What does the word "revolution" mean?

In the West, the word revolution, or revolution, comes from Late Latin, which originally meant to revolve, to restore. Around the time of the Renaissance, revolution was given the meaning of fundamental change, and one of the major events that really gave revolution its modern significance was the English bourgeois revolution in the 17th century. Revolution in the modern sense is usually thought of as a sudden, drastic, and sweeping change that is often accompanied by violent activity.

The traditional Chinese word revolution originally meant periodic changes in the course of heaven, and has been used since the Han dynasty to refer to a change of dynasty. Before the Hundred Days' Reform, it was either seen as a change of dynasty or used to refer to great upheavals and had a negative value. The loss of legitimacy of the rule of the Qing dynasty made it possible to present the mechanism of dynastic change. After the Gengzi Incident in 1900, the concept of revolution emerged, and the combination of dynastic change and the Western meaning of revolution became the basis for the legitimacy of the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of a new society. Until 1915, the word revolution got rid of the traditional meanings of change of name and change of dynasty, and acquired the modern meanings of progress, radical change, and violent overthrow of the old system in the western concept of revolution.

In general, revolution means the collapse of the old system and the establishment of a new one. There are two types of revolutions, one is to establish a new system through revolution that has already matured in the old society, and the other is to make a complete break with the old traditions and to create a new system by virtue of revolutionary theories. Mr. Zhang Hao has divided revolutions into major revolutions and minor revolutions in the path of revolutionary thought in China in the past hundred years, and this article mainly refers to the former.