On Chang Chienas Change from a Constitutional Monarchist to a Republican -- Political Thought with Flexibility as the Underlying Reason

Abstract

Chang Chien was born on July 1st in 1853 in Haimen Kiangsu and died on August 24th in 1926 in Nant ung Kiangsu In spite of his extraordinary enthusiasm in the promotion of a constitutional monarchy Chang Chien changed from a constitutional monarchist to a republican within less than one month after the 1911 Revolution Why did he change This is a significant topic for discussion So far lots of scholars have done research on this topic however the answers to this question have not been completely discovered yet My finding in this paper contends that though reasons leading to Chang Chien s change were complicated the underlying reason could be attributed to his political thought with flexibility that industry education and self-government were able to be achieved under whether a constitutional monarchy or a republic to save China It would be unfair to attribute Chang Chien s change only to his personal ambition to maintain his property his prestige or to attain political power Essentially nit was also due to his pragmatic attitude and his political thought with flexibility which allow him to work out industry education and self-government for China whether under a constitutional monarchy or a republic