Salvation overwhelmed enlightenment
| Initiator | Vera Schwarcz[1] |
|---|---|
| Origin | The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919[1] |
| Salvation overwhelmed enlightenment | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 救亡压倒启蒙 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 救亡壓倒啟蒙 | ||||||
| |||||||
Salvation overwhelmed enlightenment[2] (simplified Chinese: 救亡压倒启蒙; traditional Chinese: 救亡壓倒啟蒙), also known as "national salvation crushed enlightenment"[3] or the "country's salvation suffocated the enlightenment",[4] is a viewpoint put forward by Li Zehou in the mid-1980s (the New Enlightenment period)[5] in an article entitled Double Variation on Enlightenment and National Salvation.[6] However, American scholar Vera Schwarcz argued that she was in fact the one who raised this idea before Li.[1]
Definition
[edit]In Double Variation on Enlightenment and National Salvation, Li Zehou deconstructed modern Chinese history with the two different themes of intellectual history: "enlightenment" and "salvation". In the process of modern Chinese history, cultural enlightenment task of "anti-feudalism" was "interrupted" by the theme of national salvation, and the revolutionary and salvation movements not only failed to continue to advance the work of cultural enlightenment, but were also "quietly infiltrated by the old traditional ideology", which eventually caused the Cultural Revolution to "push Chinese consciousness into the desperate situation of full resurrection of feudal traditions".[7] Briefly, national crises and collective causes eventually submerged the values of individual freedom advocated by the protagonists of the Enlightenment.[8]
In 1989, Li again clearly pointed out that the direction of modern Chinese history in the twentieth century was that "salvation overwhelmed enlightenment, and the peasant revolution overwhelmed modernization".[9] He further argued that if salvation overwhelmed enlightenment during the revolutionary era, then today enlightenment is salvation, and the only way to make the country rich and strong and modern is to fight for democracy, freedom, reason, and the rule of law.[10]
According to the Chinese historian Qin Hui, "salvation overwhelmed enlightenment" actually means nationalism overwhelmed liberalism, and helped the rise of Marxism and Leninism.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Wang Ruoshui (2 January 2001). "Rectification overwhelmed Enlightenment: The collision of "May Fourth Spirit" and "Party Culture". Modern China Studies.
- ^ Tianyu Cao; Xueping Zhong; Liao Kebin; Ban Wang (24 October 2013). Culture and Social Transformations: Theoretical Framework and Chinese Context. Brill Publishers. pp. 78–. ISBN 978-90-04-26051-1.
- ^ Ge Zhaoguang (26 March 2018). What Is China?: Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History. Harvard University Press. pp. 86–. ISBN 978-0-674-73714-3.
- ^ Jana S. Rošker (1 January 2019). Following His Own Path: Li Zehou and Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. SUNY Press. pp. 169–. ISBN 978-1-4384-7248-5.
- ^ Liu Qianfeng (2002). "The Evolution of Modern Chinese Thought" Conference Proceedings. Chinese University Press. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-962-996-073-5.
- ^ Modern Chinese Culture and Literature. Bashu Publishing House. 2010. ISBN 9787807525424.
- ^ "The "salvation overwhelmed enlightenment" in the cultural context of the 1980s". 15 September 2008. S2CID 223941600.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|url=(help) - ^ Zhang Yinde (19 October 2020). Ba Jin, "Offspring of May 4th", Time Bomb and Utopian Impulse. Translating Wor(l)ds. Vol. 4. doi:10.30687/978-88-6969-465-3/005. ISBN 978-88-6969-494-3. S2CID 234425553.
- ^ "Be wary of the capitalist clamor under the rhetoric of "enlightenment"". Utopia. 6 March 2011.
- ^ John Chi-Kin Lee; Kerry J. Kennedy (27 March 2017). Theorizing Teaching and Learning in Asia and Europe: A Conversation between Chinese Curriculum and European Didactics. Routledge. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-317-61654-2.
- ^ Qin Hui (13 August 2015). "Reiterating the Main Tone of the "Great May Fourth" and Why It Was "Overwhelmed"" (PDF). Twenty-First Century.