40 THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA THE“HUNDRED DAYS'”OF REFORM 41 new conception of closer correlation between the officeholder's duties and of the impending educational reorganization of the country.Despite his his preparation meant the dethronement of elegant calligraphy,heretofare undoubted intelligence and zeal,his qualifications were not of the best, an essential part of a mandarin's training.Candidates were no longer to for he knew no other languages than Japanese and his own."Liang, be graded on their penmanship,and the palace examination,at which realizing his own shortcomings,turned for aid to Jesuit missionaries, calligraphy had done much to win for certain Ph.D.'s the crowning honor whom he proposed to make directors of a college of.translators to be of membership in the Hanlin Academy,was abolished." established in Shanghai.s The newspaper was another agency on which the reformers relied to Chang Chih-tung's Learn (known in English as China's Only Hope) hasten their intellectual renaissance.One of the most interesting of the was adopted as a sort of party platform by the reformers.The Emperor reform edicts is that which pleads with almost Miltonian fervor the benefits ordered its distribution to all officials and students for the purpose of of a free press.The inspiration for this pronouncement is attributed to acquainting them with the ideas which were to guide the China of the Sun Chia-nai,but its sentiments are such that it seems likely that he was future.The influence of Leara,both during and after the ill-fated ven- merely a mouthpiece for some more radical member of the reform clique. ture of 1898,was great and its contents deserve notice.It is a valuable The memorial in question led off tactfully enough by comparing the service statement of the conceptions of Western civilization held by one of the of the press to the"ancient custom of officials calling upon the people for best-informed men in China and of the manner in which he hoped to poems and literary essays in order to find out the thoughts filling the minds harmonize Chinese and Western ways so as to give new vitality to the of the masses";so much for the potent argument from tradition.The ancient institutions by the introduction of reanimating elements.There passage dealing with newspapers is worth quoting: are in the book strange misconceptions of Occidental life,the inevitable The memorialist therefore suggests that it will be most important to grant liberty result of a wide and somewhat uncritical reading,but there are also many and license to newspapers to write freely and succinctly on all topics whether advan- shrewd judgments and a liberal attitude which compels respect.The tageous or disastrous to the country,thereby giving warning notes and assisting those in power how to remedy matters and the like.These newspapers,moreover,could whole work resounded with ardent loyalty to the Manchu dynasty,charg- translate the news and editorials of foreign newspapers for the enlightenment and ing China's backwardness to the blind and prejudiced official class.The knowledge of officials and merchants,students and people,of what is going on in panacea which Chang had to offer was a fusion of Confucian morality other countries.Such newspapers would then be more than valuable not only to local with Western military and industrial methods.s5 This blending was to be administrations but also to enlighten all as to what is proper in regard to foreign effected by methods similar to those being essayed by Kuang Hsu at the intercourse.....Now all newspapers must make it their aim to write broadly and time.The literati were to be awakened by travel,schools which taught plainly and in a liberal spirit on all subjects affecting the welfare of the Empire;they should not be circumscribed in their efforts to enlighten their readers,nor should subjects of practical use,and the spread of newspapers,all following the they refrain from writing boldly against all frauds and misgovernment thereby course already pursued by Japan.Chang also urged the advance of re- preventing us from learning the exact truth and facts. ligious toleration and the suppression of the use of opium,two reforms which did not make up part of Kang's.scheme,at least so far as the As a beginning the Chinese Progress,which Liang Chi-chao had been enactments of the "Hundred Days"can witness.In the midst of all this editing in Shanghai,was chosen as the official organ of the government. change,the indigenous culture of China was not for a moment to be Kang Yu-wei was made director of the enterprise,subject to the duty of forgotten.The service to be performed by the added Western elements consulting with Sun Chia-nai in all matters regarding state subsidized papers,such as the Chinese Progress was now to be.This meant the was merely the strengthening of China against the dangers of attack and partition.0 Chang wisely noted the uselessness of talking in Mencian probable removal of Kang to Shanghai,where the paper had its offices,52 fashion of the all-compelling force of benevolence and of pinning faith Liang,replaced in the Chinese Progress office by Kang Yu-wei,was on disarmament conferences. to superintend the translation of Occidental literature and the preparation of works suitable for use in schools,a work of vast importance in view ss Vinacke,Modern Constitutional Development in China,p.39. 51 Reform Decrees,July 20,August 19. 4 De la Serviere,"Une Universite frangaise en Chine"in Relations de Chine,July- October,1918,pp.72-73,quoted in d'Elia,"Un Maitre de la jeune Chine:Liang 33 Reform Decrees,August 9;and Bland and Backhouse,op.cit,511,say that K'i-tch'au"in T'oung Pao,XVIII,254. Sun,"peace-loving and prudent,"favored the plan as a means of getting the trouble- so Chang Chih-tung,China's Only Hope,translated by S.I.Woodbridge,p.122. some Kang into a less-central location. se-Chang Chih-tung,op.cit.,p.63. [40J [41]
42 THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA THE“HUNDRED DAYS”OF REFORM 43 ...if we talk of disarmament to the other countries,without the force to back up our words,we will become the laughing-stock of the world.....If countries are labors by provincial branch offices.A later decree shows the rather evenly matched,then International Law is enforced;otherwise,the law is inoper- naive ideas of the Emperor's advisers on the introduction of the great ative.57 mechanical inventions: His study of the West had not been in vain!He declaimed against the We command the Bureau of Arts and Commerce....to purchase models of folly of inaugurating a parliament before education had paved the way, the various kinds of machinery in modern use so as to educate the masses and that the latter may learn to manipulate'the machinery for their own benefit and use.s and opposed republicanism,as did Kang Yu-wei." Ku Hung Ming,conservative disciple of Chang Chih-tung,has asserted Official rank,ennoblement,or decorations were to be the rewards of those that Learn was meant as propaganda against Kang and his followers. who "write practical and useful books,invent articles of use,machinery," He has described a nocturnal conference held on the roof of Chang's and the like.Patent and copyright regulations were also promised.Simi- cotton mill at Shanghai during the "Hundred Days,"at which Chang lar signs of favor were to be bestowed on those who established "schools, gave vent to his distress at the precipitancy with which Kang Yu-wei was foundries,big guns and small arms factories."The first sign of any rushing into a course but half-understood and expressed his resolve to voluntary organization which would contribute to the work in hand was formulate a saner program of reform,which he embodied in Learn."9 greeted with approval;an agricultural association which had been formed Yet any study of Learn and of the reform decrees of 1898 shows a at Shanghai was to serve as a model for such organizations all over the very considerable resemblance between the views of Chang and those of Empire,and a proposal for the establishment of commercial societies in Kang,a similarity which in part may have been due to personal contact, the chief coast cities was passed on to Chang Chih-tung and Liu Kun-yi for Kang was at one time a protege of Chang.30 They differed chiefy in as the viceroys best situated to carry it into effect.ss The building and tempo;Chang insisted on the necessity of preparing the ground by educa- ownership of Chinese railways by her own people was to be encouraged tion before attempting other changes,while Kang was leading in the rapid by the establishment of schools to train young men in such work.A production of a swarm of radical reform decrees.Nevertheless both were similar arrangement was ordered for mining.A peremptory order that members of a group which wished,while preserving intact Confucianism, the work on the Lu-Han line be hastened was issued,and sanction was the essence of Chinese civilization,to buttress that civilization by borrow- given to the building.of a short connection between Peking and the ings from the West.Ku Hung Ming,strict Confucian as he was,deplored Western Hills.The roads in Peking were to receive attention such as the conversion of his chief,Chang Chih-tung,to moderate liberalism,and they had needed for years.Even the characteristically Chinese industries was eager to differentiate between Chang's doctrines and those of Kang of tea-growing and silk-manufacturing were to be brought up to date,for Yu-wei,for whom he had no love;he may also have desired to find a the decline in their export had begun to raise fears in the minds of some reason in extenuation of Chang's volte face after the coup d'ctat when he of the more Westernized,who saw their country threatened with a so- telegraphed the Empress Dowager to make all haste in punishing those called "unfavorable balance of trade."6 very men with whom he had been in co-operation not long before. Somewhat less attention was given in the edicts to army and navy To return to the further summary of the enactments which the re- reorganization than might have been expected,although the subject had formers sponsored,Kuang Hsu's solicitude on behalf of his people led been on the boards for many years and progress had been mainly illusory. him not only to provide for their education but to desire better conditions The emendation of the military examinations continued.A pronounce- for agriculture,trade,and industrial development.The most pretentious ment of August 10 directed the organization of naval colleges and training move was the establishment of a special Chief Bureau of Agriculture, Arts,and Commerce,charged with the inauguration throughout the empire 2 Reform Decrees,August 21. of agricultural schools and newspapers,scientific farming methods,and ea Ibid.,September 8. modern labor-saving machinery.It was to be assisted in its Herculean as Ibid.,July 7. Ibid.,July 4,August 29. 57 Chang Chih-tung,op.cit.,pp.140-142. ee Ibid.,August 10. s8 Ibid.,pp.58,62. Ku Hung Ming,The Story of a Chinese Oxford Movement,p.28. T Ibid.,June 26,September 10. eo Ibid.,p.27. e8 Ibid.,September 11. 1 Bland and Backhouse,op.cif.,p.22 Ibid.,July 6,September 12. [42] [43]
44 THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA THE“HUNDRED DAYS”OF REFORM 45 ships throughout the maritime provinces.70 The only really noteworthy was legion.Among the highly honorary positions which were cut off in decree apropos of national defense was one approving the formation of the prime of their uselessness were those of the Supervisorate of the a sort of national militia,with universal military training.The experiment Heir Apparent,a pleasant occupation when there was,as.in 1898,no was to be tried first in Kwangsi and Kwangtung,and if it proved effective heir apparent to supervise,the Office of Transmission for Imperial Edicts, there,was to be extended.The outline of the system,suggested by Chang the Court of Banquets,the Court of State Ceremonial,the Court of the Yin-huan,one of the most prominent of the reformers,was: Imperial Stud,and the Court of Revision.Nor did the elimination stop ...that each city of the Empire should invite a certain proportion of its citizens there,for governorships of the provinces of Kwangtung,Hupeh,and to give up part of their time and train as soldiers,that those having received their Yunnan were to be abolished,since these provinces also had over them a training be allowed to return to their avocations giving place to another fresh body of citizens,and so on until every male inhabitant of the city and district shall have viceroy who could very well take over the duties once performed by the had a soldier's training and thus enable him to be called out at any time,either to governor.The Directorate-General of the Yellow River too was to keep the peace or to fight hostile invaders.This National Army will only be an vanish,and its functions were to pass to the Governor of Honan.The auxiliary force to supplement the regular forces in time of war.1 grain and salt services were found to be prolific of posts which imparted The grave need of modern judicial machinery in China had been one honor rather than obligation;hence a wholesale abolition of all grain and of Kang's chief preachments,but in the "Hundred Days"little was salt taotaiships which had ceased to have any concern with grain and salt. accomplished in that direction.On July 29 Kuang Hsu ordered the courts Even smaller fry were attacked.A great reduction was ordered in the of the various boards in Peking to make a clean sweep of the cases on ranks of petty officials who had been nominally engaged in river con- their dockets,some of which had apparently been awaiting decision for a servation and the capture of salt-smugglers.The officials who were thus length of time hardly surpassed by the Court of Chancery in its most deprived of their posts were assured that they would be given employment dilatory days.This done,new modes of procedure would be instituted.12 elsewhere in the governmental system,76 but this was small solace,since The only further development of the idea of an improved judiciary the positions to which they would be transferred would almost certainly appeared in the memorial of one Tsai Chen-fan,who supported the be more arduous than those which had been taken from them. appointment of"special judges to try civil and criminal cases,on a similar The decree of August 30 did not quench the Emperor's eagerness for basis to those of the West,for no reform can be said to be complete retrenchment,for not long afterward he issued a rescript which boded unless this branch of the public service be also thoroughly reformed and no good to the occupants of Grand Canal captaincies,also posts which remodeled."Most of his suggestions were turned over to the great had outlasted their usefulness."If things were to go on at this rate the administrative bodies in Peking for a"grand deliberation." good old times would soon be gone forever and an officeholder's lot would In fiscal affairs,the chief adoption from the West was the device of cease to be a happy one.Many an official who had at first viewed the an annual budget."4 This innovation was assuredly not welcome to the Emperor's reform efforts with equanimity now began to see in them a rank and file of Chinese officialdom,for of the sums collected from the threat to the established and comfortable ways which had acquired the people only a comparatively small amount was ever applied to the actual powerful sanction of custom and were not to be broken without profoundly expenses of government,while a much larger part went to supply the affecting the whole fabric of Chinese life.Therefore there was almost officials up and down the line with their inevitable "squeeze."But if the no protest or regret on their part,and less on the part of the people,who introduction of a budget was disturbing to the ordinary official,the decree had glimpsed only imperfectly what was under way,when there appeared of August 30 brought news that was positively alarming.The Emperor on September 21 an edict by which the Emperor suddenly renounced all had launched a strenuous campaign against sinecure posts--and their name active control of the government in favor of his august aunt,the Empress Dowager,Tzu Hsi. 10 Reform Decrees,August 10. Kuang Hsi's reign was over;there remained to him only the Imperial title.He 11 Ibid.,September 5. had had his chance;in the enthusiasm of youth and new ideas he had played a des- Ibid.,July 29. perate game against the powers of darkness in high places,and he had lost.T7 ra Ibid.,September 16. 14 Ibid. 15 Reform Decrees,August 30. 1e Reform Decrees,September 10. Bland and Backhouse,o.cit.,p.211. [44] [45]
46 THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA THE“HUNDRED DAYS'”OF REFORM 47 For a brief time the Emperor had failed to walk warily among the in- and Wang Chao was raised in rank as the reward of his efforts on behalf trigues,ambitions,and jealousies with which Peking was rife.New men of enlightenment.34 were exalted,old officials were threatened with disgrace.The members of From that time on,the peace of the"Old Buddha's"retreat was gone. the imperial clan were ordered to give up their comfortable existences in The dismissed officials and all who sympathized with them importuned her Peking for the hazards of foreign travel.Vested interests and long- daily to exert herself and save the empire from the danger of ill- countenanced perquisites were endangered by the imperial zeal.And to considered reform.The tenseness of the situation was increased by the focus the general dissatisfaction there occurred two incidents which decree of September 14 which proposed that Manchu bannermen,who showed beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Emperor's new policy had long enjoyed state-subsidized leisure,should enter some useful em- meant death to the old order. ployment.a5 The Emperor was going too far;he had violated his promise On June 20 the imperial gazette proclaimed that two censors had ac- of June to leave the Manchu privileges untouched.Even then the Empress cused Hsu Ying-kuei,President of the Board of Rites,of being an Dowager did not move.Not till her personal safety was threatened did obstructor of progress.70 In response to these charges,Hsu sent in a she intervene. vitriolic memorial denouncing Kang Yu-wei as a charlatan and revolution- Kang and his followers realized that they stood on the edge of a ary.The Emperor,greatly angered,would gladly have dismissed Hsu volcano.At any moment the conservatives might win over Tzu Hsi to but for the protection accorded him by the Empress Dowager,who was activity and the reformers would be lost.They resolved to chance every- impressed by his warning against"The Modern Sage."The episode had thing on a coup d'etat.Kang had long been very bitter against the a sequel in the petition of the censor,Wen Ti,who declared that Hsu had Empress Dowager and had insistently urged upon the Emperor the wisdom been attacked for reasons of personal spite and called for the degradation of rendering her powerless to check the growth of a reorganized China. of his accusers.Wen Ti was promptly dismissed by the Emperor,the The essential prerequisite to any such step was control of the northern Empress Dowager refusing to intercede for him.She was biding her army,but its commander was Jung Lu,old and faithful servant of Tzu time.1 Hsi.Before she could be reduced to impotence,he must be put out of The commotion resulting from these charges and countercharges was the way.The first move came on September 16 with the elevation of surpassed by the furore raised by the case of Wang Chao,third-class Yuan Shih-kai,erstwhile provincial judge of Chihli,to the vice-presidency secretary of the Board of Rites.Late in August he submitted a memorial of a metropolitan board and the post of Inspector-General of Army proposing changes certain to outrage the conservative-the abolition of Organization and Drills for the Peiyang Army.The edict effecting this the queue,the adoption of Western dress,the proclamation of Christianity change contained the significant sentence: as the state religion,the formation of a parliament,and a visit to Japan by the Emperor and Empress Dowager.s2 The heads of the Board of Rites We trust that Yuan Shih-kai,bearing in his mind the importance of the period kept this document from Kuang Hsu on the theory that such impious we are now passing and the crisis of the moment,will use his best endeavours to deserve his promotion which is given as a token of the great trust and confidence we proposals should not be allowed to offend the imperial wisdom.On Sep- interd to repose in him. tember 1 appeared an edict pouring on them the wrath of their sovereign, who declared himself competent to judge the worth of all memorials and Yuan,once a member of Kang's reform club of 1895,had been selected demanded that Wang Chao's suggestions be handed up at once.s Three by the reformers as their tool. days later the two presidents of the Board of Rites (one of them was The Empress Dowager got wind of what was going on,through private Hsu Ying-kuei)and its four vice-presidents were dismissed from office, sources of informationi,and ordered Kuang Hsu to arrest Kang Yu-wei for calumniating her.s Kang was warned of his danger and fled,but his 1s Reform Decrees,June 15. adherents realized that prompt action was necessary to save themselves 19 Ibid.,June 20. 4 Ibid.,September 4. Bland and Backhouse,op.cif.,pp.192-194. 85 Bland and Backhouse,op.cit.,p.195;Reform Decrees,September 14. s1 Ibid.,p.195;Reform Decrees,July 8. so Bland and Backhouse,op.cit.,p.197-198. 2 Smith,China in Convulsion,I,145;Headland,op.cit.,p.143. sa Reform Decrees,September 1. s1 Reform Decrees,September 16. Bland and Backhouse,op.cit.,pp.203-204. [46] [47】
48 THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA THE "HUNDRED DAYS"OF REFORM 49 and their projects.Exactly what took place on September 20 it is im- possible to say.The usually accepted account is that given by Bland and the outcome stands in no doubt.The next morning Kuang Hsu was seized Backhouse in their life of Tzu Hsi.A second version is that of the chief and conveyed to the island in the lake in the Winter Palace grounds,never actor,Yuan Shih-kai,who gave out a statement during the revolution when again to figure actively in state concerns.The fate which he had planned his"betrayal"of the Emperor in 1898 was being used against him;it is for his august aunt had fallen upon himself. therefore open to criticism as an e parte account.To add to the diff- Tzu Hsi's triumphant return to power was announced on September 21 culty,Timothy Richard,who was intimate with the young reformers,and in a decree redolent with the suave irony of which Chinese state papers Princess Der Ling,who talked with Kuang Hsu during his subsequent furnish many examples.In the name of the captive Emperor,it declared: captivity,have given additional details.Richard asserts that the reformers The nation is now passing through a crisis,and wise guidance is needed in all had no intention of killing Jung Lu,who had co-operated with them,and branches of the public service.We ourselves have laboured diligently,night and day, that subsequent reports to that effect were untrue."0 Princess Der Ling to perform OuR innumerable duties,but in spite of all OuR anxious energy and care WE are in constant fear lest delay should be the undotng of the country.We now states that Kuang Hsu instructed Yuan to go directly to the Summer respectfully recall the fact that Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager has on Palace and to imprison Tzu Hsi there,doing her no injury,but that Yuan, two occasions since the beginning of the reign of H.M.T'ung-Chih,performed the deciding to use the whole affair for his personal advancement,went instead functions of Regent,and that in her administrations of the Government she displayed to Jung Lu,Tzu Hsi's faithful adviser,told him that he (Yuan)had been complete and admirable qualities of perfection which enabled her successfully to cope ordered to kill the Empress Dowager,and thus precipitated the long in- with every difficulty that arose.Recollecting the serious burden of the responsibility We owe to OuR ancestors and to the nation,We have repeatedly besought Her carceration of Kuang Hsu.The two more commonly accepted versions, Majesty to condescend once more to administer the Government.Now she has gra- however,agree in stating that the reform clique desired Yuan to go first ciously honoured Us by granting OuR prayer,a blessing indeed for all OuR subjects. to Tientsin and do away with Jung Lu,after which,with the army,he From this day forth Her Majesty will transact the business of Government in the side was to imprison the Empress Dowager in the Summer Palace.It is usually hall of the Palace,and on the day after to-morrow Ws ourselves at the head of Ou said that Kuang Hsu himself gave these instructions to Yuan in an audi- Princes and Ministers shall perform obeisance before Her in the Hall of Diligent Government.The Yamens concerned shall respectfully make the arrangements neces- ence held early and with greatest secrecy on the morning of September 20. sary for this ceremonial.The words of the Emperor.92 Yuan,however,later declared that he got his orders not from the Emperor but from one of the reformers,who insisted that such was Kuang Hsu's Thus ended Kuang Hsu's valiant effort at national regeneration. wish but had no edict in vermilion pencil to bear out his assertion.In any Brooding over his failure in the following years,he himself saw only one case,Yuan went to Tientsin during the day and revealed the plot to Jung reason for it,the treachery of Yuan Shih-kai.39 In reality,Yuan's action Lu,to whom he was bound by the bonds of blood brotherhood.What merely hastened a debacle which was inevitable.Kuang Hsu was unfitted reception did his revelation receive?Yuan'stated that.Jung Lu greeted to serve as leader in the movement he so strongly desired.Despite his the announcement with equanimity,and informed him that the scheme dreams and visions,he was essentially passive.Only the disgrace of his was already known to Tzu Hsi through a leakage of information from the country and the urging of the impetuous Kang Yu-wei spurred him for a palace and that steps were being taken to topple Kuang Hsu from power brief time into feverish action.As to Kang himself,his qualifications for and dispose of his rash advisers.The other tale is that Jung Lu,horrified the task in hand were hardly better than those of his patron.He,too,was by the danger which threatened Tzu Hsi,hastened to her presence and fired with an ardor born of desperation but was lacking in any experience divulged the news given him by Yuan,and that there followed a grand of practical politics.It is impossible to read some of the edicts issued council of all her supporters,who besought her to save herself and the during the"Hundred Days"without being stirred to admiration of the fine Empire.This version is borne out by the honors showered on Jung Lu patriotic and humanitarian zeal which inspired these men.Yet their after the coup d'etat,which may well have been the Empress Dowager's three months of dominance.closed with nothing more tangible than a noble repayment for great service rendered.Whatever the preliminary events, 8Ibid.,pp.205-207;The Times,November 21,1911.Both these versions are sum- 2 Bland and Backhouse,op.cit.,p.208.A slightly different and less polished marized.in Kent,The Passing of the Manchus,pp.17-22. translation will be found in Reform Decrees.September 21. o Richard,op.cit.,p.265. 93Ibid,D.460. Der Ling,Old Buddha,chapter xxvi. 4 See Reform Decrees,September 12,an edict which particularly shows the fine idealism back of the attempt. [48] [49]