The Search for Material Civilization: Kang Youwei's Journey to the West

Title

The Search for Material Civilization: Kang Youwei's Journey to the West

Author

Young-tsu WONG

Page

33-59

DOI

Abstract

This paper deals with Kang Youwei's search for modern material civilization, which he believed was the "prescription" for China's weakness and poverty. The extensive tour he made to the West confirmed the validity of his prescription. He detailed in his travel notes what he had seen in Italy, France, Britain, Germany, America, Mexico, etc. In general, he saw a prosperous new world of material civilization, and was deeply impressed by the importance of sea power. His reflections on the grand tour were written into wuzhi jiuguo lun (Essay on national salvation through material construction), which provides with the indispensable information for this study. After having seen how advanced the modern world of material civilization in Europe and America was, Kang's pleas for change at the time when China appeared so backward became all the more earnest and urgent. But in his cry for "material civilization," he abandoned neither his political reforms nor his utopian vision. As always, he believed that modernity was the common destination for all humankind, and his impassioned calling for China to follow the course of material civilization was merely a necessary step to universal peace or the utopia of all nations.

Keyword

Kang Youwei, material civilization, national salvation, human destiny

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