Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper is a working draft of the first substantive chapter of my book project, which examines the political theory of the early twentieth century thinker Zhang Shizhao (1881-1973). In the manuscript, I argue that Zhang’s theorization of political action under conditions of political collapse draws attention to an often overlooked problem in political theory: namely, how individuals may act efficaciously and non-coercively before collective action with others on however minimal a shared goal is even possible. A member of a key transitional generation in China, Zhang received a traditional Confucian education in his youth, but by adulthood had turned to learning Western political theory as a means of uncovering the secrets of European and American “wealth and power.” Long regarded by historians as a British-style “classical liberal,” Zhang in fact engages a far greater range of thinkers and concerns—including traditional Chinese ones—that belie any particular political agenda.

In this chapter, I explore how Zhang confronts the problems in founding a self-ruling regime without presuming the emergence either of a benevolent Lawgiver or of spontaneous consensus. Contemporary Euro-American political theorists, themselves usually citizens of mature democracies, often theorize the paradox of founding as a motif of the circularity of politics or of the ongoing, daily contestation of legitimacy in already-established regimes. Because founding is an actual historical event for Zhang, however, he cannot disavow its paradoxes by pretending that they can be resolved in the process of everyday political action. Seeking to realize an architectonic vision of political life that encompassed not only himself, but also an entire community who had not spontaneously converged on that vision, Zhang re-thinks the possibility of transformative founding action using a variety of resources culled from Chinese political experience and theory. These possibilities inform his advocacy of those specific practices—including self-awareness, the use of one’s talent, and accommodation of difference—that in later chapters I develop as part of Zhang’s theory of individual political action.