On October 10, 1911, an uprising broke out in Wuchang. Compared with the peasant uprisings in ancient China, this uprising aimed to overthrow the autocratic imperial system of the Qing Dynasty and establish a republican form of government, with a bourgeois revolutionary nature. After that, the momentum of the revolution quickly swept through most of China. Just two months later, more than ten provinces, including Liangguang, Yungui, and Lianghu, successively declared independence from the Qing government, and because it broke out in the Xinhai year of the old calendar, it was called the Xinhai Revolution. But in the end, due to the two-sided nature of the leader bourgeoisie, the achievements of the revolution were eventually stolen by Yuan Shikai. Therefore, in the face of such a complex history, the evaluation of the Xinhai Revolution is often polarized. Some people think that the Xinhai Revolution was a failed revolution, that it ultimately failed to establish a truly democratic republic and did not accomplish its revolutionary tasks. Others argue that the revolution was a success because it overthrew more than 2,000 years of feudal monarchy in China. How, then, should we use the Marxist materialist view of history to evaluate this complex revolution dialectically?
Since we view the problem dialectically from the materialist view of history, we must look at the Xinhai Revolution from the following aspects.
1. The role of promoting history
The Xinhai Revolution undoubtedly promoted the progress of history, and we can see from the following points:
Broadly speaking, the Wuchang Uprising is inseparable from the previous uprisings led by the Chinese bourgeoisie after the establishment of the Xingzhong Association in 1894, so some scholars believe that the Xinhai Revolution should include the previous uprisings, which pushed China's old democratic revolution to the peak, because they were different from the previous armed struggles, even the extremely influential Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, still did not transcend traditional society, and the Xinhai Revolution in a broad sense not only thought of establishing a new social system, but also successfully established the Republic of China.
First of all, it has the significance of liberation, and after the Xinhai Revolution, this liberation was embodied in three aspects: political, economic and cultural. Politically, the rule of the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, the concept of democracy and republicanism was spread, and even if the fruits of victory were stolen by Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang warlords carried out reactionary rule, no one would be re-proclaimed emperor. The failure of the restoration of Yuan Shikai and Zhang Xun proves this point, in terms of culture, the awakened intellectuals also tried to complete the spiritual awakening of the people through the "pen pole", it is difficult to imagine how to carry out the new cultural movement under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. How did Lu Xun, on behalf of intellectuals, write works such as "A Q Zheng Biography" and "Diary of a Madman" that have enlightenment significance in criticizing real society. At the economic level, the opening up of the social atmosphere enabled the development of industry and caught up with the First World War, the great powers were powerless to look east, the so-called "short spring" of the national bourgeoisie further developed, and the proletariat was further strengthened. Before the Xinhai Revolution, the number of industrial workers in China was less than 600,000, and after the Xinhai Revolution, the number of industrial workers grew rapidly, and by 1919, there were more than 2 million people, which can be said to provide the class basis for the May Fourth Movement to turn into the new democratic revolution.
Moreover, some scholars have proposed that the Xinhai Revolution has a positive impact on the sinification of Marxism, and that the sinification of Marxism is to concretize, nationalize, and practice the basic principles of Marxism in China, and this task was accomplished by the Chinese Communists, and the Xinhai Revolution provided important cadre preparations for the CPC. Many of the backbone cadres in the early days of the party were witnesses of the Xinhai Revolution, or even those who witnessed it firsthand, such as Chen Duxiu, Dong Biwu, Lin Boqu, Wu Yuzhang, Zhu De, and so on, "all of whom experienced the baptism of the Xinhai Revolution and were influenced by the Xinhai Revolution." "The brief victory of the Xinhai Revolution gave them hope. The fruits of the Xinhai Revolution were stolen, but they understood that this path would not work in China. The compromise and weakness of the national bourgeoisie and the victory of the October Revolution in Russia showed them the correct way to save China, Marxism. The lessons of the Xinhai Revolution made some of the early Communists understand that in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society like China, it was impossible to succeed without the support of the broad masses of the people, without a strict party organization, without a certain amount of armed forces, and only by relying on a single heart.
2. The role of the international community
The Xinhai Revolution also had a profound impact on the world, and the revolutionary mentor Lenin combined it with a series of revolutions such as the Iranian revolution as the storm of Asian revolutions in the early 20th century. In January 1912, shortly after Sun Yat-sen was sworn in as Provisional President of the Republic of China, under the auspices of Lenin, the resolution of the Sixth National Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party refuted the fallacy advocated by the Tsarist government and bourgeois public opinion to seize the opportunity to occupy certain frontier areas in northern China, and highly praised the historical significance of the Xinhai Revolution. The resolution said: "The Congress pointed out that the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people is of world significance, because it will bring liberation to Asia and undermine the rule of the European bourgeoisie." After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin once said: "After 1905, there were revolutions in Turkey, Persia, and China, and India also launched a revolutionary movement. The imperialist war also contributed to the development of the revolutionary movement, since the troops of many colonial peoples were involved in international wars. ”
3. The evaluation of the Xinhai Revolution
With regard to the evaluation of history, we should adhere to the unity of the two-point theory and the theory of emphasis, and we must first look at it comprehensively, and we must see both the main aspects of things and the secondary aspects of things. However, we cannot engage in vulgar dialectics, the mechanical division is divided into two, and the main contradictions of the main things should be grasped, and the achievements of the Xinhai Revolution were eventually stolen by Yuan Shikai, which can be regarded as a revolution that failed to achieve the goal. However, his role in promoting history is the main aspect and an important step in China's transition from the old democratic revolution to the new democratic revolution. Therefore, from the perspective of historical development, it has been successful.