The Co-analysis of Tao Cheng-zhang and Zhang Tai-yan's Revolutionary Thoughts

Tao Cheng-zhang and Zhang Tai-yan were the leaders of Guan-fu Organization. Their revolutionary ideology was mainly based on nationalism with intrinsic cultural elements, and they carried forward the spirits of school in East Zhejiang. Tao and Zhang realized the aggressive ambitions of imperialism countries and the very grave crisis of China. They believed it was the first thing to overthrow decadent Qing Dynasty in order to have an effective remedy to China. To arouse the mass and motivate their emotions to the nation, they inculcated and inspired the common people writing books merged with historical knowledge. About the government's bogus constitutionalism, both of them kept a cooler head and criticized sham constitutionalism which was completely for Qing government's benefits and survival. And they absorbed evolutionism theory as elements of their revolutionary ideology. So their revolutionary ideology had much in common. However there still existed something different in their thoughts. For instance, in the problem of civil nations, Tao was stubborn because there were more thoughts of Great Han Nationality in his mind, while Zhang's opinion could change with the development of the times because he break through narrow racial view early. In the aspect of treating the capitalism, Tao still had some illusion, whereas Zhang was more clear-headed. Considering their attitudes towards the history culture and evolutionism, Tao simply paid close attention to application, but Zhang insisted on the consistency of application and pursuit of truth, which resulted in more contributions Zhang made to the theory than Tao. All of the above reflected the difference between the revolutionary actor and the learned revolutionist.