Chinese reformers preferred Neo-Lamarckian group selection over Darwinian individualism

Evidence

Selectively appropriating social Darwinian theories, the reformers claimed that racial survival (baozhong) in a context of international competition was the inescapable consequence of profound evolutionary forces. Rather than appealing to Charles Darwin’s emphasis on competition between individuals of the same species, however, most reformers were inspired by Herbert Spencer’s focus on group selection. For reformers like Yan Fu, Liang Qichao, and Kang Youwei, processes of evolution were directed by the principle of racial grouping, in which individuals of a race should unite in order to survive in the struggle for existence much as each cell contributed to the overall health of a living organism. Apart from the individualistic basis for competition, the reformers also ignored the neo-Darwinian emphasis on the branching process of evolution. They adopted a Neo- Lamarckian theory of linear evolution, which viewed human devleopment as a single line of ascent from the apes: the embryo developed in a purposeful way towards maturity, and this process could be guided by changes to the social and political environment. Neo- Lamarckism offered a flexible vision of evolution which closely suited the political agenda of the reformers, as human progress in the realm of politics was seen to be conducive to the racial improvement of the species. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3316

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme of how evolutionary theory was shaped to fit political agendas — echoes of social Darwinism’s selective appropriation noted in other racial theory readings.
• QUESTION: How did this Neo-Lamarckian linear-evolution framing compare with contemporaneous Western race science, which often used hierarchical branching to rank races? Worth chasing.