Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei

Kāng Yǒuwéi ( Chinese  康有為  /  康有为 ; born March 19, 1858 near Canton , Canton Province , † March 31, 1927 in Qingdao ) was a leading Chinese reformer, educator and philosopher.

biography

Thanks to his descent from a family of high-ranking civil servants, Kang Youwei received a classical education from the start, but he had to give up his studies prematurely at the age of 20 due to a crisis. After a period of reflection in a monastery - which brought about a profound change in his attitude towards life - he deepened his studies with a focus on geography, history and Buddhism. Travels to Hong Kong in 1879 and to Shanghai in 1882 took him to the Chinese territories under foreign administration.

When he began to write down his criticism of the existing administrative system and the resulting weakness of China vis-à-vis foreign states, he addressed a letter to the heads of state, which was intercepted by state officials whose goodwill he met. In a publication in 1891 he voiced criticism of the authenticity of the Confucian writings, which was indignantly rejected but led to their content being questioned.

Four years later he received a scholarly title as part of the classic selection system and used this ascent to write a second memorandum, which he presented to the other exam participants for signature. He not only attacked Chinese foreign policy, but also called for the state leadership and administration to be restructured. Although this document was not delivered to its addressee, it led to Kang Youwei's assignment in the Ministry of Public Service.

By founding a company and a magazine, he first tried to propagate his ideas and found supporters among young intellectuals. However, they met with a negative response from the government and resulted in a ban on this type of activity. As a result of increasing pressure from foreign governments on China, Kang Youwei decided to write a third letter to the emperor, with reform proposals for almost all areas of life, whereupon he was granted a series of audiences in 1898, which led to the emperor having one from June 11, 1898 Issued a series of decrees aimed at reforms in education, economy and administration, later called the Hundred Day Reform . As the name suggests, this reform was unsuccessful. Dowager Empress Cixi , with the support of Military Commander Yuan Shikai, seized power, reversed reforms and executed a number of reform leaders, including Kang's brother and reformist Tan Sitong . Kang Youwei and his colleague Liang Qichao barely managed to escape to Japan .

From there his journey took him on to Great Britain and Canada , with a society for the protection of the emperor he sought support from the ranks of the Chinese overseas . From Hong Kong he organized an attack on Cixi in 1900, which failed. Again he went abroad, this time to Indonesia and India . In various writings he presented possibilities for a restructuring of the government. In contrast to Sun Yat-sen , he did not see the future of China in the abolition of the monarchy in favor of a republic - however, in view of the imperial government's lack of willingness and ability to respond appropriately to the needs of the population, Sun Yat-sen's ideas were more widely accepted . When the revolution broke out in 1911, Kang Youwei stuck to a continuation of the monarchical form of government.

It was not until 1913 that Kang Youwei returned to China . When the newly installed government was again exposed to attacks and Yuan Shikai sought to take over the position of emperor, Kang Youwei resisted. Instead, Puyi's enthronement as emperor after the death of Yuan Shikai was a result of his efforts. The new emperor was deposed after just thirteen days, and Kang Youwei found refuge in the United States Embassy just in time .

Kang Youwei still persisted in promoting his form of reorganizing the state. Eventually he settled in Shanghai . Until his death, the propagation of his teachings and writings was limited to a small circle of followers.

Fonts

• Studies of the Forgery of Classics by Scholars of the Wang Mang Period, 1891
• Studies of Confucius as a Reformer , 1897
• Travel records from eleven European countries, 1904
• National salvation through economic development, 1905
• Book of the Great Community, 1902 (written in 1902, published in full in 1913 and 1929, published in full in 1935)

German edition

• K'ang Yu-wei: Ta T'ung Shu. The Book of the Great Community. [Ed. d. engl. Ed .: Laurence G. Thompson. From d. Engl. Transl. by Horst Kube. Ed. D. German edition: Wolfgang Bauer]. M. e. Preface v. Wolfgang Bauer . Düsseldorf, Cologne: Diederichs, 1974 (= Diederichs Yellow Series , Vol. 3 China). ISBN 3-424-00503-7

literature

• Richard C. Howard: K'ang Yu-wei (1858-1927): His Intellectual Background and Early Thought , in AF Wright and Denis Twitchett (Eds.): Confucian Personalities . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962, pp. 294-316 and 382-386 (notes).
• Richard C. Howard: The early life and thought of K'ang Yu-wei, 1858-1927 (1972). Ph.D. Columbia University.
• Rebecca Karl and Peter Zarrow (eds.): Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period - Political and Cultural Change in Late Qing China (2002). Cambridge / Mass .: Harvard University Press, esp. pp. 24-33.
• Laurence G. Thompson: Ta t'ung shu: the one-world philosophy of K'ang Yu-wei (1958 ). London: George Allen and Unwin, esp. pp. 37-57.
• Peter Zarrow: “The rise of Confucian radicalism” , in Zarrow, Peter: China in war and revolution, 1895–1949 (New York: Routledge), 2005, 12–29.
• W. Franke: The state-political reform attempts K'ang Yu-weis u. his school. A contribution to the intellectual confrontation between China and the West (in communication from the Seminar for Oriental Languages, Bln. 38, 1935, No. 1, pp. 1–83).
• K'ang Yu-wei: A Biography and a Symposium , Ed. Lo Jung-pang, Tucson 1967 (The Association for Asian Studies: Monographs and Papers, Vol. 23).
• G. Sattler-v. Sivers: The reform movement of 1898 (in China's great change. Revolutionary movements in the 19th and 20th centuries, Ed. PJ Opitz, Mchn. 1972, pp. 55–81).
• Chi Wen-shun: K'ang Yu-wei (1858-1927) (in The Sons of the Dragon. China's Path from Confucianism to Communism, Ed. PJ Opitz, Mchn. 1974, pp. 83-109).
• Hsiao Kung-chuan: A Modern China and a New World: K'ang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian, 1858-1927 , Seattle 1975.
• Kuang Bailin: Kang Youwei di zhexue sixiang , Beijing 1980.
• Wuxu weixin yundong shi lunji, ed. Hu Shengwu, Changsha 1983.
• Tang Zhijun: Kang Youwei yu wuxu bianfa , Beijing 1984. - Ders., Wuxu bianfa shi, Beijing 1984.
• Chang Hao: Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis. Search for Order and Meaning (1890-1911) , Berkeley 1987.

Web links

Commons : Kang Youwei  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files