Hundred Days' Reform


The Hundred Days' Reform or Wuxu Reform was a short-lived national, cultural, political and educational reform movement in the Qing Empire, from June 11 to September 21, 1898. It sought to modernize China’s institutions during a time of increasing foreign intervention in China following the country’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. Although brief, the movement introduced new political concepts of nationhood and sovereignty, inspiring many of the subsequent “New Policies” reforms launched after 1901.
Initiated by the Guangxu Emperor, it was led by reform-minded scholars, including Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. Over a period of roughly 100 days, the Guangxu Emperor enacted a series of imperial edicts with various goals in mind. These mandates aimed to restructure government organization, reform the civil service examination system, modernize the army, promote industrial and education progress, and adopt elements of constitutional governance.
Some of these measures were implemented, such as the establishment of the Imperial University of Peking. However, most faced resistance from conservative factions. While Empress Dowager Cixi supported principles of the reform, she feared that sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, would be disruptive and that the Japanese and other foreign powers would take advantage of any weakness. Thus, on September 21, 1898, Empress Dowager Cixi with her allies staged a coup d’état, forcing the emperor under house arrest and further executing six of the leading reformers. She later backed the late Qing reforms after the invasions of the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Background

Following its defeat in the First and Second Opium Wars, China embarked on an effort to modernize which became the Self-Strengthening Movement. Military modernization was a high priority from the beginning of the movement, concentrating more on providing the armed forces with modern weapons than reforming governance or society. Following the Taiping Rebellion in 1850, Empress Dowager Cixi conducted a series of reforms that led to a brief period of time, known as the Tongzhi Restoration, which sought to modernize China using imported Western machinery and weaponry.
Several western supporting individuals, such as Li Hongzhang, wanted to create a modernized military that incorporated western innovations with China. He, as well as a majority, believed that through western influence, China could strengthen its economy and protect itself on a global stage. At the same time, the British military had flintlocks, caplocks, breech-loading rifled artillery, while the Qing had matchlock muskets which had far less rounds and lower accuracy. These differences motivated China to purchase and employ western weaponry.
Apart from firearm imports, China also desired to improve its weapon manufacturing proficiency by building more domestic factories. Established in 1865 Shanghai, the Jiangnan Arsenal was the largest factory in China, producing both ships and firearms. The factory acted as a navy shipyard, building wooden and iron-hulled warships, large numbers of breech-loading rifles, as well as artillery shells. However, initiatives such as The Jiangnan Arsenal met significant challenges, still being considered underdeveloped in comparison to Europes innovations, and ventures were deprived of imperial funding, slowing the pace of production. While dramatic improvements were made to hardware, the military lacked the organization, training and institutions required to sustain forthcoming wars.

Reformer proposals

The limitations of the Self-Strengthening Movement's emphasis on military and technological projects without fundamental institutional reform were exposed by the First Sino-Japanese War in which Qing China was defeated by Meiji Japan, a state that had undergone more comprehensive reforms during the same period. The defeat led to additional unequal treaties as European powers took advantage of China's weakness. Specifically, the Treaty of Shimonoseki forced China to recognize Korean independence, cede Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula, in addition to paying a large indemnity. The defeat was viewed by Chinese elites as clear evidence of the Self-Strengthening Movement's failure as well as a signal that institutional and constitutional change were required.
Against this backdrop, reformist thinkers such as Tan Sitong, Kang Youwei, and Liang Qichao responded to what they perceived as China's deep crisis, including political division, insurrection, opium addiction and growing foreign conflicts, by developing influential philosophical systems. These mechanisms, including memorials to the throne, the organization of reform and "study" societies, as well as widely circulated political essays aimed at creating solutions which enacted political reform and a new Chinese reformist movement.
These reformers were influenced by the success of Japan's Meiji constitutional reforms and they argued that China needed more than technical improvements to its armies and its arsenals. Specifically, it required change to its governing institutions, educational systems, as well as social order. Their reforms aimed to move beyond the earlier “Self-Strengthening” model and towards a program of state building. Elements of the Qing government were sufficiently alarmed to permit Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to propose reforms to Emperor Guangxu who agreed and committed to the ambitious reform agenda Over roughly one hundred days, the throne issued a rapid series of edicts which addressed education, administration, the economy, and the military. Some of Kang's students were also given minor but strategic posts in the capital to assist with the reforms. The reform program included several proposals including:
Educational Reforms:
  • Establishing Peking University as a place where sciences, liberal arts and the Chinese classics would all be integrated for study.
  • Building a modern education system
  • Gradual replacing the traditional civil service examination curriculum
  • Encouraging imperial family members to study abroad
Administration and Governance Reforms:
  • Transitioning to a constitutional monarchy including plans to establish deliberate institutions and to place limits on autocratic rule, drawing from the Meiji model.
  • Abolishing the traditional examination system. Reformers saw this system as obstructing the creation of a modern bureaucracy and hindering social mobility.
Economy, Industry, and Infrastructure Reforms:
  • Eliminating sinecures
  • Establishing agricultural schools in all provinces and schools and colleges in all provinces and cities
  • Applying principles of capitalism to strengthen the economy, including encouragement of joint stock enterprises and private investment
  • Rapid industrialization through manufacturing, commerce, and capitalism
  • Establishing trade schools for the manufacture of silk, tea, and other traditional crafts
  • Establishing a bureau for railways and mines designed to coordinate infrastructure building on a national scale.
Agriculture Reforms:
  • Utilization of underused or vacant military lands for cultivation to increase grain output and relieve rural distress
  • Encouraging "modern agriculture" as a state priority
  • Establishing agricultural schools in all provinces to teach farmer improved methods of work
Military Reforms:
  • Reorganization and modernization of the army through Western style training, drilling and staff systems, and the establishment of a modern military academy
  • Establishing a modern naval academy
The reformers declared that China needed more than "Self-Strengthening" and that innovation must be accompanied by institutional and ideological change. Opposition to the reforms was intense among the conservative ruling elite who condemned it as too radical and proposed a more moderate and gradualist alternatives. It provoked strong resistance among senior Manchu princes, Grand Councilors, and provincial governors, many of whom viewed these proposals, such as revising the examination system and as abolishing sinecures, as direct threats to the existing social and political order. Conservatives advocated for slower and more limited change in fear that the use of foreign advisors and Japanese constitutional models would place the Qing state under foreign influence. Conservative Prince Duan urged the expulsion of foreigners such as Timothy Richards and former prime minister Ito Hirobumi from the throne.
As tensions between the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi escalated, some reformers began plotted to forcefully remove Empress Dowager Cixi from power. According to later accounts, Tan Sitong asked Yuan Shikai to kill Ronglu, take control of the garrison at Tientsin, and then march on Beijing and arrest Cixi. However, Yuan had previously promised to support Ronglu; rather than kill him, Yuan informed Ronglu of the plot enabling Cixi and her faction to organize a coup d'état.

Failure of the Reform

On September 19, 1898 in the evening, Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly left the Summer Palace and returned to the Forbidden City. From this day onwards, the Guangxu Emperor was moved to reside in Yingtai. Kang Youwei sought help from British missionary Timothy Richard and later from Itō Hirobumi to lobby Cixi, but without success. That same evening Huang Shaoji urged Kang to leave Beijing immediately. Late at night, Liang Qichao, Kang Guangren and others pleaded with Kang to escape as soon as possible.
In the early morning of September 20, Kang Youwei left Beijing with his servant Li Tang. The Guangxu Emperor held his third audience with Yuan Shikai, who afterwards returned to Tianjin. That day, Cixi and the emperor received former Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi. Late at night, Grand Councilor Ronglu reported in secret that the emperor planned to place Cixi under house arrest.
On September 21 at dawn, Empress Dowager Cixi took control of state affairs, declared martial law, halted railway traffic, placed the emperor under house arrest in Hanyuan Hall, abolished the reform decrees, and ordered the arrest of reformers. She then issued an edict in the emperor’s name, declaring that the emperor, unable to cope with burdensome government affairs, had requested Cixi to resume the regency.
That day, the Commander of the Metropolitan Guards surrounded the South Seas Guildhall to arrest Kang Youwei, but did not find him; instead they captured his brother Kang Guangren and disciples Cheng Dazhang and Qian Weiji. Later they searched the residence of Guangdong official Zhang Yinhuan, arrested him but did not find Kang.
On September 24, Imperial Commissioner Gangyi began arresting reformers. Yang Rui and Lin Xu were seized that day, while Liu Guangdi surrendered himself. Yang Shenxiu, after questioning Cixi about deposing the emperor, was arrested at the Wenxi Guildhall.
On September 25, Tan Sitong was captured at the Liuyang Guildhall. On the same day, Cixi issued another edict in the emperor’s name claiming that Guangxu was ill, laying the groundwork for both the regency and plans to depose him, while summoning doctors to the palace.
This aroused the concern of Britain, Japan, and other powers, who questioned the truth of the emperor’s illness and suspected danger to his life. They demanded access to treat him. Afterwards, a French legation doctor examined Guangxu and publicly concluded that his ailments stemmed from weakness, exposing Cixi’s fabrication.
On September 28, the court issued an edict condemning six reform leaders—Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Lin Xu, Liu Guangdi, Yang Shenxiu, and Kang Guangren—to immediate execution without trial. They were executed by beheading the same day and became known as the "Six Gentlemen" of the Reform. As ordered, Gangyi supervised the execution.
Earlier that day, court official Yi Gu submitted a memorial urging immediate punishment of the reformers, which scholars believe triggered the execution of the Six Gentlemen.
On September 29, an edict was issued under the emperor’s name explaining the crackdown, alleging that reformers plotted to seize the Summer Palace and kidnap Cixi and the emperor. It justified executing the six without trial to avoid wider implication.
The coup ended the "Hundred Days’ Reform" after only 103 days. All new policies were repealed except the founding of Peking University. The immediate cause was linked to the so-called "secret edict" affair attributed to Kang Youwei. With her legitimacy questioned, Cixi soon sought to depose the emperor and install a new heir in the "Ji-hai succession" of 1899.
Among the reformers, Kang Youwei had already fled, Liang Qichao escaped into the Japanese legation, while dozens were arrested. In addition to the Six Gentlemen executed in Beijing, Xu Zhijing was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Zhang Yinhuan was exiled to Xinjiang, where he was executed in 1900.
Historians note that Cixi had intelligence on the reformers’ plans even while at the Summer Palace. The key informant who betrayed the emperor’s faction was most likely Yang Chongyi, whereas Yuan Shikai merely acted to protect himself, not as the decisive betrayer.
Scholar Yun Yuding in his Records of the Chongling analyzed the coup as follows—

Aftermath

The late Qing reforms attempted in the years following the Hundred Days included the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905, educational and military modernization patterned after the model of Japan, and experiments in constitutional and parliamentary government. The ultimate failure of these reforms gave impetus to revolutionary forces within the country. Changes within the establishment were seen to be largely hopeless, and the overthrow of the Qing increasingly appeared to be the only way to save China. Despite the late Qing reforms of the early 1900s, such sentiments directly contributed to the success of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911.
Leo Tolstoy corresponded with Gu Hongming on the Hundred Day's Reform and agreed that the reform movement was ill-advised. The reformist Kang Party, formed by students of Kang and Liang, was one of the most alarming groups in the eyes of court conservatives at this time.

Differing interpretations

Views of the Hundred Days' Reform have grown increasingly more complex and nuanced. The traditional view portrayed the reformers as heroes and the conservative elites, particularly the Empress Dowager Cixi, as villains unwilling to reform because of their selfish interests.

Failure as Kang's responsibility

However, some historians in the late 20th century have taken views that are more favorable to the conservatives and less favorable to the reformers. In this view, Kang Youwei and his allies were hopeless dreamers unaware of the political realities in which they operated. This view argues that the conservative elites were not opposed to change and that practically all of the reforms that were proposed were eventually implemented.
For example, Sterling Seagrave, in his book "The Dragon Lady", argues that there were several reasons why the reforms failed. Chinese political power at the time was firmly in the hands of the ruling Manchu nobility. The highly xenophobic iron hats faction dominated the Grand Council and were seeking ways to expel all Western influence from China. When implementing reform, the Guangxu Emperor by-passed the Grand Council and appointed four reformers to advise him. These reformers were chosen after a series of interviews, including the interview of Kang Youwei, who was rejected by the Emperor and had far less influence than Kang's later boasting would indicate. At the suggestion of the reform advisors, the Guangxu Emperor also held secret talks with former Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi with the aim of using his experience in the Meiji Restoration to lead China through similar reforms.
It has also been suggested, controversially, that Kang Youwei actually did a great deal of harm to the cause by his perceived arrogance in the eyes of the conservatives. Numerous rumors regarding potential repercussions, many of them false, had made their way to the Grand Council; this was one of the factors in their decision to stage a coup against the Emperor. Kang, like many of the reformers, grossly underestimated the reactionary nature of the vested interests involved.
The Emperor set about to enact his reforms by largely bypassing the powerful Grand Council; said councilors, irritated at the Emperor's actions and fearful of losing the political power they had, then turned to the Empress Dowager Cixi to remove the emperor from power. Many, though not all, of the reforms came to naught. The council, now confident in their power, pushed for the execution of the reformers, an action that was carried out ruthlessly.

Richard's federation theory

According to Professor Lei Chia-sheng, Japanese former prime minister Itō Hirobumi arrived in China on September 11, 1898, about the same time that Kang Youwei invited British missionary Timothy Richard to Beijing. Richard suggested that China appoint Itō as one of many foreign advisors in order to further push China's reform efforts. On September 18, Richard successfully convinced Kang to adopt his plan in which China would join a federation of ten nations.
Kang nonetheless asked fellow reformers Yang Shenxiu and Song Bolu to report this plan to the Guangxu Emperor. On September 20, Yang sent a memorial to the emperor to that effect. In another memorial to the Emperor written the next day, Song advocated the formation of a federation and the sharing of the diplomatic, fiscal, and military powers of the four countries under a hundred-man committee. Lei Chia-sheng argues that this idea was the reason why Cixi, who had just returned from the Summer Palace on September 19, decided to put an end to the reforms with the September 21 coup.
On October 13, following the coup, British ambassador Claude MacDonald reported to his government that Chinese reforms had been "much injured" by Kang and his friends' actions. However, the British and American governments had been largely unaware of the "federation" plot, which appears to have been Richard's own personal idea. The Japanese government might have been aware of Richard's plan, since his accomplice was the former Japanese prime minister, but there is no evidence to this effect yet.