Citizens' Mentality During The Russo-Japanese War Focused On Eshi Jingwen And Jingzhong Ribao

The Russo-Japanese War with Japan's victory and Russia's defeat created great stir in the current Chinese society and had much influence on the mind of people, which brought about profound mental changes of people in all ranks and classes. The bourgeois revolutionists reviewed the war with bitter hatred. They generally awoke to Russia's aggressive nature. The repulsion for Russia that called upon people to fight against Russia in order to expel its forces from the northeast of China was emerged. This disaster revealed further the corruption and incapacity of the Qing government which helped the revolutionists make up their mind to revolute and foster their feelings against Manchu, and they believed it was time to overthrow the government rule. They exposed the government's depravity in order to arouse people's anti-Qing sentiment, proposed the assassination of one or two important officials as the revolution impetus, and advocated to initiate all-formed education for sparking wisdom of the citizens. The bourgeois Royalists believed the reason that Japan was able to contend with formidable Russia was the fact that Japan had finished the political system reform and practiced the constitutional monarchy. Therefore, the Royalists produced the idea to carry out the constitutional monarchy in China, and they insisted it should be the only way to rejuvenate the country. The governor of Qing Dynasty was in a very complicated situation: in order to prevent Japan and Russia from fighting in the Chinese territory, they had thought of overmastering a foreign country with the help of another, which however failed, later...