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The Hunanese Elite and the Reform Movement, 1895–1898

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Charlton M. Lewis
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Extract

During the years 1895 to 1898 the Chinese reform movement was a remarkable success and then a conclusive failure in Hunan. For the first time, ideas emanating from the intellectual ferment in the treaty ports were actively implemented in the conservative provinces. Members of the Hunanese elite joined with government officials in a broad program of modernization. But in late 1897 and early 1898, as foreign powers pressed for concessions in China, a new leadership gradually took control of the Hunan reforms. Led by Liang Chʻi-chʻao, this group was intensely influenced by the teachings of Kʻang Yu-wei. By March it had broadened the scope of institutional change and had widely popularized Kʻang's ideas. Members of the elite, who at first had supported reform, became alarmed as the movement became more radical. They disagreed sharply with the Kʻang Yu-wei group over reform objectives, and after a bitter controversy during the spring of 1898, they suppressed Kʻang's teachings and ostracized his followers. By the summer of 1898 they had reasserted their domination over provincial affairs.

Type
The Chinese Reform Movement of the 1890's: A Symposium
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , November 1969 , pp. 35 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1969

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References

1 K'ang had begun this book in 1886 but did not complete it until 1896. He describes the contents in his Autobiography. See Lo, Jung-pang, K'ang Yu-wei, A Biography and a Symposium (Tucson: 1967), pp. 54–55.Google Scholar

2 Chang, Chung-li, The Chinese Gentry (Seattle: 1955), p. 215Google Scholar, states that after the rebellion “newcomers” constituted 65 percent of Hunan's gentry class, more than any other province (cf. Yunnan, 55 percent, and Kweichow, 54 percent). According to H. B. Morse, the exceptional power of the Hunanese elite vis-à-vis government officials gave Hunan an administration that “was more efficient and less corrupt than in any other province in China.” The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, 3 vols. (Shanghai: 1918), III, 158.Google Scholar

3 Writing in 1891, the English missionary, Griffith John, declared that “those at the head of the anti-foreign movement in Hunan are the sworn enemies of all progress, and bent on opposing the introduction of every innovation, however beneficial to the country.” North China Herald, December 18, 1891, p. 846.Google Scholar

4 See, for example, the petition of Hunanese elite to the governor for a steamship company in 1897, Hsiang hsüeh pao (Hunan Reform News), no. 6 (June 10, 1897)Google Scholar. About the same time, Griffith John detected “a real thirst among some of the Changsha students for Western knowledge,” and believed that provincial leaders “are inclined to favour the introduction of Western learning and Western improvements of every kind.” North China Herald, May 7, 1897, p. 834.Google Scholar

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8 Leadership in the three major reform projects was divided among three provincial leaders: Chang Tsu-t'ung took charge of the shipping line, Wang Hsien-ch'ien of the construction company, and Hsiung Hsi-ling of the academy. See Hsiung's letter to Ch'en Pao-chen, Wu-hsü pien-fa, II, 587–88.Google Scholar

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16 See his biography in Hummel, II, 625–26.

17 K'ang's influence on T'an and T'ang is documented by Howard. Lo, p. 304, no. 19.

18 Many passionate warnings of national crisis came from Hunan at this time; e.g., T'ang Ts'ai-ch'ang, quoted in Li Shou-k'ung, pp. 47–48; T'an Ssu-t'ung, in T'an Ssu-t'ung ch'üan-chi (Complete works of T'an Ssu-t'ung) (Peking: 1954), pp. 126–28.Google Scholar

19 See Liang's letter to the governor in Wu-hsü pien-fa, II, 533–35Google Scholar. Onogawa, , p. 289Google Scholar, no. 1, tentatively dates this letter Dec. 14, 1897.

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21 See Shou-k'ung, Li, pp. 49–51Google Scholar. Li quotes from T'ang's writings in the Hsiang hsüeh pao and the Hsiang pao, which were collected and printed in Changsha during the summer of 1898 under the title Chüch-tien-ming-chai nei-yen.

22 Ssu-t'ung, T'an, pp. 129–30.Google Scholar

23 Ssu-t'ung, T'an, p. 131.Google Scholar

24 Wu-hsü pien-fa, IV, 383Google Scholar. For an extensive list of local study societies and their founders, see Shou-k'ung, Li, p. 46.Google Scholar

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27 Tzu-yu, Feng, Ko-ming i-shih (Fragments of revolutionary history), 2 vols. (Taipei: 1953), I, 73.Google Scholar

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32 I-chiao ts'ung-pien, 6:20–23.Google Scholar

33 The covenant is printed in I-chiao ts'ung-pien, 5:14–18Google Scholar. Internal evidence shows it to have been drawn up in the late spring or early summer of 1898.

34 I-chiao ts'ung-pien, 5:14b.Google Scholar

35 I-chiao ts'ung-pien, 5:15–18.Google Scholar

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37 On the aggrandizement and political power of the Hunanese elite up to 1907, see my Ph.D. dissertation, “The Opening of Hunan” (University of California, 1965), Chaps. V–VII.