Chapter One. Introduction: Zhang Taiyan And Chinese Modernity

Abstract

This introductory chapter gives an overview of the present book. Zhang Taiyan entered the discursive world of the late Qing as a nationalist and eventually judged this world as alienating and attempted to negate it. Chapter Two analyzes Zhang's anti-Manchu discourse in relation to Kang Youwei's Confucian narrative of the nation-state that includes both the Han and the Manchus. Chapter Three compares Liang Qichao's and Zhang Taiyan's respective uses of Buddhism and shows how Zhang developed a critical use of Yogacara Buddhism. Chapter Four examines Zhang's Buddhist theory of history. Chapter Five examines Zhang's critique of the concepts of equality and the universal principle ( gongli ). Together the various chapters aim to show Zhang's movement to increasingly abstract and critical thought, while at the same time situating his writings in terms of his debates with reformers such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, and events in his personal life.Keywords: anti-Manchu discourse; gongli; Kang Youwei; Yogacara Buddhism; Zhang Taiyan