A Study On The Political Choices Of Chen Baochen In His Later Years

Chen Baochen was not only a statesman,an educator,a book collector and a poet in modern China but also the teacher whom the last Qing emperor Pu Yi trusted and respected.Chen Baochen went through a series of major political events in his later years,such as the dispute over rites and law,the preparations for constitutionalism,the Revolution of 1911,imperial restoration,the warlord period,the deportation of Pu Yi from the palace,the Mukden incident,and the establishment of “Manchukuo”,etc..During the transition period of mordern China,Chen’s political choices and activities exerted a certain influence on the political landscape,which made him a praiseworthy historical figure among the adherents to the Qing Dynasty.Chen Baochen was born in a family of high officials.Thanks to his character,patriotism and academic performance,Chen was deemed as a child prodigy early on.In the prime of his youth ath the Imperial Academy,Chen,Zhang Zhidong and their followers were known as the “Qingliu Group”,who dared to defy and say no to political powers.Chen adovated that stricter discipline should be exercised and the nation should rise up and ward off invaders.However,due to a false accusation,he was demoted and exile back to his hometown.It proved to be a blessing in disguise as he devoted himself to the promotion of the new educational reform and raised money to build the very first Chinese-run railway in Fujian.In the first year of the reign of Xuantong(1909),Chen,advanced in age as he was,was faced with the first important choice in his life.To pledge his loyalty to the royal family and fulfil his ambition of serving the country,Chen chose to safeguard the rule of rites,to support constitutionalism,and to return to the imperial court as the teacher of the last emperor.After the Revolution of 1911,Chen again was forced to make a second choice.Confined by his emotional attachment to his student and the loyalty to the emperor,Chen decided to remain in office and become the “only consultant” to Pu Yi,committing himself to turn the latter into the “King of a thriving dynasty”.In the time of “Beijing Coup” in 1924 when Puyi was forced to leave the palace,Chen faced a third choice.Chen chose not to leave Pu Yi out of the bond between the monarch and his subjects,and tried to restore the emperor back to the palace.Later,the influence of Chen on Pu Yi became weaker and weaker as his passion for restoration dampened.After the Mukden Incident,Chen was confronted with a fourth and the hardest choice.He was stubbornly opposed that Pu Yi go and seek refuge with the Japanese for restoration.After the establishment of Manchukuo,Chen quit office but did not severe the tie with Pu Yi,giving secret advice and providing consulting services to him.Therefore,there were mixed opinions about his life either among his contemporaries or the generations to come.In his later years,Chen Baochen was confined to the thought of loyalty to the throne and serving the country.Chen was caught in the dillema of being both a conservative and a progressive.To be more specific,he was both a progressive fettered by his loyalty to the throne and a conservative who was against constitutionalism.After the Revolution of1911,he helped restore the monarch for restoration’s and there was no trace of statecraft.However,he put the sense of national honor above everything else and maintained his integrity alone after the Manchu Restoration.As an aging offficial well versed in the Confucian culture of loyalty and filial piety,Chen Baochen strived to achieve the impossible and was ready to die for ideal.Chen’s rich political experience and complex mindset is,to a certain degree,also a showcase of the historical evolution differentiation of the mindset of traditional offcial scholars in face saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival in modern China.