Wuchang Uprising Memorial, Wuchang, China. Credit: Vmenkov. cc-by-sa-3.0

On this day 100 years ago, October 10, 1911, Wuchang, one of three cities that make up central China’s conurbation of Wuhan, was the scene of a hastily and locally organized mutiny by imperial soldiers. The soldiers mutinied partly in sympathy with revolutionists in the area and partly out of fear of reprisals for their involvement in a recently discovered anti-government plot.

The Wuchang Uprising, as it came to be known, marked the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution, or the Chinese Revolution of 1911. (Xinhai is the designation for 1911 in the traditional Chinese calendar.) In a very short time the Xinhai Revolution led to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) and the founding of China’s first democratic government. The rapid political and social transformation ushered in a time of considerable uncertainty for the country and its new leaders.

Kang Youwei, 1905. Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Prior to the Uprising there had been political reform movements in China for almost two decades but real anti-Qing revolutionary activity for less than half that time. Beginning in the 1890s, most notably, Qing dynasty loyalists Kang Youwei and his student Liang Qichao were advocating political change, which they did through meetings of their Society for the Study of National Strengthening. The Society was short-lived, however, and both Kang and Liang were forced to live as exiles in Japan. Also in Japan at the time, super revolutionaries Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing joined together to found the Tongmenghui (United League) in 1905, with Sun as head and Huang as second in command. Sun and Huang vigorously opposed the more gradual approach to reform advocated by loyalists and instead pushed for a more aggressive, phased approach.

Although the Qing government successfully pressured Japan to expel Sun and Huang, the two continued to plan revolutionary initiatives for China elsewhere using money collected from overseas Chinese. Many of the initiatives failed, but nonetheless they had a debilitating effect on the Qing dynasty’s hold on the country. The steady loss of confidence in the government by both local officials and troops and the worsening economy brought the government to its knees. On February 12, 1912, the last emperor, Puyi, abdicated.

What had been a relatively bloodless revolution resulted in unexpected and difficult challenges, described as follows by Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Sun Yat-sen, c. 1911–12. Credit: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

During the first half of the 20th century, the old order in China gradually disintegrated, and turbulent preparations were made for a new society. Foreign political philosophies undermined the traditional governmental system, nationalism became the strongest activating force, and civil wars and Japanese invasion tore the vast country and retarded its modernization. Although the revolution ushered in a republic, China had virtually no preparation for democracy. A three-way settlement ended the revolution: the Qing dynasty abdicated; Sun Yat-sen relinquished the provisional presidency in favour of Yuan Shikai (Yüan Shih-k’ai), regarded as the indispensable man to restore unity; and Yuan promised to establish a republican government. This placed at the head of state an autocrat by temperament and training, and the revolutionaries had only a minority position in the new national government.

Murky as China’s future seemed to be at the time, it was soon clear that the proverbial “sleeping dragon” had begun to wake up in Wuchang on 10/10/1911.