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Hundred Days’ Reform

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From 1895 to 1898, China faced the crisis of national subjugation as foreign powers intensified their aggression. Chinese scholar-officials, with the support of the Guangxu emperor, embarked on a reformation to save the foundering nation. These reforms crested in 1898, the year of wuxu in the Chinese calendrical system. It is therefore known as the Wuxu Reform.

 

After its main forces were annihilated in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and 1895, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki by which China ceded territories and paid reparations to Japan. The entire nation was shocked and began to ask itself why it was defeated and what could be done about it.

 

Those who had the deepest insight into these issues were overseas students, diplomats, and businessmen who had more contact with Western cultures and people, as well as traditional scholars who had been exposed to translated works, newspapers, and magazines. Examples of the former were Yan Fu (1854–1921) who had studied in England, and Zheng Guanying (1842–1921) who had been a comprador engaged in foreign trade, while the most prominent of the latter were Kang Youwei (1858–1927) and Liang Qichao (1873–1929).

 

Kang and Liang gradually became leaders of the Reform Movement. Having petitioned the emperor, run newspapers, organized scholarly societies, published articles, and the like, they gained increasing influence. They dealt with a wide range of issues concerning education, agriculture, legislation, administration and management, commerce, border defense, and others, hoping that China could become modernized by learning from the West.

 

The Guangxu emperor (r. 1875–1908) had a better understanding of the humiliation China had undergone than anyone else. With the assistance of his teacher Weng Tonghe (1830–1904) and other courtiers, he ordered in July 1895 that local magistrates must submit within a month reform proposals regarding railways, schools and postal services, paper money, mining, the manufacturing of machinery, the training of a modern army, taxation, the elimination of sinecures, among others. Under the emperor’s aegis, China founded its first modern bank, university, and army.

 

The reform, which peaked in 1898 from June to September, lasted 103 days and was therefore called the Hundred Days’ Reform. During this period, Kang Youwei, the key planner, submitted thirty-six memorials to the Guangxu emperor, who in turn issued 111 edicts. These memorials and edicts touched all aspects of the reform, including the appointment of the reformers as officials, changing the imperial examination subjects to more practical ones, establishing the Imperial University of Peking to train men needed for the reform, building a modern educational system, translating foreign books, promoting publication and newspapers, conducting military reform by employing Western firearms and drilling routines, revitalizing agriculture, industry and commerce, constructing railways, opening more ports and post offices, and so on. The emperor decided to close useless government agencies and dismiss redundant personnel. In addition, any official or commoner could submit suggestions directly to the emperor.

 

With these all-inclusive edicts and memorials, the emperor and reformers were eager to change China into a modern and prosperous country overnight. Inevitably, these policies seriously infringed on the interests of courtiers holding real power. They participated in the reform perfunctorily, and as a result, few resolutions were put into effect. The Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), the most powerful conservative, engineered a coup in September 1898 and took over control of the government as regent again. She put the Guangxu emperor under house arrest and ordered Kang Youwei and other reformers arrested. The Hundred Days’ Reform thus ended in failure.

 

The contents of the Hundred Days’ Reform were in step with the times. With its failure China missed an important opportunity to achieve modernization. However, it is hard to blame one person or a few people for the failure. The Empress Dowager Cixi and other conservatives embodied the old-fashioned aspect of traditional Chinese culture. The naiveté of the reformers practically precipitated the coup.

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Last updated:
2020-04-01

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