K'ang Yu-wei

K'ang Yu-wei (käng y-wā), 1858–1927, Chinese philosopher and reform movement leader. He was a leading philosopher of the new text school of Confucianism, which regarded Confucius as a utopian political reformer. K'ang first gained fame in 1895 when he sent a memorial to the emperor unsuccessfully urging continuation of the war with Japan, rejection of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and adoption of extensive administrative reforms. That same year with Liang Ch'i-ch'ao he founded a reform newspaper and a reform organization, but both were quickly suppressed (1896). Enthusiasm for his ideas spread, however, and several provincial reform associations were founded (1896–97). Again confronted with foreign pressure for concessions, Emperor Kuang-hsu (1898) summoned K'ang to Beijing and asked him to draw up reform plans. In a series of decrees known as the "hundred days' reform," the emperor changed the civil service examination system to include essays on current affairs, established Beijing Univ. as well as western-style provincial schools, abolished many sinecure posts, and revised administrative regulations. Backed by conservative officials, Dowager Empress Tz'u Hsi imprisoned the emperor and rescinded most of the reforms. K'ang fled to Japan and spent the years before the 1911 revolution working for constitutional monarchy. He and Liang were bitterly opposed to the T'ung-meng-hui, an anti-Manchu revolutionary party founded in 1905 under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen. After the revolution, K'ang remained in opposition to the republican government, participating (1917) in an unsuccessful attempt to restore the last Ch'ing emperor, Pu Yi.

Bibliography

See M. E. Cameron, The Reform Movement in China, 1898–1912 (1931, repr. 1963); biography ed. and tr. by Lo Jung-pang (1967).

---

Kang Youwei

 or K'ang Yu-wei

(born March 19, 1858, Guangdong province, China—died March 31, 1927, Qingdao, Shandong) Chinese scholar, a key figure in the intellectual development of modern China. In 1895 Kang led hundreds of provincial graduates to protest the humiliating terms of China's treaty with Japan after the Sino-Japanese War and to petition for reforms to strengthen the nation. In 1898 the Qing emperor launched a reform program that included streamlining the government, strengthening the armed services, promoting local self-government, and opening Beijing University. The empress Cixi annulled the reforms and had six reform leaders executed, and Kang had to flee the country. In exile, he opposed revolution; instead, he favoured rebuilding China through science, technology, and industry. He returned in 1914 and participated in an abortive restoration of the emperor. His fears of a divided country led him to oppose the government of Sun Yat-sen in southern China. Kang is also known for his reappraisal of Confucius, whom he saw as a reformer.