Jottings from the Granite Studio

Zhang Zhidong (張之洞 1837-1909) was a leading scholar and official in the late-19th century. His most famous work, An Exhortation to Learn (quanxuepian劝学篇) published in 1898, tackled a range of issues facing the Fin de siècle Qing Empire.  In his chapter on government and the centralization of power, Zhang offered his opinion on the increasingly vocal demands for a republican government in China based on European and American models.

“If this republic is inaugurated, only the ignorant and foolish will rejoice.  For rebellion and anarchy will come down upon us like night, and massacre will seal our eternal grave.  Even those who establish the republic will not escape.  Murder and rapine will hold sway in city and village.  The burning of churches will follow, and under the pretext of protection, the foreigners will send troops and men-of-war to penetrate the far interior of our country and slice off our territory to be foreign dependencies, which we, perforce, submissively grant.  This talk about a republic is very agreeable to the adversaries of China.”

Years ago the Government of France was changed from a monarchy to a republic. The common people rose up against the upper class, because the rulers were vicious and the government cruel.  Our emperor is exceedingly humane, our laws are not oppressive, and it is folly to introduce these democratic ideas to bring manifold calamties upon China. We have studied the philosophy of these republics, and find that translators of foreign books have wrongly interpreted the world ‘republic’ as 民权 (minquan).  For the people in the republics of the West only have the right to discuss measures, and not to implement measures. American residents in China inform us that the ballot-box in their country is greatly abused for personal ends, and Chinese admirers of the American Republic have not minutely examined its defects.”

Sounds familiar…

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Translated in The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection, Pei-Kai Chang, Michael Lestz, and Jonathan Spence, eds. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 1999.