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China The Hundred Days' Reform and the Aftermath
In the 103 days from June 11 to September 21, 1898, the Qing
emperor, Guangxu (1875-1908), ordered a series of reforms aimed at
making sweeping social and institutional changes. This effort
reflected the thinking of a group of progressive scholar-reformers
who had impressed the court with the urgency of making innovations
for the nation's survival. Influenced by the Japanese success with
modernization, the reformers declared that China needed more than
"self-strengthening" and that innovation must be accompanied by
institutional and ideological change.
The imperial edicts for reform covered a broad range of
subjects, including stamping out corruption and remaking, among
other things, the academic and civil-service examination systems,
legal system, governmental structure, defense establishment, and
postal services. The edicts attempted to modernize agriculture,
medicine, and mining and to promote practical studies instead of
Neo-Confucian orthodoxy. The court also planned to send students
abroad for firsthand observation and technical studies. All these
changes were to be brought about under a de facto constitutional
monarchy.
Opposition to the reform was intense among the conservative
ruling elite, especially the Manchus, who, in condemning the
announced reform as too radical, proposed instead a more moderate
and gradualist course of change. Supported by ultraconservatives
and with the tacit support of the political opportunist Yuan Shikai
(1859-1916), Empress Dowager Ci Xi engineered a coup d'etat on
September 21, 1898, forcing the young reform-minded Guangxu into
seclusion. Ci Xi took over the government as regent. The Hundred
Days' Reform ended with the rescindment of the new edicts and the
execution of six of the reform's chief advocates. The two principal
leaders, Kang Youwei (1858-1927) and Liang Qichao (1873-1929), fled
abroad to found the Baohuang Hui (Protect the Emperor Society) and
to work, unsuccessfully, for a constitutional monarchy in China.
The conservatives then gave clandestine backing to the
antiforeign and anti-Christian movement of secret societies known
as Yihetuan (Society of Righteousness and Harmony). The movement
has been better known in the West as the Boxers (from an earlier
name--Yihequan, Righteousness and Harmony Boxers). In 1900 Boxer
bands spread over the north China countryside, burning missionary
facilities and killing Chinese Christians. Finally, in June 1900,
the Boxers besieged the foreign concessions in Beijing and Tianjin,
an action that provoked an allied relief expedition by the offended
nations. The Qing declared war against the invaders, who easily
crushed their opposition and occupied north China. Under the
Protocol of 1901, the court was made to consent to the execution of
ten high officials and the punishment of hundreds of others,
expansion of the Legation Quarter, payment of war reparations,
stationing of foreign troops in China, and razing of some Chinese
fortifications.
In the decade that followed, the court belatedly put into
effect some reform measures. These included the abolition of the
moribund Confucian-based examination, educational and military
modernization patterned after the model of Japan, and an
experiment, if half-hearted, in constitutional and parliamentary
government
(see The Examination System
, ch. 3). The suddenness and
ambitiousness of the reform effort actually hindered its success.
One effect, to be felt for decades to come, was the establishment
of new armies, which, in turn, gave rise to warlordism.
Data as of July 1987
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