Late Qing reformer who led a petition of examination candidates in 1895 and advised the Guangxu emperor in the 1898 reforms, then organized the Protect the Emperor Society in exile
Mural guide
Mural of the event “Hundred Days' Reform”, which this person took part in.
Defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War ignited the imperialist scramble for concessions; Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao mobilized scholars in the 'Gongche Petition' demanding radical reform.
Kang Youwei, born Kang Zuyi, courtesy name Guangsha, styled Changsu, came from Nanhai in Guangdong. In 1891 he opened a school in Guangzhou, later known as the Wanmu Caotang, where Liang Qichao studied, and in the same year published A Study of the Forged Classics of the Xin Period (Xinxue weijing kao). In 1895 he organized examination candidates in Beijing to petition against the peace treaty with Japan and for moving the capital and reform, and passed the jinshi examination that year. In 1898 the Guangxu emperor received him and adopted his proposals; after about a hundred days the Empress Dowager Cixi took back power and Kang fled abroad, founding the Protect the Emperor Society in Canada in 1899. He returned in 1913, supported Zhang Xun's brief restoration of Puyi in 1917, wrote the Book of Great Unity (Datong shu), and died in Qingdao in 1927. The Qing court ordered the printing blocks of his book on the forged classics destroyed.
Drawn to the Gongyang school, upholding Confucius and the teaching
Late Qing and early Republic
The Draft History of the Qing says Kang Youwei, courtesy name Guangxia, from Nanhai in Guangdong, studied under Zhu Ciqi and read widely in the classics and histories. He favored the Gongyang school and spoke of Confucius reforming institutions, proposed counting years from Confucius, upheld Confucius and the teaching, and first gathered pupils to teach. His writings include the Study of Confucius as Reformer, the Study of the Forged Classics, the Dong Zhongshu school of the Spring and Autumn, and the Book of Great Unity, and there are records of his lectures at the Changxing school and the Wanmu Caotang.
Qing
Republican Era
Literature · Prose
