Zizhengyuan In Late Qing Dynasty’s Constitutional Preparation

As the first representative branch in China, Zizhengyuan is an important part of Qing dynasty’s constitutionalism preparation. The establishment and enforcement is a sign for China to carry out constitutionalism, which is an ambitious experiment. In this sense, to research Zizhengyuan as a whole will help to understand the constitutionalism preparation in late Qing dynasty. However, until now people judge Zizhengyuan differently. The article is to observe the Zizhengyuan entirely, to reveal the fact of Zizhengyuan and to make objective judgment about the role of Zizhengyuan in late Qing dynasty constitutionalism preparation.This article includes five chapters. The first chapter is “the background of establishment and character of Zizhengyuan”. The chapter consists of two parts. The first part is about the background of establishment of Zizhengyuan. The creation of Zizhengyuan is the outcome during the preparation constitutionalism in late Qing dynast. After Wuxu Legal Reform, the Qing government stopped the way to constitutionalism. At the first decade of 20 century, the constitutionalism was launched because of the improvement by society, the acceptance of constitutionalism by Qing government and the compromise of Qing government. The second part is about the character of Zizhengyuan. The character of Zizhengyuan changed several times, and the origin character is totally different from the last one. Zizhengyuan changed from the communication place to public opinions’ adoption center, at last to the base of establishment of congress. At least for documents, Zizhengyuan had the power to be the base of congress.The second chapter is “legal framework about Zizhengyuan’s establishment and operation”. The first part introduces the documents to establishment of Zizhengyuan, including Zizhengyuan Law and the Election Law of Zizhengyuan’s Representative. The second part introduces legal documents about the operation of Zizhengyuan, including Articles of Official Business Within Zizhengyuan and Articles of Official Business of Branches Within Zizhengnyuan. These laws match the constitutional rules and keep some official-oriented stipulations.The third chapter is“members and staffs in Zizhengyuan”. As an organ for constitutional affairs, Zizhengyuan is decided by its members and staffs working in it, especially their identity, thoughts and action. Members consist of eight kinds of people. The chapter will introduce and analysis different ways for them to be elected or appointed. Then the article analyses members’ background and social structure, in order to find the reason for their actions. At last,the staffs are introduced and analyzed.The forth chapter is “the constitutional activities of Zizhengyuan”, including two parts. The first part is about the preparation and general issues of Zizhengyuan. The Qing government prepared a lot of issues for the standing conference of Zizhengyuan, including meeting site, education of stenographer and bills from government branches. At the same time, members prepared for the meeting. During meeting, some members were very active, but 1/3 members didn’t attend the meeting or had no speech record. Conflicts among members, between members and president, between members, between members and government went with the meeting. The article analyze this problem and reveal the plight of Zizhengyuan objectively. The second part is to introduce and analyze the constitutional activities of Zizhengyuan, including supervising government, examining national budget and enacting the new criminal law. Zizhengyuan supervised government through questioning and impeaching the government. The power to question government is stipulated in the Zizhengyuan Law. The power to impeach officials is the important method to supervise government. Although the bill of impeaching Junjidacheng changed three times and was detained by the emperor at last, but members used it to challenge governmental authority, which inspired the people and swing the traditional official-oriented thoughts. Zizhengyuan examined the budget of the third year of Xuantong, which is the longest issue during meeting. By cut a lot of fees, Zizhengyuan finished the budget, but it caused trouble for the enforcement of budget. Zizhengyuan discussed 11 bills of law, among which the new criminal law is the most important one.The fifth chapter is “comments of Zizhengyuan”. The chapter comments Zizhengyuan from three aspects—system, activities and historical value. The system of Zizhengyuan was learned from Japanese empire congress, but more restraint elements were added, which made it more traditional. Comparing with the system, activities of Zizhengyuan were more like a modern congress’. Although Zizhengyuan had a lot of disadvanteges,its activities consisted with the modern congress, which was not entitled by laws or emperor but formed by the struggle of members including the president of Zizhengyuan. Zizhengyuan had historical value. It was the first quasi national congress. Its activities inspired people’s passion about political participation, and got precious experience for the future.