4. Historical Background of Early Kuomintang Period 1 Chinese Nationalism
4.2 The Three Principles of the People
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well as define and construct the national culture. First and foremost though, the KMT had the very specific political objective of creating a sovereign Chinese state, and this involved bargaining with or subduing the various warlords who controlled vast swathes of land. As such, political reform, promotion of political ideology, and even infrastructure and economic affairs often took a backseat to military concerns. Rather than looking at the KMT’s various military campaigns or evaluating their governance in China, this section will focus on the ideological component of the KMT’s nation-building efforts. In particular, how did the KMT define what it meant to be Chinese? What did it mean to be a good citizen of the Republic of China? What were the values and symbols of the new republic? Examining the KMT state-building efforts in China and their conceptions of Chinese nationalism can help to understand the ideas that pervaded postwar education in Taiwan.
4.2 The Three Principles of the People
The KMT faced the challenge of having to create a new system of universal values that could replace the old hierarchical order. There was not only competition among various armed groups, but there was a competition of ideas. Well before the founding of the KMT, ideas on what the future of China would look like were already being developed.
The ideologies behind the 1911 revolution were rooted in the political thought of the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-Sen. More specifically, Sun’s political philosophy known as the Three Principles of the People (sānmín zhǔyì 三民主義) would come to embody the goals and principles of the ROC. The principles were first outlined in 1905 and evolved slightly over time but essentially took on their final form after a series of lectures by Sun in 1924. After Sun’s death other KMT leaders, most notably Chiang Kai-Shek, contributed to the party ideology, but Sun’s core ideas remained dominant. Even to this day, Sun’s principles still remain the official ideology of the ROC and KMT (Yu 1991, 896).
The first of the three principles is nationalism (mínzú zhǔyì 民族主義). Initially, this nationalism was defined only in terms of the Han race (hànzú 漢族) in opposition to the
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Manchus. However, by the time the struggle against the Qing empire was winding down in 1911, Sun’s nationalism had become associated with racial assimilation and uniting all of China’s ethnic groups under one common identity. Moreover, to Sun the strengthening of the Chinese national spirit was vital to the survival of the Chinese race and restoring China to its former glory. This is unsurprising, especially when considering the historical backdrop: a legacy of foreign aggression, anti-imperialist sentiment, and the very clear and present threat of further encroachment by foreign powers. Interestingly, Sun, who had spent much of his life overseas and was himself a product of Western learning, looked to traditional Chinese values as the basis for Chinese nationalism. Sun believed that Chinese civilization and morality was innately superior and that values such as loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, justice, etc. could bind the Chinese nation together (Yu 1991, 898). Indeed, in creating his political philosophy, his most important intellectual inspiration was the teachings of Confucius. Confucianism provided nationalism with a moral foundation, and traditional ideas were employed to support more practical policies and meet the immediate needs of the state (Gregor 1981, 61-65). Linking Chinese nationalism to traditional Chinese values would have very important implications for the future of the ROC, especially with regard to the education system.
The second principle, democracy (mínquán zhǔyì 民權主義), was to provide the model of governance for the ROC. While initially there was disagreement about how political modernization was to be pursued, there was a consensus in favor of a republican government. A government based on rule of law and legitimized by a constitution was one of the ideas that commanded universal support among the revolutionaries. The new republican government would have five branches and also blended modern and traditional ideas. Three branches were adapted from the American model (executive, legislative, and judicial branches) and two branches from Chinese tradition. The examination branch, based on the old imperial examination system, oversees the selection of civil servants, and the control branch or censorate maintains oversight over the other branches to guard against corruption and inefficiency (Clough 1996, 1056-1058). While all were committed to the end goal of a constitutional democracy, there was some debate on how best to reach that goal. Eventually though, Sun’s conception of a gradual,
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stage process of political development would become part of the KMT party doctrine.
The three stages of revolution, as they were known, were pulled from Sun’s broader plan of national reconstruction. The first stage was to be a period of military government, during which military force would be used to unify China. Sun stated that the second stage was to be a transitional period, in which “…the revolutionary government will exercise the right of political tutelage in accordance with the provisional constitution”
(De Bary et al. 2000, 328-330). Essentially, during this period people would receive training from the KMT state in the administration of local government. The third and final stage of the revolution was to be the introduction of constitutional government, complete with the people’s rights of election, initiative, referendum, and recall. While perhaps not as powerful an idea as nationalism, Sun’s ideas on democracy called for a powerful, well-organized party-state. This, along with the proposed period of political tutelage, would also have important consequences for Taiwanese society.
The people’s livelihood (mínshēng zhǔyì 民生主義) is the third and last of the Three Principles of the People. Here, the word livelihood is used to indicate the well-being of the people, and this entailed massive changes to China’s economic and social systems.
Sun’s recipe for economic and social modernization had several components, including reform of the education system, development of agriculture, enhanced exploitation of natural resources, and construction of modern transport and communication systems which would aid industry and commerce (Yu 1991, 901-902). This would be carried out by way of adoption of Western technology and ideas. In addition, equalization of land ownership, social distribution of wealth, and national control over certain sectors of the economy were also important elements of the modernization program. While the people’s livelihood model for socioeconomic progress tended towards socialism, capitalism was not rejected outright. Sun and others wanted to guard against the inequalities of capitalism, while at the same time encouraging private entrepreneurship and ownership and seeking foreign investment (Yu 1991, 902-904). Again, such a program of reform called for a strong and centralized state. At the same though, the plan also demonstrates some of the social values of the KMT.
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The Three Principles of the People highlight the KMT’s political goals but also indicated the intent to massively expand state capacity and to intervene in various aspects of society. Perhaps most important though, was the idea that the state alone is capable of deciding national interests. The state was to be “the political embodiment of the national will, acting for the common good” (Fitzgerald 1990, 325-326). The state was also to define the national culture and the role of citizens in working for this common good. The education system thus became an important channel through which the KMT could promote its ideologies. To better understand the education system and curriculum of postwar Taiwan, it is helpful to see how the KMT first promoted its ideas in China prior to the outbreak of war.