East Asian History Sourcebook:
Emperor Kuang Hsu:
Abolition of the Examination System, 1898
The changes in the attitude of the court towards a new educational system began, as
do many great undertakings, in a very simple way. We have already shown how the eunuchs
secured all kinds of foreign mechanical toys to entertain the baby Emperor Kuang Hsu; how
these were supplemented in his boyhood by ingenious clocks and watches; how he became
interested in the telegraph, the telephone, steam cars, steamboats, electric light and
steam heat, and how he had them first brought into the palace and then established
throughout the empire: and how he had the phonograph, graphophone, cinematograph, bicycle,
and indeed all the useful and unique inventions of modern times brought in for his
entertainment.
He then began the study of English. When in 1894 a New Testament was sent to the
Empress Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, he at once secured from the
American Bible Society a copy of the complete Bible for himself. He began studying the
Gospel of Luke. This gave him a taste for foreign literature and he sent his eunuchs to
the various book depositories and bought every book that had been translated from the
European languages into the Chinese. To these he bent all his energies and it soon became
noised abroad that the Emperor was studying foreign books and was about to embrace the
Christian faith. This continued from 1894 till 1898, during which time his example was
followed by tens of thousands of young Chinese scholars throughout the empire, and Chang
Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making book "China's Only Hope" which, being sent to
the young Emperor, led him to enter upon a universal reform, the chief feature of which
may be considered the adoption of a new educational system.
But now let us notice the animus of Kuang Hsu. He has been praised without stint
for his leaning towards foreign affairs, when in reality was it not simply an effort on
the part of the young man to make China strong enough to resist the incursions of the
European powers? Germany had taken Kiaochou, Russia had taken Port Arthur, Japan had taken
Formosa, Great Britain had taken Weihaiwei, France had taken Kuangchouwan, and even Italy
was anxious to have a slice of his territory, while all the English papers in the port
cities were talking of China being divided up amongst the Powers, and it was these things
which led the Emperor to enter upon his work of reform.
In the summer of 1898 therefore he sent out an edict to the effect that:
"Our scholars are now without solid and practical education; our artisans are
without scientific instructors; when compared with other countries WE SOON SEE HOW WEAK WE
ARE. DOES ANY ONE THINK THAT OUR TROOPS ARE AS WELL DRILLED OR AS WELL LED AS THOSE OF THE
FOREIGN ARMIES? OR THAT WE CAN SUCCESSFULLY STAND AGAINST THEM? Changes must be made to
accord with the necessities of the times. . . . Keeping in mind the morals of the sages
and wise men, we must make them the basis on which to build newer and better structures.
WE MUST SUBSTITUTE MODERN ARMS AND WESTERN ORGANIZATION FOR OUR OLD REGIME; WE MUST SELECT
OUR MILITARY OFFICERS ACCORDING TO WESTERN METHODS OF MILITARY EDUCATION; we must
establish elementary and high schools, colleges and universities, in accordance with those
of foreign countries; we must abolish the Wen-chang (literary essay) and obtain a
knowledge of ancient and modern world-history, a right conception of the present-day state
of affairs, with special reference to the governments and institutions of the countries of
the five great continents; and we must understand their arts and sciences."
Source
Isaac Taylor Headland, 1859-1942: Court life in China: the capital,
its officials and people, (New York, F.H. Revell, c1909), Project Gutenberg Etext 523
This text is part of the Internet East Asian
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