The Cultivation of Citizens: Degeneration, Sexuality, and Nationalist Biopolitics in Zhu Guangqian's on Cultivation

doi:10.6184/TKR201606-5

機構典藏 > Journal of TKU > Tamkang Journal of Tamkang Review > v.46 n.2 > Item 987654321/109159

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Title:	The Cultivation of Citizens: Degeneration, Sexuality, and Nationalist Biopolitics in Zhu Guangqian's on Cultivation 公民的培養：朱光潛《談修養》中的退化、性欲和國家主義生命政治
Authors:	Judy, Ron S.
Keywords:	Zhu Guangqian;nationalism;cultivation;Michel Foucault;biopolitics;governmentality;朱光潛;國家主義;培養;生命政治;傅柯;管理
Date:	2016-06-01
Issue Date:	2017-01-11 15:59:29 (UTC+8)
Publisher:	淡江大學出版中心
Abstract:	This paper looks at Zhu Guangqian (朱光潛) and the discourse of collective ＂Life＂ in the Republican Era (1912-49), focusing specifically on the biopolitical dimensions of the liberal ＂aesthetic state＂ (Lee 2006) imagined in Zhu's On Cultivation 《談修養》. In this work Zhu adopts Arthur Schopenhauer's ideas about the racial ＂will to life＂ (＂species will＂) and degeneration and combines them with an indigenous emphasis on Confucian ideas of selfcultivation (xiuyang 修養). Zhu, also a follower of the Italian liberal Benedetto Croce, argues that the success of liberal democracy in China depends largely on self-control and studious attention to individual ethical behavior, particularly as regards sexuality. Zhu thus blends early-20th century proto-eugenicist discourse with a liberal emphasis on personal choice and responsi-bility, softening the Chinese nationalist discourse of the ＂New Life Movement＂ (xinsheng yundong 新生活運動, 1934) and formulating a theory of responsible popular citizenship which is more in line with Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, particularly ＂Popular Life＂ (Minsheng 民生). This paper tries to situate On Cultivation within the larger context of changes taking place both without and within the late Republic - i.e., the rise of Kuomintang biopolitics, by focusing mainly on Zhu's Schopenhauerian understanding of sexuality and ＂racial life.＂ From a Foucauldian standpoint we conclude that Zhu's discourse of ＂cultivation＂ is an amalgam of ethical attitudes and mores for citizens that acts partly as a counter-discourse which runs against and parallel to the Kuomintang state's biopolitical ambition of creating disciplined, ＂docile bodies.＂ That is, although it is possible to see governmentality as a macro-management or ＂government of souls,＂ it is also possible to understand it as something similar to Zhu's principles of selfcare in On Cultivation - that is, as a matter of concerned personal aesthetics. Finally, although I partly draw on Foucault's late lectures on the hermeneutics of the Western subject and the care of the self (epimeleia, or ＂self-care＂), my goal is to understand how Zhu's emphasis on ＂species will＂ (sexual conduct) as a means of race regeneration can be considered in the context of individual, socialized cultivation (xiuyang 修養). 本論文研究朱光潛與共和時期（1912-49）的集體「生活」論述，特別著重朱氏的《談修養》中自由主義「美學狀態」的生命政治面向。在此作品中，朱氏採用叔本華的觀點，講述種族的「生命意志」（「物種意志」）和退化的概念，並結合孔夫子的修養概念，強調土生土長的重要性。同為義大利自由主義者克羅齊的追隨者，朱氏認為中國自由民主的成功，高度仰賴自律與殷切地關注個人的道德行為，特別是性方面的事情。因此，朱氏將20世紀早期之優生學為先的論述，結合自由主義所強調的個人選擇和責任，以此和緩中國民族主義論述中的「新生活運動」，形構出一種有責任且受歡迎的公民權理論，以期更符合孫中山先生的三民主義，特別是民生的部分。本文主要著重於朱氏對叔本華所作的闡述，試圖將《談修養》置放在更廣大的歷史變動的脈絡中討論－國民後期之內和之外，例如國民黨生命政治的崛起。從傅科的觀點，朱氏的修養理論與國民黨培養受規訓「服從的身體」形成對抗論述。
Relation:	Tamkang Review=淡江評論 46(2), pp.87-111
DOI:	10.6184/TKR201606-5
Appears in Collections:	[Tamkang Journal of Tamkang Review] v.46 n.2

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