Japanese Bibliography by Kang Youwei: The Origins of the Modernization of Chinese Thought. Kang Youwei, Japanese Bibliography. Foreword, Trans. from Chinese into Russian and Comm. by Dmitry E. Martynov

Abstract

The article examines the evolution of the worldview of the outstanding Chi­nese reformer and philosopher Kang Youwei (1858–1927) in the second half of the 1890s. The “Japanese Bibliography” compiled by him in 1897 was a land­mark work for the perception of modern scientific terminology in China, and at the same time indicates that on the eve of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei still remained in the position of Neo-Confucianism, did not try to synthesize Confucian concepts with contemporary scientific picture of the world and Darwinian evolutionary theory. The preface to the Japanese Bibliography proves that the process of formulating the philosophy of history and the basic law of history (change of the Three Eras) by Kang Youwei was far from com­pleted, and he did not use the concept of the Great Unity (Da Tong). Kang Youwei stated that the scientific and technological superiority of the Western Powers is secondary, but the primary thing is the world “battle of minds”, in which countries that have embarked on the path of catching-up development have a chance to overtake the former hegemons. An example is given of Imperial Japan, whose intellectuals were able to synthesize Western philosophy with East­ern thinking and hieroglyphic writing. To accelerate the Westernization of China, the apologist of which was then Kang Youwei, Japanese experience should be fully used, including already completed translations of scientific and technical literature into Japanese. When compiling the Bibliography, Kang Youwei was not yet able to propose an original taxonomy of scientific knowledge and used ready-made samples. A radical change in his thinking came only at the beginning of the twentieth century.