The Collapse of the Qing Dynasty: A Chronicle of China in 1911

Author: Wang Xianming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The Collapse of the Qing Dynasty: A Record of China in 1911
1911, this short year seems to contain too much, leaving us with more to savor and more mental space than any other era. Sixty years ago, Hong Xiuquan, waving the banner of the "God," meticulously planned an armed uprising aimed at overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Hundreds of thousands of farmers, carrying iron hoes and bamboo poles, walked from their fields to support the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom," but in the end, they were buried in the historical graveyard by the "scholar generals" of the Xiang-Huai Army, who were also sons of farming families. Sixty years later, a single careless gunshot from a soldier of the "New Army" created by the Qing Dynasty marked the end of its 267-year rule. Undoubtedly, 1911 belonged to the autumn of the social and historical rhythm. Just as a farmer, after working in the fields all year, only looks back at the long and arduous process more seriously and consciously when faced with the thickness, fatness, and richness of the autumn harvest. Therefore, when 1911 becomes history and becomes an irreplaceable historical link in our nation's journey from agrarian civilization to industrial civilization, from traditional society to modern society, only when we are again at the turning point of history will we have enough patience to weigh the fruits of history and dig out the historical causes buried by time. In 1911, the Great Qing Dynasty was like a dilapidated small boat drifting in the wind and rain: the corruption of the court, the economic hardship, and the people's lack of support turned the court's hope of reforming and preserving the state into a bubble. The fate of the late Qing Dynasty made people realize the truth that "backwardness will inevitably lead to being beaten." Every descendant of the Yan and Huang tribes cannot forget that year: 1911.