On Chang Chien's 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, it 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. This paper is also to explore, after his change to a republican, Chang Chien's decisive role behind the scene in the North-South negotiation from December 1911 to February 1912 leading to abdication of the Ch'ing government under some concession in exchange for the support of Yuan Shih-k'ai as the president of the republic.