Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis: Seeking Order and Meaning

Author: Zhang Hao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: This is a research monograph on four leading early Chinese intellectuals—Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong, Zhang Binglin, and Liu Shipei. It is not a collection of biographies of their thoughts. My focus is on the intellectual development of these individuals from the early 1890s to 1911, using this period as a gateway to explore the intellectual transformations during the "transitional era" (1890–1911). I chose these four figures, to some extent, because they all played significant roles in the intellectual landscape during this time in different ways. More importantly, their worldviews reflect the highly significant intellectual trends of this period, which has been poorly studied thus far. I believe that analyzing their four worldviews together can provide a fresh perspective for examining their thoughts and the era. However, this analysis requires us to step away from some of the dominant topics and methods in existing literature. The discussions that follow will help clarify my research.