Chinese intellectuals in crisis

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 world during this period in different ways. More importantly, their worldviews reflect the crucial intellectual landscape of this understudied era. I believe analyzing their four worldviews together can provide a fresh perspective for examining their thoughts and the era they lived in. 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.