Great Failed Heroes

Author: Yan Chijun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Zhang Jian, hailed by Hu Shi as "a great failed hero," was once a new imperial scholar but betrayed the traditional path of "excelling in learning leads to officialdom" and instead embarked on the arduous journey of "saving the nation through industrialization," pioneering China's transition from small-scale agricultural economy to modern large-scale machine production. He was an outstanding figure, yet a tragic hero. Looking back at Zhang Jian and his Nantong enterprise, one cannot help but marvel: Great is this man! Great is this endeavor! However, people also cannot help but sigh at the ultimate outcome of his career. The of it all must be left for later modernizers to savor. This paper takes Zhang Jian's modernization thought and the early modernization of the Nantong region as its research subjects, aiming to explore through this analysis why Zhang Jian became a "great failed hero" in China's early modernization process. Drawing on the methodological experience of the three generations of modern development theory, this paper observes Zhang Jian and his career within the framework of "tradition—modern," revealing the depth of his traditional Confucian roots and his lack of understanding of modern rationality. He pursued "Western application" yet hesitated at "Chinese essence." He attempted to graft the instrumental forms of Europe and America onto the ethical society of the "Tang, Yu, and Three Dynasties," conceptualizing an ideal model for modernization in Nantong. He innovated according to the ethical principles of the sages; he combined sage-like elites with officialdom and local gentry to form the forces of modernization, utterly unaware of the "liberated individual" and its mechanisms, ultimately allowing the forces pursuing traditional interests to hollow out his enterprise. The ethical approach of his Nantong enterprise led him to adopt an aggressive and expansive form of radicalism, and in the paradox of his strategy, he ultimately fell into.