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| Zhang Taiyan’s Interpretation of Taoist and Legalist Political Philosophy around the 1911 Revolution |
| Wang Rui |
| Department of History, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241 |
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Abstract Around the time of the 1911 Revolution， Zhang Taiyan expressed his political criticism through novel interpretations of the preQin Taoist and Legalist thoughts. A particular target of his was the representative system since the late Qing Dynasty， which had been advocated by Huang Zongxi， popularly known as the pioneering theorist of Chinese democracy. Based on Lao Zi’s idea of “the disregard of the wise，” Zhang argued that instead of a total abandonment of civilization， Lao Zi was hinting at more Legalist and more objective standards in the selection of officials. He thus asserted that Huang’s proposals， dwelling upon subjective criteria， would only lead to misgovernment rather than the true rule of law. On the other hand， Zhang was also aware of the limitations of Legalism in the overreach of the state power. He drew upon Zhuang Zi’s theory of uniformity and emphasized an explicit check of such power. Jian Lun was where Zhang tried to reconcile the Taoist and Legalist thinking in search for a genuine rule of law that could safeguard the interest of the mass. Without tearing tradition apart from modernity，Zhang was attempting to reinterpret past Chinese ideas and illuminate on their contemporary relevance.
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Received: 23 January 2018
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2018, Vol. 57 
