Preparing for constitutionalism in the late Qing Dynasty is actually the political preparation for the late Qing government to implement constitutionalism. The reason why the Qing government implemented the preparatory constitutionalism has its profound historical background. From the international environment, at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China, imperialism further stepped up its aggression against China. However, the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 shattered their dream of trying to carve up China, forcing them to adopt the policy of "preservation", foster the puppet regime of the Manchu Dynasty, implement the policy of "governing China with China" and safeguard their colonial interests. Starting from their own interests, they demanded that the Qing government put on the coat of "democratic constitutionalism". As far as the domestic situation is concerned, in the late19th century, China's economic structure and class structure have undergone obvious changes, the bourgeois old democratic revolution is on the rise, the contradiction between the feudal economic system and the development of capitalist relations of production, and the contradiction between the feudal autocratic political system and the emerging democratic ideological trend has become very sharp; The anti-Qing democratic revolution led by the bourgeois revolutionaries headed by Sun Yat-sen flourished, while the constitutional monarchy, which represented the bourgeois right wing and some landlords and bureaucrats, was also active in an attempt to share some power through constitutionalism. Unwilling to accept any changes, the ruling clique of Qing Dynasty realized that it would be difficult to maintain its precarious ruling position without any "innovation" under the heavy blow of the Boxer Movement and the impact of the bourgeois revolution.

A direct cause of constitutional activities is the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Japan defeated an autocratic country like Russia with a small constitutional monarchy, which had a great shock to the Qing court. "The end of Japan and Russia is also the end of constitutional autocracy". [1] The ruling and opposition parties generally linked the outcome of this war to the state power, believing that Japan won by constitutionalism and Russia lost by autocracy. "Non-small countries can defeat big countries, and real constitutionalism can defeat autocracy" [2]. So, a few months later, the discussion of constitutionalism spread all over the country. Because Japan sent personnel to Europe to inspect constitutionalism in the fifteenth year of Meiji. 1905, the Qing court sent five ministers, including Zaize and Duanfang, to study abroad. The following year, the five ministers returned to China one after another, and wrote that constitutionalism has three major advantages: "First, the throne is permanently fixed, second, foreign invasion is lightened, and third, civil strife can be avoided" [3]. However, they pointed out that "today's announcement of constitutionalism, but the explicit purpose is constitutional preparation, as for the implementation period, the original period can be extended." Japan declared constitutionalism in Meiji 14 and established the National Assembly in 22 years, which has been effective and can be followed. [4] Qing rulers took a fancy to the word "preparation". 1906, 1 In September, the Qing court issued a declaration of preparatory constitutionalism, from which "preparatory constitutionalism" came.

1906, the Qing government set up the political examination office, and the next year it was transformed into the constitutional compilation office as an office for preparing for constitutionalism. Since then, some preparatory activities have been carried out. 1. Establish an advisory committee and prepare for the establishment of an advisory council. As the deliberative body of each province, the Consultative Council has the right to discuss matters that should be reformed and transformed in this province, discuss the increase, decrease and modification of the province's budget and final accounts, taxes, bonds and special articles of association, elect members of the Consultative Council, and apply for consultation from the Consultative Council or the governor. However, judging from its personnel composition, discussion contents and procedures, it is a royal institution that is completely controlled by the emperor and has no actual power. 2. To formulate and promulgate the outline of the Constitution and Article 19 of the main tenets of the Constitution. The Qing government adopted the strategy of delaying the constitution indefinitely at the beginning of its announcement, but in order to win over the constitutionalists, it had to declare the constitution for nine years in 1908. 3. Promulgate the "Outline of the Constitution" as the new leader in the future. The essence of the outline is: the monarch is sacred and inviolable; The monarch monopolized the sovereignty; Subject enjoys due rights and obligations according to law. The most prominent feature of the Outline of the Constitution formulated by the king in the late Qing Dynasty is that the emperor has exclusive power and the people have no right. Its fundamental purpose is to maintain feudal absolutism. On the one hand, it aroused the public's anger, but also disappointed the constitutionalists. Article 19, a major creed of the Constitution, is a "Constitution" improvised by the Qing government to tide over the crisis under the heavy blow of Wuchang Uprising. It doesn't really make sense.

Second, reflect on the positive significance of preparing for constitutionalism in the late Qing Dynasty.

The conservatism and deception of preparing for constitutionalism in the late Qing Dynasty are common in monographs, textbooks and academic papers, so I won't repeat them here. The author believes that this kind of political activity has a very important side besides conservatism and deception, and that is its positive significance. The content of this constitutional reform is extremely complicated, involving all aspects of society. While causing chaos, it directly accelerated the demise of the Qing Dynasty, opened the prelude to China's political modernization, and also gave China people a profound democratic political enlightenment education.

(1) The direct consequence of preparing for constitutionalism: accelerated the demise of the Qing Dynasty. The measures to prepare for constitutionalism intensified the contradictions between the central and local governments, Manchu and Han, and classes, which caused great social chaos and accelerated its demise. This is mainly manifested in:

1, governor centrifuge. In the process of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, the local governors of the Han nationality, led by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo, rose rapidly. They hold local political power, military power and financial power, and are hardly controlled by the central government. Since then, the Qing dynasty has shown a situation of strong branches and weak cadres. It can be said that with the weakening of the prestige and political willpower of the central government in a series of internal and external wars, the rule in the second half of the Qing Dynasty was strongly supported by the Han governors. Of course, this situation cannot be tolerated by the central government. Since the implementation of 190 1 New Deal, the Qing government has continuously taken measures to weaken the military power and financial power of local governors, focusing on the hands of Manchu. 1903 set up a training department in an attempt to control the new army training in various provinces. After the implementation of the constitutional reform, this situation was obviously aggravated: 1906, the Ministry of War was established to command all the imperial troops, and the minister and two assistant ministers of the Ministry were Manchu, so that all the troops were under the command of Manchu; Set up branches to control local fiscal revenue and expenditure, and declare that only the central government has the right to borrow money from abroad and mint and issue currency. The more the political reform is promoted, the power in the hands of Han bureaucrats will be continuously lost, while the centralization will become more and more powerful. 19 1 1 year, among the thirteen members of the "responsible cabinet", there are eight Manchu, five royal and only four Han. Zai Feng's two brothers are in charge of the army and the navy respectively. In this way, all administrative and military powers are concentrated in the hands of the royal family. Han bureaucrats generally feel cheated, and their dissatisfaction with the Manchu government is unprecedented.

2. The desertion of the Constitutionalists. Preparatory constitutionalism formed a decisive force in the political arena at that time-constitutionalism. They take the advisory board and the advisory board as their posts, which have a very significant influence on local and central government affairs and public opinion. After the formation of the Constitutionalists, they were deeply worried about the decline of the country's situation, and longed to implement constitutionalism in China to resist the increasingly serious revolution and occupy a place in constitutionalism. At the same time, they were more and more dissatisfied with the situation that the nobles monopolized the core of the political power in the Qing Dynasty, and they constantly clashed with the Qing government at the consultation bureau and the meeting of the consultation bureau. 19 10, they launched three large-scale parliamentary petition movements in the history of China. When their demands were rejected and the "Royal Cabinet" was established, they felt that the Qing government was hopeless, and many people turned to the revolution and became the opposite of the Qing government and grave diggers. The centrifugal tendency of the constitutionalists and their final despair of the Qing government brought serious consequences. Within seven weeks of Wuchang Uprising, 15 provinces declared independence one after another, centering on the Consultative Bureau. It is a big factor that the constitutionalists abandoned the Qing government.

3. Rural riots. The Qing government needed a lot of money to carry out constitutional reform, and these expenses were imposed on the people in various names. In addition, many officials took the opportunity to enrich themselves and plunder the people's wealth in the process of implementing the reform, and the burden on the people continued to increase, and many people in despair rose up to resist. At that time, Shanghai Oriental Magazine made a survey, and 1909 had13 uprisings, and 19 10 had 285 uprisings. [5] The Qing government's campaign to ban opium cultivation, census and get rid of bad habits in rural areas also caused great riots. For example, from 1909 to191year, riots related to the prohibition of opium cultivation occurred in Zhejiang, Gansu, Guizhou, Manchuria, Shanxi and other places for several months; In the same period, riots against rising food prices and land taxes occurred in many provinces in central China; After 1906, it was the same in all provinces, such as the census, the funds for new schools, and the unrest caused by the reform movement. The perpetrators destroyed public buildings and abused, imprisoned and even executed local officials. [6] The constant attack of the people's power has shaken the old relations of production in rural areas and disintegrated the political foundation of the Qing government in rural areas.

(2) In the process of "preparing for constitutionalism", the Qing government correspondingly reformed the old political system, narrowed the power ratio between the emperor and the Congress, and adjusted and reformed the autocratic monarchy system, which directly impacted the autocratic regime for more than 2,000 years and opened the prelude to the political modernization of feudal China.

After the Qing government announced the implementation of "preparatory constitutionalism", it gradually adopted a series of measures to promote constitutional reform. 1908 In August, the Qing government promulgated the Outline of the King James Constitution. The outline consists of nine items: "The monarch has great power" 14 and "Rights and obligations of subjects". This law is based on the Meiji Constitution of Japan and stipulates that the monarch has extensive powers, which is why this law has been criticized by the world. However, we should also see that the publication of the outline itself is a denial of China's autocratic monarchy which lasted for more than two thousand years. Because from then on, the emperor's power must be bound by the constitution and laws, and it is no longer "supreme". The law clearly stipulates that the House of Representatives makes laws, and the Emperor may not change the laws by order. It did narrow the power ratio between the emperor and the Congress, which was undoubtedly progressive at that time. The law also stipulates that the majority of subjects enjoy freedom of speech, works, publication, assembly, association, property, residence and personal freedom; The right to bring a lawsuit according to law and to serve as an official or a member of parliament shall not be arrested, imprisoned or punished except in accordance with the law. This shows that the Qing government has made progress in the value orientation of modernization, and at the same time, China's political modernization has also taken a difficult first step.

From 1909 to 10, provincial (except Xinjiang) consultative bureaus were established one after another. The Advisory Council is the predecessor of the provincial legislature, elected by local gentry, and can make resolutions on the budget and final accounts, tax vouchers, local regulations, election of members of the Advisory Council and other reform issues in the province. If the governor does not object to this resolution, he should be responsible for implementing it; If the governor disagrees, it should be retried; When the two sides can't reach an agreement all the time, they should seek the decision of the Senior Advisory Committee. The Governor has the power to convene, suspend or dissolve consultative meetings. Therefore, the Consultative Council is not a legislature, but an institution for gentlemen to express their opinions. However, "the emergence of the consultation meeting may completely restrict the governor's arbitrary use of power." [7] Because gentlemen have an important influence at the local level, they are the pillars of the rulers in the local social economy. Even in the past, the governors did not dare to offend them easily. The establishment of the Advisory Committee undoubtedly increased the pressure on the Governor. Gentlemen constantly use various meetings and activities of the Advisory Council to reflect public opinion and safeguard public interests, which is increasingly affecting the development of local political situation. At the same time, the practice of gentlemen has continuously improved their level of democratic autonomy and participation in politics, laying the foundation for the constitutionalists to quickly take over local political power after the Revolution of 1911.

In order to meet the needs of constitutionalism, the Qing government carried out a series of reforms in administrative and judicial institutions. First of all, many bloated state institutions have been streamlined. Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple and Split Temple were all merged into the Ministry of Ritual, while the former Ministry of War, Training Department and Taibu Temple were merged into the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Finance and Finance were reorganized into branches, while the Ministry of Punishment was reorganized into the Ministry of Law. In order to clarify their responsibilities, the ministries changed the original double-headed leadership system into a single-headed leadership system. In addition to ministries and commissions, Dali College, Audit College and Senior Consultant College have been established respectively. As the highest judicial organ, Dali Academy is independent of the administrative organs, and accordingly, courts have been set up at all levels in the province. The Audit Bureau is the department responsible for auditing the accounts of various ministries. The Senior Advisory Council is the predecessor of the National Assembly, and the enactment of laws lays the foundation for the implementation of the upper and lower houses in the future. These measures are obviously conducive to the establishment of an efficient, clean and upright modern government. In May, 19 1 1, the old cabinet, military department and political department were all abolished and a "responsible cabinet" was established. The Cabinet consists of a Prime Minister and two deputy ministers, as well as ministers from the Ministries of Civil Affairs, Education, Education, War, Navy, Law, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Posts and Telecommunications, Administration and Foreign Affairs. This is the first constitutional government in the history of China. Although criticized by the five royal families, this is the first time that China has made a bold attempt to replace absolute monarchy with the responsibility cabinet system, which is a brand-new exploration.

It should also be pointed out that this constitutional reform has not lost its significance because of failure, because revolution cannot replace constitutionalism. The so-called constitutionalism, that is, constitutionalism, refers to the constitutional law (usually written constitution) formulated or recognized by most people in society, the organization, mutual relationship, rights and responsibilities and activity rules of public power, and the political and legal system aimed at protecting citizens' rights. [8] The essential feature of constitutionalism is that the Constitution and laws restrict the power of the government and protect the basic rights of citizens. Therefore, China should implement constitutional government, not only for the emperor, but also for the emperor. Constitutionalism is a restriction on power. No matter who is in power and in what name, the power in his hands must be restricted by the Constitution and laws. Before the revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, the progress of changing the absolute monarchy and implementing constitutional monarchy was undeniable. People have no reason to give up their efforts and wait for the arrival of democracy.

(3) Preparatory constitutionalism spread the knowledge of constitutionalism, enlightened the democratic political thoughts, trained a large number of intellectuals with initial democratic autonomy, and laid a mass foundation for the development of modern constitutional movement in China.

After the Qing government announced its preparation for constitutionalism, the constitutionalists at home and abroad cheered and enthusiastically supported it. They organized party groups one after another to prepare for the constitutional movement. At that time, there were overseas imperial constitutional conference and political news agencies, domestic preparatory constitutional conference and constitutional seminars. By publishing constitutional publications and books, holding legal and political workshops, investigating and editing laws, they vigorously publicized constitutional knowledge, trained judicial and local autonomy talents, and made suggestions for constitutionalism. The Qing government set up advisory boards and councils and implemented local autonomy, which greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the whole intellectual class to participate in politics. They all devoted themselves to the election of parliamentarians as a ladder to participate in politics. Take Jiangsu Provincial Consultation Bureau as an example. The first annual meeting received 184 motions, of which 95 were put forward by members, accounting for more than half, and 7 1 was a people's motion. [9] It shows that the enthusiasm and initiative of members to participate in politics are great, and it also shows that people from all walks of life also regard the consultation meeting as a public opinion organ that reflects their own opinions and then adopts their own opinions. It is through the deliberation practice of the Consultative Council that the Constitutional Councillors constantly improved their democratic consciousness and management level, which laid the foundation for them to quickly enter the political arena after the Revolution of 1911. 19 10, the constitutionalists launched three large-scale parliamentary petition movements to promote the Qing government to quickly establish the National Assembly. The number of participants reached 200,000 for the first time and 300,000 for the second time. [10] This is a mass patriotic bourgeois democratic constitutional movement that impacts the absolute monarchy. It dealt a heavy blow to the authority of the autocratic regime in the Qing Dynasty, conducted a general democratic education for the people, and widely spread constitutional knowledge to intellectual groups. In a sense, the preparatory constitutionalism in the late Qing Dynasty laid a mass foundation for the development of constitutional movement in China.