This article aims to discuss Kang Youwei's 康有為 (1858-1927) position on democracy and republicanism in China through the analysis of two major works of his late production: Datongshu 大同書 (Book of Great Concord, drafted in 1902, but only published posthumously in 1935) and Gonghe Pingyi 共和評議 (Impartial Words on Republicanism, 1917), seemingly presenting two opposite views on the same issue. Whereas in his most "esoteric" production, represented by the Datongshu, Kang prophesied the spread of democracy on a global scale (China included), he remained loyal to the prospect of a Chinese constitutional monarchy in his public appearances after 1911 -the same he had abortively sponsored during the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898. In 1917, playing an active role in the short and somehow farcical restoration of the last Manchu emperor on the throne orchestrated by warlord Zhang Xun, Kang published Impartial Words on Republicanism, a significant essay through which he intended to explain the apparent contradiction between his republican utopia on the one hand and his "imperial" project on the other. Through the translation and discussion of some extracts from the two aforementioned works, I will try to shed more light on Kang's complex views on the issue and on the ambivalence of his political and theoretical agenda. Finally, I will also suggest that Kang's reflections may appear to have been successively echoed by later intellectuals in the debate on the possibility and nature of a "Chinese democracy".

This paper explores how the breakup of Yugoslavia was interpreted, commented on, and used for internal and international political purposes in China, with a focus on the role played by key concepts such as “federalism” and “sovereignty” in consolidating the Chinese interpretation of those dramatic events, and ultimately in shaping the CCP’s pro-Milošević stance in the dramatic unfolding of the conflict in Kosovo. In particular, the preoccupation with separatism and international humanitarian intervention, and the interpretation of the Yugoslav dissolution as a federal failure by the Chinese elite, help link the global event (the collapse of the Balkan political order) to the local Chinese debate on centralization and decentralization, an issue that had been polarizing the CCP since the launch of the “reform and opening” agenda by Deng Xiaoping at the end of the 1970s.

In the Datong Shu the Confucianist philosopher Kang Youwei (1858Youwei ( -1927 attempted to describe in an utopian fashion the end of history, as consisting of the abolition of private property, the institution of a world government, the disruption of marriage and the eradication of social differences. With his book, Kang somehow anticipated Mao's use of the traditional ideal of datong as a revolutionary concept. In my paper, I will discuss a debate on the Datong Shu from the 1950's, when a young Li Zehou (1930-) defended Kang's utopianism from the accusations of 'conservatism' moved by orthodox Marxists. Li's "benevolent look" on Kang may serve as an interesting anticipation of his later efforts to synthesize Marxist and Confucianism. poskuša na utopičen način opisati konec zgodovine, ki jo sestavljajo odprava zasebne lastnine, institucije svetovne vlade, razkol v zakonu in izkoreninjenost družbenih razlik. S svojo knjigo Kang nekako predvideva Maotovo uporabo tradicionalnega ideala datong kot revolucionarnega koncepta. V svojem članku avtor razpravlja o debati o datong shuju iz leta 1950, ko je mladi Li Zehou (1930-) zagovarjal Kangov utopizem pred obtožbami »konservativizma«, ki so ga začeli ortodoksni marksisti. Lijev »dobrohotni pogled« na Kanga lahko služi kot zanimivo pričakovanje in trud, da bi sintetiziral marksizem in konfucianizem.

The eighth chapter of the Han Feizi is dedicated to the ways of “wielding power” (揚權). As the entire book attributed to Master Han Fei is arguably dedicated to the problem of power – establishing, exerting and protecting it from external and internal enemies, this section of the book is crucial for the entire text. The present article starts from the term “yao 要” and applies the method of conceptual history to this pre-imperial text. It intends to shed light on the conceptual associations between the survival of the State, the ruler’s position, the importance of a political centre, and the use of objective ruling techniques, within a newly conceived “political sphere” with its own laws and necessities. The paper then addresses the heritage of the Han Feizi to conceptualizations of politics during the imperial period, eventually considering the function of the ruler in Han Fei’s thought.

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