The Fight for the Republic in China
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The Fight For The Republic In China B.L. Putnam Weale The Fight For The Republic In China Table of Contents The Fight For The Republic In China.....................................................................................................................1 B.L. Putnam Weale........................................................................................................................................1 PREFACE......................................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................2 CHAPTER II. THE ENIGMA OF YUAN SHIH−KAI...............................................................................10 CHAPTER III. THE DREAM REPUBLIC.................................................................................................16 CHAPTER IV. THE DICTATOR AT WORK............................................................................................22 CHAPTER V. THE FACTOR OF JAPAN.................................................................................................27 CHAPTER VI. THE TWENTY−ONE DEMANDS...................................................................................33 CHAPTER VII. THE ORIGIN OF THE TWENTY−ONE DEMANDS....................................................50 CHAPTER VIII. THE MONARCHIST PLOT...........................................................................................60 CHAPTER IX. THE MONARCHY PLOT.................................................................................................72 CHAPTER X. THE MONARCHY MOVEMENT IS OPPOSED..............................................................79 CHAPTER XI. THE DREAM EMPIRE.....................................................................................................90 CHAPTER XII. "THE THIRD REVOLUTION"........................................................................................99 CHAPTER XIII. "THE THIRD REVOLUTION" (Continued)................................................................104 CHAPTER XIV. THE NEW REGIME,FROM 1916 TO 1917..............................................................113 CHAPTER XV. THE REPUBLIC IN COLLISION WITH REALITY: TWO TYPICAL INSTANCES OF "FOREIGN AGGRESSION".......................................................................................120 CHAPTER XVI. CHINA AND THE WAR..............................................................................................126 CHAPTER XVII. THE FINAL PROBLEM:REMODELLING THE POLITICO−ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHINA AND THE WORLD..................................................................151 APPENDIX................................................................................................................................................159 i The Fight For The Republic In China B.L. Putnam Weale This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • PREFACE • CHAPTER I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION • CHAPTER II. THE ENIGMA OF YUAN SHIH−KAI • CHAPTER III. THE DREAM REPUBLIC • CHAPTER IV. THE DICTATOR AT WORK • CHAPTER V. THE FACTOR OF JAPAN • CHAPTER VI. THE TWENTY−ONE DEMANDS • CHAPTER VII. THE ORIGIN OF THE TWENTY−ONE DEMANDS • CHAPTER VIII. THE MONARCHIST PLOT • CHAPTER IX. THE MONARCHY PLOT • CHAPTER X. THE MONARCHY MOVEMENT IS OPPOSED • CHAPTER XI. THE DREAM EMPIRE • CHAPTER XII. "THE THIRD REVOLUTION" • CHAPTER XIII. "THE THIRD REVOLUTION" (Continued) • CHAPTER XIV. THE NEW REGIME,FROM 1916 TO 1917 • CHAPTER XV. THE REPUBLIC IN COLLISION WITH REALITY: TWO TYPICAL INSTANCES OF "FOREIGN AGGRESSION" • CHAPTER XVI. CHINA AND THE WAR • CHAPTER XVII. THE FINAL PROBLEM:REMODELLING THE POLITICO−ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHINA AND THE WORLD • APPENDIX Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team PREFACE This volume tells everything that the student or the casual reader needs to know about the Chinese Question. It is sufficiently exhaustive to show very clearly the new forces at work, and to bring some realisation of the great gulf which separates the thinking classes of to−day from the men of a few years ago; whilst, at the same time, it is sufficiently condensed not to overwhelm the reader with too great a multitude of facts. Particular attention may be devoted to an unique featurenamely, the Chinese and Japanese documentation which affords a sharp contrast between varying types of Eastern brains. Thus, in the Memorandum of the Black Dragon Society (Chapter VII) we have a very clear and illuminating revelation of the Japanese political mind which has been trained to consider problems in the modern Western way, but which remains saturated with theocratic ideals in the sharpest conflict with the Twentieth Century. In the pamphlet of Yang Tu (Chapter VIII) which launched the ill−fated Monarchy Scheme and contributed so largely to the dramatic death of Yuan Shih−kai, we have an essentially Chinese mentality of the reactionary or corrupt type which expresses itself both on home and foreign issues in a naively dishonest way, helpful to future diplomacy. In the Letter of Protest (Chapter X) against the The Fight For The Republic In China 1 The Fight For The Republic In China revival of Imperialism written by Liang Ch'i−chaothe most brilliant scholar livingwe have a Chinese of the New or Liberal China, who in spite of a complete ignorance of foreign languages shows a marvellous grasp of political absolutes, and is a harbinger of the great days which must come again to Cathay. In other chapters dealing with the monarchist plot we see the official mind at work, the telegraphic despatches exchanged between Peking and the provinces being of the highest diplomatic interest. These documents prove conclusively that although the Japanese is more practical than the Chineseand more concise there can be no question as to which brain is the more fruitful. Coupled with this discussion there is much matter giving an insight into the extraordinary and calamitous foreign ignorance about present−day China, an ignorance which is just as marked among those resident in the country as among those who have never visited it. The whole of the material grouped in this novel fashion should not fail to bring conviction that the Far East, with its 500 millions of people, is destined to play an important role in post−bellum history because of the new type of modern spirit which is being there evolved. The influence of the Chinese Republic, in the opinion of the writer, cannot fail to be ultimately world−wide in view of the practically unlimited resources in man−power which it disposes of. In the Appendices will be found every document of importance for the period of under examination,¡911 to 1917. The writer desires to record his indebtedness to the columns of The Peking Gazette, a newspaper which under the brilliant editorship of Eugene Ch'ena pure Chinese born and educated under the British flaghas fought consistently and victoriously for Liberalism and Justice and has made the Republic a reality to countless thousands who otherwise would have refused to believe in it. PUTNAM WEALE. PEKING, June, 1917. CHAPTER I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION The revolution which broke out in China on the 10th October, 1911, and which was completed with the abdication of the Manchu Dynasty on the 12th February, 1912, though acclaimed as highly successful, was in its practical aspects something very different. With the proclamation of the Republic, the fiction of autocratic rule had truly enough vanished; yet the tradition survived and with it sufficient of the essential machinery of Imperialism to defeat the nominal victors until the death of Yuan Shih−kai. The movement to expel the Manchus, who had seized the Dragon Throne in 1644 from the expiring Ming Dynasty, was an old one. Historians are silent on the subject of the various secret plots which were always being hatched to achieve that end, their silence being due to a lack of proper records and to the difficulty of establishing the simple truth in a country where rumour reigns supreme. But there is little doubt that the famous Ko−lao−hui, a Secret Society with its headquarters in the remote province of Szechuan, owed its origin to the last of the Ming adherents, who after waging a desperate guerilla warfare from the date of their expulsion from Peking, finally fell to the low level of inciting assassinations and general unrest in the vain hope that they might some day regain their heritage. At least, we know one thing definitely: that the attempt on the life of the Emperor Chia Ching in the Peking streets at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century was a Secret Society plot, and brought to an abrupt end the pleasant habit of travelling among their subjects which the great Manchu Emperors K'anghsi and Ch'ien Lung had inaugurated and always pursued and which had so largely encouraged the growth of personal loyalty to a foreign House. From that day onwards for over a century no Emperor ventured out from behind the frowning Walls of the Forbidden City save for brief annual ceremonies such as the Worship of Heaven on the occasion of the Winter Solstice, and during the two "flights" first, in 1860 when Peking was occupied by an Anglo−French expedition and the Court incontinently sought sanctuary in the mountain Palaces of Jehol; and, again, in 1900, when with the pricking of the Boxer bubble and the arrival of the International relief armies,