Author| Ouyang Zhesheng (Professor, Department of History, Peking University)
Originally published in | Exploration and Controversy, No. 5, 2016
Politics held a central place in modern China. The state is at the heart of politics. The success of the Xinhai Revolution toppling the Qing Dynasty and establishing the Republic of China was the pivot of its success or failure in the hearts of the people, and the key to the people's hearts was the return of national identity. One of the major changes in Chinese intellectual circles at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was the rapid brewing of the concept of the modern state, which had a great impact on the Qing Dynasty, so that the crumbling Qing Dynasty was finally wrapped up in this powerful current. The revolutionaries' concept of the state represented by Sun Yat-sen stood out in various trends of change and occupied a dominant position, becoming the key to the Qing Dynasty of the Republic of China.
One of the dynamics in the study of modern Chinese intellectual history in recent years is the emphasis on conceptual history. In the 1980s, with the rise of the new Enlightenment, people paid more attention to the interpretation of the concepts of democracy, freedom and individualism, while the concept of the state was relatively indifferent, and even excluded it from the Enlightenment, resulting in this bias having its own historical origins. The concept of the state has a strong ideological color, which is easily used by those in power and becomes the theoretical basis for their governance. However, the construction of China's modern concept of state is an important part of China's modern Enlightenment thought, and it is also an indisputable fact. From this perspective, the rise of China's modern state concept is academically reasonable, and it can more comprehensively reflect the original appearance of China's modern enlightenment thought.
The state became a problem
In the traditional political system, dynasties dominate the state, and dynasties exercise the power of the state. The traditional concept naturally superimposes the dynasty and the state, and the dynasty obscures the country. As the supreme ruler, the Son of Heaven "performs the destiny for heaven" and considers himself "the state of decay"; the subjects hold the concept of "family and the world", only know the imperial court, do not know the country, and people's national identity is expressed as loyalty to the king and patriotism. The exercise of state power by the imperial court became the norm, resulting in the historical phenomenon that people only knew what the court knew what the state was.
Associating the rise and fall of dynasties with the rise and fall of nations is typical of the traditional concept of the state. At the time of the Ming and Qing Revolutions, Gu Yanwu did not identify with the Manchu Qing culture, vowed to be a remnant of the Ming Dynasty inheriting the Han culture, and insisted on the Confucian "Five Classics" liturgical culture as the unified. Gu Yanwu first put forward the theories of "subjugation of the country" and "subjugation of the world" in the "Rizhilu Volume XIII Zhengshi": "There is a subjugation of the country, and there is a subjugation of the world." Distinguish between the fall of the country and the fall of the world? Yue: Yi surname changed its name, which is called the fall of the country. Benevolence and righteousness are full of congestion, and as for the beast to eat man, man will eat each other, which is called the destruction of the world. ...... It is the reason why it knows to protect the world and then knows to protect its country. The protector of the country, the king and his subjects, the flesh eaters, and the protectors of the world, the lowly and the responsible. The "subjugation of the country" here refers to the overthrow of the dynasty, while the "subjugation of the world" refers to the degeneration of the Confucian ritual music culture. The separation of "country" and "world" provided an imaginative space for the Han scholars and masters to adhere to the culture of the remnants under the pressure of the Qing Dynasty, and it was also a traditional ideological resource for the revolutionary heroes of the late Qing Dynasty to oppose the Manchus.
For example, when comparing the relationship between Chinese and Western traditional civilizations and the state, the two show great differences. "In the Latin Christian world of the early European Middle Ages, many of the functions of government—the maintenance of order, the rules of war, and the determination of the rules of justice—were provided by the church rather than the weak and ephemeral states that existed within its boundaries." "Chinese civilization is usually controlled by a single state." That is to say, the relationship between Chinese and Western civilizations and the state is quite inconsistent, Western Christian civilization is a large unit, many small countries share the background of Christian civilization; Chinese civilization is subject to the concept of "Huayi distinction", often superimposed with the Han Empire, so there is a "subjugation of the country" and "the destruction of the world".
The fact that the state has become a sharp issue has been put on the agenda in modern times. The so-called "problem" here contains two meanings: First, there is a lack of national concept or national consciousness in the traditional Chinese concept. The second is how to construct a state in the modern sense. Without the concept of the state, of course, there is no way to talk about the construction of the state in the modern sense. The defeat of the two Opium Wars made people of insight realize the strength of the West in science and technology and military, the so-called "strong guns on ships," and thus launched a foreign affairs movement aimed at "self-improvement." But at the time, people did not have doubts or lost confidence in the traditional state system.
In June 1894, Sun Yat-sen said in the "Book of Li Hongzhang": "Stealing the basis of Europe's wealth and strength is not only that the ships are strong and the cannons are strong, and the fortifications are strong, but that people can make the best of their talents, the land can make the best use of their interests, the goods can be used to the fullest, and the goods can flow freely - these four things, the great scriptures of wealth and strength, and the great foundation of governing the country." Our country wants to expand its grand plan, to be diligent in seeking far-sightedness, to imitate Western law in order to raise its own strength, and not to rush to these four, but it is only the duty of the ship and the cannon, and it is the duty of giving up the original and the end of the map. This is Sun Yat-sen's understanding of reform before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, and his views are no different from those of the Westerners, and they do not touch the reform of the state system.
The biggest impact on the people of the Sino-Japanese War was the reflection on the country's capabilities. The so-called national capacity includes both internal and external aspects. Internal refers to the ability of the state to control society and exercise state power, and externally refers to the ability of the state to resist foreign enemies and defend territory. The defeat of the Sino-Japanese War generally felt the decline of national capabilities, and the reversal of national fortunes as a result. The Chinese people first realized this from the internal and external comparisons, Japan is a Tsuer Island country, but through the reform of the Meiji Restoration, it has become a powerful country; China is a big country, and after the test of the Sino-Japanese War, it has become a weak country bullied by strong neighbors. As a result, people questioned the lack of weakness in state organization from within; Japan embarked on the road of militarism since the Meiji Restoration, and the degree of state organization was gradually strengthening; the Manchu Qing Dynasty was ostensibly an absolute monarch, and after two Opium Wars and the blows of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the state power structure showed a Dual Structure of Manchu-Han and Central-Local, and the Manchu Qing nobles gave up a considerable part of the central and local power to the generals of the Xiang and Huai military groups, and the local autonomy was significantly strengthened, and the contradictions between the upper and lower levels and the Contradiction between the Manchu and Han Dynasties became increasingly superficial. The common disease of centralized power in the early period and the division of feudal towns in the later period committed by successive dynasties was revived in the late Qing Dynasty.
Sun Yat-sen's "Statutes of the Xingzhong Association" formulated on November 24, 1894, began with the words: "China is weak, not a day!" The upper is obedient and whitewashed; the lower is ignorant and rarely far-sighted. Near the humiliation of the country bereavement, the cutting of the domain to suppress the territory, the hall of China is disdainful of neighbors, and the cultural relics crown is lighter than that of foreign races. People with lofty ideals can be caressed without caress! With the multitude of four hundred trillion people and the grace of tens of thousands of miles of land, he can be invincible to the world. It is a philistine slave who mistook the country, and Tu (荼) poisoned the cangsheng, and was not happy at all, just like the pole of Si. In just a few months, Sun Yat-sen's thinking had undergone a fundamental change due to the stimulation of the Sino-Japanese War, and the low national ability exposed by the defeat of the war made Sun Yat-sen extremely disappointed and worried, and this anxiety was the internal driving force that prompted him to brew the idea of reform and survival, and Xingzhong would be born from it. The establishment of the Xingzhong Association was first based on the problem of the national system. "It is a meeting designed to revitalize China and maintain the national system." It is not a day since I was bullied by foreign countries. They are all separated from the inside and the outside, the feelings between the upper and lower levels are not connected, the national system is suppressed and not known, and the people are restrained and do not tell. The suffering is deepening, what a harm! Zite contacted Chinese and foreign Chinese and foreign people, and Chuangxing was a meeting to support Guozong with the aspirations of the people. ”
Questions of national capabilities like Sun Yat-sen's are not uncommon, but a consensus between the government and the opposition. The revival of thought aroused by the book on the bus is a strong manifestation of this enlightened consciousness. But a rare individual voice like Sun Yat-sen's, who lost faith in the Qing court and took the lead in raising the question of the state system, showed his pioneering consciousness as a revolutionary.
Xingzhong will take a group photo
The introduction of the concept of European and American countries in modern times
The world changed dramatically in the 19th century. Change mainly follows two paths: First, the industrial revolution. The first is the rise of modern countries. The Industrial Revolution originated in Britain, and the model of the modern state pushed the American republic. These two currents flow from west to east, and they are mighty, and those who go along with it prosper and those who go against it perish.
European and American countries have rapidly transformed into modern countries. In the process of transformation, countries build different national models according to their own national conditions. According to the relationship between the state system and the composition of the government, two types of countries are mainly formed: (1) republics. The Netherlands pioneered the American Revolutionary War with the goal of establishing the United States, and the French Revolution continued this system. The United States, as a republican state, has established a model of federalism, separation of powers, and democratic politics. "On Democracy in the United States" written by the famous French political commentator Tocqueville is a masterpiece of American democratic politics that people at the time admired. (2) Constitutional monarchy. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the British established this system, and although the king was able to retain his position, parliament dominated the state power. After the 20th century, european countries that retained monarchies basically adopted this system. From the perspective of the relationship between the state and the nation, some European countries have established modern nation-states in the process of pursuing modernization, and France and Germany are the most typical. The nation-state emphasizes the isomorphism of the nation, culture and the state, which is more suitable for the construction of a single nation's state.
The rise of modern states, due to their stronger and better degree of organization, has had a huge impact on traditional monarchies. With the pace of colonization in the West from west to east, the traditional Eastern Empire from near and far, the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire in India disintegrated, the Qing Dynasty really faced an unprecedented crisis, Li Hongzhang lamented that "three thousand years of unprecedented changes" refers to this situation.
The comparison between the Chinese people's observation of modern European and American countries and the chinese and Western state systems began as early as the 1860s and 1870s. In 1861, Feng Guifen wrote "The Protest of the School of The Lulu", comparing the national conditions of China and the West, keenly aware that in China, "it is better for people to abandon their materials than to destroy, the land is not as good as to be destroyed, the monarchs are not separated from each other, and the name and reality must be better than Yi", and put forward a blunt criticism of the "separation" of the monarchs and the people of the absolute monarchical system. After traveling to Various European countries, Wang Tao deeply examined the political situation in the West and realized that the strength of Western politics lies in the "co-governance of kings and people": "In the European states, the land is not as good as China, and the people are not as good as China, but those who can run amok in the world care about the unity of the people and the common rule of the monarchy." Our Chinese people are the most important of the four continents, but they are alone and despise their strong neighbors and enemies, so they are not able to communicate from the top to the bottom, the kings and the people are not close, one person has the right to be above, and the people cannot participate in the discussion of the lower. It provides a profound analysis of the relationship between monarchs and the people under the monarchy.
The concept of modern Western state and the state system were mainly introduced to China through two channels. First, in the 1870s and 1880s, a group of senior Chinese scholars and doctors went abroad and began to carefully examine the politics of European and American countries, and had a more realistic experience of the Western national system. Guo Songtao, the first minister in Britain, paid great attention to the Examination of the British political system, and on May 19, 1878 (April 18, 18, 1878), he wrote in his diary: "Western politics and religion are people-oriented, and everything takes the meaning of conforming to the people, that is, the country of monarchs, the major government is from the gentry, and the civil rights are often more important than the king." Huang Zunxian, counselor of the Embassy in Japan, surveyed the politics of various countries: "There are hundreds of countries living around the earth. Where there is a nation, there is a people, and where there is a people, there is a king. And in these hundreds and dozens of countries, there is one person who is called a monarch; there is a person who discusses the government and is called a democrat; and there is a person who divides the powers of the upper and lower levels, and is called the monarch and the people. The position of democracy, whether it is with the virtuous or the son, or the change of several years, or the change of ten years, does not matter whether it is unified; the monarch and the people are co-lords, or the sages are passed on, or the sons are passed on, and the king is not allowed to private his country, nor does it matter whether it is unified. He also apparently learned of the superiority of other political systems other than monarchies. When Xue Fucheng went to Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, his observations on the British Parliament and political parties opened up another political world for him: "The house of parliament, so the love of the monarch and the people is also." All deliberations on political affairs are based on the will of the people. The power of the House of Commons is maintained with that of the House of Lords; the power of the House of Lords is maintained by the power of kings. Britain has two parties,...... The two parties are advancing and retreating from each other, and the way of the state and the government is relaxed is successful. "The Western system has had a great impact on these scholars who have gone to the world.
Second, by writing books and running newspapers, people in Western China spread the concepts of Western countries and introduced the european and American state systems, so that Chinese began to understand the Western concept of the country. On January 30, 1875, volume 322 of the 322nd volume published Li Shanlan's "Preface to the Chronicle of the United States", which introduced the US presidential election system: "The law is changed every four years, and the virtuous are not passed on, so that the tongguo gongju is moved." On June 12, 1875, volume 340 published "Translation of the Constitutions and Conference Halls of Democracies and Countries", which clearly pointed out that European and American countries "have the right to govern the country and belong to the people." Sovereignty is the "most crucial" cornerstone of Western statehood. "The law of governing the country should also come from the people, and not from one person to obtain it independently." The British Court And The Commons of the British Court, published in Volume 503 on 3 August 1878, systematically introduced the British constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Lin Lezhi's Overview of Circumnavigation of the Globe, published in volumes 642 and 643 on June 4 and 11, 1881, was the first complete introduction to the U.S. Federal Constitution of 1787 and its amendments. On June 10, 1882, volume 693 published the German missionary Hua Zhi'an's "Ming Zheng Dao Quan", which mentioned that Western monarchs "use power to reward and punish, and the monarch must not act alone, in order to act arbitrarily, in order to act arbitrarily, and must be handled impartially by the monarch and his subjects." The people of the Western Kingdom are not to be honored, but they must not be arrogant and oppressive; the people of the people are not to be noble, but they must not be arrogant in order to bully the people. Therefore, the poor people of the western country are not afraid of the power of the superior, and if they are reasonable, no one dares to punish them." After its resumption in 1889, the Bulletin of nations began serializing "A Brief Introduction to Overseas Hearsay" from volume 9, detailing the American democratic system: "America, the country of democracy." All legal decrees are issued by public deliberation, so there will be a public council in Kyoto Province, that is, in each county and township. "Every matter of discussion must be debated in detail and reviewed repeatedly, in order to achieve perfection and then be completed, and it is rare to have more than half a person say yes."
The earliest translation of modern international law is the "Law of Nations" translated by the American missionaries Ding Yunliang and Chen Qin, which was compiled from Wheaton's original "Principles of International Law" and first published by the Beijing Chongshi Press in 1864. The book is 4 volumes and 12 chapters, volume 1 "Interpreting the Meaning of the Public Law, Clarifying Its Original Meaning, and Titleing Its Great Purpose", Volume 2 "On the Natural Rights of the Nations", Volume 3 "On the Right of The Nations to Communicate in Peace", and Volume 4 "On the Rules of War". The book is of certain help to the Qing court in understanding the rules of modern international law and to the protection of its own rights and interests in diplomacy and the protection of its own rights and interests.
The earliest systematic introduction to the political system of Western countries, Tui Fu Lanya's interpretation and Ying Zuxi's transcript of "George's Words", which was published in 1885 by the Translation Hall of the Jiangnan General Bureau of Manufacturing. Its English base is Political Economy, a type of educational series compiled by the Chambers brothers. The George Blade is a selection of translations of the first thirty-one chapters of the original book. Chapter 10, "On the Classification of State Politics", states: "All the countries of the earth are divided into three types: one is the law of the monarchy, one is the law of the zen position of the wise lord, and the other is the law of the democratic country." There are those who choose one of the three kinds of Dharma to practice, there are also those who use two Dharmas in the three kinds, and there are those who combine the three Laws and use them together, and now The English are also. "The original intention of a democratic nation was to have a number of people elected at a certain time, to make laws for all, and to choose for all the people who were both virtuous and virtuous, to be the lord of the country." The United States has been practicing this law for generations, and the people call it poop. ”
The introduction of the concept of Western countries in modern times has stimulated the national consciousness of the Chinese people. There are three constituent elements of the State: people, territory and sovereignty. Sovereignty is the core value of modern countries, and whether sovereignty is in the people or in the monarchy is the fundamental difference between modern countries and traditional monarchies. When the Chinese people are involved in diplomacy, they have obviously enhanced their national consciousness. The traditional "Huayi Great Discernment" view of the world has been replaced by the new concept of "foreign affairs", and the reform model of "Chinese body and Western use" has left room for the introduction of Western military and science and technology. The most important conceptual changes that followed were: a series of unequal treaties that humiliated the country stimulated the scholars, making them realize the necessity and urgency of using public international law to defend national sovereignty, abolish consular jurisdiction, and realize tariff autonomy.
The Constitutionalists' understanding of the state at the beginning of the 20th century: Liang Qichao and Yan Fu
At the beginning of the 20th century, the defeat of the Qing Dynasty had been fully revealed, and the imperial court lacked the talents to promote the "New Deal" and could not shoulder the heavy responsibility of reform; under the domination of foreign imperialism, China was completely included in the colonial system of the great powers, and the national crisis was deepening day by day. Under this dangerous situation, progressive intellectuals are extremely anxious about the thinking of the state. The national consciousness clearly broke through the dynastic consciousness. Liang Qichao said: "The one who can be worried about today, Mo Chinaruo, and the lovely person in the world, mo Chinaruo." The more I worry, the more I love it, and the more I love it, the more I worry about it. Liang Qichao, who embarked on the road of exile, wrote such words in a foreign country, which shows the deep pain of his worried country.
As a representative of the constitutionalists living in exile, Liang Qichao was extremely urgent to think about the issue of the state because he was in a foreign country. In his article "On the General Trend of National Competition in Modern Times and the Future of China", he liquidated the traditional concept of "state": "Chinese did not know that there were also people, and the language that has been used for thousands of years is only called by the word state, and there is no one who is called by the word national. Who is the state? Who are the nationals? The state is also called the state as a private property. The origin of the ancient kingdom will come from the family. The elder of a clan, if he is brave, leads his clan to rival other clans, and over time transforms his family into a kingdom, and his power is unlimited, and he enslaves the herd of animals, and whips the clan, and the family loses power, and his family takes its place, and responds to violence with violence, and when there is no time, it is called a state. The people are also known as the people's public property. The nation is made of the people, but apart from the people, there is no state. To rule the affairs of a country with the people of a country, to determine the laws of a country, to seek the interests of a country, to defend the troubles of a country, and to insult its people without gaining them, and to destroy their country without gaining them, is to be called a national. ”
The "state" here is actually an ancient dynasty, the so-called "home country under the heavens", Liang Qichao distinguished between the two concepts of "the state" "with the country as a private property" and the "national" concept of "the country as the people's public property", and thus discussed the "difference between national competition and national competition": "The national competitor, the monarch corrupts its bottom to compete with other countries; the national competitor, the person of one country is also a contender for his life and property." He affirmed that "the competition of the world today is also the competition of the people", and the competition of today's European and American countries "is the driving force of the struggle of the people to exist by itself.". "Therefore, their quarrels are not a matter of the state, but of the crowd; not of the monarchs, but of the people; not of politics, but of the economy." Liang Qichao tied the future of saving the country and protecting the species to the "strength of the people". "Whoever invades with the people will resist them with the strength of the people." The national power, the most powerful and stoic of all forces! ”
Along this line of thought, Liang Qichao even wrote to Shu Kang Youwei at the same time, advocating the pursuit of a republican form of government: "State affairs have been corrupted to this point, non-government is open, and the transformation of the republican form of government cannot save the crisis." At the beginning of the 20th century, Liang Qichao wrote a series of famous texts about the country, and its motivation was also here.
In response to the "old empire" of China by the Westerners and Japanese, Liang Qichao for the first time put forward the "Young China Theory": "Those who have caused the boss Of China today will also be wronged by China's old decay." Those who produce the future young Chinese are also responsible for the Chinese youth. "If the youth of the whole country is also a teenager, then China is the country of the future, and its progress is immeasurable." If the youth of the whole country is also the boss, then China is the country of the past, and its demise can be waited for. Therefore, the responsibility today is not others, but all in my youth. This kind of sustenance of linking China's future to the body of a teenager is actually a derivation of evolutionary ideas on the human race, and later Chen Duxiu founded the "Youth Magazine" and Li Dazhao called for "youth" can be said to be in the same vein.
Liang Qichao summarized the types of governments in various countries in the world and determined that constitutional monarchy is the "best": "There are three kinds of governments in the world: one is the absolute monarchy, the second is the constitutional monarchy, and the third is the democratic constitutional government. Today, there are more than a dozen powerful people in the whole world, except for Russia, which is an absolute monarchy, the United States, and France, which are democratic constitutional governments, and the rest of the countries are also constitutional monarchies. The constitutional monarchy is also the best of the forms of government. A democratic constitutional government, its governing strategy, is too easy to change, and when electing a president, the competition is too fierce, and there is no obstacle to the happiness of the country. In an absolute monarchy, the court regards the people as grass and mustard, and its defense is like thieves; the people fear the court like a jailer, and their envy is like a vendetta. Therefore, his people are extremely miserable, and his kings and ministers are also extremely dangerous, such as those of Russia, although they have the power of tigers and wolves for a while, and their kingdoms are really in the middle of nowhere. It is therefore the constitutional monarchy, the best of the form of government. Of course, absolute monarchy is not advisable, and because the democratic constitutional government is "too competitive", Liang Qichao does not agree, and Liang Qichao chose a reformed constitutional monarchy, which shows his self-limitation as a constitutionalist.
Liang Qichao may be the earliest thinker in modern times to make a systematic discussion of "national ideological changes". He believes: "The world has been completely national since the beginning of the modern world. The former is prone to an incomplete state, with its national ideology incomplete also. He quoted the Swiss-German political scientist Boren Zhili's book "National Studies", listing the eleven major differences between the changes in the european medieval and modern countries, and thus "slightly imitating the examples and deducing them", listing the eleven differences between the old European thought, the old Chinese thought and the new European thought. Liang Qichao divided national thought into three eras: the past (familial era, chieftaincy era, and imperialist era), the present (nationalist era, national imperialism era), and the future (the era of universal cosmopolitanism). "In today's Europe, there is also an era in which nationalism and national imperialism are incompatible; in today's Asia, imperialism and nationalism are also in an era of nationalism." This observation of Liang Qichao is similar to Lenin's judgment that the Western powers have entered the stage of imperialism, indicating that he grasped the world situation at that time quite accurately. How will the relationship between the monarch, the people and the state evolve? Liang Qichao believes that before the 18th century, "the king is precious, the society is secondary, and the people are light"; from the end of the 18th century to the nineteenth century, "the people are noble, the society is second, and the king is light"; from the end of the 19th century to the 20th century, "the society is noble, the people are second, and the king is light". Liang Qichao vigorously promoted nationalism: "Nationalists, the world's brightest, most righteous, and fair doctrine, will not let other races invade my freedom, and I will not invade the freedom of other races." It lies in the independence of the country and man; it lies in the world, in the independence of the country. Liang Qichao distinguishes between nationalism and imperialism: "Nationalists who cover the country are those who stand up for the people and those who stand up, so they would rather sacrifice the interests of all the hundreds to think that they are the people; imperialists, who say that the people bully the country and survive." Therefore, it is better to sacrifice the interests of all hundreds of people as the country, strong and weak branches, and heavy on the group and less on the individual. He believes that the new development of the Western powers in the nineteenth century is attributed to national imperialism: "The imperialism of the 19th century and the imperialism of the pre-eighteenth century are similar in appearance, but their essence is very different. Why? The government of the past had a monarch as the main body, so its empire was also the one-man empire; the present government, with the people of the whole country as the main body, was also its empire, the national empire. Whoever has not passed through a class of nationalism cannot be called a state. For example, nationalists, from embryo to childhood, are indispensable materials; from nationalism to national imperialism, they should have something to do to earn a living and build a career after adulthood. The article's explanation of nationalism and national imperialism is perhaps the first of its kind in the Chinese world.
Liang Qichao admired Berren Zhili, carefully studied his political theory, and compiled the "Theory of Political Science Everyone Burren Zhili", which therefore borrowed Liang Rengong's huge rafters and walked away. Burren's theory of the state became a common important ideological resource for revolutionaries, including Sun Yat-sen.
In the enlightenment essay "The New People's Theory", Liang Qichao specifically discussed the "national thought". "Who are the thinkers of the state? One is to know that there is a country for one body, the second is to know that there is a country for the imperial court, the third is to know that there is a country for foreign nations, and the fourth is to know that there is a country for the world. Liang Qichao lamented: "I Chinese the idea of no country." The reason for this is that "one knows that there is a world but does not know that there is a country, and the other knows that there is a self but does not know that there is a country." While expounding the concept of the state, Liang Qichao also noted another word associated with "state", ethnicity, and in 1901, he published an article in the Qinghui Bao entitled "Narrative of Chinese History", in which he first proposed the concept of "Chinese nation" when tracing the historical evolution of the Chinese nation, and divided it into three eras: the previous world, the middle world, and the modern world. In 1902, Liang Qichao began his article "On the General Trend of Changes in Chinese Academic Thought" and began to define the connotation of the word "Zhonghua" from the three aspects of geography, population and history: "Who cares about those who stand on the largest continent among the five continents and the largest country in its continent?" I Am China; the population of one-third of the whole earth, who cares? I Am China also; the history of more than 4,000 years has not tasted a single interruption, who cares? I Zhonghua also. Later, when discussing the academic ideological status of the State of Qi during the Warring States period, the term "Chinese nation" was officially used: "Qi, Hai Guo also." In ancient times, the Chinese nation had the power of the sea. Therefore, in the meantime, two concepts are produced, one is the concept of the state, and the other is the world view. This is the earliest use of the term "Chinese nation" ever seen. Liang Qichao's elaboration of the connotation of the "Chinese nation" is obviously related to his concept of focusing on the "nation-state". This series of his expositions on the concept of the state can be called the "discovery of the state" in the early 20th century.
Yan Fu, as the ideological representative of the constitutionalists in China, also has profound thinking about the country. He criticized the Chinese people for knowing "the world" but not "the country" and not having "national ideas." "I dwell in the world, not the country. And the so-called ones under the heavens, from the eighteen provinces to the Zhengda, although there are neighboring countries, are all among those who want to be desolate, and they have no reason to distinguish themselves, so there is no country to speak of. Nowadays, the word 'patriotic' is extremely different from the ancient righteousness. That is to say, the idea of the state is not a person in the middle of the fence, and I really don't know why I am waiting for the thinkers. He explained the connotation and extension of the state's thinking: "The political problem is the state. All countries must have the right to govern, and the right to govern is the instrument of the government, so there is no anarchy under the heavens. "And its discussion of the country is also, the internal and external edges are the two major stems." The internal cause speaks of its internal form, structure, evolution, change, and all the organs used by the government; the outer edge speaks of its diplomacy and the influence of its diplomacy. Yan Fu describes the "state" from both internal causes and external edges, and he has a clear sense of theoretical construction.
The ideological contribution of Yan Fu's concept of the state is mainly manifested in: Regarding the origin and rise of the state, the traditional view of the state is represented by Han Yu's "Original Tao", which believes that the state is established by saints and monarchs. "In ancient times, there were many harms to man. There are saints who stand, and then teach them the way of mutual support. For the king, for the teacher. Yan Fu, on the other hand, based on the theory of evolution, proposed that the state is the product of "heavenly evolution". "The state is born of nature, not of manufacture." "As will be said before the case, the most important points are, first, that politics and history are closely related, and that all public practices must come from experience and have no drawbacks; second, the state is a thing that is performed in heaven, and the degree of performance has a natural principle; third, since the state is a thing that is performed in heaven, it stresses politics, and its techniques can be the same as that of all the sciences of motion and plant, and those who use it." The monarch is the product of popular action. "There is deception, there is a rivalry, there is a strong stem, there is a harm, and the people, who are corn and silk, utensils, currency, and all things that live in harmony with each other, now they are subjected to their punishment with a hoe, and the Lord fights with it, weighs it up and believes it, and builds it into a city and a soldier to guard, then it is impossible." Therefore, it was easy to do things, and he chose his righteous and wise ones, and established himself as a king. "When Yan Fu translated Zhen Kesi's Social Interpretation, according to his doctrine, social development was divided into three stages: totem, patriarchy, and state." The class of Yi kao evolution begins with a totem, followed by a patriarchal law, and becomes a state. ...... The people who are alone in the country, and the people of the four countries, the peasants, the workers, and the merchants, and the things that live and support each other in groups are extremely grand and harmonious, and they are strong and cannot be destroyed. This is the letter of the order, if the four hours of heaven, if the child of the human body is young and strong, and the period is delayed, and the one who cannot be less disordered is also. "In Yan Fu's view, China is still in a patriarchal society, and the European and American powers have formed a state." It is also a look at the history of China, which is the credible book of the Zhou Dynasty, which was written by Tang Yu in the Zhou Dynasty, and more than 2,000 years in the middle, all of which were feudal eras. The so-called patriarchy is also the most prepared at this time. Its saints, the saints of patriarchal societies also. Its institutional texts, the institutional texts of patriarchal societies also. ...... From Qin to the present, and more than two thousand years old, there is no one in the land, one of them is always free to govern, and as far as the present is concerned, those who judge their political laws and regulations, judge their customs, and discuss and meditate on what their people say and think, are just like the people of one law. However, this period of the Heavenly Performance, its extension does not go, and those who exist in this soil cover 4,000 years and have more than enough. The process of social evolution argues that the establishment of a "state" is the only way to go.
Regarding the classification of the state and its characteristics, Yan Fu introduced Aristotle's classification of the state, and Yashi divided the state into three types according to the form of government: dictatorship, meritocracy, and democracy. "Dominion, Monaaki; Sage, Monastery of Aristolkula; Democracy, Polydis." Rule alone, rule with one king also. Virtuous government, rule with the minority also. Democracy, governing the people also. All three were the right body of governance at that time, but there were also those who were inferior. The dictatorship of solitude, the hegemony, the Tyranny, and the Despotlc of Despot. The NobleMan of the Virtuous, Oligarchy. Democracy is known as the ShuZheng, Demu Kuola Monastery. It is so divided, the term is still used, and there are still great differences in its origins. Yan Fu did not agree with Aristotle's division, the so-called "old division of Aristotle, but it is not appropriate." Yan Fu talked about the distinction between different countries in many places in the "Political Lecture Notes", or divided into grass and civilization according to the degree of civilization, "All ancient and modern countries are first divided into two categories: one is grass and the other is civilization. The Grassy One, whose unity is formed, either by patriarchal families or by religious theocracy. Civilized countries, on the other hand, have gradually departed from this purpose, and have focused on the protection of interests, with the exclusive respect of the regime, and now the Japanese and Western countries are already." Or according to the size of the ancient and modern countries, it is divided into municipal states and state-state states, "Greece has a municipal state, and the soil is extremely small, such as the ancient state of Wugu, but it is independent and has no common ear." If it is a country in this world, it can be called a state and a city state, with a vast land and a large number of people, and it cannot be said to be the same." Or the process of state formation is divided into naturally formed countries and unnaturally formed countries. Natural states are divided into true states, patriarchal states (Tribe), and theocratic states (Theocracy). "The patriarchal state is also united by the same race and the same ancestors. The theocratic nation is united by the same faith and religion. As for the real state, its union is also based on the same interests and the same protection. It is the three, which are different from each other, and after the union, they are all strong. The unnatural state can be described as the "fourth kind of state", and "the combination of this fourth kind is not of the same species, not of the same religion, nor of the same interests, but of pressure." Unfortunately, there are more such countries in history than in the previous three. Its beginnings and unions also, with might, with terror. Its succession is also to tame, to be ashamed. However, such a state does not think of it as an organism. Not to think of it as official, but as an inorganic body, but as a country of non-official goods." Because of its unnatural evolution and lack of organizational structure, this kind of country is "simply called inorganic." Yan Fu classified China in the Yuan Dynasty, India at that time, and Russia into this type of state.
Regarding the difference between an authoritarian state and a constitutional state, this is where Yan Fu discusses the issue of the state, and it is also the biggest problem faced by the Qing Dynasty's preparatory constitution in the early 20th century. In the fifth to eighth episodes of the Political Lecture Notes, it can be said that this issue is also discussed repeatedly. Yan Fu borrowed the famous words of the French politician Tocquefi to illustrate the difference between the two: "Although the authoritarian government is arrogant, it is timid, but civil rights are not." Therefore, despotism does not do anything, not only because it is not profitable. Standing tall, suspended from the people's feelings, will do something, and suffer from love affairs, like a person who walks in the mountains at night. Civil rights governments, aware of their situation and often backed by a large number of people, are ambitious. "The authoritarian government controls a lot of state and social affairs, but it is only responsible to the superior (jun) and not to the people." An authoritarian government, doing whatever it wants, that is, insulting the country and the people, paying reparations and cutting off the land, is high above, and enjoys wealth and wealth at ease. That is, to be responsible, but also to a higher monarch, or to the neighbors of his country. It is not responsible for the people, speaking according to the law. "Constitutional government, if the people are not attached, it is easier, and those who are attached to the people's feelings are attached." And the constitution of the people, in the government, can be discussed, and the newspapers are written as a public opinion of the state, and the government often regards it as a measure, and all this is commonly called a free country." Constitutionalism is, of course, the superior to the autocracy. Yan Fu divided the world political system at that time into two categories: independence and constitutionalism, and excluded the option of "autonomous democracy". Therefore, it is said that there are two kinds of political systems in the modern world: one is the dictatorship of dictatorship, and the other is the democrat of self-government. This is not true. When the cloud has the dictatorship of solitude, there is the constitution of the multitude. Although the system of ruling the widow by the masses is not enough for the autonomy of the political circles, the constitution is the most important form of government today. Yan Fu has a rather insightful invention, and the power of single rule is not the power of one person, but the power of "group support". "Whoever has the right to rule alone has not stood up to the support of the masses, and the strength of this group of support can be his soldiers and masters, his haojie can also be, his people can also be, his soldiers can also be, even because of the multitudes of other countries." "Even in organic states, there are often forms of despotism, and such a state, although it has no parliament, is subject to the support of the people." Based on this, Yan Fu concluded: "The old saying is that the power of despotism is from top to bottom; the right of mass rule is from bottom to top. What I have invented is called the right of despotism, and it is also formed from below, so that it cannot be established from below. Yan Fu attaches great importance to the role of public opinion supervision and regards it as the difference between autocracy and constitutionalism." However, the two are autocratic and constitutional, and they are supported by the masses, and the two are different. Ying Zhi Zhi: Public opinion, the reason for the support of the reason. An authoritarian government cannot be an organ for the purpose of testing public opinion, but a constitutional government has one. "What Yan Fu really admired was britain's representative constitutional system, thinking that it was a good system to avoid revolutionary disasters." In an autocratic country, the lord of the country is the yang, and the prime minister is auxiliary, and the prime minister is deposed by the people. In a constitutional country, the lord of man is the lord of the country, the prime minister is the country, and the advance and retreat of the prime minister is up to the people. This Britain is still there, so it can be decided that there is nothing revolutionary about it. Although there is no revolution in Britain, it is also possible to say that There is always a revolution in Britain. The reform of a government is also revolutionary. An autocratic revolution will kill thousands of people, shed thousands of blood, and chaos will be settled after decades and decades. The British revolution was easy, but it was contrary to the number of people in the House of Representatives. Zhuang Sheng has a word, and the party that will not die will not die. True constitutionalism, politics is like ear. This country is destined, so primate, and there is no royal family that does not fall for thousands of generations. Yan Fu's praise for the British-style constitutional monarchy, based on the "royal family of all ages", shows his limitations as a constitutionalist.
The expositions of the constitutionalists represented by Liang Qichao and Yan Fu on the state have played an important enlightening role in establishing a new concept of the state and building a modern state for the Chinese people. The two men's views on the state have their own emphases, and Liang Qi's emphasis on the nation-state and the strict restoration of the constitutional system are closely related to the context in which the two preach the concept of the state. The two are the same as those who avoid revolution or oppose revolution and republicanism. It was at this point that they came into conflict with the revolutionaries represented by Sun Yat-sen. It should be pointed out that although the Xinhai Revolution successfully overthrew the Manchu Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China, liang Qichao's theory of constitutional reform to build a nation-state and yan fu did not lose the brilliance of his thinking and the value of theory. Faced with a deep national crisis, thinkers have had to think about saving the nation and rebuilding the country. The key to political reform is the rationalization of political procedures, the separation of powers from the people, and the realization of sovereignty over the people, which can only be achieved through the channel of constitutional reform. The thinking of Liang Qichao and Yan Fu is only the starting point for seeking to solve these problems, and although their ideas have been surpassed by the continuous development of modernization and change, their ideological rationality has been more and more deeply fulfilled and confirmed.
The revolutionary view of the state represented by Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen's view of the state has been discussed by scholars in the past. It is not wrong for everyone to mainly use articles such as "Strategy for the Founding of the People's Republic of China," "Constitution of the Five Powers," "Outline for The Founding of the People's Republic," and "Three People's Principles" as the main texts for discussing Sun Yat-sen's view of the state. However, if we discuss the relationship between Sun Yat-sen's concept of the state and the Xinhai Revolution, and the relationship between Sun Yat-sen's concept of the state and the establishment of the Republic of China, there is no doubt that we should shift our attention to Sun Yat-sen's interpretation of the state before 1912. As far as this is concerned, there is a clear lack of this awareness in the texts, and therefore insufficient discussion.
As a revolutionary, Sun Yat-sen embarked on the road of anti-Qing revolution, and his national identity was to establish a new American-style republican state. The Honolulu Xingzhong Association Letter of Alliance, formulated on November 24, 1894, affirmed the goal of "expelling the Tartars, restoring China, and establishing a United Government", and clearly expressed this wish.
In mid-to-late August 1897, Sun Yat-sen gave a detailed explanation of the republican politics he pursued in his "Conversation with Miyazaki Yinzang Hirayama Week": Yu regarded crowd autonomy as the ultimate rule of politics, so he adhered to republicanism in the spirit of politics. Republicanism is equal to the case, and those who are responsible for the revolution are also responsible for this matter. Sun Yat-sen refuted the argument that China is not suitable for republican politics, and excavated the traditional Chinese political resources suitable for republicanism from a historical perspective, "The republican, the essence of our country's rule of the world, the legacy of the philosophers." Those who talk about the ancients of our people do not admire the rule of three generations, and those who do not know that the rule of three generations can actually obtain the essence of the god of republicanism. Do not say that our people have no ideal resources, do not say that our people do not have ideal assets, do not say that our people do not have the spirit of progress, that is, the meaning of Mugu is rich in ideal evidence, and there are also institutions that have made great progress." From the point of view of facilitating the revolution, "the only way to avoid evil now is to carry out one of the methods of revolution that is too swift to conceal; and those who walk with the revolution will make the heroes each have their own ambitions." At best, the method of its ambition is to make it the head of a department in the name of the federal republic, and then to establish a central government to make it the hub of the federation." Building a central government through revolution and winning the world's heroes over the government of a federal republic is the reason why Sun Yat-sen chose the republic.
In 1903-1904 revolutionaries and royalists engaged in a heated debate over the future of China. Sun Yat-sen criticized the traditional absolute monarchy system, "regarding the state as the property of one person, the system is constitutional, and most of them are guarded against by the people in order to preserve this private property; and the people's livelihood affairs have nothing to do with the survival of a surname, the government does not ask, and the people have never supervised the government's measures." The old country is its own country, the people are for the people, and the affairs of the country are divided into two ways, and there is a great difference between the wind and the horse and the cattle." As the leader of the revolutionaries, Sun Yat-sen complained about the necessity of seeking a republic through revolution: revolution is the only way to save China from the current dire position of international negotiations. "We must overthrow the Manchurian government and build the Republic of China." On the day of the revolution's success, the United States elected a president, abolished autocracy, and introduced a republic. He explicitly opposed the constitutional monarchy as an option for China's political future, "Some people say that we need a constitutional monarchy, which is impossible." There is no reason to say that we cannot build a republican system. China already has the rudiments of a republican form of government." This is obviously aimed at the overseas royalists represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.
In the "Letter of Tribute to Fellow Villagers", Sun Yat-sen categorically refuted Liang Qichao's statement that "the name of the emperor carries out the revolution" and clearly expressed his revolutionary position: "Revolution and royalism are divided into two ways, such as black and white cannot be confused, such as the east and west cannot be transposed." Revolutionaries are determined to prosper the Han Dynasty, and royalists are determined to support the Manchus and be clean, but the opposite is true, they go against each other, they clash with each other, they are in conflict with each other, and they are not a day's work. "Since revolution and royalism are two different ways, of course, they can only go their separate ways. In the "Refutation of the Royalist Book", Sun Yat-sen raised the question of national identity: "When he opened his mouth, he said 'patriotism', and asked whether the country he loved was the country of the Great Qing Dynasty or the country of China?" If the country you love is the kingdom of the Great Qing Dynasty, then it is not appropriate to have the phrase "now exorcise the restoration of foreign races". If the country he loves is the country of China, it is not appropriate to take the royalist as a patriotic policy, cover and protect the alien race and enslave China, and if it is not patriotic, it will actually harm the country. Sun Yat-sen comprehensively refuted the royalist claim that the revolution would invite interference from outsiders, "the nature of the Chinese without free civil rights", "the constitution-makers, the era of transition; the republicans, the final result is also "various arguments, expressing views different from Liang Qichao's "New People's Theory" on which the people's rights are based": He used to say that Chinese the nature of the people's rights without free civil rights, and the servants vigorously rebuked them and led to the autonomy of the Chinese villagers, such as self-litigation, self-defense, self-education, and self-repair of roads. Although it is not as beautiful as today's Western politics, it can be proved that Chinese has the nature of civil rights. At the end of the article, he showed a dismissive attitude toward the royalists: "The servant is not a scribe, and he does not want to fight with the eight strands of scholars for a day and a war of pen and ink; but he has no roots in learning, with false rumors, to confuse the world and slander the people, and to leave a lot of harm, so he has no choice but to refute it." This can be described as his last "book of mourning" to the royalists.
Sun Yat-sen's "national identity" is also reflected in his understanding of the Manchu Qing government, and he consciously distinguishes between the two concepts of the Manchu Qing government and the Chinese government: "We say the Manchu Government, not the Chinese Government, which is said consciously. Chinese does not have its own government now, and it would be wrong to refer to the current government of China by the name 'Chinese government'. This may surprise those who are unfamiliar with Chinese affairs, but it is a fact, a historical fact. He concluded that the Manchu government had lost its ability to reform, and that "it would be absolutely impossible for the Manchus to reform the country, because reform meant harm to them." If reform is introduced, they will be swallowed up by the Chinese and will lose all the privileges they now enjoy. If the ignorance and decay of the bureaucracy is exposed, the darker side of government is seen. These rigid, decaying, useless bureaucrats know only how to pay bribes to the Manchus in order to preserve their position and carry out extortion and looting." He advised the American people to see that the trend toward the demise of the Qing Dynasty was a foregone conclusion, and history showed that in China, the life of dynasties was like the life of the individual, with its birth, growth, maturity, aging and death; the current Manchu rule, which had begun to decline since the beginning of the nineteenth century, was now rapidly dying. Thus, he argues, "even acts of goodwill and righteousness in maintaining the integrity and independence of China, if they refer, as we know them, to support the currently crumbling Manchu qing royal family, they are doomed to failure." ”
The establishment of the Chinese League in Tokyo in 1905 was a decisive step for the revolutionaries. Sun Yat-sen's national ideology has made new developments, and he has made two new important thesis: First, China's development does not have to follow the path of autocracy,constitutionalism—republicanism, and can directly take the republic. He used the construction of railways as an example to illustrate, "The cars of the railways, which are extremely crude and evil at first, and then gradually improve, will China's railways be built with its original rough cars, or with its recently improved cars?" To take an example here is right and wrong." The second is to achieve the goal of republicanism with a bloody revolution. "And the constitution of the world must be obtained by shedding blood before it can be called a true constitution." The same bloodshed, and for this reason is not completely prepared for the constitution? Sun Yat-sen opposed the natural "evolution of heaven" and advocated the exertion of human subjective initiative. "We in China first mistakenly said that our civilization of the past four thousand years was very good and refused to reform, and now we all know that we cannot use it, and we must take the law from others. If we do not take the Fa at this time, the most civilized in his present life, will we still take the Fa that preceded the transitional era of civilization? We must not follow the changes of the day, but must be the change of personnel, and its progress is fast. Brothers, I wish the kings to save China, and we must start from nobility, and we must not be able to take the law from the middle, so as to cause misfortune to the descendants of our forty million compatriots. The "transitional era" and "heavenly performance" mentioned here are obviously alluding to Liang Qichao and Yan Fu. Liang Qichao once wrote "The Theory of transitional eras", and Yan Fu's famous translation is "TheOry of Heavenly Evolution".
Proceeding from the evolutionary theory of "natural selection of things and survival of the fittest", Yan Fu put forward the idea of "drumming up the people's strength, opening up the wisdom of the people, and new people's morality"; Liang Qichao took a critical attitude toward China's national nature, so he wrote "New People's Theory"; yan and Liang both appeared as "enlightened" people to the people. Sun Yat-sen did the opposite, and in order to launch a revolution and mobilize the masses, he took a positive attitude towards the traditional resources of Chinese history and culture. At the beginning of his revolution, he advocated nationalism, and only a few people responded to the supporting party, and there were very few "people above the middle class". With the development of the revolutionary situation, "ideological progress and nationalism have a great tendency to flourish in various societies, and they all recognize revolution as necessary." Obviously, nationalism is a weapon to exclude royalists.
In the "Revolutionary Strategy of the Chinese League", Sun Yat-sen first proposed the concept of "national revolution". He said: "I am waiting for today and the previous generations, in addition to expelling the Tartars and restoring China, the national system and people's livelihood should still be reformed with the people, although the latitudes are all over the world, and its consistent spirit is freedom, equality, and fraternity." Therefore, the previous generation was a heroic revolution, and today it is a national revolution. The so-called national revolutionaries, everyone in a country has the spirit of freedom, equality, and fraternity, that is, they all bear the responsibility of revolution, and the military government is only its cardinal. In his interpretations of "restoring China" and "establishing the Republic of China", Sun Yat-sen expressed a new concept of the state- the state of the nation, the state of the people. The so-called "restoration of China" Chinese China, and China's politics Chinese. "After the expulsion of the Tartars, restore the country of our nation." The so-called "establishment of the Republic of China" means that "today the revolution of the common people will build a national government, and all our people will be equal to participate in the political power." In the "Equal Land Rights" section, Sun Yat-sen proposed the concept of the "social state", "the well-being of civilization, the equality of the people." When the socio-economic organization is improved, the world's land prices are approved. The existing land price is still owned by the original owner; the increase in the price of social reform and progress after the revolution belongs to the state and is shared by the people. The country that created the society gives the family to the people, and no husband in the four seas does not have what it is. Those who dare to monopolize the lives of the people shall be abandoned by the multitudes." In Sun Yat-sen's concept of "equal land rights" and "social state", the spirit of equality is implemented.
Many revolutionaries devote themselves to the revolution with the aim of one-peopleism (nationalism) and do not seek much understanding of "civil rights". In his speech at the celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Tokyo Minbao Newspaper, Sun Yat-sen focused on explaining "civil rights": civil rights are the foundation of the political revolution. Even if the national revolution succeeds in the future, "although the present bad politics can be swept away, there is still the root of that bad politics, and it is indispensable not to go away." China has been an absolute monarchy for thousands of years, and this kind of government is not something that equal and free citizens can bear. To go to this form of government, it is not possible to succeed by relying solely on national revolution. Imagine Ming Taizu expelling the Mongols. The restoration of China, the national revolution has been accomplished, but his politics are still similar to those of the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties. According to the requirements of the "political revolution", "even if the Han people are monarchs, they cannot but revolutionize." The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, which had no racial problems, were purely political; The Franco-Democratic Politics (Body) has been established, and the Russian Nihilism Party will eventually achieve this goal. After the Chinese Revolution, this form of government was the most appropriate."
On the basis of studying the Constitutions of the United States and Britain, Sun Yat-sen put forward the "Five-Power Constitution" for the first time: "Brothers have looked at the constitutions of various countries, and the Constitution of the United States is the best in the United States, and the Constitution without literature is the best in Britain." What Britain can't learn, the United States doesn't have to learn. The separation of powers formulated by the British Constitution, that is, "the executive power, the legislative power, and the judicial power are not unified, which has gradually arisen from six or seven hundred years ago and has become a habit, but the boundaries are not yet clear." Later, the French Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu took the British system as the foundation, participated in his own ideals, and "became a family of learning". The US Constitution also takes Meng's doctrine as the foundation to improve the system of "separation of powers". In the past hundred years, "American civilization has progressed day by day, and land and property have also increased, and the Constitution at that time was no longer applicable." Sun Yat-sen proposed, "In the future, the Constitution of the Republic of China should create a new doctrine called 'separation of powers'." In addition to the three powers, "the right to choose" and "the right to picket" are added. "Separation of powers" "This is not only unprecedented in the system of various countries, but also rare in doctrine, and can be described as an unprecedented form of government." Since the department first proposed it, Sun Yat-sen hoped that his comrades would "do their best to study and not be caught." Sun Yat-sen summed up his ideal state as "the state of the nation, the state of the people, and the state of society", a view that was expressed in the Revolutionary Strategy of the Chinese League.
Between 1906 and 1911, the revolutionaries rebelled against Qing rule by force, and the Qing Dynasty, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people, carried out "preparatory constitutions", and the two sides were in a showdown. Bloody revolutions are not easy to accept, for this reason, Sun Yat-sen explained the legitimacy of revolution, from the perspective of the revolution can arouse the awakening of the people, Chinese people suffered the "scourge of despotism" for two thousand years, endured the "scourge of tartars" for more than two hundred years, "the people's hearts have died several times, although the drunk dreamer is hungry and thirsty, he does not know how to eat, and if he does not arouse it, then the drunk dreamer will die for a long time." Now the revolutionaries awaken their compatriots, "creating a revolutionary momentum", "the more people who will wake up, the more revolutionaries will be." Judging from the urgency of the survival of the chinese people, the reason why China needs revolution today is "because China is based on Manchuria today, and the Manchu Qing government is extremely corrupt, so that the national situation in China is also extremely dangerous, the calamity of the division of the division has been precarious, and there is no way for non-revolution to save the dead, and there is no way for non-revolution to recover." Judging from the comparison of revolutions in various countries in the world, there is only one country in the world who aspires to revolution but has not yet succeeded, so Sun Yat-sen made a special comparison between the Chinese and Russian revolutions. The difficulty of the Russian Revolution compared to China is manifested in the fact that "the Russian Emperor is a person of his own kind, and there is no distinction between national problems; and the Russian Emperor is the leader of the Greek religion, so there are still many slaves to despotism and superstition to religion, and they are regarded as emperors." And the Russian government trained five million troops to protect it, and this revolutionary party was not easy to compete with. Russia's aspirations for the revolutionaries are only bitter and despotic." Judging from the religious and military strength wielded by the Russian Tsar, the Russian Revolution was indeed fraught with difficulties. The rationale for China's ease with the Russian revolution is: "China today is more despotic than Russia by the Qing government, and the corruption of the Qing government is worse than Russia' and the weakness of the state is greater than that of Russia. The Qing Emperor is a different race, and the Han people will not recognize the thief as the father of the distinguishing race, which is easy for the Russians to be two. Chinese is thinner than religious belief, which is easy for Russians three. And there is no military guard, which is easy for the Russians to be four. Although the Xinhai Revolution was conceived later than the Russian Revolution, China preemptively overthrew the imperial system and established the Republic of China, which naturally had a certain stimulating effect on the Russian Revolution.
The Constitution is the foundation of the founding of the country. Sun Yat-sen paid special attention to the fact that the Constitution should conform to the national conditions and folklore: "The Constitution is the law necessary for the historical customs and habits of the Chinese nation. The three rights are needed by Europe and the United States, so the three rights are popular in Europe and the United States; the five rights are needed by China, so they are unique to China. "It is suitable for the history of the people's feelings and the country, for the country and the people for thousands of years, that is, the constitution of a country that has remained unchanged throughout the ages." What China has been able to do for thousands of years, what Europe and the United States cannot do, is the only constitution of our country. In other words, he advocated the constitution of the five powers, which not only implied the meaning of transcending the separation of powers in Europe and the United States, but also rooted in China's own historical and cultural traditions.
At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen made adjustments to the nationalism of the revolutionary period that had the nature of "fullness" and proposed a "republic of the five nationalities". The Proclamation of the Great President he signed said: "The foundation of the country lies in the people. The Hehan, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, and Tibetan regions are one country, that is, the Hehan, Manchu, Hui, and Tibetan nationalities are one person. It is the unity of the nation. Subsequently, in the "Speech of the Beijing Five Nationalities Republican Association and the Northwest Association", it was emphasized: "Today, the five ethnic groups are on an equal footing, and the problem of racial inequality is solved, and the problem of political inequality is also solved at the same time, and there will never be any more disputes." The five major nationalities in the future will work together to jointly plan the progress of the country, so that China will be the world's first civilized power, then the five major nationalities of our country will also bear the great responsibility. "May the five major nationalities love and be close to each other, like brothers and brothers, and go to the country together." At the same time, his nationalism also added the content of striving for national independence, "the nationalism of the Association, for the sake of maintaining the independence of our people against outsiders."
The formation of Sun Yat-sen's concept of the state has a clearly visible development clue. First, he established the choice of state as an American-style republic. He attacked absolute monarchy, opposed constitutional monarchy, preferred republicanism, and believed that China did not have to go through a reformed political model like constitutional monarchy and then develop into a republican system in an orderly manner. Second, he sought to overthrow the Qing Dynasty through revolution, believing that it was the easiest way to save China. The creation of a new state through the "bloody revolution" originated from Sun Yat-sen's state "theory of force caused by force", and Sun Yat-sen clearly expressed this view in his speech "Three People's Principles" in his later years: "The nation is caused by natural forces, and the state is caused by force." "The group created by the royal way is the nation." Force is hegemony, and the group created by hegemony is the state. Finally, Sun Yat-sen used the construction of "the national state, the national state, and the social state" as the framework of the ideal state. The revolutionary program of the League of "expelling the Tartars, restoring China, establishing the Republic of China, and equalizing land rights" and the "separation of powers" proposed by Sun Yat-sen later are concrete manifestations of this ideal state. The revolutionaries represented by Sun Yat-sen chose to replace the absolute monarchy of the Qing Dynasty or the constitutional monarchy of the Qing Dynasty with a republican system because this system was more reasonable, more effective and effective in the modernization movement, and more capable of resisting foreign insults and saving lives. With the in-depth development of thought, Sun Yat-sen's imagination of the Republic of China became clearer and clearer, and his concept of the state was constantly sublimated in competition and debate with the constitutionalists.
When Sun Yat-sen constructed the concept of the state, he set up an object of dialogue, the constitutionalists. Liang Qichao advocated nationalism or the nation-state, but he did not mean to "fill the line"; during the Xinhai Revolution, Sun Yat-sen advocated nationalism, which means "expelling the Tartars and restoring China", with a strong "full line" color. Yan Fu advocated the national heavenly speech, with the British model of constitutional monarchy as the ideal political structure of the modern country; Sun Yat-sen advocated a "bloody revolution" and pursued the goal of the American model republic. Liang Qichao and Yan Fu emphasized the negative factors of anti-modernity in China's historical tradition, and they appeared in public forums with enlightenment attitudes; Sun Yat-sen actively explored the ethnic and civil rights factors in Chinese history and culture. Sun Yat-sen and the constitutionalists represented by Liang Qichao and Yan Fu always had deep differences that were difficult to bridge. The historical relationship between Sun Yat-sen and the Constitutionalists, which is both competitive and complementary, shows the two orientations of China's national modernization.
Sun Yat-sen is full of imaginations about the future country. The design of the constitutionalist national political system basically stays at the level of imitation, or such as Liang Qichao taking Germany and Japan as an example, or yanfu, taking Britain as the paradigm, although Sun Yat-sen took France from the United States and France, he has a more in-depth investigation of the problems existing in the US Constitution and society, and he is not informal, but hopes to establish a more complete modern country. In modern Western countries, the system design of "separation of three powers", Sun Yat-sen proposed "separation of five powers", increasing the right to choose and picket, showing his transcendent side of the modern Western political system. In this sense, Sun Yat-sen's pursuit of the modern state does have a rather ideal component.
Sun Yat-sen's concept of the state was formed during the Xinhai Revolution, which laid the ideological foundation for the establishment of the Republic of China. After the beginning of the People's Republic, Sun Yat-sen's concept of the state has further developed, which is mainly reflected in the "Founding Strategy", "Five Powers Constitution", "Outline of the Founding of the People's Republic", "Three People's Principles" and other documents. The cornerstone of Sun Yat-sen's concept of state is the nation-state, sovereignty lies in the people, and the separation of the five powers, and his concept of the state plays a leading role in the transformation of China's state system from monarchy to republicanism, which plays a leading role in the construction of the republic of China.