Abstract:

Under the pressure of anti-Manchu nationalism in the late Qing Dynasty, KANG You-wei attempted to response with his doctrine of revolution and three generations from the perspective of the official script school of Confucianism. He argues that revolution has been normal in Chinese history, and the ultimate goal of political evolution is to found a republic. According to him, the particular title of a “monarch without real political power”, which not only implies the ideal of republic but also meets the common people and elites ’s desire for a symbolic authority, can serve as a provisional instrument towards republic. From the beginning of the Republic to the Restoration Period, KANG intended to restore the monarchy of the Qing government both in theory and in practice, depriving its sacred meaning and making it only a symbol of a nation state. This concept denies the divinity of monarchy and affirms the dominance of republicanism in ideology. The failure of political conservatism in the early years of the Republic of China, together with its transformation into cultural conservatism afterwards, is related to the self-limitation of such concept in the respects of theory and value.