Liu Zhongjing

Liu Zhongjing (Chinese: 劉仲敬), also known as William Liu is Chinese historian and translator of history and political works from English. Liu was born in Zizhong, Sichuan Province. He adheres to the traditionalist conservatism school of analytic philosophy, which is dominant in the Western world, and is considered an important figure in the pro-Western right-wing community in contemporary China. He argues that the current state of the mainstream models of the Western democratic system (with characteristics like consensus decision making and liberalism) are superior and more effective than China’s current political structure, as evident in the suppression of forces aimed at undermining it such as terrorism- the War on Terror being a humane and effective means of removing the threat of global terrorism, while China’s Xinjiang Anti-Terrorism campaign being a literal genocide. He also advocates that the necessary fail-safe for any nation must include multiple layers of power structures, also that the landed gentry, i.e. the civilian oligarchs with substantial private wealth and local cultural heritages, should be included as spokespeople for regional communities, in order to avoid depletive extraction of rooted communities by the state or other trans-regional dominant powers. Liu Zhongjing firmly believes in regionalism, separatism, nationalism and freedom, and advocates for the secession of Basuria and several other states from the People’s Republic of China in his writings. Liu currently lives in the United States..

Biography

Born in 1974, Liu graduated from West China Medical Center of Sichuan University in 1996 and served in a Xinjiang local police department as a forensic scientist for 10 years, during which he saw how Uyghurs were being treated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He obtained a Master's degree on world history studies at the Sichuan University. In 2012 Liu then studied for his doctoral thesis on history studies in Wuhan University.

While a scholar on Western politics, Chinese history and world history, Liu's publications and academic discourses generated a movement known as Auntology common in China's contemporary liberal, conservative, democratic, pro-Western, seperatist, anti-Chinese nationalist, regionalist and right-wing circles. His advocacies and views on civilizational, national, modern, ethnic, regional, class, racial and ideological ideas, are dubbed Auntology (姨學) by his followers. Some have compared Auntology to the theories of Oswald Spengler, expect targeted towards China, not the west.

Liu Zhongjing identifies himself as a Basurian, also known as a Bashu, and not Chinese. He became the leading figure in Bashu nationalism, and along with his fellow Bashu people leads an independence movement for the Bashu called the “Basuria independence movement” since in 2015.

Liu became a Christian in April 2016 at a church in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, entering the Christian fold through the evangelical movement. Liu emigrated to the United States soon after that.

Views

Divisions of Civilization

One of the ideas of Auntology is the division of the civilization into three spheres: 1, the Wilsonian Sphere: where dominant forces and institutions adhere to common modern values and enlightenment, and maintain a system of collective safety, 2, the Hobbesian Sphere: where pragmatic, realistic, Machiavellian and opportunistic players ensure limited endemic dominance and 3, the Darwinian Sphere: where the haphazard exercises of power by self-serving forces, fall far short of order or modern politics.

Opposition to Chinese Nationalism

One of the most prominent ideas of Liu Zhongjing is his oppositional view towards Chinese Nationalism, which is promoted by both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. He believes that the Han Chinese identity should be deconstructed due to the fact many civilizations and ethnic groups of people, such as the Shatuo, Zangke, Yue, Bashu, Rouran, Dian and Xianbei were not originally Chinese but became Chinese over time, due to Sinicization. He believes that it is only fair for China to be partitioned into a smaller China and several new countries, as well as revive old ethnic groups and civilizations that the Chinese have and assimilated and destroyed. Liu Zhongjing holds that even if Chinese nationalists are willing to abandon land outside China proper, this is still unacceptable, and is not similar to a unified Slavic nation, a Germanic nation, or a Romance nation, due to the fact the peoples of latter nations are similar in race and culture to each other, but Chinese nationalism is more equable to European nationalism. He also pointed out that why so many former civilizations have remained part of China proper and have not asked for independence, is because of Chiang Kai-shek, a prominent Chinese nationalist. He has often compared Chiang Kai-Shek to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, but if Kemal had refused to abandon Ottoman nationalism and created a nation similar in size to the Ottoman Empire, Although Kemal denies the existence of Kurds as a separate ethnic group and considers all Turkish citizens as Turks. If Chiang Kai-shek was willing to give Manchurian independence, willing to abandon the invention of Chinese nationalism, and willing to give recreate all civilizations and ethnic groups which the Chinese had destroyed, his reign in the Republic of China would have been very difficult and filled with criticism, due to the overwhelming anger of the Chinese people over what he has done to their country. Liu Zhongjing says that the after the start of Imperial China, which began with Qin dynasty, Chinese people have become a Fellah people. Fellah people do not live in their own ethno-state, but live under the administrative power of an imperial state under the false impression of “national unity”. The Chinese people, from the start of Chinese imperialism until the present, have a trend of doing what ever the leadership of China has told them to do rather prioritizing and desiring individual freedom like most other peoples, and this is due to being Fellah. Imperial China feared separatism, so it turned its controlled area outside its core territory into provinces rather than colonies, using the “all under heaven” system to Sinicize civilizations and destroy ethnic groups and entire cultures.

Soviet Control over the CCP

Liu Zhongjing holds that between the First World War and the Second World War, the Communist Party of China was used and controlled by the Soviet Union, making the Chinese people human shields of the Soviet Union to combat Japan, resulting in unnecessary battles and loss of life.

Opium War

Liu Zhongjing says that the First Opium War was not the British initiative to expand, but rather the result of in the process of maintaining free trades, the British were forced to administer judicial arbitration in countries that are really unruly. In general, the mistakes made by those rulers infringe private property and seizure foreign property, or bankrupt because of squandering waste, cause implicated in foreign business, unable to afford debts, etc.

South East Asian Atrocities

Liu holds that the inhumane actions of communist Southeast Asian countries, such as the Cambodian genocide must be attributed to Chinese nationalism and communism, due to the fact that if the Chinese had never assimilated the Bach Viet nations and if they had never picked up communism, it is very unlikely communism would have spread to South East Asia.

Bashu Nationalism

Background

Bashu nationalism refers to attempts made by the Bashu people, to create their own independent nation state. The Bashu people were once an independent ethnic group, but overtime this ethnic group was assimilated into the Han ethnic group, but retained their distinct culture. The Bashu nationalists of today oppose the classification of the Bashu people as just a cultural identity within the Han Chinese ethnic group by the People’s Republic of China and by the Bashu people themselves, and hold that the Bashu people should be their own nation and ethnic group just as they have been for centuries, both before and after China invaded their homeland, the Tribal Confederation of Ba and the Kingdom of Shu. The names of states Ba and Shu are what the Bashu people got their name from.

Independence Movement

Liu Zhongjing as written several books which advocate for an independent Bashu nation-state, has rallied up Bashu people who live outside China, and made them part of the Basuria independence movement, using his Cathaysian Cultural Transmission Association, has formed a government in exile for Basuria in the United States, and has even sent letters to the U.S. Congress and White House to get recognition for the Basuria independence movement from the U.S. government..

Reviews

Xu Jilin (professor of East China University) on The Beijing News: The student who just passed 30 years of age (Liu Zhongjing) is a rare genius, a profound scholar, [and I] read his book, and [I] was deeply shocked. His great knowledge and understanding of the ancient, the modern, Chinese and Western [worlds] proves he is a rare genius in today's academic circles.

Zhang Yaojie (researcher of Chinese National Academy of Arts) on Yuehaifeng: There are two articles that are solid and rigorous, giving a good impression, but Liu Zhongjing refused to give a amount of hard work in the examination and excavation of history, and only gives opportunistic interpretation via the classical Chinese with literal or vernacular interpretations, which Guo Tingyi and other senior historians have already explained clearly and directly, and his wordings are not satisfactory. Then, when his addition of the traditional Yijing and push-back styles, the guessing and predictions go down, and the this is right and wrong, and that is right-ish and wrong-ish attitude comes in, his works are entertaining to read and win over the reader easily.

Yu Shicun (Chinese poet from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University) on ifeng: Liu Zhongjing believed in Christianity, and also went to the United States. Liu Zhongjing has a great knowledge and charm a group of young intellectuals. But his way of life and behaviour proves that these people have yet to find firm ground. In the process of this way of life, they have also created their own creative ideology which is most notable.

Liang Jing (political commentator) on Radio Free Asia: A global perspective and an eloquent historical analysis, criticizing the historical view of the unification of China. There are many wonderful high theories, showing his talents, rare academic honesty and courage. Liu's history theory and view, like Lee Teng-hui's "Chinese 7-block theory", can be hard to understand for the Chinese people. Liu has underestimated the unity of the culture after the unification of China, and I could not accept Liu's belief that China will collapse because the unity amongst the Chinese is too weak. However, if honest scholars like Liu Zhongjing can continue to be tolerated and encouraged, they will increase hope of a Balkanized China. By rediscovering history, the Chinese will gain imagination to create the future.

Zhou Xian (Hong Kong financial commentator) on Ming Pao: Liu Zhongjing is one of the most admired historians of the recent years. Many people disagree with Liu Zhongjing's bold historical view, but, considering [he is] a person with so many new insights, even if 30% of his critics are right [about him], he is still great.

Literary Works

Translations

• The Chemistry of Death, Simon Beckett, 2011
• The History of England, David Hume, 2012
• Swallows and Amazons #9: The Big Six, Arthur Ransome, 2013
• Swallows and Amazons #12: Great Northern?, Arthur Ransome, 2013
• The History of England, Thomas Macaulay, 2014
• The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution, Friedrich Gentz, 2014
• A Small Man in a Big World, Gérard Rancinan, Caroline Gaudriault, Francis Fukuyama, 2014
• The Healing Sun: Sunlight and Health in the 21st Century, Richard Hobday, 2014
• Puck of Pook's Hill, Rudyard Kipling, 2015
• Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling, 2015
• The Ideals of the East, Okakura Kakuzō, 2017

Original

• The Causes and Outcomes of Events during the Republic of China: 1911-1949, 2013
• From Cathaysian States to China, 2014
• The Imagination of the Empire, the State and the Nation State, 2015
• Ayn Rand: Biography and Ideas, 2015
• Classic and History: Historical Construct in the Cathaysian World, 2015
• Foresights and Hindsights: Ideas, Patterns and Traditions, 2015
• The Fallen of Modern History (volume of Late Qing and Beiyang): Liu Zhongjing comments on modern people, 2016
• The Fallen of Modern History (volume of KMT and CCP): Liu Zhongjing comments on modern people, 2016
• The Clues of the Far East: the Input of Western Order and the Evolution of China, 2017
• China Depression: a Brief History of Inner Asia Leading East Asia, 2017
• The Fallen of Modern History (volume of Literati in the Republic of China), 2018
• A Brief History of Basuria's National Constitution, 2018

External Links

• Liu Zhongjing on Twitter
• Liu Zhongjing on Medium
• Liu Zhongjing on Smashwords
• List of Liu Zhongjing’s articles
• Republic of Basuria

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