Intellectual Orthodoxy, the Economy of Knowledge and the Debate Over Zhang Jingsheng’s Sex Histories

Intellectual Orthodoxy, the Economy of Knowledge and the Debate Over Zhang Jingsheng's Sex Histories· by Charles L. Leary If we were to map out the history of Chinese sexuality in terms of written discourse, then 1926 would define the beginning of expansive territory. In May of loat year, a professor in the Philosophy Department at Beijing University published a book intended to bring sexual enlightenment to the Chinese people. Entitled Sex Histories (Xing shi), the volume became one of the most widely read and controversial texts of the Republican era (1912-49). Banned by police and attacked by intellectuals, Sex Histories had touched a nerve. Due to Sex Histories" publication, its author, Zhang Jingsheng (1889-1970), has paradoxically been largely wiped from the face of modem Chinese history. In recent European and American history, individuals such as Havelock Ellis, Magnus Hirschfeld and Albert Kinsey, although controversial in their own day for their pathbreaking sex researches, have proved lasting and legitimate historical figures. l In China such was not the case for Zhang Jingsheng, who became almost completely delegitimized after 1926. Zhang's public identity changed dramatically from being a widely respected if somewhat eccentric intellectual, revolutionary and professor at the country's most prestigious university to being, first, an infamous character of popular culture, and then a largely forgotten facet of China's lI outerll or IIwildII history (waishi,' yeshi). The sometimes humorous and sometimes damning appellation IIDr. Sexll (xing boshi,' xingxue boshi) summarized the public perception of him after 1926 in all areas except his home region, where he is now still revered as IIDr. Zhang. II The title "Dr.Sexll relegated • I want to thank Sherman Gochran, P. Steven Sangren, Mary Beth Norton, Vaughn J. Perret, and Stephen Averill for comments on earlier versions of this article. Parts of what follows were presented in the 1990 Cornell University research seminar on modern Chinese history. I thank all of the members of that seminar for their suggestions. Zhang Jingsheng to the waste-bin of Chinese urban sexual oddities, akin to Shanghai's famous nightlife entertainers and male prostitutes. To date, Zhang is generally regarded by Chinese historians as a comical and bizarre character of the 1920s, and he has remained largely undiscussed in Western-language literature.2 The maneuver to delegitimize Zhang Jingsheng as a "serious" intellectual and cultural figure points to the strong feelings aroused by sexual topics in modem China. Sexual research did not constitute Zhang Jingsheng's chief area of interest, and he did not consider Sex Histories his most important or definitive work. Yet by foraying into this area of inquiry in a manner deemed unbefitting a Chinese intellectual , Zhang Jingsheng changed the course of his life. The controversy stemmed primarily not from the fact that Zhang had decided to expound on Chinese sex life, but that he had done so in the "wrong" way. Western-influenced ideologies of human sexuality informed the trends towards subjectivism and modernism in China's RepUblican-era urban culture. Arguments not only about the "woman's question" ifunu wenti), but also about eugenics, sex education and sexual freedoms were central to New Culture thought.3 Yet both intellectual and state authorities attempted toimplement an orthodoxy of public sexual discourse. The topic of sexuality focused broad discussions of moral personhood in modem, urban China, with diverse elite social elements--from young radicals to established Intellectuals to warlords, the Guomindang, and the Communist Party-attempting to define sexual discourse, and through it sexual meaning. The debate that erupted in 1926-27 over the publication of Sex Histories provides a glimpse of how and why sex was a matter of social concern and moral scrutiny. Zhang met with and responded to scathing criticism from the New Culture Movement leaders (and Lu Xun's younger brothers) Zhou Zuoren and Zhou Jianren, as well as from the prominent journal editor Zhang Xichen. He also angered other important figures such as the sociologist Pan Guangdan and the Acting Chancellor of Beijing University, Jiang Menglin. His critics considered Zhang a threat because of Sex Histories' popularity and the prominence after 1927 of another of Zhang's 100 publications, the magazine New Culture (Xin wenhua). As...