From the 31st year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1905) to the 33rd year, the bourgeois revolutionaries represented by Sun Yat-sen and the bourgeois reformers represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao launched a great debate on the ideological and theoretical front.

The revolutionaries represented by Sun Yat-sen and the reformists represented by Kang Youwei are two major political factions of the national bourgeoisie in China. The former is the representative of the lower middle class, while the latter is the representative of its upper class. As early as the Sino-Japanese War, these two factions appeared at the same time. However, at that time, the Reform Movement launched the Reform Movement of 1898, and its influence in society far exceeded that of the revolutionaries. After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang and Liang fled abroad, and Liang Qichao rebuilt the propaganda position of the reformists in Japan. In November of the 24th year of Guangxu (189865438+February), Qingyi Newspaper was published for three years, with * * * published 100 copies. In the twenty-eighth year, Xinmin Congbao was founded, which lasted nearly six years, and was published on the 96th. On June 13th, the 25th year of Guangxu (1July 20th, 899), Kang Youwei established "Rescue Guangxu Society" (also known as "Rescue Company" or "China Reform Society" for short). Under the banner of "patriotism and saving the country", he opposed the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty by revolutionary means and the establishment of the bourgeoisie. Therefore, the revolutionaries headed by Sun Yat-sen have repeatedly proposed "alliance" with them, but they have all been rejected. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, under the stimulation of internal troubles and foreign invasion, intellectuals became more and more inclined to revolution through the negative education of the Qing government to suppress patriotic movements. Considering the immediate interests, the reformists urged the Qing government to implement a real constitutional monarchy and resist the revolution, but at the same time they pointed their finger at the revolutionaries and actively stopped the development of the revolutionary movement. Because of this, the two sides have initially confronted each other in 29 or 30 years. After the founding of the League, the revolutionaries had a unified organization and a clear program, which provided favorable conditions for the spread of revolutionary ideas. In the preface of People's Daily, Sun Yat-sen demanded that "the Three People's Principles should be instilled in people's hearts and turned into common sense". In order to realize this task, following the People's Daily, propaganda organs have been set up all over the country to publish books, newspapers and magazines. According to statistics, from Guangxu 3/KLOC-0 to 33, there were more than 60 kinds of newspapers and periodicals sponsored by revolutionaries, and other revolutionary publications were "dozens of carefree". These publications have expounded the views of the League to varying degrees, while People's Daily has expounded the Three People's Principles more systematically. His articles are thorough in theory, well-known and exciting, and are well received by readers. The second, third and even fifth editions of each issue are still in short supply. Kang and Liang were very afraid of this and publicly declared: "It is still the second meaning for our party to fight to the death with the government, and the first meaning is to fight to the death with the revolutionary party." Liang Qichao took Xinmin Cong Bao as a position and published articles one after another to discredit the platform of the League. The activities of reformists became a huge obstacle to the democratic revolution, and Sun Yat-sen immediately organized revolutionaries to fight back forcefully. In this way, with People's Daily and Xinmin Cong Daily as the central positions, more than 20 revolutionary and reformist newspapers at home and abroad have launched debates one after another.

The debate covers a wide range, mainly in three aspects. 1. Do you want a revolution or overthrow the Qing government? The reformists tried their best to defend the national oppression and class oppression policies of the Qing government, preaching that the thin tax policy of Emperor Kangxi, the holy father of the Qing Dynasty, was unprecedented not only in China for thousands of years, but also in all countries on earth. It is claimed that under the rule of Qing dynasty, "all the people in the country are equal in law and have no other privileges", so the national revolution is completely unnecessary. The revolutionaries exposed the policies of racial oppression, slavery and discrimination implemented by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty with a large number of facts, and stressed that to save the country, we must first fight against the Qing Dynasty and destroy foreign governments. They accused the Qing government of betraying the country and fawning on foreign countries, stressed that only by resolutely overthrowing the autocratic government of the Qing Dynasty could China be saved and the national disaster be avoided, and pointed out that "Manchuria has gone, and China is stronger". In view of the reformists' misinterpretation of the revolutionary slogan "Paiman" as "racial revenge", the revolutionaries declared that "Paiman" only "hates a surname" and "does not hate a clan". The racial revolution is not to completely kill millions of Manchu people, but to "overthrow their government so that a few people will not strangle my sovereignty". This is called "top-down control", which clearly distinguishes Manchu civilians from Manchu aristocrats and targets the attack. Second, should we advocate civil rights and establish a bourgeois republic? Starting from the interests of the class, the reformists opposed the theory of * * * and the theory of revolution, advocated "gradualism" and believed that feudal autocracy could only be implemented through constitutional monarchy. Under the pretext of "the people's wisdom is not open", they accuse the people of China of "lacking the habit of autonomy and not understanding the public welfare of the group", and they have no democratic rights at all, so they are qualified to be "* * * and citizens". Only in the era of enlightened autocracy and constitutional monarchy can this qualification be cultivated. Revolutionaries have strongly refuted this, pointing out that the development of things always comes from behind. When the world already has an advanced democratic system, abolishing autocracy and establishing a republic has become the general trend and the will of the people, a backward country will inevitably choose an advanced democratic system after the national revolution without going through the stage of constitutional monarchy. It is believed that the so-called "Chinese nation, even a base nation, can only be suppressed and cannot have freedom" and that "our nation can't always be capable, but should always be slaves of cattle and horses" is the language of imperialism and thieves, which is a great slander to the people of China. Because "tyranny in illness, freedom in pleasure is human nature", everyone has it. And "it is almost not smooth to take one person as the name of holiness and non-sin, the right to govern the country with one surname, and love for love." "It is this system that makes China the worst country in the world. Moreover, the wisdom of the masses is developed through struggle, and the improvement of the democratic consciousness of the masses in the revolutionary era is very rapid. The reformists emphasized that China's "wisdom of the people is not open", and he can only be autocratic. In fact, he continued to peddle the traditional concept of "divine right of monarchy" for the purpose of "consolidating the foundation of imperial power that will never be replaced". Third, whether to change the feudal land system and implement "equal land rights". In order to maintain the feudal land ownership, reformists opposed the "land equalization system", arguing that China's feudal economic system was different from that of Europe, with no aristocratic oppression, extremely even land and "extremely light taxes". Even if the industry develops in the future, it will not cause the social phenomenon of "the rich and the poor are linked" in Europe and America, and there is absolutely no need to carry out "social revolution". At the same time, it is said that the landlord occupies a large amount of land, all from "labor" or "saving"; The development of social economy "actually starts from people's self-interest", and the existence of private property system has its historical inevitability, which cannot be "despised" and is "the source of all civilizations in modern society". The implementation of "equal land ownership" and "state ownership of land" is "the result of plundering people's hard work", dampening people's enthusiasm for production and "overthrowing the foundation of modern society". They claim that they can make concessions on other issues, but they cannot make concessions on changing the land system. Although the revolutionaries lacked an essential understanding of the feudal system and asserted that there was no gap between the rich and the poor in China as in Europe and America, they made a clear and powerful counterattack, pointing out that the reason for the "social revolution" was the "incompleteness" of social and economic organizations and the gap between the rich and the poor caused by the system of free competition and absolute recognition of private property. Although from the specific situation of China, it is unrealistic to "eliminate competition and abolish private property system" at once, it is necessary to "restrict and recognize relatively". Some accusations against reformists clearly answer: "We know the shortcomings of China's economic phenomena, but when we eliminate them before they happen, the social revolution does not need to be broken;" "Knowing that the country is a big landlord and capitalist (referring to the implementation of land state-owned and controlled capital) and foreign capital is not a concern, then social revolution is not feasible; If you know state-owned land doctrine and its pricing method, it is even more irrefutable, then the social revolution cannot be said to be broken. " Some activists even pointed out that China's social and economic system is not perfect, but full of ills, the main manifestation of which is that the land is concentrated in the hands of a few people, leading to extreme poverty. It is believed that "the land belongs to a country, and the land of a country should be dispersed by the people of a country", otherwise it will inevitably lead to "imbalance of land rights" and "imbalance of human rights", so "we must try our best to break the distinction between the rich and the poor. If there is no land that is rich and expensive, the land belongs to the people, and it can be truly harmonious with the public". At the same time, it is further pointed out that since there is such an unequal system in China, once large-scale machine production is adopted, the phenomenon of "the rich people's capital suddenly increases, and the poor people make up for it every day" will certainly occur in western capitalist countries. In order to prevent this malady, we must carry out social revolution at the same time as national and political revolution. The specific method is to eliminate the "natural productive forces", that is, the private possession of land and nationalize it.

The debate between revolutionaries and reformists began in the 29th year of Guangxu, and was fully launched in the 31st year. The time, scale and scope involved are unprecedented. After this great debate, first, the boundaries between revolutionaries and reformists were further drawn, and people clearly realized the necessity of democratic revolution, so they left reformists and joined the revolution. Second, the revolutionary party's criticism of feudal cultural thoughts has made the western bourgeois democratic thoughts and Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles more widely spread and promoted the growth of revolutionary forces. The reformers also have to admit that after the debate, "the forces of the revolutionary party" and "if the rivers burst their banks, it is impossible to resist them." However, due to the limitations of class and history, the revolutionaries failed to give completely correct answers to a series of fundamental questions of China's democratic revolution. On the issue of refuting that the revolution will lead to imperialist interference and partition, although the revolutionaries have expressed the attitude that even interference is not enough to be feared, they always naively believe that imperialism will abide by international law and will not interfere with the China revolution, let alone partition. On the issue of refuting that revolution will cause riots among the lower classes and thus "civil strife", on the one hand, it is said that "natural riots should be improved and evolved" and "revolution for order"; On the other hand, in order to avoid long-term social unrest, he also put forward the idea of a quick victory, that is, the so-called "revolution must be as small as possible; We must urge the revolution to be short. " In refuting the question that "state-owned land" means "robbing the rich to help the poor", except for a few radicals, the revolutionaries not only failed to give a strong answer, but made it clear that there was no such plan at all, that is, "our policy" and "those who do not harm the rich will benefit the poor", in order to make the rich "benefit without harm" and make the rich richer and the poor richer. These serious weaknesses of the revolutionaries reflect the weakness and compromise of the national bourgeoisie and show that they are unable to lead the democratic revolution to complete victory.