IRF_
THE IgII
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
r5
I
Moving the Revolution Beyond Politics:
the rgrr Revolution and the Common Man
On the evening of the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of the Xinhai
year, r January r9rz, SunYatsen, newly elected president of the Repub-
lic of China, stepped down on to the platform of Nanjing Station to
greet the assembled dignitaries. Then, in a change to earlier plans, he
continued directly by train to the branch station near the government
buildings. It was already late and he was determined to take office that
evening. The thousands of troops who had gathered to welcome him
marched back to their barracks through the dark and drizzling rain,
along narrow streets hung with flags and lanterns and packed with
onlookers who had gathered to see the president. Bypassing the silent
crowds, Sun and his party arrived at the huge government compound
that had previously been the offices of the imperial regional administration. There they were welcomed by a select band of national and
provincial leaders who had gathered to attend the formal inauguration
of the new president.
Once inside the compound the party moved away from the main
administrative buildings, through the gardens to a recently constructed
Western-style pavilion (Fig. r). The room where the ceremony was to
take place was full of men dressed for the most part in frock-coats and
top hats or military uniforms, their hair cropped in the Vestern style.
Those present included representatives from each of the provinces that
had joined the revolution, plus officers from the revolutionary armies.
The ceremony began with a short speech by one of the represenratives
of the provinces, welcoming Sun's election and inviting him to swear
the oath of office. Sun raised his left hand and swore to overthrow the
Qing empire, consolidate the new republic and work for the prosperity
of the country. The representative continued with a formal eulogy of
Sun which referred to the invasion of the country by Manchu tribesmen almost 3oo years earlier, the egalitarian political systems of France
and America, and the need to restore China, fix a new calendar and
create racial equality. He ended by warning the new president against
trying to usurp the throne. Sun then sealed his manifesto which was
read aloud, declaring his intention to unite the country politically, finan-
cially and militarily under a republican government, and thus raise
China to its rightful position of equality with the civilized countries of
Flc. r. The western-style
pavilion in which Sun
Yatsen's inauguration
took place
Sozrce: Photograph, 1994.
the world and promote world peace. A representative of the armed
forces made a speech, to which Sun replied, and the ceremony ended
with shouts of 'Long live China's republic!', applause, music and a gun
salute.l
Many years later one of the provincial representatives recalled how
after the ceremony it was so late that a group of the representatives
could not find any transport and had to walk back to their lodgings. As
they walked through the deserted streets one of their number pointed
out what a momentous occasion this was and they shouted and danced
in the streets) so that the sleeping people were woken and, wrapping
their clothes around them, peered out of their doors, never dreaming
that these raucous young men were representatives of the highest body
in the land.2
Young revolutionaries dancing alone in the deserted streets: written
in the People's Republic of China in the r96os these memoirs pick on
a vivid image of the rgrr revolution as an elite event almost entirely
divorced from the masses of the population. The British consul put
forward a similar view in his report to the ambassador where he dismisses the crowds that had gathered to welcome Sun and says that the
inauguration ceremonies
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16
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON MAN
\fere arranged by the military authorities, the people of Nanking who, as I have
mentioned before, are anything but satisfied with their experience up to date
of revolutionary government, taking no part, nor apparently any interest,
therein.
l
That this is correct is a precept of Chinese Marxist historiography which
classifies the events of rgrr as a bourgeois revolution.While theWestern
secondary literature has tended to place less emphasis on the role of
the bourgeoisie as such it has gone along with the idea that the revolution was an elite affair. But just how true is it?
An Elite Affair?
It is certainly true that the ceremony of Sun Yatsen's inauguration was
organized and performed by members of the political elite, as one would
expect for such an occasion. Moreover it aimed at presenting a new
image of China as a modern state, an image drawn fromWestern norms.
The ceremony was performed on a dare that was significant in the solar
calendar and not in the traditional lunar calendar. The parricipants wore
frock-coats and had short hair; Sun raised his left hand as he swore,
a gesture that recalls the inauguration of an American president; and
indeed the whole structure of the event is clearly modelled on cere-
monies for the inauguration of the president in foreign countries with
republican traditions, rather than on Chinese precedents.a However,
Sun Yatsen was not the only leader of the new republic to be inaugurated in that first year of the revolution. The occasions on which Li
Yuanhong andYuan Shikai first assumed the formal trappings of power
initially seem to provide a contrast to the images presented by Sun
Yatsen and his entourage. Each of these ceremonies reflects the political situation in which it took place.
LiYuanhong made a major sacrifice to Heaven, Earth and theYellow
Emperor just one week after the start of the Wuchang Uprising. This
was the first occasion on which a claim was made for the national legitimacy of the revolutionary government. A wide earthen platform was
constructed on the military parade ground near the government offices.
Before it was a fire for the sacrificial offerings, on it an altar for incense,
wine and an ox) which were to be offered according to the traditional
procedures. Below the platform stood the whole army in formation. A
band played the first verse of a military anthem. Li, dressed in military
uniform, led his generals and commanding officers on to the platform.
He went to the altar and offered the incense, ox and wine, then returned
to his place and knelt, as did all his officers, while the soldiers below
THE
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REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
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r7
stood to attention, their guns raised. Li and the officers took off their
hats, prostrated themselves and kowtowed four times' while a prayer
was read that told of the persecution of the Han by the Manchus and
called on theYellow Emperor to assist the participants in the establishment of a republic. Li then poured a libation and the soldiers lowered
their guns. Standing in front of the altar he swore an oath to kill his
enemies, restore China's ancient ways and establish a republic. Finally
the soldiers raised their guns and shouted'TenThousandYears!'three
times and the ceremony was over.5
\7hen six months later Yuan Shikai took office as provisional president of the Republic of China, the Qing had fallen, and attention was
focused on giving the state legitimacy as a modern nation state. Where
the inauguration was to take place was a matter of hot debate in the
newspapers and serious negotiations between the major political
players. Eventually a military mutiny gave Yuan the excuse he needed
to remain in Beijing, rather than travelling to Nanjing, so the ceremony
took place in Beijing, with SunYatsen sending an envoy.The ceremony
was held in the Foreign Ministry and about a hundred people attended.
Apart from the Nanjing delegation, participants included representatives sent by Li Yuanhong and the provincial military governors, civil
servants from the Beijing government, military officers of both the
regular army and the Qing banner troops, police chiefs, local officials,
one member of the gentry from each province, two members each of
the Manchu, Mongol, Muslim and Tibetan gentry' and two members
of the General Chamber of Commerce. All the foreign consuls had been
invited, but the diplomatic community did not attend. This hesitancy
was ignored by the Chinese newspapers whose reporters observed the
presence of some foreign journalists and reported confidently that the
British and American ambassadors had been present. Most of those
attending wore frock-coats or uniform, but touches of interest were provided by two lamas in yellow robes, officers wearing the colourful oldstyle military uniform and a group of staff from the Justice Ministry all
of whom still wore their queues.
When everyone was present Yuan entered from a side door, bowed
to the participants and read his oath. The ceremony focused on him
personally, but he lacked Sun's personal charisma, and while the formal
newspaper accounts note simply that he looked'sturdy', G. E. Morrison who was present as the correspondent of the London Times cornments cruelly thatYuan'came in wobbling like a duck, looking fat and
unhealthy, in Marshal's uniform, the loose flesh of his neck hanging
down over his collar'.6 The oath he swore was brief and quite unlike the
oaths sworn earlier by Li Yuanhong and Sun Yatsen. It omitted all
r8
THE
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REVoLUTToN AND THE COMMON MAN
to the Manchu oppression of the Han or to supernatural
support for the Republic. Instead China was described as a unified
nation of five races, thus embracing the non-Han areas ruled by the
Qing empire, andYuan swore to develop the Republic, sweep away rhe
disadvantages attached to absolute monarchy, observe the laws of the
constitution, and build a rich and powerful nation. Then, as an addition to the previously announced programme, the text of the oath was
presented to Cai Yuanpei to be taken to the national assembly in
Nanjing. Cai Yuanpei, as Sun Yatsen's envoy, made a speech congratulatingYuan, to whichYuan replied with formal modesty. As mentioned
above, the ceremony had been a point of dispute between the revolutionaries in Nanjing andYuan. Its details were printed at length in the
newspapers, so that readers across the country were informed as to the
relative positions of the two parties displayed in this manoeuvre.
The ceremony continued with a formal representation of the importance of the non-Han races in the new Republic, when two lamas presented Yuan with a silk cloth, a traditional gift among the Buddhist
peoples of Central Asia. Then ro the sound of music the participants
advanced in their groups and bowed to Yuan. Foreigners and journalists who were present, but seated behind the president rather than facing
him, did not take part in this. Yuan was being congratulated by men
who were seen as representatives of each of the elements that made up
the country. The bowing completed the formal ceremony andYuan then
ordered the peonies that had been used to decorate the room to be distributed to everyone present while the crowd moved to another room
for refreshments.T
Because of the differences in the political contexts) and with them
the preoccupations of the organizers, the inaugurations of LiYuanhong
andYuan shikai were very different events.rwhile LiYuanhong used the
traditional symbols of empire,Yuan Shikai operated within the symboric
framework of a modern republican state. Li Yuanhong's sacrifice took
place in the first days of the uprising and illustrates the preoccupation
of the revolutionaries at that moment with identifying their state and
giving it legitimacy as against the Qing government. In this ceremony
the Republic is conceived as the restorarion of Han rule after the
oppression of the foreign Manchu Qing rulers. This is marked by the
use of the words 'Glorious Restorarion' (guangt'u: literally this refers to
the restoration of a Han government), by the prayer to the Yellow
Emperor, and by the singing of a military anrhem calling on the Han
to rise and destroy the Manchus.8 Li's ceremony invests the revolution
with these symbols of traditional patriotism, but it also reinterprets
reference
THE
IgII
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
19
them for a new context. According to Han Chinese mythology, the
Yellow Emperor was the first emperor of the people. To the revolutionaries he was a symbol of the Han, as opposed to their Manchu rulers.
By sacrificing to the Yellow Emperor, Heaven and Earth, Li Yuanhong
laid claim to a national significance for the uprising, but chose a
symbol of the nation, the Yellow Emperor, that excluded the non-Han
peoples of the Qing empire. The text of the prayer, which accused the
Manchus of countless crimes against the Han, made this significance
explicit.e Moreover, although the sacrifice appears at first to be entirely
traditional, the tradition has been drawn from its context and reused
with an entirely different aim. Li's oath to kill the Manchus, restore
China's ancient ways and found a republic seems to suggest that the
restoration of China's ancient ways could be equated with the establishment of a Han dominated republic. All these elements provide an
image of the new republic as a revival of ancient practices, which of
course it was not.
Yuan Shikai's inauguration, on the other hand, presented China as
nation state, contrasted with, and yet rightfully equal to, the
modern
a
other countries of the world. This has subsequently become such a universally accepted view and so central to China's self-identity that it is
hard to imagine the freshness it still had in r9rr. In order to define itself
against the other nation states of the world, China, so its revolutionary
leaders felt, must adopt the forms in which that definition was customarily expressed; it must, for example, have a national flag the same
shape as other national flags but with a different design' Moreover, in
order to display the modernity that was an essential feature of the equation, China must adopt the customs that were universal among other
modern nations. Like Li Yuanhong's sacrifice, Yuan Shikai's inauguration attempted to define the country to be created by the new Republic. But unlike LiYuanhong,Yuan Shikai was primarily concerned with
defining China as a nation state in a world of nation states. Thus while
Li defined the Republic in opposition to the Manchus' Yuan set up
an opposition between Chinese whatever their race, Han, Manchu,
Mongolian, Tibetan or Muslim, who take part in the bowing, and the
foreigners who are there to observe. Thus the ceremony excluded foreigners, yet the presence of a foreign audience was vital. For it was the
foreigners'acceptance of the Chinese Republic as a modern nation state
possessing all of the territory of the Qing empire that would ward
off
the much feared foreign takeover. Moreover, Yuan's prestige domestically was also dependent on demonstrating this foreign acceptance.
Hence the formal, foreign atmosphere of the event) the uniforms and
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20
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON MAN
frock-coats and foreign presence, which enabled a foreign journalist to
describe the yellow robes of the Buddhist lamas as 'the one touch of
Orientalism'.ro
However, the ceremonies that marked the inaugurations of Sun
Yatsen, Li Yuanhong and Yuan Shikai also shared certain features. It is
by understanding those features thar we begin ro see how the ceremonies had the potential to reach beyond the narrow circle of the po-
litical elite who framed them. In order to do this it is importanr to
understand that the national ceremonies were reflected in the myriad
of smaller-scale ceremonies with which the Republic was inaugurated
in provincial and county towns across the country. For example in
\7uzhou, a large town on the Guangdong-Guangxi border, about 2,ooo
men cut their queues the night independence was announced. The following day more than r4,ooo people gathered for a meeting which
included speeches, a gun salute, the raising of a flag, a eulogy ending
with 'Long live the Republic of China!', followed by loud applause,
shouting and fire crackers. All the shops hung out white flags inscribed
with the words 'The Republic of China'.rr Although other smaller-scale
ceremonies varied in many respects, there was nevertheless a certain
unity in the symbols used. In almost all the events flags are reported as
a central feature, sometimes the white flag of the revolution but mostly
one of the many 'national flags'. Men had their hair cropped short and
often men who still wore the queue were not allowed to participate.
Decorations and lanterns were other common features. The various
activities in which people participated during the celebrations were also
similar: men processed through the town holding flags and singing
songs) meetings were held at which speeches were made, flags raised,
queues cut, and which ended with the audience shouting in chorus
'Long live the Republic!' or'Long live the president!'r2
An examination of the three national inaugurations and a comparison with these local ceremonies suggests that several of these features
are constantly used. It is these symbols which emerged in the first days
of the revolution as representations of the new state, that were later to
become central to popular understanding of the Republic.
Symbols of the Republic
Short hair for men was one of the first symbols to emerge since, as we
shall see, the queue had been a Manchu innovation. All three
of the men being inaugurated to high office had already cut off their
queues before the ceremony. In keeping with his many years as a
declared revolutionary Sun Yatsen had long worn his hair short. Li
THE
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REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
2T
Yuanhong, by contrast) was a most reluctant revolutionary, dragged
from the subordinate's house where he took shelter when the revolution broke out, and refusing to eat or sleep for two days, while his erstwhile subordinate officers urged him to take charge of the rebellion.
According to one memoir he finally capitulated with the words,
You young people need not be so agitated again; I have made up my mind to
help you and that is that.You say I must cut offmy queue; I have already issued
a circular in the camp, ordering officers and soldiers who wish to cut their
queues to do so. I will cut mine off tomorrow and that is that.r3
For Li Yuanhong cutting his queue meant publicly taking the revolutionary side and breaking with the Qing, so all those about him took
rhe matter very seriously. By the timeYuan Shikai took office the situation had changed so far that it was notYuan's short hair that provoked
comment but the queues of the staff of the Justice Ministry, which
were seen by the southern press as symbolic of the Beijing government's
close links with the Qing. Short hair was a central feature not only of
the national ceremonies but also of many local ceremonies as at
Wuzhou.
With the short hair went$Testern-style dress and a new etiquette.The
participants at LiYuanhong's sacrifice to Heaven, Earth and theYellow
Emperor woreSfestern-style modern military uniform (even though this
meant that they had to remove their hats before kowtowing!). So too
the majority of participants at the inaugurations of SunYatsen andYuan
Shikai wore \Western-style dress, but on these occasions a new etiquette
went with the new costume: the representatives of the country bowed
to the new leader who responded in the same fashion.
\Testern models were used to illustrate the significance of the present,
but were also one of the major means by which the revolutionaries
manipulated the construction of events into histories, and the adoption
of the solar calendar is a good example of this. Sun Yatsen was determined to be inaugurated on a date significant by the solar rather than
the lunar calendar, even at the expense of performing the ceremonies
late at night the moment he arrived from Shanghai. This was partly
because the solar calendar was popular among reformers, many of
whom had had a great deal of contact with foreign countries. In addition it had traditionally been the prerogative of a new dynasty to alter
the calendar, and for each new emperor to commence the numbering
of years from the beginning of his reign. Initially the revolutionaries had
retained the lunar calendar but renumbered the years from the putative date of birth of the mythical Yellow Emperor. This dating system
was used for many of the local ceremonies that marked the birth of the
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22
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
Republic, such as the ceremonies held by the Fujian provincial government which included the reading aloud of the new governor's letter
of appointment which was dated by the newYellow Emperor dates.la
By taking office on r January of the solar calendar and changing the
year name to the FirstYear of the Republic, SunYatsen was simuhaneously claiming modernizing credentials and traditional legitimacy for
his party. But Sun could also have chosen to use the solar calendar for
its potential historical effect. At the time it was performed, Sun's inauguration was a minor evenr in a political situation dominated by the
ongoing negotiations between the revolutionaries, the Qing court and
Yuan Shikai. What made it importanr was the switch ro rhe solar calendar. In taking office on r January, and subsequently ordering the use
of the solar calendarr Sun was consciously using his political authority
to affect how history was seen. To write the history of the revolution
according to the solar calendar is to distort it, to rewrite it, but it also
shows how contemporary actors were involved in that rewriting.
The inauguration ceremonies also made statements about the territory to which the new republic laid claim. Both SunYatsen's andYuan
Shikai's inaugurations gave a major role to representatives of each of
the eighteen provinces of China proper. In the case of Yuan Shikai,s
inauguration there was also a role for the non-Han regions of the northwest when lamas representing those regions presented their traditional
gift of silk. The flags that were to be seen in abundance on each of these
occasions also had implications for the territorial claims of the new
republic. In the case of LiYuanhong's sacrifice the flag displayed showed
simply the word for the Han people. The ceremonies for Sun yatsen's
inauguration used a variery of different flags, while finally Yuan Shikai
used only the Five Colour flag which represenred the five races of the
Republic. For local ceremonies flags were hung from shops and houses,
carried in processions and displayed round the stages, platforms and
altars of ceremonial spaces. The designs varied grearly but the idea that
the nation could be symbolized by a flag which one honoured was
clearly widespread.
As well as acting as provincial represenratives, people participated
in these celebrations as members of occupational social groups. Thus
the audience for Yuan Shikai's inauguration included members of
the Chamber of Commerce. Provincial and lower-level processions and
meetings were organized into groups of gentrymen, students and teachers, merchants, artisans, soldiers, officials, newspapermen, policemen,
and occasionally women. In Jiangxi the military governor, Ma Yubao,
held sacrifices to Heaven and Earth in Jiujiang. The ceremony was
THE
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REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
23
attended by 8,ooo troops and perhaps Iorooo onlookers, seated accord-
ing to their occupations: gentry, students) merchants and the various
ffoops. The journalist reporting the ceremony said that it really gave
a magnificent spectacle of the revival of the Han.15 tiyuan, provincial
capital of Shanxi, celebrated with a lantern procession and a meeting
aftended by tens of thousands, where speeches were made by the gentry,
and also by representatives of newspapers, the military, students, police
and women. The procession was held on the lantern festival according
to the lunar calendar, thus guaranteeing a large turn-out.r6 In Fujian
on the day of the establishment of the new provincial government'
members of the Fujian branch of the Chinese League (Tbngmenghui)
holding flags and the seal of office marched through the streets to the
governor's offices, in a procession that included a military band, student
troops, representatives of various local groups and members of the
Chinese League, all wearing white armbands and badges.lt In Baoding,
Zhili, the celebration was organized by members of the military and the
police, students, merchants and gentry. It included a procession by all
these groups through the town: past the temple of the city god and in
and out of the town gates.tt None of these ceremonies includes a category of farmers, but this would seem merely to indicate the primarily
urban nature of the inauguration ceremonies since farmers were
included as a group at other early Republican ceremonies. Celebrations
were sometimes organized by native place associations such as the
Guangdong Sojourners Association in Tianiin, and at a popular level
groups perceived as causing trouble by their revolutionary activities
were often identified by their region of origin: Cantonese in Shanghai'
Zhejiang troops in Nanjing. Nevertheless' unlike the major national
inaugurations, processions at the local level were seldom if ever organized according to geographical affiliation. It was by the joining of occupational groups that local ceremonies represented the citizens of the
new state.
\fomen are occasionally listed among the occupational groups participating, although the fact that where even small numbers of women
are present their presence is noted implies that for the great majority of
celebrations of the Republic only men were present. Hardly surprisingly, women are most often found mentioned in the crowds of onlookers who watch processions or other events. Also where very large
numbers of participants are present at a ceremony women are sometimes mentioned as being included.le F{owever, where numbers are
given the women are only a very small percentage of the total: at
Anqing, of r,ooo people present at a meeting to celebrateYuan Shikai's
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24
THE
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REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
inauguration and the Qing abdication only forty were women; of
another thousand who gathered for a meeting in shanghai the number
was just twenty.20The only way in which women are mentioned as major
figures in these meetings is when they offer their jewellery to be sold
for the revolutionary forces.2r on one occasion in Shanghai men and
women were seated separately, the women occupying some kind of
balcony, and this 'gave a very republican atmosphere,.22 There are also
mentions of separate women's ceremonies attended by the pupils of
girls' schools: in Tianjin zoo people took part in a women's lantern procession and meeting organized by four girls' schools, and in Zhujing, a
small town near Shanghai, a separate women's meeting attended by the
girls' schools was held the day after the main celebrations.23 Although
only a few women took part in the celebrations the fact that they did
so suggests that, in contrast to earlier times, it was now possible to conceive of women as citizens. Moreover, the presence of women in the
audience of large events and the separate celebrations held for schoolgirls indicate that women could also be the object of the didactic
messages
of these ceremonies. As participants and as observers at the
opening ceremonies of the republic, women inserted themselves alongside the largely male occupational groups. They were thus part of occasions that were central to determining future popular understandings
of that republic. Like short hair, \western dress, the solar calendar and
the use of flags, the presence of women became one of the symbols
through which the Republic was undersrood.
Invert'ing Ethnicity
what was the message addressed to the participants in alr these ceremonies? When we look at Li Yuanhong's sacrifice it would be easy to
say that the elements of which it was composed were simply part of
chinese tradition, whereas in fact they are clearly an invented tradition.
when we look carefully at the way in which tradition was used we find
that by making apparently foreign elements such as dress, hairstyle
and the solar calendar an essential part of china's national identity as
expressed in these and other ceremonies, the builders of the revolution
created the paradox that that identity was being defined precisely by the
adherence to practices and customs that had previously defined what
was not Chinese.2a
The adoption of certain \Western customs was part of a long process
of the redefinition of national identity which was already well under way
by rgrr and continues today. Lu Xun inTheTiue Story of Ah e(A e
zheng zhuan), a satire on the rgrr revolution, describes the.Imitation
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON
MAN
25
Foreign Devil' who has been a feature of the country town where Ah
son of
Q lives for some time before the outbreak of the revolution. The
in the
school
a
foreign
at
has
studied
he
local
elite,
the
of
a member
(though
he
hair
has
short
year
He
in
half
a
spent
then
Japan.
city and
stick.
a
walking
carries
legs
and
with
straight
queue),
walks
wears a false
When Ah Q wants to talk to this man he decides to address him as 'Mr
Foreigner'.25 A similar point is made by ZhouYueran in his autobiography when describing a meeting with the British-trained lawyer wu
Tingfang in the rgoos. writing in the rg4os Zhou imagines his reader
to be curious as to why Wu Tingfang was wearing a long gown rather
than\(/estern-style clothes. He explains,
That was the Qing dynasty! After students returned from studying abroad
of course those who became officials did this and even those who didn't
become officials still grew their queues. Otherwise ordinary people would look
askance at them and if they didn't call them 'Revolutionaries' then they
would mock them as 'slaves of the Foreigners'. People always want to have
face.lffho is wilting to be a slave of the foreigners? People always want to live.
\flho is willing to be a revolutionary when revolutionaries are being harshly
arrested?26
The role the revolution played was not so much as to encourage the
adoption of Western customs as to transform them from symbols of
the outsider to symbols of the establishment, from a denial of Chinese
ethnicity to a symbol of Chinese nationality.
At the national level the paradox that identity was now being defined
by'foreign' customs was not admitted, but at the local level it led to
obvious dissatisfaction. In Guilin, independence celebrations with
lanterns and flags were interrupted when a schoolchildren's lantern procession was fired on by mutinous troops. The children fled' householders barred their doors, and the street was left littered with the
abandoned lanterns. The slogans of the mutiny were, we are told,
'Restore the Han and oppose the foreigners!'and'Kill the monk-heads!'
The latter refers to supporters of the revolution who had cut off their
queues and, as was the common practice, shaved the entire head,
leaving them looking like Buddhist monks." The new hairstyles were
seen as closely tied to the new republic and at the same time singled
out as being un-Chinese. In Chengdu the activities of the new government prompted fears, hotly denied but nevertheless reported in the local
press, that the military governor had become a Catholic and that excessive imitation of foreign practices foreboded foreign intervention. The
rumour was that the cutting off of queues, unbinding of feet and prohibition of opium would soon be followed by a ban on the burning of
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THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
REVoLUTToN AND THE coMMoN MAN
incense and the worship of spirits and ancestors. The design of the new
flag too was foreign and ominous. Finally, since the words 'solar' and
'foreign' are homonyms in Chinese, 'solar calendar' was taken
as
'foreign calendar'and people were saying that the change to the foreign
calendar and the requirement to cut off queues were signs that China
was about to submit to the foreigners.2s The fears indicate just how
much the symbols of the new republic had the potential to affect the
identity of ordinary people.
Participation
But how far were ordinary people aware of what was going on? Participation in ceremonies and the processions that accompanied most of
them is hard to gauge. Most of the newspaper accounts concentrate
on the ceremony itself. Moreover, rather than describing the ceremony
as it took place they tend to give the prescriptive text according to which
it was performed.Thus for SunYatsen's inauguration the Shenbao newspaper's account begins by telling us who took part, goes on to state that
there were decorations, estimate the size of the crowd outside the building, and then give the order of proceedings ('r. Play military music. z.
Representative's report. 3" The president's speech' and so on), and
finally the text of the oath.2e This is typical of all newspaper accounts
of ritual at this time: the author writes as an insider, almost never as an
onlooker. Newspaper journalists were members of China's elite, as were
a large proportion of their readers, and so it is hardly surprising that
they tended to report the aspects of events in which elite ideas were
dominant. Historical accounts and even memoirs often concentrate on
the same features of the ceremony and frequently use identical wording.
'Western
reporters sometimes describe events from a spectator's point
of view, but the authors were outsiders and their accounts tend to
emphasize anti-foreign elements. Consequently for many events there
exists only the briefest information as to the popular context in which
they took place.
However, in the case of Sun's inauguration we are fortunate in that
a Manchurian newspaper, the Shengjing Times (Shengjing shibao), had
a reporter in Nanjing who wrote a couple of descriptive articles about
events surrounding the ceremonies and from these and other scattered
references there emerges a sense of popular involvement. Preparations
for Sun's inauguration had begun several days previously with a plan
for merchants to cut their queues off for the occasion. Families set up
altars along Sun's route from the station so that they could welcome
27
him. Groups of soldiers marched through the city singing victory songs
at the top of their voices, while others armed with shears cut off the
queue of anyone unfortunate enough to meet them. Everywhere the
new Five Colour national flag was hung, though the effect was somewhat amateur with newly made flags of all different sizes' hung horizontally or vertically as the owner fancied. In the north of the city some
houses still hung the white flag, the symbol of clean government that
the revolutionaries had first adopted, though local gentry organizers
ordered everyone to hand the national Five Colour Flag to illustrate
unity.3o All this indicates a considerable degree of popular involvement
in what had at first appeared to be a ceremony totally dominated by the
upper political elite'
Some hint of participation by the general public in local ceremonies
can be found by looking at the popular mood that inspired them. Rituals
to mark the inauguration of the new system took place across the
country on a variety of different occasions' During the early days many
of these were marked by fear. People in central and southern China
could hardly help but remember the violence of the Thiping rebellion
less than fifty years earlier when towns were razed and a chance remark
could mean death.3r Even though during the rgrr revolution there was
little actual fighting in many areas, and local dignitaries would formally
welcome the arriving soldiers, people continued to be afraid. A good
example is the town of Nantong, near Shanghai. When Shanghai fell to
the revolutionaries local people feared the arrival of revolutionary troops
and several thousand people gathered in the city and begged the officials
and gentry to protect them. So the various occupational organizations
announced the city's independence from the Qing government. As this
was being formalized, news came that a ship sent by the Shanghai revolutionaries had arrived in the harbour. The Artisans' and Merchants'
Physical Exercise Group and the staff of all the occupational organizations formed a procession and went out to welcome the revolutionaries. All along the road people had hung white flags inscribed with the
words' Glorious restoration'r'Raise the Han'or'Long live the Republic'. Everyone, young and old, men and women, wore a white armband
to show their enthusiasm for the revolution, and as the procession
passed they applauded loudly.32 Although a newspaper description of
the event claims that the enthusiasm with which Nantong people took
part in the ceremonies showed that they were not afraid, it is clear from
other accounts that the original gathering of people in the city centre
was inspired by fear of the arrival of the revolutionaries. Nor were such
reacdons restricted to the elite; in one lowerYangzi town it was reported
V
28
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTToN AND THE
coMMoN MAN
that even the pavement sellers of vegetables had set up small white
flags.33 Setting up white flags out of fear as in cases like this hardly suggests enthusiasm, but it does imply that ordinary people were participating in creating and spreading the symbols of the revolution.
Later on as the revolution progressed it became clear that the majority of the population was safe from violence. After this, fear is usually
absent from the descriptions of the ceremonies, but so is any indication
of popular emotion. This may be simply a question of the interests of
the writers who recorded the events. Nevertheless it seems likely that
some ceremonies were driven by certain local groups to express their
own agendas. In Jiaxing near Shanghai, celebrarions which were
attended by women as well as men included the presentation of rewards
of pigs, sheep, chicken, eggs and rice to the revolutionary volunteers.
No one still wearing a queue was permitted ro enter the building where
the celebrations took place, and a proclamation was issued urging all
men to remove their queues within five days. Troops paraded through
the streets to the Confucian Temple where they heard speeches which
narrated the local events as part of a national revolution and proposed
honours for local men who had died for rhe Ming dynasty.3a Clearly in
this case the ceremonies reflect the new dominance of a group of
revolutionary enrhusiasts.
Since on the whole the groups which were dominant in these ceremonies were those taking the reins of power, it is possible that at
this later stage in the revolution the ceremonies were organized by the
new authorities without necessarily a great deal of popular involvement.
In Fuzhou the ceremonies held by the provincial government followed
closely the pattern of the inauguration of Sun Yatsen. Members of the
new government marched in procession to the new governor's offices
where the representative of the provincial branch of the Chinese
League read aloud a formal document appointing the new governor.
Military music was played while the governor was presented with a flag
and then the seal of office. Finally he read aloud his oath of office. Like
the oath of SunYatsen at his inauguration this attributes the success of
the revolution to divine intervention by the Yellow Emperor on behalf
of the Han. It was addressed to Heaven, Earth, the ancestors, the people
of China and the people of Fujian. People lined the flag-bedecked
streets to watch and applaud and there was a great noise of fire
crackers as the procession passed, but that is all we know.35The greater
security of the revolution by this stage made it less necessary for
reporters to emphasize public signs of support. At the same time the
public, now reassured of its safery may not have felt the same need to
demonstrate support.
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
29
A neutral public response is perhaps also indicated by the way that
in north China ceremonies spread through the bureaucratic network,
fear that drove them in the early
fatha'1. than through the rumour and
of I9I2 the government of
the
beginning
At
days of the revolution.
was strong in its
province
in
Manchuria
Fengtian (modern Liaoning)
support of the Qing. However after the abdication of the emperor the
provincial government began to hold formal ceremonies to mark the
lnauguration of the Republic. The Five Colour flag was raised at a
rneeting in the provincial capital attended by officials, gentry) merchants) students and soldiers. The provincial governor also transmitted
orders to local towns at prefectural and county level that the flag should
be hung by officials and shopkeepers. Ten towns in the province are
reported in the local newspaper to have received this order and
responded to it. In Tieling most people were said not really to have
understood that a republic had been proclaimed until on the Lantern
Festival shops and houses hung the Five Colour flag which produced
the ,new atmosphere' of the Republic. One report says that the original order specified that it was to be transmitted both to neighbouring
areas and to those places that could not be reached by post or telegram'
The celebrations coincided with the (lunar) New Year and Lantern
Festival, which would in any case have drawn people from the countryside to the towns. In one small town it was claimed that country
people came several tens of li to see the national flag decorations.36 This
story and the wide extent of the celebrations indicate that even where
celebrations were organized by an unenthusiastic local government they
could evoke a certain amount of public interest and enthusiasm.
There are also descriptions that indicate that at least in some areas
the general public was involved, and that the popular mood was one of
celebration rather than fear. In Sichuan apparently the celebrations
spread with such vigour that the governor thought of banning them.
\When a telegram arrived in Chengdu announcing that a central government had been established and had elected SunYatsen as president,
the Sichuan government and the provincial police office ordered celebrations and decided to hold a ceremony. They told all merchants to
hang flags and light lanterns for three days. After the ceremony there
was a feast for participants, but in addition to this,
All the government bureaux did the same, and the public organizations, neighbourhood groups and native place associations followed on an even grander
scale. They laid on operas with music and feasting, and at the larger banquets
more than a hundred people were present, while at the smallest there
were never fewer than ten for the meal. Beijing opera, Sichuan opera, shadow
plays and storltellers were making a clamorous noise everylvhere, and actors
I;r30
THE
rgrr
REvoLUTToN AND THE COMMON MAN
and cooks did not get a day's rest. During this period the police wished to
ban the opera, but they were prevented from doing so because the governor
had given his permission. opium-taking and gambling also flourished as a
result of this.37
Another example of popular participarion and an atmosphere of celebration can be seen in the lanterns which took part in a procession in
Tianjin to mark the start of the republic. To the western mind the term
lantern procession conjures up images of a procession of people carrying flaming torches, or perhaps scarlet paper globes hanging from sticks.
In fact chinese lanterns were far more diverse and representational than
this image allows for. children's lanrerns might take the shape of a fish,
a butterfly or a cart) and in the great lantern processions in the big cities
the lanterns approximated more nearly to whar we might think of as
floats or tableaux vivants. Such lanterns often bore a didactic message
and this could be adapted to revolutionary ends. A fascinating description of the lanterns on display when Tianjin celebrated the establish-
ment of the republic includes various revolutionary tableaux among
other lanterns with more traditional messages, and others designed
simply to entertain. In one a man represented Liang Bi, a Manchu
official who had been assassinated by revolutionaries, while a second
man threw a bomb at him from the side. Another was a tableau of a
soldier arresting the man who had tried to assassinare president yuan
Shikai. Yet another consisted of a man wearing a har one half of which
was Western in style while the other half was the shape of the oldfashioned hat of a Qing official with its distinctive red button. on the
hat was written'The transition between old and new'.38 By preparing
such lanterns and taking part in the procession with them individuals
could convey a message about the nature of the revolution to a large
audience. while the context was an officially sponsored celebration the
messages could and did vary with the individuals or groups who had
designed each of the lanterns.
Queue Cutting
Studies of the spread of national culrure in other parts of the world,
ranging from Eugen \Weber's Peasants into Frenchmen to John
Pemberton's On the Subject of 'Jaaa', have often argued that the elements that made up the national culture were created among the governing elite of the dominant part of the country, and then spread to the
lower classes and other regions. The lower classes and the peasantry
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
3r
then have a role in deciding which elements of the new culture they will
accept, but they are seldom seen as initiators.3e The popular enthusiasrn for revolutionary lantern processions has already suggested that in
China in rgrr this was not entirely the case, and it can also be shown
that for a short period in rgrr and tgtz the lower classes in China were
the initiators of a campaign of queue cutting that swept the country and
made short hair one of the maior symbols of the republican citizen.
The cutting of queues was a central feature of the festivities that
began the Republic, as in Ningxiang, a remote town in the mountains
of western Shanxi, where a member of the local self-government associadon invited his comrades to hold a meeting to celebrate the
Republic in the Temple of theYellow Emperor. The meeting, which was
attended by several hundred members of the gentry, students, artisans,
merchants, members of local organizations and policemen, began with
the organizer cutting off his queue, an act which was immediately imitated by some forty other participants'4o And yet queue cutting could
also often be an unwanted intrusion. To understand this we must look
first at the reasons why Chinese men wore the queue'
The queue was originally the hairstyle of the Manchu tribesmen
before they invaded China. As they moved down into China they
imposed it on those they conquered as a sign of surrender. Then as the
conquest was confirmed in 1645 a decree was issued, ordering the entire
adult male population to adopt this hairstyle on pain of death. The
decree was strictly enforced and its enforcement became a focus for
resistance in the south. 4r In his book Sozlslealers Philip Kuhn argues
that during the Qianlong period the 'ethnic' tension between Han
and Manchu was still very much alive, that the emperor and his court
were aware of this and that the queue was a crucial symbol of Manchu
dominance. He claims that even at the lowest levels of society,
wandering beggars, monks and villagers were aware of the political
symbolism of the queue and that if a man's queue was cut off he would
be seen as displaying symbolic defiance of the Qi.tg.n' More than a
cenrury later when the republican revolution broke out this awareness
persisted among certain groups of society, but over time it had become
considerably more complex and confused. Radical revolutionaries of
the late Qing cut off their queues or allowed the hair on the front of
the head to grow long as a symbol of their defiance of the Manchus and
as a link with the Ming loyalists, whose heirs they claimed to be. In
this some of them followed the Taiping rebels who had allowed their
hair to grow. But many more of those who changed their hairsryle
during the first decade of the twentieth century were simply adopting
IFF-_
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
32
the prevailing \Western styles. Some, like British-trained lawyer Wu
Tingfang, were officials of the Qing government.43 Nor was short hair
confined to Han Chinese; Manchu students at government-run mili-
THE
r9rr
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
33
Be it known that from the Three Dlrrasties to the former Ming was all a time
when men tied up their hair and wore caps.\When you see this in an opera performance you will immediately realise that plaiting the hair dates only from the
tary academies also cut their queues to conform with theirWestern-style
tirne when the Qing emperor entered the passes and enforced the change.aT
uniforms.aa
Similarly when the governor of Guangdong province ordered the
population to cut their queues, the announcement included the informadon that
The arguments for and against queue cutting can be well illustrated
by a pamphlet entitled One Hundred Discussions of Queue Cutting (Jianfa
bai tan chujl , published in Shanghai in the summer of I 9 I I . This is not
in any way an explicitly anti-Manchu work; indeed it reprints a memorial from rVu Tingfang on the subject, urging the emperor to permit
men to cut their queues and claiming that after 300 years of the dynasty
the Chinese would love the emperor whether or nor they had queues.
Reasons given for cutting the queue include claims that it is unhygienic,
dangerous for students doing military exercises, dangerous in factories,
expensive and a waste of time. However the most frequently repeated
reason in this and most other sources is that foreigners laugh at it and
call it a pig-tail. The pamphlet also gives examples of some of the arguments against queue cutting. One of these was made by lobbyists for
the silk industry who claimed that if men cut off their queues they would
also change to \Western-style clothes made of wool rather than silk.
However the major argument against the cutting of queues is that to do
so is to imitate the foreigners. Another arricle criticizes the kind of
person who the moment anyone brings up rhe subject of cutting queues
becomes all fiery and says fiercely:
!7hen we cut our queues, isn't that precisely following the foreigners?! \7hy
should we men of a great and mighty country only want to follow foreign
countries?a5
Entwined in these arguments is the claim that the queue is part of a
national sense of identity. For large numbers of people the queue had
come to be part of what defined them as Chinese. Thus an obscure
diarist in Shanxi province comments on the appointment of a
Japanese-educated teacher to a local school:
He has not only switched to wearing foreign clothes, but has also cut off his
queue, although he is a Chinese, he has almost become a barbarian.ao
Moreover, after the revolution when queue cutting became government
policy, promoters of queue cutting seem to have found repeated explanations of the Manchu origins of the queue necessary, implying that
many people would not otherwise have known. So for example a proclamation by the county government urging queue cutting in Shandong
begins,
The old custom of our country was always to bind the hair up in a bun. In the
time of [the kingdoms ofl \J7u andYue there were men who shaved their heads
and men who cut their hair, but I have never heard that there was anyone who
plaited his hair. Plaiting the hair is not the ritual of our country.nt
Anthropologists such as James \Watson argue that to be Chinese was to
observe Chinese customs and ritual practices.4e The queue had become
a part of Chinese custom and yet it was defined as the antithesis of what
it meant to be a citizen of the Republic. Moreover the abandonment of
the queue was supported by a large number of ordinary people. How
did this come to be?
Given the queue's Manchu associations, well known at least to the
leaders of the revolution, it is easy to see how the cutting of the queue
could be chosen as the badge of the revolutionary troops. One of the
first reports to emerge from Wuhan after the revolution broke out
described how trained soldiers who had joined the revolution were
having their queues cut off,
the object being of course to forestall any possibility of their reverting to the
Imperialists, the queueless heads affording an easy means of identification.50
(Fig. 2)
Throughout the fighting the queue or lack of it was used by both
sides as a means of identifiiing their own troops and supporters. In
Nanjing Zhang Xun, on hearing the news of the Wuchang uprising,
had the city gates closed and executed everyone without a queue.5t ln
Fengtian far to the north ZhangZuolin did the same and made his point
clear by hanging rows of queueless heads from the city wall.52 In
Shandong province near the town of \Wendeng villagers resisted the
revolutionary soldiers. Those who were captured had their queues cut
off. Some of these then fell into the hands of another party of villagers
and were taken for supporters of the revolutionaries, and many were
killed.53
At first short hair
was almost entirely confined
to men actively
involved in the fighting, as is illustrated by requests for the government
lF-34
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
Ftc. z. Queueless revolutionary soldiers
Sozrce: Edwin J. Dingle, China\ Reaolutiou, tgrt-tgrz: a Histoical and Political Record
York: McBride, Nast and Co, rgrz), facing p. 53.
o;f
the CiuillVar (New
to provide documents to other men who had cut their queues certifi/ing that they were neither revolutionaries nor deserters.5a As the revolutionary forces advanced so did the cutting of queues. Troops that
deserted to the revolution had their queues cut to prevent them changing sides again. Other men gambled on the ultimate victory of the revolutionary forces and cut their queues to demonstrate their support.55
lVhen in late November an imperial edict permitted the cutting of
queues this gamble became somewhat less risky. The actions of Zhang
Xun and Zhang Zuolin showed that it was still not risk-free. For those
who had cut their queues off safety lay in increasing their own numbers.
An epidemic of forced queue cutting spread through the eastern
provinces.
In a country town near Suzhou two men wearing Western suits and
holding white flags rode into the town one day in the autumn of l9l I .
They ordered merchants to cut off their queues and threatened them
with execution if they failed to comply. The people were very frightened
but then someone recognized the men as bandits and reported them to
the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce. Vhen the military government
heard, it sent cavalry, but the men fled. A few days later they reappeared,
pressing people to cut off their queues and threatening them with being
blown up if they did not do so within three days. The military govern-
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
35
government
rnent wanted to ban these men but at the same time the
as
Although'
queue
cutting.56
urging
order
of
the
source
the
was
itself
rowdy
and
threats
the
of
disapproved
the
authorities
case,
the
was often
behaviour, it was hard for them to ban people from enforcing what was
in fact government policy. On another occasion in Suzhou the police
were sent in by local officials to investigate rowdy soldiers who had been
cutting queues) but the next day the soldiers stood at the door of a teahouse and cut the queues of all who passed by, paying no attention to
the objections of the civil authorities.When an angry crowd surrounded
the soldiers and beat them up, other soldiers began to gather and a
brawl began.5t Resistance such as it was came at a local or individual
level. A few weeks later some young men of the 'Picked Combat Force
of Braves' were forcibly cutting queues, when another group of young
men calling themselves the'Jiangsu Defence Battalion Braves' dressed
up with long oily queues and went out in the streets. rwhen they were
accosted by the queue cutters they drew their knives and in the resulting brawl one person nearly died.58
\Wuxi when solSimilar scenes were repeated throughout Jiangsu. In
diers went out on the streets cutting queues Ir000 were cut in a day. In
Zhenjiang soldiers temporarily stationed in the town went out on the
streets cutting queues. Crowds gathered to laugh at the sight of the
victims who wailed and begged to be let off. In this way more than
1,000 queues were cut in an evening. The following day the soldiers
went to the quayside and no one escaped. The men from northern
Jiangsu wept and fell to their knees beseeching the soldiers. Eventually
a man was injured and the situation deteriorated.5e In Baoying, a
remote county town in northern Jiangsu, the civil authorities did
not implement the provincial order to cut queues until in February
soldiers passed through and acted forcibly. They even went into
shops and cut the queues there. In the chaos that followed 700 or 800
queues were cut and someone was injured. The local defence force
was sent out and calmed things down a bit, but from then on country
people did not dare enter the town and business was much affected.60
In these scenes soldiers, bandits or gangs of young men are the
initiators and they act against the wishes of the higher civil or military
authorities.
Individuals whose queues were cut' whether voluntarily or forcibly,
were at a profound level participating in a symbolic change that would
affect both their perception of themselves in relation to the state and
their perception of the state itself. For many it was clearly a traumatic
event. A boy whose queue was cut by his father, a forward-thinking
36
THE
rgrr
REVoLUTToN AND THE coMMoN MAN
student, recalls that for two or three days he and his brother cried and
didn't dare go out, fearing that they would be laughed at.6r Where the
victim had his queue cut forcibly by soldiers in public amidst the jeers
of onlookers it could also be very humiliating. One country rrader, who
had the misfortune to enter Hangzhou and have his queue forcibly
removed, was so mocked by his wife on his return from the city that he
committed suicide by swallowing opium.62 Many others were, as shown
above, killed or injured resisting the queue cutters. For men in places
like Baoying, otherwise apparently untouched by the revolurion, the loss
of a queue might be the only way in which rhe revolurion directly
affected them. In such places it was often the first way in which the
revolutionary forces made their rule felt. This is well illustrated by an
anecdote concerning events in the town of Xujiahui near Shanghai.
Recently recruited soldiers were roaming around the city and villages
cutting queues.When they came to Xujiahui four countrymen came out
to welcome them. All of these men wore queues and one of the soldiers
seized the opportunity to rush up and cut off one of the welcoming
group's queues. The other three men fled, yelling for help, with the soldiers in pursuit. The villagers gathered, assuming the soldiers were
robbers, and beat them up. The soldiers then called in the main forces
and the incident nearly led to a pitched battle.63
These men forcibly cutting queues were not the student believers
in radical reform and lfesternization that might be imagined. Often
no more is known about them than that they were soldiers or young
men. \When more is known it is usually that they are outsiders. We
have already seen that in the case of Baoying the soldiers who cut
queues were only temporarily stationed in the town and were
opposed by the local defence forces. The same was rrue in Suzhou,
Zhenjiang and Guiyang.uu In Shanghai both Chinese and foreign
sources repeatedly allege that the crowds or groups cutting queues were
Cantonese.65
Resistance when it occurred was often led by members of the elite.
In Hukou on the Yangzi during the celebrations of Sun's taking office,
several dozen soldiers started cutting off queues. The victims held their
newly shorn heads and wailed or cursed the soldiers. A member of the
local gentry who had his queue cut off angrily called in the county magistrate who agreed to give the culprits 400 strokes. The magistrate only
realized his mistake when one of the military officers got wind of what
was going on and came down to explain that queue cutting was a new
national policy.66 Here is an example of the national policy declared by
both Sun Yatsen and Li Yuanhong being implemented privately by soldiers, totally outside the control of the civil authorities who do nor even
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
37
policy. A similar situation is reported inYantai, Shandong'
know of the
of Commerce responded to the refusal of the miliChamber
the
*t "t.
punish
those responsible for cutting the queue of a
to
tarv eoveffior
a week-long strike'67 On occasion formal
calling
by
banker
rc:^aiiglocal
from within the civil authorities, as in
come
even
opposition might
to
F.ngfrr"ng, Fengtian, where the head of the local assembly wanted
employees who cut their queues'68
Other people simply avoided the scene of the action. Queue cutting
began in the towns. It is hardly surprising that gangs of soldiers roaming
the streets with rifles and shears caused people to panic. In Yantai the
,u"liurt"-bly
British consul rePorted that,
All shops remained closed, the streets were deserted, the coolies working cargo
on the ietties fled on to the lighters and sampans and took refuge in the open
roadstead, country people bringing in supplies threw down their bundles and
ran back to their villages, while numbers of the townsfolk took to the hills where
they remained till nightfall'6e
The news spread from the frightened townsfolk to the country people
who were then often afraid to go into the town.7o An old man reminiscing about his childhood in Feng county on the Jiangsu-Henan
border recalls how when the country people heard of queue cutting in
the county town they were too frightened to go there, as the town gate
was guarded by soldiers and police each with a knife to cut off the
queues of anyone who passed through. The village storekeeper had to
go into town) so he rolled his queue up and hid it under his hat, but he
was discovered by the soldiers and in the ensuing struggle part of his
ear got cut off. He then went home and told everyone that if they did
not cut their queues their ears would be cut off.71 All this was bad for
trade: in Hangzhou it was reported that areas of the city which specialized in trade with the surrounding villages were especially affected.
Sixty-two shops in these areas petitioned the government to extend the
time limit for queue cutting by ten days so that the usually busy period
before NewYear would nor be affected.T2
If many people avoided the queue cutters for fear of personal humiliation, others objected on the grounds that the new short style of hair
seemed to imitate foreigners rather than restore the ancient Han practice. In Guilin men began to comb their hair like the Ming characters
from the local opera.?3 In Chengdu, which had recently been the scene
of strong anti-foreign feeling, this kind of behaviour was even more
common and was reported in detail by the nervous British officials stationed there. rWhen the city first fell to the revolutionaries the consul
commented on the soldiers who flocked into the city:
IFT
38
THE
rgrr
REvoLUTToN AND THE COMMON MAN
The picturesque appearance of these fantastically dressed braves and bandits,
who crowded the principal thoroughfares, was heightened by the new sryle of
dressing the hair in a top-knot adorned with silver ornaments; this coiffure was
adopted in opposition to the queue cutting movement, the underlying idea
being that while the wearers are no longer slaves of the Manchus, they have no
desire to ape the foreigner by cutting off their hair.Ta
The governor of Sichuan issued repeated proclamations insisting that
queue cutting had nothing to do with foreigners, and discouraging
people from dressing their hair in so-called Han styles. The arguments
were that to grow the hair long would make the revolutionaries look,
not like the Han, but like theThiping who had been defeated and would
thus bring ill luck on the cause. Long hair would also be inconvenient
for contacts with other countries. Finally Sichuan could not stand alone
against the world trend rowards short hair, or against the practice of all
the south-eastern provinces of China, which had already opted for short
hair.75
This concern with staying in line with other provinces indicates
the extent to which queue cutting had spread across the country. In
fact so widespread was it that it is hard to tell to what degree the
patterns that emerge simply reflect the areas covered by the available newspapers. Having said this, it seems clear that Shanghai was
the city most affected and that this then influenced nearby towns in
southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. Other reporrs show that by
March l9l2 whenYuan Shikai took office, queue cutting had occurred
in almost all the provincial capitals of central and south china and
also in many prefectural level towns. There are also reports from
north China, but these are mostly of single incidents or reformminded students rather than a general movement. Afteryuan Shikai's
accession the focus shifts to north China, especially Shandong, Hebei,
Shanxi, Fengtian and Jilin, and to more remote areas such as Hainan
Island, westernYunnan, Gansu and the Shaanxi-sichuan border. There
are no reporrs of any occurrences in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang or
Mongolia.
Much harder to ascertain is the degree to which queue cutring
occurred in each of these areas. Figures are infrequently given and
where they exist they are no more than guesses by informed onlookers.
They also tend towards optimism, as when the Shenbao reported that
in Shanghai 80 to 90 per cent of men had cut their queues, 'from
which can be seen that the multitudinous masses of the Han race acr
with one heart'.76 In any case it seems likely that the effects were patchy
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
39
and highly localized. A British military officer travelling by road
through western China in the summer of l9l2 reported that in
Gansu, between the provincial capital Lanzhou and the Sichuan
border town of Bikou, no one had cut his queue, in Bikou itself many
of the men had done so, while in Sichuan only some poorer countryfolk retained their queues. In southern Shaanxi queues were cut in
rowns where soldiers had recently passed through. When he then con-
tinued his iourney, travelling 358 miles by road from Chengdu to
Ningyuan in the far south-west of Sichuan province, he reported
seeing only two queues the whole way.77 Sichuan, with its strong
revolutionary movement, may have been the province in which the
smallest number of men retained their queues, but a similar degree of
compliance is reported in some other areas, notably Hainan'78 Where
compliance was strictly enforced the effect gradually spread outward
from townsmen to villagers, though elderly men who seldom went
out might be able to avoid the problem altogether.Te Simply ordering
that queues be cut had far less effect, if any. In Fujian the provincial
government claimed that only 10 to 20 per cent of men had responded
to its initial order.8o The only reliable figures I have been able to
find for the numbers of queues remaining in an area which did not
undergo immediate military enforcement are for Beijing' There the
police conducted a detailed survey prior to enforcing the law in 1914
and found that the numbers of those with queues varied from 93 per
cent in one district to 39 per cent in another.8l The variation presumably in this case reflects the number of Manchu bannermen, a
group notably unwilling to remove their queues, living in each
district.82
More often than trying to guess at overall figures for
queue
cutting the sources describe the responses of particular sections of the
population. The groups they identifii generally correspond to the occupational groups who took part in provincial and local celebrations'
tJnfortunately these estimates are often biased towards what the
writer thought ought to be the case, and can be contradictory. For
example the Shengiing Times tells us that in Jilin 'those who have not
cut their queues are all men from the lower levels of society', while the
North China Herald reports that two months later when the provincial
assembly met for the first time most of its members were still wearing
the queue.83 Students in almost all parts of the country are said to be
keen to cut their queues, while the gentry and merchants hesitate to do
so.8n Occasionally other allegiances played a part: in one town in
Manchuria all the local Muslims cut their queues, many during the
40
THE
r9rr
formal time of washing that preceded prayer, because of a lead given
by two famillies who were trustees of the Muslim academy.85 The only
group other than soldiers persistently recorded as having cut their
queues because of their occupation are policemen.su One observer commented of some of the police in Jilin province, that with their 'bald
heads and short jackets they have a bit of a new air'.87 The police acted
as representatives of the state, and especially of the modern state, for
the areas where they were stationed; it was thus both appropriate and
necessary that they should display the most obvious sign of allegiance
to the new Republic.ss
According to the theory which condemned the queue as a Manchu
custom women need not have been involved. However there are
occasional reports of women being affected when the soldiers' enthusiasm took over. This is treated as an example of things getting out
of hand. Thus in Hangzhou there were complaints that queue
cutting had become so prevalent that even women and children were
harassed.8e The only detailed account comes from\Wuchang where soldiers posted at the city gate are said to have accosted two women and
ordered one of them who was wearing her hair in a plait to cut it
off. When she refused saying, 'It is inconvenient for those of us who
are not men to cut our hair', the soldiers forcibly cut it off and both
women went away wailing.eo However, queue cutting was an event
in which, though women were occasionally involved, they were
peripheral. Even when in the late 1910s many women did claim the
right to cut off their hair this was treated more as a fashion move
than a political gesture. It was having unbound feet not short hair
that was the symbol of Republican citizenship for women and this
was a change that of necessity took place gradually in the home,
rather than suddenly in the public streets as queue curring so often
did.et
Queue cutting was one of the very few government policies of the
early Republic that had an impact at a local level on a national scale.
Through it men were marked out as citizens of the new state. As one
man from Zhili, who wrote a petition to the government for troops to
enforce the new custom, claimed,
There are some people who have cut [their queues], and others who have not.
Those who have cut their hair are republican at heart, those who have not cut
their hair are defiant at heart. . . .If we are to establish a Republic as firm as a
great rock, and as steady as Mount Tai, the policy of cutting queues must be
uniformly implemented. Only then will the ignorant people know that China
has been established. Otherwise the ignorant people will suspect us of being
rebels."2
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON MAN
4r
Inrtoking the Ming
of Sun
began this chapter by looking at rhe inauguration ceremony
to see
perhaps
be
entitled
not
might
we
whether
wondering
yurr"n, and
dead
at
the
in
the
streets
alone
dancing
rnore in it than revolutionaries
perSunYatsen
a
ceremony
looking
at
of night.I should like to end by
office
the
took
over
formed on 12 February 1912, the dayYuan Shikai
I
of president. For I think that in this we will see more clearly the ways
in which the revolutionary republican project resonated with the
themes examined in this chapter.
popular
This day which marked the capitulation of North China to the revolutionary cause was to become the anniversary of the Unification of
the Republic, a holiday celebrated into the 1920s. Sun Yatsen took
advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate the unification and his role
in it by making a formal sacrifice at the tomb of the First Ming Emperor
just outside Nanjing. This emperor was an almosr mythical figure who
had driven out barbarian conquerors, restored Han Chinese rule and
founded a great dynasty. The weather was cold and misty, but nevertheless the area round Sun's residence was crowded from an early hour.
Troops from each of the provinces lined the route from the presidential palace up to the tombs. Flags were waving and an army band played
national music. As the cavalcade passed through the ancient Ming
palace in the ciry the 'grim walls reverberated to the sounds of the
martial music, and the shouts of the people'.e3The cavalcade rode along
the ancient avenues of carved stone figures which guarded the tombs,
to the entrance where massed troops saluted the president.Then amidst
music, applause and the sound of fire crackers Sun entered the gate of
the mausoleum and walked up through the courtyards till eventually he
stood on the roof of the main mausoleum where the sacrificial altars
had been set up. There in front of an ancient portrait of the Ming
emperor were set all the vessels traditionally used for offering sacrifices
to a dead king. The master of ceremonies announced that the president
of the Chinese Republic had come to pay his respects to the founder
of the great Chinese dlmasty. Sun and all those present took off their
hats and bowed three times to the spirit tablet of the emperor. Pale with
emotion Sun looked'as if the historic associations overwhelmed him'.ea
Tbxts were read which drew parallels with and connections between
the acdons of the Ming Founding Emperor and the founders of the
Republic. Sun turned to face the people and spoke, declaring that now
after 260 years the nation had again recovered her freedom, and prophesying glory and prosperity for a united free China. The assembled soldiers cheered and the cheering was taken up successively by the crowds
,Fp'-42
THE rgrr REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON MAN
THE rgrr REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON MAN
43
NOTES
r. The description is drawn from Public Record Office: Foreign Office:
Embassy and Consular Archives: China: Peking: Legation/Embassy
(PRO: FO zz8): FO 228h836, Nanking Tlrz; North China Herald' 6
January rgr2, 3r-2i Xu Shishen, Guofu xuanren linshi da zongtong shilu
(A true record of how our National Father was appointed and took
office as Provisional President; Zhongguo wenhua fuwu she, 1948), 53; Sun
Fuhou, Zhongguo jindai ge zhong jinian shi (A history of the various modern
anniversaries
of China;
Shanghai: Sanmin gongsi, 1929), r-9;
Yuan Xiluo,'Linshi da zongtong jiuzhi dianli jianwen' (\7hat I saw and
heard at the accession ceremony of the Provisional President), in Zhong'
guo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi quanguo weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao
yaniiu weyuanhui, Zhongguo Guomindang geming weiyuanhui zhongyang
Ftc.3.
Source:
p.3r6.
SunYatsen leaving the tomb of the First Ming Emperor
Frederick McCormick, The Flozuery Republic (Iandon: John Murray, r9i3), facing
weiy'uanhui 'Tuanjie bao' 'Zhongshan xiansheng yishi' bianjizu (The
Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress National Committee
Historical Materials Research Committee and the Chinese Nationalist
Party Revolutionary Committee Central Committee 'IJnity Newspaper'
'Recollections of Mr SunYatsen' editorial board) (ed.), Zhongshan xiansheng yishi (Recollections of Mr Sun Yatsen; Beijing: Zhongguo wenshi
chubanshe, 1986), 3z-4.
z. Ma Lingfu,'Xinhai geming Nanjing linshi zhengfu qinli ji' (Notes on my
personal experience in the rgrr revolution Nanjing Provisional Government), Jiangsu wenshi ziliao xuanji $iangsu Selected Historical Materials)
r (t962): t6*28.
below and then carried miles away by the thousands of troops, ro mingle
with the booming of distant guns.e5
In the photograph of the Republican leaders leaving rhe mausoleum
(Fig. 3) we see rogerher many of rhe features of the new Republic:
Sun with his short hair, military uniform and greatcoat, amid flags
and a brass band, strides towards us between the honour guard of
soldiers who wear \Western-style military uniforms and caps. Behind
him, decorated with Five Colour Flags, stands the central feature of
the picture: the tomb of the Ming Emperor. Like the founders of
previous dynasties Sun Yatsen is sacrificing to his predecessors. As a
Han leader he is sacrificing to the founder of the last great Han dynasty.
A11 the men taking part have short hair and most wear military caps
above their uniforms. Only in the distance can we see a couple of figures
in long gowns and jackets. The Ming is invoked but the leaders stride
out towards the future. Sun Yatsen is shown leaving the political stage
as he resigns in favour ofYuan Shikai but, with characteristic flamboyance, he places himself at the centre of the stage precisely as he leaves
it.
3. PRO: FO zz811836, Nanking Tlrz.Foreign observers dismissed the crowds
in this way because despite their numbers they were silent and showed little
sign of enthusiasm for the Republic. See Frederick McCormick' The
Flowery Republic (London: John Murray, r9r3), z6o.
4. Joseph\7. Esherick,' Founding a Republic, Electing a President: How Sun
Yat-sen Became Guofu'in Eto Shinkichi and Harold Z' Schiffrin (eds.),
China\ Republican Revolution (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1994),
r47.
Hu
Shian, Geming shijiaa (A true view of the revolution;\Tuchang: Da Han
5.
bao she, ryrz),45-6; Minlibao, z3 October r9rr, 3; Hu Zushun' Wuchang
Kaiguo shilu (A true account of the establishment of the Republic at
\Tuchang; privately published, 19 48), 6r-2.
6. Quoted in Ernest P.Young, The Presidency ofYuan Shih-k'ai: Liberalism and
Dictatorship in Early Republican China (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, r977),5r.
7. Shenbao, rz March rgrz, 2; 13 March r9r2, zi North China Herald, t6
March r9tz, 7o6; The Peking Daily News, rr March rgrz quoted in PRO:
FO zz811816,To F.O. ul3lrgrz; Dagongbao Cfianjin), rr March r9rz,3b1,
13 March r9rz,3a.
8. Hu Shian, Geming shijian,45; Minlibao, z5 October rgrr,4.The use of a
,F'
44
THE
rgrr
military anthem is described by Hu Shian. This example is printed in the
Minilibao as an example of anthems in use by the revolutionary government, The text of the anthem replaces the character for .Manchu' with a
9.
ro.
THE
REVOLUTTON AND THE COMMON MAN
space as was conventional when printing seditious material.
Hu Shian, Geming shijian,45.
North china Herald, 16 March r9rz,7o6. For fears that china was abour
to be partitioned by the foreign powers see ono Shinji,'A deliberate rumor:
in China on the Eve of the Xinhai Revolution,, in
Shinkichi and Schiffrin China\ Republican Revolution, z5-4o.
rr. Dagongbao (Tianjin), z December rgrr,2Aa.
rz. Jeffrey\Tasserstrom, student Protests inTwentieth-century china:Theview
from Shanghai (Stanford: Stanford University press, r99r), 75-g.
13. Quoted in Chen Shengxi,'Qing mo min chu de jian bianzi yundong' (The
queue cutting movemenr in the late Qing and early Republic; paper given
at the China Social History Association 5th Annual Conference, Xi'an
1994),4'
t4. Zhongguo Guomindang Fujian sheng zhixing weiyuanhui wenhua shiye
National Anxiety
weiyuanhui (chinese Nationalist Parry Fujian province Executive
committee culturalrasks committee) (ed.), Fujian xinhai guangt'u shiliao
(Historical materials on the rgrr Restoration of Fujian; Liancheng,
Fujian: Jianguo chuban she, r94o),68.
15. Shengjing shibao, T January r9rz,4i Minlibao, r7 November rgrr, 4.
16. Shenbao, 15 March tgrz, 6.
17. zhongguo Guomindang Fujian sheng zhixing weiyuanhui wenhua shiye
weiyuanhui, 67.
18. Dagongbao (Tianjin), z9 February rgr2, z.2ai 3 March rgtz z.rb-z.za.
19. Eg. Shenbao, z9 December r9rr, r houfu z; 17 lanuary t9rz,6.
zo. Shenbao, z3 February rgr2,7;4 December r9rr,2.2.
zr. Shenbaor 4 December rgrrr 2.2.
zz.
Shenbao, r January r9r2, 2.2.
23. Dagongbao (Tianjin), z6 February r9rz, 6a1 Shenbao,6 January r9r2, r
houfu 4.
24. Myron L. Cohen, 'Being Chinese: The peripheralization of Traditional Identity,' in Tu !7ei-ming (ed.), The Lfuing Tiee: The Changing
Meaning of Being Chinese Tbday (Stanford: Stanford lJniversity press,
199D.
25. LuXun, Lu Xun quanji (The complere works of Lu Xun; Beijing: Renmin
wenxue chubanshe, 1973), vol. r,372,4o4.
26. Zhou Yueran. Liushi huiyi (Memoirs at sixty; Shanghai: Taiping shuju,
t944), 86.
27. Liu Xinfing,'Xinhai geming dangshi de Guilin'(Guilin at the time of the
rgrr revolution), Guilin wenshi ziliao (Guilin Historical Materials) r (1982):
76-8r; Fan Shoucheng,'Xinhai Guilin guangfu shi de qingkuang' (The situation in Guilin ar rhe time of the rgrr Restoration), Guilin utenshi ziliao
(Guilin Historical Materials) r (r982): 67-72.
rgrr
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
45
28. PRO: FO zz&h838'rzr-5.
r.4.
29. Shenbao,3 JanuarY r9r2'
r9r2,4.'lhe reference to queue cutting is from
Nanking
228h836,
FO
4/rz.
PRO:
rilode huiyi (My recollections; Detroit, 1955), 3.
\fenzhen,
Cheng
Jin
3r.
(Tianiin),20 November 19rr, z.za-b. See also GuanJingcheng,
32. Dagongbao
.Xinhai Tongzhou guangfu ii' (An account of the rgrr Restoration in
Tongzhou), Jiangsu wenshi ziliao xuanji (Jiangsu Selected Historical
Materials) 4o (r99t): 143-55.
(Tianiin), zo November r9rr, 3.ra.
Dagongbao
33.
Herald, z December r9rr, 584; Minlibao, r December rgrr' 4'
China
North
34.
Fujian sheng zhixing weiyuanhui wenhua shiye
35. Zhongguo Guomindang
shibao,g January
30. Shengjing
weiyuanhui' 67-9.
z7 February rgr2, rr; z8 February rgr2' 5i 3 March
rgrz,5i 6 March r9L2' 5i 7 March rgr2,5;8 March rgr2,5i 6 April r9rz,
to have responded to
5; Shenbao, z8 February r9r2, 6.The towns reported
the order were Andong, Dagushan, Fenghuang, Jinzhou, Liaoyang,
36. Shengjing shibao,
37.
Suizhong, Tieling, Yingkou,Yizhou and Dadonggou.
Qin Nan,'Shu xin' (Sichuan in rgrr), reprinted in Sichuan xinhai geming
shiliao (Historical materials on the rgrr revolution in Sichuan; chengdu;
Sichuan renmin chubanshe, r98r), vol. r. 533-68.
38. Shengjing shibao,5 March r9r2' 4.
39. Eugen \/eber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernisation of Rural France,
t87o-r9r4 (London: Chatto and lVindus, 1977); John Pemberton, On the
Subject of 'Jazta'(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, r994).
4o. Shenbao,3 April rgr2,6.
4r. Frederic'Wakeman,'Localism and Loyalism during the Ch'ing Conquest
of Kiangnan: The Tragedy of Chiang-yin,' in Frederic Vakeman
and
Carolyn Grant (eds.), Conflict and Control in Late Imperial China (Betkeley: University of California Press, 1979, 43-85.
42. Philip A. Kuhn, Soulstealers:The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, r99o).
43.
\7u Tingfang was Vice-President of the Board of Punishments in
Beijing, until in r9o7 he was appointed to be the Chinese minister
to the United States. For the Qing government's attitude to queue
cutting at this point see Edward J.M. Roads, 'The Assassination of
Governor Enming and its Effect on Manchu-Han Relations in Late
Qing China', in Shinkichi and Schiffrin, China's Republican Reztolution,
r8.
44. Yiergenjueluo Tongfu, 'Fuzhou guangfu shi Manzu qiying nei de
qingkuang' (The situation in the Manchu banner camp at the time of the
Restoration of Fuzhou), Jiangsu wenshi ziliao xuanji (Jiangsu selected historical materials) 6: r8t-92.
45. Chunshen ribao she (ed.), Jianfa bai tan chuji (A preliminary collection of
a hundred discussions ofhair cutting; Chunshen ribao, rgrr), r7b.
46
THE
rgrr
REVOLUTTON AND THE
coMMoN MAN
46. Liu Dapeng, Thixiangzhai riji (Diary from the chamber to which one rerires
to ponder;Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, r99o), 169.
(Tianjin), zr May rgr2,3.ta.
Dagongbao
47.
Shenbao,
zr
November r9rr, r houfu 3.
48.
49. James L. STarson, 'The Structure of Chinese Funerary Rites: Elementary
Forms, Ritual Sequence, and the Primacy of performance,' in James
L. \Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski (eds.), Death Ritual in Late Imperial
and Modern China (Berkeley: University of California press, 1988), 3-r9.
See also his 'Rites or Beliefs? The construction of a unified culture in
Late Imperial China,' in Lowell Dittmer and Samuel S. I(m (eds.),
China's Quest for National Identity (Ithaca: Cornell University press, r993),
8o-ro3.
North
China Herald, z8 October r9rr,2r7.
5o.
THE
Consulative Conference Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region Committee Historical Materials Research Committee) (ed.), Nef Menggu xinhai
geming shiliao (Historical Materials on the rgrr Revolution in Inner Mongolia; Nei Menggu renmin chubanshe, t96z),8o-2.
53. North China Herald, 16 March r9r2, 7oS.
54. Shengjing shibao, z4January rgr2, 4;5 March rgr2,5.
55. North China Herald, z5 November r9rr, 5o7.This suggests that the number
of queues being cut in Shanghai varied with the position of the revorutionary armies.
56. Shenbao, rr November r9rr, r houfu z; 18 November r9rr, r houfu 3.
57. Shengiing shibao, 14 January rgtz,4.
58. Shenbao,9 January rgt2, r houfu 4.
59. Shenbao,3 February r9rz,6.
6o. Shenbao, T February r9r2,7.
6r. Cheng Houzhi,'Xinhai geming shiqi Feng xian shehui yi pie' (A look at
Feng County society ar the rime of the rgrr revolution), Jiangsu wenshi
ziliao xuanji (|iangsu selected historical materials) 6; r4t'.9.
62. Dagongboo (Tianjin), rr December rgrr,2.3a.
63. Chen Boxi, Shanghai yishi daguan (A grand survey of anecdotes of Shanghai; Shanghai: Taidong tushu gongsi, r9r9), p. 194-5"
64. Shenbao, 19 March rgrz,6;3 February r9rz,6; North China Herald, r
June r9rz,614.
65. North China Herald, zo January r9r2, r72; Shenbao, rz January rgtz, z.z;
r7 January r9rzr 6.
66. Shenbao, 3 February r9rz, 6.
6t. PRO: FO zz8l1835, Chefoo 5ghz.For another case of gentry-led opposi-
tion
see
FO zz8h837,Tsinanfu z9hz.
REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON
MAN
47
shibao, z3 APril rgr2' 5'
68. Shengiing
pRO: FO zz8h835' Chefoo 59/rz.
69.
7o.
''Wo nanwangde Zhongshan xiansheng geming shiji' (The
revolutionary deeds of Mr Sun Yatsen that I shall always remember),
wenshi ziliao xuanji (Jiangsu selected historical materials) 7 Q98r
Lu Chengxi,
Jiangsu
reprint), 37-45'
Houzhi,'Xinhai geming shiqi Feng xian shehui yi pie'.
7r. Cheng
Shenbao, z9 JanuarY r9r2' 6'
Shoucheng,'Xinhai Guilin guangfu shi de qingkuang'.
73. Fan
FO 228h838,4-5.
74. PRO:
228h838,224-5,232-3; Shenbao,8 April rgr2' 6.
FO
75. PRO:
z6 December rgtr' 2.3.
PRO: FO 228h838,3o7-8tFO zz8lfi4r, Hankow 2191r2,3. See also
China Herald' 25 MaY r9r2' 542.
North China Herald, z7 Aptil r9r2' 242.
76. Shenbao,
5r. Yiergunjueluo Tongfu.
52. Boyanmandu,'Huiyi xinhai geming' (Recollections of the rgrr revolution),
in Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi Nei Menggu zizhiqu
weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao yanjiu weiyuanhui (chinese people's political
rgrr
78.
Norrl
79. PRO: FO zz8h8o9, 4rr; FO 22811842,28.
go. Zhongguo Guomindang Fujian sheng zhixing weiyuanhui wenhua shiye
weilrranhui, 167.
8r. No. z Archives: Beiyang zhengfu neiwubu (Beiyang Government
Interior Ministry) (roor): roor.1887' Banli quandao shangmin jianfa
chengjibiao you bayue yi zhi sanshi
persuade merchants
ri
(Table of results for the operation to
3oth August
to cut their queues from lst to
lrst+l)'
82. E.g. No. z Archives: roor.48r5, z Decembet r9r2' Houbu xiaoqixiao Enyu
cheng (Petition from the Expectant Lieutenant Enyu).
83. Shengiing shibao, 9 March r9r2, 5i North China Herald, 18 May r9rz,
470.
8+. E.g. Shengiing shibao, rr January r9t2,5. For students see also: Shengiing
shibao,2r December r9rr, 5; PRO: FO 228h837, Tsinanfu t7lr2. For
merchants see also: Shengiing shibao, z6 December rgrr' 7; 6 March
r9r2,5.
r February r9t2, 7.
86. E.g. Shengjing shibao, z6 December r9rr, 7;
zzSl 1837,Tsinanfu 461 12, r.
85. Shengjing shibao,
April r9r2, 5.
David Strand, Rickshaw Beiiing: City
rr January rgr2'
87. Shengjing shibao, z3
88.
People and Politics
5; PRO: FO
in
the
rgzos
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 6S-gl.
89. Shenbao, 29 January r9r2, 6.
9o. Shengiing shibao,24laruary r9r2, 4.
9r. The unbinding of women's feet and its relation with queue cutting is
described in Chapter z.
92. No. z Archives: roor.4815, rr July r9rz,\WangTingzhang cheng (Petition
from \fang Tingzhang).
93. North China Herald, z4 February r9r2, 5oo.
48
THE
rgrr
REVoLUTTON AND THE
coMMoN MAN
2
94. North China Herald,5oo.
95. I draw heavily on a long description by Lim Boon-keng (Lin \Tenqing)
published in th.e North China Herald, z4 February r9r2, 5oo-r. See also
Minlibao, 16 February t9r2, r; Shengiing shibao,3 March rgr2, 4. For the
texts
of the addresses
The Republican Citizen
see Sun Zhongshan, Sun Zhongshan quanji
(Complete works of Sun Yatsen; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, r98z) vol. z,
94-7.
When SunYatsen formally adopted the solar calendar in January rgrz
it was an action that had the potential to affect the daily lives of the
entire population. Over the years the Republic came to affect not oniy
people's perception of time, but also the clothes they wore, the way they
and stood. From being conlreeted friends, even the way they moved
these were soon being inof
revolution
moment
of
the
choices
scious
processes of learning
mundane
the
schoolchildren.Through
culcated in
a set of dispoacquired
individual
life
the
how to behave in every-day
In the
natural.
seem
sitions which made certain actions and responses
new dispositions of the Republic the new Republican ideology was
embodied, turned into 'a durable way of standing, speaking, walking
and thereby of feeling and thinking'.l Children and adults learned to
bow rather than kowtow, then to walk, stand and sit in ways that
expressed their new role as Republican citizens.
A
Fashion
for Republicanism
During the spring and summet of tgtz a wave of enthusiasm for the
symbols of the Republic swept the country. JinWenzhen, a woman from
Anhui, recalls in her memoirs the curious features of the wedding organized for her student husband that year. For the central ceremony of
the wedding he wore a Western-style suit and she a costume designed
on the pattern of the court dresses of the ancient Han dynasty. The
kowtow was omitted in favour of a tWestern-style bow This dramatically
modern wedding was held in the rather conservative town ofWuhu, a
place where most people were still wearing Qing dynasty costumes for
weddings until well into the r93os.' Nevertheless in rgrz the Westernstyle costume and etiquette reflected genuinely popular fashions.
The main elements of this fashion were Western-style suits for men
and$Testern-style hats worn with these suits but also with a long gown.
Costumes worn in late Qing China had varied according to the gender,
class, official status, ethnicity and location of the wearer as well as the
time of year.The following description simplifies greatly in order to give
the reader some idea of where the new styles fitted in to this great variety
of costume. Most Han Chinese men and women wore loose trousers,
with a loose jacket over the top.The fabric depended both on the season