Thought Evolution Of Public Opinion At The Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of China

The Chinese society at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,with "Big changes that thousands of years haven't seen" stirring people,new things and new ideas gradually came into the country,including modern press.Modern press introduced to China by the missionaries first,then people gradually recognized it,with the early journalists taking activities and the development of press,modern public opinion which related to early modern press closely began to ferment,and with the theme of the era of saving the country,also with transformation of politics and ideology in China,it developed gradually.This paper mainly focused on the activities of press at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,studied object's idea of public opinion,and explored the formation and evolution of modern public opinion after emerging of modern press.In addition to introduction and epilogue,this paper was divided into four parts,studied the idea of public opinion of three times at late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China respectively.At last,made a summary of public opinion evolution during this period.The first chapter of this article mainly discussed the idea of public opinion in the early stage of the rise of modern press in the late Qing Dynasty.From the decline of Qingyi to the modern public opinion,the modern press played a major role.At the end of the Qing Dynasty,"Big changes that thousands of years haven't seen" promoted the traditional scholar identity changed,becoming the modern intellectuals,them who standing between traditional and modern established a vague public opinion from the press practice and idea.This chapter mainly studied the public opinion ideas of Chen Chi,Zheng Guanying and Wang Tao,and focused on the public opinion view of Wang Tao.The paper discovered that the idea of public opinion was based on the traditional"Monarchical power" and took "people-centered" ideology as the core,which was still within the framework of the traditional Chinese public opinion,because they began to realize the role of press in public opinion,it can be regarded as a step towards the transformation of the traditional idea of public opinion to modern idea public opinion.The second chapter mainly explored the idea of public opinion of bourgeois reformists before and after the Reform Movement of 1898.The bourgeois reformists,as an important historical group in modern China,they had experienced the early public opinion enlightenment.The idea of public opinion in this period had gradually matured,and because of need of political change,they pursued more practical,and required service in practice.This chapter mainly studied Yan Fu,Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao's idea of public opinion,which focused on Liang Qichao' s idea of public opinion.It was concluded that Liang Qichao's idea of public opinion based on the idea of "civil rights,,it means that Chinese traditional public opinion had advanced a crucial step to modern.In the third chapter,the paper studied public opinion of the bourgeois revolutionaries,after bourgeois revolutionaries boarded the history stage,the radical revolutionary thoughts released a huge energy,the idea of public opinion was more advanced than the reformers.They paid more attention to the political and instrumental demands of public opinion,the need of "regime" had become the main starting point of their public opinion.This chapter mainly inspected Zhang Taiyan,Yu Youren and Sun Yat-sen's idea of public opinion,with Sun Yat-sen's public opinion as the focus.The study found that the political function of public opinion reached its peak during this period,and in the later period,public opinion was paid more and more attention.The last chapter of this paper made a carding and summarizing of the change of public opinion idea at the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China.First of all,it examined the changes of public opinion in different periods,including the main body of public opinion,the object of public opinion and public opinion itself.Secondly,it explored the changes of public opinion function,including the political function and supervision function of public opinion.At last,it studied the change of attitude of public opinion,and explored the changes in public opinion from the promotion of "sound public opinion" to propagating the "faith".