Did the 1911 Revolution transform the Chinese political system ?

Did the 1911 Revolution transform the Chinese political system ? 

      Debates toward the event of the 1911 Revolution rose among historians and politicians.

Some like the politician Zhou Enlai described 1911 as a “great victory”. Others like Zhan Shizhao said that  "When talking about the 1911 Revolution, the theorist these days tends to overemphasize. The word 'success' was way overused." These two quotes illustrate the dual nature of the revolution. Can we say that it is a success or a defeat in establishing a new Chinese political system ? ​ ​Did the 1911 Revolution transform the Chinese political system ? Did the advent of a new regime make it possible to abolish the old one in its entirety?  

The subject that I am going to talk about in this essay is the Revolution of 1911 and the​         changes that it brought to the Chinese political system. 

Before getting to the heart of the matter, I have to define the words of the subject in order to fully understand the question.

First Of All, the question starts with the auxiliary verb “do” conjugated in the past tense. The use of “did” suggests the use of a dialectical structure with a thesis and antithesis because the answer to the question can rather be yes, it did transform the Chinese political system and no, it did not.  

The heart of the subject is the 1911 Revolution. Here is a short summary of the event in order to properly understand the context of the essay.  

The 1911 revolution also referred to as the Xinhai revolution was a nationwide rebellion against the established order that was the Qing dynasty. Indeed, in the last 19th century, discontent toward the dynasty grew due to the humiliated defeat of the Sino-Japanese war but also with the Boxer rebellion. Even though the imperial court tried to reform the system with the Hundred days of reform in 1898 in order to please the people and avoid the fall of the dynasty, it was too late. Revolutionary movement started to grow at the beginning of the 20th century for instance with the Huaxingh​        ui​ ;​ the Xingzhonghu​        i ​ then the unified Tongmenghui.​ 

The catalyst event that led to this revolution was the Wuchang uprising that happened due to the decision of the Qing court to nationalize railways. On the 10 of October 1911, an anti-Manchu insurrection was launched in Wuchang and this led to the creation of a domino effect across the country. Each province would declare its independence from the central government. The Qing dynasty had no other choice than to abdicate.

In this subject, there is the verb transform. A transformation or the action to transform something can be defined as a  “complet​        e ​ chang​        e in the ​        appearanc​        e ​ or characte​        r ​ of something or someone, especiall​        y ​ so that that thing or perso​        n is ​        improve​        d” according to​         Cambridge Dictionary. In this essay, I will try to see the complete changes ( if there are) that happened in the political system of China due to the 1911 Revolution. A political system can be defined as “ the totality of the political institutions, norms, values, ideas, relations in which political power is realized”.  

The chronological borders of this subject are  the late 19th Qing dynasty to the death of Yuan Shikai. These borders have been chosen because this essay will deal with the changes and the evolution of the Chinese political system in order to fully understand if the 1911 revolution brought transformations or not.

The first part of the essay will focus on the complete changes in the Chinese political system that the revolution of 1911 brought with for instance the change of regime, of the political order and of the institutions.  

The second part will be about how the revolution, even though it had changed the Chinese political system in the early republic, did not bring radical changes. It will focus on the revival of the imperial system with the figure of Yuan Shikai.  

    At first glance, the 1911 revolution appeared as a drastic event that transformed the Chinese political system because of the establishment of the first Republic of China.

Everything is in the word revolution. According to Cambridge Dictionary, it can be defined as “a chang​        e in the way a ​        countr​        y ​ is governe​        d, usually to a different ​        politica​        l ​ syste​        m and often​         using violenc​        e ​ or wa​        r”​ .  

But the 1911 revolution appeared to be more than just a revolution.

“ The revolution of 1911 had brought about two important consequences in Chinese history: first, with the end of the domination of the Manchus in the country for the past two hundred and sixty years, the equality of all races in China could be reassured; and second, the four-thousand year old monarchical system was eliminated and replaced by a Republic.”​1 Indeed, in the Chinese History, there were many revolutions that overthrew the established power but this was the first time in the History of China that a revolution overthrew a dynasty and replaced it with a Republic rather than another dynasty.

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