Re-Defining the Late Qing Revolution: Its Continuity with the Taiping Rebellion, Radical Student Politics and Larger Global Context

摘要

Studies in recent decades conducted from the angle of provincial-level local self-government have done much to help relativize narratives of the 1911 Revolution in China that emphasize the importance of armed uprisings.However,these endeavors still have room to locate the revolution within a global context and to understand its implications as a revolution conducted through the conduits of culture and thought.More importantly,these existing studies are also insufficient in terms of viewing the Late Qing Revolution through a longer time span to see the Revolution as the new development and continuity of a much longer revolution that began with the Taiping Rebellion (1851-64).The Taiping Rebellion substantially weakened the rule of the Qing court.In other words,this author regards the Late Qing Revolution as a part of the long revolution starting from the outbreak of the Taiping 1Rebellion.Through this analysis,the author demonstrates how the Late Qing Revolution was comprised of three key components:armed uprisings,self-government movements,and finally,a revolution through words and culture including the student movements at home and in Tokyo.It argues that,to a certain degree,it is the Taiping Rebellion that made the Revolution successful in a relatively pacifistic way,and that,in particular,made possible the non-violent revolutions of self-government and the revolution through words and culture.