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Zhang Jingsheng
張競生
A black-and-white photograph of Zhang Jingsheng looking forward. He is a middle-aged Chinese man wearing a light collar shirt.
Born
Zhang Jiangliu

1888
Darongpu, Fubin, Raoping County, Guangdong, Qing China
DiedJune 18, 1970(1970-06-18) (aged 81–82)
Beijing, China
Academic background
EducationFudan University, Imperial University of Peking, University of Paris, University of Lyon
Philosophy career
Notable workSex Histories
Era20th century philosophy
RegionChinese philosophy
SchoolSocial Darwinism
ThesisLes sources antiques des théories de J.-J. Rousseau sur l’éducation (1919)
Doctoral advisorCharles Chabot
Main interests
  • Sexology
  • eugenics
  • pedagogy
Zhang Jingsheng
Traditional Chinese張競生
Simplified Chinese张竞生
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhāng Jìngshēng
Gwoyeu RomatzyhJang Jinqsheng
Wade–GilesChang1 Ching4-sheng1
IPA[ʈʂáŋ.tɕǐŋ.ʂə́ŋ]
In this Chinese name, the family name is Zhang.

Zhang Jingsheng (traditional Chinese: 張競生; simplified Chinese: 张竞生; pinyin: Zhāng Jìngshēng; 1888 – 18 June 1970), often referred to by his popular nickname Dr. Sex (Chinese: 性博士; pinyin: Xìng Bóshì), was a Chinese philosopher and sexologist. Born Zhang Jiangliu to a merchant family in Raoping County in eastern Guangzhou, Zhang attended Whampoa Military Primary School, where became a militant supporter of the Tongmenghui. After he was expelled from Whampoa and met with Tongmenghui members in Singapore, he entered the Imperial University of Peking. While in Beijing, he became an enthusiastic advocate of European ideas of social Darwinism, scientific racism, and eugenics, changing his name to Jingsheng, "competition for survival". He was an active member of the Beijing Tongmenghui cell alongside Wang Jingwei. He declined a political post in the aftermath of the 1911 Revolution, instead studying in France as part of the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement.

Zhang received a doctorate from the University of Lyon for a thesis on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of his major philosophical inspirations. On recommendation from Cai Yuanpei, he became a professor at Peking University soon after his return to China in 1920. He published his first two books in the early 1920s, where he outlined a form of positive eugenics and advocated for interracial marriage with other races to overcome what he precieved as the weaknesses of the Chinese race. In 1926, he published Sex Histories Part I, a sexology text which quickly saw widespread commercial success and a number of unauthorized pornographic sequels.

Early life and education

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In 1888, Zhang Jiangliu (张江流) was born to a well-to-do merchant family in Darongpu Village, Fubin Town, in Raoping County, a rural county in eastern Guangzhou. Before settling in rural Guangzhou, his father Zhang Zhihe and grandfather Zhang Xiangruo were affluent Overseas Chinese merchants active in Malaysia and Vietnam. He first attended a traditional private elementary school, where a teacher gave him the name Gongshi (公室; 'state bureaucracy'), derived from the work of ancient philosopher Li Si. In 1903, he attended the western-style No. 1 Primary School in Raoping, and moved to nearby Shantou in 1904 to study at Tongwen High School.[1][2]

A black and white portrait photo of a teenage Zhang wearing a jacket
Zhang c. 1906

In 1907, Zhang tested into the Whampoa Military Primary School, a provincial military academy that had been recently established as part of the Qing Dynasty's military modernization program. As Whampoa required the study of a foreign language, Zhang was randomly assigned French. At Wampoa, he became a supporter of the Tongmenghui revolutionary organization through its Min Bao newspaper. Min Bao generally took a socialist, anti-statist position, inspired by a variety of European philosophers. Chief among the journal's ideological inspirations was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, heavily championed in columns by Wang Jingwei.[2][3][4] The deputy director of Whampoa, Tongmenghui member Zhao Sheng [zh], connected Zhang with his revolutionary contacts.[5]

College education

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Zhang was rejected from a government scholarship to study overseas. He became increasingly rebellious against the academy. He cut off his queue and advocated for other classmates to do the same. Incensed by the school's food service, which he claimed penalized slower eaters, he staged a protest with a friend; they were both suspended for one year. Taking advantage of the suspension, they traveled with a friend to Singapore and met with Tongmenghui leader Sun Yat-Sen. Another revolutionary, Hu Hanmin, advised Zhang to return to China and infiltrate the Qing New Army.[5][6][7]

Zhang returned in 1910, instead seeking to continue his studies; this was only allowed by his father after he was forced to accept an arranged marriage with an illiterate fifteen-year-old girl. Zhang deeply resented this marriage, and later wrote that it was a major contributor to his support of freedom of marriage and sexual education. After his marriage, he began study at the French Aurora University in Shanghai, later transferring to the Beijing French Normal School and then the Imperial University of Peking.[5][6][7]

At Peking, Zhang was introduced to the theory of Social Darwinism, to which he would become a strong proponent. Inspired by this, he changed his personal name to Jingsheng (競生; 'competition for survival').[5][8][α] He had his first exposure to sexology around this time via Carl Heinrich Stratz's Die Rassenschönheit des Weibes, featuring hundreds of nude and erotic photographs of young girls and women from various countries alongside anthropological commentary advocating for the "ideal proportions" among Germanic women. Introduced to theories of scientific racism, Zhang became convinced that the Chinese race suffered from pathological androgyny – featuring "feminized men" and "masculinized women" – which could only be resolved through eugenics.[6][9]

Revolutionary activity and overseas study

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Zhang became active in the Tianjin-Beijing cell of the Tongmenghui, where he became close to Wang Jingwei and his fiancee Chen Bijun, alongside other prominent revolutionaries such as Wu Zhihui and Zhang Ji. After Wang was arrested in a failed plot to assassinate Zaifeng, Zhang raised money alongside for a planned jailbreak. Zhang graduated in 1911, shortly before the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution. The following year, he was appointed by Sun Yat-sen to serve under Wang as an official in the North–South Conference with general Yuan Shikai. He declined a posting in the incipient Republican government, instead opting to participate as one of the first twenty-five students sponsored by the Kuomintang to travel to France to continue their education;[3][8][10] his participation in the study program was likely due to advocacy from fellow revolutionary Cai Yuanpei.[11]

Zhang initially enrolled in the University of Paris. He made overtures to study medicine and foreign relations, but eventually specialized in social philosophy. He was awarded a Diplôme d'études in 1914; due to the outbreak of World War I, he moved south and continued philosophy studies at the University of Lyon. He further studied the work of Rousseau and eminent sociologist Émile Durkheim. Captivated by Rousseau, Zhang wrote his doctoral thesis on Rousseau's pedagogy, and received his doctorate in 1919; alongside Tan Xihong [zh], he was the only one out of the twenty-five members of his cohort to receive a doctoral degree in his overseas study. He would later create the first Chinese translations of several of Rousseau's works, including Reveries of the Solitary Walker and Confessions.[8][10][12] Zhang collaborated with the Sino-French Education Association to promote overseas education and work-study programs to Chinese academics, most notably through the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement.[13]

Academic career

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In 1920, Zhang returned to China and became the headmaster of Jingshan Middle School in Guangdong on recommendation from politician Zou Lu [zh]. He initiated a number of reforms at the school, such as an overhaul of teachers, mixed-sex education, physical education classes, the abandonment of rote learning, and English-language instruction. He met with Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming to advocate for the regional introduction of birth control, which was rejected; Zhang claimed that Chen called him "mentally deranged" when he made the proposal. He was forced to resign from his post after only one year, but was offered a position as a professor of philosophy at Peking University due to support from Cai Yuanpei, the university's chancellor.[14][13]

Peking University

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At Peking, Zhang became strongly influenced by the political and social philosophies of the May Fourth Movement, united by a belief that China's weakness to foreign powers had to be overcome through mass political action and education. In addition to his classes on European philosophy and aesthetics, Zhang wrote articles for a variety of May Fourth movement publications, including the Jingbao Fukan and Chenbao Fukan.[13][15]

(Left to right) Hu Shih, Margaret Sanger, and Zhang

Zhang became close to a number of other faculty at Peking, including his old Tongmenghui comrades Wu Zhihui and Zhang Ji, as well as librarian Li Dazhao. Zhang and Hu Shih served as translators for birth control activist Margaret Sanger during her visit to Beijing in 1922. Soon afterattempted to organize a visit from Albert Einstein, who ultimately skipped Beijing to spend time in Japan.

In 1924 he published his first book, A Beautiful Philosophy of Life. Published by the Shanghai firm Beixin Shuju, the book was very well received, and was reprinted twice in its first year. Zhang followed it up the next year with The Way to Organize a Beautiful Society. Both works were initially serialized through the Chenbao Fukan. The books used appealed to aesthetic philosophy to advocated for the westernization of China, strongly condemning Confucianism and stating that the talented and erotically-liberated inhabitants of "New China" could develop a form of "aesthetic labor" indistinguishable from play. He also espoused a form of positive eugenics, recommending interracial marriage with Europeans and the Japanese in order to overcome the "weaknesses" of the Chinese race.[13][16][17]

Dr. Sex

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Following systemic collection of folk songs by Gu Jiegang, Zhou Zuoren, and Liu Bannong in the late 1910s, a periodical entitled Folksongs Weekly was created and attracted the attention of social academics at Peking, including Zhang. Work around the journal resulted in the creation of the Customs Survey Society in May 1923, with Zhang serving as its first director. He outlined sample Customs Survey Questionnaires and outlined field research methods, seeking to compile information from different Chinese ethnic groups on around forty topics ranging from food to crime to personal hygiene. Zhang advocated that the Survey Society collect information on sexuality and sexual customs, but this was vetoed by the rest of committee, who felt that it was too controversial to study. Zhang resolved to continue study of sexuality in work outside of the society.[18]

Sex Histories

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In February 1926, Zhang published an announcement in the Jingbao Fukan entitled "The Best Pasttime for the Winter Vacation: An Announcement Made on Behalf of the Eugenics Society", advocating for readers to submit detailed accounts of their sex lives; prompts included with the advertisment asked readers to recount a variety of experiences, such as their earliest exposure to sexuality, their methods of masturbation, preferred sexual positions, whether they have homosexual experiences, and whether they have engaged in beastiality.[19]

Come on! Come on! Give us your detailed and truthful sex histories, and we will try to give you ultimate sexual happiness. You supply us with the materials, and we shall provide you with the correct methods. This is truly to give you ultimate sexual happiness.

— Zheng Jingsheng, excerpt from Jinbao Fukan announcement[20]
The front cover of Sex Histories Volume I. Chinese text surrounds a modernist depiction of two women by Aubrey Beardsley
The cover of Sex Histories Volume I, featuring Aubrey Beardsley's 1894 The Woman in the Moon

Zhang claimed to have received over 200 responses to the advertisement. He chose seven of these to feature in his book, of which the identities are two respondants are known; Zhang's second wife, Chu Songxue, and novelist Jin Mancheng. Zhang's Sex Histories Volume I (性史第一輯; Xìngshǐ dìyījí) was released in May 1926, published by the Beijing Eugenics Society. It was an inexpensive publication, especially when compared to other academic sexological works used in legal and medical contexts. It was a portable pocket book about a hundred pages in length; Zhang biographer Leon Antonio Rocha noted that it was small enough to read with one hand.[21] The title Xingshi carried both academic and pornographic subcontext, as the character 史; shǐ, was used to describe both sorts of publication.[22]

In the work, Zhang rallied against contemporary erotica, writing that these spread misconceptions and superstition about sex. He claimed that sexual perversions, pornography, and prostitution were the result of the silencing and repression of sexuality; he advocated for a sexual revolution towards openness and "healthy sex", seeing this as a unavoidable prerequisite for the moral and political advancement of the Chinese nation towards equal footing with the western world. Zhang stated that sexual openness, especially through the sharing and documentation of sexual experiences, was required to achieve this cultural change.[23]

Reception and notoriety

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Sex Histories quickly became a widespread commercial success, as well as one of the most controversial books of Republican China. The book had a relatively limited initial print run of around only 1,000 copies, but this quickly swelled. A 1936 estimate put the total circulation in Shanghai alone at around 50,000 copies, including pirated editions; the book had an exceptionally high circulation in comparison to most May Fourth Movement texts, which typically saw only a few thousand copies. Upon its release, a large group assembled at the Guanghua Bookstore in Shanghai awaiting the book, prompting onlookers to head to the store to investigate; the ensuing crowd blocked the avenue in front, leading the Shanghai Municipal Police to disperse the crowd with water cannons.[24][25]

An August 1926 article in the Guangzhou Republic Daily reported that 5,000 copies of the book had been sold in Guangzhou, noting its particular popularity among adolescent girls; it described the rampant popularity of the volume as an "epidemic", mirroring various other contemporary descriptions of the book's spread. One retrospective account by academic Shen Yingming noted that the book's popularity among college students was boosted by institutions attempting to ban it.[26]

The Sexual Histories, Part II available on the market now, falsely using my name, is crass in content, and is sold at an exorbitantly high price. After legal action, the whole issue has been settled by a mediator. The two parties involved have decided to solve the problem in peace. Besides agreeing to compensate me for damaging my reputation and to destroy the copies in stock, the other party has agreed to print this announcement in the journal (in my name, paid for by him) and the following table of contents of the said volume, so that buyers will not be defrauded of the truth...

Zhang Jingsheng, New Culture, 1 January 1937[27]

As the epithet Part I signals, Zhang intended to publish sequels to the book. However, numerous unlicensed editions and sequels to Sexual Histories were published by various parties over the following years, often including literary sexual tropes and explicit erotica. The first of these unlicensed pornographic sequels, Sex Histories Part II, was published by the end of the year. Zhang published a response to the sequel in January 1927, describing it as fraudulent and noting that he had settled out of court with the illicit publisher.[24]

Various other unauthorized pornographic sequels and parodies followed, seeking to profit off of its success and notoriety. Some featured excerpts from classic erotic novels such as Jin Ping Mei and Dengcao Heshang. One particularly successful parody by comic playwright Xu Zhuodai (徐卓呆), entitled The Art of Sex (性藝; Xìngyì), featured Zhang being visited and pleasured by various women with different sexual skills, ending with his death after his penis is bitten off by a visitor's puppy. Many readers thought that The Art of Sex was written by Zhang himself, leading to confusion over which work was the parody and which was Zhang's original work.[28]

Several regional and local governments, including Shanghai and Guangzhou, instituted bans of the book and its parodies, raiding bookstores to prevent distribution. These, like other contemporary censorship efforts, were ineffective at slowing the circulation of the book. Tabloids began to frequently target Zhang; the Shanghai tabloid Jingbao (晶報) lambasted Zhang in nearly every issue from August 1926 to December 1928. He was given various epithets and nicknames by tabloid press, notably including "Dr. Sex" (性博士; Xìng Bóshì). Academic opinion turned sharply against Zhang; even his former colleague Hu Shih would go on to denounce him. Taiwanese literary critic Li Ao described Zhang as one of the "three big literary monsters" of Republican China, alongside Liu Haisu and Li Jinhui.[29] Zhang Xichen, head of the major publishing house Kaiming Shudian, described Sex Histories as pornographic.[30]

Big breast renaissance

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Shanghai and the Beauty Bookshop

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Zhang released an abridged Chinese translation of Rousseau's Confessions in 1928, with a full translation produced the following year.[31] Zhou Jianren, the science editor of Commercial Press, feuded with Zhang in 1930 over the definitions of science and pornography.[30] During the 1930s, Zhang became interested in the work of Sigmund Freud. He was the first to translate Freud's Interpretation of Dreams into Chinese.[32]

Later life and death

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Views

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Sexology

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Zhang recommended that couples sleep in separate beds or rooms to reduce the frequency of sexual intercourse. He outlined a series of "control methods" for a husband to gain the affection of his wife, including sharing household chores, holding open-air dinners, and gifting flowers.[33]

He claimed that the vagina and labia minora would suction in the penis during sex if the woman was properly stimulated, allowing "the male and female organs to harmonize most perfectly", producing positive and negative currents.[33]

Bibliography

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Notes

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Leary 1994, pp. 27, 33.
  2. ^ a b Rocha 2010, p. 105.
  3. ^ a b Wang 2021, p. 105.
  4. ^ Leary 1994, pp. 33–35.
  5. ^ a b c d e Rocha 2010, pp. 106–107.
  6. ^ a b c Rocha 2015, p. 157.
  7. ^ a b Leary 1994, pp. 35–36.
  8. ^ a b c Leary 1993, pp. 101–102.
  9. ^ Rocha 2010, p. 108.
  10. ^ a b Rocha 2010, pp. 109–110.
  11. ^ Leary 1994, p. 41.
  12. ^ Leary 1994, pp. 46–47.
  13. ^ a b c d Chiang 2010, p. 635.
  14. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 114–115.
  15. ^ Rocha 2015, pp. 157–158.
  16. ^ Leary 1993, p. 103.
  17. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 117–120, 185–186.
  18. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 124–125.
  19. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 121–123.
  20. ^ Rocha 2010, p. 123.
  21. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 123–126.
  22. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 128–129.
  23. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 131–132.
  24. ^ a b Peng 2002, pp. 159–160.
  25. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 125, 132–135.
  26. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 134–135.
  27. ^ Peng 2002, p. 160.
  28. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 136–137.
  29. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 137–140.
  30. ^ a b Dikötter 1995, pp. 77–78.
  31. ^ Rocha 2010, pp. 129–130.
  32. ^ Leary 1994, p. 15.
  33. ^ a b Dikötter 1995, pp. 57–59.

Sources

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  • Chiang, Howard (2010). "Epistemic Modernity and the Emergence of Homosexuality in China". Gender & History. 22 (3). doi:10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01612.x.
  • Dalin, Liu (2014). "The Development of Sex Education in China". Chinese Sociology & Anthropology. 27 (2): 10–36. doi:10.2753/CSA0009-4625270210.
  • Dikötter, Frank (1995). Sex, Culture, and Modernity in China: Medical Science and the Construction of Sexual Identities in the Early Republican Period. University of Hawaii Press.
  • Geng, Yushu (2020). "What is Obscenity? Morality and Modernity in 1920s China". China Perspectives. 2020 (3): 9–17. doi:10.4000/chinaperspectives.10276. ISSN 1996-4617.
  • Hee, Wai Siam (2013). "On Zhang Jingsheng's Sexual Discourse: Women's Liberation and Translated Discourses on Sexual Differences in 1920s China". Frontiers of Literary Studies in China. 7 (2): 235–270.
  • Hsu, Rachel Hui-Chi (2018). "The "Ellis Effect": Translating Sexual Science in Republican China, 1911–1949". In Veronika, Fuechtner; Haynes, Douglas E.; Jones, Ryan M. (eds.). A Global History of Sexual Science, 1880–1960. University of California Press. doi:10.1515/9780520966673-011. ISBN 9780520966673.
  • Jiao, Lin (2017). Nation, Fashion and Women’s Everyday Lives: Breast-binding in China, 1910s-1970s (PDF) (PhD thesis). SOAS University of London.
  • Leary, Charles Leland (1994). Sexual Modernism in China: Zhang Jingsheng and 1920s Urban Culture (PhD thesis). Cornell University.
  • Leary, Charles Leland (1993). "Intellectual Orthodoxy, the Economy of Knowledge and the Debate Over Zhang Jingsheng's Sex Histories". Republican China. 18 (2): 99–13.
  • Lei, Jun (2015). "'Natural' Curves: Breast-Binding and Changing Aesthetics of the Female Body in China of the Early Twentieth Century". Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. 27 (1): 163–223. JSTOR 24886589.
  • Pan, Suiming (1998). "The Move Toward Spiritual Asceticism in Chinese Sexual Culture". Chinese Sociology & Anthropology. 31 (1): 14–24. doi:10.2753/CSA0009-4625310114.
  • Peng, Hsiao-yen (2002). "Sex Histories: Zheng Jingsheng's Sexual Revolution". In Chen, Peng-hsiang; Dilley, Whitney Crothers (eds.). Feminism/Femininity in Chinese Literature. pp. 159–177. doi:10.1163/9789004333987_012. ISBN 9789042007277.
  • Rocha, Leon Antonio (2010). Sex, Eugenics, Aesthetics, Utopia in the Life and Work of Zhang Jingsheng (1888–1970) (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  • Rocha, Leon Antonio (2016). "A Utopian Garden City: Zhang Jingsheng's 'Beautiful Beijing'". In Lincoln, Toby; Tao, Xu (eds.). The Habitable City in China: Urban History in the Twentieth Century. Springer. pp. 143–168. ISBN 9781137554710.
  • Rocha, Leon (2015). "Translation and Two "Chinese Sexologies": Double Plum and Sex Histories". Sexology and Translation: Cultural and Scientific Encounters across the Modern World. Temple University Press. ISBN 9781439912508. OCLC 919612519.
  • Rocha, Leon (2019). "Small Business of Sexual Enlightenment: Zhang Jingsheng's 'Beauty Bookshop,' Shanghai 1927-1929". British Journal of Chinese Studies. 9 (2): 1–30. doi:10.51661/bjocs.v9i2.35. ISSN 2048-0601.
  • Sang, Tze-lan Deborah (2000). "Translating Homosexuality: The Discourse of Tongxing'ai in Republican China (1912–1949)". In Liu, Lydia H.; Fish, Stanley; Jameson, Frederic (eds.). Tokens of Exchange: The Problem of Translation in Global Circulations. Duke University Press. doi:10.1515/9780822381129. ISBN 9780822381129.
  • Wang, Y. Yvon (2021). Reinventing Licentiousness: Pornography and Modern China. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501752995.
  • Zhang, Aihua (2011). "Women's Breasts and Beyond—A Gendered Analysis of the Appeals for Breast-Unbinding: 1910s-1920s". Postscript: A Journal of Graduate Criticism and Theory. 8 (1). ISSN 1192-0823.


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