When it comes to the reform and reform, we have to mention the leaders of the reform, Kang Youwei and others. After China was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1888-1894, the domestic public at that time could not accept this fact. Our Westernization Movement had been launched for so many years, Why did it lose to Japan, a small country that has always had defeated generals from ancient times to the present? In particular, the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki made a large number of progressive people restless.
In 1895, Kang Youwei came to Beijing to participate in the imperial examination. He united 1,300 candidates from various provinces to write a letter to Emperor Guangxu opposing the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" signed between the Qing court and Japan. Later, according to Weng Tonghe's diary and Qing palace archives It turns out that this petition never happened. There were 342 signatories at that time. In the end, Kang Youwei carried the petition in his arms.
In the end, Kang Youwei established the Baoguo Association, which was very influential at the time. Some progressives joined one after another, including Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, who donated thousands of taels of silver. Li Hongzhang also wanted to participate, but was rejected by Kang Youwei. He was kicked out unceremoniously. Because he supported the signing of the "Treaty of Shimonoseki", in the eyes of Kang Youwei and others, he was a big traitor, so they kicked Li Hongzhang out.
In the end, conservatives in the Qing Dynasty attacked and slandered him one after another. In the end, Kang You passed the imperial examination and was appointed to work in the Ministry of Works. However, he couldn't take any time off all day, so he wrote to Emperor Guangxu one after another. Finally, Emperor Guangxu decided to reform. , this was 1898. On June 11, Kang Youwei was appointed as the Prime Minister's Yamen Jingzhang, and Tan Si and other reformers were pulled into the military headquarters.
During the 103-day reform movement, Emperor Guangxu issued more than a hundred edicts. Because the whole country had already had telegraph access at that time, all provinces could receive the edicts quickly, but there was only one Hunan province in the country. The governor seemed to have complied, and no one from other places asked what to do.
Moreover, the contents of the reform and reform laws are too radical, such as the abolition of stereotyped writing. Think about how many years the candidates all over the world have studied, and you abolished it all at once. How will these hundreds of thousands of candidates feel? Furthermore, if the children of the Eight Banners are allowed to be self-reliant, the imperial court will no longer support them. Do these hundreds of thousands of banner people who can only play with birds and walk their dogs want to starve to death? So he immediately offended everyone in the world.
In the end, the reformers wanted to join forces with Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom to form a confederate country. This is even more nonsense. Cixi heard the news and realized the seriousness of the matter, and decisively returned to the palace, and then let Guangxu, who was shaking all over, knelt down and quickly admitted his mistake. In this way, the coup was over and Guangxu was imprisoned.
It can be said that all the power at that time belonged to Cixi. The reformers wanted a constitutional monarchy. You want an emperor with no power to establish a constitutional monarchy? Therefore, if the reformers were looking for Cixi at the beginning, there might be some hope, but failure would be inevitable in the end. Guys, what do you think?