Kang Youwei Chapter Summaries

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TIME PERIOD: Qing Dynasty: Part III: (Japan rising and the boxer rebellion) (1644-1912)

BIOGRAPHY OF THE TIMES: Kang Youwei
Kang Youwei came from a scholarly gentry’s family in the district of Nanhai in Guangdong province. His teacher imbued him with the ideal service to society, and his study of Buddhism impressed him with its spirit of compassion and made him to believe more in this religion. He rebelled against convention, after reading about the outside world, he came to admire Western civilization. In the 1880s he began some of his basic ideas: ideas of historical progress, social equality, a world government, and the nature of the universe. Kang Youwei’s first venture in social reform was in 1883, when he tried to abolish in his village the custom of foot-binding imposed on women. In 1890 he opened a school in teaching and new learning. This book was followed by a reformer (1897), which expounded Kang …show more content…

His interpretation of teachings and researches on ancient texts later inspired modern scholarship in the revision of China’s past, although enemies have charged that he invoked to further his aims and was undermining the established way of life. When China was defeated by Japan in 1895, Kang mobilized hundreds of regional graduates then in Beijing to protest the humiliating peace terms and to petition for far-reaching reforms to strengthen the empire. To arouse the people to the dangers confronting China, he and his associates published newspapers and founded the Society for the Study of National Strengthening, the archetype of political parties in modern China. The society was suppressed in 1896. Kang's political theory was never put into practice as he was forced to flee China for constantly attempting to assassinate

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