Liang Qichao

Abstract

Kang Youwei confirmed the necessity of maintaining Xunzi’s philosophy if China were to implement a modern authoritarian strategy. Liang Qichao seemed to support this view. But beyond this, Liang argued that authoritarian rule would not function successfully in China until the people were taught why an emphasis on collective interests was a better guarantee of their own welfare than an emphasis on individual interests. Liang also justified this argument according to Xunzi’s principles. This chapter examines these principles and shows how they informed and confirmed Liang’s political conviction that Chinese development required Chinese solutions. Liang did not reach this position without seeking Western alternatives. No other mainland Chinese scholar this century has given more serious attention to Western political theory or written more prolifically about it than has Liang. But his readings of figures like Mill, Rousseau, Montesquieu and Bentham convinced him that Western liberal democracy would sow dissension and disorder in China, and that it would hamper Chinese rulers’ abilities to push development forward.

Seeking classical models … reformers like Liang [Qichao] recalled that the ancient Chinese philosopher [Xunzi] had distinguished man from other creatures by virtue of his ability to create voluntary communities. If all social units were thus a consequence of human effort to band together, then no single unit was more ‘natural’ (ie., legitimate) than any other. (Wakeman, 1975, p. 201)