During the primitive stage of “human grouping,” there are only tribal peoples and no national citizens. The evolution from tribal peoples to national citizens divides barbarism from civilization. How different are tribal peoples and national citizens from one another! Groups of people who form clans to live together and naturally create their own customs are called tribal peoples. People who have a concept of the nation and can participate in politics themselves are termed “citizens.” Nowhere on earth can nations be established without citizens.
What is the concept of the nation? First, being aware of the nation in relation to the individual. Second, being aware of the nation in relation to the court. Third, being aware of the nation in relation to foreigners. Fourth, being aware of the nation in relation to the world.
What does “being aware of the nation in relation to the individual” mean? Humanity is superior to other creatures in that people can form groups. If individuals stood alone in nature, since they cannot fly as well as birds nor can they run as well as animals, the human race would have perished a long time ago. Therefore, in regard to the internal domain, in the age of Great Peace, cooperative efforts make things easy and the division of labor benefits everybody, in that it is impossible for individuals to do everything by themselves. In regard to the outside world, at a time of crisis, the group combines all their wisdom and strength and defends the walls against invasion, while it is totally impossible for individuals to protect themselves. Thus did nations arise.
The establishment of nations was inevitable. That is to say, everyone understood that only to rely on the individual was not feasible, thus leading them instead to associate together, to assist each other, to protect one another, and to benefit each other; they wanted the associations never to fall apart, the assistance never to fade, the protection never to miscarry, and the benefits never to fail. Therefore, everyone must realize that above the individual is something larger and more important. Whenever they have a thought, make an utterance, or undertake a task, they always pay attention to what is said to stand above the individual self. (There is nothing wrong even with considering this principle of impartial love as “egotism,” because it is a universal truth that without benefiting the group one cannot benefit oneself.) Otherwise, associations will never be formed and humanity will nearly disappear. This is the first principle of the concept of the nation.
What does “awareness of the nation in relation to the court” mean? If the nation is like a corporation, then the court is the corporate headquarters while those who control the court are the general managers. If the nation is like a town or a city, then the court is the lodge of fellow townsmen while those who control the court are its superintendents. The question whether the headquarters is established for the sake of the corporation or the corporation for the headquarters, or whether the lodge of fellow townsmen is established for the sake of the city or the city for the lodge, does not need to be debated to be clear. The natures of the two [nation and court] are different, and so their spheres of importance cannot be violated. Therefore, the remark of the French king Louis XIV, “L’état c’est moi,” is still today considered to be the words of a traitor. Whenever children in the West hear of this, they all condemn him, while from the Chinese point of view there may be nothing strange in the remark. At the same time, consider this analogy: if the manager of a corporation says, “I am the corporation” or the superintendent of a city [lodge of fellow townsmen] says, “I am the city,” could the stockholders or the citizens accept this?
It is certain that a nation cannot exist without a court, and so it is necessary always to extend love of country to love of court. . . . Those who understand the concept of the nation generally love the court, but those who love the court do not necessarily possess the concept of the nation. Those courts that are established legally are the courts that represent the nation, and thus to love the court is to love the nation. Those courts that are not established legally are courts that betray the nation. Only if the court is legitimated can one speak of love of country. This is the second principle of the concept of the nation.
What does “awareness of the nation in relation to alien peoples” mean? The term “nation” appears in relation to the outside world. If the world consisted of just one nation, then the “nation” would not have been named. So “myself” appears when two selves stand side by side, “my family” appears when two families are adjacent, and “my nation” appears when two nations confront each other. For millions of years the human race has multiplied in separate places, and each people prospered. From language and customs to even concepts and legal systems, all differed in form and substance as well as in spirit, and thus peoples inevitably developed their own nations. Since under the universal law of the struggle for survival and natural selection, conflicts are unavoidable between people and between nations, “nations” were established to deal with other groups. Therefore, even if there were saintly wise men in foreign countries, true patriots would never be willing to live under the sovereignty of foreigners. They would rather make the people of the entire nation sacrifice life and limb until no one was left, rather than grant even the slightest of their rights to another people. Otherwise, the capacity for making the nation would soon collapse. Consider the analogy to a family. Even if one’s home is completely deserted, one still does not want anyone else to use it. Awareness of oneself leads to one’s survival. This is the third principle of the concept of the nation.
What does “awareness of the nation in relation to the world” mean? . . . Competition is the mother of civilization, and if competition ceased even for a single day, the progress of civilization would halt at once. Through competition, families arise out of individuals, villages arise out of families, and nations arise out of villages. Nations are the largest units of association and the peak of competition.
If boundaries were abolished as nations merged—this is actually unattainable, but if it did happen—competition would cease, and so would not civilization soon vanish as well? Even more to the point is the fact that human nature is unable to exist without competition. That being so, after the Grand Commonality was established, it would not be long before something inevitably gave rise to competition in the Heavenly Kingdom, and then at that time the world would return to tribal competition instead of national competition. This would lead the people of the world back to barbarism. Those who study about such things today all know the excellence of this doctrine [of the abolition of national boundaries] but regard its excellence as pertaining to spiritual boundaries rather than historical ones. Therefore, it is with good reason that they remain content with the nation and not the world as the highest form of human association. However, for those who advocate universal love, the sacrifice of the interests of the individual for the sake of love for the family is permissible; and to sacrifice the interests of the family for the sake of love for the village is permissible; and to sacrifice the interests of the individual, the family, or the village for the sake of love of the nation is permissible. The nation is the standard of partial love; that the ultimate standard of universal love is therein either fallen short of or gone beyond is barbarism. Why? Because both situations are characteristic of tribal peoples instead of citizens of a nation. This is the fourth principle of the concept of the nation.
Alas, how diminished we are! We Chinese lack the concept of the nation. Inferior people care only about the prosperity of the individual and the family, while superior people airily deliberate philosophical truths, turning their backs on practical things. . . .
[However,] the search for how to truly benefit oneself, as well as how to preserve one’s benefits without ever losing them, cannot be successful without cultivating the concept of the nation. My compatriots! Don’t say that it is enough to rely on the great size of our territory. At its zenith, the extent of the Roman Empire was no smaller than China today. Don’t say that it is enough to rely on the population. There are billions of natives in India. Don�
�t say that it is enough to rely on civilization. In the past, when Athens in Greece was an independent state, it claimed that its culture was the best in the world until it became subservient to other peoples, was unable to rise up, and eventually was shattered. And during the barbarian Yuan dynasty in China, the literati all learned Mongol (the “Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories” records this in detail), and learning nearly ceased.
Only the nation is our father and mother.
Without a father, what can be relied on? Without a mother, what can be relied on?
[If we are] Alone and desolate, who will pity us?
As soon as the opportunity is lost, we are finished.
Reflecting on this, so far we still have a chance. [Chuci]
[Xinmin shuo, ch. 6, pp. 16–18, 22–23—PZ]
LIANG QICHAO AND THE NEW PRESS
Liang Qichao was active in the development of the late Qing political press and became a prime molder of public opinion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In form these late Qing journals were most directly influenced by the Western missionary and commercial press that had operated in China from 1815. By the late nineteenth century, a number of foreign-managed Chinese-language commercial newspapers such as Shenbao (Shanghai Journal, founded 1872) were already in existence. In contrast, the new political press, which would become increasingly influential in the late 1890s, distinguished itself from these commercial newspapers in two ways: it was owned and managed by Chinese nationals, and its main emphasis was on political commentary. While the origins of such political commentary can be traced back to newspapers founded by Western-influenced Chinese merchants, officials, and intellectuals in the 1870s through the 1890s (including Wang Tao’s Xunhuan ribao, founded in Hong Kong in 1873), the real turning point in late Qing press history came in 1895. In the wake of China’s defeat by Japan and its acceptance of the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Kang Youwei and several of his students, including Liang Qichao, founded China’s first new-style political journals. The most important of these was Shiwu bao (China Progress, 1886).
The changes in the late Qing press initiated by the events of 1895 were both qualitative and quantitative. Whereas in the early and mid-1890s about a dozen newspapers were published in the chief port cities, between 1895 and 1898 some sixty newspapers were established, many of them outside of the foreign-dominated centers. The Guangxu emperor himself recognized the importance of this early reform press and encouraged its development during the Hundred Days of Reform. After the Empress Dowager’s coup on September 21, 1898, however, Kang, Liang, and the reform press were forced into exile in Japan.
This forced exile gave rise to one of the most important chapters in the development of late Qing political journalism. Two of the most influential reform organs were founded in Japan by Liang Qichao during this period: Qingyi bao (The China Discussion, 1898), and Xinmin congbao (Renewing the People, 1902). Thus young intellectuals who later became major actors in the early twentieth-century China-based press had an opportunity to develop their skills as reformists and publicists—skills that proved invaluable once reform was put back on the official agenda in Beijing, through the aforementioned Imperial Edict of January 29, 1901, which announced administrative reforms and opened up the possibility of more-substantial political reforms. Taking advantage of this opening, from the year 1904 reformists began to create newspapers and periodicals in China advocating the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. Their mission was to monitor the depth of the government’s commitment to reform, encourage the development of politically aware constitutional citizens, and guide China to a position of strength in the world through legal and institutional reform.
The Eastern Times (Shibao) became the most important of these new reform journals. Its history began in the early spring of 1904 when Liang Qichao, still in exile, risked a visit to Shanghai in order to guide the preparations for its establishment. He chose the newspaper’s name, outlined its general regulations, and wrote the inaugural statement for its first edition (translated below). Eventually, it distanced itself from the Kang-Liang faction, but by 1909 it was the most widely circulated newspaper in the Shanghai region. Thus, in the absence of political parties and representative bodies, the new press became the institutional base of late Qing reformers and their principal mouthpiece.
INAUGURAL STATEMENT FOR THE EASTERN TIMES (SHIBAO)
Conscious of the need to raise people’s awareness of national issues and create active public opinion in regard to national policy, Liang joined in establishing this newspaper as a forum for the discussion of such issues. He wrote this inaugural statement for its first issue, June 12, 1904, to set forth its purposes and functions. It is a manifesto of reform, combining intellectual eclecticism with calls for a political middle course between conservatism and radicalism. Intent on finding a synthesis between Western learning—in this text specifically the ideas of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer—and the truths of the classical Confucian tradition, the editors attempted to forge a new constitutional course for China, seeing their role as mediators between old elites who opposed reform, young revolutionaries who advocated total Westernization, and impractical intellectuals whom Liang indirectly faulted for the failure of the Hundred Days of Reform.
Why publish the Eastern Times (Shibao)? The Record of Rites says, “A gentleman acts according to the golden mean.”17 It also says, “A man of profound self-cultivation and high learning uses his knowledge appropriately.”18 Therefore, in regulating the state and ordering society, nothing is more valuable than timeliness. It is not the Chinese teachings alone that emphasize this. In the West, Darwin first developed the principle of natural selection and the triumph of the strong. Spencer later replaced this principle with the theory of survival of the fittest. According to this theory, which constitutes the field of victory and defeat, that which is of superior quality but not adapted to the environment will eventually become inferior and that which is of inferior quality but adapted to the environment will eventually become superior. Therefore, although the fur of a fox is very warm, it is of no use in the heat of summer, and although fine satin is very beautiful, it cannot protect against the cold of winter. That which is not appropriate to the time will certainly fail.
In China today, those in lofty and powerful positions and those who are reclusive hermits are all unaware of the general world situation. They believe that thousand-year-old politics and thousand-year-old learning are appropriate to the changes of today. According to an assessment of present conditions, however, this is not possible; one could knit one’s brow in worry for a whole day and still not be able to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s methods. As a result, when heroic young activists hear that Western nations have such and such a method of regulating chaos, such and such a method of self-strengthening, they all run and shout, “We too must do it this way! We too must do it this way!” While no one would deny that these methods are the reason the West can regulate chaos and strengthen itself, we simply do not know if these methods are appropriate to our times. As Confucius said, “To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.”19 To fall short and apply methods that are no longer fitting to the times is a waste; every day corruption would increase and there would be no way to save the nation. At the same time, to go beyond the present situation and apply methods that are too advanced for the times, to yell and shout and wildly push forward, would not accomplish anything either. Moreover, proceeding in this way could give rise to new problems, and the nation would become unsalvageable. In sum, if the country should be lost, both kinds of people [conservatives and Western-oriented radicals] would be equally responsible.
There are also intelligent, broad-minded, and steadfast individuals who are committed to listening to both sides but choosing the middle course in order to plan the orderly progress of the people. It seems, however, that because their general knowledge is insufficient, their understanding of scientific theory weak, and their concrete investigati
ons of the current situation lacking, when they speak in terms of general principles they have no tangible proof, when they try to manage matters they cannot manage them successfully, and when they want to implement their ideas they are bewildered and do not know how to proceed. They vigorously apply themselves to do one or two things but because their methods are mistaken, they incessantly fail. Because everyone is aware of this and admonished by it they do not dare speak of reform again.20 Alas! Although there are numerous kinds of publicists and politicians in the nation, upon scrutiny all of them follow one of these three paths [of conservatives, radicals, or impractical reformists].
Alas! This is a dangerous time and we are deeply concerned. Therefore in founding this newspaper, we have named it shi—The Times (Shibao).21 While we of course wish to revere the essence of the nation, we believe that that which is not appropriate to the present should be put aside and forgotten. And while we of course admire Western civilization, we believe that that which is not appropriate to the level of Chinese development must be temporarily put aside. We will exert our knowledge to the highest possible level in order to resolve the major political and scholarly problems that arise in China and abroad. Using fair and honest discussions, we will analyze the positive and negative, advantageous and disadvantageous aspects of these problems. We will also investigate methods for delivering the nation from danger and coping with the current situation, while cooperating with the government and conferring with the citizens.
It is the duty of newspapers in advanced nations22 to report on the facts in the news, to follow the trend of international public opinion, to investigate conditions in the interior of the nation, to develop knowledge of politics and the arts, to introduce new ideas, and to provide materials for leisurely reading. We must drive ourselves on. We will use our writings to define and convey the will of the nation. We must also, however, take note of the saying of Western philosophers that “perfect things must be produced in perfect times.” Today, given that our nation is still young in terms of development, I realize that it is not appropriate for us to wish to place ourselves among the great newspapers of all of the nations in the world. But by taking one step after another, a distance of one thousand miles can eventually be overcome, and by joining together one hundred streams, the four seas could eventually be formed. It is certain that, sooner or later, our newspaper’s trajectory will not only follow but parallel the progress of the nation. This is what we will assiduously work toward every day.
Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 2 Page 45