Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the emperor's aunt, the Empress Dowager Cixi (a cunning and ruth-
less woman who had been the real power behind the Qing throne
since 1862), could stand. On September 21 she had her nephew
arrested and assumed control of the Qing government herself. She
quickly reversed all reform edicts and issued arrest warrants for Kang
and his supporters. Kang managed to flee to Japan, where he was
given a hero's welcome. He remained there for many years, where he
advocated his vision of a modernized constitutional monarchy for
China and established his Emperor Protection Society (Baohuangdang),
a body that favored the retention and protection of the Manchu
emperor.
Kang's reforms failed because they offended the empress dowager's
sensibilities and because he did not secure the backing of the military.
Chinese Communist historians today regard him as a bourgeois
reformist whose class and educational background deceived him into
thinking that mere institutional reform would save China. The failure
of his reforms convinced revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen that the
Manchu dynasty would have to be overthrown by means of violent
revolution.
