Kang Youwei - Biography

Biography

Kang called for an end to property and the family in the interest of an idealized future cosmopolitan Utopia, and cited Confucius as an example of a reformer and not as a reactionary, as many of his contemporaries did. The latter idea was discussed in great detail in 'Kongzi gaizhi kao,' or 'A Study of the Reforms of Confucius.' He argued that the rediscovered versions of the Confucian classics were forged to bolster his claims. This idea was treated in detail in 'Xinxue weijing kao' (A Study of the 'New Text' Forgeries). Kang was a strong believer in constitutional monarchy and wanted to remodel the country after Meiji Japan. These ideas angered his colleagues in the scholarly class who regarded him as a heretic.

Kang, along with his famed student, Liang Qichao, were important participants in a campaign to modernize China now known as the Hundred Days' Reform. The reform introduced radical change into the stale Chinese government, angering conservatives who feared losing power due to the influence of the reformers. The conservative faction's most powerful member, Dowager Empress ended the reforms and ordered Kang executed through slow slicing. Kang fled to Japan, where with Liang, he organized the Protect the Emperor Society, travelled throughout the Chinese diaspora promoting constitutional monarchy and competed with the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen's Revive China Society and Revolutionary Alliance for funds and followers.

After the Qing Dynasty fell and the Republic of China was established in 1912 under Sun Yat-sen, Kang remained an advocate of constitutional monarchy and with this aim launched a failed coup d'état in 1917. General Zhang Xun and his queue-wearing soldiers occupied Beijing, declaring a restoration of Emperor Puyi on July 1. This incident was a major miscalculation. The nation was highly anti-monarchist. Kang became suspicious of Zhang's insincere constitutionalism and that he was merely using the restoration to become the power behind the throne. He abandoned his mission and fled to the American legation. On July 12, Duan Qirui easily occupied the city.

Kang's reputation serves as an important barometer for the political attitudes of his time. In the span of less than twenty years, he went from being regarded as an iconoclastic radical to an anachronistic pariah.