Public Opinion And Yuan Shikai’s Political Fate In The Early Republic Of China

Public opinion is the concentrated reflection of the group’s will,and has the guiding role of changing the situation.In the early years of the Republic of China,public opinion has a close relationship with Yuan Shikai’s political fate,and has a profound impact on the development trend of national politics in this period.The influence of public opinion on Yuan Shikai can be traced back to the end of the Qing Dynasty.The incident of foot disease and opening up a vacancy,that is,the royal family headed by Zaifeng was obstructed by public opinion when they continued the New Deal of the late Qing Dynasty and strengthened the centralization of power to weaken his power.After the return of 1911,Yuan Shikai successfully carried out the Peace Talk between South and North by conforming to the public opinion of Pro Yuan Republican of the Democratic Party.However,due to the limitation of the existing political identity,there is in fact the problem of the lack of political discourse,which leads to many contradictions.In order to make up for this deficiency,Yuan Shikai took many measures in the early years of the Republic of China.After promoting the abdication of the Qing emperor,Yuan Shikai constantly emphasized his political status,and in the early years of the Republic of China,in order to reshape his political discourse,he not only won wide support of public opinion by showing favor to the leaders of the Democratic Party,but also used the political attitude of the Democratic Party and social public opinion to achieve the purpose of abolishing the people’s army and confrontation between the two parties in Congress.The fundamental purpose of Yuan Shikai’s remolding political discourse power with the help of public opinion is not to promote the development of democratic politics,but to improve his political prestige and then to control the political power.The Democratic Party is not vigilant enough.Moreover,after the "Song case",the "Second Revolution" launched against public opinion quickly failed,and his power constraints almost no longer exist.In the face of the Republican system that hindered his pursuit of personal power,Yuan Shikai reconstructed his political discourse system by setting up a new constitution and other means,and then won the recognition of public opinion by highlighting his personal political status.His behavior escaped from the original Republican political category in the early Republic of China and showed the alienation of personal totalitarianism.With the continuous development of his authoritarian rule,Yuan Shikai no longer had too much scruples about the constraints of public opinion,and began to restore affairs.The imperial public opinion was rampant,and gradually interacted with Yuan Shikai’s regime.The internal division of Beiyang Group became more and more obvious,and the centrifugal trend was strengthened.At the same time,in order to ensure the smooth progress of the restoration,he strengthened the control and guidance of social public opinion from the aspects of political parties,newspapers and the Qing Dynasty,and achieved certain results.However,in the process of preparing for the monarchy,Yuan Shikai still had many deficiencies in the arrangement of public opinion,which led to the failure of establishing the legitimacy of his regime.On the contrary,it was resisted at home and abroad.Then the National Protection Movement rose,the anti Yuan and anti imperialist military and political forces formed a united front,and the public opinion completely defected.Finally,he was defeated by the censure of Hongxian monarchy.