Re-discussion On The Reasons For The Failure Of Constitutionalism In The Late Qing Dynasty

As the third major reform after the Self-Strengthening Movement and the Hundred Days' Reform in the late Qing Dynasty,the Constitutional Movement still ended in failure with the demise of the Qing Dynasty.When exploring the reasons for the failure of the Constitutional Movement in the late Qing Dynasty,later generations often proceed from analyzing the subjective purpose of the Qing government to promote constitutional movement.They believe that there was a strong instrumentalism in the Constitutional Movement that the Qing Dynasty intended to develop economy and military,prop itself up,and strengthen centralization of power by the Constitutional Movement.The transcendental value of constitutionalism was neglected.So the complete failure of constitutionalism was inevitable.What's more,someone think the Constitutional Movement as a scam.They believe that the Qing government did not intend to really promote constitutionalism from the beginning,but only used it as a means of delaying the revolution.The real purpose is to maintain its decadent rule.The author of this article believes that all fo these views are biased.Various historical materials show that the superstructure of the Qing government really believed that the Constitutional Movement benefited for itself,so the Constitutional Movement can not be a scam.If we combine the era backgrounds,we can find that the "instrumentalism" itself is understandable.The historical theme of modern China was "national salvation",so any value which left this point will not be supported by the Chinese.This article traces the whole process of the Constitutional Movement in the late Qing Dynasty and reveals that the Qing government followed the example of Japan when it promoted the Constitutional Movement.Then it compares the first article of the the Outline of Imperial Constitution and the Constitution of Great Japanese Empire.It points out that the Qing government blindly copied the wording of the Constitution of Great Japanese Empire that the emperor of Japan "has reigned since time immemorial".But the huge differences of the traditional political culture between China and Japan was ignored.Ulike the emperor of Japan,there were frequent changes of dynasties in ancient China.The emperor of China can not play the role of the basic shaft of the country like the emperor of Japan.So the Outline of Imperial Constitution led to the criticism because of the violation of the reality and the legitimacy of the Qing government's rule has been more questioned.All of this lay the foundation for the Qing Dynasty's destruction.