German architect Curt Rothkegel
Rendering of the Building for the Constitution in the late Qing Dynasty.
The building of the Late Qing Dynasty Imperial Court at a cost of 1 million gold marks.
Only the foundation part and 4,800 cubic meters of wall masonry were completed.
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In the context of time and space in modern China, the mainstream political tradition of the modern West, the democratic republican political system and its corresponding political concepts and cultural traditions (hereinafter referred to as the Western democratic tradition), have gradually become the Chinese (mainly the elite class; It is an indisputable historical fact that the object of the initiative is to be imitated in detail. Then, the historical process and results of imitating the political system of the Western democratic tradition from a foreign land to transform the thinking of reality and leap onto the ideological stage of China can certainly be labeled by researchers as how China "moved towards democracy" or the historical encounter of the Western democratic tradition in China; Or, the historical process of Chinese democratic thought, and so on, to facilitate our conceptualization of many complex historical phenomena. However, conceptualization is not the same as inevitable, and the reconstruction and interpretation of historical phenomena are not intended to provide materials for the demonstration of the kingdom of necessity. Writing the history of Chinese democratic thought will not be the same as the process of proving that the Western democratic tradition must be realized in China.
Let's not forget that democracy (or liberal democracy) is not a timeless word, and its twists and turns also show a variety of features with the transformation of people's real situation; The classical form of the Western democratic tradition has inspired the world of Western thought at no other time.1 However, if historians regard a certain path of liberal democracy without deep reflection as the only way in human history,2 and then guide us in writing the history of Chinese democratic thought, I am afraid that it will be difficult to avoid a kind of "teleological summary": no matter how tortuous the road is, in conclusion, it will inevitably have a destination; Many of the elements of the Western democratic tradition are often categorized, cherry-picked out from the words and actions of those who came before them, and placed within a framework that can reasonably explain China's inevitable setbacks on its path to liberal democracy. Moreover, after summing up such an established historical development context, it also refers to a certain "democratic theory" and gives a certain "theoretical evaluation." In this way, not only will our minds in writing the history of China's democratic ideology be embarrassed by being hollowed out, but the space for us to think about summing up this important topic will also be narrowed. We may even elevate democracy as the ultimate ideal criterion for this reason, giving it a moral connotation.3 Whoever does not follow this path is a sinner. This kind of writing of the history of Chinese democratic thought has become another form of moral textbookThis kind of teleology, which exposes and proves the "progressive laws of history" through the study and writing of history, is often only partial and comprehensive. From the perspective of the West's own reflection, liberal democracy (system) is not necessarily a perfect option for dealing with the arrangement of various social relations of human beings.4 So this kind of history of Chinese democratic thought, which aims to prove the universal value of liberal democracy (and even the inevitability of its need to be practiced in China), is actually even a stimulus for such thinking.
Inexistent. To write a chapter in the history of Chinese democratic thought, it is necessary to describe the course by which the Chinese encountered many challenges and difficulties in the field of thought and action in order to welcome Mr. DeHowever, the forerunners who left a deep mark on this page did not know the concepts of democracy, republicanism, and so on by innate. As far as their personal life history is concerned, they have actively thrown themselves into the arms of Mr. De, and have already gone through a complex process (and painful struggles and choices in the possible ideological and psychological domains).Returning to the original background of time and space, when this commentator makes some kind of remarks that later generations of researchers regard as "propagating the ideal of democracy," in fact, he himself may not have this consciousness, he has his own concern for being in such a special time and space background, and his remarks have their own background significance. If we can break free from the "teleological thinking pattern" and on the basis of strict historical criticism, clean up (or reconstruct) the original ideological and historical context of the Chinese to welcome Mr. De;Then, our writing of the history of Chinese democratic thought or the shaping of China's democratic tradition may be based on a relatively solid foundation.
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Therefore, the author advocates that when carrying out the project of writing the history of Chinese democratic thought, it is best to adjust the field of vision, restore the topic to the original background of time and space, return as much as possible to the ideological world of the theorists who have left a trajectory in the course of modern and modern Chinese democratic thought, and explore the knowledge basis for them to carve out this trajectory.
In the author's view, the emergence of Chinese democratic thought began with the establishment of a series of broken forms of "stock of knowledge"5 in the Western democratic tradition. However, the original intention of the establishment of this "knowledge warehouse" has nothing to do with understanding and understanding the Western democratic tradition, but is one of the results of the Chinese gradually developing their understanding and understanding of the entire world situation since the 1830s, and it can be said that it is a part of the cultural exchanges between China and the West in modern times. For example, Wei Yuan's "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" and Xu Jiji's "Yinghuan Zhiluo" are famous works that can help Chinese gradually understand the world situation, and these information disseminated to China and introduce the history and current situation of Western countries include some basic contents of the "Western democratic tradition." The "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" and "Yinghuan Zhiluo" together with other collections of writings not only disseminated knowledge of the extraterritorial situation to scholars, but also formed a "knowledge storehouse" for discussing the "Western democratic tradition," and this "knowledge storehouse" with rich and diverse contents is one of the important bases for Chinese to know and understand the "Western democratic tradition." Through the various kinds of knowledge stored in this "knowledge warehouse," the Chinese have become more and more diverse in their understanding of the aspects and contents of the Western democratic tradition, and have also obtained "intellectual resources" that can stimulate diverse thinking on how to deal with China's multiple internal problems. The conceptual elements and institutional elements contained in the Western democratic tradition have thus gained legitimacy in the world of Chinese political thinking, and they not only use these elements and elements to criticize and transform the Chinese political tradition, but also intend to imitate the expression of the Western democratic tradition in China's actual environment. In short, through the intellectual stimulation provided by the knowledge storehouse, the Chinese scholars were given the space to develop a democratic imagination6.
Taking Wang Tao (1828-1897), a giant of late Qing thought, as an example, this paper attempts to put forward some thoughts on the topic of tracing the trajectory of China's democratic imagination in the late Qing Dynasty, but hopes to arouse the interest of scholars in the academic circles.7
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In the late Qing Dynasty, scholars who drew knowledge and ideological nourishment from the two books "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" and "Yinghuan Zhiluo" were enough to make a long list, and Wang Tao himself was one of the beneficiaries. However, in the process of building a knowledge warehouse, new knowledge and information about the "Western democratic tradition" continue to be collected, providing more tangible and rich "ideological resources" and expanding the "imagination" space of the "Western democratic tradition."
For example, in the 1860s, when China was forced to join the treaty system, officials were able to travel abroad and experience foreign lands, leaving behind a number of "travelogues" that included reports on the affairs and activities of the Western democratic tradition. Moreover, they no longer convey a message of "written imagination," but an unprecedented "democratic experience" in one's political life, which is impossible to experience under the Chinese imperial system. The knowledge accumulated here became not only for themselves, but also for their successors who could not be traced to China itself, to conceive and emulate the Western democratic traditions**. Zhang Deyi (1847-1918), who later served as the Qing court's envoy to the British court, accompanied Guo Songtao to Britain in 1876. Zhang Deyi's personal experience of democracy is tantamount to adding new elements to the composition and content of the "knowledge storehouse," and also forming a basis for his successors to draw materials from it and develop a thesis on the "democratic imagination." Wang Tao is one of the beneficiaries.
Wang Tao wrote a special article on the French Congress in "Rewriting the French Chronicles" and described in detail the various aspects of the French Congress. His account is quite a part of Zhang Deyi's "Four Narratives" record of French national politics, and he also "transfers flowers and trees" to cut Zhang's experience of visiting the British Baal Gate twice and his impressions of British politics into his narrative. Wang Tao also laid out at length the various scenes of the proceedings of the French Congress, especially the description of the proceedings, except for a few words, which were almost a copy of the original text of Zhang Deyi's statement. However, Wang Tao's attempt is not only to depict the picture of the proceedings of the National Assembly, but also to shape the ideal form of the parliamentary hall.
Zhang Deyi's experience was transformed by Wang Tao into an imaginary basis for describing the form of the French parliament. However, Wang Tao's argument went beyond Zhang Deyi's simple record, and he carried out his exposition in the tone of Wang Tao of the Yishi clan, emphasizing that the establishment of the National Assembly is only impartial and selfless, so the people are all dissatisfied, and sigh that it is not far from ancient times, and it is an ideal system, which can really be compared to China's lost era.
This kind of contrasting thinking also appears in Wang Tao's description of the beauty of British politics. Having lived in England in real life, he not only painted a picture of Britain's daily politics with a deep legacy of more than three generations, but also used gorgeous rhetoric to describe Britain's political situation and folk customs in a positive way, like an ideal paradise on earth. In a word, Wang Tao praised:
The beauty of British politics is comparable to that of ancient Chinese Pyro.
Wang Tao used this "three generations of images" to praise the beauty of British politics, and also used it to imitate the political effect of the French Congress. He also praised Taixi's political system of "the country of the monarch and the people" as "the rule of the monarch and the people, the upper and lower levels are connected, the people are hidden from above, and the monarch is also arrested from below, which is still the will of more than three generations in China." Wang Tao created this "three generations of images", which led him to make an allegorical contrast with the reality of China: the husband set up officials to govern the people, but now he is in vain to harm the people. I don't know how to legislate officials to defend the people, and I don't know how to strip the people to serve officials. Through this comparison, Wang Tao intends to show that China's "lost era" can be seen again in today's Taixi: Britain, France, and even all countries where the monarchy and the people are re-mastered. Originally, there was a tradition in China's political discourse that "words must be referred to as three generations." Now, with a large number of illustrations, Wang Tao compares them with traditional images of the ideal world to unravel the mystery of this image of three generations: these countries all have houses.
To sum up, Wang Tao's argument not only comes from his own experience and experience, but also comes from his imagination of Zhang Deyi's statement. It can be said that Wang Tao not only draws inspiration from the "knowledge warehouse", but also allows his thinking to gallop in the "imagination space"; In the late Qing Dynasty, his Chronicles of France was one of the most important works for scholars to understand the situation in France.8 He was also one of the builders of the "Knowledge Storehouse". This shows that for the successors, the existing knowledge repository does have the significance of an ideological resource; Through the ideological stimulation of the "knowledge storehouse", the Chinese scholars have been given the ideological space to allow the democratic imagination to soar freely.
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Wang Tao is a figure who will never be absent in the writing of the history of Chinese democratic thought in the late Qing Dynasty, and this article briefly shows the intellectual base on which he has a place. From this point of view, it is precisely through the reserve of the "knowledge storehouse" that the appearance of the Western democratic tradition has gradually emerged in the field of knowledge and thought of the Chinese, and has become an "ideological resource" for a reform program.
China's cultural tradition lacks elements comparable to the Western democratic tradition. However, in the process of Chinese absorbing and copying Western democratic traditions, certain corresponding indigenous intellectual resources can become one of the reasons for people to propose and absorb imitation, and can also extend the spatial basis of democratic imagination. Of course, this kind of "indigenous ideological resources" can never be compared with the "Western democratic tradition," and it will also bring about a certain degree of deformation in the cognition and practice of the "Western democratic tradition." However, without the introduction of ideological resources like the Western democratic tradition, indigenous ideological resources are useless. However, the historical result of the democratic imagination may be that the foreign ideological resources are not restored, and the local ideological resources are also given a new form. This new form of thought constitutes a source of knowledge and thought for the next generation, which may not only be sung by successors, but also may be composed again to compose variations, which will be combined into a symphony of modern Chinese ideological changes. In the uproar of the world of modern Chinese political thinking, the idea of democracy has also been shaped into an "invented tradition" that keeps pace with the times.
Since the late Qing Dynasty, the Chinese have tried their best to welcome Mr. De, and it has indeed become one of the "ideological traditions" of modern China. However, Mr. De's face is diverse and complex in the perception of Chinese; The historical encounters and deformations of the Western democratic tradition in China are the result of an extremely complex historical process. If we can more carefully describe how the pioneers who also attracted wide attention in the history of democratic thought in the late Qing Dynasty could rely on the ideological resources provided in the "knowledge storehouse" to carry out the discussion and drafting of various reform plans, and depict the "democratic imagination" of late Qing China. Then, we may be able to make an in-depth analysis of the shaping of China's democratic tradition through this kind of more detailed research and approach, so as to put forward a fresher understanding, and then provide an inexhaustible ideological resource for our own prospects.