The Study Of Political Culture Of Late Imperial China Within The Anti-Opium Campaign Of Its Southeast Region,1906-1912

In the year of1906, the government of Qing issued an edict of preparatory actions of constitutional reform, later following the edict of Anti-Opium Campaign which triggered the second prohibition of opium nationwide. Hoping to see the marginalization of these bad habits, the refrain began its way to spread from the government and would be done through provincial governors, local officials, local gentries, the peasantry and the Press.Even though the government has its expectation of this top-down system, each political group had its own means to interpret the policy and would take its own advantage within the procedure. And all these that would happen will reveal the political culture of the Late Qing Reform, as its southeast region especially considered.In the early periods of the forbidden politics, the government wanted to seize the authority of the political reform by establishing new institutions to absorb relevant personnel which would get the government acquired knowledge and administrative instrument when engaging the newly introduced political situation the government couldn’t handle it himself. Along with the attempt of the monopoly of the political authority, the government shared the deep-rooted Confucian political ideas with the Press which gained his authority through the absent-ism of anti-smoking movement of the government for decades. The Press agreed with government’s political plan and became mutual groups to share the high standards of anti-opium campaign. Yet the provincial governors didn’t think the same way. In their opinions the plans of banning should be executable and the institutionalization might be a threat to the assistants’ politics of provincial governors who gain their advantages of the scattered authorities by obliging people to expand their own political influence.Considering this, his Viceroy Duan Fang chose to pay more attention to different measures other than opium prohibition till the regulation was promulgated when he put his long prepared proprietary of opium into act in three provinces under his jurisdiction as reflection. And the year1907saw lots of opium dens shutdown in the southeast according to the regulation which bring out the supervisory control from the government. Shanghai at this moment became an example for the Press, where local officials make their efforts to give a sudden death to uncontrolled opium retail while avoiding the conflict between the government and the gangs operating dens. Different political groups at this time tried to put opium business under surveillance which seemed to be the furthest post of this special politics. And one more step will sink into the changing climate of self-constrain in moral aspect where the government’s attempt to set officials and gentries as example failed.As time passed by, the plan of banning couldn’t go any further and the government addressed several edicts trying to devote more attention on it which caused redundancy and the loss of its authorities, while the governors also made prohibition much like a temporization. And the Press also reported failed scenario where local officials, gentries and the peasantry was hung in the balance by opium prohibition and conflicted between each other when impartiality happened. The mess of opium prohibition could be seen by extortion, by official-killing and robbery of the gentries give the Press great chances to criticize the politics running at that time and also made these uncontrolled ones impressed much better.