Chinese Intellectual and Cultural History

This issue contains an introduction to and a translation of Zhu Xueqin’s (b. 1952) writings on Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The introduction reviews Zhu Xueqin’s writings on Jean-Jacques Rousseau against the background of the reception of Rousseau in China since the late nineteenth century. Rousseau was both an advocate and critic of the Enlightenment, and his work hence appealed to many Chinese intellectuals who struggled with the conundrum of how to modernize. During the late nineteenth century, Chinese supporters of Rousseau drew on his work to defend the viability of revolution. During the 1990s, following the tragedy of Tiananmen and the decline of socialism, Rousseau served to reflect on China’s twentieth-century trajectory and the disastrous political consequences of collective moral idealism. For Zhu Xueqin, a key question was: Why were the French Revolution and the Cultural Revolution so similar?

DOI: 10.1080/10971467.2017.1383805


The first article of the issue contains the preface, introduction, and epilogue of Zhu Xueqin’s influential book The Demise of the Republic of Virtue: From Rousseau to Robespierre. In the preface, Zhu describes Chinese and international scholarship on Rousseau, his own intellectual formation as a member of the Cultural Revolution generation, and the overall purpose of the book. In the introduction, Zhu briefly outlines the transformation of medieval “theological politics” into modern “political theology,” or his central concern of the merger between moral idealism and the political state. Finally, in the epilogue, Zhu nevertheless still seeks to rescue Rousseau by arguing that history is created by both a priori and empirical forces and that a dialogue between deconstruction and construction is required. However, for “political theology” to end, boundaries have to be set to moral idealism and it needs to be disconnected from the political state.

DOI: 10.1080/10971467.2017.1383806


In the second article of the issue, “The Institution of Church and State as One—An Analysis of Rousseau’s Political Philosophy,” Zhu Xueqin provides an overall view of Rousseau’s political philosophy as he discusses Rousseau’s notion of the general will, the social contract, and the differences between Rousseau and thinkers such as Hobbes and Locke. Zhu argues that Rousseau’s political philosophy is deeply flawed as it advocates a moralization of politics that seeks to build a heavenly kingdom on earth, an ideal that has left a significant imprint on the modern world.

DOI: 10.1080/10971467.2017.1383807