{"id":993,"date":"2021-10-29T22:56:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T22:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/?p=993"},"modified":"2021-10-29T22:56:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T22:56:51","slug":"kang-youweis-use-of-revivalistic-traditionalism-a-departure-from-his-utopian-ideology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/2021\/10\/kang-youweis-use-of-revivalistic-traditionalism-a-departure-from-his-utopian-ideology\/","title":{"rendered":"KANG YOUWEI\u2019S USE OF REVIVALISTIC TRADITIONALISM: A DEPARTURE FROM HIS UTOPIAN IDEOLOGY?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Kang Youwei\u2019s works and ideology present a complex amalgamation of modern Confucian thought, Kantian philosophy, and reformist political theory, making him a figure who reflects the complexities of the early globalization era in which he was active. In order to advance his agenda as a reformer and humanitarian activist, Kang Youwei leveraged his Confucian learnings to advocate for a new state of global existence modeled after the Datong, a word that refers to the utopian society imagined by Confucius.
In his chapter \u201cThe Moral Vision in Kang Youwei\u2019s Book of the Great Community,\u201d Ban Wang explores how Kang Youwei goes about advocating for his vision of the ideal moral community through, effectively \u201crevising the Confucian moral tradition.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup> Wang\u2019s in-depth analysis provides several points of interest, while this blog post will focus on one: Kang Youwei\u2019s rhetoric and methodology in promoting his ideas of utopianism in Confucian thought. In the following analysis of the way Kang Youwei advocates for his modern, \u201crevi[sed]]\u201d version of Confucianism, I stipulate that in order to convey his points and appeal to his audience, Kang Youwei leverages traditional ideas of Confucianism to support his own, completely contradictory, understandings of the philosophy.
Previously, I have made blog posts about different religions and cultural traditions and how they\u2019ve been used as agents of influence outside their place of origin. This exploration of Kang Youwei\u2019s advocacy for Confucian universalism offers a different perspective in which Confucianism is an ideology that is threatened by \u201cWestern encroachment\u201d and seeks to spread it\u2019s influence not for the purpose of expansion, but for survival.2<\/a><\/sup>
In academic literature, Kang Youwei is portrayed as an almost revolutionary figure in Confucian thought. Justin Ritzinger, in his investigation of Taixu\u2019s philosophy and influences, refers to Kang Youwei as a \u201cfamous utopian,\u201d distinguishing him from his Confucianist predecessors due to his model for the perfect model for society. Rather than looking to the past for the perfect model of society, as had hundreds of generations of previous Confucian philosophers, including Kongzi, Kang chose to use a different source. His works center around the Datong, a utopian society imagined by Confucius. Although Confucius\u2019s Datong had been previously explored, Kang\u2019s use of the utopia as an achievable reality rather than a more abstract concept was new in popular Confucian thought. Bart Dessein summarizes Kang Youwei\u2019s viewpoint on history, writing that he saw it as \u201ca progressive process that would eventually lead to perfect happiness.\u201d
Within Confucian philosophy, Kang Youwei\u2019s interpretation represents an important departure from one foundational element of thought: revivalistic traditionalism. Revivalistic traditionalism is one method by which Confucianism grows and changes over time; it allows for social, political, and cultural progress, but requires a historical reference point in the Confucian tradition. Bryan Van Norden, who identifies revivalistic traditionalism as one of the five themes of Confucianism, writes that under its logic, \u201cthere is no higher standard of judgment than human civilization at its best.\u201d3<\/a><\/sup>
It is understandable, then, that Kang Youwei urging his audience to strive toward a very reachable Datong was a shift in Confucian thought. However, although the premise of Kang\u2019s stipulation involved a directly contradictory idea of history, the methods by which he advocates this perspective actually draw upon the logic of revivalistic traditionalism, perhaps using it as a guise for his more radical standpoints. In his writings advocating for a more harmonious world order, Kang Youwei consistently refers back to a time of Chinese relations with other regions that Ban Wang describes as being \u201cbased on ritual, tributary networks, commerce, and family ties under the aegis of Confucianism\u201d rather than their present state during Kang\u2019s time, which was \u201cincreasingly driven by ruthless competition, conflict, and domination.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup>
After China\u2019s 1885 conflict with France, Kang Youwei\u2019s primary goal was to \u201crestore certain aspects of the Confucian worldview.\u201d Despite his ultimate goal of Datong, Kang Youwei consistently appeals to Chinese and Confucian history as anothing point to strive for \u2014 or to revive. For Kang, the cause of the dramatic shift away from Confucian thought and toward \u201cruthless competition\u201d was \u201cWestern encroachment,\u201d which he argues \u201cbroke up the fabric of traditional communities.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup>
Contrary to what is popularly understood, revivalistic traditionalism and utopianism may not be mutually exclusive \u2014 if in premise than perhaps not in practice. It appears that throughout his teachings, Kang Youwei\u2019s belief in a utopian future did not cause him to stray from the Confucian practice of reviving old traditions and revising them. In fact, Kang Youwei interacted greatly with early Confucian teachings and writings. In 1895, when his first petition to the Qing emperor failed to achieve its goals, Wang notes that Kang was forced to \u201cmove away from metaphysical arguments to a historical account of the evolution of government and society.\u201d5<\/a><\/sup> Although Kang himself may have preferred metaphysical arguments referring to Datong, he was able to adjust his strategies and rhetoric to suit traditional Confucian principles.
Ultimately, Kang Youwei presents an interesting example of a Confucian reformist, in that he often appealed to the very Confucian concepts that his ideology sought to change. If we view Kang\u2019s teachings in a holistic perspective, however, we can see that his idea of Datong is perhaps just a radical manifestation of revivalistic traditionism, despite its overt departure from Confucian thought that idolized China\u2019s past.<\/p>\r\n

  1. Wang, Ban. Chinese Visions of World Order: Tianxia, Culture, and World Politics. (2017), pp. 87-105. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Ibid [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Van Norden, Bryan W. Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. (Hackett Publishing Company, 2011). [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Wang, 2017 [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. Ibid. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Kang Youwei\u2019s works and ideology present a complex amalgamation of modern Confucian thought, Kantian philosophy, and reformist political theory, making him a figure who reflects the complexities of the early globalization era in which he was active. In order to advance his agenda as a reformer and humanitarian activist, Kang Youwei leveraged his Confucian learnings … Continue reading “KANG YOUWEI\u2019S USE OF REVIVALISTIC TRADITIONALISM: A DEPARTURE FROM HIS UTOPIAN IDEOLOGY?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1047,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}