| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Fiscal Year 1997: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This paper focuses on the role of Sheng Xuanhuai *** in the complex political changes under the Guang Xu (**) Political Reform after the Sino-Japanese War in 1895. It is popularly understood that the Political Reform movement was broken down by the refusal of Empresses Dowager, who after the Boxer Uprising changed its conservative policy and agreed to take an unyieding stand against the foreign powers. The general view is based on the mistaken idea that there was no effort made at institutional reform during the two years following the "Hundred Days" of 1898.
Political reform during the late Qing period began with a plan to modernize its military forces, which had been defeated by Japan. The edict of 1895, which required the reconstitution of tariffs, was the most important policy for the fiscal reconstruction of the central government. In order to change the tariff rate and increase revenue, diplomatic negotiations to revise the commercial treaty (Treaty of Tientsin, 1858) were begun in the fall of 1899. Then, as the Boxer Uprising broke out in North China, Sheng Xuanhuai took a part in diplomatic negotiations to maintain safety in Yangzu and South-east coast of China. These negotiations prepared the international protocol of 1901 and the Mackay Treaty, which revised tariff rates. It is the conventional understanding that the Guang Xu Political Reform was suddenly started in 1901 ; however, the analysis in this paper shows that Sheng Xuanhuai, who had contacted Wang Wenshao (***) , carefully presented the plan of Political Reform. Especially, it attracts our attention that Sheng Xuanhuai's telegram letter (30th Dec, 1900) to Wang Wenshao used the special term composing reform plans' one month earlier than the edict of Guang Xu Pplitical Reform, and became a key term of the Guang Xu Political Reform from 1901. The author shows that Sheng Xuanhuai proposed the establishment of an administrator for commerce.
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