How Post-Imperial China was Led Astray by Radicalism
Radicalism and the origins of tragedies of the Chinese Nation
JULY 6, 1907. ANQING CITY, LATE QING CHINA. A police academy is holding a graduation ceremony. The Manchu governor is invited to inspect the parade of graduating cadets. While 300 cadets are marching on the parade ground, some 600 officials and other distinguished guests are all seated in the audience. It is said that a classified telegram was sent to the governor three days ago, informing him that one of his most trusted confidants, a supervisor of the academy, was secretly a member of the Revolutionary Party and was plotting to create chaos soon. The governor, however, chose to trust the young man, despite the accusation against him.
The young man, aged 33, is so brilliant and the governor thinks very highly of him. The governor, a renowned, open-minded reformist, not only promoted him but also even considered recommending him to the court for a position of even greater responsibility. Although the whole country was panicking about the Revolutionary Party as Revolutionaries had committed dozens of assassinations, the governor preferred to employ open-minded young people who returned from abroad. The governor is known for his tolerance of Revolutionaries and there is a dearth of records of any clampdown on the Revolutionary Party under his rule, even though hunting down Revolutionaries was so common in other parts of China at the time.
To everyone’s utter astonishment, the young man suddenly pulled two pistols out of his boots and shot at the governor from behind; his comrades also wasted no time shooting at other Manchu people.
This is an uprising. The rebels fought fiercely against the reinforcements for four hours, but were eventually overwhelmed and captured. The next morning the young man, the leader of this uprising, was executed by having his heart gouged out. His heart and liver were cut into slices, stir-fried, and eaten by soldiers.
This man is called Xu Xilin (徐錫麟). He showed no fear of death and no regret for assassinating the Manchu governor, Enming (恩銘), who trusted him, tolerated him, and treated him so well. What motivated him to assassinate the well-loved governor? The only reason is, according to Xu Xilin’s statement: the governor is a Manchu official.
Manchu officials were the main targets of assassination at that time. Overthrowing the Qing court and eliminating Manchu officials, radicals believed, could bring an end to the nation’s miseries and the enslavement of Han Chinese (漢人). Many even advocated a “race war” against the Manchus who had subjugated the Han Chinese and reigned over China since 1644. Besides, nearly all of these radicals held the Qing dynasty accountable for putting China in danger of national extinction given its incompetence inresisting foreign invasion.
The twentieth century opened its first chapter in China with this: intellectuals’ growing radicalism led to a radicalized collective mindset, with increasing admiration for political violence and rampant political assassinations, as well as a growing favorability towards extremist ideas. Eventually, the radicalization of social ideas created breeding ground for the widespread dissemination of Marxism. This is the root cause of China’s calamitous path to communism and totalitarianism. Compared with the so-called “Century of Humiliation” (百年國恥), the destruction wrought in the first thirty years of the “People’s Repulic” is unprecedented. The resurgence of totalitarianism in the Xi Jinping era has deep roots in this sort of radicalism.
This essay will revisit the rise of radicalism in the waning years of the Qing dynasty and explore how it derailed the post-imperial transition.
The Age of Assassination
SEPTEMBER 24, 1905. PEKING. A crowd seeing off a delegation of dignitaries gathered at a platform of the Zhengyangmen Railway Station (正陽門火車站). The delegation was composed of five ministers dispatched by the Qing court.
Due to widespread discontent with the absolute monarchy in China, the Qing court ruled by Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) felt compelled to promise a reform, though very reluctantly. The mission of the delegation of five ministers was to visit Japan and European constitutional monarchies. Their goal was, of course, to investigate how these major powers successfully established constitutional monarchies.
A servant-like young man was about to enter the carriage where the ministers were, when the train started. By the time he sensed something was wrong, it was already too late. A bomb tied to his weist was unexpectedly detonated before he could approach the ministers, his targets. His entrails were splattered all over the place, whereas the ministers were only injured in differently degrees.
His name is Wu Yue (吳樾). A few months later after his death, his article, “Proclamation to the People” (意見書), and his photo, the one he prepared beforehand, were published in People’s Newspaper (民報) affiliated to Tongmenghui (United Alliance Society, 同盟會), one of the most influential revolutionary organizations of the time. After another few months, his posthumous pamphlet, The Age of Assassination (暗殺時代), was also published in this newspaper.
We know from his pamphlet that his initial target was Tieliang (鉄良), one of the most powerful Manchu ministers. Later he changed his mind when he came to realize that the Qing court attempted to adopt constitutionalism to preserve its rule as a Manchu monarchy. This is the worst thing he could have imagined.
Like his revolutionary comrades, he pursued the establishment of a new nation-state dominated by the Han Chinese, which would exclude the Manchus. Also like other radicals, he believed that constitutional monarchy was an egregious betrayal of the Han Chinese because the Manchus treated the Han Chinese like slaves. He wanted to die with the five ministers in order to arouse the Han people not only to resist the constitutional monarchy, but also to overthrow the Manchu rule completely.
Wu Yue's pamphlet is the best footnote of the last decade of the Qing dynasty: the age of assassination. Not long after its publication, this pamphlet became one of the most inflammatory pieces of theoretical propaganda. This pamphlet, like an “Assassination Theory Manual,” inspired countless individuals and groups, leading to a widespread cult of assassination. Even top intellectuals of the time, such as Liang Qichao (梁啓超) and Zhang Binglin (章炳麟), openly supported assassination activities. While plotting and financing dozens of armed uprisings to overthrow the Qing dynasty, Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of Republic of China, was also known for sanctioning assassination attempts.
According to incomplete statistics, between 1900 and 1912, there were over 50 assassinations of high-ranking officials, and at least 16 “assassination corps” were active. These assassination organizations were sometimes as legendary as Hollywood movies. For example, one of the assassination organizations operated under the guise of an import store called “Chengji Import Store” (成記洋貨店). On October 25, 1911, members of “Chengji Import Store” successfully ambushed General Fengshan (鳳山), the newly appointed Manchu General of Guangzhou.1
General Fengshan’s predecessor General Fuqi (孚琦), also a Manchu, was shot dead in the head at close range in April of the same year. The assassin mistook General Fuqi for a naval officer, another hot target for assassination, who escaped assassination scores of times.
The newly appointed General Fengshan had received warnings, and some people suggested that he disguise himself before entering Guangzhou City. However, General Fengshan, possibly considering security issues such as the lack of guards and the fear of being recognized, insisted on entering the city in a grand manner under heavy guard. As a result, General Fengshan was blown to pieces and his body was mutilated.
Nearly all of these assassins of the time were educated young people, literati or intellectuals. Some of the Revolutionaries were even born into political or wealthy families. Qiu Jin (秋瑾), a female Revolutionary executed in 1907, hailed from a politically connected family. Her grandfather, father and husband all served as mid-level bureaucrats. Shi Jianru (史堅如), a Revolutionary executed in 1900, came from a prestigious family of scholars and bureaucrats. Shi Kefa (史可法), Shi Jianru’s ancestor, was a renowned high-ranking official in the Ming dynasty, who led the resistance war against the Manchus, but was ultimately executed after his army were defeated. Even Xu Xilin, mentioned earlier in this essay, was born and raised in a gentry family.
Why were Chinese Revolutionaries so fanatical about assassination and violence? The last decade of19th century also saw a surge of assassinations in Europe and North America, and anarchism was the major contributing factor. However, despite its possible influence on late Qing China, anarchism was not the primary concern for most of these Revolutionaries. The radicalization of Chinese society was more fundamentally transformative.
The Romanticization of Radical Ideologies
Yu-shen Chen (陳佑慎), a Taiwanese historian, contended that anarchism had contributed to the romanticization of narratives related to assassination. Embracing anarchist rhetoric, Chinese Revolutionaries saw violence – assassination and rebellion – as the key to toppling the Qing dynasty. Rather than anarchist ideology, it was the violent means employed by anarchists that kindled the public’s enthusiasm for social change. The “1911 Revolution” ousted the Qing court, but assassinations persisted. The anarchist ideology was then further downplayed.2
After the establishment of Republic of China in 1912, public opinion shifted towards condemning the misuse of assassination. Song Jiaoren (宋教仁), who led the Kuomintang (KMT, the Chinese Nationalist Party) to electoral victories in the republican China’s first democratic election in1913, was assassinated at the Shanghai Railway Station on March 20 of the same year. Song Jiaoren was about to form a cabinet as the Party Leader of KMT, but his untimely death possibly disrupted the progress of China’s democratic transition.
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