Zhang Zhaojun: Is the Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory an invention of Liang Qichao?

Author: Zhang Zhaojun

Source: "Historical Theory Research Official Public Account" WeChat public account

The original article was published in Theory of Historical Research, No. 6, 2021

It is said that Napoleon once said that once the sleeping lion of China wakes up, the world will tremble with it. This statement has long been widely popular at home and abroad. As early as 1915, Hu Shi, who was studying in the United States, mentioned in his diary: "Napoleon the Great tasted the sleeping lion to say that when the sleeping lion woke up, the world should be shocked." For a hundred years, the world has competed for the Daosi language, which has not yet declined. In recent years, some scholars have questioned this statement. Using online resources such as collections around the world and Chinese and foreign language databases, after more systematic searches and studies, they did not find direct evidence to support this statement, so they concluded that Napoleon did not say this. If no direct evidence is found, does that mean that he didn't say it more than two hundred years ago? Leave that aside. It is worth noting that while rejecting this theory, researchers have put forward a new point of view: "Chinese sleeping lion theory" or the image of the sleeping lion as China's nationality, which was invented by Liang Qichao. This view has been almost conclusively established by several scholars, and has had a wide range of social implications. The author believes that scholars dare to doubt what their predecessors have not doubted, raised new questions, and promoted academic development, which should be respected. However, in view of the large social impact of this view, further discussion and verification are necessary for the sake of prudence.

One

The idea that 'The Chinese Sleeping Lion Says' is Liang Qichao's Invention began with doubting and denying Napoleon's remark that "China is a Sleeping Lion."

In 2003, the American scholar John Fitzgerald argued in the preface to the Chinese edition of his book Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the National Revolution that Napoleon's prediction of China's awakening was purely a rumor, and no first-hand account in French or other languages recorded that Napoleon had said this. He speculated that the "prophecy" that China would awaken from its slumber was first made within the church by Christian missionaries, and was eventually broadcast throughout the world by Chinese nationalists in the late Qing Dynasty through Zeng Jize's "Theory of China Sleeping Before Waking Up." Similar to John Fei's line of thought, the Chinese scholar Shan Zhengping used a special chapter in his book "Late Qing Nationalism and Literary Transformation" to explore the process of acceptance and dissemination of the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" by Chinese. Shan sorted out a clue: Zeng Jize named the monster robot Frankinxian in the British Museum "as a sleeping lion (Gu delusionally believes that it exists), and in the inscription poem there is a hint of the characteristics of lions and their symbolism in Chinese and Western cultures - the British relayed the name of Frankinxian to the Japanese (?) Liang Qichao read Japanese newspapers and periodicals and knew this statement - Liang Qichao wrote "Animal Talk" - Huang Zunxian, Zou Rong and others then used it." Shan said, "This is only speculation, and there is still no basis for factual evidence." The focus of the study of Fei and Shan's works is not here, and the discussion is not enough to the end.

On this basis, Taiwanese scholar Yang Ruisong and Japanese scholar Ishikawa Zhenhao made special research on the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory". They clearly argue that the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" is Liang Qichao's invention.

Yang Ruisong's "Sleeping Lion Will Wake Up? :The Image of "Sleeping" and "Lion" in the Discourse on the National Community in Modern China, published in the Journal of History of the "National" National Chengchi University (No. 30, December 2008), and later included in Yang Ruisong's "The Sick Man, the Yellow Peril and the Sleeping Lion: The Chinese Image from the Perspective of the West" and the Imaginary Imagination of the National Ethnic Group in Modern China (National Chengchi University Publishing House, 2010). Ishikawa's "Exploring the Origin of the Image of the Sleeping Lion" in the Late Qing Dynasty was published in the Journal of Sun Yat-sen University (No. 5, 2009), the Journal of Oriental Studies (Vol. 85, March 2010), institute of humanities and sciences, Kyoto University, Japan, and later included in the book "Tables and Li of Modern Chinese History" (translated by Yuan Guangquan, Peking University Press, 2015 edition).

Yang Ruisong and Ishikawa agree with John Fei's point of view, believing that Napoleon's statement that "China is a sleeping lion" is purely a rumor, and that "sleeping lion theory" is an invention of Chinese. However, there is a clear difference from Fei John's view. After examining Zeng Jize's "Theory of China Sleeping Before Waking Up" and other articles, they pointed out that there is no word "sleeping lion" in Zeng's works, let alone a metaphor for China as a "sleeping lion", and the inferences of Fei John and Shan Zhengping are not accurate: "The expression (words) of the symbol of modern China that we are familiar with, that is, the 'sleeping lion', actually appeared in the article "Animal Talk" written by Liang Qichao in 1899. They believe that Zeng Jize did not say "sleeping lion", "sleeping lion" and "Chinese sleeping lion said" was first said by Liang Qichao. Yang Ruisong wrote: "In this article (referring to the "Animal Talk" - Citation Note), by explaining the 'mechanical monster' (named Flem Jinxian) mentioned in his text, Liang for the first time explicitly changed Zeng Jize's Chinese theory of sleeping first and then waking up, 'processing and transforming' into 'Zeng Hou Jize, the minister of Xichina, translated as the sleeping lion, also known as the giant that sleeps first and then wakes up'. Ishikawa said that Liang Qichao's article "Animal Talk" published in the Qinghui Bao in April 1899 was "the earliest article with the word 'sleeping lion' appeared in the late Qing Dynasty"; the British in Liang's article "The Dangerous Words of Partition" published in May of the same year said that the British "did not know the inner story of China's corruption, thinking that this huge sleeping lion would eventually rise one day", which was the earliest source of "China's sleeping lion theory". Ishikawa said that he consulted the newspapers and databases of Japan, Britain, the United States and other countries, "from the Sino-Japanese War to the Penghu Reform, Japanese newspapers and other newspapers have never called China a 'sleeping lion'", before 1899, Britain, the United States and other countries did not call China a "sleeping lion". He concluded in the article: "Through the above discussion, we can basically understand that the Chinese theory of sleeping lions was created in 1899 by Liang Qichao in 1899 by using his imagination to indirectly obtain knowledge about Wu Shili and the monster Frankenstein during the Penghu Reform Period, combined with Zeng Jize's "China Sleeps First and Then Wakes Up" that he read. Moreover, the "sleeping lion" used by intellectuals such as Huang Zunxian, Zou Rong, chen Tianhua and other intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty after 1900 were all cultural phenomena based on the 'sleeping lion' created and invented by Liang Qichao. It should be said that the expression "Sleeping Lion" in China was first rapidly popularized between the Chinese of the late Qing Dynasty, and then spread to foreign public opinion circles, including Japan."

The views of Yang Ruisong and Ishikawa have been accepted by many scholars and have produced great repercussions in the international academic community and even in society. For example, the online academic lecture "The Interpretation of sleeping lions: Frankenstein, Diplomacy and Modern China" by Australian scholar Ari Larissa Heinrich on April 14, 2021, completely follows "Liang Qichao's invention of the 'sleeping lion theory'". Chinese mainland scholars are more representative of Shi Aidong's arguments. He successively published articles such as "Napoleon's Theory of the Sleeping Lion: A National Fable Caused by Accumulation" and "The Context of the Sleeping Lion Theory", which expanded the influence of this statement. He believes that the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" is "a typical case of Gu Jiegang's so-called 'layered history'", a political fable created by Liang Qichao, which was used and reassembled by some Chinese in the early 20th century, tying the "Sleeping Lion Theory" with Napoleon. He explained that this statement "obviously Chinese its own views and concepts, but it prefers to ask Westerners to speak for it, and it seems that if it is not so, it has no discourse power." This is probably the inevitable reaction to the humiliating mentality of the Chinese people after nearly a hundred years of repeated defeats." He classified the "Sleeping Lion Theory" as a product of Chinese satisfying national vanity.

At this point, the speculative discourse used by Shan Zhengping is gone, replaced by an affirmation, maintenance, and "rationalized" interpretation of the view. Not broken, not standing, first broken and then standing. From the initial doubts and denials of whether Napoleon had said this sentence, to the search for and confirmation of the true proposer of this sentence, researchers seem to have contributed to a consensus, and the result is that Liang Qichao replaced Napoleon as the inventor of this sentence.

Two

Is this really the case?

In the process of consulting the Japanese "Sun" magazine, the author saw such a historical material:

The nations of the five continents had a misunderstanding of Indochina – the half-dead empire was regarded as a sleeping lion, which was one of the great guarantees of peace in the East. The territory of Indochina is vast and the population is large, and it is a country that is not easy to get along with, and everyone knows it, so that the countries of Europe and the United States mistakenly believe that although it is old and decayed, it still has great strength and great courage. For this reason, all the nations feared the awakening of the sleeping lion and adopted a friendly approach as much as possible. Even if they have to fight it, restore peace as quickly as possible and implement a good government strategy. This situation is tantamount to hoping to pull out the sleeping lion's claws and touch the sleeping lion's teeth without alarming the sleeping lion. Therefore, although Britain and France captured Beijing, they hastily concluded a peace treaty and tried every means to implement the art of Huairou. What they probably mean is that "once the sleeping lion awakens, it will immediately drive its enemies out of East Asia, and instead of doing so, it is better to gain its favor, maintain closeness and friendship with them, and monopolize the interests of its economic and trade industries."

During such a misunderstanding of this old empire, no country avoided angering it. In other words, all the countries in Europe and the United States were afraid of disturbing the peace in the Orient. From this point of view, this misunderstanding has in fact become one of the great guarantees of peace in the East.

Nevertheless, our Empire of Japan mobilized less than 200,000 troops and only a few dozen naval warships, and easily occupied the coastal areas of the old empire and shocked the Aisin Kyaw Roshi Sheji. This is tantamount to causing the sleeping lion to wake up and jump in anger, but instead, the sleeping lion is weeping and moaning, while begging for mercy at our military door. Whoops, the lion does not sleep, but also sick. The patients have penetrated deep into the bone marrow and are on the verge of death

The nations of the world, witnessing the facts before them, immediately awakened from the misunderstanding and began to covet the flesh of the lion. Compared with the half-dead countries of Eastern Europe, they realized that the half-dead countries of East Asia were easier to deal with, and they could reap huge benefits from it. This is one of the reasons for the intensification of the Oriental crisis.

This historical document is from Yukio Ozaki's Crisis of the Orient, published in the September 5, 1896 issue of The Sun magazine, Vol. 2, No. 18. The author Yukio Ozaki (1858-1954), known as the famous political activist in modern Japan, is known as the "father of parliamentary politics" in Japan. He studied at Keio Yoshijuku in his early years, and was later recommended by Fukuzawa to study in the United Kingdom. In 1882, he participated in the creation of the Constitutional Improvement Party, and in 1890 he participated in Japan's first general election, was elected to the House of Representatives, and later served as Minister of Culture, Culture, Sports, And Culture, First Okuma Cabinet, Mayor of Tokyo City, and Minister of Justice in the Second Okuma Cabinet. During the Meiji period, he advocated internal democracy and external expansion, and was one of the hardest advocates of the "Conquest Theory of China" at that time.

Judging from the article, the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" originated in the West. Its emergence is related to the positioning of China by Western powers. After the Opium War, Westerners believed that China might be in a slump from then on, from decline to defeat. However, after the difficulties of Gengshen, the Qing government tried to cheer up again, and in the 1860s, it launched a new policy of "self-improvement in foreign affairs", showing signs of revival. Some Westerners fear that China, which has been in a state of stagnation for a long time, will wake up and retaliate against them. The "Sleeping Lion Theory" reflects the complex mentality of Westerners in this period: on the one hand, they believe that China is in a state of slumber and backwardness, and on the other hand, they are worried that China will wake up and threaten like a fierce lion to fight back and retaliate against the West. It was in this context that in 1887, Zeng Jize published "Theory of China Sleeping First and Then Waking Up" in English in Britain, telling them that "China is just like a person sleeping soundly, and it is not a death", and even if the strength is restored after awakening, it will not have the heart to retaliate against other countries. He hopes to dispel the misunderstandings and concerns of Westerners.

In the balance of power between China and Japan, the Western powers believe that although China lags behind the West, it is a big country that cannot be underestimated because of its vast territory and popularity, and its status and strength are still above Japan. Until the end of the Sino-Japanese War, they believed that Japan would not be able to defeat China. At that time, most Japanese people also held this view and were jealous of invading China. Yukio Ozaki's view is different. Since 1884, Ozaki has been sent to Shanghai as a reporter for the Post Office, where he is based in China. Through years of observation and investigation, he believes that China is not what Westerners call a "sleeping lion," but is old and dying and dying, and is about to perish, so he vigorously encourages all walks of life in Japan to seize the opportunity to step up aggression and conquest of China, and then replace China as the ally of East Asia. This is known as the "Theory of The Conquest of China". In January 1895, Ozaki published the book "The Punishment of China", which focused on this argument. The reason why "The Crisis of the Orient" quotes and refutes the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" is precisely out of the need to promote its "Theory of Conquest of China". The article strongly stated that Japan should directly attack Beijing in the Sino-Japanese War, rather than concluding an armistice and peace treaty halfway through. The reason for the armistice with China is a serious mistake of the Japanese government, and the reason for this is that, in his opinion, it is caused by Japan's admiration of China's habits, and second, it is misled by the Western "Chinese sleeping lion theory". In view of the current situation in which the great powers are eager to divide China and the crisis in East Asia is aggravating, Japan should immediately carry out the second restoration, straighten out its internal affairs, expand its armaments, and as an ally, earnestly shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding peace in the East. Judging from the article, the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" had a certain influence in Japan at that time.

Before and after the Sino-Japanese War, Ozaki was not the only one who used the expression "Chinese sleeping lion". After the Japanese occupation of Lushun, the Tokyo Nippon Shimbun on November 15, 1894 published an article entitled "Future Policy Toward the Qing Dynasty." The article begins: "The Qing army and navy were so lacking in combat effectiveness that the Qing administration could hardly control the officials, and it was bound to fall apart and fall apart. Soon, European countries will surely take advantage of the situation to create all kinds of excuses and divide the lions. Judging from the text, the lion metaphor of China is already well known to the vast number of Japanese readers, so the article does not make a special explanation. Okuma Shigenobu has a similar account in his book "On the National Nature of Japan": the end of the Sino-Japanese War revealed the true face of Indochina, it was not a sleeping lion at all, but an "old lion with long-lost breath and cold limbs." Okuma was a witness to this history, familiar with the social opinion of the time, and judging from its text, describing China as a "sleeping lion" was the "common sense" of the Japanese at that time. Yoshino Sakuzo also recalls: "After the Restoration, we no longer respect the teacher who introduced the cultural relics system earlier, China, but it is difficult to insult him because of his military strength." But through this war, even this bit of decency has been tragically peeled off. Westerners are wrong to call Indochina a sleeping lion, who has died of disease. Okuma and Yoshino's writings were published a little later, and their claims can be used as a supplementary evidence for the appearance of the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" around noon.

As a discourse, before and after the Sino-Japanese War, it is common to use the anthropomorphic methods of "sleeping" and "waking" to describe the social state in which China is located. There is no shortage of similar statements in pamphlets that were widely circulated in Japan at the time. Takekoshi and Saburo's "Treatise on China" uses a special chapter to refute Zeng Jize's "Theory of China Sleeping First and Then Waking Up", emphasizing that whether China awakens or not is a threat, and strongly advocating waging war to eliminate this scourge. Takekoshi slandered the indochinese race as aggressive as a mountain thief, and that Japan was "the greatest danger, that is, the day when the Qing Dynasty was greatly awakened." Arao's "Opinions on the Qing Dynasty" is the same as Ozaki's view, arguing that there is no need to fear and doubt the chinese "awakening" theory, because "the current Qing government has decayed and cannot be revived, and its branches and leaves still exist, which is just a spring of the moment, just like the embellishment of residual red." Its lifeblood had dried up long ago thirty years ago, and now it is only surviving." In essence, whether it is to think that China is in a "deep sleep" and that once it "awakens" it will form a threat, or to oppose the "awakening theory" and to advocate that China is in a state of old decay and dying, it is to create a momentum for invading China. In this regard, "Chinese sleeping lion said" has its soil.

Also noteworthy is Ryu Osawa's article "On Theory of China" published in Japan in February 1898. The article clearly states that "Zeng Jize tasted on China, compared to the sleeping lion", and the publication time was also earlier than Liang Qichao's "Animal Talk". This article is analyzed later in this article.

It can be seen from the above that before Liang Qichao published "Animal Talk" in 1899, the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" was no stranger to the Japanese.

It is reasonable to believe that Liang Qichao, as a political propagandist living in Japan, will not fail to hear this statement that has a stake in his motherland. He could learn about this statement through various sources, such as books and newspapers and social travel, and it is not excluded that he had noticed the article published in Sun magazine.

Sun magazine was the most influential comprehensive publication in Japan during the Meiji period, and was founded in January 1895 by the famous Japanese publishing agency Bowenkan. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Bowenguan actively participated in the reporting of the war, judged China's political situation and the trend of the war, and created public opinion for Japan's invasion of China. The aforementioned "Opinions on the Qing Dynasty" by Seisuke Arao and Yukio Ozaki's "Punishment case of China" were published by Hokubunkan.

The magazine has a certain popularity in China. Xu Weize's "Records of Eastern and Western Studies" said: "If you want to know the recent politics of various countries, you must buy and read foreign newspapers. Britain's "Times" and Reuters Electric Voice, Japan's "Sun" and "Economic Magazine" have a general idea in various countries. "Sun" magazine, in the late Qing Dynasty, mostly translated as "Sun Newspaper". Soon after the establishment of the journal, it attracted the attention of new factions, including Liang Qichao. Xiang Bao, Zhixin Bao, Ling Journal, Agricultural Journal, Dongya Bao, etc., have all published articles translated from Sun magazine. Liang Qichao, Huang Zunxian and others founded the "Times" in Shanghai in 1896, hired the Japanese Ancient City Zhenji to preside over the "Oriental Newspaper Translation" column, and published more than 600 translations before and after. Among them, five articles, such as "On British Diplomacy" and "The Driving Force of the Earth's Overall Situation", are translated from "The Sun". After the coup d'état, Liang Qichao went east to Japan, and his contact with Sun magazine increased. Liang Qichao's "Qingyi Bao" and "Xinmin Cong Bao" run in Japan studied and imitated "Sun" in terms of style, style and even content, and reprinted many articles of "Sun". Liang Qichao also gave an interview to Kishida, head of the editorial department of Sun. From January 1899 onwards, Sun magazine compiled Liang Qichao's "Memoirs of the Coup d'état" and other articles into Japanese serials, and directly published Liang Qichao's articles in the form of Chinese, such as "On the Similarities and Differences between Indochina and the European National System" and "The Future of the Constitutionalism of the Qing Dynasty". The two sides also exchanged magazines, and Liang Qichao has been donating the magazine to the editorial department of Sun since the founding of Qinghui Bao, and the other party has also donated it back with "Sun".

In summary, it can be concluded that, first, long before Liang Qichao, the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" has appeared. Second, it is not excluded that before April 1899, Liang Qichao had contact with articles published in newspapers and periodicals such as The Sun on the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory". It can be seen that the "sleeping lion theory" is attributed to the invention and creation of Liang, which is inconsistent with historical facts.

Three

In order to further confirm whether the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" is Liang Qichao's "invention" (forgery), or whether Liang Qichao deliberately pretended to be an outsider, it is necessary to re-read and analyze Liang Qichao's three representative articles. These three articles are the core historical materials on which scholars advocating Liang Qichao's invention of the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" are based.

The first, "Speech of the Conservative Congress." According to Ding Wenjiang and Zhao Toyota's "Long Compilation of Liang Qichao's Chronology", this article was originally a speech by Liang Qichao at the second rally of the National Council of Defence held in Beijing on April 21, 1898, and was published in Guowen Bao No. 209 of may 31 of the same year, volume 55 of Zhixin Bao on June 9, and Xiang Bao No. 103 on July 5. Liang Qichao put forward a saying in the text, the English Ulyssie said that China is like the Flemish Immortal, although it is in a peaceful sleep, but there will eventually be a time to wake up: "Oh, once Zeng Huimin wrote "China Sleeps First and Then Wakes Up", the British Ulyssie (viscount of Ying, now the commander of the national army) said that China is like the monster of the Flemish Immortal, sleeping peacefully in peace, and the vigilance is to open its teeth and claws, and the cover is yu wangye in China. Although this sentence does not explicitly propose "Chinese sleeping lion", it is related to it. So, is this sentence Liang Qichao's own making, or is there another source? In this regard, Ishikawa has already verified that this statement originates from the article "If the Aftermath Is He" translated by Wang Xuelian. "If You Suffer Later" was published in English in the British "Guoyun Bao" on January 1, 1898, and the translation was published in the Tianjin "Guowen Bao" on March 22 of the same year. Comparing Liang Wen and Wang's translations, it can be seen that Ishikawa's research is credible. This shows that Liang Qichao's words are well-founded – from the British, not from Liang himself.

The second part, "Animal Talk". The article was published on April 30, 1899 in the "Discussion of the Main Library" column of the 13th volume of the Qinghui Bao. Inside: "When mourning, the guest is hidden and lying down, and there are four people in the adjacent room, and they talk aggressively for animals." The guest listened... Ding Yue: "I used to travel to London, and the London Museum has a man-made monster, like a lion, but lying down without vitality." Or the words yu yue: The son does not despise this thing, and its internal organic, a stroke of it, then open its teeth and claws, to fight to eat, the strength of a thousand people is not the enemy also. Yu inquired about his name, and his person knew: the English called FranJinxian, the former minister of Xizhina, Zenghou Jize, translated his name, called the sleeping lion, also known as the giant that slept first and then woke up. Researchers believe that this is the earliest article with the word "sleeping lion" or "sleeping lion" image, as mentioned above, at this time the Japanese newspaper about the "Chinese sleeping lion" expression is not uncommon. As for the sentence "Zeng Jize called the sleeping lion", in fact, it is not Liang Qichao's interpretation or pretense.

Prior to this, zhixin Bao, a newspaper run Chinese the reformists, published an article entitled "On the Situation in China by the Japanese People's Great Zelong" on May 1, 1898. The article not only has the word "sleeping lion", but also appears "Zeng Jize tasted Bizyina in sleeping lion". Quoted below:

The speaker said: "The government of China still clings to the chronic disease of incurability, although the state has everyone in its hands, it cannot cure it." And its people, like those who are idle and lazy, are in their twilight years. Xi Qi's arms rise up and reform the old and the new, which is tantamount to waiting for a hundred years to clear the river. In the past, Zeng Jize tasted Bizhnah in the sleeping lion, and at that time, the Taixi kingdoms did not investigate the facts, and the salty words were true. In the Battle of Jiawu, the battle of Jiawu was defeated in successive battles, and the true face of China and the South was exposed at home and abroad. Therefore, the fear of the patrol, so they scrambled to threaten it, such as Britain, Russia, France, and Germany. Now let me Japan help China to resist the nations, such as helping the dying man to go to the corner, in vain, and what good is enough to kill him quickly. In fact, Japan is not behind the countries, so it is better to score a piece of the pie. "Oh, it's a good thing. As Si said, it is imitated by the robbers also. The kingdoms of Futesi are also robbers, as evidenced by the recentities, such as the State of Jiaozhou, which is evidenced by virtue.

The theme of this article is to discuss the situation in China after the Sino-Japanese War and Japan's countermeasures. Combined with the context, the author does not agree with the "speaker", and does not agree with the division of China by Japan and the Western powers. In his view, Japan needs to help China and achieve the goal of controlling China by helping China's reforms; otherwise, if China is allowed to be slaughtered and eaten by the Taixi powers, Japan's operation in China will not be successful. The author's ideas are similar to the Asianism advocated by Okuma Shigenobu, opposing the theory of China's partition and advocating a long-term view and preserving China first. The article not only confirms that the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" has appeared in Japanese public opinion circles before and after the Sino-Japanese War, but also points out that "Zeng Jize tasted Bizhna than the Sleeping Lion", and at that time the Taixi countries were salty. This once again shows that before Liang Qichao, there was indeed a "Chinese sleeping lion theory".

Not only that, but the author also believes that as a reformer, Liang Qichao may have read this article published in the reformist newspaper Zhixin Bao, and may even have read the original article published by Ryū Ōsawa in Japanese newspapers. Previously, some scholars analyzed that the article by Ozawa Long published in the Zhixin Bao "may have become 'Zeng Jize tasted Bizhn in sleeping lions' because of the context or translation problems.") After verification, the source indicated in the Zhixin Bao was not accurate in its "translation of the Japanese "Chinese and Foreign Times" newspaper on march 20 in the West. The article was originally published in Japan's "Treatise on Chinese and Foreign Times" No. 2, dated February 10, 1898, the original title of "On China", the original text is Chinese not Japanese, does not require translation. When reprinted in "Zhixin Bao" to smoothly change individual words, Zeng Jize's sentence was originally: "In previous years, Zeng Jize tasted on China, compared to sleeping lions." At that time, the Kingdom of Taixi did not know its affairs, and the theory of the Zeng clan was true. Judging from the content of the article, Osawa Long is more familiar with the Chinese Restoration Movement and seems to have a certain connection with the restorationists.

The third part, "The Dangerous Words of Partition". The article was serialized in the "Discussion of the Main Library" column of volumes 15, 16, 17 and 23 of the Qinghui Bao on May 20, May 30, June 8, and August 6, 1899. The text related to this topic is concentrated in the first chapter, "On the Operation of the Orient by States Before the War in the Middle East." The chapter reads: "The Westerners have been saying this for decades, and it has not yet been practiced. The old-fashioned ones, because they no longer believe that there is a thing, have stubbornly fallen asleep and have not woken up, so that they are today. "What is the reason why countries have preserved this sleepless China for decades and has not been divided up for a long time? Liang Qichao believes that Britain's misjudgment of China is one of the reasons for this, so in the second section of "Britain failed to deeply understand China's internal situation", he focused on the analysis: The British people have adopted a policy of preservation rather than division of China for decades, and they have bought China's favor, so that Chinese can believe it and not doubt it, so that they can single-handedly grasp China's commercial interests. "And those who have deployed this policy, hope that China can be established, can survive on its own, and hope that China's military will be slightly enhanced, and can cooperate to reach the Russians to the south." Therefore, they all sit and do not know the inner story of Corruption in China, thinking that this huge sleeping lion will eventually rise one day. And I don't know how it has been frustrated again and again, so that today... Therefore, since the Sino-Japanese war, the situation has changed greatly, and since last year's coup d'état, the situation has changed even more. It is on the basis of this article that Ishikawa and other scholars have repeatedly emphasized that the British call China a "sleeping lion", which is the first time Liang Qichao said it; "including the British, no one has called China a 'sleeping lion' before"; the chinese theory that is a sleeping lion was conceived and created by Liang Qichao. However, comparing the previous quotations of "The Crisis of the Orient" and "The Japanese Great Zeze Dragon on the Situation in China" and other articles, it can be seen that not only is the "Chinese sleeping lion theory" not Liang Qichao's imagination and creation, but also the statement that "the British call China 'sleeping lion'" is not Liang Qichao's initiative.

By analyzing the above text, it can be concluded that: First, before Liang Qichao, Japanese newspapers and periodicals had already carried statements such as "Westerners say that China is a sleeping lion" and "Zeng Jize said that China is a sleeping lion". Second, Liang Qichao's paraphrasing is based on what he has seen and heard, but he does not indicate the source, and there is no problem of "processing and transformation", "invention and creation" or deliberately pretending to be an outsider or forging. Third, it is difficult to determine where the ideas of the articles in The Japanese press came from, and whether the "Chinese sleeping lion" was first uttered by the British or by Zeng Jize.

Since the "Chinese sleeping lion theory" is not the invention of Liang Qichao, and the Japanese newspapers and periodicals have previously published words such as "the British call China the sleeping lion", then, after 1900, Chinese said "sleeping lion", and its information sources should have a variety of channels: it may come from the remarks of Chinese such as Liang Qichao, and may also come from the newspaper and public opinion of Japanese and even Westerners. It is clearly not possible for researchers to regard it entirely as an invention based on Liang Qichao, and it is also insufficient evidence to believe that Chinese deliberately pretended to be Westerners for some purpose.

Four

Why Liang Qichao invented the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" cannot be established, you can also find the reason from the theoretical methods used by researchers.

As we all know, historical research is always carried out under some guiding ideology or value concept, and it is inevitably subject to subjective factors. Even in empirical research, the so-called "speaking with historical materials" is also inseparable from value judgments and theoretical presuppositions. Because, no matter how rich the historical data, it does not equal systematic historical knowledge. In the process of organizing and interpreting historical materials, from historical materials to historical facts and historiography, historians' theoretical thinking and scientific methods play a key role. Scholars who advocate Liang Qichao's invention of the "Sleeping Lion Theory" have theoretical and methodological defects to varying degrees.

From the questioning of Napoleon to the affirmation of Liang Qichao, the commentators have similarities in their research ideas to Gu Jiegang's "theory of ancient Chinese history caused by layers". Gu's study is the legend of antiquity, and here is the discussion of modern legends, although the time period is different, it is related to the spirit of the Chinese nation and its formation, related to the construction and identity of the Chinese nation, related to the understanding of history and historical knowledge and other major issues. Wang Fansen said in the epilogue of his book "The Rise of the Ancient History Discernment Movement": "Gu Jiegang's 'layered accumulation causes theory' has a rather prominent quality, and this quality is that he regards 'layered accumulation' as the result of deliberate falsification, rather than natural accumulation. "Man's deliberate falsification and natural accumulation, or subjectivity and objectivity, virtual imagery and reality, are two aspects that must be comprehensively treated in historical research. These two aspects are dialectically unified wholes, and if they are deformed, light, or heavy, or if they focus on one side and ignore the other, they will inevitably be separated from the historical truth.

The author believes that in terms of theoretical presuppositions, the scholars who advocate Liang Qichao's invention of the "Sleeping Lion Theory" are influenced by new cultural trends such as cultural constructivism, and have imitated the American scholar Benedict Anderson's book "Imagined Communities: The Origin and Spread of Nationalism" and Gu Jiegang's suspicion of "layering and causing theory", which has a tendency to doubt and deconstruct the historical consensus reached on the formation of the Chinese nation. Although some scholars claim to go beyond essentialist, they objectively slip into culturalism. They overemphasize the human factors of the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" and ignore the objectivity of even the ideological theories proposed by man; they exaggerate the role of Liang Qichao and other elites in the formation of the national community and the recasting of the national spirit, and despise the social basis for the formation of the national community and the recasting of the national spirit; they overly doubt the inheritance and stability of the previous "Sleeping Lion Theory", and even regard the oral sayings as someone's intentional forgery or invention. These deviations in the theoretical assumptions of researchers directly affect their interpretation of historical materials.

In terms of methodology, the researchers used the "method of tacit evidence" but did not strictly follow the "rules" of tacit proof. In most cases, historical research cannot derive answers directly from historical sources and requires logical reasoning. "Tacit proof" is the main method of reasoning used in the above texts. What is "tacit proof"? Zhang Yinlin has a clear definition: "Whoever wants to prove that there is no historical concept of a certain era, you can point out that there is evidence contrary to this historical concept in his era." If a certain book or a book of a certain era does not have a certain historical account, it is concluded that there is no such concept in a certain era, this method is called 'tacit proof' Argument From Silence. The French scholar Ch. Seignobos points out that "tacit proof" comes from the proverb of everyday life, "If it is true, we should have heard of it", and that the proverb implies a universal proposition that if something really happened, there should be some literature mentioning it. The establishment of "tacit proof" is subject to strict qualifications, "every fact must be observed, recorded in writing, and all records kept". The truth, however, is that most of the facts in history are not recorded in writing, and even if they were, many of the books are extinct. Therefore, in most cases, tacit evidence is not valid. In particular, Thur's emphasis is that tacit evidence can be applied only if the conditions implied by it are fully met.

Measured by this, the above-mentioned researchers have not and cannot exhaust themselves in the historical data, and their reasoning seriously exceeds the limits allowed by "tacit evidence". Compared with ancient history, modern Chinese and foreign historical materials are so rich and varied that they are not limited to publicly distributed newspapers, periodicals, books, etc. Researchers of modern history are often faced with the problem of too much information and how to effectively select and use them. The above-mentioned researchers claim to have consulted relevant databases using Internet technology, and "consulting the database" seems to mean that they have a voice in the data. However, the fact is that even if the materials included in the database are not found due to technical reasons such as coding and retrieval, there is no database that can be included in everything. Therefore, the "tacit evidence" used by the researcher can and can only show that the author personally did not find in the information he had before 1899 that there was a "sleeping lion theory", and cannot show that no one mentioned it other than the material he possessed. When it is determined that the "sleeping lion theory" is "none", "earliest" or "first" based on one or more databases, this practice is illogical, confusing the boundaries between reasoning and evidence, and the conclusions are often specious.

As Liu Jiahe pointed out, "The method of tacit proof has never been a safe method of argumentation. Even if the "limits of the application of tacit evidence" are strictly followed, what it provides for historical research is not solid and reliable evidence, but is still the result of a logical reasoning, and the result of the use of negative reasoning methods. At the moment when databases are widespread, "tacit evidence" has a tendency to be generalized and abused. The above research reminds us once again that the method of "tacit proof" cannot be used carelessly.

In short, any kind of historical narrative inevitably begins with some kind of prescience, but without sufficient vigilance and criticism of prescience, prescience may degenerate into prejudice. The author believes that the reason why Liang Qichao invented the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory" is that in addition to the limitations of historical materials, researchers also have their shortcomings in theoretical methods, and there are obvious problems such as taking the history with arguments and not being rigorous in logic.

The author, Zhang Zhaojun, is a professor at the School of History and the Research Center for Historical Theory and Historiography of Beijing Normal University

Comments from omitted, the full version please refer to the original text.

Editor: Xiang Yu

Proofreader: Water Life

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