Tan Sitong

Tan Sitong was a Chinese reformist thinker and official of the late Qing dynasty, executed at thirty-three after the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898. His main work, An Exposition of Benevolence (Renxue), written in 1896–97, combines Confucian, Buddhist and Christian ideas with Western science. It treats ren, benevolence or humaneness, as a force of connection running through all things, and uses it to attack absolute monarchy and the hierarchical 'three bonds' of Confucian ethics. He became a lasting symbol of self-sacrifice for reform.

Key ideas

• Ren (benevolence) is at root interconnection (tong): the linking of all things, persons and nations.
• The Confucian 'three bonds' that subordinate subject to ruler, son to father and wife to husband are 'nets' that must be broken.
• Absolute monarchy suppresses human nature and should give way to equality among people.
• Of the five Confucian relationships, friendship, a bond between equals, is the model for all the others.

Major works

• An Exposition of Benevolence (Renxue) (1897)

In the Book corner

• An Exposition of Benevolence (Renxue) c. 1896–1897; published 1899 · Advanced
  A philosophical treatise by the reformer Tan Sitong, written around 1896–97 and published after his execution in 1898 for his part in…

In the conversation

No topics yet. Start one about this thinker.