The 1898 reform movement failed because it was too radical and it went against many Chinese people and their beliefs. Hsu argues that the reform went to fast and the changes made caused resentment form the Chinese. Gray argues that much that they tried to do had already been done before and the reform movement tried to avoid unnecessary opposition, for example the study of classics remained the basis, the military and industrial advances couldn’t be considered radical as these had already started from before. The development of agriculture and sericulture and the usage of state institutions to promote new techniques was older in China then in the west, thus Gray argued that the reform could hardly be considered as radical.
Hsu, Fairbank and Reishaner argue that the steps taken in the reform caused much opposition. For example, as Hsu argues the abolition of the eight-legged essay caused much resentment amongst the students who had spent a lot of time preparing for the civil service examinations and then realized that the government didn’t want what they had learnt. He also argues that the elimination of the sinecure offices and three government ships caused much resentment and fear of being dismissed. Fairbank and Reishaner also argue the same concepts, suggesting that rebellion also failed of the resentment from the different groups, the transformation of the monasteries into schools caused much resentment from the monks. Conversely, Gray argues that the reformers knew that there would be great resentment if the examinations were abolished because they were graduates themselves, therefore they didn’t abolish the system abruptly and only abolished the eight-legged essay which many Confucian thinkers had already criticized in the past. He argues that the elimination if the sinecure offices and post were those of great waste anyways and the emperor also said that all that that were made redundant “should be maintained in Beijing on the grounds that the development of china would require more ‘rather then a few officials’”
Gray claims that the actual problem was that the sinecure posts were mostly jobs held by the Manchus. Similarly Hsu agrees that the gap between the Manchus and the Chinese has increased and since all the reformers besides the emperor were Chinese, the Manchus felt threatened and wanted to stop the reform. The military reforms took away the privileges of the Manchu banner men and the Chinese green standard army. There was much resentment form the Manchus and this was one of the reasons the reform failed.
The 1898 Reform movement failed because of the inexperience of the reformers. Kang and his chef follower Liang Ch’i-ch’ao both didn’t have any experience in government service. They also didn’t have any proper knowledge of the westerners and their culture as neither had traveled abroad there knowledge was superficial as it was based on missionary publications and what they had seen in the colonial administrations in Hong Kong and shanghai. Kang was an idealist, who had very little knowledge about politics. He won over the emperor as a source of power but failed to realize that the real power was still held by the empress dowager, he also believed that with the emperor he could overcome any difficulties and therefore did not consider the effects of the reform on others. Since 1961, the empress dowager had the ultimate power; she was very experienced compared to the inexperienced reformers. She was in control of the political and military affairs and the army was ready to defend her interests. The emperor and the reformers turned to Yuan Shih Kai for support but he chose to support the dowager and that was the collapse of the reform. Gray also argues that the empress dowager had the real power and the emperor’s rejections of Rong Lu’s recommendations were the real reason for the failure of the hundred day crisis.
The 1898 reform movement failed for many different reasons. Different historians have different views on why the reform failed. Hsu, Reischauer and Fairbank view the reform as a radical movement that was not accepted by everyone. Hsu says that the empress dowager held power and was too experienced compared to the inexperienced reformers. Contrastingly Gray argues that reform was not radical and there was no real evidence of opposition against it. He argues that the reform failed because communication between the emperor and the reformers was opposed and the empress dowager held the real power.
