I. As the 19th century drew to a close, China was lacking in geopolitical prestige, ruled domestically by the decadent, declining, feudalistic, and corrupt Qing/Manchu dynasty, and on the brink of revolutionary foment.
Elitist scholar and reformist Kang Youwei wanted China to reclaim its prestige and end decades of humiliation at Western and Japanese hands.
Influenced by close study of Confucianism, Buddhism, Japan's Meiji restoration, and Western thought, Kang repeatedly tried to reform Manchu policy from within via petitions, memorials, and meetings.
Kang called for China to strengthen itself from within and resist unfair treaties.
Kang memorialized a six-point plan for a constitutional monarchy and for industrializing and modernizing China.
The entrenched Qing bureaucracy successfully resisted virtually all attempts at policy reform, threatening Kang with arrest.
Sun Yatsen, of peasant stock but educated in the West, hated the Manchus and the ignorance and superstition of the peasant masses.
Sun--surgeon, Christian, revolutionary--wanted a republican, modernizing revolution for China.
Sun's plans for a coup attempt in 1895 collapsed.
Sun escaped abroad--a pattern that was to be repeated in subsequent years.
Sun the revolutionary and Kang the reformist became rivals for leadership of China's modernization and transformation.
Kang favored a constitutional monarchy.
Kang was perceived as an extremist but was loyal to the Emperor, whom he admired.
Kang was naïve about imperial politics and the real ruling power: the Dowager Empress.
Reformist protégés of Kang, including his brother, attempted a coup against the Dowager, whose troops executed the reformers and confined the Emperor.
Kang sought financial help from Japanese and Western sources, with limited success.
Settling in Canada, Kang formed the Society to Protect the Emperor and cultivated ties with both Chinese business interes
...