Deconstruction of Autocracy: A Study on the People-centered Thought in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

Author: Feng Tianyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: If it is said that the Zongzi debates in the Warring States period provided spiritual support and theoretical guidance for the burgeoning and thriving monarchy, then by the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the monarchy had been in operation for over two thousand years, its flaws had become glaringly evident. It became the mission of the new era to conduct a theoretical reckoning with it. In the 1960s, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida elaborated on the theory of "deconstruction." Deconstruction refers to dismantling the structure of existing theories, disassembling its components, setting them free, and then reassembling them. Later, the term "deconstruction" was used more broadly to denote the negation and destruction of the established structure of existing systems or ideas in order to seek systemic reorganization and renewed connotation. In a certain sense, the progressive thinkers of the Ming and Qing dynasties were "deconstructing" the vast institution of over two thousand years of monarchy to explore new paths for the formation of political culture. It is worth noting that these philosophers accomplished this task using China's inherent intellectual resources without being significantly influenced by Western political ideas. The of this mission was extraordinary, and generations of people followed one another without completing it. Even in the modern era, after being exposed to the winds of Europe and the rains of America, the task cannot be said to have been fully accomplished. It is admirable that the philosophers of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as pioneers of deconstructing authoritarianism, faced difficulties with great courage and challenged authoritarian politics from an academic perspective. Their approach was to dissect authoritarianism, fiercely attack the extreme veneration of the monarch by Legalism, which was one wing of it, and to discern and refine the Confucian theory of popular sovereignty, which was the other wing. They inherited and developed the aspects of "valuing the people" and "showing compassion to the people," while discarding and replacing the parts of "venerating the monarch" and "defending the monarch." Thus, among the philosophers of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the theory of popular sovereignty that had evolved since the pre-Qin period was transformed and elevated. Therefore, we call it "new popular sovereignty" to indicate both its connection with and distinction from the theory of popular sovereignty since the Zuo Zhuan and Mencius; it also signifies that, as an unfinished form of "deconstructing authoritarianism," "new popular sovereignty" differs fundamentally from modern democracy but is also the closest national cultural resource and forerunner of modern democracy.