In June 1898, the reformists represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, with the support of Emperor Guangxu, launched a bourgeois political reform movement known in history as the Wuxu Reform. Lasting only one hundred and three days, this reform failed due to obstruction from the conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi, which is why it is also called the Hundred Days' Reform.
After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, China's national crisis deepened, and the Chinese people's national consciousness gradually awakened, laying a solid political foundation for the upcoming Hundred Days' Reform. In 1895, after the failure of the Gongche Shangshu movement, the reformists led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao founded the "Wanguo Gongbao" (International Gazette), established patriotic organizations such as the Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening and the Society for the Protection of the Nation, and continuously promoted reformist ideas. By the end of 1897, thirty-three reform societies, seventeen new-style schools, and nineteen newspapers and magazines had been established across the country. By 1898, the total number of societies, schools, and newspapers had exceeded three hundred, all of which provided a strong ideological foundation for the Hundred Days' Reform. China's national capitalism had initially developed by the end of the 19th century, and the strength of the national bourgeoisie was steadily growing, laying a certain class foundation for the Hundred Days' Reform.
Before the Hundred Days' Reform began, the true power within the Qing government still rested with Empress Dowager Cixi, and Emperor Guangxu's so-called "personal rule" was merely nominal. The young Guangxu was actually a highly ambitious emperor; witnessing the continuous invasions of China by Western powers and realizing that the Chinese nation had reached a critical moment of survival, Emperor Guangxu also developed the idea of reforming to strengthen the country.
In June 1898, Kang Youwei wrote a memorial titled "A Petition to Clearly Define National Policy," which he had Xu Zhijing, an official serving at court, present to Emperor Guangxu, urging the reform of old laws and the implementation of new policies. On June 11, Emperor Guangxu issued the "Decree on Defining National Policy," demonstrating his resolve to carry out reforms. Thus began the Hundred Days' Reform.
On June 16, Emperor Guangxu personally summoned Kang Youwei to discuss the specific measures and implementation steps of the reform. Prior to this, Kang Youwei had already written two articles on reform titled "A Study of Japan's Reform" and "A Record of Peter the Great's Reform in Russia." While presenting these two articles to Emperor Guangxu, he also submitted other works concerning reforms in various countries. During his reading, Emperor Guangxu chose Japan's Meiji Restoration as the model for the Hundred Days' Reform. To facilitate the implementation of the reform, Emperor Guangxu also appointed Kang Youwei as a secretary in the Grand Council and promoted reformists such as Tan Sitong and Yang Rui to participate in the reform.
At the suggestion of bourgeois reformists like Kang Youwei, Emperor Guangxu issued dozens of new policy decrees during the Hundred Days' Reform, covering various aspects including politics, economy, military, and education.
In terms of politics, Kang Youwei advocated for reducing redundant officials; establishing imperial academicians to pool wisdom from all sides; broadening channels for opinion, allowing local officials and commoners to submit memorials; converting Shanghai's Current Affairs News into an official newspaper while founding a capital gazette; opening up press freedom; and listing annual fiscal revenues and expenditures by month and category.
In economic policy, he advocated establishing the nation through industry and commerce to achieve national prosperity and support the people; he emphasized encouraging the establishment of private enterprises; he set up a General Bureau of Railways and Mines and a General Bureau of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, with branch offices in each province; he vigorously promoted agricultural development; he issued regulations for manufacturing and awards for advancing crafts; he opened factories across the country; he established commercial bureaus and chambers of commerce in each province; he lifted the ban on the Eight Banners engaging in trade, allowing their members to become self-reliant; he championed industrial development; and he encouraged private individuals to start industrial and mining enterprises.
In military affairs, he advocated learning from Western military training methods; disbanding old and weak soldiers, reducing military pay expenditures, implementing militia training, cutting down the Green Standard Army, organizing civilian militias; issuing special reward regulations for manufacturing firearms and cannons; and establishing military preparedness.UniversityThe martial arts examination subjects such as archery, horsemanship, and swordsmanship were abolished and replaced with firearms.
In education, established the Imperial UniversityUniversityIn each provincial capital, establish higher-level schools; in each prefectural city, set up middle schools; in each county and department, establish elementary schools, and encourage private individuals to open schools; create accelerated schools to teach courses such as translation, medicine, agriculture, and commerce; convert all existing academies, ancestral temples, charity schools, and community schools into new-style schools offering both Chinese and Western curricula; abolish the imperial examination system and create a new examination system with subjects including history, politics, current affairs, and the Four Books and Five Classics; establish a translation bureau; issue regulations for rewarding authors and inventors; send students to Japan for study abroad, and dispatch members of the imperial family to travel overseas.
The ultimate goal of the Hundred Days' Reform was to transform China from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy, though the new policies implemented during this period had not yet addressed this core issue. However, because these reforms represented the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie at the time, even though their provisions did not touch the foundations of feudal rule, they still provoked the feudal conservative forces led by Empress Dowager Cixi. At the start of the reforms, Empress Dowager Cixi expelled Weng Tonghe, Emperor Guangxu's tutor and a supporter of the reforms, from the capital, delivering a direct blow to the emperor's authority. At the same time, she firmly grasped control over personnel appointments in the court and military and political power in the Beijing-Tianjin region, leaving Emperor Guangxu with only the empty title of emperor and little real power. Moreover, after the new policies were announced, conservative officials across the country carried them out perfunctorily, causing most reform measures to become mere words on paper, achieving very little.
As the New Policies were continuously implemented, the opposition from the conservative faction grew increasingly fierce, and the position of the reformists at court became more and more precarious, even threatening Emperor Guangxu, the sovereign of the nation. At the time, there were rumors that Empress Dowager Cixi would depose Guangxu and install a new emperor. To protect his own status, Emperor Guangxu repeatedly summoned the reformists for secret discussions on strategies to counter the conservatives. However, the reformists, who held no real power or influence at court, could not come up with any practical suggestions and could only propose that Emperor Guangxu seek help from Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai initially vowed solemnly to assist them, but when the moment of truth arrived, he suddenly switched sides, betraying Emperor Guangxu and the reformists to Empress Dowager Cixi.
On September 21, 1898, Empress Dowager Cixi launched the "Wuxu Coup," and Emperor Guangxu was immediately imprisoned on Yingtai Island. Following this, Cixi began "regent governance," openly taking control of the imperial court. While imprisoning Emperor Guangxu, Cixi also ordered the arrest of a large number of reformists; Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao narrowly escaped this disaster by hastily fleeing abroad.
On September 28, the reformists Tan Sitong, Kang Guangren, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guangdi were executed by order of Empress Dowager Cixi, an event historically known as the "Six Gentlemen of the Wuxu Reform." Among them, Tan Sitong was the most renowned. At the onset of the Wuxu Coup, Tan Sitong, disregarding his own safety, rushed about trying to rescue Emperor Guangxu. After the rescue plan failed, Liang Qichao invited Tan Sitong to flee with him to Japan, and the Japanese embassy also offered him protection, but Tan Sitong refused both proposals. He said, "In every nation's reforms, blood has been shed. Today in China, no one has yet shed blood for reform—this is why our country does not prosper. If someone must, let it begin with me." After being arrested and imprisoned, Tan Sitong wrote the heroic lines, "I laugh at the sky as I face the blade, leaving behind two loyal souls like Kunlun mountains," which have been celebrated to this day.
After the Wuxu Coup, all the new policies implemented during the Hundred Days' Reform were abolished, with only the Imperial University of Peking being retained. The reform began on June 11, 1898, and ended in failure on September 21, lasting a total of 103 days. The most fundamental reason for its failure was the low level of development of China's bourgeoisie at the time, whose strength was insufficient to counter the powerful feudal conservative forces. Specifically, the main cause was the weakness and compromise of the bourgeois reformists, who lacked the courage to oppose imperialism and feudalism, thus resorting only to reformist methods. During the reform process, the reformists failed to unite with the masses and placed all their hopes on Emperor Guangxu, who held no real power. This reform movement, lacking a popular base, was doomed from the start. Moreover, under the circumstances, Western powers did not want China to follow the path of capitalist development, so they constantly created obstacles to the implementation of the new policies. In short, the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform was the result of a joint suppression by both Chinese and foreign reactionary forces.
Although the Hundred Days Reform ultimately ended in failure, its impact should not be underestimated. It was a progressive political reform movement, as its proposals to develop a capitalist economy and expand bourgeois political power aligned with the trends of social development in China at the time. At the same time, it was also a successful intellectual enlightenment movement, which on one hand criticized old feudal ideas, and on the other hand spread new bourgeois thinking. The failure of the Hundred Days Reform proved that the path of bourgeois reform was fundamentally unworkable in China, and that to overthrow the rotten feudal rule, a radical transformation was necessary—a lesson that greatly inspired the Chinese bourgeoisie of that era.