The first dramatic gesture in the direction of constitutional reform was made by the empress dowager Cixi in 1905, when she ordered the formation of a small study group of five princes and officials — three Manchus and two Chinese — who would travel to Japan, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Italy to study their governments. ... Upon returning to China, it recommended to the empress dowager that some kind of constitutional reform be implemented and suggested Japan as the most effective model, since there the reigning imperial family had been maintained in power. In November 1906 the empress dowager issued an edict promising to prepare a constitution and reform the administrative structure of China by reshaping the existing ministries and adding new ones, by curbing the powers of the governors-general, and by convening a national assembly. It was only eight years since Emperor Guangxu and his supporters had been prevented from pushing through much milder reforms, but the crisis was now so clear that the empress dowager’s decision was widely accepted by both Manchu and Chinese officials. (SMC, 235)

Tongmeng Hui Revolutionary Proclamation of 1907   By 1905, nearly ten thousand Chinese students, most of them studying law or military subjects, were enrolled in Japanese institutions of higher learning. Confronted with the dramatic proof of Japan's success as a modernizing nation, many Chinese students felt great disillusionment with the Qing government's haphazard steps toward reform. The political activism of these students was stimulated by the presence of seasoned revolutionarieslike Sun Yat-sen, who had been forced to seek asylum in Japan after violent protests against the Qing state.        In the fall of 1905, the merger of radical student groups established the Revolutionary Alliance (Zhonghua Tongmeng hui), with Sun Yat-sen as its leaeder. With its headquarters in Tokyo and branches in the Chinese communities of Singapore, Saigon, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Chicago, the alliance probably comprised some one thousand members in its first year of existence. ...     Since the beginning of China as a nation, we Chinese have governed our own country despite occasional interruptions. When China was occasionally occupied by a foreign race, our ancestors could always in the end drive these foreigners out, restore the fatherland, and preserve China for future generations of Chinese. Today when we raise the righteous standard of revolt in order to expel an alien race that has been occupying China, we are doing no more than our ancestors have done or expected us to do. Justice is so much on our side that all Chinese, once familiarizing themselves with our stand, will have no doubt about the righteousness of our cause.     There is a difference, however, between our revolution and the revolutions of our ancestors. The purpose of past revolutions, such as those conducted by the Mings and the Taipings, was to restore China to the Chinese, and nothing else. We, on the other hand, strive not only to expel the ruling aliens and thus restore China to the Chinese but also to change basically the political and economic structure of our country. While we cannot describe in detail this new political and economic structure since so much is involved, the basic principle behind it is liberty, equality, and fraternity. The revolutions of yesterday were revolutions by and for the heroes; our revolution, on the other hand, is a revolution by and for the people. In a people’s revolution everyone who believes in the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity has an obligation to participate in it, and the Military Government is merely the means whereby he can fulfill this revolutionary obligation. In short, the responsibility of the people and the responsibility of the Military Government are one and the same, and the accomplishments of the Military Government are also the accomplishments of the people. Only when they cooperate fully with each other can our revolutionary goal be attained.        At this juncture we wish to express candidly and fully how to make our revolution today and how to govern our country tomorrow. 1. Expulsion of the Manchus from China. The Manchus of today were known as the Eastern Barbarians (Donghu) during bygone years. Toward the end of the Ming dynasty they repeatedly invaded our border areas and caused great difficulties. Then, taking advantage of the chaotic situation in China, they marched southward and forcibly occupied our country. They compelled all Chinese to become their slaves, and those who did not wish to subjugate themselves were slaughtered, numbering millions. In fact, we Chinese have not had a country for the past two hundred and sixty years. Now that the day has finally arrived when the brutal and evil rule by the Manchus must come to an end, we do not expect much resistance when our righteous army begins to move. We shall quickly overthrow the Manchu government so as to restore the sovereignty of China to the Chinese. All the soldiers on the Manchu side, whether they are Manchus or Chinese, will be pardoned despite their past crimes if they express repentance and surrender. If they choose to resist the people’s army, they will be killed without mercy. The same can be also said about the Chinese who have collaborated with the Manchu government as traitors.   2. Restoration of China to the Chinese. China belongs to the Chinese who have the right to govern themselves. After the Manchus are expelled from China, we will have a national government of our own. Those who choose to follow the example of Shi Jingtang and Wu Sangui will be crushed.   3. Establishment of a Republic. Since one of the principles of our revolution is equality, we intend to establish a republic when we succeed in overthrowing the Manchu regime. In a republic all citizens will have the right to participate in the government, the president of the republic will be elected by the people, and the parliament will have deputies elected by and responsible to their respective constituents. A constitution of the Chinese Republic will then be formulated, to be observed by all Chinese. Anyone who entertains the thought of becoming an emperor will be crushed without mercy.   4. Equalization of landownership. The social and economic structure of China must be so reconstructed that the fruits of labor will be shared by all Chinese on an equal basis. Every tract of land in China must be assessed to determine its fair value in monetary terms, and this value belongs of course, to the landowner. Any added value, which results from social progress after the revolution, will, however, belong to the nation as a whole and must be shared by all Chinese. The ultimate goal of a responsible society is the guarantee of a satisfactory livelihood for all of its members and everyone, whomever he happens to be, shall have his own means of support, via gainful employment or some other source. Anyone who attempts to monopolize the livelihood of others will be ostracized. To attain the four goals as outlined above, we propose a procedure of three stages. ... [During the first stage, which should not last more than three years,] the Military Government, in cooperation with the people, will eradicate all the abuses of the past; with the arrival of the second stage the Military Government will hand over local administration to the people while reserving for itself the right of jurisdiction over all matters that concern the nation as a whole; during the third or final stage [to be established six years after the nation has been pacified] the Military Government will cease to exist and all governmental power will be invested in organs as prescribed in a national constitution. (DC, 187-90)   The Three Principles of the People Nationalism, Democracy, Livelihood   People’s Nationalism 民族主義 What is the standing of our nation in the world? In comparison with other nations we have the greatest population and the oldest culture, of four thousand years’ duration. We ought to be advancing in line with the nations of Europe and America. But the Chinese people have only family and clan groups; there is no national spirit. ... We are the poorest and weakest state in the world, occupying the lowest position in international affairs; the rest of mankind is the carving knife and the serving dish, while we are the fish and the meat. Our position is now extremely perilous. (China: Its History and Culture, 178)   People’s Democracy 民權主義 If we now want to combine the best from China and the best from other countries and guard against all kinds of abuse in the future, we must take the three Western governmental powers — the executive, legislative and judicial; add to them the old Chinese powers of examination and censorship and make a finished wall, a quintuple-power government. Such a government will be the most complete and the finest in the world, and a state with such a government will indeed be of the people, by the people and for the people. (China: Its History and Culture, 178)   People’s Livelihood 民生主義 What are the real conditions among Chinese farmers? Although China does not have great landowners, yet nine out of ten farmers do not own their own fields. Most of the farming land is in the possession of landlords who do not do the cultivating themselves. ... We must immediately use government and law to remedy this grave situation. Unless we can solve the agrarian problem, there will be no solution for the livelihood problem. Of the food produced in the fields, sixty percent, according to our latest rural surveys, goes to the landlord, while only forty percent goes to the farmer. If this unjust state of affairs continues, when the farmers become intelligent, who will still be willing to toil and suffer in the fields? ... If we apply the People’s Livelihood principle we must make the aim of food production not profit but the provision of sustenance for all the people. ... The fundamental difference, then, between the Principle of Livelihood and capitalism is this: capitalism makes profit its sole aim, while the Principle of Livelihood makes the nurture of the people its aim. With such a noble principle we can destroy the old, evil capitalistic system. (China: Its History and Culture, 178-9)

The Xinhai Revolution The specific series of events that led to the fall of the two-and-a-half-centuries-old Qing dynasty was triggered by an accidental bomb explosion in Hankou, one of the three cities that composed the area of Wuhan, on October 9, 1911. This explosion might well have remained an isolated and forgotten incident, however, had it not been for the general agitation over constitutionalism, railways, the armies, Manchu power, and foreign encroachments. ... The explosion of October 9 occurred while a group of [New Army] revolutionaries were making bombs at their meetinghouse in the Russian Concession area of Hankou. Like earlier anti-Qing agitators in Shanghai, they had learned that the institutions of foreign imperialism could afford a measure of protection from Qing police, but on this occasion the size of the explosion brought the Russian authorities to investigate. As the most seriously injured conspirators were rushed to the hospital by their comrades, the Qing investigators who had been alerted by the Russians raided the headquarters and found three other revolutionaries, who were executed immediately. They also obtained the membership registers of the soldiers and others enrolled in the revolutionary societies. The revolutionaries understood that unless they could launch an uprising rapidly, their organization would be unraveled and many more members would lose their lives. (SMC, 249-50) Events now moved too swiftly to be controlled by any individual or political party. On October 22, 1911, the New Army mutinied in both Shaanxi and Hunan provinces; in the Shaanxi capital of Xi’an, large numbers of Manchus were massacred, and in Changsha, commanders loyal to the Qing were killed. In both cases the leading members of the provincial assemblies expressed their support for the revolution. During the last week of October, three other provinces rose against the Manchus. ...   At the end of October, a senior northern general rebuffed the Qing order that he lead his troops south by rail, instead joining with a number of other field commanders and issuing a circular telegram of twelve demands to the Qing court. The critical demands were to establish a parliament within the year, to promulgate a constitution through that same parliament, to elect a premier and have him ratified by the emperor, to deny the emperor all rights of summary execution of criminals, to declare a general amnesty for all political offenders, to forbid members of the Manchu imperial clan from serving as cabinet ministers, and to have the parliament review all international treaties before they were approved by the emperor.   Within a week the Qing court had complied with most of these demands. ... These developments were clearly moving China toward a constitutional monarchy under Manchu direction — the kind so long advocated by Kang Youwei and his supporters — rather than toward the republican form of government central to the demands of Sun Yat-sen and the Revolutionary Alliance. (SMC, 252)