章炳麟における革命思想の形成 : 戊戌變法から辛亥革命へ

Chang Ping-lin (章炳麟) who cherished a repulse against Western Imperialism as well as the win of freedom and liberty of China came to acknowledge the necessity of anti-Manchus Revolution as a preliminary step to anti-imperialism through the coup d'etat of 1898 and the Boxer Outbreak.His revolutionary thought had a definite shape after criticizing the Reform Movement and the Reformatory Thought by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and K'ang Yu-wei.His main mission in the political field had focussed upon the creation of a new type of human being as a nucleus of the Revolutionary Movement differed from the traditional feudal gentry, while attacking fiercely the moralistic degradation of the feudal gentry; the protagonists of the Reform Movement.This new type of human being must belong to a Bodhisattva-like revolutionary carring the revolutionary moral.A salient feature of his revolutionary thought lies in the following fact that he had taken more account of human being or revolutionary moral than the principle or theory of revolution.He grasped the revolution as a problem of awakening independence by individuals.His theoretical foundation was based on Buddhism (the theory of Fahsiang法相and the practice of Huayen華嚴) and Chuang Tsu's C'hi-wu-lun.Through this negative but retrograding principle, he advocates one's own independence to resist other's repression.This independence should disappear, once other's repression cease to exist, according to his standpoint.His Han-nationalism gave a strong impetus to such awakening independence of the people.His thought is completely negative because of its intention to annihilate the entire oppression, and the principle of Oriental Liberty itself is the reason for resistance.Those days, such Law of Evolution as the survival of the fittest or the law in the jungle was predominant and a thesis called Advanced Europe and Backward China was considered absolute in China.Under such a circumstance, Chang Ping-lin showered strong blows on fallacy and defects of K'ang and Liang who all in all made a debut as a champion of modernization to catch up with Advanced Europe.He stood against Natural Law proving the defeat of China and submitted his own demand that we do not want to be destroyed.Unfortunately, he could not find any positive course, on which China was to march.Looking at his thesis such as the oppressed nation's solidarity against imperialsism or his criticism on capitalism or on representative government, it seem to me that his thought suggested the course of Chinese Revolution in a negative way, which was rather alien to Modernization course.We may say that he set out his own course to New China through the denial of Modernization