Lesson 6: The Hundred Days Reform

Kang Youwei and the Appeal from the Public Chariot

In the spring of 1895, when the news of the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki reached Beijing, the crowd was outraged. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who were taking the imperial examinations in the capital, joined more than 1,300 candidates from various provinces to write to the Guangxu Emperor, asking for the rejection of peace, the relocation of the capital and the change of law. This is the famous "Public Chariot Petition". This petition did not reach the Guangxu Emperor, but it was a sensation in Beijing and Shanghai, and opened the prelude of the Reform Movement.

After the failure of the "Gong Che Shang Shu", the reformers organized societies in various places, founded newspapers and magazines, and promoted the widespread dissemination of the ideas of the Reformation. Among them, the most influential newspapers were the Shanghai Times and the Tianjin Guowen.

Liang Qichao published "General Proposals for the Change of Law" in the "Times", emphasizing that "the law is the public instrument of the world; the change is the public principle of the world", and that "change is also change, and the same is also change", and that Japan became strong by the change of law, while China would perish because of old-fashionedness if it did not change the law. These words were innovative, easy to understand, and popular at home and abroad. Yan Fu and others presided over the newspaper Guo Wen Bao, which aimed at "understanding the feelings of the upper and lower classes" and "understanding the history of China and foreign countries" and called for the change of laws and the strengthening of China, and became the most influential newspaper in the north.

The Hundred Days of Modernization

In the winter of 1897, Germany occupied Jiaozhou Bay by force. After the news spread, Kang Youwei wrote a letter to Emperor Guangxu, deploring the danger of the current situation and the urgency of changing the law, and calling for the change of law to save the country. On June 11, 1898, the Qing government issued an imperial edict, "Mingding Guoji", announcing the change of law. Subsequently, the Guangxu Emperor issued a series of edicts, the main content: abolish redundant officials and redundant staff, allowing officials and citizens to petition and speak on matters; encourage private industry and mining enterprises, the development of agriculture and commerce; financial reform, the preparation of the national budget; abolition of the eight stocks, the test of policy, the opening of a new type of school to reduce the green battalion, training a new type of army, etc. 1898 is the lunar year of the Hundred Days, history calls this change of law as The "Hundred Days Reform".

The change of law offended the interests of the stubborn faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi. On September 21, Empress Dowager Cixi and others launched a coup d'état, imprisoned Guangxu Emperor, and searched for the reformers to repeal the edict of the Change of Law. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled one after another. Tan Sitong, Liu Guangdi, Lin Xu, Yang Rui, Yang Shenxiu, Kang Guangren six people were arrested and killed, known as the "Six Gentlemen of the Hundred Days". The change lasted 103 days, so it is also known as the "Hundred Days Reform".

Although the Hundred Days Reform failed, it had a wide and lasting impact on the ideological and cultural aspects.(576words)