Republican beginnings: liberty as non-domination in the Chinese republicanist tradition

Among scholars in mainland China since the late 1990s, there have been two remarkable resurgences – the first is Confucian political philosophy (rujia zhengzhi zhexue),1 and the second is republicanism (gong he) or constitutionalism (xian zheng).2 The first, but not the second, has been getting a lot of attention in the English language scholarship; in fact, ‘Confucian political philosophy’ is a fast growing cottage industry today.3 The scholars working on Confucian political philosophy share one thing in common: they draw upon the traditional Confucian political philosophy that goes back to Confucius (551-479 BCE), but not the Chinese republicanist tradition that started in the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. What are most frequently quoted are Confucius, Mencius and the classical Confucian canon, but rarely modern figures after the late 19th century except those who had also tried to revive Confucianism such as the New Confucians, most notably Mou Zongsan (1909-95). Most of the important figures in the Chinese republicanist tradition are not mentioned. What these scholars are trying to do is to revive Confucian political philosophy as if the Chinese republicanist tradition had never exited. It is a significant historical fact that about a hundred years ago, around theturn of the 20th century, republicanism took China by storm. Through the popular print media, the republican ideas such as liberty (zi you), constitutionalism (xian zheng), people’s sovereignty (min quan), a republic (gong he), citizen (guo min), new people (xin min), and civic virtue (gong de) spread like wildfire.4 The Chinese republicanist tradition was born. Some of these ideas are radically different from traditional Confucian political philosophy, but some are hybrids of ideas from Confucianism and ideas from Western republicanism. This should not come as a surprise. A tradition that has 100 years of history in a large country that has 4,000 years of its own history cannot but be a complicated and diverse tradition. There are both discontinuities and continuities between traditional China and modern China.5