The late Qing dynasty has practiced constitutional monarchy?

The idea of constitutional monarchy in the late Qing Dynasty is an important part of China's modern political thought, dating back as far as the 1870s and 1880s, when the early reformists of the foreign affairs movement advocated the idea of the sovereignty of the people ****lord. However, the idea of constitutional monarchy in the late Qing Dynasty is an important part of China's modern political thought, which can be traced back as far as the early reformist ideas of kings and people **** masters in the period of the foreign affairs movement in the 1870s and 1880s. However, this kind of monarch-people***lord lacked the basic characteristics of a modern constitutional state, and was only the initial beginning of the idea of constitutional monarchy in modern times. The Hundred Days Reform period, the constitutional monarch thought has a greater development, the initial bourgeois constitutional state with the basic connotation of the early 20th century, the rise of the constitutionalists put forward the idea of national constitution, thus the late Qing dynasty constitutional monarch thought by the constitutional monarchy to the highest form of constitutional parliamentary monarchy, China's democratic politics has taken the first step from feudal autocracy to democracy. The progressive development of constitutional monarchism in the late Qing reflects the changes in Chinese society and the mentality of the intellectuals in a situation of internal and external danger. Whether it is a constitutional monarchy or democracy **** and, in the change of feudal autocracy for the capitalist system this basic point, the two are consistent, homogeneous, which is what we should be sure that the constitutional monarchy thought played a positive role in the fundamental.

Constitutional monarchy; ideology; history

The idea of constitutional monarchy in the late Qing Dynasty can be traced back to the early reformist ideas of the 1870s and 1880s. Before and after the Sino-French War, some foreign intellectuals or early reformist thinkers advocated replacing China's monarchical autocracy with the Western system of kings and people***lords. By the time of the Hundred Days Reform, the reformists advocated the rise of civil rights, the establishment of the House of Representatives, and the implementation of a dual constitutional monarchy. the rise of the constitutionalists in the early twentieth century put forward the idea of a national constitution, thus advancing the idea of constitutional monarchy in the late Qing Dynasty from a dual constitutional monarchy to the highest form of constitutional parliamentary monarchy. Although this change was localized and slow, it was very important for the development of democratic politics in China.

I. From monarchical and democratic ****lordship to dualistic constitutional monarchy

Soon after the end of the Opium War, as the first batch of modern China's advanced people who set their eyes on the world, Wei Yuan, Xu Jishe, Liang Tingnan, Yao Ying and others, in their respective writings, had introduced western constitutional monarchies and democratic **** and systems with appreciation. After the Sino-French War, the early reformers sought to find a more effective way to strengthen the country. Some enlightened intellectuals, such as Zheng Guanying, Guo Songtao and others because there are more missions to the West or direct contact with the West, the perception of the Western countries also gradually from emotional familiarity to the stage of rational thinking: in the praise of the Western countries rich and strong at the same time, began to seriously explore the source of the West's wealth and strength in the end. At the same time, the early reformers further familiarized themselves with the advanced and superiority of the western culture and system, and put forward the political proposition of replacing the Chinese monarchical autocracy with the western monarchical ****lord system. As a result, the modern democratic political thought in China began to develop. Zheng Guanying, as the first person in modern China who explicitly proposed the implementation of the monarch-people***master system, believed that the Western political system, covering the five continents, there are monarchs, democracies, and monarch-people***master countries. The monarch's power is biased in the upper, democratic power is biased in the lower, the ruler and the people **** Lord's power to get its level of legislation of the good, the thinking of the dense, no more than this. Although both the democratic and the monarchical ****lord countries have the House of Representatives as the center of the country, the early reformists were mostly in favor of the constitutional monarchy of the monarchical ****lord. Xue Fucheng's view was quite representative, and after commenting on the pros and cons of monarchy and democracy, he logically came to the final conclusion that there was no disadvantage in favoring monarchy and democracy in a state of sovereignty and democracy, and that the most discretionary Wang Tao also had the same idea. Zheng Guanying, Xue Fucheng, Wang Tao and other representatives of the foreign intellectuals or the early reform of the reason why the demand for change in China's monarchical dictatorship for the Western monarchical **** Lord system, because in their view, the Western monarchical **** Lord system can make the top and bottom of the communication, the king and the people do not

separation, which is the fundamental reason for the West's wealth and power; and China's monarchical dictatorship is the top and bottom of the communication, the king and the people are isolated, China's poverty and weakness, the fundamental reason of the top and bottom, the people are not isolated.

This is the fundamental reason for China's poverty and weakness.

Before the Sino-Japanese War, Chinese national capitalism was in its infancy, developing very slowly under the double oppression of foreign capitalism and the feudal forces in China, and the early bourgeois reformists in their infancy were seriously weak and compromising, and could not blatantly criticize the feudal autocracy. At the same time, as the main body of culture, the early reformists were mostly from the imperial examinations, and the Confucianism had been y infiltrated into their bones for a long time. Constrained by this intellectual background and cognitive framework, when they familiarized themselves with and disseminated the Western political system, they naturally adapted the Western modern democratic political thought based on the spirit of traditional Chinese thought and culture, and consciously or unconsciously used some concepts and judgments in the traditional Chinese political culture to interpret the Western political system. These factors undoubtedly greatly influenced the early reformers' familiarity with the nature of Western democratic government. They borrowed the ideological weapons of democratic politics from the West, but they were careful to avoid touching the authority of the feudal and autocratic emperors, so they tried by all means to harmonize their ideas with the traditional political dogmas. It was this limitation of the times that prompted the early reformers to put forward the specious upward example of the legacy of the Three Dynasties, and downward imitation of the good law of Thailand and the West. The early reformists put forward the plausible demand for a change of law, which formed the ideological direction of Western and Chinese thinking in early Chinese democratic thinking. Although the early reformists intuitively grasped the external form of the Western modern democratic political thought of the House of Representatives system, they discarded its essence of freedom, equality, and human rights as if they were nothing. The proper functioning of democratic politics was conditioned by effective checks and balances among the various branches of power, and the House of Representatives designed by the early reformers had little to do with the principle of separation of powers. It never occurred to them that a constitution was also on the table, let alone discussing the separation of legislative and executive powers. On the contrary, they stipulated that although everything was agreed upon by the upper and lower chambers, it was still to be decided by the king, and the power of the king was to replace the power of the law. This superficial realization of the Western democratic political thought made the early reformers show a tendency to discard the essentials. In the West, the House of Representatives was an independent legislative and administrative supervisory body, while the House of Representatives designed by the early reformers was only a dispatching body of the imperial power to communicate with the upper and lower levels. The purpose of the House of Representatives is only to improve the traditional shortcomings of the traditional gap between the ruler and the people without the House of Representatives, in order to make the top and bottom of the communication, the people's hidden to reach up, the king's favor to catch, and ease the relationship between the ruler and the people and the top and bottom of the relationship. This Chinese-style House, neither protected by the Constitution, nor is the antithesis of the power of the monarch, not to mention the representative of democratic politics, it is only the maintenance of the power of the monarch and complementary. This was also the contradictory reflection of the spirit and essence of the foreign affairs movement at that time. Nevertheless, under the historical conditions at that time, the early bourgeois reformers boldly put forward the idea of implementing the monarchical system and opening the House of Representatives, which was a challenge to the concept of using the Chinese body and the West. In fact, the task of changing the traditional Chinese monarchical system already contained democratic elements. In the context of the foreign affairs movement in the body of the West, this violation of the body of the middle, showing that its thinking has been surging in the breakthrough of the foreign affairs barrier of the undercurrent, for the subsequent emergence of the trend of modernization has opened the way. This is a manifestation of the spirit of the times, and its progressiveness is self-evident. The emergence of such political ideas will attract more and more people's attention and inspire them to further explore the true nature of Western democracy

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