Inheritance within Rupture

Book excerpt: In Inheritance within Rupture, Luo Zhitian brings together ten essays to explore the themes of change and continuity, rupture and inheritance from the late Qing through the early Republic (1890s-1940s). Rejecting binaries such as tradition/modernity, conservative/liberal, Luo blurs the divisions between intellectual opponents and clarifies the divergences between scholarly friends. Centering these discussions around some of the most famous intellectual debates in the modern period, Luo challenges our understanding of ideological positions, political affiliation, and scholarly identity in early twentieth-century China. By focusing on the influence of cultural inheritance within the rupture of modernity, we come to understand those concerns shared by all Chinese in their own times and in the present.