The Root of All Things: Liang Jushi and Practical Enterprise in Late Qing China

ABSTRACT:At the turn of the twentieth century in China, a cohort of moderate literati, while marginal to the mainstream politics of reform and revolution, worked to save the Chinese nation from collapse by developing education and industrial enterprises. This article investigates the ideas of Liang Jushi 梁居實 (1843–1911), one of these literati, whose views on the nation and its economy stemmed from the more parochial concern that his native Guangdong Province might be colonized or partitioned by foreign powers. Liang Jushi was inspired not only by the West, Japan, and vanquished nations such as Poland, but also by the Western colonies in Southeast Asia, where several friends had become extremely successful entrepreneurs. By regarding these Chinese-populated colonies more as a source of inspiration than a symbol of subjugation, Liang Jushi also articulated a more nuanced understanding of foreign imperialism.