Revival, Revolution, and the Republic: Huaxinghui and the Exploration of Modern State Building in China

This thesis focuses on the Huaxinghui, a pivotal revolutionary force in the formation of modern China. It challenges the Sun Yat-sen–centered historiography that has historically marginalized figures such as Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren, and critiques the stereotype that Huaxinghui members were merely conciliatory toward reactionary forces. Through analysis of primary sources including revolutionary works and personal diaries, this thesis reveals that the Huaxinghui constructed a comprehensive model for nation-building that integrated nationalism, constitutional democracy, and revolutionary practice. Influenced by European and Japanese models of militaristic ideology, members promoted Junguomin Zhuyi, a localized Chinese variant of militaristic nationalism that traveled from Germany to Japan and was reinterpreted to emphasize moral discipline, civic responsibility, and patriotic sacrifice for internal national strengthening. A notable event was Kanō Jigorō's introduction of concepts centered on nationalism and national physical education to Chinese students at the Kobun Institute. Intellectuals from Hunan who studied in the Kobun Institute and returned home subsequently promoted the development of modern education. Through comparative analysis of the life experiences and personal recollections of Chinese revolutionary thinkers, I argue that the Huaxinghui constructed an early ideological connection between Japanese civic nationalism and Chinese revolutionary modernity, and implemented it through localized practices. With a comparative approach, this thesis also examines debates over national identity, showing how members negotiated the tensions between Han ethnonationalism and broader Chinese sovereignty, defending territorial integrity while rejecting Manchu authority. By reexamining the historiography of Huaxinghui, I reveal how diverse moral, civic, institutional, and nationalist ideals shaped China's transformation from empire to nation-state. Moving beyond leader-centered heroization, this thesis reinterprets revolutionary memory and patriot figures. The Huaxinghui members have been ignored in large part because of their awkward historical position: no existing regime has inherited the political legacy of the early revolutionaries, and their ideology has simply not been tested from the 1920s and beyond. For those members of the Huaxinghui who lived through the Northern Expedition, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and even the Chinese Civil War, their image in history had long since departed from their political origins as members of the Huaxinghui. They were incorporated into new political parties and institutional frameworks, and their achievements were redefined. Huaxinghui gradually became a symbol of revolutionary sentiment, its original ideological content and political aspirations were downplayed, and its overall image was distorted in the Cold War narrative. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the experience of the modern Chinese revolution, this thesis moves beyond a teleological evaluation system dominated by ideology and the narrative of the victors, and reexamines the ideological lineage and political logic of marginalized groups such as the Huaxinghui. This not only enriches the narrative of Chinese revolutionary history, but also provides a more solid historical basis and theoretical reference for understanding the diversity of institutional exploration in the late Qing and early Republican periods.