Cultural Interpretation On The Constitutional Reform Of Late Qing Dynasty

As a component of human culture, constitutionalism reflects the Westerners' thinking and wisdom to the country, politics and laws. During the period of Ancient Greece and Roma, the seeds of constitutionalism had begun breeding in the West. After that, the seeds develop through the long Middle Ages to the modern times. This culture has not been interrupted but continuously been improved and developed. Constitutionalism is the result of the Western political, economic and cultural development and the fruit of western culture. The beliefs on religious and theology, dependence on the contract civilization and the respect for liberty constitutes the cultural foundation of Western constitutionalism. The constitutional reform in late Qing Dynasty was the first formal, large scaled top-down reform in the political and legal system which was implemented by China's rulers under the internal and external serious situation. In this reform, Constitutional Museum for Searching and Checking, Zizhengyuan and Ziyiju were built, and the "Appointed Constitutional Framework" and the "Nineteen Major Tenets" were promulgated. Although a series of major initiatives, such as education reform and the reform of Bureaucracy failed to achieve the intended purpose for various reasons, and the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution made all attributions to nothing, as China's important page in modern history, constitutionalism bears rich experience and much value. From a cultural perspective, the dislocation of value demands in the constitutional reform (the demand for the value in utilitarianism, value orientation of the nationalism), the choice of the constitutional thinking mode (rational constructive mode), and obstacles in the traditional patriarchal culture are the deep factors that hindered the constitutional reform in the late Qing Dynasty.The reform experience in the late Qing still has a positive inspiration and guidance for China's constitutional construction. China is in society transition now. It is still tough for us to face the problems of how to achieve the country's modernization, and how to achieve constitutionalism...