戊戌變法をめぐる政治的諸情勢について

Abstract

The 1898 reformation was the first of a series of democratic movements in modern China. It was a reform movement organized by the lower but progressive bureaucracy and the gentry, and it had as its program a reorganization of the Six Ministries of the Central Government and creation of local agencies for civil administration. It was more thoroughgoing than the so-called Yang-wu movement. The adherents of the movement helped Yuan Shih-k'ai seize military power in order to weaken the Manchu aristocracy with the Empress Dowager as their leader. However, the movement which was necessarily anti-Manchu, was crashed by the hand of the Manchu aristocracy which had nothing in mind than their own racial interest. Though it collapsed, the role of the movement was not small in the sense that the leaders of the movement found in it the necessity of becoming more "world-minded" and it gave a first blow to Manchu despotism. The failure of the 1898 movement led to the rise of revolutionary movement, finally resulting in the downfall of the Manchu dynasty.