CHINA 



1352 



CHINA 



ened by the war with Japan, China stood in 

 need of thorough and immediate reform, but 

 how this was to be secured remained uncertain. 

 For a time it looked as though the young 

 emperor, Kwang-su, with the aid of the reform 

 party, might bring China into closer relation- 

 ship with other nations and reorganize it ac- 

 cording to European standards, but the reac- 

 tionary influence of his aunt, the empress 

 dowager, was too strong. Gradually she drew 

 almost all the power into her own hands, and 

 violent anti-foreign demonstrations were the 

 immediate result. These culminated in the 

 famous Boxer Rebellion (which see), tacitly 

 encouraged, at least, by the empress dowager. 

 Even the empress dowager could not fail to 

 derive some lesson from the disastrous effects 

 of this rising and the attitude of the powers 

 toward it; for the rest of her life she adopted 

 a different attitude. No longer could a man 

 purchase court favor by attacking foreigners; 

 indeed, these hated intruders were actually 

 received at court, breaking a precedent that 

 had existed since the foundation of the gov- 

 ernment. 



But the need for reform was greater than 

 ever, and wise statesmen began to see and 

 declare the necessity of introducing Western 

 methods. Somehow, just how is not clear, a 

 new national spirit was awakened, and public 

 opinion began to demand constitutional reform. 

 The absolute monarchy which had served for 

 forty centuries no longer satisfied, and at length 

 a commission was appointed to study the rep- 

 resentative forms of government in foreign 

 countries with a view to determining the one 

 best fitted for China. In 1908 an edict signed 

 by Emperor Kwang-su outlined a constitution 

 and promised a parliamentary government 

 within nine years ; but this was too slow to . 

 suit the public demands, and when, later in 

 the same year, the emperor and the empress 

 dowager both died and the infant Pu-yi suc- 

 ceeded, discontent became outspoken. The 

 provinces elected assemblies in 1909, and two 

 years later the government, which had been 

 forced to submit to the establishment of a re- 

 sponsible ministry, promised a Parliament in 

 1913. 



j But a radical element which had grown up 

 among the reformers refused to be catisfied 

 with any such half-way measures, and de- 

 manded the abdication of the emperor and 

 the establishment of a republic. Rioting and 

 later organized revolution resulted, and the 

 revolutionists spurned the suggestions of Yuan 



Shi-Kai, newly-appointed premier, for a con- 

 stitutional monarchy. With Shanghai, Nan- 

 king, Hankow and other cities in their hands, 

 with Canton a self-proclaimed republic and one 

 province after another declaring its independ- 

 ence, the revolutionists were able to enforce 

 their demands and bring about the organiza- 

 tion, in December, 1911, of a provisional repub- 

 lican government. Dr. Sun Yat Sen was elected 

 provisional President, and the child emperor 

 was compelled to abdicate. In February of the 

 following year Yuan Shi-Kai was elected first, 

 President, with powers to organize the republic, 

 and it seemed that China had given up forever 

 its monarchy. 



The Republic. The position of the new 

 President was by no means entirely pleasant, 

 for the lack of money was a very serious 

 embarrassment, and only with the greatest dif- 

 ficulty was a loan of $125,000,000 secured from 

 five of the great powers. Yuan's method of 

 securing this, without the consent of his Par- 

 liament, roused violent opposition, and a sharp 

 rebellion headed by Sun Yat Sen' was put 

 down with some difficulty. 



The republic had been established, seemingly, 1 

 too suddenly; the people were not ready for 

 it after their centuries under absolutism, and 

 they failed to grasp many of its main prin- 

 ciples. In fact, while a republic in name, the 

 new government was practically a monarchy, 

 and attempts of a parliamentary party to take 

 the power into its own hands and make of 

 the President a mere figure-head led in the 

 end to a large increase in Yuan's power. 

 Finally, in November, 1915, an election was 

 held by a specially-constituted convention of 

 "electors." The result was overwhelmingly in 

 favor of restored monarchical government, but 

 the empire was not proclaimed at once because 

 the European powers convinced CHina that 

 such change during the great European war 

 might endanger the peace of the Orient. It 

 was finally decided to continue the republican 

 form of government. In June, 1916, President 

 Yuan Shi-Kai died and was succeeded by Vice- 

 President Li Yuan Hung. 



China remained neutral in the War of the 

 Nations until 1917, although its aid had been 

 volunteered earlier. Inspired, however, by the 

 moral example of the United States in its dec- 

 laration of a state of war, the Chinese republic 

 declared war on Germany on August 14 of that 

 year. The country sent no troops to Europe, 

 but many thousand Chinese laborers went to 

 France and labored with zeal, thus releasing an 



