IRF_ THE IgII REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN r5 I Moving the Revolution Beyond Politics: the rgrr Revolution and the Common Man On the evening of the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of the Xinhai year, r January r9rz, SunYatsen, newly elected president of the Repub- lic of China, stepped down on to the platform of Nanjing Station to greet the assembled dignitaries. Then, in a change to earlier plans, he continued directly by train to the branch station near the government buildings. It was already late and he was determined to take office that evening. The thousands of troops who had gathered to welcome him marched back to their barracks through the dark and drizzling rain, along narrow streets hung with flags and lanterns and packed with onlookers who had gathered to see the president. Bypassing the silent Flc. r. The western-style crowds, Sun and his party arrived at the huge government compound pavilion in which Sun that had previously been the offices of the imperial regional adminis- Yatsen's inauguration place tration. There they were welcomed by a select band of national and took provincial leaders who had gathered to attend the formal inauguration Sozrce: Photograph, 1994. of the new president. Once inside the compound the party moved away from the main the world and promote world peace. A representative of the armed administrative buildings, through the gardens to a recently constructed forces made a speech, to which Sun replied, and the ceremony ended gun Western-style pavilion (Fig. r). The room where the ceremony was to with shouts of 'Long live China's republic!', applause, music and a take place was full of men dressed for the most part in frock-coats and salute.l top hats or military uniforms, their hair cropped in the Vestern style. Many years later one of the provincial representatives recalled how Those present included representatives from each of the provinces that after the ceremony it was so late that a group of the representatives had joined the revolution, plus officers from the revolutionary armies. could not find any transport and had to walk back to their lodgings. As The ceremony began with a short speech by one of the represenratives they walked through the deserted streets one of their number pointed of the provinces, welcoming Sun's election and inviting him to swear out what a momentous occasion this was and they shouted and danced the oath of office. Sun raised his left hand and swore to overthrow the in the streets) so that the sleeping people were woken and, wrapping dreaming Qing empire, consolidate the new republic and work for the prosperity their clothes around them, peered out of their doors, never of the country. The representative continued with a formal eulogy of that these raucous young men were representatives of the highest body Sun which referred to the invasion of the country by Manchu tribes- in the land.2 Young dancing alone in the deserted streets: written men almost 3oo years earlier, the egalitarian political systems of France revolutionaries and America, and the need to restore China, fix a new calendar and in the People's Republic of China in the r96os these memoirs pick on create racial equality. He ended by warning the new president against a vivid image of the rgrr revolution as an elite event almost entirely trying to usurp the throne. Sun then sealed his manifesto which was divorced from the masses of the population. The British consul put read aloud, declaring his intention to unite the country politically, finan- forward a similar view in his report to the ambassador where he dis- cially and militarily under a republican government, and thus raise misses the crowds that had gathered to welcome Sun and says that the China to its rightful position of equality with the civilized countries of inauguration ceremonies IFF- 16 THE rgrr REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON MAN THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN r7 \fere arranged by the military authorities, the people of Nanking who, as I have stood to attention, their guns raised. Li and the officers took off their mentioned before, are anything but satisfied with their experience up to date hats, prostrated themselves and kowtowed four times' while a prayer government, of revolutionary taking no part, nor apparently any interest, was read that told of the persecution of the Han by the Manchus and therein. l called on theYellow Emperor to assist the participants in the establish- ment of a republic. Li then poured a libation and the soldiers lowered That this is correct is a precept of Chinese Marxist historiography which their guns. Standing in front of the altar he swore an oath to kill his classifies the events of rgrr as a bourgeois revolution.While theWestern enemies, restore China's ancient ways and establish a republic. Finally secondary literature has tended to place less emphasis on the role of the soldiers raised their guns and shouted'TenThousandYears!'three the bourgeoisie as such it has gone along with the idea that the revolu- times and the ceremony was over.5 tion was an elite affair. But just how true is it? \7hen six months later Yuan Shikai took office as provisional presi- dent of the Republic of China, the Qing had fallen, and attention was focused on giving the state legitimacy as a modern nation state. Where An Elite Affair? the inauguration was to take place was a matter of hot debate in the It is certainly true that the ceremony of Sun Yatsen's inauguration was newspapers and serious negotiations between the major political organized and performed by members of the political elite, as one would players. Eventually a military mutiny gave Yuan the excuse he needed expect for such an occasion. Moreover it aimed at presenting a new to remain in Beijing, rather than travelling to Nanjing, so the ceremony image of China as a modern state, an image drawn fromWestern norms. took place in Beijing, with SunYatsen sending an envoy.The ceremony The ceremony was performed on a dare that was significant in the solar was held in the Foreign Ministry and about a hundred people attended. calendar and not in the traditional lunar calendar. The parricipants wore Apart from the Nanjing delegation, participants included representa- frock-coats and had short hair; Sun raised his left hand as he swore, tives sent by Li Yuanhong and the provincial military governors, civil a gesture that recalls the inauguration of an American president; and servants from the Beijing government, military officers of both the indeed the whole structure of the event is clearly modelled on cere- regular army and the Qing banner troops, police chiefs, local officials, monies for the inauguration of the president in foreign countries with one member of the gentry from each province, two members each of republican traditions, rather than on Chinese precedents.a However, the Manchu, Mongol, Muslim and Tibetan gentry' and two members Sun Yatsen was not the only leader of the new republic to be inaugu- of the General Chamber of Commerce. All the foreign consuls had been rated in that first year of the revolution. The occasions on which Li invited, but the diplomatic community did not attend. This hesitancy Yuanhong andYuan Shikai first assumed the formal trappings of power was ignored by the Chinese newspapers whose reporters observed the initially seem to provide a contrast to the images presented by Sun presence of some foreign journalists and reported confidently that the Yatsen and his entourage. Each of these ceremonies reflects the politi- British and American ambassadors had been present. Most of those cal situation in which it took place. attending wore frock-coats or uniform, but touches of interest were pro- LiYuanhong made a major sacrifice to Heaven, Earth and theYellow vided by two lamas in yellow robes, officers wearing the colourful old- Emperor just one week after the start of the Wuchang Uprising. This style military uniform and a group of staff from the Justice Ministry all was the first occasion on which a claim was made for the national legiti- of whom still wore their queues. macy of the revolutionary government. A wide earthen platform was When everyone was present Yuan entered from a side door, bowed constructed on the military parade ground near the government offices. to the participants and read his oath. The ceremony focused on him Before it was a fire for the sacrificial offerings, on it an altar for incense, personally, but he lacked Sun's personal charisma, and while the formal wine and an ox) which were to be offered according to the traditional newspaper accounts note simply that he looked'sturdy', G. E. Morri- procedures. Below the platform stood the whole army in formation. A son who was present as the correspondent of the London Times corn- band played the first verse of a military anthem. Li, dressed in military ments cruelly thatYuan'came in wobbling like a duck, looking fat and uniform, led his generals and commanding officers on to the platform. unhealthy, in Marshal's uniform, the loose flesh of his neck hanging He went to the altar and offered the incense, ox and wine, then returned down over his collar'.6 The oath he swore was brief and quite unlike the to his place and knelt, as did all his officers, while the soldiers below oaths sworn earlier by Li Yuanhong and Sun Yatsen. It omitted all r8 THE rgrr REVoLUTToN AND THE COMMON MAN THE IgII REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN 19 reference to the Manchu oppression of the Han or to supernatural them for a new context.