
China’s devastating defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War put the country in danger of partition. With Emperor Guangxu’s support, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and other intelligentsia launched a reform movement to save the country. However, their brave initiative was crushed by Empress Dowager Cixi after only 103 days.
China’s devastating defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War put the country in danger of partition. With Emperor Guangxu’s support, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and other intelligentsia launched a reform movement to save the country. However, their brave initiative was crushed by Empress Dowager Cixi after only 103 days.
With China’s fate at stake after its disastrous defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, a group of patriotic Chinese scholar-officials advocated a new reform movement. Its leading reformer, Kang Youwei, petitioned Emperor Guangxu tirelessly about the need for a holistic reform, while Liang Qichao and other intelligentsias devoted themselves to launching newspapers and establishing learned societies.
Emperor Guangxu endorsed the Reformist Camp’s proposal and expressed his support for reform in the Imperial Edict on National Affairs. He then put Kang Youwei and his fellow reformers in charge of implementing the reform. It thus commenced a comprehensive programme aimed at reforming various aspects of the Qing government, from military to political, economic, educational, and more.
From the start the Hundred Days’ Reform encountered fierce opposition from the powerful conservative forces that rallied behind Empress Dowager Cixi. Not long afterwards, a coup crushed the reform and its advocates.
Despite its failure, the Hundred Days’ Reform was nevertheless significant: it served as the forerunner of the Late Qing Reform in the early 20th century, inspired generations that followed, confirmed Qing dynasty as a lost cause, and fuelled the anti-Qing revolution.