When news reached Beijing that Li Hongzhang had signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, public outrage erupted, and every candidate taking the imperial civil service examinations in the capital was filled with grief and indignation. Among these candidates, two names would leave a profound mark on modern Chinese history: Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.
In April 1895, Kang Youwei drafted an overnight ten-thousand-character memorial to the Emperor, which was revised by Liang Qichao. After its completion, Kang and Liang, together with over 1,200 provincial graduates from eighteen provinces, jointly submitted the memorial to protest the Qing government's signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan. Kang Youwei proposed "issuing imperial decrees to rally the nation's spirit, relocating the capital to stabilize the state, training troops to strengthen national power, and implementing reforms to achieve good governance," thus summarizing four key demands: "reject peace, relocate the capital, train troops, and enact reforms." Moreover, in the memorial, Kang Youwei listed a series of reform measures covering political, economic, and educational aspects: politically, he advocated for a constitutional monarchy while broadening channels for public opinion to promote democratic development; economically, he called for vigorous development of industry and commerce to protect the interests of China's national bourgeoisie; educationally, he urged the establishment of schools and the abolition of the eight-legged essay examination system.
Because during the Han Dynasty the government used official carriages to transport conscripted candidates, later generations used the term "public carriage" to refer to provincial scholars taking the imperial examinations, which is the origin of why this petition was called the "Public Carriage Petition."
The two leaders of the "Public Vehicle Petition," Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, were both representative figures of China's bourgeois reformist movement. Kang Youwei was deeply influenced by Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism from a young age, but during his studies, he found his views gradually diverging from it, so he resolutely abandoned Neo-Confucianism and turned to reading books focused on practical statecraft.
From this point on, he developed a strong interest in Western learning and began studying capitalist systems and natural sciences from the West. He resolved to introduce advanced political institutions and scientific technologies from Western countries and apply them domestically, aiming to bring about a rebirth for China, which was then beset by internal and external troubles.
Starting in 1891, Kang Youwei established the Thatched Cottage of Ten Thousand Trees in Guangdong to promote reform theories. He successively published A Study of the Forged Classics of the Xin Dynasty andConfuciusThe three works "Examination of Institutional Reform" and "Book of Great Harmony" caused strong repercussions in society, severely impacting the feudal conservatives.
Liang Qichao was a student of Kang Youwei, and his rise to become a representative figure of the bourgeois reformist movement, to which he dedicated his entire life, was largely due to the influence of his mentor Kang Youwei. Gifted with exceptional intelligence, Liang Qichao could compose poetry and essays by the age of eight and passed the provincial imperial examination to become a juren at seventeen. Thereafter, he studied at the Ten Thousand Trees Thatched Hall founded by Kang Youwei, where he earned great admiration from his teacher.
In May 1895, the "Public Vehicle Petition" movement led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao had a tremendous impact on society at the time, marking both the entry of the bourgeois reformists onto China's historical stage and the official beginning of mass political movements in China. Unfortunately, the petition ultimately failed to gain recognition from the Qing government, but the reformists represented by Kang and Liang did not abandon their efforts to save the country through reform despite the failure of this movement.
After the "Public Vehicle Petition," Kang Youwei founded the newspaper *Wanguo Gongbao* (The Globe Magazine) to promote reformist ideas. The newspaper began publication on August 17, 1895, as a bi-daily issue. By November 1895, Kang Youwei organized and established the Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening (Qiangxue Hui). This society not only gathered leading reformists like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao but also united the "Emperor's Party," including Weng Tonghe, who supported Emperor Guangxu. After the society was formed, *Wanguo Gongbao* was officially renamed *Zhongwai Jiwen* (Records of China and the World).
With the strong backing of the Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening, Kang Youwei and his associates proposed political reforms for modernization and the establishment of a parliament in early 1896. Such rhetoric alarmed the "Empress Dowager's faction" led by Empress Dowager Cixi, and the Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening in Beijing was soon banned.
In November 1897, Germany forcibly occupied Jiaozhou Bay, prompting Kang Youwei to once again submit a memorial to the throne, requesting political reforms to save the nation. In April 1898, the Protect the Nation Society was established in Beijing, with the goal of promoting the reform movement. Influenced by it, the Protect Yunnan Society, Protect Zhejiang Society, and Protect Sichuan Society were also successively founded. However, due to some officials within the Qing government accusing the Protect the Nation Society of criticizing state affairs and harboring rebellious intentions, the society quickly fell into disunity and fragmentation.
Starting with the "Gongche Shangshu" (the Imperial Examination Memorial), China's bourgeois reformists faced a series of setbacks, yet this did not cause Kang Youwei and other reformists to abandon their aspirations. That same year, their proposals finally gained the support of Emperor Guangxu, launching the vigorous Wuxu Reform movement.