Author ｜
Wang Fan-san
Abstract ｜
This paper discusses the introduction of “ism,” a concept foreign to the Chinese tradition, to China and how it gradually came to replace the New Culture movement, developing into an exceedingly powerful new discourse in political thought. This paper examines this process through four distinct phases. This paper discusses the first phase in terms of birth and development of “ism” in Japan and how it became a “precious treasure,” while also examining the dissemination of “ism” across East Asia. In terms of usage, this section will also survey the transformation from dao 道 to“ism.” Before “ism” had not translated into Western “-ism” terms, peopleusually employed Chinese characters such as dao to render such ideas. Forinstance, the general translation for socialism was gongyong zhi dao 公用之道 (the socialist way). Dao is a rather traditional and inclusive concept, but “ism” on the other hand, at least from the term itself, expresses a sense of uniformity, exclusivity, and determinism, connoting stubborn advocacy and drive. The second phase began at the start of the twentieth century and ended at the dawn of the New Culture movement, during which “ism”gradually came to dominate intellectual life. When people used the term“ism” or discussed “isms,” they were essentially employing the model of modern Western democracy as a way to distinguish modern politics from traditional politics. They understood that modern party politics rested on competing “isms” and that modern political figures were politicians who adhered to a consistent “ism.”The third phase of the discourse on “ism” spanned the New Culture and May Fourth movements. During this period, people declared that,“having an ‘ism’ is better than not having one,” and many instances of“ism-ization” appeared. In addition, there were several other noteworthy developments. Changes regarding the ideal world, the transformation of society, and the concept of social revolution overtook the literary and ethical revolutions earlier propounded by the New Culture movement. As well, a new ideal of society—a new society created outside of existing society—widened the gulf between the ideal and reality. Influenced by the success of the 1911 Revolution, the younger generation believed that ideals could be realized through the power of organization, that nothing in this world is impossible, and even the most beautiful realm can become reality as long as someone is willing to advocate for it.The fourth and final stage of this discourse began in the 1920s with the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Sun Yat-sen adopted the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a model, and the Soviet trinity of “ism, party, and party army” became the new vision of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT). The new face of “ism” thus held that a country can only hold a single “ism” and a single party, and that this one-party system, in which a single party rules the country and controls the army, embodied a “new power.”
keywords ｜
ism, ism-ization, Three Principles of the People, Bolshevism