SPD2321 CHINESE CIVILIZATION AND

MODERN CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE

WEST

LECTURE 10 FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE

BIRTH OF REPUBLICANISM
INSTRUCTOR: DR. TERENCE LEUNG
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social
and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until
1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon
during the later expansion of the French Empire.
• The Revolution overthrew the ancient monarchy,
established a new republic, experienced violent periods of
political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship
under Napoleon that rapidly brought many of its principles
to Western Europe and beyond.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• 法國的舊制度（Ancien Régime）是法國歷史15到18世紀這段
時期，從文藝復興末期開始，直到法國大革命為止。
• 這套系統建立在三極之上：皇權、教士和貴族。在這套系統裡，
社會被分為三個等級：第一等級天主教教士、第二等級貴族以
及其它人組成的第三等級。
• Inspired by liberal and radical ideas (i.e. largely thanks to
the legacy of the Enlightenment), the Revolution
profoundly altered the course of modern history,
triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while
replacing them with republics and liberal democracies.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• 法國政治體制在大革命期間(1789-1799)發生了史詩式轉變：統治法國多個
世紀的絕對君主制與封建制度在三年內被瓦解，過去的封建、貴族和宗教
特權不斷受到左翼政治團體、平民和鄉村農民的衝擊，傳統君主制的階層
觀念、貴族以及天主教會統治制度被自由、平等、博愛等新原則推翻。
• 1792年9月22日，法蘭西第一共和國成立，路易十六在次年被推上斷頭台。
• 不斷出現的外部壓力在法國革命中成為主導，法國大革命戰爭從1792年開
始，是次戰役為過去一個世紀以來法國首次勝利，並使法國間接控制義大
利半島和萊茵河以西的土地。
• 在國內，派系鬥爭及民眾情緒的日益高漲導致1793年至1794年恐怖統治的
產生。
• 羅伯斯庇爾和雅各賓派覆亡以後，熱月黨人建立督政府，於1795年掌權，
直至1799年拿破崙執政後結束。
• 整個歐洲的皇室因而心生恐懼，因此在1814年發起反法討伐，並成功恢復
君主制，但很多重大改革已成永久。
• 法國大革命同時導致各界對立，特別是共和派和保皇派在往後長達二百年
的政治對立。
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• The causes of the French Revolution are complex and are
still debated among historians.
• Following the Seven Years’ War and the American
Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in
debt and attempted to restore its financial status through
unpopular taxation schemes.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• 七年戰爭發生在1754年至1763年。當時世界上的主要強國均參
與了這場戰爭，其影響覆蓋了歐洲，北美，中美洲，西非海岸，
印度，以及菲律賓。
• 這場戰爭由歐洲列強之間的對抗所驅動。英國與法國和西班牙
在貿易與殖民地上相互競爭。同時普魯士(Prussia)，這個日益
崛起的強國與奧地利正同時在神聖羅馬帝國的體系內外爭奪霸
權。
• 美國獨立戰爭，或稱美國革命戰爭，是英國與北美十三殖民地
及幾個歐洲強國之間的一場戰爭。
• 這場戰爭主要是始於為了對抗英國的經濟政策，但後來卻因為
法國、西班牙及荷蘭加入戰爭對抗英國，而使戰爭的範圍遠遠
超過了英屬北美洲之外。同時，許多印地安人分別與雙方結盟。
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also
inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by
the clergy and the aristocracy.
• Demands for change were formulated in terms of
Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation
of the Estates-General in May 1789.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• First Year of the Revolution:
• The assault on the Bastille 巴士底監獄 in July
• The passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen in August
• A women’s march on Versailles that forced the royal court
back to Paris in October
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• The Following Years:
• Political struggles between various liberal assemblies and
right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting
major reforms
• France rapidly transformed into a democratic and secular
society with freedom of religion, legalization of divorce,
decriminalization of same-sex relationships, and civil
rights for Jews and black people
• The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the
French victory at Valmy
• In a momentous event that led to international
condemnation, Louis XVI 路 易 十 六 was executed in
January 1793
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• 大革命發生後，法國王后瑪麗·安東娃妮特（Marie Antoinette）被
稱為「赤字夫人」（Madame Déficit）。
• 1792年9月21日，路易十六被廢，法國宣布廢除君主制。
• 安東娃妮特被控犯有叛國罪，於處決路易十六九個月後，亦即1793
年10月16日，安東娃妮特被交付給革命法庭審判，判處死刑，魂斷
斷頭台，得年38歲。
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Domestic Impacts of the Revolution:
• Within France itself, the Revolution permanently crippled
the power of the aristocracy and drained the wealth of the
Church.
• Some historians argue that the French people underwent
a fundamental transformation in self-identity, evidenced
by the elimination of privileges and their replacement by
equal rights.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• French historian François Aulard comments that:
• “the Revolution consisted in the suppression of what was
called the feudal system, in the emancipation of the
individual, in greater division of landed property, the
abolition of the privileges of noble birth, the establishment
of equality, the simplification of life … The French
Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not
merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity.”
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Although the French public lost the rights and privileges
earned since the Revolution after the collapse of the First
Empire in 1815, they remembered the participatory politics
that characterized the period, with one historian
commenting:
• “Thousands of men and even many women gained
firsthand experience in the political arena: they talked,
read, and listened in new ways; they voted; they joined
new organizations; and they marched for their political
goals. Revolution became a tradition, and republicanism
an enduring option.”
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Over the course of the 18th century there occurred what the
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas 哈貝馬斯 called the
emergence of the public sphere 公 共 領 域 in France and
elsewhere in Europe.
• Habermas had argued that the dominant cultural model in
17th century France was a “representational” culture, which
based on a one-sided need to “represent” power with one
side active and the other passive.
• Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the
"public sphere” which was "critical" in that both sides were
active.
• Examples of the “public sphere” included newspapers,
journals, masonic lodges, coffee houses and reading clubs
where people either in person or virtually via the printed word
debated and discussed issues.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Freemasonry 共 濟 會 played an important role in the
revolution.
• Originally largely apolitical, Freemasonry was radicalized
in the late 18th century through the introduction of higher
grades which emphasized themes of liberty, equality, and
fraternity.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Global Impacts of the Revolution:
• The French Revolution represented the most significant
and dramatic challenge to political absolutism in modern
history, as much as accelerating the rise of republican
societies and modern democracies.
• The modern era has thereby unfolded in the shadow of the
French Revolution. Almost all future revolutionary
movements looked back to the Revolution as their
predecessor.
• Its central phrases and cultural symbols, such as La
Marseillaise and Liberté, égalité, fraternité, became the
clarion call for other major upheavals in modern history,
including the Soviet Revolution over a century later.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• The French Revolution also became the focal point for the
development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the
spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism,
feminism, and secularism, among many others.
• Some of its central documents, like the Declaration of the Rights
of Man, expanded the arena of human rights to include women
and slaves, leading to movements for abolitionism 廢奴主義 and
universal suffrage in the next century.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• The term “republicanism” 共和主義 is derived from the
term “republic” 共和國, but the two words have different
meanings.
• A “republic” is a form of government (one without a
hereditary ruling class); “republicanism” refers to the
values of the citizens in a republic.
• The ideology of Republicanism was thereby popularized
throughout the world by both the French Revolution and
the American Revolution since the 18th century onwards.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Republicanism may be distinguished from other forms of
democracy as it asserts that people have unalienable
rights that cannot be voted away by a majority of voters.
• Republicanism represented more than a particular form of
government. It was a way of life, a core ideology, an
uncompromising commitment to liberty, and a total
rejection of aristocracy.
BACKGROUND AND IMPACTS
OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• 共和制在十八世紀初開始在歐洲盛行，最後取代了許多國家的
君主專制。
• 在現代的共和國中，政府是依憲法，由人民選舉產生的。
• 共和立憲制是共和制的一種，在這種制度裏，由人民選出的國
家元首和其他官員都必須遵守憲法的條文，由憲法限制政府統
治人民的權力。
• 由於憲法的存在限制了政府的權力，採用這種制度的國家也被
稱為「立憲制」。
• 國家元首和其他官員的職位都必須經由選舉選出，而非透過世
襲制度。無論國家元首或是官員作出的決策都必須接受司法機
構的監督，因此這種國家也被稱為「共和制」。
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• 法國革命中拉開現代社會的帷幕，共和國的成長、自由民主思
想的傳播、現代思想的發展以及各國之間大規模戰爭都成為革
命的標誌。
• 歷史學家《舊制度與大革命》的作者托克維爾認為，1789年法
國革命是迄今為止最偉大、最激烈的革命，代表法國的「青春、
熱情、自豪、慷慨、真誠的年代」。
• 作為近代偉大民主革命而受到讚揚的同時，法國大革命也因期
間一些暴力專政行為而為人詬病。革命隨後導致拿破崙戰爭、
兩次君主制復辟以及兩次法國革命。接下來直至1870年，法國
在先後由兩次共和國政府、君主立憲制及帝國政權下交替管治。
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• Popular agitation 攪 動 radicalized the Revolution
significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien
Robespierre 羅伯斯比 and the Jacobins 雅各賓派 .
• The Reign of Terror 恐怖統治 (6 September 1793 – 28 July
1794) was a period of violence that occurred after the
onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict
between two rival political factions, the Girondins and the
Mountain, and marked by mass executions of “enemies of
the revolution.”
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• The dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public
Safety during the Reign of Terror, from 1793 until 1794,
established price controls on food and other items,
abolished slavery in French colonies abroad,
dechristianized society through the creation of a new
calendar and the expulsion of religious figures, and
secured the borders of the new republic from its enemies.
• Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary
tribunals during the Terror, with estimates ranging from
16,000 to 40,000.
• The guillotine 斷 頭 台 became the symbol of the
revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of
executions.
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• 雅各賓專政，即恐怖統治時期，為法國大革命時一段充滿暴力
的時期，由羅伯斯庇爾領導的雅各賓派統治法國，當時吉倫特
派與雅各賓派正在爭奪政權，有數千人被安上反革命的罪名，
遭到政府處刑，送上斷頭台。
• 在這段時期裏，據歷史學家統計，法國全國有16,594人被送上
斷頭台，其中在巴黎有2,639人，而以其他方式執行死刑者，法
國全國約有25,000人。
• 為了得到徹底的政權，該時期有數千人被殘忍殺害。雅各賓派
（激進共和主義派）在1793年的起義中戰勝溫和共和主義派，
奪取了政權。
• 但是，雅各賓派執政也為法國歷史作出了一些貢獻，比如推廣
教育，提倡宗教自由，廢除法國殖民地的奴隸制等。
• 1794年，熱月政變爆發，羅伯斯比爾被斬首，雅各賓專政結束。
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• 羅伯斯比(Robespierre)是法國大革命中最有爭議的人物之一。 有些人
認為他過於理想主義或思想僵硬，缺乏實際行動能力，但另一些人則認
為他善於審時度勢，能夠抓住適當時機採取行動。
• 批評者稱他自我中心、疑心過重、不通人情；支持者則稱讚他廉潔正直、
目光敏銳，以國家和革命為重。
• 批評者認為他是恐怖統治的理論家，極端殘忍，雙手沾滿鮮血，應為恐
怖時期大量無辜者遇害負責。部分支持者則指出富歇和俾約-瓦倫等人
殺人如麻，遠遠超過羅伯斯比，認為他在公安委員會實際起到了節制激
進派的作用。
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• The Thermidorian Restoration was a coup d‘état 政 變
within the French Revolution against the leaders of the
Jacobin Club who had dominated the Committee of Public
Safety.
• It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to
execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-
Just, and several other leading members of the
revolutionary government. This ended the most radical
phase of the French Revolution.
• After the Thermidorian Restoration, an executive council
known as the Directory assumed control of the French
state in 1795.
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• However, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory
collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte 拿破崙·波
拿巴/拿破崙一世 in 1799. 霧月政變 (Coup of 18 Brumaire)
• Napoleon, who became the hero of the Revolution through
his popular military campaigns, went on to establish the
Consulate and later the First Empire, setting the stage for
a wider array of global conflicts in the Napoleonic Wars.
THE REIGN OF WAR AND
TERROR
• The French Revolution witnessed the birth of colonial war
by organizing the resources of France and the lives of its
citizens towards the objective of military conquest.
• Through the Revolutionary Wars, it also unleashed a wave
of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the
Middle East.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• Throughout the 19th Century, the revolution was predominantly
understood in terms of the class nature of the revolution by various
economists and political scientists  i.e. corresponding to an
understanding human social evolution itself.
• Historians until the late 20th century emphasized class conflicts
from a largely Marxist perspective as the fundamental driving cause
of the Revolution.
• The central theme of this argument was that the Revolution emerged
from the rising bourgeoisie, with support from the sans-culottes,
who fought to destroy the aristocracy.
• This, combined with the egalitarian 平均主義 values introduced by
the revolution, gave rise to a classless and co-operative model for
society called “socialism” 社會主義 which profoundly influenced
future revolutions in France and around the world.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• The sans-culottes 無套褲漢 were the common people of
the lower classes in late 18th century France, a great many
of whom became radical and militant partisans of the
French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life
under the Ancien Régime.
• Culottes were the fashionable silk knee-breeches of the
nobility and bourgeoisie, as distinguished from the
working class sans-culottes, who traditionally wore
pantalons, or trousers, instead.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• The sans-culottes, most of them peasants and urban
laborers, served as the driving popular force behind the
revolution.
• Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they also made up the
bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of
the French Revolutionary Wars.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• The Paris Commune 巴黎公社 was a radical socialist and
revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March
to 28 May 1871 predominantly by the working-class.
• Following the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in September
1870, the French Second Empire swiftly collapsed.
• Debates over the policies and outcome of the Paris
Commune had significant influence on the ideas of Karl
Marx, who described it as an example of the “dictatorship
of the proletariat” 無產階級專政.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• In Marxist sociopolitical thought, the dictatorship of the
proletariat refers to a state in which the proletariat, or the
working class, has control of political power.
• In Marxist theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat is the
intermediate system between capitalism and communism,
when the government is in the process of changing the
means of ownership from privatism to collective
ownership.
• Both Marx and Engels argued that the short-lived Paris
Commune, which ran the French capital for over two
months before being repressed, was an example of the
dictatorship of the proletariat.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• 巴黎公社是一個在1871年3月18日到5月28日的2個月中，短暫
地統治巴黎的政府。到後來它宣布要接管法國全境。
• 由於公社衛隊殺死了兩名法國將軍加上公社拒絕接受法國當局
的管理，終於導致了被稱為「血腥一周」的嚴厲鎮壓。
• 由於評價者意識形態的不同，對它的描述也存在很大分歧，傾
向於資本主義或中立者認為它是無政府主義；而傾向於社會主
義或自由主義者則認為它是社會主義的早期實驗；更有被認為
標誌當代世界政治左翼運動崛起光輝起始里程碑，影響廣大深
遠。
• 馬克思認為它是對他的共產主義理論的一個有力證明。
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• In the 20th century, May 1968 五 月 風 暴 becomes another
important reference point in French politics and global
leftism, representing for some the profound possibility of
proletarian liberation and for others the dangers of anarchy.
• For the left-leaning communities, May 1968 exemplified the
end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new
era to be dominated mainly by the so-called ‘new social
movements.’  i.e. liberated from the traditional forms of top-down,
hierarchical party politics
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND ITS BEYOND
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUJZgkhSCq8 (10 mins)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtcD9CfMOI (3 mins)
HINTS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ESSAY

Recent Chinese Cultural Soft Power Expansions 

Facilitating Cross-Civilizational Dialogues in our
Global System  Yes, No, or Both?

試論當代中國文化軟實力的發展及其對二十一世紀跨文明對話
的意義
Examples for Chinese Cultural Soft Power:
Olympics Opening Ceremony, National Learning, World
Expo, Confucian Institutes and Intellectual Exchanges,
Film and Media Productions, Cultural and Art
Businesses, Fashion and Advertisements, Theme
Parks, Civil and Moral Education, Historical Heritage
and National Museum, Books and Printing, English
Learning in China etc.
HINTS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ESSAY

FOR:
1) Despite Being Predominantly a State-Controlled (國家控
制) Development [Premise]
 BUT 2) Main Characteristics of Contemporary Chinese
Cultural Soft Power: No Rigid Principles or Formulae
to Accord with (e.g. continuous learning from the
Western counterparts in order to perfect oneself,
constant emphasis on localization and domestication
of global ideas, creativity with ‘Chinese
characteristics’) [Arguments]
 3) Allowing More Equal Flows of Cultural Exchanges
and Diversity (i.e. unlike the Culturally Hegemonic 文化霸
權 and Orientalist Implications of the American model
e.g. Hollywood) [Conclusion]
HINTS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
AGAINST:
1) Despite Being Seemingly a Flourishing
Development (蓬勃發展) [Premise]
2)  BUT 2) Main Characteristics of Contemporary
Chinese Cultural Soft Power: No Full Respect
towards Global Capitalist Values (e.g. lack of
legal protections of intellectual property rights,
lack of creative freedom but full of self-
censorship, lack of originality and innovative
spirit, too ideological and too Sinocentric 以中國為中
心 etc) [Arguments]

3)  Forbid (禁止) True Cultural and Historical

Exchanges (unlike Western civil society which
legitimizes and allows public debates and free
speeches) [Conclusion]
HINTS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ESSAY

試簡述塞繆爾.杭庭頓的「文明衝突論」。你
認為杭氏的「文明衝突論」可適用於理解當代
中國與香港的文化及政治衝突嗎? 試舉例說明
之。

試簡述中國傳統道德思想的主要特色。你認為
這些中國的傳統道德特質在今日中國資本主義
社會已全失去其合法性? 試舉例說明之。