Yan Xishan - Yan Xishan Thought

Yan Xishan Thought

Throughout his life Yan Xishan attempted to identify, formulate, and disseminate a comprehensive ideology that would improve the morale and loyalty of his officials and the people of Shanxi. During his time of study in Japan, Yan became attracted to militarism and Social Darwinism, but he renounced these after World War I. Throughout the rest of Yan's life, he identified with the position of most Chinese conservatives at the time: that social and economic reform would progress from ethical reform, and that the problems confronting China could only be solved by the moral rehabilitation of the Chinese people. Believing that no single ideology existed to unify the Chinese people at the time that he came to power, Yan attempted to generate an ideal ideology himself, and once boasted that he had succeeded in creating a comprehensive system of belief that embodied the best features of "militarism, nationalism, anarchism, democracy, capitalism, communism, individualism, imperialism, universalism, paternalism, and utopianism". Much of Yan's attempts to spread his ideology were through a network of semi-religious organizations known as "Heart-Washing Societies".