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Student activists, protesting the terms of the Treaty of Versailles 巴黎和會 ( 1919)

THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT IN HISTORICAL AND TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE. Richard J. Smith 司馬富 , Rice University. Sorry that I cannot attend today’s roundtable due to a prior (and inescapable) commitment. It promises to be a wonderful event

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Student activists, protesting the terms of the Treaty of Versailles 巴黎和會 ( 1919)

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  1. THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT IN HISTORICAL AND TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Richard J. Smith 司馬富, Rice University Sorry that I cannot attend today’s roundtable due to a prior (and inescapable) commitment. It promises to be a wonderful event My goal in this powerpoint presentation is to contextualize the May Fourth Movement, in the light of three related “transnational” themes: (1) Western and Japanese imperialism (2) The rise of Chinese nationalism (3) New and unprecedentedly rapid flows of people, products and ideas across borders Student activists, protesting the terms of the Treaty of Versailles 巴黎和會(1919)

  2. How do the May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement Differ? The May Fourth Movement 五四運動(MFM) began in Beijing as a large-scale student demonstration in 1919 protesting the Chinese government’s weak response to the stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles 巴黎和會, which allowed Japan to maintain control over Chinese territories in Shandong province, which had been surrendered by Germany in 1914. This demonstration led to many others, not only in Beijing but also in Shanghai and many other cities in China. Students, workers and shopkeepers marched, went on strike and boycotted Japanese goods Students and workers protesting in Beijing, November 29, 1919

  3. The New Culture Movement 新文化運動(NCM) refers to a much broader set of political, social, economic and intellectual developments in China that had their origins well before the events of May Fourth, 1919 and extended well beyond them But the term “New Culture Movement” was not coined until after the events of May 4, 1919.* In any case, both movements were responses to imperialist aggression, both expressed a newly emerging Chinese nationalism, and both expressed China’s new relationships with the outside world Beijing’s NewCultureMovementMemorial Hall北京新文化運動紀念館(there is one in Taiwan as well) *See Elisabeth Forster, “From Academic Nitpicking to a ‘New Culture Movement’: How Newspapers Turned Academic Debates into the Center of ‘May Fourth,’” Frontiers of History in China 9.4 (December 2014): 534–557.

  4. The Substantial Contributions of Our Panelists to an Understanding of the New Culture Movement First, they underscore the complexity of the movement in terms of political and intellectual rivalries, gender issues, and the changing contours of radical discourse Second, they reveal the debt owed by so many Chinese thinkers of the NCM to the Meiji Restoration (明治維新) Third, they show the legacy left by a neglected generation, perhaps two, of late Qing reformers, without whom, I would argue, the revolutionary changes of the NCM might not have taken place when they did My focus in this brief presentation is on these early reformers, who first grappled with the problems of Western and Japanese imperialism––problems that remained central to the May Fourth generation and to its successors as well

  5. What’s in a Date? (Apologies to Shakespeare) We are inclined to focus on dramatic historical events: 1066, 1215, 1789, 1917, 1949, but events are always the product of longer historical trends. And so it was with the May Fourth Movement. Indeed, an argument can be made that the May Fourth Movement began with the late Qing reforms of 1860–1895. These reforms were precipitated by both internal and external threats (內亂外患), but here I want to focus on the external challenge––foreign aggression The World of Imperialism c. 1900

  6. Early Imperialism in China 1839–1894 • The so-called Opium Wars鴉片戰爭, 1839–1842 and 1856–1860 • Results: Humiliating defeats; death and destruction, large indemnities; unequal treaties 不平等條約 • The unequal treaty system lasted until 1943; it involved loss of territory (Hong Kong 香港); loss of Chinese sovereignty in treaty port areas, and the extension of many privileges to foreigners (limited customs duties for imports, freedom of travel in the interior, establishment of churches, “gunboat diplomacy,” etc.) • Conflicts with Japan, France, and Russia in the 1870s and 80s • Results: More humiliations, indemnities and loss of territory (including the loss of the Liuqiu Islands and Vietnam as tributaries Destruction of the Dagu Forts 大沽砲台1860 Painting of the Battle of Fuzhou 1884, in which most of China’s southern fleet was destroyed

  7. Prominent Leaders of China’s “Self-Strengthening” Movement 自強運動 (1860–1894) Zeng Guofan曾國藩 (1811–1872) Li Hongzhang李鴻章(1823–1901) ZuoZongtang左宗棠 (1812–1885) All three of these scholar-generals (and several others like them) were patriotic not truly nationalistic––Confucian reformers who sought Western technical knowledge but believed that fundamental Chinese institutions and ideas did not need to be changed (中學為體,西學為用)

  8. SomeAchievementsoftheSelf-StrengtheningMovement –– Establishment of arsenals and shipyards, which created weapons and ships, and sponsored translation bureaus ––Government schools with Western curriculum (e.g. “Interpreters Colleges” 同文館) –– Educational Missions abroad –– Establishment of mines, ironworks, mills, etc. The Jiangnan Arsenal 江南機器製造總局, established in 1865 Problems: These projects lacked coordination and sustained central government support, and above all, there was no meaningful institutional change (for example, the traditional civil service examination system, which emphasized moral knowledge based on the Confucian classics, continued to attract the best minds of the empire) The Foozhou Shipyard 江南機器製造總局, established in 1867 In short, China lacked a sustained sense of crisis, but the seeds of change had been sown

  9. Japan’s Meiji Restoration 明治維新 (1868–1912) as a Counter- Example This modernizing effort was engineered by Western–oriented samurai 侍 like Ito Hirobumi伊藤博文(right) who overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate徳川幕府 in 1868 and carried out a “revolution from above,” initiating a systematic and sustained program of Western-inspired political, social, economic, educational and legal change Some Major Achievements of the Meiji Oligarchs: –– A modern military (based on a French and then Prussian model) –– A modern navy (based on an English model) –– Declaration of equality for all social classes (1871) –– Centralized government in 1871 (constitutional monarchy by 1889; parliament based on a German model that same year) –– A modern banking system in the 1870s –– Systematic government support for industry –– A modern educational system (based on French and American models) –– Support for women’s education and agency, as indicated by Professors Qian and Xia Ito Hirobumi (1841–1909), Japan’s first Prime Minister, who was sent by his domain in 1863 to study at University College in London.

  10. Some Sino-Japanese Comparisons (1870-1912) Japan’s great modernizing advantage: Fundamental institutional changes by leaders committed to wholesale, systematic modernization. As Japan’s Foreign Minister wrote in 1880: “Let us change our Empire into a European-style Empire. Let us change our people into a European-style people. Let us create a new European-style Empire on the Eastern Sea. Only thus can our Empire achieve a position equal to that of the Western countries with respect to treaties. Only thus can our Empire be independent, prosperous, and powerful.” Some comparative statistics: Qing China –– [none] –– [none] –– Beijing University, est. 1901 –– [none] –– Constitution and 1912 (nominal) Parliament, 1912 –– c. 1900, less than 300 modern factories –– By 1890 35 journals and newspapers –– In 1894, 240 miles of railways –– First modern bank, 1898 –– Unequal treaties abrogated in 1943 –– Rousseau translated in 1898 Meiji Japan –– Declaration of class equality, 1871 –– Universal conscription, 1873 –– Tokyo University, est. 1877 –– Compulsory education, 1880 –– Constitution and Parliament, 1889 –– By 1896, 7,640 modern factories –– By 1875, over 100 periodicals –– By 1893, 2,000 miles of railways –– First modern banks, 1870s –– Unequal treaties abrogated in 1897 –– Rousseau translated in 1877

  11. The Traumatic Effect of the Sino-Japanese War, 1894–95 (Chinese: 甲午戰爭; Japanese: 甲午戰爭) Fought over competing Chinese and Japanese claims of suzerainty over Korea (China claimed control over Korea as a “dependent” subject state 屬國 or vassal 屬邦/藩邦) Japan enjoyed overwhelming superiority in both land and sea battles, especially because of its modern command structure, officer corps, unified training, and modern communications • The result was the Treaty of Shimonoseki (下關條約 or 馬關條約), 1895, which resulted in: • –– Great loss of life and human suffering • –– Huge indemnity (276,000,000 ounces of silver) • –– Loss of Korea as a tributary (the last pillar of the traditional • Chinese tributary system) • –– Loss of Taiwan as a Chinese province *it became a Japanese “protectorate” • –– Further loss of Chinese sovereignty Japanese war propaganda China’s defeat also encouraged the foreign powers––especially Japan, England, France, Germany and Russia to secure special privileges in various parts of Chinese territory

  12. Another Result of the War: The Rise of Chinese Nationalism –– For the first time in history, large numbers of Chinese intellectuals came to feel that there was something fundamentally deficient in their culture, that China was no longer the “Middle Kingdom;” rather, China was just one of many competing nation states, and an inferior one at that –– How, they asked, could a small country like Japan defeat mighty China? –– The answer seemed to be that in the Meiji Restoration (1868–1912) Japan had decided to abandon its “evil customs of the past” (舊來ノ陋習), in the words of the Meiji Charter Oath 五箇条の御誓文of 1868, and to “seek knowledge [systematically] from throughout the world” (智識ヲ世界ニ求) “Carving the [Chinese] melon” 分瓜 So the Chinese government tried to follow suit, promoting the translation of Japanese and Western works, sending students and officials to Japan, Europe and China, and experimenting with Meiji-style reforms–especially after the “Scramble for Concessions” that began in 1997

  13. New Sources of Information(1) One of the most important factors contributing to the rise of Chinese nationalism was shared knowledge, disseminated via new-style Chinese newspapers, which included information drawn from both Japan and the West The two most important newspapers in late Qing China were the Wanguogongbao萬國公報(English: A Review of the Times), which ran from 1868 to 1907, and the Shenbao申報(English: The Shanghai News), which ran from 1872–1949. The former was founded and edited by the American Methodist missionary Young John Allen 林樂知 (1836–1907). The latter, often considered the most influential Chinese publication of the nineteenth century, was financed by four overseas Chinese and managed by a British businessman named Ernest Major 美查(1841–1908). The Qing reformer Kang Youwei (康有為) once said: “I owe my conversion to reform chiefly to the writings of two missionaries, the Reverend Timothy Richard 李提摩太 (1845–1919) [a frequent contributor to the Wanguogongbao] and the Reverend Dr. Young J. Allen.” Right: Cover of the Wanguogongbao萬國公報; below, cover of the Shenbao申報

  14. New Sources of Information(2) Another source of valuable information in late Qing China were the scientific and technical translations produced by arsenals and shipyards. Particularly noteworthy was the work of John Fryer 傅蘭雅(1839–1928). He was professor of English at the Interpreters College 同文館 in Beijing, and head of the Anglo-Chinese School 英華書館in Shanghai. But his most significant contribution was to translate, together with Chinese collaborators such as the famous mathematician Li Shanlan李善蘭(1810–1882), more than 75 Western scientific works while working as Editor and Chief Translator of Scientific Books in the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books in the the Jiangnan Arsenal 江南製造局in Shanghai from 1868 to 1896. Fryer also published the widely read Gezhihuibian格致彙編 (the Chinese Scientific Magazine, later the Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine) from 1876 to 1892. Cover of the Gezhihuibian格致彙編 Other sources of contemporary information were new-style almanacs (曆書, 通書, etc.) and encyclopedias of daily use (日用類書) with modern content

  15. Privately Translated Materials (1) The reformer XueShaohui薛紹徽(1866–1911) was a strong advocate for women’s education and the introduction of modern science and technology to China. She played an important role in late Qing reform as both a writer and a teacher. One of the many interesting features of her colorful life,* is the way she collaborated with her husband and his brother on works such as Biographies of Foreign Women外國列女傳compiled in 1902 and published in 1906. It consists of 253 biographies of Western women, dating from antiquity to 1885, and organized into ten categories. Volume 1 of Xue’s 3-volume Waiguolienüzhuan外國列女傳 *See Nanxiu Qian’s brilliant book on Xue, titled Politics, Poetics, and Gender in Late Qing China: XueShaohui and the Era of Reform (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015). XueShaohui薛紹徽

  16. Privately Translated Materials (2) Yan Fu 嚴復(1854–1921), trained at the Fuzhou Shipyard Academy (福州船政學堂), was the most influential translator in late Qing China Yan Fu 嚴復 Some of Yan’s most famous translations were: Thomas Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics (天演論),translated 1896–1898; Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (原富),1901; Herbert Spencer’s The Study of Sociology (群學肄言), 1903; John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (群己權界論), 1903; Mill’s A System of Logic (穆勒名學), 1903; Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (法意) 1904-1909 The cover of Yan’s translation of Evolution and Ethics

  17. Reform 改革and Revolution革命 –– The period from 1895 to 1911 in China was a time of reform, inspired primarily by the example of Meiji Japan –– Many Chinese students went to study in Japan, and others went to study in Europe and the United States –– Some of these students returned to China and became reformers; others became revolutionaries as we can see in the papers of Professors Qian, Xia, Chen and Yang –– And even the state-sponsored reforms known as the “New Government [Policies]” 新政, which were explicitly designed to preserve the Qing dynasty, had revolutionary consequences in politics, education and military affairs In 1911–12 the weak and ineffective Qing dynasty was overthrown and replaced with a hastily constructed republican system of government 中華民國, which soon degenerated into warlordism軍國主義 This political fragmentation encouraged further foreign aggression, including collusion between warlords and the imperialist powers, and outrageous efforts to control China politically and economically, such as Japan’s “21 Demands” 対華 21ヶ条要求in 1915

  18. The Two Most Famous Reformers in the Late Qing Period Kang Youwei康有為(1858-1927) Liang Qichao梁啟超(1873-1929) Kang Youwei and his student Liang Qichao are justifiably well known for their nationalistically inspired writings about reform. But it is increasingly clear, thanks to a spate of recent books and articles on the subject, that women played an extremely important role in the reform era—not only as reformers but also as revolutionaries, as will be clear in Professor Yang’s presentation.

  19. THE “FATHER” OF THE 1911 REVOLUTION Sun Yat-sen孫逸仙(1866–1925), who studied abroad (Hawaii) and traveled widely; he was the most prominent of several late Qing revolutionaries, and first President of the Republic of China. Upper right: Revolutionary Movements: Sun’s Revolutionary Alliance同盟會, established in 1905

  20. Other Prominent Revolutionaries (to be discussed by Professor Xia） QiuJin秋瑾(1875–1907) He Zhen 何震(1884–c. 1920) Above: a painting of 女媧b y He Zhen; below, QiuJin’s calligraphy; below,

  21. New Ways of Looking at the World (1) A map of Asia indicating areas under European or Japanese colonial domination (1912) 1=Korea (Japan) 2=Liuqiu Islands 3=Taiwan (Japan) 4=The Phillipines (US) 5=Vietnam (France) 6=India (Great Britain) NB: With respect to Korea, the Liuqiu Islands (modern-day Okinawa prefecture), Taiwan and Vietnam, the Chinese text indicates in each case that these places were originally “attached to our country” (原屬我國) 1 2 3 6 4 5

  22. New Ways of Looking at the World (2) Anti-warlord and anti-imperialist propaganda (undated) The cartoon depicts Western imperialism and Chinese warlordism conspiring to strangle patriotic Chinese. It is set against a background map of China, showing the slaughter in places dominated by a foreign presence as result of the “Scramble for Concessions,” including Guangzhou, Shanghai, Jiujiang, Chongqing, Hankou, Nanjing, Qingdao, and Tianjin.

  23. New Ways of Looking at the World (3) Map of National Humiliation (n.d. early Republic)

  24. New Ways of Looking at the World (4) Map of National Humiliation 1916

  25. THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT Student activists, May 4, 1919 (protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which confirmed Japanese control over seized German concessions in China)

  26. SOME PROMINENT LEADERS OF THE NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT, c. 1915–1925 All of these individuals and many other prominent leaders of the NCM studied abroad––Chen and Li in Japan, Hu in America, Cai in Germany. All were also associated with Beijing University––Cai as the Chancellor Chen Duxiu陳獨秀(1879–1942) Li Dazhao李大釗(1889–1927) Hu Shi 胡適(1891–1962) Cai Yuanpei蔡元培(1868–1940)

  27. Chen Duxiu’s “Call to Youth”敬告青年(1915) captures the spirit of the NCM: Be “independent, not servile 自主的而非奴隸的; progressive, not conservative 進步的而非保守的; aggressive, not retiring 進取的而非退隱的; cosmopolitan, not isolationist 世界的而非鎖國的; utilitarian, not formalistic 實利的而非虛文的; and scientific, not fanciful 科學的而非想像的.” He railed against “all traditional ethics, law, scholarship, rites and customs,” and scoffed at the use of yinyang and five-agents notions to explain natural phenomena. Until his conversion to Marxism around 1920, Chen remained a leading spokesman for Western-style liberalism and a reliance on “Mr. Science” 賽先生and “Mr. Democracy”德先生 for China's salvation. Cover of the New Youth Magazine (新青年)

  28. OTHER IMPORTANT FIGURES IN THE NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT Professor Chen’s paper examines the role of what he calls “auxiliaries” (偏師) in the NCM––individuals at Beijing University whose lives reflect the “richness and complexity” 復雜性與豐富性of the movement Lin Shu 林紓(1852—1924) Liu Shipei劉師培(1884-1919) Tan Xihong譚熙鴻(1891-1956) Zhang Jingsheng張競生(1888-1970)

  29. STILL OTHERS Left: A cartoon of Ah Q Below: Original copy of “Diary of a Madman” (Beijing National Library) Lu Xun魯迅(1881-1936)

  30. Ding Ling 丁玲(1904–1986) AND OTHERS Handwritten version of Miss Sophie’s Diary (莎菲女士的日記手稿)

  31. Analyzing May Fourth Discourses Digital Humanities methodologies數位人文方法 The invention of the term “Culture Movement” (文化運動). A search of the largest database of Chinese periodicals, the Chinese Periodical Full-Text Database, 1911–1949, yields the following results: Between 1911 and 1930, there were a total of 196 periodical essays that used the noun phrase wenhuayundong文化運動in their titles. None of them occurred before 1919. The first essay that contained wenhuayundong in its title appeared in August 1919.* As this roundtable will reveal, Dr. Chaohas employed sophisticated digital humanities techniques to identify patterns of frequency and types of usage on the part of NCM writers––Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in particular. Some important terms include patriotic 愛國, democracy 民主主義, science, 科學, spirit, 精神, evolution, 進化, morality, 道德, revolution 革命, republic 共和, labor 勞動, society 社會, communism 共產主義, worker 工人, nationalism 民主主義, citizens 國民, nationality 民族. *Ya-pei Guo, “The Making of The New Culture Movement: A Discursive History,” Twentieth-Century China, 42.1 (January 2017): 52–71.

  32. Legacy of the New Culture Movement • Immediate: • ––Politics dominated by two one-party dictatorships (the Chinese Communist Party 共產黨 and the Guomindang國民黨, both forged in the crucible of the NCM) • ––Increasing politicization of Chinese life • ––Tradition of student activism • Long term: • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 無產階級文化大革命 (GPCR; 1966–1976) • ––Affinities with the NCM: (1) Radical assault on “tradition” (“feudal” influences)—slogan “destroy the old and establish the new” 破舊立新; (2) Active political role by students; (3) Fears of foreign imperialism (Russia and the US) • ––Differences: (1) The GPCR was also an assault on Western (bourgeois) influences; (2) the GPCR was orchestrated from above, unlike the NCM • Tiananmen 天安門事情(1989) • ––Affinities with the New Culture Movement and the GPCR: (1) Highly visible student role; (2) Nationalistic but anti-government; (3) Against bureaucracy and corruption • ––But Tiananmen was fundamentally a grass-roots movement (like the NCM but unlike the GPCR) and it was not anti-Western; and it was inspired in part by the 70th anniversary of the May Fourth Incident

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