In 1901, following the Boxer debacle, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Qing court felt compelled to offer new reforms to shore up the crumbling dynasty. On January 29, she issued an edict that called on all Qing officials to advise the court on the best course for reform. In particular, she wanted ideas on how to overhaul government institutions, education, military organization, and the financial system. (Like the basketball team that has trouble with defense, free throws, dribbling, passing, and shooting but other than that, they’re great.) She needed a plan. She actually had a plan three years earlier whenKang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Tan Sitong advised the emperor during the 100 Days Reforms, but she didn’t like that plan so she called for the deaths of Kang and Liang, actually managed to execute Tan, and locked the emperor away in the Summer Palace on a small island (瀛臺 Yingtai) in an imperial garden west of the palace. Ironically, the new plan greatly resembled the old plan, but by the time she got around to agreeing to it, it was too late to save the dynasty anyway. Ladies and gentleman, the Norv Turner of de facto monarchs.
Today is the birthday of early CCP leader Qu Qiubai, born in 1899. A native of Jiangsu province, Qu’s father was an opium addict and his mother committed suicide when he was young, but despite those hardships Qu turned out to be a gifted student. Too poor to attend Peking University, he instead studied Russian in Beijing, and while there fell into intellectual circles that included early Chinese Marxists such as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. In 1920, Qu traveled to Moscow to report on conditions in the Soviet Union. He wrote, “Now I am happy for I have seen the lighthouse of the mind’s sea. Even though it is but a single red ray, weak and indistinct, it is possible to see it in the approaching infinite process.” It was pretty optimistic stuff given the situation in Russia in the early 1920s, but understandable considering what was going on in China at the same time. He joined the Communist Party in 1922, and later, following the collapse of the first United Front in 1927, Qu replaced Chen Duxiu as party secretary-general, a position Qu held for only a short time. He was ousted after the Canton uprising (a Comintern plan which Qu supported) ended in disaster in December, 1927. He was later pushed out of the party leadership altogether in 1931, derided as a follower of Wang Ming. Qu nevertheless stayed with the CCP until his death in 1935, when because of the tuberculosis from which he suffered most of his life, he was unable to escape the Jiangxi Soviet as part of the Long March. Taking part in the rear vanguard, he was captured and executed by the KMT on June 18. Like other leaders of the CCP from the 1920s and 1930s not named “Mao,” Qu was later vilified in PRC historiography, an assessment that was finally overturned in 1980.
On this date in 1979, Deng Xiaoping arrived in the United States, four weeks after the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing. In addition to his historic meeting with Jimmy Carter at the White House, Deng also met with congressional officials and members of the state department and the NSC, attended a performance at the Kennedy Center, and traveled to Texas where he visited the Houston Space Center and was photographed wearing a cowboy hat.
Finally, a passage by Qu Qiubai written in Moscow on the occasion of New Years Day, 1922:
“Moscow has suddenly moved nearer to the Far East. Look at the Far East, how bright the purple and red flames shine forth as they spin! The blazing clouds, just sprouting,how roaringly they shoot towards the firmanent.”
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Information and quotations from Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China. (W.W. Norton, 1990)
I was watching the drama “Towards the Republic” very much describes the era. It is not the Emperor or Empress Dowager Cixi or even many in Qing court didn’t see the urgency of reforms long before catastrophes strike(like the first Sino-Japanese War), but rather one realizes how much of a stranglehold traditional Confucian value has on the whole social hierarchy. That’s why later reformers, no matter what schools of thought, always adopted an absolutely hostile attitude toward the Confucian tradition. They see the destruction of the traditional as necessary for reform.
This manifests ultimately in the Cultural Revolution where it can be said as being the final nail in the coffin for the traditional values.
Falen,
I actually have 走向共和 here on DVD, it’s one of my all-time favorites. It’s fun to watch, historically I have some quibbles. The basis of the argument “blame Confucianism” was central to Mary Wright’s classic on the Self-Strengthening Movement, The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism published in 1957.. Subsequent scholarship in the PRC, Taiwan, Japan and the US has built on her groundbreaking work, while at the same time problematizing her analysis. It’s too easy to fall into the May 4 trap of blaming Confucius.
But speaking of ZXGH, I recall when it came out there were some lively debates on the BBSs over its interpretation of some of the key figures at the time, especially Cixi and Yuan Shikai. Fascinating back and forth.
Finally, I would agree that they saw the urgency of the reforms but (and doesn’t this seem rather timely?) they were afraid that the kinds of reforms necessary might ultimately weaken their overall legitimacy and hold on power.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment and for stopping by.
HI, just stumbled on to your site. I think I will be checking in w/ some frequency, especially since the US media has such poor coverage of news from China – the “if it didn’t happen here, in the US, it’s not news ” mentality (of course, they no longer do a good job of reporting what goes on here, but that’s…) Also, I have been interested in Chinese history for years, but am certainly not truly knowledgeable on the subject, so I appreciate your commentary on the subject.
Rick,
Glad you stumbled in this direction and welcome!
Was the emperor detained in the Summer Palace? My memory tells me that it should be somewhere in Zhongnanhai.
Liyang,
Nice catch. You are right. The Empress Dowager launched her counter-coup from the Summer Palace, but she detained the Guangxu Emperor on a small island called 瀛臺 (Yingtai) in Zhongnanhai.
Thanks for the tip!