“Protecting the Civilized World” via “Protecting the State”: The Civilization-State Rebuilding Project in Zhang Zhidong’s The Only Hope of China

Abstract: Zhang Zhidong’s The Only Hope of China (《劝学篇》) provides a significant horizon for us to observe the evolution of Chinese modern political thought. However, the two mainstreams in the current literature, either depicting The Only Hope of China as a transitional work between the old and new ages, the Dead-hard Conservatives and Reformists, or evaluating the pros and cons of its political and educational programs according to the norms of modern nation-state, failed to grasp the theoretical feature of The Only Hope of China itself. Turning back to the text and inner logic of The Only Hope of China, this article describes its strategic insight into the distinction between China and the West, analyzes its civilizational logic of protecting the Chinese “civilized world-state” system, comments on its educational program of introducing the school system and reforming the imperial examination system, and highlights its theoretical approach of “protecting the civilized world” by “protecting the state”. Only through this analysis, the features of the Chinese civilization-state rebuilding strategy in The Only Hope of China could be illuminated.