Exploration Pack 2: May Fourth Movement and beginnings of Communism in China
Delving into exploration pack 2 with week was a unique experience and one that I was not expecting from the title of the exploration pack. There were two items, the first being a translation of some of Sun Yatsen’s ideological thoughts for his revolution and the reuniting of China, the second being a very well-written but peculiar piece by Lu Xun. Working through these texts two things became clear to me. The first is given Sun’s thoughts on what his idyllic China would be in the context of the modern world and his way of ruling I personally saw no way he would succeed making the rise of communism a no-brainer with this hindsight. Then the second is it is clear why Lu Xun was an admired writer by the revolutionaries as well as the communists but I thought the contents of the writing as well as the style to be strange given previous knowledge from the basic set.
Reading “The Three People’s Principles” by Sun Yatsen was almost frustrating. To start off his plan of uniting China solely behind the Han ethnicity and use this ethnicity to push Chinese nationalism through the lens of striving to achieve a modern but “classic China” sounded problematic to me. Considering the great hindsight made available to me, basing your nationalism and a country off of one ethnicity seems to me as a great way to start a genocide or mass xenophobia on a massive scale consider China’s population *cough* Uyghurs *Cough*.
Besides that Sun Yatsen’s goal of blending modern ideals with classical Chinese ways seems extremely flawed to me especially the idea of creating a Censorate and or a large Supervisory Organ of government. Both of these things led to massive corruption and the downfalls of dynasties, so why does Sun think it will work for him? Additionally, within his government he wanted the elite to be the ruling portion of the country and the rest of the people to be the “body of sovereignty” which to me sounds very similar to a dynasty. But considering information from the basic texts this week we know that the poor and women would be restricted from this sovereignty by not being allowed to vote. All of this being considered it is painfully obvious why the Communists, a group pushing for the liberties of every man but especially the workers came out on top.
Lastly and briefly, Lu Xun’s writing was really interesting and something I enjoyed but I think the message of his writing escaped me. I was confused about what this reading had to do with the beginnings of Communism in China besides giving an example of Lu Xun’s work, so I think the message was lost on me. But one thing that was made clear about his writing was the need for the simplification of writing for the everyday person of China, especially by the communists in order to gain party traction. As even the introduction to the text was written in a very intellectual and scholarly manner which was almost lost on me so I cannot imagine how a common person in China at the time would be able to understand it.
Bibliography:
Lu Xun, “Diary of a madman”. Translated by William A. Lyell. In Diary of a Madman and Other Stories. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1990.
Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. Third ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013
Sun Yatsen. “The Three People’s Principles” in Sources of Chinese Tradition: From 1600 through the Twentieth Century, Vol. 2, 202-205. Edited by Wm. Th. de Bary and R. Lufrano. Columbia Univ. Press, 2001.
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