On August 19, 1911 (October 10, 1911 in the Gregorian calendar), the Wuchang revolutionaries raised their arms, and four months later (February 12, 1912), the Qing Emperor abdicated and the Qing Dynasty, which had ruled China for 268 years, collapsed.
The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was the result of the unremitting struggle of the revolutionaries. From the founding of the Xingzhong Association by Sun Yat-sen in 1894 to the Wuchang Uprising in Xinhai, there were 10 armed uprisings directly led by Sun Yat-sen in order to overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and there were many armed uprisings launched by other revolutionaries. In the past 17 years, there have been more and more revolutionaries, the organization of the revolutionary party has been expanding, and the influence of the uprising has become greater and greater. Among them, in the Battle of Huanghuagang in xinhai year (April 27, 1911), seventy-two martyrs (the actual number of victims are still more than this number) flew in blood, "the hearts of the people who have been stung for a long time in the whole country are greatly excited", which has a great role in promoting the formation of the revolutionary trend in Xinhai year. During these more than ten years, the main force of the uprising gradually changed from the Hui Party to the New Army. Until the Wuchang Uprising, with the New Army as the main force, it eventually overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was also the result of the widespread spread of doctrines such as freedom, democracy, equality, and revolution. "Taking freedom as the body and democracy as the use", Yan Fu put forward his own views on the origin of the West's prosperity and strength in the Chinese ideological circles that woke up like a dream after the Sino-Japanese War. The spread of the ideas of freedom, democracy and equality makes oppression and slavery intolerable. Zou Rong opposed the people against the slaves, believing that the people "have the power of autonomy, the nature of independence, the public power of participation in politics, and the happiness of freedom", and "those who feast under the autocratic regime have nothing to do and are not slaves". It is precisely under the influence of the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality that the revolution has become "the common law of heavenly performance", "the axiom of the world", "the essence of the transitional era of survival and survival", and "those who follow the heavens and respond to others".
The spread of the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality is similar to the rise of "group studies" in the late Qing Dynasty. After "Yuan Qiang", Yan Fu wrote the article "Breaking Han". It is said that the lun of the monarch is "covered out of necessity" and "not enough for the original of the way" and "the junye is also the subject of the army, and the punishment is also the soldier, all because of the matter of defending the people and then there is also; and the reason why the people are waiting for the defenders is that they have strong terriers to bully and harm them." And the reason why there is "strong stalk bullying and harm" is because "the people are not exhausted and the people are not good", which indicates that the monarchy may one day die. Chen Chi also preached in the Book of Yong: "The king, the group, so the people also." "Once the late Qing dynasty people viewed the monarchy from a utilitarian point of view, the monarchy was no longer taken for granted, and the absolute monarchy became more and more intolerable.
It is worth noting that after the Wuchang Uprising, yuan shikai, the founder of the Beiyang clique, and others accepted the republican system more because of the times. This complicated ideological situation determined that although the democratic republican system was established in China at that time, the road to its implementation was difficult to be smooth. The Western democratic system introduced in modern China took the Constitution, the National Assembly, political parties, and the Cabinet as the starting channels. Prior to the promulgation of the official Constitution, the constitutional documents of the Republic of China were the Organizational Outline of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Organizational Outline") and the "Provisional Covenant Law of the Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisional Covenant Law"). After the Wuchang Uprising, Sun Yat-sen returned to Shanghai from overseas, and the top echelons of the League discussed the design of China's future system. Song Jiaoren advocated the responsibility of the cabinet system, and Sun Yat-sen expressed his opposition, believing that "the cabinet system is not to make the head of state take the political impulse in peacetime, so it is not appropriate for the prime minister to be responsible to the National Assembly." However, when the North and the South negotiated peace, the revolutionaries expressed their willingness to elect Yuan Shikai as the provisional president on the condition that Yuan Shikai accept the republic, and in order to ensure the republican system, the Provisional Covenant Law was formulated. Unlike the previous Organizational Memorandum, which favored a presidential system, the Provisional Covenant Law embodied the spirit of a responsible cabinet system, and presidential power was greatly constrained by the cabinet and the Senate. However, the Provisional Covenant Law is not a pure cabinet system, for example, the Provisional Covenant Law stipulates: "The Provisional President represents the Provisional Government, oversees administrative affairs, and promulgates laws." However, the power of the Senate stipulated in the Interim Covenant Law is too extensive, and the powers of the president and the prime minister are unclear, which has left hidden dangers for the future resistance of the executive power to the legislative power and the power struggle between the president and the prime minister.
The National Assembly is an important embodiment of the constitutional and democratic system, and in order to achieve the goal of speeding up the Congress, the gentry in the late Qing Dynasty launched a huge petition campaign. At the opening of the National Assembly on April 8, 1913, Leung Shing-tung delivered a eulogy on behalf of the President, in which he pointed out in particular: "The members of the National Assembly today are directly elected by the people, that is, directly appointed by the people, and from then on the entities of the Republic are represented, and the exercise of the right to rule is also carried out perfectly." ”
The situation for the first Parliament, which has just been established, is extremely precarious. On March 20, 1913, Song Jiaoren was assassinated in Shanghai and died two days later. As evidence was discovered, the main messenger behind the scenes was Hong Shuzu, the secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which involved Premier Zhao Bingjun. In the eyes of the Kuomintang at that time, this matter must have been presided over by Yuan Shikai. At the time of the Song assassination, Sun Yat-sen was visiting Japan. After he returned to Shanghai on the 25th of that month, he summoned the top level of the Kuomintang to discuss countermeasures and advocated the use of force to woo Yuan. Huang Xing advocated a legal process and had a disagreement with Sun Yat-sen. After that, the Kuomintang was uncertain about whether to use force to negotiate Yuan or use law, until July 12, when Li Liejun launched a petition on Yuan in Jiangxi, that is, the "second revolution". In this harsh political environment, the internal situation of Congress can be imagined. After the Song case, the Kuomintang in the National Assembly was hostile to the Yuan government and deliberately pushed it down, while the pro-Yuan faction was tit-for-tat, and the internal political strife in the National Assembly was fierce. In order to resist the Kuomintang, Yuan Shikai on the one hand supported the organization of the Progressive Party to compete with the Kuomintang; on the other hand, he bought and divided the Kuomintang members within the National Assembly in order to divide the Kuomintang's power. With the Kuomintang forces being basically wiped out in China due to the failure of the "Second Revolution", the National Assembly has lacked strong support.
Without the threat of the Kuomintang, Yuan Shikai became more and more unscrupulous at home. On November 4, 1913, under the pretext of li liejun and parliamentarian Xu Xiujun exchanging secret telegrams, he ordered the disqualification of kuomintang members of the National Assembly, and the national assembly was invisibly suspended. Subsequently, Yuan Shikai organized the Convention of the Republic of China to formulate the Treaty Law of the Republic of China, which was promulgated on May 1, 1914. According to the Law of the Republic of China, the President "has the overall right to rule", has the power to appoint and dismiss civil and military officials, command the national navy and army, and has the right to dissolve the Legislative Yuan with the consent of the Senate. On December 28 of the same year, the Law Conference resolved to amend the Law on the Election of the President of the Former Diet enacted on October 5, 1913. According to the "Amendment to the Law on the Election of the Grand President", "the Grand President shall be re-elected for ten years"; during the election period, the then Grand President may recommend three persons who have been elected as Grand President, "written in Jiahe Jinjian" and "hidden in the Grand Presidential Palace". Yuan Shikai's "false name of presidential politics, but the reality of dictatorial politics" became the judgment of the people of the times on Chinese politics after the enactment of the "Republic of China Covenant Law".
Yuan Shikai's power is increasing day by day, and it is not known that the accumulated dissatisfaction in society is also increasing day by day. As early as when Yuan tried to bring the National Assembly to a standstill, public opinion had already ridiculed the Yuan government for "making progress compared to the qing dynasty, how can it be calculated?" In its questioning of the government, the Senate also mentioned: "On the day of the order, the whole country panicked and the people were in turmoil. Overseas, after the failure of the "Second Revolution", Sun Yat-sen organized the Chinese Revolutionary Party and unremittingly begged Yuan. Domestically, with the public activities of the Preparatory Committee, middle- and lower-ranking officers in Yunnan began to brew up to woo Yuan. In addition, Liang Qichao and Cai Yi also brewed against Yuan, and in October 1915, they made plans with Dai Jie and Tang Juedun. In mid-December, after Li Liejun, Cai Yi, and others arrived in Yunnan, Tang Jiyao summoned everyone and Yunnan military and political leaders to gather at their apartments to discuss issuing an ultimatum to the Beijing government. On December 23, the ultimatum was issued. On the 25th, the Patriotic Movement broke out.
The launch of the Patriotic Movement was the people's defense of the democratic and republican system pursued by the Xinhai Revolution, and the people's resistance to the retro countercurrent that Yuan Shikai advanced step by step after the failure of the "Second Revolution." Under the heroic struggle of the National ProtectorAte, the Beiyang Department was internally fragmented and centrifugal, and Chen Mi and Tang Qianming rebelled. On June 6, 1916, Yuan Shikai died in the midst of rebellion.
From the Xinhai Revolution to the Patriotic Movement, we can see that the world trend of democracy and republicanism has been the aspiration of the people in China since the Xinhai Revolution. Although its road is not smooth, and even needs further exploration by the Chinese people, in the process, if someone tries to restore the imperial system, it will definitely be crushed by the wheel of the times. As Dr. Sun Yat-sen said after the end of the Patriotic War: "The tide of the world is mighty, and if it goes along with it, it will prosper, and if it goes against it, it will die." ”
(The author is Cheng Honglei, Associate Professor, School of History and Culture, Central China Normal University)
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