The Controversy And Practice Of "Quick Establishment Of Republicanism" In The Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of China

The key task for "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" is to accomplish a series of important social and historical changes such as national independence, overthrowing the imperialism and constructing the regime of republicanism at one stroke, however, how can the deep-rooted monarchism lasted for several thousand years be replaced by republicanism at such short time? How could the two opposing parties (the constitutional monarchists and the democratic republic parliamentarism advocated by revolutionists) finally tended to establish republicanism quickly through heated debates? What's the impact of the practice of "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" on changes of legal systems during late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China? As for these important issues of historical science of law, there have no specific and systematical studies in academia. Adopting the approach of combining legal history with the history of politics, historical textual research in connection with jurisprudential analysis, this dissertation has conducted specific and systematical studies on the following issues including the origin of the idea of "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" and its theoretical contentions, the course and contents of its practice, the background and influence of its fulfillment and its experiences and lessons with the purpose of perfecting the studies in this field. The dissertation comes to the conclusion that "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" is the center task and core content of the 1911 Revolution, it is not only the outcome of times' requirement and historical choice, is also the outcome of the manifestation of the era commonness and national individuality in the historical development of the Late Qing Dynasty. Although the conditions for "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" are not mature enough, but we cannot simply declare its failure for the 1911 Revolution and "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" not thoroughly completing their task of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, we can only judge its influence from the trend of China's social development after the revolution. During late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, there exists no idea of human rights, no practice of democracy, no constitution and the construction of constitutionalism has not yet completed, though the quick replacement of feudal imperialism by republic constitution goes agreeable with citizens' wishes, the quick establishment and its concomitant phenomena such as unclear orientation, unstable bases and is unworthy of its name is unavoidable, it needs perfection. To sum up, if China wants to realize the real modern democratic republic constitution with its national characteristics, it is hard and still has a long way to go despite of its significance. The modernization of economy and society should run neck and neck with the modernization of politics; after all the practice of "Quick Establishment of Republicanism" has laid a good legal foundation for the construction of China's contemporary democracy.