DISSERTATION PROJECT

Utopia – Dystopia.
Beneficent and Adverse Visions of the Future in Late Qing and Early Republican China (ca. 1885–1915)

Existing literature on Zhang Taiyan’s 章太炎 (1869 – 1936) future visions has focused on his political thoughts influenced by various philosophical and religious contexts. His essays such as Jufen jinhua lun 俱分進化論 (1906), Wuwu lun 五無論 (1907), and Sihuo lun 四惑論 (1908) present his pessimistic view on the concept “evolution” (jinhua 進化), influenced by Yogacara Buddhism. During these years, Zhang exerted himself in studying and teaching classical philology and the history of China. How did his expertise in these fields shape his future visions? How did he develop these through debates with his contemporaries? This research explores Zhang’s future visions for the language in China and its education, examining his debates with contemporaries like Kang Youwei (1858–1927) 康有爲 and the journal Xin Shiji 新世紀. Examining Zhang’s essays such as Bo zhongguo yong wanguo xinyu shuo 駁中國用萬國新語說 (1908), I will explicate that his conceptualization of “evolution” is rooted in the diversity of regional dialects and the transformation of written and spoken language in China, and that they shaped his utopian (and dystopian) future visions. I argue that Zhang’s conceptualizations of historical time and his concrete proposal for language reform reflect his insights on the uniqueness of the Chinese language and its history.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

Presentations

• “Utopia – Dystopia. Beneficent and Adverse Visions of the Future in Late Qing and Early Republican China (ca. 1885–1915)”. Preliminary Results & Proposal Workshop, Research Training Group GRK 2833 “East Asian Futures”, Bochum, Germany, Jul 3, 2026.