming and Qing dynasties. The idea ofrace in Liang Qichao’s thoughts emphasized the competition betweennations, especially competition between the white race and yellowrace. Zhang Taiyan asserted that the competition between Manchuand the Han nationality had a prior claim on the competition betweenraces. And he tried to prove that the disparities of race determined thedisparities of culture within races. Warship of Yellow Emperor andportrait of national hero was constructed by the idea of race. The ideaof organic state was drawn from the concept of society as Yan Fudefined, and was refined by the means of philosophy for LiangQichao’s dedication. Liang Qichao deemed that interests of stateproceed over interests of individual. Idea of organic state played apivotal role both in the thoughts of statism and movements of fascism inChina. The idea of evolution was purposed by Yan Fu in the first place,and was attached the concept of progress as value judgment. Inaddition, the concept of science was blended into the idea ofevolution as value judgment by Liang Qichao and Chen Duxiu.