Perhaps you’ve heard of the Mandate of Heaven. It is a Chinese political philosophy, widely known
and used from ancient China all the way to its last Imperial dynasty,
the Qing. In essence, this philosophy justified the rule of China’s Emperor. One of the core
beliefs surrounding this concept was that natural disasters were divine retributions, and revolts
or instability were direct results of a higher power indicating China’s ruler was unworthy.
Now, the Qing dynasty had been ruling over China since the mid-17th century.
But during the 19th-century, the Empire suffered devastating rebellions such as
the Taiping rebellion, seeing millions of casualties. Japan won the Sino-Japanese war,
forcing a humiliating peace on the Empire, and the Boxer Rebellion just a few years later once again
led to bloodshed, famine and chaos. Not to mention the eight nations occupying Beijing.
Surely, this could not go on for much longer? And indeed,
it would not. In 1911 a sequence of events was triggered that would result
in the abdication of China’s last emperor and the collapse of the Qing dynasty.
Interestingly enough, many plots had been devised for this to happen - twisted irony
has it that it started with an accidental bomb explosion
with no master plan at all. And this revolution would bring down China’s
final imperial dynasty after having ruled over the Empire for nearly three centuries.
The Revolutionary Alliance
Over the years, Qing power and their mandate of heaven had eroded. Movements such as the rights
recovery movement, the Hunan peasant riots and natural disasters were all signs of a dynasty
in severe decline. To give you an idea of China’s state by 1910: there had been 285
uprisings and rebellions in that year alone. But most of these were sparked by peasants. Barely
any were ‘modern’ in the sense that they wanted to entirely institutionally reform the Empire,
leaning on a clear ideological basis. But there was one modern revolutionary movement,
standing at the centre of the revolutionary atmosphere attempting to overthrow the Qing:
the Revolutionary Alliance, also known as the Tongmenghui.
Dr Sun Yat-sen founded the Tongmenghui, China’s first modern revolutionary secret society. And Sun
Yat-sen wasn’t standing by idly either. Between 1906 and 1911, he instigated ten rebellions.
Although he instigated ten uprisings in five years, all of them were vaguely planned
and none succeeded. Nevertheless, the number of members of the Tongmenghui rose to 10.000 by 1911.
Its members were from all walks of life. Still, they generally were well-educated
Chinese who had studied abroad (most in Japan). Some revolutionaries were students,
others were civil servants, members of the new provincial assemblies even,
and several were soldiers or officers in New Army units.
But over time the composition of the revolutionaries changed: many figured
the best way to spark revolution eventually was to subvert Qing troops. They wanted to get the
soldiers that weren’t yet revolutionaries on their side, so to say. Revolutionaries joined the army,
maintaining a low profile and recruiting other soldiers for their revolutionary cells.
Throughout China, especially around the Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou districts in Wuhan,
Hubei’s capital, Qing opposition blossomed. Radical young Chinese formed revolutionary
cells in these big cities. In 1911 large cities generally had multiple revolutionary cells.
It was during this year Sun Yat-sen embarked on a fundraising campaign to the United States.
After all, the revolution desperately needed funds if it was to succeed.
In southern China, revolutionaries adopted the strategy of infiltrating the New Army units.
Working with revolutionary branches active in the region,
most cities had a sizeable portion of their army secretly engaged in revolutionary activity…
not really a stable combination, to put it mildly. In order to recruit new members for their
movement, these revolutionaries often created an elaborate guise of book clubs and fraternities.
If authorities grew suspicious of these clubs and decided to investigate, they would simply disband
their fake clubs only to regroup after some time, under a different name at a different location.
To give you an idea of how widespread this was: in 1911 around 5 to 6000 of the Hubei New Army
troops turned out to be a member of various secret revolutionary societies. This was about one-third
of the entire military force. Can you imagine? The fact that such a sizeable amount of the
military was part of secret resistance… well, it was only a matter of time for things to turn sour.
The Wuchang Rebellion
Modern-day Wuhan city in China used to consist of three towns, Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang.
In these towns, the first rebellions broke out. On October 9 1911, in a safe house
amidst the Russian concession area of Hankou, a group of revolutionaries were fiddling with
bombs. They were planning a terrorist attack. Unfortunately for them, something went wrong,
and the bomb exploded prematurely. While oftentimes Western powers would bribe
Qing authorities if something happened on their territory, the blast of this bomb was too heavy
not to let authorities investigate. Qing police and military raided the safehouse. It quickly
became clear what transpired, and they identified the three men surviving men as revolutionaries.
Authorities wasted no time and they executed the men immediately. But even though during the brief
interrogation, the men didn’t give up their fellow conspirators, their death wasn’t the end of it.
Fate had it that the membership registers detailing all names of revolutionaries,
thousands of them, survived the blast. The Qing authorities seized the records and now possessed
the names of most, if not all, revolutionaries in the city. They realised these logs contained the
names of their colleagues—at least 5,000 of them. Alarmed at the number of soldiers on the list,
soldiers began rounding up any and all revolutionary soldiers they could find.
But news rapidly spread. Soldiers who were members of secret society understood that if they did not
act fast, they too would be put against the wall. And as such, minor mutinies broke out. The first
force that mutinied was a small force, the Wuchang Eight Engineer Battalion. On the morning of
October 10th, ever since celebrated as ‘Double 10’ day, they seized the ammunition depot of the city
and were subsequently joined by transport and artillery units. They captured several
of Wuchang’s forts, and by the end of the day, three other regiments joined the resistance.
The governor-general of Wuchang, the Manchu Ruicheng, failed to raise a sizeable number
of loyal troops to protect his office. He fled the city, together with the army commander.
Forces still loyal to the Qing were routed, and over 500 were killed. The next day, October 11th,
Hanyang was captured by the revolutionaries. They seized the cities’ military arsenal and ironworks.
Having a considerable reserve of supplies and weapons once they captured Hanyang, the mutineers
took it a step further. They established the military government of the Hubei province.
But they didn’t have a prestigious public figure to take control and lead the revolution.
The principal architect of revolution in China, Sun Yat-sen, was in the United States! He would
not learn about the uprising until a month later, reading about it in a Denver newspaper.
Instead of quickly returning to China and assuming leadership of the revolution,
he first went to the United Kingdom and France to secure European neutrality.
He managed to sway the British government: they would not loan any capital to the Qing anymore.
Sun eventually returned to China, but only over two months after the revolution had started.
In October, the revolution, confined to Wuhan for now, was still looking for its leader. The
first person the revolutionaries approached was the president of the provincial assembly,
who quickly declined the offer. Li Yuanhong, one of the Hubei New Army commanders popular
among his troops, was the second one to receive the request. He wasn’t a revolutionary, but he
did play a prominent role in an anti-imperialist political movement concerning China’s railways.
Those in the provincial assembly liked him as well. Still, in probably exaggerated accounts,
it is written he was forced at gunpoint to take on the assignment of leading these rebels.
He certainly was hesitant but eventually accepted. The next day Hankou troops mutinied,
captured the city, and the revolutionaries were on their way to capture the rest of the province.
Qing Response
Once news of the revolt in the Hubei province reached the imperial government,
their response was, understandably, to do everything in their power to absolutely
annihilate these revolutionaries. The minister of War, Yin Chang, coordinated the counterattack
on Wuhan with two divisions of the Beiyang army. In Beijing, the Qing, and especially Prince Chun,
regent to five-year-old emperor Puyi, was about to swallow his pride. The Beiyang army needed
a competent general that senior officers knew and his troops respected. Yuan Shikai was that person.
He had led the Beiyang army for years and served the Qing dynasty for decades. But serving them for
decades didn’t mean the relationship was good. It just so happened to be Prince Chun himself,
who forced Yuan into retirement two years before. Yuan still held a grudge against the Qing
because of it. While he held a grudge, he was an excellent negotiator and, unbeknownst to the Qing,
he still was highly ambitious. For now, he waited, but when he finally gave in,
he would come to power on his own terms. Ten days after the Hubei military government was
proclaimed, the New Army mutinied in both Shaanxi and Hunan provinces. Massacres against the Manchu
population took place, and Qing commanders were killed. The members of the provincial assembly
explicitly voiced their support for the revolution. The uprising now began spreading
over China. In Shanxi, revolutionaries killed the governor and his family. In the southwest in
Yunnan and southeast in Jianxi, students, teachers and merchants joined the army officers in revolt,
declaring their independence from the Qing. The Tongmenghui
took the leading central role in three provinces and formed anti-Qing alliances in many others.
Now that revolts swept more provinces, the military significance of railways became apparent.
Troops from Beijing were sent to Wuhan, only to be cut off by rebellions in Shanxi. Revolts blocked
the supply lines of Yin Chang’s army, and other senior commanders in the north started defying
Qing orders. Instead of moving their troops south by railways, these commanders met up and sent a
telegram to Beijing containing twelve demands. The demands ranged from a functioning parliament
and an elected prime minister, ratified by the emperor, to amnesty for all political
offenders and blocking Manchus from official positions. As outrageous as these demands seem,
the fact the Qing agreed with them within a week shows the dire situation the dynasty was in.
During this time, Yuan was still negotiating both publicly and behind the scenes on various levels.
The Qing appointed him as the commander of all Qing forces. Most senior military commanders
backed him, and he enjoyed the loyalty of many troops. On November 8th 1911,
he was elected prime minister of China by the Beijing provisional national assembly members.
He was now to form a cabinet, which he did, primarily appointing his loyalists.
It seemed that China was moving towards a constitutional monarchy, just like Russia
and Japan had. The entire month of November, Yuan Shikai played a political game attempting
to profit from the situation, pressuring both the revolutionaries and the Qing.
The Republic of China
The Tongmenghui of Sun Yat-sen enjoyed an enormous amount of support among the Chinese. This only
increased as the revolution spread throughout the crumbling Empire. The revolutionaries captured
Nanking in early December. It was China’s second-biggest city and the former capital.
The symbolic defeat was crushing to the already weak Qing. It was reminiscent of the cities’
defeat in 1645, leading to the Ming dynasty’s fall and the city’s capture by Taiping rebels
under Hong Xiuquan in 1853. In Nanking, the Tongmenghui set up its provisional government.
In the meantime, Yuan negotiated primarily with Prince Chun, regent of Puyi,
and his consorts. But in December, the mother of Puyi took a leading role in the negotiations.
She pushed for the resignation of Prince Chun and authorised Yuan Shikai to rule as prime minister,
with the emperor, her son Puyi, only retaining a ceremonial role.
It was reminiscent of the role Empress Dowager Cixi had allocated to herself the past decades
and thus not very popular. Several victories of Yuan’s troops over the revolutionaries
followed… but over time, he realised that his usefulness to the Qing would once again fade
with the suppression of the revolution. On Christmas day 1911, Sun Yat-sen arrived in
Shanghai. The Tongmenghui had set up a provisional government at Nanjing, and Sun was just in time to
be elected “Provisional President” of the Chinese republic by delegates of 16 provincial assemblies.
On new years day 1912, he assumed office, and the new republic of China was born.
It meant China now had both a Manchu emperor (in Beijing) and a republican president (in Nanjing).
A situation that definitely could not go on for long.
Sun realised he required an army to consolidate his power. A charismatic man and a keen eye for
political moves, he sent Yuan Shikai a telegram stating he m only accepted the
-provisional- presidency, so Yuan could later assume the official presidency
as long as he supported the new republic. All the while, Yuan played both sides of the conflict.
Recognising the revolutionaries’ momentum, he realised choosing their side would probably
be most advantageous to him. As such, Yuan was willing to work with Sun, but indeed, only if he
could assume the presidency. He spent the next couple of weeks negotiating, both secretly and
publicly, with both the provisional government in Nanking and the imperial government in Beijing.
The Last Emperor
Late January 1912, 44 senior commanders of the Beiyang Army, serving under Yuan Shikai,
sent a telegram to Beijing urging them to establish a republic by having Puyi abdicate.
The Qing’s Mandate of Heaven had now truly waned. Southern China had basically seceded, and Yuan
Shikai attempted to convince Puyi's regents that abdication was the only option left on the table.
Some Manchu princes fled to Manchuria to lead the resistance, but the emperor’s mother negotiated
with Yuan. She managed to receive reassurance that Puyi could reside in the Forbidden City
with his servants for years to come while receiving a generous stipend. Puyi, China’s
last emperor, abdicated on February 12 1912. The Qing dynasty, the ancient monarchy,
and the Chinese empire had officially come to an end. Yuan Shikai was granted full powers “to
organise a provisional republican government”. Sun Yat-sen, staying true to his word,
abdicated in favour of Yuan one day later. The deal was that Yuan would travel to Nanking to
set up his government. However, unrest broke out in Beijing, allowing Yuan to remain there
to maintain control. It is near certain Yuan had something to do with these episodes of turmoil.
And as such, ominously, Yuan Shikai was sworn in in Beijing, the imperial capital, not Nanking,
the republican capital. He was to have supreme power with loyalists appointed
at crucial positions in China’s military and bureaucracy. A parliament was to be elected,
and a full constitutional government was going to be established. As time went on, however,
it became clear that Yuan Shikai had other plans for his own position and China as a whole.
Conclusion
In 1912 after decades of hardships and an erosion of their Mandate of Heaven, the Qing dynasty
finally collapsed. After a brief period where Dr. Sun Yat-sen was China’s first president,
Yuan Shikai overtook this post and started his tenure. He prevented an all-out civil war,
but was to betray the revolutionaries later on. What followed was the rapid decline of the
republic into a period of warlordism. Feudal lords, often having served under Yuan Shikai,
were now fighting for influence in their respective provinces.