Origins And Early Evolution Of The Concept Of "Capitalists"in Modern China

This thesis based on the way of the Conceptual History,from the dimensions of the language, concepts and social,through analyzing the language transfer process and the social construction of the concept of " capitalist’" in different historical periods in modern Chinese, want to reveal the vital function of the concept in reflecting and constructing historical reality in modern China. In addition to " Introduction " and " Conclusion ",this paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter discusses the social background conditions of the concept of " capitalist " in early modern China.The independent development process of Chinese was broken by the Opium War. The development of capitalism,the changes of economic relations,the differentiation and reorganization of social class in the modern social transformation,these created conditions for the formation of the concept of capitalist. At the height of period that Chinese new words was created, meet, rejected and communicated because of the frequent communication between Chinese and Japanese after the Sino-Japanese War of1894-1895,these provided particular historical context for the concept of capitalist which was introduced into China as a " Japanese words of Chinese origin " word.The second chapter focuses on the conceptual practice of the concept of capitalist in modern Chinese historical context.Firstly, this chapter traced the semantic origin of the concept in Western and Japanese Context;Secondly, discussed the inchoate implication of the concept in Chinese Context.Finally, I investigated the situation that the concept was defined and used by different thinkers,and the effect in the construction of social facts in Chinese context.The third chapter studied the re-conceptualization of the concept in May4period.Chinese Marxist intellectuals re-define the concept,they made more effort from the following aspects:First, they removed the original definition and content of the concept of capitalists, Second, they had a lot of effort to advertise and popularize their new definition; Third,they constructed the social order through the language setted by themselves,initially established its legal status.The fourth chapter discussed the concept of capitalist and its inheritance tendency as was incorporated to political discourse in modern China.In May4period,as a economic and sociological term,the concept of " capitalist " happened " Concept Change ", it converted to a political concept that had a special meaning, and became a important term of " Political Discourse " in modern China.The concept was incorporated to " Class Struggle " theory of the CCP in political revolutionary movement of modern China,and its class-oriented trend was obvious. At the same time,the political actors who used the concept gave it a strong sense of morality,social and political criticism,made it directly into an term that had increasingly enhanced ideological tendencies.Went through the struggle between the KMT and the CCP, the concept of "capitalist" went two separate ways, formed two contrasts implications.In conclusion, the concept of capitalist had experienced the transformation from the fundamental concept in natural state into complex concept in social state.In this process,the concept continually reflected and constructed the historical reality of modern China, it played an important role in the history,showed the very complex implication.