38
society versus politics that underlie them. Zhang nevertheless shares with them a belief in the
decisive role played by the mental and moral orientations of individuals in transforming the
socio-political environment, even as he extends this logic to include institutional as well as moral
transformations. This belief in the efficacious political potency of individuals made Zhang
skeptical of a pure reliance on institutional changes to achieve political reform, even as it
suggested other, non-coercive ways in which a constitutional, self-ruling republic could be
brought about.
Zhang‘s reconstructed ―rule by man‖ position does not elide inter-subjective elements or
impositions of political forms, but it does frame politics in a way that is not always concerned to
build majorities or gather together allies to one‘s cause. Most prominently, Zhang‘s approach to
politics does not turn on a belief that such action must always be collective action, because he
realizes that collective action itself presumes either a founding, or a long series of prior
commitments and practices to make it possible. The activities that Zhang does go on to identify
as political action—self-awareness, the self-use of talent, and accommodation—appear
disorganized and tentative, in which he expects uncoordinated individual action at the local level
to paradoxically cumulate in institutions and discernable collective patterns. The insight here,
however, is that while ―global‖ processes often remain beyond the reach of one individual, local
environments are almost always tractable in some degree to individual control.
These local interventions have multiple dimensions that span the space within as much as
between persons and their material environments. I begin describing what those interventions
may look like by examining Zhang‘s concept of ―self-awareness‖ or zijue (自覺) in Chapter 2.
By ―self-awareness,‖ I take Zhang to mean the realization by individuals that their actions and
mental orientations can constitute the foundation for wider socio-political change. I draw
Convention