19th Century China

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 189

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