The Middle Class and Publishing Industry 03

作者：admin  点击次数：23  发布时间：2025-02-18

Analysis of the role of the publishing industry in the late Qing reforms can help us understand the political characteristics of this period in more detail. In particular, it helps us reassess the boundary between constitutional reformers and radical revolutionaries, which determined the direction of late Qing history. Obviously, there was an important difference between the two factions: the reformists led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao preferred to establish a constitutional monarchy through gradualism, while the revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen and the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Committee) he founded in Tokyo demanded the complete overthrow of the Qing government and the establishment of a republic. The boundary between the two factions was almost clearly equivalent to that between the exiles and the Tokyo student associations, which was reflected in the debate texts of this stage and the later clarifications. However, once we examine the internal tensions of Shanghai's reformist politics, this boundary becomes blurred. The editors and writers of the Times were initially closely associated with the Kang-Liang faction, but gradually became alienated from it psychologically and institutionally, while agreeing with some members of the revolutionaries in terms of political views and specific connections.
Although some scholars have noted the existence of various groups under the constitutionalists and have attempted to create a typology for them, few have realized the connection between the role of the Shanghai reformists and the Times in setting the radical agenda in the constitutional movement. When most of the late Qing commentators read the reformists' eloquent rhetoric on constitutional monarchy, as if they were colluding with the court and even supporting it, the significance of the reforms became controversial among official and unofficial reformers and members of the unofficial reformists, as will be detailed later in this study. Different factions produced different models such as Japan, Britain, France, radical and moderate to support their strong claims, reflecting the great dissatisfaction of the reformists with the court's constitutional reforms. At some point, this dissatisfaction drove them to mobilize the power of populists and the sympathy of nationalists to oppose the government's policies.
Ultimately, what united reformers and revolutionaries in the final days of the late Qing rule was the very thing that had separated them. In Shanghai, reformers and revolutionaries were caught between the government and the people, sharing the same political background, considering themselves to be in the middle of society, and seeking to oppose the Qing government and revitalize society. At the same time, the Times colleagues shared similar political priorities with their more radical compatriots, which extended beyond rhetoric or expediency to political action, institution building, and actual cooperation.