Romanticism, Nationalism and Democracy: The Research About Political Thoughts of Zhou Taixuan

Abstract

Since Chen Duxiu, one of the leaders of New Culture Movement claimed that the only thing which can rescue China from suppression and poverty were Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science. (Chen, 1917) Liberal Chinese enlighteners have believed that democracy and science are two wheels in one car for a long time. But the current nationalism and totalitarian tendencies of science and engineering students and scholars are far higher than those of the humanities. This seems to reveal to us a more complicated relationship between the two concepts: democracy and science. As a result, the research about intellectuals with both background about politics and science will be necessary. And I will choose three scientists as the examples to get in touch with this problem: Ding Wenjiang, Zhou Taixuan and Gao Shiqi.

Zhou Taixuan was a biologist with spiritual of romanticism. As an anarchist from 1919-1920, he turned to nationalism and statism since 1921 after he argued with his friends about religion and reading the work of social Darwinism. However, though he still tried to combine democracy with statism. By reading his works and analyzing the internal path of his thoughts, will get a deeper understanding about the problem with democracy and science.