One hundred days of reform

Aishingyro Zaitian , who ruled under the motto "Guangxu", ascended the throne in 1875 when he was only 4 years old, and therefore his aunt Cixi ruled instead. In 1889, the young emperor reached adulthood and formally proceeded to rule, but the real power remained in the hands of Cixi. However, observing the situation around him, he realized that the country needed deep transformations that Cixi would never dare to do, and was looking for rapprochement with the reformers.

In the 1890s, at court there were two large groups that were at enmity with each other. The first consisted of adherents of Cixi and focused on people from the northern provinces of China; its members were opposed to deepening reforms and in foreign policy counted on assistance from Russia . The second group, prominent in which the educator of the emperor Wen Tonghe occupied a prominent place, on the contrary, had support among the learned elite of South China, agreed on the need for some very careful transformations, and sought help from Great Britain and Japan .

Kang Yuwei

The Qing Empire, losing the war with Japan , was forced to sign the Shimonosek Treaty on April 17, 1895. The terms of this humiliating treaty caused an outburst of indignation in Beijing , where in the spring of 1895, middle school graduates from juzhen gathered from all over the country to participate in the capital's exams for the highest degree in jinsha . Stormy meetings took place on April 30 and May 1, in which more than 1.2 thousand juzhenes from various provinces participated. The presidency was the scientist and politician Kang Yuwei . In late April, Kang Yuwei and his students, Liang Qichao and Mai Menghua, drafted the Collective Memorandum approved by the meetings to the emperor. This memorandum contained a number of requirements, including refusal to ratify the treaty, punishment of those responsible for the defeat, transfer of the capital to Xi'an , further modernization of the army and updating of the officer corps. To strengthen China, it was proposed to actively build railways, develop factory and mining industries, and create modern mail. It envisaged the modernization of agriculture, public education, the system of state exams and the conversion of Confucianism into a nation-wide religion. It was also said about the creation of an advisory body under the emperor, consisting of representatives elected by the population. This memorandum was ignored by the Qing government.

Supporters of Kang Yuwei, who had left for their native places of Beijing, began to create various reformist organizations - societies, clubs, scientific associations and schools. In addition, the patriotic upsurge brought to life many newspapers, magazines and journalistic literature of a liberal orientation.

At the end of 1897, a new wave of patriotic movement arose in China, caused by the Jiaozhuo events . The ensuing German capture of Jiao-Zhou caused deep indignation in the country. Kang Yuwei, who again arrived in the capital at that time, again engaged in active organizational and propaganda activities, leading the reform movement. At the end of December 1897, he wrote a large and passionate memorandum to the emperor (already the fifth in a row), in which he proposed to carry out reforms in the country, indicating three possible methods of action. None of the courtiers dared to hand this document to the emperor for fear of incurring severe repression, but he spread throughout the capital in manuscript copies and made Kang Yuwei the hero of the day. In the end, the head of the censorship college, Xu Shouhan, decided to hand over the memorandum to the emperor.

Having received no response to the fifth memorandum, Kang Yuwei decided that the reformers' attempt to win over the emperor and this time ended in failure. On the advice of friends, he was planning to leave the capital on January 10, 1898, and he had already handed over his luggage to the train when Wen Tonghe came to him and persuaded him to stay in Beijing and continue the fight, promising to take all measures to ensure the highest audience for Kang Yuwei.

Back in 1895, while reading the third memorandum of Kang Yuwei, the emperor handed it over to all provincial governors and was about to start implementing the reform program outlined by Kang Yuwei, but was forced to abandon his plans under pressure from the Dowager Empress Cixi. At the beginning of 1898, the situation was already favorable for the supporters of the reforms, and under their influence, the emperor ordered the Foreign Office to consider the question of Kang Yuwei's official business trip abroad. The members of the Foreign Affairs Chancellery agreed to personally hear Kang Yuwei before considering the matter of his business trip, and with the approval of the emperor, this hearing took place on January 24th. The next day, the meeting participants reported to the emperor about the conversation with Kang Yuwei. The emperor wanted to immediately appoint Kang Yuwei an audience, but Grand Duke Gong objected that Kang Yuwe should first be asked to express his views in writing in the form of a memorandum, and if what was written would be of interest, then only provide an audience. The emperor was forced to agree, and Kang Yuwei was ordered to write a memorandum; at the same time, the Foreign Affairs Chancellery was ordered to immediately immediately forward to the palace all the proposals that the Kang Yuwei throne would make.

The sixth memorandum was written by Kang Yuwei in a much less harsh tone than the previous ones, and contained mainly constructive proposals that amounted to establishing a constitutional monarchy (using the experience of Japan, Germany and the UK). As an official, Kang Yuwe transferred his sixth memorandum to the throne through his boss, the head of the order of public works of the reactionary Xu Yingkui. The latter, when meeting with Grand Duke Gung, sharply opposed the memorandum and its author, so the memorandum did not reach the emperor only on March 15, 1898, after a long walk around all the court instances.

After reviewing the memorandum, the emperor ordered that he be immediately transferred to the Foreign Office for discussion. Meanwhile, Kang Yuwei, outraged by the attitude of conservative officials to his proposals, sent the emperor another, already seventh, memorandum in February, to which he attached his Notes on the Reforms of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great.

In the spring of 1898, juzheni from all over China began to come to Beijing to participate in the next capital exams for the highest degree of Jinshi . Kang Yuwei decided to bring them to the side of the reform movement, and on April 12, 1898, the constituent assembly of the All-China Patriotic Reform Supporters Society “Baogohui” (“State Defense Union”) was held. Over 200 representatives of the scholar and service class of the capital came to this meeting, including censors and prominent dignitaries.

On May 29, 1898, Grand Duke Gong, chairman of the Supreme Imperial Council, died, having an extremely great influence on the court and government. Reform supporters met his death with great satisfaction, Kang Yuwei even wrote a special letter to Wen Tonghe on this occasion, urging him to urgently proceed with the planned reforms, taking advantage of the fact that the Conservative camp lost its leader.

On June 6, 1898, Kang Yuwei wrote another memorandum to the emperor, who sent Yichu Yichuan to the palace through the censor. To make sure that the memorandum reaches the addressee, Kang Yuwei wrote another copy and handed it to the emperor, the deputy head of the Hanlin Academy, Xu Zhujing. The memorandum passed through Xu Zhijing reached the emperor, and the latter, under the influence of the recent aggressive acts of foreign powers in China, decided to carry out reforms in the country.

Emperor is trying to take action.

On June 11, 1898 (the 23rd day of the 4th moon of the year yu-xu ), the emperor issued a decree announcing the beginning of reforms in the country. In order not to alarm and not alarm Cixi, he was drafted in very general terms and called only for transformations in the field of education, but he clearly emphasized the emperor’s determination to fight conservative dignitaries and put the question of the speediest implementation of reforms in the country on the agenda. On the same day, the emperor signed another decree, in which he appealed to all governors and governors of the provinces with a call to recommend the throne through the Foreign Affairs Office of talented and educated people who could be sent to diplomatic posts abroad.

On June 13, 1898, a decree was issued appointing Kang Yuwei and other leaders of the reform movement — Liang Qichao, Tan Sytong , Huang Zongxiang, and Zhang Yuanqi — to be the imperial audience. The audience was scheduled for June 16th. This decision of the emperor was not only contrary to customs (Kang Yuwei served as a clerk in the public works order and had only the sixth official rank, and the emperor could not accept dignitaries below the fourth rank), but it was also an open challenge to the conservative party. Cixi, taking advantage of the position of an elder of the ruling Manchu clan, immediately demanded that the emperor sign a decree on the immediate removal of Wen Tonghe from all his posts and his expulsion to the village (the reactionaries considered Weng Tonghe, a high-ranking official, to be the main inspirer of the reform movement, but in Kang Yuwei only a cabinet idealist scientist who has neither position nor connections). Yielding to the categorical demand of Cixi, the emperor was forced to issue the required decree on June 15. On the same day, at the insistence of Cixi, a decree was issued according to which all the highest dignitaries of the empire, when they were appointed, were obliged to continue to personally testify to the widow empress and to thank her for her mercies. Also on this day, Cixi achieved the appointment of her protege and relative Zhunlu to the post of governor of the province of Zhili and the actual commander of all the troops of the capital military district.

On June 16, Kang Yuwei was received by the emperor at his summer residence. This audience made a negative impression on Kang Yuwei, for it showed that the emperor was powerless to take any serious steps without the sanction of the dowager empress. Supporters of the reforms hoped that after an audience, Kang Yuwei would receive some responsible state post, but the emperor did not dare openly support and put forward such an odious figure. Kang Yuwei was only appointed secretary of the second class of the Supreme Imperial Council with a secondment to the Foreign Office, which was very painful for him.

Impressed by the meeting with Kang Yuwei, the emperor decided to cancel the examination essays in the " bagu " style. On June 17, he ordered the Foreign Affairs Chancellery to draft a corresponding decree, but a member of the Supreme Imperial Council, Ganyi, suggested that the matter be referred to the order of the ceremonies. Although the emperor rejected his offer, he was nevertheless forced to agree to preliminarily agree on the text of the decree with the dowager empress. Contrary to expectations, Cixi reacted favorably to the idea, and the decree was published on June 23.

The imperial decree on the abolition of works by the "bagu" style caused revival both in Beijing and throughout the empire. Proponents of reform took him as the first serious victory over the forces of the conservative camp. At the conservative camp, the decree was met with indignation. Kang Yuwei's friends, worried about his life, even persuaded him to hire permanent bodyguards.

Imperial decrees

During the "hundred days of reform" the emperor issued a large number of various decrees, the texts of which were written by participants in the reform movement. The most important of these were:

1. Decree of June 11 on the main political course of the state, the implementation of reforms and the opening of the capital's university to raise education in China to the level of European countries.
2. Decree of June 20 urgent consideration of proposals for the promotion of crafts, science and agriculture, as well as the opening of mountain schools in various parts of the country.
3. Decree of June 23 to abolish essays in the "bagu" style at state exams.
4. Decree of June 26 on the construction of the Beijing-Hankow, Hankow-Guangzhou and Nanjing-Shanghai railways.
5. Decree of June 27 to consider the issue of retraining and rearming the Beijing garrison troops on a foreign model.
6. Decree of June 30 on the abolition of essays by the "bagu" style at school and county exams
7. Decree of July 3 on the metropolitan university
8. Decree of July 4 on the promotion of scientific methods of farming, the application of European agricultural science, cultivation of empty land, translation and study of foreign books on agriculture.
9. Decree of July 5 on the promotion of invention and scientific discoveries to promote the development of Chinese industry, trade and agriculture, on the granting of patents for inventions, on the encouragement of private schools, on the development of marginal and uncultivated land and on the construction of arms factories and arsenals
10. Decree of July 5 to consider the reform of military exams.
11. Decree of July 9 on the reorganization of the army into a foreign model and arming it with modern quick-fire weapons.
12. Decree of July 10 on the reorganization of school affairs in the provinces.
13. Decree of July 13 on the introduction of political and economic examinations in order to improve the training of administrative and economic personnel.
14. Decree of July 14 on trade promotion and stern warning to officials harassing merchants and taking illegal bans from them.
15. Decree of July 15 on reducing the cost of maintaining the army, on clearing personnel lists of “dead souls”, and creating local self-defense units.
16. Decree of July 19, approving proposals for changing the state examination programs in order to ensure a high level of practical knowledge among students and their understanding of the current political situation in China and abroad.
17. Decree of July 27 on urgent tidying up of state-owned bread and food warehouses.
18. Decree of July 29 on the publication in all institutions of revised collections of historical precedents to streamline and speed up the parsing of cases and to exclude all obscure and outdated examples.
19. Decree of August 2 on the establishment in Beijing of the central departments of coal mines and railways.
20. Decree of August 2 on allowing officials of all ranks and representatives of the scientist and other classes to freely and unimpededly submit memoranda to the emperor.
21. Decree of August 2 on the promotion of agriculture, borrowing of foreign agrotechnical methods and machines and on the promotion of trade.
22. Decree of August 4 on the opening of five secondary schools in Beijing to prepare young people for entrance exams at the capital's university.
23. Decree of August 6 on the establishment of schools for children of Chinese immigrants in the port cities of Great Britain, the USA and Japan.
24. Decree of August 16 on the urgent translation of foreign books into Chinese
25. Decree of August 21 on the establishment in Beijing of the main department for agriculture, industry and trade and the opening of branches of this department in all provinces.
26. Decree of August 30 on the abolition of certain posts and inactive and unnecessary administrative institutions at the palace and in the government and on the reduction of staff in government institutions.
27. Decree of August 30 on the promotion of local tea, silk, hemp, etc. industries
28. Decree of September 5 on urgent measures to improve the capital, repair of streets, sewers, etc.
29. Decree of September 5 on the formation of a territorial army like the armies of European countries.
30. Decree of September 7 on the promotion of those heads of counties and districts who are closest to communicate with the people and know all their needs.
31. Decree of September 8 on assistance to the population in barren areas through the organization of public works according to the Western model.
32. Decree of September 8 on the construction and purchase of steam engines and the promotion of the benefits of machinery.
33. Decree of September 9 on the establishment of the Medical Institute in Beijing.
34. Указ от 10 сентября о развитии горнорудного дела в провинции Сычуань.
35. Указ от 10 сентября о строительстве железной дороги между Пекином и угольными копями Мэнтоугоу.
36. Указ от 12 сентября о передаче на рассмотрение верховного императорского совета вопроса о замене натурального налога денежным
37. Указ от 12 сентября о подготовке к повсеместному открытию отделений почты и телеграфа
38. Указ от 13 сентября о рассмотрении проекта введения государственных экзаменов по сельскохозяйственным наукам.
39. Указ от 14 сентября о пересмотре статуса « знамённых людей » и подготовке закона, разрешающего маньчжурам заниматься торговлей и ремёслами.
40. Указ от 14 сентября об упразднении войск по охране перевозок риса по Императорскому каналу и передаче казне ранее приписанных к этим войскам земель вдоль канала.
41. Указ от 16 сентября о разработке и публикации государственного бюджета и его исполнения.
42. Указ от 19 сентября об издании канцелярией по иностранным делам сборника торговых договоров с иностранными государствами.

Многим из этих реформ так и не суждено было претвориться в жизнь из-за решительного сопротивления сторонников старых порядков.

Борьба между реформаторами и консерваторами

Встреча с Кан Ювэем укрепила императора в стремлении упрочить свою власть во дворце и правительстве и проводить некоторые реформы, поэтому непосредственно после издания указа о направлении государственной политики он приблизил к себе сторонников реформ и назначил их в различные правительственные учреждения. В результате во многих столичных учреждениях стали создаваться многочисленные группы сторонников преобразований, которые начали понемногу оттеснять на задний план старых консервативных сановников, получая задания непосредственно от императора.

Увольнение большого количества чиновников всех рангов вызвало среди консервативной бюрократии всей страны огромное недовольство императором и стоящими за его спиной реформаторами. В связи с усилившимся саботажем правительственных распоряжений со стороны некоторых крупных сановников в столице, император 1 сентября издал указ о тщательном расследовании поведения глав приказа церемоний маньчжура Хуайтабу и китайца Сюй Инкуя, а также других лиц, занимающих руководящие должности в этом приказе. 4 сентября императором было объявлено о суровом наказании руководителей приказа церемоний за нарушение ими императорского указа, даровавшего всем подданным империи право беспрепятственно обращаться к императору с меморандумами. Хуайтабу, Сюй Инкуй, а также все четыре их заместителя были сняты с занимаемых должностей и разжалованы; на их место император поставил сторонников преобразований. Ввиду того, что право назначения высших сановников было узурпировано Цыси, император был вынужден сделать своих назначенцев лишь временно исполняющими обязанности.

On September 5, the emperor signed an official decree according to which Tan Sytong, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi, and Lin Xu were declared "dignitaries specially assigned to the emperor’s person, participating in a new policy" with the rank of dignitaries of the fourth degree. In this way, a peculiar “inner cabinet” was formed, through which all memoranda received from the capital and provincial institutions and individual dignitaries and officials passed to the palace. Kang Yuwei remained in the shadows, but directed the activities of his students and like-minded people.

The dismissal and demotion of the highest dignitaries from the order of the ceremonies plunged the conservatives into a state of complete confusion: no one expected such decisiveness and courage from the weak-willed emperor. All opponents of the transformation realized that at any moment they could suffer the same fate. The palace coup began to quickly mature.

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  Liang Qichao

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  Tan Sytun

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  Lin Xu

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  Liu Guangdie

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  Yang Shaanxu

Reform preparations for the military coup

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Kang Yuwei came to the conclusion that the reformers would not be able to implement their plans without engaging the army. Starting from the first days of September, he sent daily to the emperor memoranda in which he urgently proposed the creation of the imperial guard, to include in it all the troops loyal to the emperor and to appoint supporters of the reforms to officer posts; Considering the dominance of conservatives and the influence of the Dowager Empress in Beijing, as well as the sabotage of the capital bureaucracy, Kang Yuwe advised the emperor to urgently transfer the capital to the south. The emperor agreed in principle with these proposals, especially endorsing the idea of ​​creating support in the army. The reformers considered it possible to take advantage of the Chinese general Yuan Shikai , who had been at the military-diplomatic work in Korea for a long time, was well versed in foreign policy issues, and at one time even advocated some reforms in the country.

September 14, 1898 Yuan Shikai arrived in Beijing, and on the same day was received by the emperor in the summer palace. On September 16, the emperor issued a special decree marking the merits of Yuan Shikai, who was appointed special dignitary for military training. Yuan Shikai was granted the rank of deputy head of the order, he was given the right to directly address the emperor with a report. He, as before, remained the commander of the Beiyang Army corps, but was freed from direct control by Zhonglu.

On September 18, Kang Yuwei received a secret letter from the emperor instructing him to urgently leave for Shanghai in order to escape from the threat from the conservatives. He immediately gathered the leaders of the “Union for the Defense of the State” in his apartment, and discussed with them the question of combating Cixi and the conservatives led by her. At the meeting, it was decided to send Tan Sytong to Yuan Shikai in order to persuade him to an armed uprising. When Tan Sytong handed over to Yuan Shikai a developed action plan for the arrest of conservative leaders in Beijing, he expressed concern that the conspiracy might be prematurely disclosed if he begins to transfer his troops to Beijing from under Tianjin . Therefore, Yuan Shikai suggested postponing the speech until the imperial review of troops scheduled for October in Tianjin, during which the emperor had to take refuge in the barracks of the Yuan Shikai troops and order the execution of all conservatives as rebels.

Conservative War Coup Preparation

On September 5, a group of conservative dignitaries, led by Huaitibu and Li Shan, left Beijing for Tianjin, where Zhunlu was with his troops. There, together with Zhonglu, they developed a plan for a palace coup and removal of the emperor from the throne during the imperial review of the troops of the Bayan Army in October in Tianjin. Returning to Beijing, Huaitibu and Li Shan led vigorous agitation among the Manchu dignitaries and military leaders, incline them to a palace coup. At the direction of Junlu, the censor Yang Chuni wrote a lengthy memorandum addressed to Cixi, in which he accused the emperor of pro-Chinese sympathies and betrayal of the ancestral covenants, and asked Cixi to take the reins in his hands, removing the emperor from power. Yang Chuni also handed over a letter from Jungle to Grand Duke Qing , who supported the plan of the palace coup.

On September 17, Yang Chuni arrived at the summer palace and handed Cixi his memorandum requesting the restoration of the regency. Even before him, Cixi was visited by Grand Duke Qing and the chief eunuch Li Lianying, who also recommended that she take control and establish guardianship over the emperor. Similar proposals were made to Cixi Huaitibu and Li Shan, who reported that the emperor allegedly established contacts with foreign missions in Beijing in order to enlist the support of the great powers and arrest the widowed empress.

Upon learning that the emperor summoned Yuan Shikai to Beijing and appointed him to a new responsible post, Zhonglu immediately took a series of measures to prevent the emperor from using the Yuan Shikai troops. While Yuan Shikai was waiting for an audience, Zhonglu ordered the transfer of General Nie Shicheng's army to Tianjin; at the same time, Zhonglu summoned the troops of General Dong Fuxiang to the capital to strengthen the Beijing garrison. Not content with this, Zhonglu sent three telegrams from Tianjin to the Foreign Affairs Chancellery, in which he reportedly allegedly started hostilities in the Khunchun area between the Russians and the British, and that seven English ships appeared at the port of Tanggu . Due to the tense situation, Zhonglu demanded the immediate return of Yuan Shikai to organize coastal defense.

On the basis of these telegrams, dignitaries from the Foreign Affairs Chancellery formally appealed to the emperor asking Yuan Shikai to be released to his troops in Xiaochzhan. The emperor firmly decided by this time to use Yuan Shikai and his army to eliminate Zhunlu and other conservatives, and therefore, having ordered (through Tan Sytun) Yuan Shikai to kill Zhunlu, the emperor sent him to Tianjin immediately after an audience in the palace.

Palace Coup September 21

On September 20 afternoon, Yuan Shikai arrived in Tianjin and immediately gave Zhonglu the plans of the emperor and the reformers. Cixi immediately informed Zhonglu by telegraph, and on September 21 he left for Beijing with a detachment of reliable troops, formally leaving Yuan Shikai instead of himself in Tianjin, but entrusting General Ne Shicheng with secret surveillance of him. Having received a telegram from Zhunlu, Cixi arrested the emperor and his loyal officers and soldiers from his personal guard, as well as eunuchs from his harem, with the help of the Manchu Palace Guard. Immediately after the arrest of the emperor, Cixi took the imperial seal from him, and on the same day issued a decree on behalf of the emperor on the transfer of power to herself.

On the same day, arrests of reform supporters began. Telegrams were sent to Tianjin and Shanghai stating that the emperor allegedly died by taking the pills brought by Kang Yuwei and demanding to immediately arrest Kang Yuwei as the killer of the emperor and execute him on the spot. Kang Yuwei managed to take refuge in Hong Kong , Liang Qichao and Wang Zhao fled to Japan, but Tan Sytong flatly refused to leave Beijing.

The reformers arrested on September 24 in Beijing were held in solitary confinement for three days without interrogation. At 2 a.m. on September 27, members of the Supreme Imperial Council were supposed to start interrogating them, but as soon as the identification of those arrested began, they received orders from the palace to immediately execute them, not only without trial, but even without interrogation.

At dawn on September 28, 1898, Tan Sytong, Liu Guangdi, Yang Rui, Kang Yupu, Lin Xu, and Yang Shaanxiu were executed on Tsai Shikou Square. Following their execution, the government hastened to kill the rest of the prominent reform supporters without trial.

The imperial decree of September 1, 1898 commanded that all books ever written by Kang Yuwei be burned as "heretical, containing a call to rebellion and directed against the sacred doctrines of the sages of antiquity." At the same time, all local authorities were charged with destroying the printing boards and the set of books by Kang Yuwei. A huge reward was awarded for the capture of Kang Yuwei, Liang Qichao and Wang Zhao.

Cixi canceled the overwhelming majority of decrees issued by the emperor during the "hundred days", and returned to the service of all opponents of reform dismissed by the emperor. All previously abolished court and government institutions were restored, the old order of submitting memoranda to the throne was introduced, the transfer of temples and monasteries to schools was prohibited, as well as the organization of schools to study Western sciences.

The imperial decree of October 9 again introduced tests on the style of “bug” at state exams and abolished the so-called “economic exams”. By two other decrees of the same date, the department of agriculture, trade and industry was abolished and all newspapers of the reformers were closed, their editors were subject to arrest. On November 1, a decree was issued introducing the old military exam system.

In order to protect themselves from the possibility of the emperor returning to the throne, Cixi and her entourage decided to physically destroy him. In a special decree dated September 25, issued on behalf of the emperor, it was said that since June (that is, since the beginning of the political reforms) he, the emperor, had felt unwell, and due to the fact that since then he had not been observed in his state of health improvements, all dignitaries of the empire were invited to recommend the emperor experienced and skilled doctors. But since there was great disagreement among the Manchu nobility on the question of choosing a successor, and due to serious discontent in the large provinces with the execution of six reformers and the palace coup, Cixi was forced to save the emperor's life, but continued to support rumors of his serious illness. The emperor was kept under vigilant guard on Yingtai Island in the middle of Nanhai Lake inside the Forbidden City .

Reprisals against reform supporters provoked widespread indignation of the Chinese bourgeoisie. In some port cities, dissatisfaction with the policy of the yard caused such a size that local authorities were forced to report this to Beijing. Leading dignitaries recommended to refrain from physically eliminating the emperor and transferring the throne to a new, young emperor, as this would adversely affect both the domestic and foreign political situation of the country. To calm public opinion, Cixi was forced to repeatedly emphasize that the court and the government would no longer persecute proponents of reform.

Of all the major undertakings of supporters of Kang Yuwei, Cixi retained only the program of military reform: in October 1898, the formation of four modernized corps began on the basis of the troops of Ne Shicheng, Yuan Shikai, Song Qing and Dong Fusyan. In addition, in December 1898, Cixi defiantly opened Peking University , conceived by the reformers, as if demonstrating that it was not alien to progress. Nevertheless, after the September coup of 1898, the reformist movement in the Qing elites practically came to naught. The growth of the response of the anti-reformist reaction resulted in the Yihetuan rebellion .

• "History of China", ed. A. V. Meliksetov - Moscow: MSU Publishing House, 2002. ISBN 5-211-04413-4
• O. E. Nepomnin “History of China: The Qing Era. XVII - the beginning of the XX century ”- Moscow:“ Oriental literature ”, 2005. ISBN 5-02-018400-4
• S. L. Tikhvinsky “Selected Works” in 5 books. Book 1 “The History of China until the 20th Century: The Movement for Reforms in China at the End of the 19th Century and Kang Yuwei” - Moscow: Nauka, 2006. ISBN 5-02-035003-6