40 Zhu Hongyuan, Revolutionary Theory of Tung-m eng Hui: the "Min Pao" as a Case
Study, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 1985, p. 199.
41 Liang, "Ou you zhong zhi yiban guancha ji gan xiang" [A General Observation and Reflection on My European Tour], in CWEIDS — CW, vol. 5, p. 32.
Chapter 1, The Introduction of Marxism 27 N eith er should it be an ideology for the Chinese to u n d ertak e and im plem ent in the foreseeable future.42 This attitude tow ards Marxism was also evident in Liang's later criticism of the Bolshevik revolution. In 1925, Liang said in a letter that "we w ould forgive them (the Russian B olsheviks) a n d to le ra te th em had they really been promoting com m unism ". H ow ever, "the present situation in Soviet Russia only show s the great victory of 'C o m m u n ists' and the serious failure of communism ... M arxism in Russia has been throw n into a cesspool for a long tim e."43
On the other hand, L iang's cham pioning of capitalism , as Hao C h an g p u ts it, "d o es n o t m ean a u n q u a lifie d accep tan ce of c ap italism ".44 On the contrary, Liang seem ed to be quite aw are of the w eakness of the capitalist system . A ccording to him , the capitalist system was "in a unnatural state, irrationally organized ... A lthough it is well developed today, it will inevitably m eet its doom " 45 H e even predicted that "the social problem of the great disparity betw een the
42 Liang, "Miscellaneous Answers to a Certain Paper", op. cit., pp. 23-24.
43 Liang, "Fu Liu Mianji shu lun dui e wenti"[A Reply to Mr. Liu Mianji and on the Problems of Russia], in CWEIDS--CE, vol. 15, p. 65, emphasis mine — Hong. 44 Hao Chang, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and Intellectual Transition in China, 1890 - 1907,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1971, p. 270.
45 Liang: "Liang Rengong zai zhongguo gongxue zhi yanshuo" [ A Speech at the Chinese Public School], Dongfang Zazhi [Oriental Magazine1, no. 6, vol. 17, March 1920, collected in Ww si cjianhou dong xi wenhua wenti lunzhan ivenxuan [Selected Essays on the Controversy over the Question of Eastern and Western Cultures During the Period of the May 4th Movement], ed. and published by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press, Beijing, 1985, p. 377.
rich and the poor (in the West) will never be solved until it causes a great w ar betw een classes/ ' 46 Therefore, Liang concluded that it was quite clear that capitalism should not be set as the final goal for China. It w as b u t a p erio d of tran sitio n d u rin g w hich socialist m easures sh o u ld be tak en to p re v e n t the u n fa v o u ra b le d e v e lo p m e n t of capitalism.47
In fact, on the question w hether China was able to have a socialist revolution, it was Liang's know ledge of M arxism th at led him to reject any possibility of a M arxist social revolution in China. The Marxism he understood was that which shaped the Second International's position on the question of social change in non-eastern societies.
Second, d esp ite their enthusiasm for M arxism an d their belief th at in C hina it w as possible an d n ecessary to hav e a "social revolution", the intellectual source of the revolutionaries' conception of social rev o lu tio n seem ed to have little connection w ith M arxism. The policy of lan d n atio n alizatio n , "pin g ju n d iq u a n " [equal land rightsl, for exam ple, came directly from H enry G eorge and his single-
46 Liang, "A General Observation and Reflections on My European Tour" op. cit.r p. 7. 47 Liang, "A Reply to Zhang Dongsun and On Socialist Movement", op. cit., pp. 8-9. As Hao Chang stresses, the economic system Liang envisaged was one in which small private enterprises predominated but were effectively regulated by the "socialist measures" of the government not only to prevent the internal social conflict and oppression which usually attended a capitalist system but more important to facilitate the pooling of economic resources in the country so as to compete successfully on the international scene. See Hao Chang, op. cit., p. 271.
Chapter 1, The Introduction of Marxism 29 tax p ro p o sa ls.48 In short, the revolutionaries w ere inspired by the revolutionary spirit of M arx's theory of social change rather than by its theoretical analysis. This is clearly show n in Sun Yatsen's w ords
Where there are inequalities of wealth, Marx's methods can of course be applied; a class war can be launched to destroy inequalities. But in China, where industry is not yet developed, class war and the dictatorship of the proletariat are unnecessary. As a result, today, we can learn the essence of Marx's ideas, but we can not make use of his methods 4^
A fte r th e ir in itia l b u r s t of in te r e s t in M arx ism , the revolutionaries soon lost their enthusiasm . This w as evident w hen a leading m em ber of the revolutionaries, Song Jiaoren, discussed the possibility of ad opting various radical social theories to China. Song argued, as had Liang Qichao, that because of C hina's imperfect political system and poor level of production, the introduction of any kind of com m unism w ould inevitably lead to greater disorder in the political system and fu rth er decline in production, for China had not reached the stage w here political m anagem ent was not necessary and w here m aterial production had achieved abundance.50
48 See Feng Ziyou, "Minsheng zhuyi yu zhongguo zhengzhi geming zhi qiantu" [The Principle of People's Livelihood and the Future of Chinese Political Revolution], in Min Bao [People's Journal], no. 4, May 1, 1906, pp. 97-122. Hu Hanmin, "Min Bao
zhi liu da zhuyi" [The Six Fundamental Principles of the People's JournalJ, in
People's Journal, no. 3, April 5, 1906, pp. 11-14.
49 Sun Yatsen, "Minsheng zhuyi" [On the Principle of the People's Livelihood], cited by Maurice William, Sun Yatsen versus Communism, William and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, U.S.A., 1932, p. 171, emphasis mine — Hong.
50 Song Jiaoren, "Shehui zhuyi shangque" [Discussions On Socialism], in MIC, pp. 301-302.
Despite their sharp conflict over policy tow ards the Qing court,-- s h o u ld it be d e p o s e d o r n o t — th e c o n s titu tio n a lis ts an d revolutionaries in nature had m uch in comm on in their strategies for C h in a 's m o d ern izatio n . Both h ad got from the classical Second International M arxism not a specific analysis of C hinese history and politics, but rather a sense that China could and m ust become part of a w id e r w orld. But the c o n stitu tio n alists an d the m ajority of the re v o lu tio n a rie s realized the im p o rta n t d ifferen ces in h isto rical d ev elo p m en t an d socio-econom ic stru ctu re betw een C hina and the W est. In spite of their in terest in M arx's general theory of social change, both felt it difficult to apply Marxism to Chinese revolution or refo rm . Socio-econom ic classes an d class a n ta g o n ism , m o d ern in d u stries, the proletariat, all these w ere prerequisites for a M arxist social revolution; yet they could not be found by Chinese intellectuals in their ow n society. M arxism in its classical form thus was finally abandoned by all not because of its internal theoretical imperfections b u t because of its incom patibility w ith Chinese situations.