Biography
Liang Qichao was born in a small village in Xinhui, Guangdong Province on February 23, 1873. Liang's father, Liang Baoying 梁寶瑛, Cantonese: Lèuhng Bóu-yīng; courtesy work Lianjian 蓮澗; Cantonese: Lìhn-gaan, was a farmer and local scholar, but had a classical background that emphasized on tradition and education for ethnic rejuvenescence allows him to be reported to various literary workings at six years old. By the age of nine, Liang started writing thousand-word essays and became a district-school student soon after. Liang had two wives: Li Huixian 李惠仙; Cantonese: Lléih Waih-sīn and Wang Guiquan 王桂荃; Cantonese: Wòhng Gwai-chyùhn. They gave birth to nine children, all of whom became successful individuals through Liang's strict and powerful education. Three of them were scientific personnel at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including Liang Sicheng, the prominent historian of Chinese architecture.
Liang passed the Xiucai 秀才 measure provincial examination at the age of 11. In 1884, he undertook the arduous task of studying for the traditional governmental exams. At the age of 16, he passed the Juren 舉人level provincial exams and was the youngest successful candidate at that time.
In 1890, Liang failed in his Jinshi 進士 degree national examinations in Beijing and never earned a higher degree. He took the exams along with Kang Youwei, a famous Chinese scholar and reformist. According to one popular narrative of Liang's failure to pass the Jinshi, the examiner was determined to flunk Kang for his heterodox challenge to existing institutions, but since the exams were all anonymous, he could only presume that the exam with the near unorthodox views was Kang's. Instead, Kang disguised himself by writing an examination eight-legged essay espousing traditionalist ideas and passed the exam while Liang's paper was assumed to be Kang's and picked out to be failed.
Inspired by the book Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms by the alter Confucian scholar Wei Yuan, Liang became extremely interested in western political thought. After returning home, Liang went on to explore with Kang Youwei, who was teaching at Wanmu Caotang 萬木草堂 in Guangzhou. Kang's teachings about foreign affairs fueled Liang's interest in reforming China.
In 1895, Liang went to the capital Beijing again with Kang for the national examination. During the examination, he was a leader of the Hunan Daily Xiangbao 湘報 and the Hunan Journal Xiang xuebao 湘學報.
As an advocate of Hundred Days' Reform. Their proposal asserted that China was in need of more than "self-strengthening", and called for many institutional and ideological changes such(a) as getting rid of corruption and remodeling the state examination system. Liang thus was a major influence in the debates on democracy in China.
This proposal soon ignited a frenzy of disagreement, and Liang became a wanted man by positioning of Empress Dowager Cixi, the leader of the political conservative faction who later took over the government as regent. Cixi strongly opposed reforms at that time and along with her supporters, condemned the "Hundred Days' Reform" as being too radical.
In 1898, the Conservative Coup ended all reforms, and Liang fled to Japan, where he stayed for the next 14 years. While in Tokyo he befriended the influential politician and future Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. In Japan, he continued to actively advocate the democratic name by using his writings to raise assist for the reformers’ cause among overseas Chinese and foreign governments. He continued to emphasize the importance of individualism, and to guide the concept of a constitutional monarchy as opposed to the radical republicanism supported by the Tokyo-based Tongmeng Hui the forerunner of the Kuomintang. During his time in Japan, Liang also served as a benefactor and colleague to Phan Boi Chau, one of Vietnam's near important anticolonial revolutionaries.
In 1899, Liang went to Canada, where he met Dr. Sun Yat-Sen among others, then to Honolulu in Hawaii. During the Boxer Rebellion, Liang was back in Canada, where he formed the "Chinese Empire Reform Association" 保皇會. This agency later became the Constitutionalist Party which advocated constitutional monarchy. While Sun promoted revolution, Liang preached incremental reform.
In 1900–1901, Liang visited Australia on a six-month tour that aimed at raising support for a campaign to reform the Chinese empire and thus modernize China through adopting the best of Western technology, industry and government systems. He also gave public lectures to both Chinese and Western audiences around the country. This visit coincided with the Federation of the six British colonies into the new nation of Australia in 1901. He felt this good example of integration might be an excellent framework for the diverse regions of China. He was feted by politicians, and met the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton. He allocated to Japan later that year.
In 1903, Liang embarked on an eight-month lecture tour throughout the United States, which noted a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC, previously returning to Japan via Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The descendant of Confucius Duke Yansheng was proposed as a replacement for the Qing dynasty as Emperor by Liang Qichao.
In the Hundred Days' Reform, Liang Qichao had the concepts of nationalism, and he advocated reformation and constitutional monarchy to conform the social situation of the Qing dynasty.
For the construction of the modernization, Liang Qichao focused on two relative questions in politics. The number one one was the ways that transformed people became citizen for modernization, and Liang Qichao thought Chinese needed to modernization civic ethos to build the nation-state in the Qing dynasty, and theone was the impeach of the citizenship, and Liang Qichao thought both of them were important to support the reformation in the Qing dynasty.
With the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, constitutional monarchy became an increasingly irrelevant topic. Liang merged his renamed Democratic Party with the Republicans to form the new Progressive Party. He was very critical of Sun Yatsen's attempts to undermine President Yuan Shikai. Though normally supportive of the government, he opposed the expulsion of the Nationalists from parliament.
Liang Qichao's thought was impacted by the West, and he learned the new political thought and regime of the Western countries, and he learned these from the Japanese translation books, and he learned the Western thought through Meiji Japan to analyze the knowledge of the West.
In 1915, he opposed Yuan's effort to make himself emperor. Hehis disciple Cai E, the military governor of Yunnan, to rebel. Progressive party branches agitated for the overthrow of Yuan and more provinces declared their independence. The revolutionary activity that he had frowned upon was utilized successfully. anyway Duan Qirui, Liang was the biggest advocate of entering World War I on the Allied side. He felt it would boost China's status and also ameliorate foreign debts. He condemned his mentor, Kang Youwei, for assisting in the failed attempt to restore the Qing in July 1917. After failing to turn Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang into responsible statesmen, he gave up and left politics.