The Modern Chinese Military “Spirit”: A New Genealogy

Name: The Modern Chinese Military “Spirit”: A New Genealogy
Start: 2025-02-27T12:15:00-0500
End: 2025-02-27T13:45:00-0500

Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

What does the concept of “spirit” have to do with the modern fighting capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army?

For more information, contact susan_lynch@hks.harvard.edu

Date: Thu, Feb 27, 2025 Time: 12:15pm - 01:45pm Location: One Brattle Square, 350

Speaker
Joseph Passman

Dated August 1894, this Japanese woodblock print depicts troops of China’s Qing dynasty clashing with those of Meiji Japan at Seonghwan, the first land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). Though students from China’s first military academy took important combat leadership roles in this battle, their presence has remained almost completely obscured from historical memory.

Speaker: Joseph Passman, Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program

What does the concept of “spirit” have to do with the modern fighting capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA)? Given the prevalence of the term “spirit” (jingshen 精神) in PLA doctrine and writings, it seems to play a significant role. As analysts and scholars have long pointed out, the PLA places a heightened emphasis on political ideology and moral indoctrination as crucial factors on the battlefield—a supposed product of their Marxist-Leninist heritage. But this seminar explores the history of that military “spirit,” tracing its roots back to China’s first modern military academy, founded in 1885 during the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911).

Drawing on new evidence to illuminate this long obscured and overlooked institution, the speaker argues for the imperial and Confucian origins of what the PLA regards as the key features that make it a modern (globally competitive) and Chinese (globally distinct) fighting force today.

Admittance is on a first come–first served basis. Tea and Coffee Provided.