On Kang’ Yu-we’s Private Draft Constitution Of The Republic Of China

The history is advancing and faltering at the same time, both subjective and objectivefactors has the potential to change the arc of history. K’ang Yu-we is the most influentialthinker of the late qing and early republic, the first in our country who puts forward thespecific constitutional scheme. Although after the Revolution of1911, his thought is regardedas conservative and anti-republic and, but in1913, he drew up The Draft Constitution of TheRepublic of China,which prove that, he has some certain expectations toward this nascentrepublic.The draft constitution made both critical analysis and constructive Suggestions forthe republic, provided us a brand-new perspective to study the constitutional history.In addition to the preface and conclusion, the full text is divided into five parts:The first part introduces the background of this draft constitution.After Xinhai revolution,a tide of constitutionalization swept across China, and put an end to the dream of kangyouwei’s dream of constitutional monarchy.Crisis exsist both inside and outside China,theconstitution become the primary task of the first congress of the republic of China, Beiyangclique, Revolutionary party and the constitutionalists carried out a series of arguments andbattles.The second part briefly discusses the background of kang youwei and his constitutionalthought.Western learning is an important source for kang youwei in establishing hisconstitutional thought,but Chinese culture has more profound influence.After the HundredDays’ Reform, kang youwei went to Europe,and his constitutional view began to change.AfterXinhai revolution, kang youwei attacked the newborn republican system as immature, butalso put forward many constructive Suggestions to help improve its order.The third part combed the content of this draft constitution,including territory andsovereignty, the division of power between the central government and local government, andthe configuration of legislative power, judicial power and executive power,people’s basicrights and establishing Confucianism as the state religion and so on.The fourth part analyses the thought of this draft constitution.Kang youwei has a theoryof the proper evolution of the Chinese history, in which a constitutional monarchy isinevitable stage of development in China, advanced democratic republic will only bringpolitical turmoil to China.The fifth part is a review of this draft constitution.Respecting reality and not too ideal is an important characteristic of this draft.Combining constitutionalism with Confucianismbackground is kang youwei’s unique contribution.But kang youwei mainly hold aninstrumental understanding of the western constitutional government system, which makes hisconstitutional advices deviated from the spirit of the constitutionalismitself.Nevertheless,after one hundred years,his thought still bears certain significance today.