key pointsBackground to the 100 Days Reforms
Role of the emperor
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LinksThe 100 Days Reforms from Funfront- Comprehensive
Murder of the Guangxu emperor Quotes about the 100 days reforms by various historians-International School History Blog Questions to Consider1. How did the Sino-Japanese war accelerate the urgency of reform in China?
2. Why were Kang Youwei’s Self-Strengthening Study Society and his newspaper suppressed? 3. List the most important edicts of the Hundred Days’ Reform under the following headings: a) Educational Reforms b) Economic Reforms c) Military Reforms d) Government (sinecure posts) e) Political reform 4. How far does a historian of your choice agree with those who think that the Guangxu emperor was trying to turn China into a constitutional monarchy? 5. What explanations have been offered for the failure of the 100 days’ reform? 6.Which of these explanations are the most convincing and why? 7. What were the long-term effects of the Hundred Days’ Reform? |
historiography: Why did the 100 days reforms fail? Peter Zarrow
Orthodox view"Most historians agree that Kang’s influence on the emperor and the imperial camp was crucial to giving the reforms their thoroughgoing edge, and that while the reforms were not well planned, they were in historical fact defeated by the coup led by Cixi, a woman skilled in court intrigue but ignorant of the world. In other words, an old story: goodguy reformers versus evil reactionaries." |
Revisionist view"Revisionists have struck at this view from a variety of perspectives. One issue they all raise is the problems in the accounts of the events of 1898, written by Kang and Liang as part of their attacks on the Qing. However, to pick holes in the Kang–Liang story of good versus evil is not the same as proving that an essentially different chain of events transpired. But the immediate point is that even the most sympathetic approach to Cixi cannot make her into a great reformer in an era when reforms were plainly necessary. If she was not the monster of traditional image, neither was she capable of providing China dynamic leadership." |