From New People to Sedimented Subjects: Modernization and Identity in Chinese Thought

Introduction

The modernization of China has historically been defined by the dialectic between survival and the preservation of meaning—a scramble to acquire the institutional scaffolding of the modern nation-state while grappling with the perceived obsolescence of the Confucian ethical tradition. At the turn of the twentieth century, Liang Qichao articulated the urgent necessity of remaking the Chinese citizen through his Xin Min ("New People") project, a political and moral imperative designed to save the nation from collapse. Yet, as the twentieth century progressed and China navigated the ruptures of the May Fourth Movement and the trauma of the Cultural Revolution, thinkers such as Li Zehou offered a different trajectory. Li argued that the modernization of value could not be achieved through political engineering alone; it required the "sedimentation" (jidian) of culture into the psychological structure of the individual. This essay argues that while Liang Qichao’s political modernization was a historical necessity, Li Zehou’s philosophy—grounded in Marxist humanism and the "subjectivity of practice"—provides a more resilient blueprint for preserving identity in a technological age. By prioritizing the aesthetic dimension of human existence not as a luxury, but as the psychological product of human labor and historical practice, Li Zehou offers a corrective to the alienation inherent in modern technocratic systems.

I. Liang Qichao and the Burden of the "New People"

To understand the philosophical gap between Liang Qichao and Li Zehou, one must respect the historical gravity of Liang’s project. Writing in the shadow of the Qing Dynasty’s disintegration, Liang faced the existential threat of imperialism. His call for "New People" (Xin Min) was a response to the traditional Confucian subject, whom he viewed as too localized and focused on personal virtue to meet the demands of the modern nation-state.

Critics often characterize Liang as a proto-technocrat who viewed individuals merely as instruments of state power, yet this interpretation risks caricature. Liang was deeply concerned with moral education, civic virtue, constitutionalism, and public spirit (gongde). As argued in his Xin Min Shuo ("On the Renovation of the People"), his project was an effort to foster a citizenry capable of self-governance and national solidarity. However, the limitation of Liang’s blueprint lies in its reliance on political rationality as the primary vehicle for identity formation. By defining the modern Chinese citizen largely through their utility within a civic-republican framework, Liang created a model that, while essential for survival, left limited room for the internal life of the individual against the pressures of systemic efficiency. If the value of the person is defined primarily by their efficacy within the political community, the model struggles to provide a defense against the totalizing logic of modern technological governance, which prioritizes optimization over moral development.

II. Li Zehou and the Philosophy of Sedimentation

Li Zehou’s intervention serves as a critique of the radical iconoclasm that followed Liang Qichao. Li’s philosophy centers on "sedimentation" (jidian), a process by which objective culture—art, history, ritual, and technology—becomes the subjective psychological structure of the individual. Li’s work is not merely a "modern Confucian" project; it is deeply grounded in Marxist humanism. In Subjectivity and Subjectivity: A Philosophy of Practice, Li argues that human value is the product of human labor and historical practice (shijian benti lun).

For Li, aesthetics are not subjective flights of fancy; they are the psychological outcome of the human struggle with the objective world. Through labor and social practice, objective reality is internalized, forming the basis of human consciousness. In this framework, the traditional Confucian concepts of Li (Ritual) and Ren (Benevolence) are rehabilitated not as metaphysical certainties, but as historical products of human practice. Li provides the structured patterns of behavior—the result of long-term social labor—while Ren constitutes the inner capacity for humaneness. In The Path of Beauty, Li demonstrates how these concepts migrate into the realm of aesthetics, where they serve as a psychological anchor. This secularizes value: Ren becomes a humanistic standard of conduct detached from feudal hierarchies but enriched by the depth of Chinese history.

III. Critical Challenges: Normative Authority and the "Space" of Resistance

Despite the resilience of Li’s framework, it faces two significant challenges. First, New Confucians such as Mou Zongsan argue that Li’s aestheticization of value collapses Confucian ethics into a purely psychological framework, lacking the metaphysical foundation provided by the Xin (Mind) connecting the individual to the cosmos. They argue that if value is merely "sedimented culture," it lacks the normative force required to resist political co-optation. If the tradition is just a historical artifact, why should it command our obedience?

Li Zehou’s response is that identity is the practice, not the assertion of metaphysical claims. However, this raises the second challenge: the vulnerability of aesthetics to ideological capture. Historically, cultural production in twentieth-century China was frequently mobilized by the state to reinforce specific political narratives. Li Zehou argues that the "sedimentation" process creates a space for individual reflection that remains distinct from the state's propaganda. But what is this space? It is defined here as reflective historical consciousness—the capacity to view oneself as a historical subject rather than an optimized unit of production. It is not "aesthetics" in the sense of passive art appreciation, but the active, reflective cultivation of one's own historical process.

IV. Contemporary Relevance: Aesthetics vs. Technocracy

In the twenty-first century, the challenge is the preservation of meaning against algorithmic governance. Liang Qichao’s project was the modernization of the citizen; Li Zehou’s project is the modernization of the human.

Liang’s civic republicanism remains vital, but in a world where human utility is increasingly automated, a model based purely on political efficacy is insufficient. Li Zehou’s philosophy creates an internal defense. Technocracy demands speed, efficiency, and quantifiable output. Aesthetic cultivation (per Li) demands slow, reflective, historical processing. The two operate on different speeds and different modes of human life. By rooting human value in the sedimentation of Li and Ren, Li creates a "space" within the individual that resists the optimization logic of modern systems. This is the realm of the aesthetic—a realm of subjective freedom, reflection, and moral depth that provides a necessary brake on the accelerating pace of technological change.

Conclusion

Liang Qichao provided the fire that demolished the traditional sociopolitical scaffolding, creating the space for the modern state; he was a thinker of urgency and action whose contributions remain essential to our understanding of Chinese political history. However, Li Zehou provides the architecture for the new one. His philosophy of sedimentation offers a sophisticated framework for identity that respects the weight of history while embracing the reality of modernity. By recognizing that human value is found in the aesthetic, reflective, and ethical cultivation of the self, Li Zehou provides a blueprint that protects the individual from the dehumanizing pressures of global technology. In the contemporary world, the preservation of identity requires a synthesis: the civic responsibility envisioned by Liang, anchored by the aesthetic and humanistic depth proposed by Li.

Works Cited

• Chan, Wing-tsit. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton University Press, 1963.

• Li, Zehou. The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics. Oxford University Press, 1994.

• Li, Zehou. Subjectivity and Subjectivity: A Philosophy of Practice. 1980s collection.

• Liang, Qichao. "On the Renovation of the People" (Xin Min Shuo). 1902.

• Makeham, John, editor. New Confucianism: A Critical Examination. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.