Why Late Qing Constitutional Reform Failed: An Examination from the Comparative Institutional Perspective

• Author: Cheng Jie
• Pages: 108-147

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WHY LATE QING CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM FAILED: AN

EXAMINATION FROM THE COMPARATIVE INSTITUTIONAL

PERSPECTIVE

Cheng Jie

I. INTRODUCTION: WHY LATE QING CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

FAILED

The Late Qing constitutional reform was a political reform

promoted by the Qing government under both internal and external

pressure. The reform inherited the Hundred Days’ Reform1

in that

both had hoped to achieve a top-down political reform through

adopting Western systems. For the Hundred Days’ Reform the main

obstacle was the lack of consensus within the Qing government,

which thereby led to the rise of conflicts between the conservatives

led by the Empress Dowager and the reformists led by the Emperor.

The main problem for the Late Qing constitutional reform attempt,

however, was the tension between constitutional reform and

constitutional revolution, or constitutional monarchy and

constitutional republic. One popular explanation for the failure of the

constitutional reform blames the feudal nature of the Qing

government. However, the feudal government in Japan successfully

transformed itself into a constitutional monarchy. Another

explanation argues that the reform failed because the need of survival

suppressed the need of enlightenment, which is critical for

constitutional reform. This article reviews both explanations and

finds them unpersuasive. Furthermore, it is argued that it is the

design of constitutional institutions, especially the power structure in

the constitutional reform that leads to the failure.

The article develops into four parts. Part I provides the social

background of the constitutional reform and explains why the need

of survival was not the major reason for the failure of the reform.

Part II provides the major contents of the constitutional reform and

explains why it is the power structure that caused the failure of

reform. Part III compares the Late Qing reform with Japan’s Meiji

Restoration and explains the failure of the Late Qing reform from a

comparative perspective. And Part IV further explores the legacy of

the Late Qing constitutional reform and concludes the article.

II. WHAT CAUSED THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM:POSITIVE AND

1

The Hundred Days’ Reform was between June 11 and September 21, 1898. Both Emperor Guangxu

(光绪) and Empress Dowager Cixi ( 慈禧) supported the reform in the beginning. But the reform was

later suppressed by conservative political forces headed by Empress Dowager Cixi.

2017] WHY LATE QING CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM FAILED

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NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF INTERNATIONAL FACTORS

Semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism is considered to be the

basic nature of Chinese society before 1949.2Accordingly, the

failure of constitutional reforms, including the Late Qing reform was

ascribed to foreign attempts of colonization and China’s counter-

colonization efforts. However, a historical review of the social

background of the Late Qing constitutional reform tells a more

complicated story. On the one hand, the Qing government was

determined to introduce constitutional reform to survive colonization

by foreign countries. On the other hand, enlightenment was

introduced with the constitutional reform, which was the result of

foreign cultural exchange and became part of the constitutional

reform.

After the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the Qing

government became reactionary and began to persecute the

reformists. After fleeting abroad, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao

continued to attack the Qing government, advocate for reform and

revolution as well as introduce and explain political legal theories

and evolution theories through newspapers such as The China

Discussion (《清议报》) and Xinmin Po (《新民报》). Although

the Imperial Court of Qing repeatedly tried to ban the newspapers,

the publications were sold abroad or in foreign concessions and were

therefore largely beyond the reach of the Qing government.

Moreover, the ban provoked curiosity among the general population,

resulting in a considerable increase in sales of the newspapers and

the propagation of new ideas, including freedom, civil rights and

constitution.3Nonetheless, the main stimuli that precipitated the

Qing Court’s determination to transform itself into a constitutional

government was the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and the Russo-

Japanese War in 1905.

A. The Boxer Rebellion and the Crisis to the Imperial Court

In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion erupted. During the spring of that

year, tens of thousands of peasants living in poverty in the Province

of Zhili, who had been practicing spiritual possession and

2

Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhi Xieshang Huiyi Gongtong Gangling (中国人民政治协商会议共同纲

领) [Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference] (promulgated by

Chinese Pol. Consultative Conf., Sep. 29, 1949, invalidated by Constitution (1954)) pmbl.

(Chinalawinfo); Xianfa ( 宪 法 ) [Constitution] (promulgated by the Standing Comm. Nat’l People’s

Cong., Dec. 4, 1982, amended 2004) pmbl. (Chinalawinfo).

3

According to statistics, the average sales for each issue of The China Discussion was around 3,000 to

4,000 and its readers amounted to more than 40,000 to 50,000. See ZHANG PENGYUAN (张朋园), LIANG

QICHAO YU QINGJI GEMING (梁启超与清季革命) [LIANG QICHAO AND LATE QING DYNASTY

REVOLUTION] 206 (Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan Jindaishi Yanjiusuo (中央研究院近代史研究所) [Institute

of Modern History, Academia Sinica] 1999).

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supernatural invulnerability, began to call themselves the “Yi He

Tuan”4and rise up against foreign forces in China. Initially, they

attacked and killed Catholics but soon targeted all Christians,

burning down churches and the homes of Christians. The Rebellion

spread rapidly towards Beijing and Tianjin. In the beginning, the

Qing government adopted a policy of appeasement and non-

interference towards the Boxers. Indeed, since the failure of Hundred

Days’ Reform in 1898, the Qing government had resumed its ban on

association in order to outlaw the various societies and associations

flourishing during the reform period. However, on January 11, 1900,

the Qing Court issued an imperial decree stipulating that local

officials only need to apprehend and prosecute troublemaking crooks

and mobsters, and do not need to be concerned about the peaceful

villagers practicing martial arts. The decree read:

For the law-abiding commoners, they were either practising skills

to defend themselves or organizing with their fellow villagers to

defend each other. This is the righteousness of keeping watch and

helping each other…When dealing with these cases, local officials

only need to ask whether the person was a crook and whether he has

caused trouble, and not whether they are organized or educated.

Therefore, this decree was in fact protecting the Boxers.

However, since January 1900, British, French, German, American

and Italian ministers stationed in China as well as other foreign

ministers began to jointly submit petitions to the Qing Court

demanding it to outlaw the Boxer organizations. The Qing Court was

both afraid of publicly offending the foreign countries and unwilling

to publicly outlaw the Boxers. Instead, it issued the decree to “only

consider whether the person is a crook or not, and not whether it is

organized or not” and to “prioritize the arrest and dissipation of the

crowds.” In May, the Boxers began to move towards the Capital. By

the end of the month, foreign officials in the Beijing Legation

Quarter sensed the looming danger and sought foreign help. On June

1, an international force of 432 navy troops from eight countries

disembarked from warships and travelled 120 km by train from Dagu

to Beijing to help set up defensive perimeters in the Legation

Quarter. In June, under the permission of the Qing Court, the Boxers

entered Beijing and soon launched violent attacks against Christians

and their churches. On June 10, the foreign legation quarters in

Beijing lost contact with the outside world. The foreign forces held

an emergency meeting and sent an additional international force of

2,157 sailors and marines (916 British, 540 German, 312 Russian,

158 French, 112 American, 54 Japanese, 40 Italian and 25 Austria-

4

Yi He Tuan (义和团) was also referred to as “the Righteous and Harmonious Corps” or “the Boxers”

by the American Christian missionaries in China at the time.