Puyi (The Xuantong Emperor)
Most people know that yesterday marked 200 years since the births of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin…but it was also the 96th anniversary of the end of Manchu rule. The text below is a section from one of two edicts which officially ended imperial rule. The first turned over the reins of government to Yuan Shikai and the new Republic of China. The second requested that the Republican Army for not disturbing the Imperial ancestral tombs and temples, and to protect the title and person of the young emperor and his family.
“We have respectfully received the following Imperial Edict from Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Dowager Longyu:
As a consequenceof the uprising of the Rebublican Army, to which the different provinces immediately resonded, the Empire seethed like a boiling caudrong and the people were plunged into utter misery. Yuan Shikai wsa, therefore, especially commanded some time ago to dispatch commissioners to confer with representatives of the Republican Army on the general situation and to discuss matters pertaining to the convening of a National Assembly for the deciding a suitable mode of settlement. Separated as the South and the North are by great distances, the unwillingness of either side to yield to the other can result only in the continued interruption of trade and the prolongation of hostilities, for, so long as the form of government is undecided, the Nation can have no peace.
It is n0w evident that the hearts of the majority of the people are in favor of a republican form of government: the provinces of the South were the first to support the cause, and the generals of the North have pledged their support. From the preference of the People’s hearts, the Will of Heaven can be discerened. How could We bear to oppose the will of millions for the glory of one Family?
Therefore, the tendencies of the age on the one hand, and studying the opinions of the people on the other, We and His Majesty the Emperor hereby vest the sovereignty in the People and decide in favor of a republican form of constitutional government. Thus we would gratify on one hand the desires of the whole nation, who, tired of anarchy, are desirous of peace, and on the other hand would follow the footsteps of the Ancient Sages, who regarded the Throne as the sacred trust of the Nation.
Now Yuan Shikai was elected by the provisional parliament to be the Premier. During the period of transference of government from the old to the new, there should be some means of uniting the South and the North. Let Yuan Shikai organize with full powers a provisional republican government and confer with the Republican Army as to the methods of union, thus assuring peace to the people and tranquility to the Empire, and forming to one Great Republic of China by union heretofore, of the five peoples, namely Manchus, Chinese, Mongols, Mohammedans, and Tibetans together with their territory in its integrity.*”
Translation from Pei-kai Cheng & Michael Lestz with Jonathan Spence, eds., The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), pp. 211-212
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* The second edict has a section echoing this theme: “We hereby proclaim the Imperial Kinsman and the Manchus, Mongols, Mohammedans, and Tibetans that they should endeavor to fuse and remove all racial differences and prejudices and maintain law and order with united efforts. It is our sincere hope that peace will once more be seen in the country and all the people will enjoy happiness under a republican government.”
I find the bit about Manchus, Han etc “fusing” very interesting- what was the interest of the imperial family in adding this?