Royalist Party 宗社黨 | |
|---|---|
| Leader | |
| Founded | December 1911 (1911-12) |
| Headquarters | Beijing (1911–1912) |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing tofar-right |
| Party flag | |
.svg) | |
| Royalist Party | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 宗社黨 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 宗社党 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Society for Monarchical Constitutionalism | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 君主立憲維持會 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 君主立宪维持会 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheRoyalist Party (Chinese:宗社黨), officially theSociety for Monarchical Constitutionalism (Chinese:君主立憲維持會), was amonarchist political party andmilitant organization active in China during the earlyRepublican Era. Supported by theEmpire of Japan, its members sought to restore theChinese monarchy under theQing dynasty by launching insurgencies and advocating the secession ofManchuria andInner Mongolia from the rest of China. Although it largely lacked a firm structure and consisted of loosely tied factions, the Royalist Party played a major role in Chinese politics during the 1910s.
The Royalist Party was known by a variety of names, including theManchu Loyalist Party,[2]Restoration Party,[3]Imperial Clan Party,[4][5][6]Royal Clan Party,[7]Reactionary Party,[8]Party of the Ancestral Shrine of the Ruling Household,[9] andParty of the Aisin Gioro Cult.[10]
Having ruled China since the17th century, theManchu-ledQing dynasty started to collapse upon theXinhai Revolution's outbreak inOctober 1911. Diehard Qing supporters refused to accept this,[11] and "blind to the inevitable trend" toward the formation of a republic,[9] founded the "Society for Monarchical Constitutionalism" (later known as the "Royalist Party") in December 1911.[12][a] The society's purpose was to opposerepublicanism, preserve the Qing dynasty as the ruling house of China,[9][12] and prepare for a "final showdown" with the republicans.[4][13] Its initial headquarters was a shrine for theEight Banners, and many of its first members were Manchu bannermen,[12] as well as princes,courtiers, andmembers of the Qing imperial clan.[9] Its first leader wasImperial Guards GeneralLiangbi,[4][14][15] while other notable members includedShanqi (Prince Su),Puwei (Prince Gong), GeneralTieliang, Duke Tsai-tse and Yü-liang. They sold their collections of paintings and antiques to raise money for the anti-republican resistance.[13] At the time, parts of the Royalist Party advocated for the foundation of a secessionist "Manchuria-Mongolia" state to at least preserve the monarchy in northern China.Gungsangnorbu, a probableInner Mongolian Royalist Party member, was raising money for the Mongol independence movement amid theMongolian Revolution of 1911.[16]
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The situation for the Qing imperial government was increasingly undermined by military and political setbacks caused by the opposing republicans, and theRepublic of China wasproclaimed first in the country's south on 1 January 1912. The Qing court and its leading officials realised that their position was becoming untenable.[17] The matter was discussed among the Qing princes during a conference on 17–20 January, where the Royalist Party's members took a hardline stance against any agreement which included the monarchy's abolition. Other princes believed that they had to yield to the republicans, while a large number remained neutral. The conference came to no real conclusion.[5][18] Meanwhile,Yuan Shikai, a powerful Qing general who effectively controlled much of the army,[19][20] was pushing for a compromise with the republicans.[21][22] WhileEmpress Dowager Longyu was ready to agree to Yuan's proposal and abdicate, the Qing hardliners strongly objected and became determined enemies of Yuan.[22] By 23 January, their political situation had significantly improved: General Tieliang had managed to rally a significant number of Manchu officials to oppose the abdication,[20] while GeneralFeng Guozhang had claimed that he could crush the revolution if the royalists could provide him with sufficient sums of money, providing a morale boost to the hardliners.[22]
The Royalist Party started to undermine Yuan, and managed to greatly weaken him by 25 January.[23] The hardliners themselves suffered two major reversals on 26 January, however, when Liangbi was assassinated by a republican revolutionary[20][21][15] and theBeiyang Army declared its support for the republicans.[15] The Qing court accepted that it had no option other than abdication,[24] while the Royalist Party members dispersed and fled into theforeign concessions.[17][15] The court subsequently tried to cooperate fully with the new authorities in order to be left in peace,[17] while Yuan Shikai became China's firstpresident andde factomilitary dictator.[24][25]
The Royalist Party was not finished, however, and its members continued to plot against the Republic.[17] Hoping to build up apolitical base,[10] the party attempted to rally public support for their cause, especially among the Manchu living inManchuria andBeijing.[17] Qing restorationism enjoyed genuine support in northeastern China, especially due to the failure of the first Republican government to restore stability to China.[26] The royalists enlisted military officers[2] and foreign powers in their conspiracies. Shanqi even gainedJapanese support in 1912 for the creation of a separatist state inInner Mongolia wherePuyi could be restored as emperor. This venture eventually failed.[17] The party also advocated that the Qing court be moved to Manchuria, but this proposal was "repressed" by the republican authorities.[2]
The continued activism by the Royalist Party was widely perceived as grave threat to the Republic. It was feared that a civil war and consequentpartition of China could result from the royalists becoming too strong.[2] Despite this, President Yuan Shikai initially dealt with the party in a lenient manner.[25] Having sidelined both republicans and monarchists, he was mostly concerned with maintaining his own power[27] and warned the Qing court to keep its loyalists in check. Fearing that the Royalist Party's activity could cause a foreign intervention or the revocation ofthe court's favorable treatment, Empress Dowager Longyu ordered the party's dissolution in March 1912. Her order had no effect, but convinced the authorities that the royalists acted without the influence of the court.[28] Having failed to disband the Royalist Party, Yuan consequently attempted to sway them to his side. He appointed Puyi's former tutorXu Shichang asminister of state in an effort to gain their support.[25]
The party became increasinglymilitant from March 1912, stirring up unrest in northern China. It tried to undermine President Yuan in any way possible to achieve the restoration of the monarchy.[29] Royalist Party members spread anti-republican propaganda among the rural population, as well as Mongol nomads, and incited dissatisfied soldiers to mutiny.[30][31] By April 1912, the party'sHubei branch had allied with the banditBai Lang and a number of secret societies. It launched anopen rebellion, calling for the death of "all republican traitors" and the full restoration of the Qing dynasty.[30] One of its most notable actions was to convince theNew Army's 6th Henan Division to riot atLuoshan County in July 1912.[32] In the provinces of Manchuria, Royalist Party members began recruiting and arming militants, and even producedcheques marked with "Great Qing Empire". Shanqi called upon Qing loyalists to join the armed resistance.[7]
Yuan Shikai had already considered the Royalist Party a threat before these uprisings, also due to the rumoured membership of several prominent political figures such asZhang Xun[b] in the party.[30] The president again offered reconciliation, and invited various Manchu princes to the funeral of Empress Dowager Longyu in Beijing on 27 February 1913 "to dispel the clouds of suspicion" on part of the Royalist Party.[34] This stance changed when his republican opponents launched their own uprising, the "Second Revolution", in July 1913. Yuan used the revolution as an excuse for drastic actions against all his rivals, including the royalists.[35] He declared martial law and had the Royalist Party leadership inHenan arrested and executed. Despite this, other parts of the party remained active, further influencing the campaign of Bai Lang.[30] However, the bandit opted to abandon the declining monarchist cause later in 1913, and aligned with the anti-Yuan republicans.[36]
By the time Yuan had declared the creation of his short-livedEmpire of China, Shanqi had become the leader of the Royalist Party[37] and was working with the Japanese to establish separatist movements in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria.[38][39] It received support from the JapaneseKwantung Army[39][40] andcontinental adventurers such asKawashima Naniwa.[38] In 1916, the Japanese and the Royalist Party were planning a rebellion in Manchuria, using Shanqi'sprivate army which consisted partially of Mongolian bandits and had raided northern China up to this point. The royalists would captureMukden, and then assist anti-Yuan forces in theNational Protection War.[41] There were also plans to coopt Manchurian militarystrongmanZhang Zuolin for this coup,[41][39] as Zhang had already made overtures to the Royalist Party.[3] However, Zhang never fully joined this conspiracy, and eventually issued warnings to his soldiers that they should be on guard for royalist attacks.[7] As result of financial and political difficulties, the Mukden operation was eventually cancelled byTanaka Giichi.[42]
The Royalist Party's activities gradually became limited toNortheast China, and very few of its members (among them Puwei[43] and Shen Zengjie[6]) were involved in Zhang Xun'sattempt to forcibly restore the Qing dynasty in 1917.[43] Shen was appointed Minister of Education by Zhang, but when the restoration failed, he retired from politics completely.[6] In the following years, Royalist Party members increasingly focused on issues relating to Manchuria, arguing that an independent monarchy located there could provide the local people with better living conditions.[44] Following theJapanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Puwei proclaimed himself the head of the Manchurian independence movement and candidate for ruler ofManchukuo. Nevertheless, the Japanese appointed Puyi asChief Executive (laterEmperor) of the new state.[45]
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The Royalist Party's official purpose was to preserve the Qing dynasty'sancestral shrine and other religious institutions,[12] though in truth it tried to protect the monarchy,[13] and later aimed to overthrow the Republic.[17] Qing loyalists generally believed that it was only a matter of time until the republican "experiment" failed.[46] By 1912, the party was divided into two factions. Though both aimed for the restoration of the monarchy and were united in their opposition to Yuan Shikai, the factions differed on certain points. The "extremists" were only ready to accept the Manchu Qing dynasty as rulers of China, whereas the moderates believed that another Manchu orHan Chinese dynasty would also be acceptable.[29]
Elements of the party supported the creation of anindependent Manchuria andInner Mongolia as early as December 1911,[16][7] andseparatism gained more followers among the royalists as time went on.[47][38] The royalists believed that Manchuria could offer them a secure base from where they could not only revive Imperial rule, but also protect themselves from counter-attacks by republicans from other parts of China. Initially, the local population of bannermen and Mongols was also sympathetic to their struggle.[31] In the 1910s, appeals for separatism were still largely tied to the concept of "loyalty to the emperor", a cause which found more support among the multiethnic population of northeastern China than nationalist ideas. However, nationalist concepts later gained more traction in the Royalist Party, as many Manchus and bannermen suffered under discrimination in the new Republic.[31] By the 1930s, Qing restorationists framed their struggle for an independent Manchuria as a chance at creating "a better place for the Manchus and banner people to live".[48]
The Qing loyalists also exhibitedconservative andrevisionist tendencies, as they continued to use theold dynastic calendar, and espoused traditional arts such asClassical Chinese poetry, andcalligraphy.[46] One of the most notable intellectuals of the Royalist Party, ex-Qing official and scholar Shen Zengjie, co-founded the Confucian Society of Shanghai.[6]
在辛亥革命期間,滿清皇族的最頑固最反動的集團,以良弼、溥偉、鐵良等為首組 成了宗社黨,其目的是挽救清朝的滅亡,反對清帝退位,反對袁世凱,反對議和。
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