A friend asked me, are you really surnamed Aixinjueluo? I guess they heard the jokes I told, saying that someone pretended to be a member of the Aixinjueluo royal family to commit fraud. In class, I joked that my real name is Aixinjueluo Xiang.
This is of course a joke, but historically, there were indeed Aixinjueluo who changed their surname to Luo. According to historians, ‘Ai Xin’ means ‘beginning’, and ‘beginning’ means ‘the beginning’. Because Nurhaci’s sixth-generation ancestor, Mengge Temür, was once conferred as ‘Emperor Zhao Zu Yuan’, ‘Jueluo’ means ‘surname’ in Manchu, so after the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the royal family used ‘Aixinjueluo’ as their surname. In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, there was a serious anti-Manchu trend in society, and many Manchus changed their surnames to Han surnames. The Aixinjueluo family was no exception. In places like Beijing, many changed their surnames to ‘Jin’ and ‘Luo’. [Wang Quangen: ‘Where did Aixinjueluo go?’, ‘Journal of Literature and History’ 1988, No. 4]
In the last ten years of the Qing Dynasty, anti-Manchuism became a major trend. The term ‘Manchu’ was often used in newspapers and articles, no longer using the term ‘banner people’. The change of words had strong political implications. At that time, opposing the Manchus almost became a political correctness. ‘In the propaganda of the Xinhai Revolution, which aimed at ‘anti-Manchuism’, the ‘Diary of Ten Days in Yangzhou’ and the ‘Chronicles of the Massacre in Jiading’ were once regarded as forbidden books, and they played an important role.’ [Zhu Xinwu: ‘The ‘Diary of Ten Days in Yangzhou’ and the Xinhai Revolution’, ‘Journal of Modern History’ No. 13], the bloody massacre of the Qing army entering the pass hundreds of years ago recorded in the book aroused the public’s strong indignation towards the Manchus.
The most ardent anti-Manchu figures in the late Qing Dynasty were Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong. In 1906, Zhang Taiyan said in a speech: ‘When I was young, I read Mr. Jiang’s ‘Donghua Records’, which contained the cases of Dai Mingshi, Zeng Jing, and Cha Siting. I felt indignant in my heart and felt that the different race (Manchus) disrupting China was our first hatred. Later, I read the books of Mr. Zheng Suonan and Mr. Wang Chuanshan, which were all about defending the Han race. The idea of nationalism gradually developed.’ Zhang Taiyan held radical nationalism, believing that ‘if the race is not removed, the good race will not thrive. If the bad group is not removed, the good group will not flourish’.
In order to prove his ‘anti-Manchu’ stance, Zhang Taiyan even revered Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing, and belittled Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, believing that Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were saints, while Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang were great thieves. ‘Zhang Taiyan, in ‘On Correcting the Hatred of the Manchus’, used factors such as writing and customs to forcibly argue that Japan was close to China, while Manchuria was estranged from China’ [Qu Jun: ‘Ambiguity and Polysemy – A Re-examination of the Arguments and Acceptance of ‘Anti-Manchuism’ in the Late Qing Dynasty’, ‘Historical Review’ 2015, No. 6].
Even more radical was Zou Rong, who believed that the Manchus belonged to the inferior yellow race, while the Han people were the superior yellow race. Therefore, the mission of the Han people was to take back China that originally belonged to them from the inferior yellow race [Wu Lei, Yu Chunyang: ‘The Narrative of the ‘Anti-Manchu’ Thought during the Preparation Period of the Xinhai Revolution’, ‘Lantai World’ October 2014, Part 2].
Times have changed. Zhang Shizhao reflected on the anti-Manchu propaganda of that year and hit the nail on the head: ‘In short, at that time, anything that could provoke the feelings between the Manchus and the Hans was used without any scruples.’ The end justifies the means.
For this kind of extreme national sentiment, there were also clear-headed and calm people. Yan Fu believed that everyone was making ‘clamorous’ arguments, ‘when public opinion is overwhelming, all the principles and trends cannot be argued with words’! The hatred of race and the plan of revenge can satisfy the momentary will, but it will inevitably bring disaster to future generations. Chen Duxiu also criticized anti-Manchuism as ‘not taking the real material demands of the masses, but only using the incitement of emotions as the only tool – emotion is a floating and unstable thing, and there is no reason not to fail to build the revolutionary movement on the unstable conditions!’.
Nationalism is originally a foreign concept. Although China has the traditional ‘distinction between barbarians and Chinese’, as Han Yu said, ‘if the vassals use barbarian rituals, they are barbarians, and if they enter China, they are Chinese’. The ‘distinction between barbarians and Chinese’ also uses culture as the scale. There is an openness that can be transformed between China and the barbarians, the so-called ‘those who can practice the way of China are the masters of China’. This is why Huang Zongxi, a remnant of the late Ming Dynasty, often praised Emperor Kangxi as ‘Holy Son of Heaven’ and called the Qing court ‘the dynasty’.
Nationalism was born in the French Revolution and, through the transformation of European philosophers, mainly German philosopher Fichte, became one of the most influential group consciousnesses to date. Nationalism can give individuals a sense of meaning, belonging, and identity, avoiding individuals from being submerged in the meaningless long river of history. But if nationalism goes to extremes, it will lead to idol worship and become a fig leaf for evil.
In the book ‘Nationalism’, Stephen Grosby reminds us that ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ are two different emotions. The former is positive and can transcend the prejudices of nationalism. It does not deny the constantly changing and different pursuits of national members, nor does it reject the different ideas of national members about the nation. But the latter does not understand compromise at all and is too narrow.
When people divide the world into two incompatible, constantly warring camps, opposing their own nation and all other nations, and regarding the latter as their mortal enemies, an ideology of nationalism, which is completely different from patriotism, is produced. Nationalism refuses to accept civilization and its tolerance of differences, and attempts to eliminate all different ideas and interests in order to maintain a single view of national history and the current situation. For example, the idea contained in French nationalism may be that to be a good citizen of the French nation, one must hate everything English and German; those who do not do so are not ‘true’ French.
‘Nationalism’ [US] Stephen Grosby
The concept of nationalism was first introduced by Liang Qichao. After the failure of the Reform Movement in 1898 and his exile to Japan, Liang Qichao came into contact with Western modern nationalist thought and began to advocate the establishment of a modern nation-state in China to achieve the prosperity of the country and the nation.
In 1901, Liang Qichao published ‘On the Differences and Similarities in the Evolution of National Thought’, which was Liang Qichao’s earliest article promoting nationalism. He said: ‘Nationalism is the most bright, just, and fair doctrine in the world. It does not allow other nations to infringe upon our freedom, nor do we infringe upon the freedom of other nations. In our own country, it is the independence of the people; in the world, it is the independence of the nation.’ [Xu Guoli: ‘The Construction and Significance of Liang Qichao’s Historiography of Nationalism’, edited by Qu Lindong, ‘Journal of Historiography and Historiography’ 2004-2005 volume] In this article, Liang Qichao did not make a clear distinction between the concepts of ‘nation’ and ‘state’.
Liang Qichao soon realized the danger of extreme nationalism. For a multi-ethnic country, it can easily lead to internal division and external hostility. Therefore, Liang Qichao’s nationalism began to shift from a single race to a pluralistic nation. Liang Qichao first proposed the concept of the Chinese nation, transcending narrow racial sentiments. The most admirable thing about Liang Qichao is that he never cares about ‘fighting with myself today against myself yesterday’. After the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionary program also quickly changed from ‘expelling the Tartars’ to ‘the Republic of Five Races’.
Even more eye-catching is the sublimation of Liang Qichao’s nationalism to patriotism. In 1915, Liang Qichao advocated ‘sound patriotism’ in ‘Respectfully Raising Two Questions to Promote the People’s Self-Awareness’. Liang Qichao believed that the ‘unsound patriotism’ that ‘most hinders the progress of the country’ should be opposed, that is, a blind xenophobia, arrogance, and a morbid mentality of self-deception; we must break the old ways and ‘resolutely abandon ourselves and follow others to seek progress’. Patriotism should not only be based on China, but also on the world. ‘We are Chinese citizens and also world citizens. Therefore, we love our country and also have lofty ideals that transcend the nation.’ ‘We must love our country, and we cannot regard the old ideas of stubbornness and narrowness as patriotism. … Our patriotism, on the one hand, cannot know the country without knowing the individual; on the other hand, we cannot know the country without knowing the world. We must rely on this country to fully develop the innate abilities of each individual in the country and make great contributions to the civilization of all mankind in the world.’ [Zheng Shiqu: ‘Liang Qichao’s Patriotism’, Hebei Journal 2005, No. 4]
Perhaps, Liang Qichao’s sound patriotism is still not outdated today.
When he was young, Liang Qichao advocated that reforming the national character was the foundation of the country. Therefore, he founded ‘Xinmin Congbao’. In the article ‘Xinmin Shuo’, he sharply criticized me, which made me feel ashamed, because I saw my own shadow: one is servility, the other is ignorance, the third is selfishness, the fourth is hypocrisy, the fifth is cowardice, and the sixth is inaction. Also like ‘blaming others, but not blaming oneself, hoping for others, but not encouraging oneself’.
Liang Qichao once believed that compared to the private virtue of ‘cultivating oneself’, the public virtue of ‘everyone helping their group’ was more important, because the formation of ‘society’ and the constitution of ‘country’ were due to public virtue. But in his middle age, Liang Qichao found that it was not realistic to popularize ‘public virtue’, so he began to change his position and advocated cultivating ‘private virtue’, and ‘Xinmin Congbao’ was also discontinued. Changing oneself, cultivating private virtue, and loving others as oneself are more urgent.
Croce said: ‘All true history is contemporary history’. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to distinguish between the truth and falsehood of history, and can only remain calm and wait for the mysterious and unpredictable answer of history.
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