Research On The Conception Of Zhang Renjun’s National Sovereignty

The modern concept of "national sovereignty" was introduced to China in the 19 th century.This concept was quickly accepted by the people of the time and became a tool and a means for the people to defend their national sovereignty.This paper attempts to sort out the political practice of Zhang Renjun in safeguarding national sovereignty and discuss the main connotation and background of Zhang Renjun’s concept of "national sovereignty".The study of Zhang Renjun’s concept of sovereignty helps to reveal the late Qing Dynasty governors’ perception of the concept of national sovereignty and its implications for how to safeguard national sovereignty in the present.This paper mainly adopts an interdisciplinary and comprehensive research method and a comparative analysis method.Firstly collating Zhang Renjun’s family letters,diaries,memorials and relevant newspapers and magazines,and then discussing in detail Zhang Renjun’s concept of national sovereignty in terms of territorial sovereignty,territorial sea sovereignty,judicial sovereignty and rights of profit.Finally it is concluded that Zhang Renjun’s concept of national sovereignty was infused with traditional Chinese Confucianism,based on modern Western international law,and forming a set of perceptions and behaviors on "how to safeguard national sovereignty".This concept extends outward with the core of territory,territorial waters,justice and liens.Zhang’s concept of national sovereignty is not a fully modern sense of national sovereignty,but a product of the collision of Chinese and Western,old and new cultures,and a transitional concept in the process of transformation from the imperial era to the modern nation-state.Zhang Renjun’s concept of national sovereignty made an important contribution to safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity at that time,and also provides a reference for how we safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity nowadays,which echoes the concept of national sovereignty advocated by General Secretary Xi Jinping.