Since the outbreak of the First Opium War, many people began to realize that the Qing Empire had broken away from the trend of historical development and was gradually widening the gap with western powers. In order to restore the international status in the past, some people of insight began to try to promote various reform measures. However, the historical events that happened later proved that these reforms only treated the symptoms rather than the root cause. Therefore, some people put forward a fundamental reform of the political system, that is, changing absolute monarchy into constitutional monarchy.

With the passage of time, the Qing court found it impossible to suppress domestic calls for political reform by tough measures. Therefore, we have to put forward a "preparatory constitutional plan". However, after the official promulgation of the royal cabinet list, the public's anger was completely ignited.

Time came to the beginning of the 20th century. At this time, the Qing court had exhausted all means and still could not complete the revival of the empire. Under the pressure of public opinion from all walks of life, the Qing court finally decided to send a mission abroad to inspect the political system of western countries and reform the current political system of the empire.

1In July, 905, five ministers, headed by Zhen Guogong Zaize, officially set off for a one-month inspection tour in Europe, America and Japan. After returning to China, after internal deliberation of the Qing court, he announced to all walks of life in September that he was preparing for political reform. Because of the huge workload of political reform, it is impossible to accomplish it overnight, so it has to go through a preparatory stage, which is called "preparatory constitutionalism".

The public promulgation of the preparatory plan for the constitution gave the people the last hope. In the eyes of most people, the Qing court finally "understood" and the Qing empire seemed to have the possibility of coming back to life. It is precisely because of this that the momentum and status of the constitutionalists headed by Kang Youwei and Yang Du immediately overwhelmed the revolutionaries and won wide support and support from people from all walks of life.

These constitutionalists ran around, naively thinking that the autocratic monarchy was finally gone and a democratic society was coming. Moreover, with the promulgation of the Outline of the King James Constitution and the establishment of advisory councils, imperial politics showed obvious signs of transformation. But they wouldn't have thought that these were just "delaying tactics" used by the Qing court to perfuse the people.

After the principle of constitutionalism was announced, the Qing court reformed the central official position and abolished many administrative institutions that no longer adapted to the new system. After breaking the original six-part system, many new administrative departments have been added. Such as postal department, naval department (planned construction) and so on.

Subsequently, the Qing court ordered local governments to set up advisory boards and councils as soon as possible. The Consultative Conference is a local deliberative body that can supervise the financial and administrative management of local governments. However, the agency cannot order the government to implement the recommendations, so the advisory Committee is more like an advisory body. By 1909 10, all provinces except Xinjiang had completed the establishment according to the scheduled plan.

On the other hand, the power of the Advisory Committee has been greatly expanded, and it can discuss national taxation, finance, law and other issues. However, it should be pointed out that the High Advisory Council has no ability to amend laws. If it is to be revised, it must be submitted to the emperor for approval before it can take effect.

The establishment of consultative bureau and consultative bureau is a concrete attempt by the Qing court to imitate the western parliamentary system. Although the powers of the Consultative Council and the Consultative Council are greatly restricted, such as the selection of members of local consultative councils, the Consultative Council has no direct legislative power. However, when western countries established parliamentary system, they also had such a stage of development. As for the parliamentary system in the west, it was only in the process of continuous exploration that it was gradually improved.

19 1 1 In May, the Qing court finally made the first cabinet list public. When people look at the people on the list with anticipation, they are surprised to find that in a cabinet list composed of only 13 cabinet ministers, seven people are imperial clan members. At the same time, the proportion of Chen Han in the cabinet is also very small, only four people. It is precisely because of this that this cabinet is ironically called the "Royal Cabinet" by the world.

There is also a heated debate in academic circles about whether the composition of the royal cabinet is reasonable. In this regard, Associate Professor Xiong from the History Department of Xiangtan University mentioned several mainstream views in the academic circles in the article "Re-examination of History: A Study of the Royal Cabinet in the Late Qing Dynasty":

The formation of the royal cabinet made the people finally see the true face of the Qing court. From beginning to end, the Qing court never really wanted to reform the political system, that is, to abolish absolute monarchy and change it to constitutional monarchy. Coupled with the memory of the negative attitude of the Qing court in the previous three congressional petition movements, it is enough to make the people feel chilling.

The reason why the Qing court formed the royal cabinet was actually to continue the traditional autocratic monarchy under the constitutional monarchy. In other words, the purpose of the Qing court was to transfer the power that should have been given to all citizens to the hands of the aristocracy, which was more convenient to control. In this way, the cabinet has become a tool for the monarch to manipulate politics, so what is the significance of the political system reform in the late Qing Dynasty?

Although the establishment of the royal cabinet is enough to show that the Qing court did not really want to carry out political reform, the previous preparatory constitutional plan did have some positive effects. In particular, the establishment of the Consultation Bureau and Consultation Bureau has greatly impacted the old feudal political system in ancient China, which has been implemented for more than a thousand years, and it is also an important turning point for the old feudal political system to move towards democratization.

At the same time, the announcement of the royal cabinet list also made the constitutionalists immediately lose the hearts of the people. From this moment on, there was a fierce division within the constitutionalists. Some intellectuals who originally advocated constitutional monarchy chose to turn to revolutionaries and resolutely supported the overthrow of the old backward system in the form of revolution, which accelerated the historical process of the demise of the Qing Empire.

Since the Opium War, the Qing empire has been given a chance to revive, but the Qing court has repeatedly failed to live up to people's expectations. It can be said that the Qing court exhausted the last glimmer of hope given to it by the people in the imperial court incident and became the last straw to crush the Qing empire.

References:

1 Re-examination of history: a study of the "royal cabinet" in the late Qing Dynasty, Xiong.

2 Rational Arrangement of the Royal Cabinet, Fatal Choice, by Ma Yong.