Constitutionalism And The Strength And Prosperity Of Traditional Cultural Context Of The Late Qing Dynasty

The Opium War broke out in1840.It forced that old China had to make great changesthat China had never met in the past three thousand years.Meanwhile,its essence is thecollision between Eastern civilization and Western civilization,,and it also is the collision oftheir own development path between Eastern and Western civilizations. Chinese civilizationwhich had been leading the world in a very long time was defeated in the face of thewestern army. Finally，China had to bow to Western natural science and technology, andconstitutional democracy.Chinese people that were proud of Long-term advanced civilizationbegan to explore the road that how to achieve the independence of the country.Western civilization that spred in China as a way of forces made Chinese chang the viewof the world, the view of the feudal autocracy. Linzexu, Weiyuan, Xujiyu first began to opentheir eyes to see the world, advocating "Learning the skills to defeat", advocating to learnfrom the West, and bulit military strength against the West armed aggression.Later,this viewwas absorbed by the the Westernization Movement faction as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhangwho were offices of the bureaucracy. The goal of the Westernization Movement were"self-reliance" and "the pursuit of wealth”,which promoted the free economy develement andopen. Economic development created a new capitalist and bureaucratic groups, cultivated newintellectuals,spred new ideas.As a result, with the development of the WesternizationMovement early reformers were born, and they thought that China should learn theConstitutionalism from the West.They criticized the limitations of Westernization Movement.In fact,because of the obstruction of the political and cultural conservatism, theWesternization Movement of "self-reliance" and "the pursuit of wealth"was unlikely tosucceed. The result of Sino-Japanese naval battle was the profound example. The direct causeof its failure was that the conservatives made great efforts to stop the purchase of advancedweapons. Li Hongzhang had predicted:If the opportunity of the purchase of the great iron shiphave lost,China will lose the chance of the "self-reliance" and "the pursuit of wealth" forever.Unfortunately, this prophecy in the Sino-Japanese naval battle proved,and it also proved thecorrectness of the reformers views. To this end, the reformers Kang Youwei began to stand onthe stage of Constitutionalism history.He changed the Confucius thought and suggested thatEmperor Guangxu adpated the Constitutionalism monarchy; Sun Yat-sen also began to overthrow authoritarian Qing Dynasty and establish a republican government. At this point,the seeds of Constitutionalism requirement for independece, prosperous had taken root afterlong-term breeding, and it gave birth to the20th century constitutional fruits.Powers war against China in the overall sense was destroyed, but the objective effectshad stepped up the Constitutionalism process.The reformers failed because of diehards’counterattack, but diehards were liquidated by the Eight-Power Allied Forces.It means thatthe political obstacles to democratic constitutional power were greatly weakened.The Qinggovernment had to roform in1901.The order of Reforms in Late Qing was from the economicto the political sphere.Before1905,the reformes mainly focused on econmic.The economydetermines the political superstructure.The economic development prepare certain materialfoundation and class basis.Above all,it cultivated higher consciousness, ability and a widerfield of vision constitutionalists. Recognizing the Constitutionalism effect of prosperity andsalvation, these forces are getting larger and large.The constitutionalists requiredconstitutional voice rose higher and higher, and these volutionary movement rose higher andhigher and international crisis situation was also more and more increasingly severe. All thesefactors forced the Qing government had to consider the Constitutionalism so that achievethe purpose of the "imperial power solid,"foreign aggression mitigate ",and"eliminate therevolution".The Qing government then sent the five Ministers traveling abroad to examine theconstitutional systems.And then,the Qing government begun to adapt the reform ofConstitutionalism,promulgatting the "Outline of the Constitution", setting up conggeress andthe Conference Board,carrying out the implementation of local self-government,whichinitially realized the change from the monarchy to Constitutionalism government. However,due to the uncontrol of the late political situation,combined with the "royal cabinet of theQing government",deceiving the Constitutionalists，most Constitutionalists felt disappointtedand angry,and disobeayed the Qing government,which forced the Qing government issued anew Constitution. But it was too late, theWuchang Uprising already ruined the life-saving ofthe Constitution, the value of this Constitutionalism have lost.Throughout the road of the Constitutionalism of the late Qing Dynasty, the process iscompletely placed under the traditional cultural and political context. Every step of thejourney embodied the hardships and hard work of the explorers, and even their lives. ButConstitutionalism itself is an exotic. The Western several years of Constitutionalismdevelopment tells us that Constitutionalism needs certain congditions,such as a certain degree of social background, economic development, civic awareness and constitutional culture,etc.So Constitutionalism in China will be a long process.In harmony with the local culture,political ecology, and national consciousness, Constitutionalism maybe suceed.At the sametime, Constitutionalism needs national patience and compromise, also requires that politicshave great foresight and extraordinary wisdom.But the implementation of Constitutionalismin late Qing Dynasty was comppletely absense of these condotions.Especially,after the deathof Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu,no leaders can achieve this goal,soultimately Constitutionalism failed.On the contrary, the the selfishness of the Manzhunobels buried the precious constitutional redemption opportunities, and eventually becameits own gravedigger.why?The writer believes that the contradicition of the late Qing Dynastydetermined the consequences,such as the contradicition between the imperial power systemand democratic Constitutionalism, the contradiction between the Manchu and Han, thecontradiction between the central and the local, the contradiction between traditional cultureand Constitutional Contingency perspective,.If the rulers Guangxu, instead of the Empress,maybe the things would go more smoothly. But the history can not be assumed, it had made ajoke to Chinese people which pay a great worth for the consititutionlism from the beginnng oflast centry until now.