The Fall of the Qing Empire
2 min readEmpress Dowager Cixi died，just hours after her son Emperor Guang Xu，in 1908（Someone says three days） .With her went China’s last strong ruler.Her successor was a young nephew of the dead emperor.His name was Pu Yi ，a little child of two years old.His reign name was Xuantong .As he was still young Prince Chun ruled as regent.Like Cixi，Prince Chun was a conservative ruler.He appointed many conservative officials to important posts and sacked dynamic and progressive leaders like general Yuan Shikai .
Capable as Yuan was，he stole the fruit of the Xinhai Revolution or the Bourgeois Revolution of 1911，and took the position of the President of the Chinese Republic.He died on June 6th，1895 in condemnations of the whole country after he had proclaimed himself emperor.
In 1911 the harvest failed，and China went into a period of great economic difficulty.The authority of the Qing government was clearly tottering.At this point，Dr.Sun Yat Sen（see Figure 23），or Sun Zhongshan，returned to Chinafrom Hawai，where he had been in self-imposed exile.He knew that the time for rebellion was now ripe.With his contacts and supporters，the Xinhai Revolution got ready in September 1911.
In the Lunar Calendar of China，the year of 1911 AD is called year of“Xinhai”.So the revolution occurred in 1911 is called the Xinhai Revolution.On October 10，1911，soldiers from the Wuchang ，Hubei Province，rose in rebellion.This is known as the“Double Ten”incident in Chinese history，for October is the tenth month.From then on，the“Double Ten Day” began to be celebrated as the National Day of Republic of China.
Figure 23 Dr. Sun Yat Sen, or Sun Zhongshan The Uprising in Wuchang spread very quickly, like a”Prairie Fire”. The Qing government was in a great panic, so they sent Yuan Shikai to put down the revolution. With a strong army, Yuan compromised with the revolutionaries. He would help force the Qing Monarch to abdicate and Sun Zhongshan should offer him the seat of President of the Chinese Republic. Being weaker than Yuan’s Army and strong of the desire to end the old form of society, Sun Zhongshan accepted the terms.
The royal family was offered favorable terms on the condition of abdication. They would still live in the ForbiddenCity and rule their tiny”Empire”and batten on handsome subsidy from the newly-founded republic. Finally, on February12,1912, Pu Yi abdicated, bringing the curtain down on the 270-year-old Qing Dynasty and 5000 years of absolute monarchy in China(at least in form).
A new republic was formed, with Sun Yat Sen as Provisional President(Yuan Shikai was offered to take the office on condition he should come to Nanjing). However that was not the end of China’s troubles and it faced many more disasters and momentous events throughout the century. After the Qing, came a long chaotic period of warlords’ fighting.
