Ebook: China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution And Japan

Challenging most accounts of China's revolutionary transformation at the turn of the century, Douglas Reynolds argues that the political toppling of the Qing dynasty in 1911 was less important than the Xinzheng or New System reforms of the late-Qing government itself. He then provides a detailed account of the debt those reforms owed to Japan. For the Chinese, Japan offered models for major modern institutions; training for administrators, military officers and modern police; a shortcut to Western knowledge through translations from the Japanese; a ready-made modern vocabulary using Kanji or Chinese characters; and advisers and instructors in many fields.