<Articles>The Meaning of the Anti-Reform Activities in the 24th Year of the Guangxu Era

The aim of this paper is to provide a new perspective on the meaning of conflict between the old and new factions during the 25th, Wuxu 戊戌, year of the era by analyzing the claims and activities of Hunan 湖南 conservatives in the 24th year of the Guangxu 光緒 era (1898). Intellectuals who took part in the Wuxu reform movement formed their own political argument distinct from that of the government. Furthermore, they sought political participation in order to implement their goals. Attacks on such reformers were delivered not only from within the government but also from lower and middle-class scholars outside the seats of authority. Opinions of the scholars appear to have been divided at the time. The split was between the reformers who viewed the will of the government in relativistic terms and the conservatives who clung tenaciously to its authority, identifying with it The fiercest struggle between the old and new factions, with the exception of the Beijing 北京 area, arose in Hunan province where the split was clear, and the Hunan conservatives sought to maintain their sense of unity with imperial authority. However in the summer of the 24th year of the Guangxu era, even after the central government decided on a reform policy, Hunan conservatives maintained their resistance to implementation of reform. Why then did these conservatives who aspired to unity with the will of the authorities refuse to follow the central government? Reform of the civil service examination system 科挙 was one of the policies promoted by the reformers. If this reform plan had been put into practice, it would have created a new path for social advancement aside from the traditional recruitment channel. Given support from the central administration, this examination reform was about to be implemented. In Hunan, it was on the verge of obtaining broad support from lower and middle-class scholars because of a proactive approach by the provincial leadership. The reform, however, would destabilize the examination system that had assured the scholars' authority and actual advancement in society and threaten the class of intellectuals itself. In fact, reformer Liang Qichao 梁啓超 argued that he recognized principles of learning other than the teachings that made scholars who they were. This shows that for reformers the assumption that politics and morality were one and the same was weakened, whether they were conscious of it or not. If they continued to implement reform, it would necessarily led to the self-destruction of the scholar class. Conservatives realized the risk, which eventually drove them to stand against the emperor's will. Under the unusual situation in which the emperor supported the reformers, how did conservatives who had risen to save the emperor try to defeat the reformers? What they did was to arouse public opinion by organizing themselves and launching political propaganda, as had the reformers. Hunan conservative leaders like Ye Dehui 葉徳輝 and Wang Xianqian 王先謙 tried to thwart the development of the reformers' policy by printing their own arguments and then distributing them as booklets. Such activities were not limited to the Hunan conservatives. They formed a coalition with intellectuals under Zhang Zhidong 張之洞 in Hubei 湖北, and in addition they made contact with central government officials. It is fair to say that the process of organizing of conservatives took place on a substantial scale. Contrary to the intention of the conservatives, their movement led to the relativization of imperial authority. This is because the conservative movement demonstrated that they also had to assume that the public opinion of the intellectuals, and not simply the emperor, was an object to which they must appeal their cause.