Late Qing Reform Research Articles

Where Have All the Guixiu Gone? Chinese “Women of Talent” at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Guixiu 閨秀 (cultivated gentlewomen of the inner chambers) and cainü 才女 (women of talent) arguably became authorly identities (referring to women writing in classical verse) as women's literary culture took shape in Ming-Qing China. However, the guixiu and cainü were gradually eclipsed by their rising “modern” sisters, xin nüxing 新女性 (new women) and nü zuojia 女作家 (women writers), during the late-Qing reform (1890s) and the early-Republican New Culture movement (1910s–1920s). This study provides a historical investigation into two cases of the literary practice of men and women who carried the legacy of their Ming-Qing predecessors into the Republican era: Wang Wenru 王文濡 (1867–1935) and his Xiangyan zazhi 香艷雜誌 (Xiangyan Magazine, 1914–1916) and Gu Xianrong 顧憲融 (1901–1955), who published the Hongfan jingshe nü dizi ji 紅梵精舍女弟子集 (Collection of Female Disciples from the Abode of Red Brahman, 1928). They reveal the persistence of guixiu culture in a diversified and transformed world of literary production and consumption from the 1910s to the 1920s.

State capitalism, imperialism and China: Bringing history back in

State capitalism is experiencing a revival as a term to capture the current capitalist constellations and departures from neoliberalism. Unlike, neoliberalism, however, the term state capitalism has a long history reaching back to the age of imperialism in the late 19th century. Although state capitalism has been used as a prerogative term by Marxists, liberals, and neoliberals alike, it has served as a programmatic label for developmentalist and neomercantilist projects in reaction to imperialism in the periphery. This paper argues that we need to bring the intellectual history of state capitalism into the ‘new state capitalism’ debate. China has played a major role in the revival of state capitalism in the social sciences, but the long history of China's engagement with state capitalism as a concept and program dating back to the late Qing reformers has been overlooked for the most part. State capitalism is by no means new to China, from Liang Qichao, Sun Yatsen, and Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, the idea that China had to create a modern nation-state and industrial capitalism in the name of economic progress and to get ahead in the global competition is a recurring theme. What is new is that for the first time, the ambition to use state capitalism as a means to catch up with the West is bearing fruits in ways that could undermine the predominance of Western economies.

China’s Paths to Modern Technology: From Institutional Innovations to Confucian Scholarly Learning of Arts, 1860-1885

Driven by Western imperialism, the late Qing reformers embarked on a new path towards institutionalizing technology-related matters for attaining China’s technological independence. Hitherto, overwhelming attention has been given to the training and translation programs in the Fuzhou Navy Yard and the Jiangnan Arsenal, but the influence of both institutional models in Chinese intellectual history has been overlooked. This article recasts our understanding of the origin of both models (jiqiju for industrial manufacturing and yiju for education) in the context of borrowing and imitating Western methods, and demonstrates how the two models stimulated the Confucian scholarly learning of arts. It argues that these pre-1885 efforts and debates on rewarding talent changed the trajectory of the Chinese intellectual pursuit of technology and paved the way to reforming the entire educational system after 1895.

淸末民初 시기 杜亞泉의 정치개혁 방안- ‘減政主義’를 중심으로

This thesis examines the political reform method of Du Yaquan -Editor-in-chief of 『Eastern Miscellany(東方雜誌)』 in the 1910s-, during the period before and after the Xinhai Revolution. To analyze his thoughts on politics of that time, I focused on ‘Reducing Politics Policy(減政主義)’, a political methodology advocated by Du Yaquan himself. Before the Xinhai Revolution, Du yaquan viewed the Late Qing reforms had no practical effect. Although reform by Qing were focusing on institutional changes and adapting foreign politics. Du said that China needs is “Reducing Politics Policy” which is “consolidating and reducing government offices, reducing the number of officials, and reducing government affairs” as its core. Du thought that if the political reforms promoted by the Qing continued, it would lead to the “disappearance of politics,” which would then lead to a “collapsing of economy” since the vitality of society would be terminated. The important argument of the ‘Reducing Politics Policy’ was that, Chinese people must change the idea of government and politics being superior to society. And also the idea of government taking lead on society should be abandoned as well. Du claimed that ‘Reducing Politics Policy’, which opposes the quantitative increasement of politics, is “a new trend in various country’s society and an old experience of Chinese politics”. He also insisted that political development in the true sense should be achieved through this method. After the establishment of the Republic of China, Du''s perception and assertion of politics faced a new phase. He pointed out that it is urgent to solve the problems which existed since late Qing, such as ''the problem of centralization, excessive foreign debt, and financial disorder''. These situation lead him to emphasize the need for ''Reducing Politics Policy''. After the establishment of the Republic of China, Du added new obejective for ''Reducing Politics Policy'', which was to break down bureaucracy in China.

Police system reform in China after the Sino-Japanese War

The modern police system was first introduced in China at the beginning of the 20th century through the late Qing Reform. The Qing government sought to reform China’s traditional public safety system by modeling it after civil law standards in the world and especially after Japan’s police system—a tendency later also inherited by the Republic of China. However, there also existed a tendency of modeling after common law. This second tendency, which was manifested more in the Nationalist government period and was mainly orientated towards copying the police system of the US, was a topic not yet sufficiently dealt with in previous research. This paper examines the topic by referencing the so-called the system of “police management zones” (警管区制) implemented after the Sino-Japanese War. As postwar China was planning a radical shift towards constitutional government, this new system caused great public dispute, questioning the significance of concepts such as constitutional rule and freedom.

A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century I by Fu Jin, and: A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century II by Fu Jin

Reviewed by: A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century I by Fu Jin, and: A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century II by Fu Jin Tarryn Li-Min Chun A HISTORY OF CHINESE THEATRE IN THE 20TH CENTURY I. By Fu Jin. Translated by Zhang Qiang. London and New York: Routledge; Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 04 2020. 330 pp. 22 B/W Illustrations. Hardback, $325.00; Paperback/eBook, $99.95. A HISTORY OF CHINESE THEATRE IN THE 20TH CENTURY II. By Fu Jin. Translated by Zhang Qiang. London and New York: Routledge; Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 11 2020. 268 pp. 22 B/W Illustrations. Hardback, $160.00; Paperback/eBook, $48.95. In A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century, Fu Jin offers a comprehensive overview of Chinese theatre from 1900 to 2000 that demonstrates both a capacious attitude toward genre and close attention to the influence that political, social, and economic factors have had on content, form, and the lives of Chinese theatre artists. Fu Jin is a leading Chinese theatre historian and critic affiliated with Shandong Normal University and the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, and his Chinese-language work has long been considered essential reading for scholars and students of modern Chinese drama. First published in Chinese by China Social Sciences Press in 2016–2017, this latest work of historiography is no exception, and a new translation series published by Routledge and China Social Sciences Press makes it available in four English-language volumes. The first two volumes were released in 2020, with the remaining two published in 2021. While the scholarship itself is rigorous and insightful, the usefulness of its publication in English is tempered by poor translation and the prohibitive cost of the print editions. The first volume, A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century I (hereafter "Volume I"), is divided in two parts that examine the rise of jingju (Beijing opera) and other xiqu genres, theatrical reform campaigns (xiju gailiang yundong) at the turn of the twentieth century, and shifts in the market for the performing arts during this same [End Page 409] period. One of the most notable and valuable contributions of this first volume is that, although Part I "New Dramas and New Stages" begins with the familiar history of jingju in the late nineteenth century (Chapter 1), Fu Jin does not remain focused on China's best-known xiqu genre for long. Instead, by Chapter 2, he expands his geographic range well beyond Beijing and delves deeply into how "minor genres" (xiao xi), such as flower-and-drum (huagu), "folk minor" (tanhuang), yangge, and laozi, emerged and merged with forms such as chuju (Hubei), huju (Shanghai), chang-xi ju (Changzhou/Wuxi), yueju (Zhejiang), and pingju (Tianjin). Chapter 3 then turns to more overt attempts to "reform" the Chinese theatre among Chinese elites and intellectuals and the rise of "new drama" influenced by Western theatre, a perspective which complements the previous chapter's focus on the grassroots and popular taste. As Fu Jin describes each individual form, he also carefully details a range of different factors influencing its development: performance elements such as instrumentation and role types; changes in the stage apparatus and technology; political control and morality-based censorship; broader changes in urbanization, transportation, and communication; and the roles played by significant individuals. This methodology continues throughout subsequent sections of the book, with each using specific genres to illustrate broader points about the trajectory of theatrical development. Part II, "Updating Concepts and Adapting Theatrical Industry to Market Requirements," comprises three chapters split between Volume I and Volume II, marking a structural difference from the original and making for a rather abrupt conclusion to Volume I. In terms of content, however, Part II offers another important corrective to histories of modern Chinese drama that would draw a straight line from late Qing reformers to the debates on traditional theatre that raged in the early decades of the twentieth century. Instead, Chapter 4 demonstrates the innovation and influence of theatrical "clubs" that emerged through-out China in the early Republican period, such as the Yisu Club in...

The longer abolition of the Chinese imperial examination system (1900s–1910s)

AbstractBy connecting seemingly scattered reforms and debates over the 1900s and 1910s, this paper outlines a longer process that eroded the institutional and ideological foundations of the imperial examination system (keju) that did not vanish immediately after the 1905 abolition. Under the title incentive program introduced in 1904, keju titles had been awarded to graduates of modern schools until the very end of the Qing dynasty. As the number of modern schools surged over the 1900s, the program led to an overexpansion of title holders, and ironically enhanced the scholar-official identity that was at odds with the discipline at the modern schools. To lobby for the abolition of the program, non-official reformers of education formulated a moralized critique against the keju titles, but no substantial reform had been undertaken before the 1911 Revolution ended the Qing dynasty. In the 1910s the same network of late Qing reformers launched an ideological war against traditional values that they saw as the ideological foundation of the keju. They constructed new concepts of education and vocation that spread through a powerful network connecting education, industry, and media. This “longer abolition” of the keju produced a prolonged effect on the visions of social order in twentieth century China.

Late Qing Reforms of the Early 20th Century through the Eyes of Russian Diplomatic Representatives (based on the Documents from the Russian State Historical Archive)

In 1901, after the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion by the troops of eight powers and the signing of the "Boxer Protocol", dependence of the Qing Empire on foreign powers increased, which, in turn, aggravated the growing economic and socio-political crisis in the country. The Imperial government was forced to start a series of cultural, economic, educational, military, and political reforms known as the New Policies of the late Qing dynasty. The article presents the analysis of the reports written by Russian diplomatic representatives who at that time closely monitored the events taking place in China. The article discusses the importance of referring to such source of historical data as written reports and telegrams sent from China by Russian representatives and now kept in the funds of the Russian State Historical Archive. These documents can provide scholars with a complete picture of the initial stage of the "the New Policies" and the struggle for political influence related to it, which is of great importance in understanding the complicated period of Chinese history. The documents reviewed were not only summaries of the collected and accumulated information, but also contained a deep analysis of the events taking place in China. Characteristics of high-ranking Chinese officials contained in the reports of Russian representatives are invaluable. Moreover, in these sources one can find the assessment given to the attitude of the Western powers and Japan towards the reforms started in China. The study of the archival documents brings us to the conclusion that being well-trained sinologists, Russian diplomats and representatives of the Ministry of Finance were careful observers of the Late Qing reforms and could make far-reaching forecasts.

Jerim League during the Late Qing Reforms (1907–1911) as a Case Study of Late Imperial China's Frontier Policy and Inter-Ethnic Administration

Jerim League during the Late Qing Reforms (1907–1911) as a Case Study of Late Imperial China's Frontier Policy and Inter-Ethnic Administration

The formation of the legal system for modern planning in China before 1950: comparison with Japan’s 1919 act

ABSTRACTTraditionally, city construction in China was to follow an order guided by the Book of Rites, and city management has no independent law but relies on the traditional Lu Li legal system. Overall, their modern transition started after the Opium War, beginning with the foreign settlements and concessions, and spurred on by the Late Qing Reform for constitutionalism and a modern state legal system. From then to the 1930s, the whole nation experienced frequent wars and overlapping political powers. Local urban planning exploration was active and diverse, but the overall development path was complex. In this context, two urban planning laws were born in late 1930s. Given this complex development background, further review of knowledge dissemination and interaction is needed to clarify the formation history and concurrently analyze its meaning. Japan, which not only shared a similar modernization experience but was also one of the important sources of introduction for modern knowledge, was selected as an object of comparison. By comparing the terms used, the specific content, and development path of the respective countries’ laws, this article aims to reveal and outline the overall characteristics of how the legal system for modern planning formed in China.

An Onto-Hermeneutic Turn in China's Political Modernization: The Revival and Reconfiguration of Confucianism During the Late Qing Reform

An Onto-Hermeneutic Turn in China's Political Modernization: The Revival and Reconfiguration of Confucianism During the Late Qing Reform

Legal orientalism? The poor Chinese culture and US–China intellectual property disputes since the late Qing dynasty

From the nineteenth-century late Qing dynasty reform to China's endeavor to construct a twenty-first-century knowledge economy, intellectual property has frequently stuck out as a core agenda of China–foreign diplomatic and trading relations. Such a history is usually interpreted from two perspectives: one is an ‘infringement perspective’ in which China is understood as a notorious infringer of foreign intellectual property; the other is a ‘transplant perspective’ which argues that China's modern intellectual property laws emerge and progress as the consequence of foreign pressure. Both interpretations intend to hold that China's passive role in modern intellectual property law making is ultimately cultural – that is, the notion of intellectual property is alien to Chinese culture. This paper takes a completely different cultural perspective. Through micro-level historical details, it addresses the following fundamental question – was the authentic Chinese culture present or accessible by the Westerners (as well as many Chinese) in that part of history? In a broader context, it further addresses another crucial question – if the authentic Chinese culture is yet to be presented or accessible, shouldn't (legal) orientalism be regarded as a consequence of cultural unawareness rather than cultural prejudice?

Li Ruqian, the Lu Xun of the Nineteenth Century

AbstractThis paper discusses the biography, thought, and works of Li Ruqian (1852–1909). He was appointed Consul in Kobe 1882–84, during which period he studied the political institutions and culture of Meiji Japan and the West, eventually translating Washington Irving’s biography of George Washington into Classical Chinese, a book which exercised a great influence on late Qing reformers. Li’s literary theory strongly emphasized the importance of originality. He also cultivated a style that was simpler and closer to spoken Chinese than many of his contemporaries. He eventually espoused a thoroughgoing reform of Chinese government and society. He abandoned the idea of the centrality of Chinese culture for a worldview of cultural relativity in which all cultures of the world are viewed as equally valid. After his return to China Li became even more involved in reform activities, but soon he became almost totally alienated from Chinese society and even began expressing strong doubts about the whole tradition of classical writing. In his poems and prose works, he warned Chinese intellectuals to abandon their smug conservatism and adapt to the new world or perish, making fun of his own society in biting satirical pieces that remind one of the writings of Lu Xun’s May Fourth era. Li Ruqian may, indeed, be the first Chinese author to develop the idea of Chinese inadequacy and guilt which is so common in the literature of the next century.

Continuity and transformation: the institutions of the Beijing government, 1912–1928

The period of the Beijing government of Republican China (1912–1928) occurred after the 1911 Revolution that toppled the imperial system and before the rule of the Nanjing Nationalist government. For modern China, it was an era of frequent trial and error in implementing political systems, as well as a significant phase of institutional transition following the New Policy reforms of the late Qing. Many twists and turns during this period of historical evolution stemmed from problems of the late Qing political reform. The three major issues occurring during the 1912–1928 era, namely the legitimacy of the government, the relationship between its legislative and executive branches, and the relationship between the central government and the provinces, were all dominated by the profound influence of traditional Chinese political and cultural frameworks. All of this made the 1912–1928 era more complicated than the late Qing period, increased the difference between one stage of institutional change and another, and accelerated the change in political systems while also broadening the choices available. Therefore, we should not only focus on the complex contention among all parties, but also acquire a deeper understanding of the limits imposed upon institutional renovation by tradition and circumstances through examination of the institutional adaptations behind the chaotic partisan politics.

Returning to the Middle Kingdom: Yung Wing and the recalled students of the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States

AbstractThis article re-examines the frustrated Westernizing efforts of Yung Wing and the recalled students of the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States (1872–1881). It does so in response to recent scholarship (in both the Chinese and the English languages) which affirms the ‘transformative role’ of the returnees in late Qing reform and modernization. On the basis of a variety of sources, this article suggests, instead, that for those patriotic students returning to the Middle Kingdom, eager to bring about a fundamental change in its political system and rejuvenation of its civilization, disillusionment was often inevitable, and the choice—short of revolution—became one of either marginalization or co-option by the autocratic state. Despite all their achievements, China's earliest students of the West ultimately failed to set the country upon a new modernizing course—a failure that pointed, beyond itself, to an emerging (and subsequently persistent) pattern in the troubled relationship between the new, Westernized elite and the state in modern China.

INTRODUCTION: 1911 AND CHINESE-STYLE DEMOCRACY

discourse, were discussions of ‘‘people’s rights (民權 minquan),’’ ‘‘constitutional government (憲政 xianzheng),’’ and ‘‘republicanism (共和 gonghe).’’ All of these were advocated as ways to overcome the people’s alienation from the state. It was repeatedly argued that if the people had a voice in government they would identify with it; the slavish passivism created by autocratic government would be replaced by a new patriotic identification with the nation. This was the logic of the late Qing constitutional reforms, and was powerfully supported by Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict widely interpreted as demonstrating the nationstrengthening virtues of constitutionalism over autocracy. In China’s imperiled international position, surrounded and threatened by voracious imperialist powers, only constitutional government giving the people some rights to political participation could save the empire and the nation. 2 But how would this work in practice? A critical component of the constitutional reforms was the institution of elections to local and provincial assemblies. In the today’s world, elections are commonly regarded as the central component of democratic politics. Western governments and NGOs committed to promoting democracy put much of their energy into election-monitoring, while those anxious to put a democratic face on naked efforts to retain power (think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Hamid Karzai) go to extraordinary lengths to manipulate election results. But elections did not

Race and Revolution: Blackness in China's Long Twentieth Century

It is in the context of race and revolution during china's long twentieth century that we can best understand the many implications of Ferdinand Oyono's Une vie de boy (1956) in China, where it was translated into the standard Sinitic script as (“The Life of a Boy Servant”) in 1984.The cycle that had begun as a national strengthening movement in the 1890s achieved some kind of completion or vindication with the early-twenty-first-century rise of China on the world stage. Chinese sovereignty was not only achieved during this century but flaunted; revolutions were not only won but largely put aside. Throughout this process, racial thinking played a crucial role, but its significance has been largely ignored because of an all-consuming nationalism that justified itself through a discourse of wounding: China was the victim of Western imperialism and the object of racism. Racism was and is supposed to be a problem for other, principally Western nations, with tainted histories of slavery and imperialism—hence the failure to acknowledge that Chinese nationalism actually has a distinct, though shifting, racial character. Chinese racial nationalism, and, for a time, racial internationalism under Mao, was a major undercurrent in China's revolutionary sequence in the long twentieth century: the late Qing reform and the ensuing republican revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Manchu Qing dynasty; the communist revolution of 1949, which drove out Western and Japanese imperialism and overthrew the republican government; and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, the end of which started China on the path to postsocialism, or “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Mining the Way to Wealth and Power: Late Qing Reform of Mining Law (1895–1911)

This article traces the origins of Chinese alignment with Western mining laws to the last years of the Qing dynasty. I argue that the first decade of the twentieth century was the fundamental watershed in China between early modern views of mining and those held by the Chinese government today.

Chinese Utopianism: A Comparative Study of Reformist Thought with Japan and Russia, 1898–1997 (review)

Reviewed by: Chinese Utopianism: A Comparative Study of Reformist Thought with Japan and Russia, 1898–1997 Viren Murthy (bio) Shiping Hua. Chinese Utopianism: A Comparative Study of Reformist Thought with Japan and Russia, 1898–1997. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. 208 pp. Hardcover $35.00, ISBN 978-0-804-76161-1. Among the many changes that occurred during the transition from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century, one could count a general shift away from revolutionary utopias. Of course, in the final decades of the twentieth century, people already criticized utopian thought and doubted the search for alternatives to the world of global capitalism, and so we can understand the pessimism of the twenty-first century as continuing a larger trend. However, during the greater part of the twentieth century, people in China and elsewhere showed a faith in [End Page 439] utopia and the possibility of a different future. Hence, it is particularly interesting now, from the standpoint of the early twenty-first century, to look back from a comparative point of view at the different utopian projects that pervaded the previous century. This is exactly what Shiping Hua does in his book, Chinese Utopianism: A Comparative Study of Reformist Thought with Japan and Russia, 1898–1997. Hua compares governmental policies and ideologies of reform in Japan, China, and Russia and argues that political changes in these three countries occurred as ruling elites implemented reforms in response to structural problems, but emphasizes that the resulting trajectories were influenced by cultural traditions. The author’s focus is on twentieth-century China. He has divided the book into six chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter is titled “Theory and Method”; the second provides a general discussion of utopianism in Japan, Russia, and China; the third chapter concerns modernizing reforms in Japan and China; the fourth is titled “Reforms within Communism: The Soviet Union”; the fifth is titled “Reforms within Communism: China”; and the sixth is titled “Reforms out of Communism: China and the Soviet Union.” The conclusion is titled “Hopefulness toward the Future as Nature, Supernatural, and the Product of Human Endeavor.” In the second chapter, he lays out a major point in the book, specifically, that Chinese utopian thought is connected to the prevalence of the Taoist small kingdoms with limited population, a tradition of peasant rebellions, and especially, the Confucian ideas of the grand harmony (datong). Hua shows the importance of the concept of the grand harmony in Chinese thought by comparing the Meiji reforms to the late Qing reforms, namely the Hundred Days Reform during the late Qing. In chapter 3, the author compares the Meiji thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) to the late Qing philosopher Kang Youwei (1858–1927) and contends that both were representative of the political culture of their respective societies. In general, Hua argues that by comparing Kang and Fukuzawa, we can conclude that the Chinese were more radical than their Japanese counterparts. He cites Kang: “[S]low reform is not as good as rapid reform; little change is not as good as wholesale change” (p. 33). A few pages later, he explains the difference in terms of culture. “The traditional Japanese notion of accepting life as it is, as discussed in Chapter 2, probably explains why the Meiji leaders adopted moderate strategies with limited goals, while the Chinese traditional belief that striving will lead to a better life for the group may explain the impatience and greater ambition of the late Qing reformers” (p. 36). Hua continues this mode of analysis in his treatment of reforms during the communist period and interestingly points out that reformers of Mao’s China, such as Chen Boda, were inspired by the idea of datong (p. 76). In discussing the Great Leap Forward, he notes that in 1958, “Mao visited the People’s Communes in Xu Shui County, Hebei Province. The leaders from the CCP Central Committee’s Department of Peasant Affairs were asked to bring Kang Youwei’s Datongshu with [End Page 440] them ‘as the guideline for the People’s Commune’ ” (p. 76). Moreover, in what could be described as an invocation of Confucius, Mao claimed that one should rely on...

The Cultural Politics of Local Education in Early Twentieth-Century China

STEPHEN C. AVERILL 4 THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF LOCAL EDUCATION IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA STEPHEN C. AVERILL, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY The tight connection between Confucian learning, government service, and social standing fostered and reinforced by China’s imperial order meant that the abolition of this order early in the twentieth century profoundly affected educational attitudes and institutions. It also transformed China’s political, social, and cultural landscape generally. Some of these effects, such as the evolution of formal educational institutions , the incubation of innovative cultural attitudes and activities in the nation’s modern schools, and their intimate interaction with the New Culture and May Fourth movements of the 1910s and 1920s, have been well studied. However, other important aspects and implications of the educational transition from empire to republic either are much less well known or are misunderstood. One relatively unexplored topic is the impact of abolition of the examination system and its replacement by a new network of Western-influenced schools on the cultural politics of the late Qing reforms. A related question is how late Qing educationrelated cultural and political conflicts affected the later and better-known New Culture-May Fourth era struggles. A common assumption is that the deeply iconoclastic New Culture and May Fourth movements, and the school-centered activities so closely associated with them, were largely de novo creations of the late 1910s and 1920s. But this perspective fails to recognize the existence and subsequent impact of an earlier wave of school-centered cultural conflict surrounding the introduction and expansion of the late Qing school system, some aspects of which are captured in this symposium’s papers by Steven B. Miles and Elizabeth VanderVen. The focus on the urban iconoclasm of the May Fourth era has also led to the relative neglect of research on the social, cultural, and political impact of educational change (both before and especially after 1919) on the lives of hundreds of thousands of rural elites in what was still an overwhelmingly agrarian society. With these issues in mind, this article explores aspects of the cultural politics of China’s post-civil service examination educational system as it evolved during the first third of the twentieth century. The first half of the essay examines aspects of the introduction and early evolution of the new school system during the last decade of Qing rule to demonstrate both the resilience of the examination system and the Qin Shao and Robert Culp edited the final version of this essay, which had to be shortened somewhat from its original form. We have tried, as much as possible, to leave the original prose and argument intact. We apologize for any errors or inconsistencies that might have resulted from the editing process. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for Twentieth-Century China, who provided valuable suggestions for polishing the final version of this essay. We also acknowledge Christopher A. Reed for his commitment to including Steve’s voice in this issue dedicated to commemorating his work. Volume 32, No. 2 TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA 5 concrete impact of new schools on the reconfiguration of social groups and cultural models. It emphasizes the often-divergent aims and expectations regarding the new system that were held by the Qing court, reformist elites, and other groups, and highlights the challenges and compromises in the process of educational reform. It focuses on the struggle of the literate elites, including those in rural China, who had been deeply enmeshed in and partly defined by the civil service examination system, to adapt to the new system and reinvent themselves in part through the use of educational institutions. The intense politicization of the new “educational circles (教育界 jiaoyu jie)” in the late Qing, as indicated by widespread student protest and informal organizational activity, represented an organic growth of political activism from the transition in the school system and student identity. This part of the essay thus illustrates that broader patterns of social change and political conflict brought about by the introduction of the new system—characterized by campus unrest, cultural debates, associational development, critical publications, and political participation—were already underway before the May Fourth era began. The second half of the essay shifts chronologically...