Shifu, Soul of Chinese Anarchism

Edward S. Krebs

doi:10.5771/9781461642305

Summary

The most comprehensive study of Shifu available, this valuable work explores the life and political milieu of a central figure in Republican China. Born in 1884, Shifu was brought down in 1915 by overwork, poverty, and tuberculosis. Yet during that short span, he became the most influential anarchist of his time. Drawing on a wealth of primary source material, Krebs provides an intellectual biography of this committed revolutionary and analyzes the importance of Shifu's thought during the New Culture-May Fourth years as his followers fought for influence with the Marxists and later over the issue of alliance with the Nationalists. Placing Shifu's life within the dynamic intellectual and political currents of the time, the author describes Shifu's early work as an assassin within the anti-Qing movement. Examining the influence on Shifu of Confucianism and Buddhism, Krebs highlights reform Buddhism's close relationship with revolutionary activism. Most significantly, Shifu's unflagging work to propagate anarchism during the early years of the Republic and his interactions with other socialists reveal a hitherto unknown level of activity among socialist revolutionaries. This important book thus offers fresh insights not only into the anarchist movement itself, but into the broader history of Chinese socialism as well.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 1998
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8476-9015-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4616-4230-5
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 291
Product type: Book Titles

1. Table of Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
3. A Note on Romanization and Usages No access
1. "Daring to Die": A Life of Shifu No access Pages 1 - 14
1. European Anarchism and its Influence in China, No access
2. The Late Qing Intellectual Environment, No access
3. Ways in to Anarchism, No access
1. The Tactic of Assassination and "Proto-Anarchism", No access
2. Liu Sifu's Assassination Attempt in 1907, No access
1. On Han Learning and National Essence in the Prison Essays, No access
2. Themes in the Prison Essays, No access
3. Buddhism in Liu's Evolving Values, No access
4. Conclusion, No access
1. Emergence of the Group Style in Assassination, 1910-11, No access
2. Liu and the China Assassination Corps, No access
3. The Assassination of Fengshan and Political Transition in Guangzhou and Guangdong, No access
4. Assassination and the Qing Abdication, No access
5. Liu Sifu in Early 1912, on the Verge of Anarchism, No access
1. On the Terminology of Early Chinese Socialism, No access
2. Jiang Kanghu and the Chinese Socialist Party, No access
3. Taixu, Buddhist Reformer and Political Activist, No access
4. Buddhism in the Revolutionary Thought of the Early Republic, No access
1. The Retreat at West Lake, No access
2. The Conscience Society Covenant, No access
3. Commencing Propaganda Activity in Guangzhou, No access
4. Living the Anarchist Faith, No access
5. The Cock-Crow Group's Rural Commune Project, No access
6. Launching the Cock-Crow Record, No access
7. Flight from Guangzhou, No access
1. Relocation and its Consequences, No access
2. A New Statement of Principles, No access
3. Shifu's Attacks on Sun Zhongshan and Jiang Kanghu, No access
4. The "State Socialism" Issue and the Image of Marx, No access
5. The End of a Brief Career, No access
6. Shifu's Anarchism: Some Final Comments on Theory and Practice, No access
1. Voice of the People after Shifu, No access
2. Shifu's Broader Appeal and "Shifu-ism," No access
3. Anarchism, Shifu, and the Early Mao Zedong, No access
4. Anarchism in the New Culture and May Fourth Periods, No access
5. International Revolution and Workers' Issues in the Anarchist Journal Labor, No access
6. A Final Theme: The Question of Belief, No access
1. Guangzhou and Other Cities as Theaters of Struggle, No access
2. The Parting of the Ways: Anarchists and Communists in Guangzhou, 1921-22, No access
3. Trouble on the Right: The Anarchists and the Guomindang, No access
4. One against Two: Anarchists Confront the GMD-CCP Alliance, No access
5. Conclusion, No access
1. "Wholeness" as a Theme in Shifu's Career, No access
2. Shifu and the Development of Chinese Socialism, No access
3. Ways Out of Anarchism, No access
4. Shifu's Relevance for China Today, No access
Notes No access Pages 203 - 262
Glossary of Selected Items No access Pages 263 - 270
Selected Bibliography No access Pages 271 - 278
Index No access Pages 279 - 290
About the Author No access Pages 291 - 291