CHINA 981 



the appointment of a responsible Cabinet from which members of the Imperial family 

 were to be excluded, and an immediate amnesty for all political offenders. The Court 

 hesitated; but when these demands were endorsed by the garrison at Lanchow, which 

 refused to entrain for the front until they were granted, Prince Chun capitulated. 

 Regulations that were to form the basis of China's Constitution were at once drawn up 

 by the Assembly, and in due course the Regent took oath to observe them. Yuan 

 Shih-kai was elected Prime Minister on November 8 and returned from Hankow on 

 November 13. The Regent abdicated on December 6, and affairs of State were for- 

 mally placed in the hands of the Premier and his Cabinet, the Empress Dowager 

 being associated with the Emperor in matters requiring the Imperial seal or presence. 



Even while conducting military operations against the revolutionaries, Yuan Shih- 

 kai had endeavoured to arrive at an understanding with them, and he readily agreed to 

 an armistice in order that the two parties might discuss the situation. Yuan Shih-kai 

 and the North stood for a constitutional monarchy; the revolutionary leaders had made 

 up their minds that the Manchu dynasty must be replaced by a republic. Negotiations 

 were opened in Shanghai on December 18 and ten days later the Court had consented 

 to submit the question of the establishment of a republic to a National Convention. 

 It could not, however, agree that the convention should be wholly republican in char- 

 acter, and the negotiations were continued throughout January, the prospects of the 

 Manchu dynasty retaining the throne becoming more remote as the days passed. 



On December 25 Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the anti-dynastic movement, 

 arrived at Shanghai. Born in Kuangtung province in 1867, Sun Yat-sen (Sun Wen) 

 was the son of a mission convert, and had studied medicine at the Alice 

 faf-sen. Memorial Hospital at Hong-Kong from 1887 to 1892, taking his degree of 

 Licentiate of Medicine and Surgery in the latter year. After a brief prac- 

 tice at Macao, he settled in Canton, where he at once espoused the revolutionary cause. 

 The failure of a conspiracy in 1895 caused him to flee to Macao, and from that moment 

 until December 1911 he was an exile from China. In 1896 Dr. Sun Yat-sen was in 

 London, and on October nth he was seized and taken to the Chinese Legation, where 

 he was confined in order that he might be conveyed back to China. He was liberated 

 at the instance of the British Government. Dr. Sun now devoted himself to the work 

 of spreading his revolutionary propaganda. In Japan he founded a society known as 

 the Tung Meng Hui, which has since played a prominent part in republican politics in 

 China. His agents visited China from time to time and he became the acknowledged 

 head of the Young China party. When the revolution broke out at Wuchang in 1911 

 Dr. Sun Yat-sen was in England, but he returned at once to China; the Nanking 

 Council (composed of delegates from fourteen provinces) elected him President of the 

 " Chinese Republic," and he took the oath of office on January i, 1912, ",the first day 

 of the first year of the Republic." 



On February 1 2 the Manchu dynasty came to an end. The first of the Abdication 

 Edicts of February 12 announced that the Empress Dowager, together with the Em- 

 peror, handed over the sovereignty to be the possession of the whole people and declared 

 that the constitution should thenceforth be Republican. Yuan Shih-kai was nominated, 

 " with full powers," to organise a provisional Republican Government. In the second 

 Edict the future status of the Imperial House, as agreed upon with the Republicans, 

 was set forth. The Emperor,was to retain his title and to receive from the Republic the 

 respect due to a foreign sovereign. He would be paid an annuity of Tls. 4,000,000 

 (S33. o ) until the establishment of a new currency, when the sum would be $4,000,000, 

 and would reside at first in the Imperial Palace and afterwards at the Eho Park, retain- 

 ing the same bodyguard. He would continue to perform the religious ceremonies at 

 the Imperial Ancestral Temples and Mausolea, and the Republic undertook to com- 

 plete the Mausoleum of the late Emperor and to charge itself with the services and 

 expense of the removal of the late Emperor's remains to the Mausoleum. The Imperial 

 Clansmen retain their titles and enjoy equal rights with all other citizens. 



On February 14, Dr. Sun Yat-sen resigned his position, and, on his recommenda- 



