Crescent Moon School: the poets, poetry, and poetics of a modern conservative intellectual group in Republican China

The Crescent Moon School (新月派Xinyue pai) is a Chinese intellectual group that was active from 1923 to 1934. Its members include Xu Zhimo 徐志摩(1897-1931), Hu Shi 胡适 (1891-1962), Liang Shiqiu 梁实秋(1903-1987), Wen Yiduo 闻一多(1899-1946), Luo Longji 罗隆基(1896-1965), and many other Anglo-American educated scholars in the Republican era. Although the group was engaged in various activities, poetry was their primary concern and their most notable practice. This thesis intends to solve two problems: 1) what common values or core spirit guided the various cultural practices of the group? 2) what are the poetic features and underlying poetics of the group as a whole? To answer the two questions, this thesis firstly examines the core spirit of the group by reviewing their activities and historical development. It argues that underlying the various activities and facts, there was a core spirit shared by the group. This core spirit, which I refer to as the “modern conservative spirit”, reflected a unique understanding of modernity that was different from that of the May Fourth discourse. They understood modernity not as a negation of tradition, but as a critical synthesis and mutual conformity between the old and the new, the local and the global. I show how the Crescent Moon intellectuals acquired this core spirit, and how it was displayed in their various activities. Secondly, this thesis provides detailed textual analysis of several Crescent Moon poems and reconstructs their poetics. It argues that their poetics demonstrated three faces, i.e. a romantic temperament, a classic ideal, and a modern consciousness. The three faces coexisted throughout the poetic practice of the group, although a certain face might have dominated in a certain period. I demonstrate how the three faces were unified under the guidance of the modern conservative spirit, and I argue that the simultaneousness of the three faces embodied the modern conservative intellectuals’ pursuit of literary modernity. By discussing the core spirit and poetics of the Crescent Moon School, this thesis concludes that the group was a missing link in Republican modern conservative trend, linking the late 1910s and early 1920s neotraditionalist thinkers with the mid-1930s Beijing School writers. The modern conservative intellectuals represented a dissenting voice in the Republican era, but they were also committed pursuers of modernity and cosmopolitanism

Pride and Loathing in History

This research examines three intellectual approaches in contemporary China to the question of cultural identity by focusing on the discourse of national character, which has been employed by cultural critics to attribute China's “lack of modernity” to the perseverance of Confucian tradition and the psychological makeup of Chinese people. Whereas critics attempt to modernize people's thoughts, even at the risk of being seen as betrayals of their own past; philosopher Chen Lai and historian Qin Hui have made different efforts to prevent Confucianism and cultural tradition from being targeted as the scapegoat of China's problems. Chen stresses historical and cultural continuity; Qin rejects what he sees as cultural determinism in the national character discourse. The national character discourse is intertwined with sentiments of pride and loathing towards history, and the intellectual tendency to correct such an attitude is characterized by emotions no less profound. All three schools of thought share a crisis mentality and a sense of historical responsibility. This research argues that Chinese intellectual assertions of the intrinsic value of cultural tradition should not simply be viewed as a manifestation of cultural nationalism, but as voices to reject a cultural metamorphosis and a rectification of self-negation and self-orientalization.CSC, LUFAsian Studie

Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950

Parliaments are often seen as Western European and North American institutions and their establishment in other parts of the world as a derivative and mostly defective process. This book challenges such Eurocentric visions by retracing the evolution of modern institutions of collective decision-making in Eurasia. Breaching the divide between different area studies, the book provides nine case studies covering the area between the eastern edge of Asia and Eastern Europe, including the former Russian, Ottoman, Qing, and Japanese Empires as well as their successor states. In particular, it explores the appeals to concepts of parliamentarism, deliberative decision-making, and constitutionalism; historical practices related to parliamentarism; and political mythologies across Eurasia. It focuses on the historical and “reestablished” institutions of decision-making, which consciously hark back to indigenous traditions and adapt them to the changing circumstances in imperial and postimperial contexts. Thereby, the book explains how representative institutions were needed for the establishment of modernized empires or postimperial states but at the same time offered a connection to the past

Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950

Parliaments are often seen as Western European and North American institutions and their establishment in other parts of the world as a derivative and mostly defective process. This book challenges such Eurocentric visions by retracing the evolution of modern institutions of collective decision-making in Eurasia. Breaching the divide between different area studies, the book provides nine case studies covering the area between the eastern edge of Asia and Eastern Europe, including the former Russian, Ottoman, Qing, and Japanese Empires as well as their successor states. In particular, it explores the appeals to concepts of parliamentarism, deliberative decision-making, and constitutionalism; historical practices related to parliamentarism; and political mythologies across Eurasia. It focuses on the historical and “reestablished” institutions of decision-making, which consciously hark back to indigenous traditions and adapt them to the changing circumstances in imperial and postimperial contexts. Thereby, the book explains how representative institutions were needed for the establishment of modernized empires or postimperial states but at the same time offered a connection to the past

Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950: Concepts, Practices, and Mythologies

Parliaments are often seen as Western European and North American institutions and their establishment in other parts of the world as a derivative and mostly defective process. This book challenges such Eurocentric visions by retracing the evolution of modern institutions of collective decision-making in Eurasia. Breaching the divide between different area studies, the book provides nine case studies covering the area between the eastern edge of Asia and Eastern Europe, including the former Russian, Ottoman, Qing, and Japanese Empires as well as their successor states. In particular, it explores the appeals to concepts of parliamentarism, deliberative decision-making, and constitutionalism; historical practices related to parliamentarism; and political mythologies across Eurasia. It focuses on the historical and “reestablished” institutions of decision-making, which consciously hark back to indigenous traditions and adapt them to the changing circumstances in imperial and postimperial contexts. Thereby, the book explains how representative institutions were needed for the establishment of modernized empires or postimperial states but at the same time offered a connection to the past

Conceptions of Chinese Democracy

Close attention to the writings of the founding fathers of the Republic of China on Taiwan shows that democracy is indeed compatible with Chinese culture.Conceptions of Chinese Democracy provides a coherent and critical introduction to the democratic thought of three fathers of modern Taiwan—Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Ching-kuo—in a way that is accessible and grounded in broader traditions of political theory.David J. Lorenzo’s comparative study allows the reader to understand the leaders’ democratic conceptions and highlights important contradictions, strengths, and weaknesses that are central to any discussion of Chinese culture and democratic theory. Lorenzo further considers the influence of their writings on political theorists, democracy advocates, and activists on mainland China.Students of political science and theory, democratization, and Chinese culture and history will benefit from the book's substantive discussions of democracy, and scholars and specialists will appreciate the larger arguments about the influence of these ideas and their transmission through time