Journal of Race Development - 1910 - 4.pdf

7/27/2019 Journal of Race Development - 1910 - 4.pdf

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Recent Administrative Changes in China

Author(s): F. W. WilliamsSource: The Journal of Race Development, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jul., 1910), pp. 12-17Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29737844 .

Accessed: 04/10/2013 02:05

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RECENT ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES IN CHINA.By Professor F. W. Williams, Yale University.

The humiliation of punishment received at the hands offoreigners in the year of debacle, 1900, aroused the ChineseGovernment to issue an edict in 1901 calling for the opinionsof the higher officials upon the subject of administrativechanges desirable in the crisis. The replies received resultedin two measures adopted in that year, the substitution ofa Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Wai-wu Pu, in place ofthe old and discredited Tsung4i Yam?n, and the creation ofa Bureau of Political Affairs for the purpose of consideringall propositions for political reforms. Capable men were alsosent to Japan to study and report upon all that had beenachieved there in the alteration of her ancient institutions.Reforms looking toward a new scheme of national educationat this time were happily facilitated by the closing of thetriennial examination at Peking and in the three northernprovinces as a punitive measure in the treaties exacted byforeigners. Left for a time without their accustomed machin?ery for passing scholars into the group of eligibles for office,the Chinese authorities could afford, without meeting theopposition of the old scholarly class, to arrange for the intro?duction into the curriculum of future candidates for civilservice examinations the scientific studies from the Occident.

A great crop of schools sprang up all over the Empire and ina few years the Government found itself strong enough toabolish forever the ancient system of classical examinationsfor office. This advance in opinion was followed in 1905 bythe creation of a commission to study the governments ofthe chief powers of the Western world. Its report broughtabout the promise of a constitution for China in August,1906.

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3/7

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES IN CHINA 13

This year marks an epoch in the history of China. In itthe old machinery, taken over wholesale from the Mingsat the time of the Manchu conquest, was reorganized and theancient Six Boards ofGovernment with Chinese and ManchuPresidents in duplicate were remodeled, without, however,reducing the new boards to a really logical series or creatinga cabinet through which they might report as a unit to the

Emperor. As reconstructed, they comprise eighteen depart?ments, of which eleven constitute proper Ministries. Theyare those of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Civil Appoint?ments, Finance, Rites, Justice, Agriculture-Works-Com?merce, Colonies, Army, Education and Communications,to which aMinistry of the Navy has recently been added.Though these changes were important and promising, itneed not be thought that they effectually altered the courseof Chinese thought, the conflict of parties or the influenceof corruption in controlling the politics of the Empire; yetsomething, undoubtedly, was begun which will go on.By the beginning of the year 1908, the twomost prominentViceroys, Chang Chi-tung and Yuan Shi-kai, had beenrelieved of their governments and associated with Prince

Chun, the Emperor's brother and now Regent of the Empire,as Grand Councillors to the Throne. Their labors resultedin the publication of a general scheme for successive reforms,to be undertaken during nine years, and the outlines of aconstitution, together with certain election laws and aNational Diet, to be established in 1917. Unfortunately,within three months from the date of this epoch-makingannouncement the Emperor and Empress-Dowager wereboth dead, and ere the close of another year Yuan fcad beendismissed from the service of the Throne, Chang was dead,and Tuan Fang, the leading progressive Manchu Viceroy,had been cashiered. The Regent, however, considers him?self personally committed to the furtherance of the reformmeasures with which he has been so closely identified, andthe promise of a serious prosecution of the work is suffi?ciently bright to warrant an examination of the programthus far arranged.The plan as published resembles in general a similar pro



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14 F. W. WILLIAMS

nunciamento with the promise of a constitution issued inJapan in 1889. First comes a consideration of the place ofthe Sovereign: He is declared to be sacred and inviolable,vested with all the rights of State and control, and creatingof his own will certain bodies to assist him in his rule. Theseclauses are copied from the Japanese constitution. Subjectsof the Emperor are obliged to observe the law, pay taxesand serve in the army when required, but they may holdoffice, stand for election, enjoy liberty of speech and free?dom from arrest, except under process of law, and keep theirproperty inviolable unless fairly condemned to lose it. TheNational Diet, when assembled, shall have two houses. Itsconstitution isnot yet fully determined, but while the Throneseems to reserve in all cases the right of absolute veto overits acts, the annual budget will require its consent and it

will be allowed to discuss every measure affecting the wholeEmpire as well as impeach high officials, though itmay notinterfere with the imperial prerogative of appointment anddismissal.

Before this body is convened and the franchise regulated,successive changes are arranged for the intervening yearsthrough 1916. These contemplate a general census by 1914,a gradual extension of the present educational system,especially increasing the number of primary schools, thepublication of necessary text-books, the establishment ofan Imperial University and of a Peers' School at Peking.

More important than these are the laws covering changes inlocal government, a national police or gendarmerie and therelegation of all criminal and legal matters?at present aprovincial concern?to a national Department of Justice,together with the preparation of a code and new laws of pro?cedure and of commerce. Upon the success of this funda?

mental reconstruction of the Satrap system of territorialgovernment the future of China must depend. As to finance,an edict contemplating an entire reorganization has alreadybeen published. National accounts and a system of Impe?rial taxation are provided for, and a Board of Audit or Financeis to be placed in control. The gold standard is to be intro?duced by successive steps, the old distinction between Man



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chu and Chinese abolished, two million Manchu Bannermenand their families incorporated in the general population,and a national army and navy created to replace the pro?vincial levies?a necessary change, for the Manchus in ChinaProper have long been a burden upon the Empire and theprovincial armies practically useless as a support to theThrone.

Finally, the program provides for Provincial Assemblies,the first sessions of which were held last fall, and a Pro?visional Parliament to be assembled in the capital next Octo?ber and meet annually until replaced by the Diet of the Em?pire in 1917. The provinces are divided into districts calledchen and hsiang, in each of which local bodies shall beelected for two years to discuss matters of agriculture,trade, education, public health, the poor and the like, theiracts being carried out by a small executive committee inevery commune. They replace the ancient semi-moral andpunitive powers of the Village headsmen, whose functionsare for the most part transferred to higher officials and deter?

mined by courts of law. Above them come the Tsz-ichu,or Provincial Parliaments, containing from thirty to onehundred and forty members according to the size and impor?tance of the province, twenty-two in number, meetingannually, a third of the members going out each year. Thefranchise is restricted to males over twenty-five years oldwho have been officials or possess a literary degree

or second?ary education, or who own property worth more than $5,000.The Parliament has but one chamber and considers financialand legal matters pertaining to the province, petitions andpropositions from citizens, disputes between self-governingbodies and inquiries from the Governor. It also takes upillegal acts of officials and in case the Governor refuses tocarry out its resolutions the case is referred to the Provi?sional Parliament. Various opinions have been reported asto the value in practice of the initial sessions of these Provin?cial assemblies. European observers seem to be doubtfulof their promise, but the Japanese, mindful of some unpleas?ant features which marked the beginning of representativegovernment in their own country, appear to take a favorable



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16 F. W. WILLIAMS

view. It is a good sign that the elections passed off withoutdisturbance or corruption, and that in some of them mattersof importance were debated with considerable ability andsigns of careful preparation.

The Provisional Parliament, called Tsz-cheng Yuan,designed to prepare the way for the Diet, will consist oftwo hundred members in one chamber, half of them chosenby the Provincial Governors from 200 members of the Pro?vincial Parliaments nominated by these bodies, the otherhalf appointed by the Emperor from the Imperial Clan,hereditary nobles, tributary chiefs, Government officials ofcertain ranks, men of wealth and learned scholars. Thistemporary body will be of some importance in training menfrom all over the country in methods of parliamentarygovernment. It will discuss only matters of Imperial impor?tance and submit to the Throne disputes between provincesand between the Governors and their legislatures. Allquestions involving the laws of the Empire or the ImperialClan are excepted from discussion, but if this Parliamentand any high officer should disagree in matters of privilegeor because of violations of the law, itmay by a two-thirdsvote submit the dispute with an expression of its opinion tothe Throne. It will be noted that the framers of all thispolitical machinery reserve the real authority in the handsof the sovereign as in past ages. Without any supreme judi?ciary, a responsible ministry, or cohesion between differentdepartments of Government or provincial administrations,the whole political life of China ismade to depend upon thewill of one individual. Obviously the Manchu Monarchdoes not propose voluntarily to establish in power his ownjudge and executioner. Yet we need not condemn him with?out consideration of the situation in which the Empire isnow placed. It needs, during the present generation, astrong and wise ruler rather than full political liberty andrepresentative institutions. It has watched Japan prosperunder the difficult process of transition to Western methodsof rule, while, with far greater resources, China has in thesame period narrowly escaped political extinction. The chiefreason for this difference has been because Japan was well



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centralized and able to insure her defence by military reforms,while China, owing to a deplorable lack of centralization, hasbeen robbed and invaded by foreigners and harried by rebel?lious subjects. Her great need now is not liberty so muchas control under one hand, the reduction of the militaryand fiscal independence of the provinces, and the subordina?tion of local plans and prejudice to Imperial purposes. Untileducation has done its work and she ismentally and morallyin readiness, China has no need of a greatly restricted mon?archy or of assemblies that actually represent the great andignorant majority of her people.

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Journal of Race Development - 1910 - 4.pdf

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