Popular Unrest and the 1911 Revolution in Jiangsu

Abstract

What is the nature of the Chinese revolution of 1911? Who took part in it and why? How do historians interpret it? These questions still beg further consideration. What seems indisputable at this stage of research, however, is that the small groups of revolutionaries and their loosely organized alliance, the Tongmenghui, did not play a solo in the concert of the 1911 Revolution. Recent scholarship on the subject, which tends to study the revolution on the provincial level, confirms that a variety of social classes participated in the revolution-a picture far more complicated than we once believed. When all provincial pictures emerge, they may well challenge and modify some of the generalizations and hypotheses derived from the general studies of the revolution. My study proposes to take a closer look at the situation in Jiangsu province. However, this short paper can only focus on one specific aspect: the significance of the province's unrest for the Revolution of 1911. The success of the revolution-that is, the downfall of the Qing dynasty-owed much to the defection of the province's urban and rural elite, particularly the gentry and the merchants (shen shang). Thanks to their endorsement and support,