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² Few opposed the innovations of the early Republic, despite its many shortcomings. Few felt nostalgia for the monarchy that was gone forever, after the last attempt by the militarist Zhang Xun to restore it in 1917, despite the support of the radical-turned conservative Zhang Binglin. And few attempted to rescue the notion of universal kingship or to defend the assumptions on which the imperial regime had rested.

³ See Huters, Theodore, Bringing the World Home: Appropriating the West in Late Qing and Early Republican China (Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁵ Spengler, Oswald, The Decline of the West new edition (London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926).Google Scholar

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¹⁰ The avowed objectives of the journal, stated in its inaugural issue, were to ‘spread the quintessence of native Chinese culture [and to] absorb new knowledge’, in order to achieve a balance between Western culture and Chinese classical culture. It emphasised the need to ‘express Western ideas using Chinese characters [classical Chinese as opposed to the vernacular]’.

¹¹ I borrow this idea from Friedrich, Carl J., Tradition and Authority (London: Paul Mall Press, 1972), p. 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹² Nisbet, Robert, Conservatism: Dream and Reality (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986), p. 95.Google Scholar According to Nisbet, this was the conservatism of Presidents like Cleveland, Taft, Coolidge, Hoover, Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, and of such American statesmen as Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater.

¹³ Babbitt, Irving, Democracy and Leadership (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1924), p. 16Google Scholar; Wu Mi, ‘Baibide lun minzhi yu lingxiu’ (Babbitt on democracy and leadership), Xueheng, No. 32 (August 1925), p. 15.

¹⁴ Hu Xiansu, ‘Lun pinpingjia zhi zeren’ (On the critic's responsibilities), Xueheng, No. 3 (March 1922), pp. 8–9.

¹⁵ Liu Boming, ‘Gongheguomin zhi jingshen’ (The spirit of republican citizens), Xueheng, No. 10 (October 1922), pp. 4–6.

¹⁶ Furth, Charlotte, Ting Wen-chiang: Science and China's New Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), pp. 215–219CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fung, Edmund S. K., In Search of Chinese Democracy: Civil Opposition in Nationalist China 1929–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 98–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Geller, Ernest, Nationalism (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.Gellner, 1997).Google Scholar

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²⁴ Imagined because ‘the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.’ See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991), p. 6.

²⁵ Anthony Giddens takes an extreme objectivist position when he defines the nation as ‘a collectivity existing within a clearly demarcated territory, which is subject to a unitary administration, reflexively monitored both by the internal state apparatus and those of other states’. See Anthony Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence, vol. 2: A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1985), p. 116.

²⁶ Greenfeld, Liah, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), p. 487.Google Scholar

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²⁹ See, for example, Zhao, Suisheng, A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004)Google Scholar. Zhao writes about, vertically, liberal nationalism, state nationalism and ethnic nationalism, and, horizontally, elite nationalism and mass nationalism. He also uses the term utilitarian nationalism as distinct from emotional nationalism.

³⁰ Hutchinson, John, Modern Nationalism (London: Fontana Press, 1994), p. 41.Google Scholar

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³² Ibid., p. 43.

³³ Ibid., pp. 45. Hutchison owes an intellectual debt to Anthony Smith, who stresses the role of ethnicity in the making of the modern nation and maintains that central to cultural nationalism is the creation of ‘a widespread awareness of the myths, history and linguistic traditions of the community’. See Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (London: Penguin Books, 1991), pp. 12 and 129. Hutchinson echoes Smith when he emphasises the primordial expression of the ‘national spirit’, the essence of which is its distinctive civilization, a product of its unique history, culture and geographical profiles. See John Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism (London: Allen & Unwin, 1987), pp. 30, 112–113.

³⁴ See also Smith, National Identity, p. 74, 14–15.

³⁵ Following Hutchinson's lead, Yingjie Guo in his study of cultural nationalism in contemporary China contends that the ‘most fundamental difference [between cultural nationalism and political nationalism] lies in their positions on nation versus state and tradition versus modernity. Whereas the former represents identification with the nation, particularly with ‘national spirit’ or ‘national essence’, the latter is galvanised by a drive for a strong, sovereign state, national salvation and modernity, capitalist or socialist, at the sacrifice of cultural traditions’. [Emphasis added.] See Guo, Yingjie, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: The Search for National Identity under Reform (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), p. 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁶ For a scholarly work on Liang Shuming, see Alitto, The Last Stand of Confucianism. For a political biography of Zhang Junmai, see Roger B. Jeans, Democracy and Socialism in Republican China: The Politics of Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang), 1906–1941 (Lantham: Rowan & Littlefield. 1997). In the Chinese language, see Zheng Dahua, Zhang Junmai zhuan (A biography of Zhang Junmai) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997); idem, Liang Shuming xueshu sixiang pingzhuan (A critical biography of Liang Shuming's academic thought) (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 1999); idem, Liang Shuming zhuan (A biography of Liang Shuming) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2001).

³⁷ For example, in 1935, Hu Shi wrote to his critic Tao Xisheng, saying that he was not an anti-nationalist. On the contrary, his deep love for the country made him critical of Chinese culture in the hope that he could diagnose what was wrong with it. See Hu Shi riji (Hu Shi's diary) (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1947), entry June 12, 1935.

³⁸ Liang Shuming, ‘Dongxi wenhua ji qi zhexue’ (Eastern and Western cultures and their philosophies), in Liang Shuming quanji (The complete works of Liang Shuming) (Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1990), vol. 1, pp. 529–530.

³⁹ Ibid., p. 528.

⁴⁰ Shuming, Liang, ‘Zhongguo minzu zijiu yundong zhi zuihou juewu’ (The final awakening of the Chinese national self-salvation movement), in Liang Shuming quanji, vol. 5, p. 112.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 13.

⁴² Ibid., pp. 109–10.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Shuming, Liang, ‘Xiangcun jianshe lilun’ (Theory of rural construction), in Liang Shuming quanji, vol. 2, pp. 308–309.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Here Liang was not original. In 1923, the noted conservative Zhang Shizhao (1881–1973), then Director General of Education in the Beijing government, had been a strong advocate of agriculture on the same grounds. Later in the decade, the Shandong landlord, Wang Hongyi, with whom Liang had been associated, also held similar views. See Zheng, Liang Shuming zhuan, pp. 223–230.

⁴⁶ See ibid., pp. 211–216.

⁴⁷ Alitto, The Last Confucian, chapter 9.

⁴⁸ Liang, ‘Xiangcun . . .’, in Liang Shuming quanji, vol. 2, p. 411.

⁴⁹ Alitto, The Last Confucian, p. 205.

⁵⁰ Liang, ‘Xiangcun . . .’, in Liang Shuming quanji, vol. 2, pp. 433–434.

⁵¹ Alitto, The Last Confucian, p. 205

⁵² Liang Shuming, ‘Tan Zhongguo xianzheng wenti’ (On the question of Chinese constitutionalism), in Liang Shuming quanji, vol. 6, pp. 491–492.

⁵³ Alitto, The Last Confucian, pp. 283–292, 304–310; Fung, In Search of Chinese Democracy, pp. 230–235.

⁵⁴ Jeans, Democracy and Socialism, pp. 105–111; Zheng, Zhang Junmai zhuan, pp. 216–221, 229.

⁵⁵ Jeans refers to the first book in a footnote. The second book rates no mention, and the third one is mentioned fleetingly.

⁵⁶ Cited in Greenfeld, Five Roads to Modernity, p. 361.

⁵⁷ Greenfeld comments that it was ‘unmistakably and distinctly racist from the moment it existed’. See ibid., p. 369.

⁵⁸ Jumai, Zhang, ‘Fei Xide “dui Deyizhi guomin yanjiang” zaiyao’ (Abstracts of Fichte's addresses to the German nation), Zaisheng, vol. 1, No. 3 (1932), pp. 1–13.Google Scholar

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⁶⁰ Jeans, Democracy and Socialism, pp. 215–216; Zheng, Zhang Junmai zhaun, p. 279.

⁶¹ Junmai, Zhang, Minzu fuxing zhi xueshu jichu (The academic basis of national renaissance) (Beiping: Zaisheng zazhishe, 1935), vol. 1, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

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⁶³ Ibid., vol. 2, p. 73.

⁶⁴ Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 148–149.

⁶⁵ Junmai, Zhang, Mingri zhi Zhongguo wenhua (Chinese culture tomorrow) (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1936), pp. 56–79.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Ibid., p. 79.

⁶⁷ Ibid., pp. 84–104.

⁶⁸ Ibid., pp. 107–117.

⁶⁹ Ibid., p. 123.

⁷⁰ Junmai, Zhang, Liguo zhi dao (The way to build the state) (Guilin: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1938), pp. 20–27.Google Scholar

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⁷⁶ Shi, Hu, ‘Shiping suowei “Zhongguo benwei de wenhua jianshe” (An attempt to comment on the so-called cultural construction on a Chinese base), in Zhesheng, Ouyang (ed), Hu Shi wenji (The collected works of Hu Shi) (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1998), vol. 5, pp. 448–452.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ For a recent a study of Chen Xujing, see Liu Jilin, Chen Xujing wenhua sixiang yanjiu (A study of Chen Xujing's cultural thought) (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2003).

⁷⁸ Anonymous (ed), Zhongguo wenhua, vol. 2, pp. 180–183.

⁷⁹ Tao Xisheng, ‘Fengjian zhidu yi zibenzhuyi?’ (Feudalism or capitalism?), in Jiang Yihua (ed), Zhongguo xiandai sixiangshi ziliao jianbian (Materials on modern Chinese intellectual history) (Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe), vol. 3, pp. 71–77.

⁸⁰ Arif Dirlik, ‘T'ao Hsi-sheng: The Social Limits of Change’, in 4th (ed), The Limits of Change, p. 305.

⁸¹ Tao Xisheng, ‘Wei shenme fouren xianzai de Zhongguo da Hu Shi’ (Why deny present China, a reply to Hu Shi), in Anonymous (ed), Zhongguo wenhua, vo1. 1, Part 2, p. 47.

⁸² Ibid., p. 48.

⁸³ Cited in Wang Zhongjiang, ‘Quanpan xihua yu benwei wenhua lunzhan’ (Wholesale Westernisation and the China-centred cultural controversy), Ershiyishiji, No. 8 (December 1991), p. 44.

⁸⁴ Mu, Qian, Guoshi dagang (A general history of China) 2nd ed. (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1947), p. 7.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid.

⁸⁶ For details, see Feng Chongyi, Guohuan, zai guonan zhong zhengza—kangzhan shiqi de Zhongguo wenhua (National soul, the struggle during the national crisis—Chinese culture during the War of Resistance) (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 1995), pp. 75–86; idem, ‘Zhongguo kangRi zhanzheng shiqi de Zhongguohua sichao’ (Sinicisation thought during the War of Resistance), Wenshi tiandi, vol. 98, No. 2 (1995), pp. 73–79.

⁸⁷ Feng, ‘Zhongguo kangRi,’ pp. 78–79.

⁸⁸ Wenfu, Ji, ‘Mantan xueshu Zhongguohua wenti’ (On the question of Sinicisation in academic work), in Yihua, Jiang (ed), Zhongguo xiandai sixiangshi ziliao jianbian (Materials on modern Chinese intellectual history) (Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe, 1983), vol. 4, pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

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⁹⁰ Lei Haizhong, ‘Zhongguo wenhua de liangzhou’ (The two cycles of Chinese culture), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, p. 140; see also H. T. Lei, ‘Periodization: Chinese History and World History’, The Chinese Social and Political Science Review, No. XX (1935–1938), in Meskill, John (ed), The Pattern of Chinese History: Cycles, Development, or Stagnation (Boston: D. C. Heath and Co. 1965), pp. 43–51.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Lei Haizhong, ‘Wubing de wenhua’ (A culture without soldiers), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 108–131.

⁹² Lin Tongji, ‘Dafushi yu shidafu—guoshi shang de liangzhong rengexing’ (The knights and the literati—two types of personalities in Chinese history), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 61–68.

⁹³ Lin Tongji, ‘Li’ (Power), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 176–183.

⁹⁴ Chen Quan, ‘Lun yingxiong chongbai’ (On hero worship), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 291–301.

⁹⁵ He Lin, ‘Yingxiong chongbai yu renge jiaoyu’ (Hero worship and personality education), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 302–311.

⁹⁶ Chen Quan, ‘Minzu wenxue yundong’ (The nationalist literature movement), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 375–378.

⁹⁷ Chen Quan, ‘Shengshi wenxue yu moshi wenxue’ (Literature of the prosperous age and literature of the dying age), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 411–416.

⁹⁸ Lin Tongji, ‘Da zhengzhi shidai de lunli—yige guanyu zhongxiao wenti de taolun’ (The ethics of a great age of politics—discussion of the loyalty-filial piety question), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 167–175.

⁹⁹ Chen Quan, ‘Wusi yundong yu kuanfeng yundong’ (The May Fourth movement and the romantic movement), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 342–347.

¹⁰⁰ Chen Quan, ‘Fushide jingshen’ (The Faustian spirit), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 359–367.

¹⁰¹ It should be noted, however, that Zhang Junmai also exalted military virtues, evidenced by his translation of Erich Ludendorff's Der Totale Krieg (1935). So did others, most notably the scholar-general and moralist Jiang Baili (1882–1938).

¹⁰² See Pei, Jiang, Zhanguocepai sixiang yanjiu (A study in the thought of the annals of the warring states group) (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2001), especially chapter 7.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Lin Tongji, ‘Guanliao chuantong—huanquan zhi hua’ (The bureaucratic tradition—the flower of the emperor's power) and ‘Zhongbao—guanliao chuantong de yimian’ (Corruption at the middle—one side of the bureaucratic tradition), in Wen & Rui (eds.), Shidai zhi bo, pp. 76–83 and 84–95, respectively.

¹⁰⁴ In the 1940s, Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai were particularly active in seeking to steer a course between the Scylla of the Nationalists and the Charybdis of the Communists. See Fung, In Search of Chinese Democracy, chapter 7.