Page 121 - Communism in Ambush

Darwin, Huxley and Galton were three influential evolutionists who led some of
the Chinese intellectuals to Fascism and Communism.

posed the superiority of the European races and the need for continual
conflict among races and nations, suggesting that society should not as-
sist its poor and weak members.
Among Chinese intellectuals influenced by Darwin and Spencer
were Y Yen Fu and Ting Wen-chiang, whose ideas greatly influenced the
foundation of modern China. In Chinese Communism and the Rise of
Mao, the American historian Benjamin Schwartz emphasizes Yen Fu
and his Darwinist ideas significantly. According to Schwartz, Yen Fu
takes the Western ideologies and theories he reads such as Spencer, and
sees them as prescriptive ways to transform society and achieve the goal
of wealth and power. 68 Schwartz states that Darwin's theories do not
merely describe reality. They prescribe values and a course of action. 69
Ting Wen-chiang was another important Chinese ideologue and
leader in Communism, whose views were founded on nothing other
than Darwinism. Ding was the most important representative of the
"New Culture" movement that influenced China in the 1910s and '20s.
This movement's most important feature was its opposition to
Confucianism, the religion of the Chinese people, and its seeking to re-
place it with a materialist world view. (Ironically, the New Culture
movement was a leading inspiration of both Mao's Communism and its
rival, Chiang Kai-Shek's Fascism.)