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Title: Anarchism in China Author: Daniel Cairns Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: China, Chinese Anarchism, history, anarchist history Source: *The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest*, Edited by Immanuel Ness. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0048
Anarchism is a significant though neglected trend in Chinese history.
Proto-anarchist ideals that developed during the Warring States Period
in works such as the Zhuangzi and the writing of Bao Jingyan became
integral to traditional Chinese philosophy, followed later by a
modernist anarchism that thrived as a set of social, political, and
ethical ideas during the revolutionary period. Despite the
proto-anarchist legacy, most studies of Chinese anarchism limit their
scope to the early twentieth century, focusing on the movement’s peak,
from 1907 to 1919 – when anarchism was the most influential radical
socialist trend in China – and on its marginalization from 1920 to 1949.
Post-1949 history is without explicitly anarchist activity, yet because
of its earlier influence, anarchism’s history is a helpful tool with
which to analyze both the communist regime and the post-Mao economic
reforms.
The Chinese anarchist movement emerged when it became clear that the
Qing dynasty was struggling to adjust to the pressures of foreign
imperialism and domestic instability. At that time, intellectuals were
actively seeking out and digesting foreign concepts that could ease the
transition to modern nationhood. The ideas of mutual aid, voluntary
cooperation, and personal liberty that anarchism professed emerged as
integral elements of Chinese social and political discourse in this
context. Anarchism resonated with elements of traditional thought and a
distinctly anarchist sensibility was articulated in the writings of some
Buddhists, Confucians, and Daoists.
Anarchism emphasized political reorganization and social transformation.
Specifically, anarchists believed that foreign science and philosophy
should be studied, traditions were pernicious myths that must be
dispelled, the family was deleterious to the individual’s autonomy,
patriarchy was harmful and illegitimate, imperialism should be halted,
authority over others is degrading, and the state is unnecessary.
Anarchists were also the first to advocate a peasant-based revolution in
China, a theory later championed by Mao Zedong. In fact, in their
commitment to bringing new ideas into revolutionary discourse,
anarchists were instrumental in introducing Marxism and other forms of
socialism to China. Consequently, while anarchism has its own history,
it is often difficult to separate it from the broader revolutionary
milieu. Especially in the early years, 1903–6, revolutionaries ignored
the minor distinctions in ideology and so many strands of socialism were
conflated; anarchism was seen as synonymous with nihilism and populism.
The first explicitly anarchist activity among Chinese citizens began in
1906–7. Almost simultaneously, expatriates in Paris and Tokyo founded
anarchist organizations: the New World Society and the Society for the
Study of Socialism, respectively. Members traveled to study foreign
ideas and methods, but while abroad discovered various radical
tendencies that impacted their thinking. Before long, both societies
were publishing their own papers. In Paris the New Era spread anarchist
political analysis and social theory; likewise, the Tokyo group printed
Natural Justice, which focused on scholarly issues, feminism, and rural
communism. The groups shared news and opinions through these organs, but
these publications also reveal their contrasts. The Tokyo anarchists
were agrarian collectivists, inspired by Tolstoy, while the society in
Paris was progressive, placing an emphasis on science, reason, and
education.
The second wave of anarchism in China, occurring between the fall of the
Qing and the founding of the communist part of China, is marked by an
increase in domestic activity. The Society of the Cock Crowing in the
Dark, led by Shifu, was the first domestic anarchist group. It was
founded in 1911, the year the Qing fell. Shifu was a dynamic
personality, both energetic and intellectual. He participated in the
founding of multiple anarchist collectives, unions, and publishing
ventures. After his death in 1915, the energy of the anarchist movement
shifted towards what would become the China, May 4^(th) movement.
Between 1919 and 1920 the May 4^(th) movement coalesced around ideals of
free expression and personal liberties. Anarchism, sharing similar
values, flourished in this climate. It had a radicalizing effect on May
4^(th) thinking, moving it beyond aesthetics and culture to economic,
political, and social realms. While May 4^(th) is primarily seen as an
intellectual movement, anarchists believed that intellectual and manual
work were needlessly divided; they suggested that one must both study in
the schools and labor in the fields. This ethos pervaded many
educational experiments of the time, from the Work-Study movement to the
National Labor University, and was even reinterpreted during the
Cultural Revolution.
The next phase of anarchist activity in China was shaped by its
relationship to the nascent communist movement. The Communist Party of
China was founded in 1921, though Comintern agents started actively
recruiting activists into Marxist study circles a year prior. These
groups initially drew many anarchists to them. The non-anarchists in
attendance often came because they were interested in anarchism. Though
there were commonalities between anarchists and communists, the CCP soon
purged out many anarchists for the sake of ideological unity. Still,
aspects of anarchism were not totally absent from official doctrine: Li
Dazhao, China’s first Marxist, was greatly influenced by Kropotkin’s
doctrine of mutual aid; Mao Zedong admitted to being influenced by
anarchism; Chen Duxiu’s sons were both anarchists before converting to
Marxism.
Shortly after the founding of the CCP, the anarchists who did not join
the party distanced themselves from the communist movement. They
disagreed over the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
anarchists holding that a transformation out of class-based society
would come once the general populace became sufficiently conscious.
Debates held in the revolutionary press proved the CCP to be better
rhetorically equipped.
Sensing pressure to organize against the communists, some anarchists
joined the Guomindang. Indeed, for years there was an affinity between
anarchists and the GMD – Sun Yat-Sen actually claimed that the ultimate
aim of the GMD was anarchism and communism. The GMD also supported
unions and striking workers and helped anarchists establish the National
Labor University, a syndicalist training school. The Revolutionary
Alliance, the precursor to the GMD, also counted many prominent
anarchists as members. Anarchists Liu Shipei, Zhang Ji, and Zhang
Binglin even hosted lectures by Japanese anarchists through the RA.
Ultimately, however, anarchists proved to be little more to the GMD than
ideological weapons against the communists. By 1927 the anarchist
movement was atrophying; the last arena of its influence was among
sections of workers in Shanghai and southern China, where anarchists
were active until the 1940s.
There are two main analyses of anarchism in Chinese history. One
emphasizes its anti-traditionalism, stressing the influence of foreign
ideas such as socialism and humanism. This view asserts that while
Chinese anarchism was born as an ideology of rejection of China’s
emergent modernity, Chinese anarchists adopted elements of Western
thought even as they negated Western modernity. The second analysis
suggests that anarchism is not necessarily imported. This view points to
the long tradition of proto-anarchist thought in China, encompassing
Daoists but also including Buddhists and Utopians. The truth lies
somewhere in between: anarchists like Liu Shipei were unquestionably
interested in Chinese national heritage, while Li Shizeng was thoroughly
European in outlook.
Anarchists demanded absolute social revolution, that is, a bottom-up
transformation of quotidian life. Therefore, they disagreed with the
nationalist and communist revolutionary groups who believed change could
be instituted through policy, from above. Similarly, anarchists were
anti-nationalist. Some historians posit that anarchists, unwilling to
pander to patriotic sentiments, effectively forfeited ground to groups
like the GMD and CCP who based their platform on preserving the Chinese
nation-state.
Historians sometimes question the importance of anarchism in China’s
revolutionary history because it was an ideology that did not achieve
success on a nationwide level. Anarchist groups in China never coalesced
into a political party, or even a unified network. Anarchist activity
was scattered and their platform was inconsistent. However, reflecting
on the role that anarchism played in radicalizing communist and
nationalist leaders, bringing new ideas to China, and demanding a social
revolution, clearly anarchism was an integral and ubiquitous part of the
revolution.
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