“The sage in the inkpot : Bertrand Russell and China's social reconstruction in the 1920s” (Publication, 1982)
Year
1982
Text
Ogden, Suzanne P. The sage in the inkpot : Bertrand Russell and China's social reconstruction in the 1920s. In : Modern Asian studies ; vol. 16, no 4 (1982).
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2707228. (Russ10)
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2707228. (Russ10)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Ogden, Suzanne
(1942-) : Professor Department of Political Science, Northeastern University, Boston
Mentioned People (1)
Russell, Bertrand
(Trelleck, Monmouthsire 1872-1970 Plas Penrhyn bei Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales) : Philosoph, Logistiker, Mathematiker, Literaturnobelpreisträger ; Dozent Cambridge, Oxford, London, Harvard University, Chicago, Los Angeles, Beijing
Subjects
Philosophy : Europe : Great Britain
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (9)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1919.03 | Suzanne P. Ogden : The immediate stimulus leading to the invitation to Bertrand Russell for a visit in China may have been the series of lectures given by John Dewey in Beijing in March 1919 on The three great philosophers of our day, James, Bergson, and Russell. | |
| 2 | 1920-1921 |
Bertrand Russell in China : 8. Okt. 1920-10. Juli 1921 : Allgemein 1982 Suzanne P. Ogden : Chinese students flooded abroad for advanced education, while Chinese educational institutions were remodeled to serve better the goals of modernization. Bertrand Russel's visit produced rapid disillusionment for many Chinese, widespread confusion among others, and a kind of half-hearted admiration on the part of a few, which seemed to spring as much from intertia, embarrassment, or the wish to be polite, as from intellectual or political commitment. To many Chinese intellectuals, Russell appeared as a man who, because of his intellectual power and because of his commitment to social change, would have unusually valuable insights into the problems besetting the Chinese people at that time. That the Chinese seriously considered Russell's ideas for institutional and societal change in China indicates the inherent problem of assuming that a leader in one field will be equally well qualified to speak on totally unrelated topics. A foreign philosopher, a scientist turned ideologist, met a group of Chinese in search of a theory of social and political change. Russell arrived at a crucial time in China's intellectual and political evolution. The major split within the leadership of the new culture movement, between the Marxists and the 'liberals', occurred in 1921. While the Lecture Society encompassed a broad range of the 'liberal' Chinese political spectrum, the more radical, would-be Communists and socialists largely remained outside of it. But there were no rigid classifications at that time, only individuals who flowed from one group to another, for the differences were only of degree. On the definition of fundamental issues, there was near accord between the 'liberals' and the socialists-communists. That is, the major segments of Russell's 'political' audience (those interested in his ideas on social reconstruction) were each an assortment of 'progressives' in their attitudes toward change and development, even if later some 'socialists' were to be denounced as 'neo-conservatives'. They wanted to break with the past and 'progress' in a new direction. And both groups were preeminently nationalists, so that in spite of ideological differences, they agreed that China's major problems were economic backwardness, political disunity, and bad government. Still, the ideological perspective became important when each group inquired into the best methods for confronting these problems. Chinese intellectuals became more receptive to leftist views, including not only Marxism but also guild socialism, syndicalism, and anarchism. Since Russell was known to have spoken on all three ideas, was believed to have been an ardent guild socialist before his arrival in China, his trip generated enthusiasm not only among the 'liberals' who associated him with progressive individualist and libertarian values, but also among the various leftist groups. The Chinese also admired many of Russell's personal qualities : his near-heroic pacifism, his independence of thought and action, his advocacy of the ideal of world unity and his defiance of authority. The last trait was thoroughly compatible with the general Chinese new culture ideal of defiance. Russell came to China with a view to discovering what China's problems were ; but he also came with many preconceptions of what the best solutions would be. Throughout his life, Russell held two general convictions. The first was that political and economic problems could be solved by choosing and effecting the right economic system and the right political values. The second was that the right solutions would involve fundamental change which would be revolutionary unless action was taken to ensure an evolutionary path. A brief exposure to China's conditions convinced him that although his social ideas were correct in theory, they were inapplicable to China. Once in China, he talked, observed, argued and learned, so that his judgments changed as his information and understanding increased. Having visited Bolshevik Russia immediately prior to his trip to China, Russell was eager to expound on the evils of Bolshevism, but to separate this issue from socialism as a value construct. Russell and the Chinese began with different hopes and drew different conclusions from viewing the consequences of the Bolshevik Revolution. The question of revolution's 'humanity' was not a luxury in which the Chinese felt they could indulge. For Russell it became the key issue. What the Chinese socialists saw in the Russian Revolution was the existential possibility of complete and rapid change. Russell saw no need to wonder that revolution could occur. So he approached it instead from the perspective of morality : the Bolshevik method of industrialization exploited the worker. This increased Russell's skepticism about socialism as a method of industrializing. While Russell endorsed socialism as 'necessary to the world', his concern for morality caused him to condemn Bolshevik methods of establishing it. Russell recommended a form of state socialism for China, a system about which he was alternately cynical, hopeful, dubious, critical, and enthusiastic. Instead of a Western-style democracy or a Soviet-style socialism, Russell suggested that China had first to experience a government 'analogous to', but not the same as, the dictatorship of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. This analogous form of dictatorship, carried out by '10,000 resolute men' would presumably educate the people to recognize the incompatibility between capitalism and democracy, would carry out 'non-capitalistic' industrialization, and would re-invest profits for the benefit of the people. Russell's vision of the best form of government for China presupposed political reform, but reform was the prerequisite for economic reform : the Chinese had to establish a unified, strong, and honest state capable of governing China before they nationalized, permitting the right people to control the socialist economy. Russell's views on the role of socialism in industrialization provoked much controversy among China's intelligentsia, which was already debating these questions in 1920-21. Russell asserted that education had to precede socialism in China : power without wisdom was dangerous, as Bolshevik Russia demonstrated. Industrialization would provide the resources for mass education, and education would reveal the incompatibility between capitalism and democracy. If the capitalists kept control, they could preempt discussion of individual freedom, so that the people's awareness of the incompatibility between democracy and capitalism would have no active implications. The only solution then, said Russell, would be revolution. He counseled against foreign control of Chinese education which in the past had made Chinese students 'slavish toward Western education'. China should not depend, for leadership, on 'returned students' who would adopt many foreign perspectives. Finally, Chinese education should preserve the 'courtesy, the candor and the pacific temper' which are characteristic of the Chinese nation, together with a knowledge of Western science and its application to the practical problems of China. Russell's advice to continue the good aspects of Chinese education and culture, but to adopt Western science was difficult to implement, since Western science brought with it values not wholly compatible with traditional Chinese values. The events of the May fourth period indicated that, with China under militarist control, education remained nearly inseparable from politics. References to Russell's observations, long after his departure from China, are remarkable for two reasons. First, they indicate that while the major periodicals did not continue to publish articles on Russell's social and political ideas, people did continue to think about Russell and to read his books and articles. Second, it is what Russell said about the Chinese people that is remembered by the Chinese, not his solutions or proposals for action to reconstruct China. It was Russell as a traveler and an observer, someone who could, in the Chinese view, convey an accurate 8impression of China to the outside world, that left a lasting impression on the Chinese. 1987 Kuo Heng-yü : Bertrand Russell hält in China Vorlesungen über seine Philosophie, sowie Reden zu Theorie und Praxis des Bolschewismus und Chinas Weg zur Freiheit. Da er weltweit als Philosoph und Pazifist im Kampf gegen den Weltkrieg bekannt war, wurde er anfangs von fortschrittlichen Intellektuellen sehr begrüsst. Er gibt China den Rat, durch die 'Entwicklung des Erziehungswesens' das Bildungsniveau des Volkes zu heben und erst dann den Sozialismus zu praktizieren : "Hätte man diesen Stand nicht erreicht, und wollte dennoch den Sozialismus einführen, würde die Durchführung des Sozialismus und Kommunismus unvermeidlich scheitern". Zhang Dongsun nahm diese Worte zum Anlass und meinte, die dringendste Aufgabe Chinas läge darin, die Industrie aufzubauen und den Kapitalismus zu entwickeln, statt den Sozialismus zu propagieren und eine sozialistische Bewegung zu organisieren. Er schreibt : "Was den Bolschewismus betrifft, so fürchten wir nicht, dass er nicht verwirklicht wird, sondern dass er zu früh verwirklicht wird, so wie auch Russell es feststellte". 1994 Raoul Findeisen : The interest in Russell and his work had begun in China some time before the May fourth demonstrations and had risen to such an extent that Russell, upon his arrival in Shanghai Oct. 12 1920, was even celebrated as 'Confucius II'. There were many reasons for such an enthusiastic response, not least of course mutual sympathies. These sympathies had a solid basis : As many of the May fourth intellectuals, Russell had been much attracted by the foundation of the Soviet state in which he first saw, as the Chinese did, the 'utopia' of social equality and democracy realized. On the other hand, Russell's 'will of a system of philosophy' that would re-establish philosophy as a science of sciences fitted in perfectly well with the aim of Chinese students to acquire Western scientific methods. Highlight of this systematic effort are the Principia mathematica (1910-1913) and proposing formal logics as starting point for such a role of philosophy. The shock of World War I had also some similarities on boeth sides, with and Chinese and with Russell, and it was commonly known in China that Russell's pacifist activities had brought him to jail. Furthermore Russell's ethical commitment had certain common traits with the sill effective traditional Chinese image of the 'literatus' and civil servant. Finally Russell's rhetorical and didactic abilities perhaps made him more suitable than any other Western philosopher to quench the Chinese thirst for 'yang xue'. Especially the young generation of May fourth activists, who were interested in formal and logical problems of philosophy. They believed that a more systematic approach, to Western ideas as well as to their own tradition, would make their fight against traditional beliefs more effective and turn philosophy to practice. 2007 Ding Zijiang : Russell's contributions to philosophy were not accepted by Chinese inellectuals because his methods were too technical, too trivial, and totally different from traditional Chinese patterns of thinking. Russell's educational philosophy was not very influential in China. His 'school' is similar to the traditional Chinese private school. It even mimics the Confucian educational 'mode', which also includes a country estate for its setting, a modest tutorial staff, some servants, and a small group of students whose parents supported the project, where a demonstration of the application of Confucian theory could be carried on. There are three basic distinctions between Russell's school and a Confucian schools : (1) while the former emphasized freethinking, the latter did not ; (2) while the former had no discipline and penalty, the latter did ; and (3) while the former approved liberal sexual education, the latter did not. For Chinese new educators, the most important task was to save and reconstruct China through science, technology, industrialization, and democracy. They wanted to extend and develop a 'popular education' rather than an aristocratic education. For most of them, the urgent task was to enable their motherland to eliminate poverty, weakness, and backwardness. Therefore, for both Nationalists and Communists, nationalism and patriotism are more important than individualism and liberalism. For many Chinese intellectuals, Russell was a very enthusiastic and revolutionary social transformer. In his lecture at Beijing University, he treated himself as a Communist and stated that there would be real happiness and enjoyment after the realization of Communism. He said that he believed in many social claims made by Marxism. Later, different schools of Chinese intellectuals wanted to ask Russell to join their own 'fronts' or interpreted his theories to suit their own needs and images. The moderate reformers hoped that he would be a moderate reformer ; the anarchists hoped that he would be an anarchist ; the communists hoped that he would be a communist. |
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| 3 | 1920.06.30 |
On June 30 1920 Bertrand Russell was back in Battersea from his tour through the Soviet Union and found the Invitation to Bertrand Russell to lecture at Beijing University. Sponsored by the Jiang xue hui [Lecture Society], sent under the name of Fu Tong, Zhang Songnian and Liang Qichao. The invitation enclosed a letter from the Government University, Beijing to John Henry Muirhead : "Fu Tong would like Muirhead to ask Bertrand Russell to come to China for a year to give some lectures. Bertrand Russell would be paid 2000 pounds and his travelling expenses". The invitation seemed to express primary interest in Russell's theory on mathematics and logic and suggested that although the writer did not know precisely what Russell's social and political views were, he would be welcome to lecture on them as well as on his theoretical philosophy. The invitation was being sent primarily in recognition of Russell's achievement as philosopher. But it made explicit at least a secondary interest in Russell's view as a social reformer, and other Chinese connected with the invitation were clearly more concerned with social problems than with logic and epistemology. Russell required to address two different groups in China : 'social' and 'political' intellectuals, and philosophers. He had come prepared with 'purely academic lectures on psychology and the principles of physics'. Thus he was surprised to find upon his arrival in China that those who had invited him 'insisted' that he also lecture on social questions, and especially on Russia's experience with Bolshevism. Liang Qichao was as much interested in Russell's political views as in his theoretical philosophy. He was committed to bringing men such as Russell to China to talk about politics, even though he also hoped that Russell's concept of scientific method would have a beneficial impact on China. |
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| 4 | 1921 |
Liang, Qichao. Jiang xue she huan yi Luosu zhi sheng [ID D28358]. The liberal attitudes of Bertrand Russell's hosts were indicated in Liang Qichao's speech welcoming Russell to China. Here he undertook an explanation of the role of the Lecture Society within the May Fourth Movement. The Society, he said, was made up of many study groups, each of which could contribute to finding and effecting the right solutions to China's problems, even though no one of them had all the right answers. The Society was in search of theories, 'any theory as long as it has value' for advancing Chinese culture. Liang noted China’s willingness to import Western ideas and theoretical systems, even including those which had not yet been successfully implemented in Europe. China, he said, might be the best place to try new theories because it had advanced slowly and, unlike the Western nations, had not committed itself to a number of modern institutions. Thus it was free to experiment without extraordinary sacrifice. As Liang put it, the Society was like a large business firm looking at available patterns and samples and then deciding what to buy for its customers. |
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| 5 | 1921 |
Liang, Shuming. Dong xi wen hua ji qi zhe xue [ID D3086]. Liang's statement on language indicates why Bertrand Russell's scientific approach to the logic of language was not compatible with the Chinese view : in the West, language seeks clarity of definition, while in the East, language that is suggestive, that 'touches upon something without defining it' is preferred. He also noted the Chinese penchant for intuition over reason, and sentiment over utility, a distinct weakness of Chinese civilization, and yet also its 'redeeming virtue'. |
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| 6 | 1921.08.05 |
Ting, V.K. [Ding Wenjiang]. Letter to Peking Leader ; 5. Aug, 1921. Ting wrote that Bertrand Russell had made a 'profound' impression on those who heard his lectures on psychology, mathematics, and physics, 'for they realized for the first time that philosophy is nothing but the synthetic results of all the sciences and Mr. Russell's ideas of social reconstruction were the outcome of mature thinking. Ting implied that 'superficial' men, such as journalists, who were not prepared for, nor interested in, such technical lectures, erroneously concluded that others could not have found Russell of interest. He interpreted Russell's 'Farwell speech' as a clear mandate to the Chinese intellectual minority to be responsible for the reconstruction of China. |
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| 7 | 1921.08.07 |
Zhao, Yuanren. Letter to Peking Leader ; 7. Aug. 1921. "The Lecture Association would have found it worthwhile to invite Bertrand Russell if he had merely come to mingle with the present and future leaders of China to acquaint them with fair ways of thinking. His presence made dry as cotton books on abstract subjects sell like novels." Zhang noted that Russell's lectures were to be published for profit by several commercial presses, and that discussion circles 'were formed with a zeal as has rarely been shown on any occasions'. Russell's close contact with the 'returned students' led them to 'constructive thinking and doing'. Zhao contended that even Russell's 'opponents' (reactionaries) were unable to ignore Russell and had to be content with alleging that others 'ignored' him. Zhao noted the young Chinese leaders' disappointment that Russell could not completely deliver 'his more directly practical lectures', but his opponents were 'joyful' over it. |
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| 8 | 1942-1943 |
Jiang, Menglin. Xi chao. [Über Bertrand Russell]. [ID D28409]. It was due to Bertrand Russell that young minds began to get interested in principles of social reconstruction, which roused them against both religion and imperialism, is highly inaccurate. First, the exploration of the question of social reconstruction was the major theme of the May Fourth Period, and Russell was invited to China in part because his social philosophy responded to the questions the Chinese were already asking. Second, Chinese antipathy toward religion long antedated Russell's visit. (The Boxer Rebellion in 1900 was in part an anti-Christian movement; and anti-Confucianism, to the extent that Confucianism may be called a religion, was part of the fabric of the May Fourth Movement.) And third, hostility toward imperialism was as old as nineteenth-century gun-boat diplomacy and was exacerbated further by events of the early twentieth century, including particularly the results of the Versailles Peace Settlement of 1919. The Chinese did not need Russell to stimulate their ire against imperialism. |
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| 9 | 1980 |
Du, Renzhi. Bodeyang Luosu [Bertrand Russell]. [ID D28415]. Du Renzhi's extensive review of Bertrand Russell's career in philosophy, his political activities, and his ideas about society fails to mention that Russell ever went to China in 1920-1921. Russell's book 'Bolshevism' is dismissed as 'reactionary', and although it is recognized that he also criticized the capitalist system, he is still considered a supporter of it, a philosopher who was never able to rise above his class background (except on the issue of individual freedom). Philosophically, Russell is termed a 'subjective idealist' (as opposed to 'materialist'), and on social questions he is called a 'capitalist class libertarian'. |
Sources (6)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1921 | Liang, Qichao. Jiang xue she huan yi Luosu zhi sheng. In : Luosu yüe kan ; no 1 (1921). [Betr. Bertrand Russell]. | Publication / Russ233 | |
| 2 | 1921 |
Chu, Shiying. Luosu. In : Luosu yüe kan ; no 1 (1921). [Artikel über Bertrand Russell]. 羅素 |
Publication / Russ268 | |
| 3 | 1922 | [Russell, Bertrand. On the special characteristics of the Chinese national character]. In : Dong fang za zhi ; Vol. 19, no 1 (1922). [Chinesischer Titel nicht gefunden]. | Publication / Russ135 |
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| 4 | 1942-1943 |
Jiang, Menglin. Xi chao. (Xianggang : Mo jian tang, 1949?). [Geschrieben 1942-1943]. [Betr. Bertrand Russell]. 西潮 |
Publication / Russ284 | |
| 5 | 1980 |
Du, Renzhi. Bodeyang Luosu. In : Du, Renzhi. Xian dai xi fang zhu ming zhe xue jia shu ping. (Beijing : Sheng huo, du shu, xin zhi san lian shu dian, 1980). [Bertrand Russell]. 现代西方著名哲学家述评 |
Publication / Russ290 | |
| 6 | 2012 | Zhang, Songnian [Zhang, Shenfu]. Shi pian Luosu ji kan zhu zuo mu lu. In : Xin qing nian ; vol. 8, no 3 (1920). [Bibliography of Bertrand Russell’s published writings]. | Publication / Russ323 |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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