Abstract:

In his “On a New Way to Destroy a State”, Liang Qichao recounts the history of the ruin of Egypt, India, Poland, Boer, the Philippines and others to demonstrate that the modern colonial expansion of the Western powers have long been no longer limited to the traditional siege of cities and territories, but made full use of financial, educational and other means to control non-Western countries. In the statement of “a new way to destroy a state”, “to destroy a state” is impressive, because those who care about the fate of China have always been worried about the possibility of the partition of China and its being destroyed since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. In addition, the statement of “A New Way to Destroy a State” is emphasizing “new”, that is, the new means and strategies of colonial expansion of modern powers. By virtue of the great influence of its initiator Liang Qichao in the public opinion, and its close connection with the issue of imperialism, “a new way to destroy a state” gradually became a popular concept to analyze the world situation and China’s crisis. It was either directly used, or slightly modified and re-circulated in a more popular form, or taken as theoretical ground. The borrowing and application of “a new way to destroy a state” continued from the late Qing Dynasty to the 1930s.

Key words: “a new way to destroy a state”, Liang Qichao, imperialism, “opening eyes to observe the world”