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China's 1911 Revolution was a momentous political transformation. Its leaders, however, were not rebellious troublemakers on the periphery of imperial order. On the contrary, they were a powerful political and economic elite deeply entrenched in local society and well-respected both for their imperially sanctioned cultural credentials and for their mastery of new ideas. The revolution they spearheaded produced a new, democratic political culture that enshrined national sovereignty, constitutionalism, and the rights of the people as indisputable principles.
Based upon previously untapped Qing and Republican sources, The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China is a nuanced and colorful chronicle of the revolution as it occurred in local and regional areas. Xiaowei Zheng explores the ideas that motivated the revolution, the popularization of those ideas, and their animating impact on the Chinese people at large. The focus of the book is not on the success or failure of the revolution, but rather on the transformative effect that revolution has on people and what they learn from it.
— Prasenjit Duara
"A major contribution to the historiography of the 1911 Revolution, this book illuminates the events leading to the birth of the Chinese republic in a context wherein the propagation of new ideas prepared both elites and commoners to turn against the Qing government. Zheng depicts, in vivid and compelling detail, the constitutional movement and the 1911 Revolution in Sichuan, without losing sight of nationwide developments."
— Li Huaiyin
"In this powerful, original analysis, Xiaowei Zheng traces the genealogy of 'constitutionalism' and the transformation of elite consciousness in the last decades of the Qing dynasty. She analyzes both political culture and electoral politics and skillfully tacks between local and national levels. This is the best book on the 1911 Revolution to appear in many years, and it will be the point of departure for all future research on the subject."
— Matthew Sommer
"This study offers an important new framework for understanding China's 1911 Revolution by bringing intellectual change to the fore as the most decisive factor in creating the conditions for revolution."
— Edward McCord
"The Chinese Revolution of 1911 toppled the Qing dynasty and established a republic. In this thoughtful, well-written work, Zheng argues that the revolution ushered in a new political culture of respect for the equality and rights of citizens, formed in response to the imperialist threat to the nation."
— K.E. Stapleton
"The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China should be mandatory reading for all scholars of twentieth- and twenty-first-century China."
— Peter J. Carroll
"[A] considerable accomplishment in this impressive book....The repeated failures to establish the requisite political and institutional structures to successfully translate the emergence of this potent force into genuine, orderly, and meaningful political participation of the Chinese people in the management of their own country is, indeed, the tragedy of the Chinese revolution."
— Michael Tsin
"The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China is worth the attention of every student of modern China."
— Peter Zarrow
The rereads the events of 1911 and introduces my key research question. In addition, it asserts the innovativeness of the methodology, the sources, and the lens used in this book.
Chapter One articulates the old regime and its collaborative model between the elite and the state in Sichuan. A rich and self-sufficient region, Sichuan was only fully incorporated into the Qing Empire in the 1850s. Soon after, the collaborative model between the elite and the state was called into question as population growth, foreign invasions, and various new tasks a strained Qing central government had to fulfill generated enormous tension in local society, eroding the established power configurations and destabilizing the old regime.
Chapter Two examines the most formative intellectual influences on the Sichuan constitutionalists. Like their cohorts from other provinces, the Sichuan constitutionalists took Liang Qichao as their spiritual leader. Most of them had studied at H
Chapters Three identifies and examines the economic background of the Sichuan constitutionalists and the implication of "rights" in the economic sphere. Acting on the rhetoric of rights, the constitutionalists of Sichuan took over the Chuan-Han Railway Company, but ended up exacting more taxation from Sichuan's people .
Chapters Four identifies and examines the political orientation of the Sichuan constitutionalists. Legitimized by the late-Qing constitutional reform and using the same rhetoric of rights, these constitutionalists strove to be the true power holders of the newly enhanced state. Via the Sichuan Provincial Assembly, they obtained both a political reputation that was unmatched by any other group and a solid organizational foundation..
Chapter Five scrutinizes the rhetoric created by the Sichuan constitutionalists as they took their struggle to the streets. By deploying political concepts like the rights of the nation, constitutionalism, and the rights of the people, and by creating a common purpose "to protect the railway and break the treaty," the movement leaders drew ordinary people into collective action. Combining a new political repertoire with old cultural symbols, they effectively mobilized people from different walks of life against powerful opponents.
Chapter Six analyzes the mechanisms by which the Railway Protection movement spread beyond the provincial capital and throughout the entire province. Unlike in most other provinces, in which the 1911 Revolution took place in the cities and happened in a matter of days, the movement in Sichuan involved tens of thousands of people throughout the province and spanned more than six months. How was solidarity created within the movement? What were the social networks and cultural symbols of the movement?
Chapter Seven chronicles the expansion and division of the revolution. During the revolution, the newly crafted political culture with rights at its core was practiced by a large group of activists; this lent the revolution strength and legitimacy.
Chapter Eight explores the end of the revolution. In Sichuan, the emergence of popular sovereignty as a new source of power created opportunities for nonactivists to join the revolution and control its politics. This chapter suggests that it was precisely the valorization of the people and the public opinion that prevented the creation of a stable constitutional order.
The Conclusion evaluates the long-term impact of the revolution. Marking the rise of a new political consciousness, thousands of men and women gained firsthand experience in the public arena: they talked, read, and listened in new ways; they voted, protested, and joined political parties. After 1911, the old, imperial political culture was abandoned in favor of a popular republicanism in which elected assemblymen, students, intellectuals, and other members of society collaborated and competed in creating a new Chinese nation.