Republican China

法律與政治的關係，一直是個糾葛難解、耐人尋味的議題。本文擬以國史館典藏的國民政府檔案為核心，針對南京國民政府時期國民黨在中國時，為鞏固政權、壟斷有關革命正統的詮釋權，採取的各種實體與程式上法律懲治手段，諸如《反革命治罪法》、《特別法庭組織條例》、《反革命裁判條例》、《反革命案件陪審暫行法》、《特種臨時刑事法庭組織條例》等，以及過去依《反省院條例》設置的「反省院」等思想控制的配套設計與運作情形，參酌其法律論述，歷史性的探討當時國民黨政權關於革命與反革命，在法律上的各種表達與實踐。

Revolution/Counter-revolution:
KMT’s Legal Discourse during the Nanjing National Government Era

The relationship of law and politics has long been an intricate and interesting issue. This article is a historical analysis of the legal practice and expressions of revolution and counter-revolution used by the KMT during the Nanjing National Government Era. Provided by the government archives at the Academic Historica, the materials used in this research are focused on the various legal punishment measures used by the KMT to consolidate their regime, including the Counter-revolution Criminal Code, the Act governing the Organization of Special Courts, the Act governing the Trial of Counter-revolution Cases, the Provisionary Act governing the Jury in Counter-revolution Cases and the Act governing the Organization of the Provisionary Special Criminal Tribunal as well as the practices of the Inspection Yuan which was established pursuant to the Inspection Yuan Law and the relevant legal discourse in the Nanjing National Government Era.

This article examines the upsurge in Chinese public support for the legacy of the Republican era, a phenomenon known as ‘Republican fever’. The fever has arisen following the formal relaxation of restrictions on discussing the Republican period. The rationale for doing so is linked to political expediency and in particular to the CCP’s quest for nationalist legitimacy. By acknowledging the positive aspects of the Republican era as part of a placatory policy on reunification with Taiwan, the CCP is trying to present itself as a key partner in a united patriotic front with the Kuomintang. But things have not turned out as planned. As Republican fever has spread across a diverse section of Chinese society, so too has criticism of the CCP’s record in power. In light of this, we argue that instead of fortifying the Party’s nationalist legitimacy, the CCP has unwittingly started a process which appears to be eroding that legitimacy.

ABSTRACT
This article examines evolutionary thinking in Yan Fu and Hu Shi’s readings of the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. While Yan Fu employed a traditional exegetical form and Hu Shi wrote in journals and textbooks, both scholars employed a new, vernacular mode of reading classical texts. This new mode of reading is characterized by four primary
features: commensurability, comprehensibility, fallibility, and contemporaneity. Unlike scholars of earlier generations, Yan and Hu treated classical Chinese texts as commensurable with Western thought and readily comprehensible in terms of modern ideas. Yan and Hu approached the Laozi and Zhuangzi as fallible texts subject to evaluation in light ofWestern ideas and contemporary conditions. Yan argued that the sages should be subjected to the same scrutiny as morally neutral modern scientists, while Hu urged readers to evaluate texts in terms of their pragmatic effects. Both writers highlighted areas of evolutionary thinking in the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, while evaluating the texts in terms of their potential to aid or hinder the evolution of the modernizing Chinese nation-state.

[excerpt] Let's start with a confession. I am a Shanghai scholar obsessed with old maps. Just holding Improvised City in my hands, with its beautiful Carl Crow map on [End Page 156] the cover, and flipping through pages of maps, urban plans, and architectural drawings and pictures, brought me unadulterated joy. I knew, before even having read a word, this review had to include two observations: (1) despite the dazzling number of works on Treaty Port Shanghai, Roskam has found unique visual material never published before; and (2) more academic presses should follow the University of Washington Press's example and invest in the physical quality of their books (paper, layout, typeface, etc.). Now let me turn to the book's contents.

Improvised City examines the role of architecture in the political and cultural formation of Shanghai's foreign concessions. It "aims to provide a new theoretical framework for understanding the city as an extraterritorial environment" (p. 11), referring to the system of judicial exception that ensured foreign merchants would not be subject to Chinese law. "Ultimately, understanding architecture's engagement with the legal abstractions of extraterritoriality expands our understanding of architecture's representational capacity to convey and command meaning within a uniquely global urban context" (p. 12). It is precisely this insightful linking of architecture, governance, and law which makes the book truly stand out in a widely researched field.

The book discusses the role of selective identities in shaping China’s position in regional and global affairs. It does so by using the concept of the political transition of power, and argues that by taking on different types of identities—of state, ideology and culture—the Chinese government has adjusted China’s identity to different kinds of audiences. By adopting different kinds of “self”, China has secured its relatively peaceful transition within the existing system and, in the meantime, strengthened its capacity to place its principles within that system. To its immediate neighbors, China presents itself as a state that needs clearcut borders. In relation to the developing world (Global South), the PRC narrates “self” as an ideology with the banner of materialism, equality and justice. To its third “audience”, the developed world (mainly Europe), China presents itself as a peaceful, innocent cultural construct based primarily on Confucius’ passive approach. By bringing these three identities into “one Chinese body” (三位一体, sanwei yiti), China’s policymakers skillfully maneuver and build the country’s position in the arena of global affairs.

This paper takes the case of the Rotary Club of Shanghai to discuss the Americanization of Chinese elites in Republican Shanghai. My purpose is to assess more specifically the position of Chinese members within the club, and the position of the club itself within Chinese society. Relying on a variety of heretofore untapped sources (Rotary international Archives, newspapers, personal papers) and an adequate set of digital techniques (esp. Social Network Analysis), I demonstrate that the Rotary successfully integrated Chinese elites, even though most members were already “Americanized”. I point out that far from being a self-contained foreign elite club, the Shanghai Rotary club was deeply rooted in local and national life, with a China-centered, social and international perspective. In the end, the Rotary served as an arena not so much for Americanizing Chinese elites but rather for sinicizing the new generation of transnational elites in modern China.

This paper focuses on Duan Zhengyuan段正元(1864-1940) and his Moral Studies Society, one of the important redemptive societies with a Confucian orientation of the Republican Period. It provides a brief introduction to Duan’s thought and more specifically to his main defense of the “unity of morals and politics” (zheng de he yi 政德合一) at a time when many intended to relegate the Confucian tradition to the dustbin of history. It also shows how Duan managed to link his political thought to concrete actions and projects, both at the top (interactions with political elites) and at the grassroots level of society (organization of jiaohua groups), thus promoting a Confucian political imagination still considered relevant to a modern context.