The Factional Function of Print: Liang Qichao, Shibao , and the Fissures in the Late Qing Reform Movement

Abstract

��� Shibao (The Eastern Times), the Shanghai daily which would become the most influential reform organ of its day, was one of the seventeen newspapers created or actively supported by Liang Qichao throughout his career as a publicist.1 Its history began by dictate from the group of reformists exiled to Tokyo after the 1898 coup. In the early spring of 1904, Kang Youwei instructed Di Baoxian and Luo Xiaogao, who were both living in Japan, to return to Shanghai and prepare for the establishment of the new daily.2 In April of that year, Liang Qichao risked visiting Shanghai in order to guide these preparations. Forced to remain under cover, he changed his name and took up residence on the third floor of the Japanese Tigers' Den hotel in the Hongkou Section of the city. During his approximately three week stay, Liang acted as Kang Youwei's emissary in laying the groundwork for the establishment of Shibao, meeting frequently with Di, who was to become the newspaper's future publisher, and Luo, who was to serve as general editor. It was Liang who chose the newspaper's name, wrote the Inaugural Statement for its first edition, and outlined its general regulations.3 Kang and Liang's role in founding Shibao, combined with the historicgraphical tendancy to view reform elites in this period as part of a single monolithic force, has led to the characterization of Shibao as either the propaganda organ of the exiled reformists, or as the mouthpiece of the constitutional movement.4 These representations fail, however, to reflect the complexity of the newspaper's network of affiliations, the distinctiveness of its own political positions, and the fissures that existed in the late Qing reform movement.