Death on a pedestal : political martyrdom in late Qing China
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation examines political martyrdom as a symptom of spiritual crisis in China's transformation toward a modern secular society at the turn of the twentieth century. The late Qing period witnessed an unprecedented impulse for self-destruction in assassination activities and civil rights movements, which generated symbolic expressions, intellectual discourses, and popular imaginations. Focusing on these accounts of how martyrdom was interpreted and performed, I argue that the excessive gesture of self-destruction, while serving various political causes, has a unique agenda of reviving the tradition of spiritual cultivation missing from emergent models of secular politics. Tracing late Qing political actors' anxiety regarding the teleological imaginaries of popular sovereignty, I investigate how they drew inspirations from transnational religio-philosophical sources to justify voluntary death, enlarging the scope of life beyond biological existence. The spiritual visions underlying political martyrdom point to alternative ways of constructing subjectivity, self-other relations, and community in Chinese political culture—a subject inherent but overlooked in the global wave of fin-de-siècle disenchantment with the secular order. Ultimately, this dissertation locates the register of Chinese spirituality beyond both established religious traditions and political ideological commitments. It also intervenes in the ongoing study of secularism by offering a new light to define what is secular in modern Chinese society.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | He, Keren |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. |
| Primary advisor | Wang, Ban, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Wang, Ban, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Reichert, Jim (James Robert) |
| Thesis advisor | Zhou, Yiqun, 1971- |
| Thesis advisor | Zur, Dafna |
| Advisor | Reichert, Jim (James Robert) |
| Advisor | Zhou, Yiqun, 1971- |
| Advisor | Zur, Dafna |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Keren He. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2017. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2017 by Keren He
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