100 Days of Reform Flashcards
When was the 100 Days of Reform?
June-September 1898
What was the intention of it?
To reform Chinese: - expenditure - bureaucracy - education - military to be able to meet the demands of the modern world (after being threatened by foreign countries so many times)
What did Guanxu actually do to implement this?
Issued a “flourish” of decrees
What were the reforms that began to be implemented?
- New schools based on the western system
- End to Confucian exams
- Modern military
- Accounting for court spending
- New railways and farming methods
- Mining and commerce investment
- The right to petition the emperor directly
- Consultation with the Japanese on reform
How did China’s lack of progress come to Guangxu’s attention?
While Guangxu was concerned with China’s progress, it was Kang Youwei who petitioned the emperor to implement reform. He had to write frequently, because the Qing Court members kept his petitions from Guangxu
What did Guanxu do to prevent his reforms being stopped by conservatives in his court?
He planned to arrest Cixi and the conservatives- he told Yuan Shikai to help him
How did Cixi react initially to the reforms?
She first supported them
“so long as you keep the ancestral tablets… I shall not interfere”- Cixi
Which country’s reform was the 100 Days based from?
Japan’s Meiji Restoration
When did Cixi stage her coup?
21st September 1898
Why did Cixi stage her coup?
- She had received complaints from conservative officials who believed their influence to be in jeopardy
- She realised she would have to account for corruption and prestige she lived under if the reform continued
- Guangxu and Kang planned to arrest her
What did Cixi’s coup entail?
- Placing Guangxu under house arrest
- Wanting to arrest Kang but he fled
- Cixi became arbiter of imperial policy and cancelled the edicts
Kang Youwei on the Qing Court:
“today, most of the ministers are very old and conservative”
Kang Youwei on why China needs change:
“if the institutions are old, defects will develop”
What was the effect of the cancelling of the 100 Days Reform on China’s faith in the Qing?
Believed the Qing conservatives to be unwilling to adopt change by peaceful means, leading them further toward revolution
