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The secret societies were not completely dispensed with, but they were relegated to second place. Many of their members were asked to enlist in the modern army units, and they had come to an understanding with the K'o-hsüeh pu-hsi-so that they "would become activists, awaiting the appropriate moment

3 to raise a revolution for the revival of the Chinese".

The K'o-hsUeh pu-hsi-so was the first revolutionary society to be founded in Hupeh, and was the prototype of several later local organizations. Ostensibly it was

dedicated to the study of science; what its real objective was, however, is needless to say. Although small in

organization and having no declaration, manifesto or any

regulations, it inaugurated a revolutionary movement in Hupeh military and student circles.

It is easy to see the peculiarity of the Hupeh revolutionary movement by taking a look at other local revolutionary organizations. In Hunan, the Hua-hsing-hui

(Society for the Revival of China) was formed by Huang Hsing in December 1903, and it consisted almost exclusively of new

1

CCL, pp.55- 57 , provides a list of the members. 2

Ou-yang Jui-hua, "Wu-ch'ang k'o-hsüeh pu-hsi-so ke-ming yiin-tung shih-mo chi", H HK M , I, 553-54, Sung Chiao-jen, for instance, was one of them,

3

Ts'ao Ya-po, Wu-ch'ang ke-ming chen-shih (Shanghai, 1930), I, Introduction, pp.3-4.

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intellectuals. Like most of his fellow revolutionaries, Huang felt that it was difficult to start a revolution in Peking, where the imperial power was entrenched and the people were less responsive to revolutionary influence than those in other places. Huang's strategy was to start a

revolution in one province in the expectation of simultaneous uprisings in all others. Hunan was thought to be an ideal base of operations because of what he believed to be a rapid growth of revolutionary ideas among the military and

students. The ordinary people, Huang claimed, had also become increasingly receptive to anti-Manchu influence. However, who would dare to strike the initial spark? The secret societies or the army? Huang doubted the initiative of the societies, but he was confident that, like "a bomb full of gunpowder ready to explode", they only needed someone to "light the fuse". The best policy was for the army, students and secret society members to act together.^ However, when this policy was put into practice, first

priority was given to the secret societies as a result of the influence of Liu K'uei-i, a Ko-lao-hui leader, who prevailed upon Huang Hsing that if the revolution was to succeed in the shortest possible time, it was necessary to mobilize the Ko- lao-hui to the full. Liu not only boasted of the Ko-lao-hui strength, but also claimed that it was a disciplined society 2 with dedicated members extremely obedient to their leaders. So Huang Hsing set up another organization called the T'ung- ch'ou-hui (Society Against the Common Enemy) to facilitate operation among secret society members. Affiliated to the Hua-hsing-hui, it operated under the direction of Liu K'uei-i and another Ko-lao-hui leader, Ma Fu-i, who were later to become the organizers of a Hunanese revolt in the fall of

1904.123 1

Liu K'uei-i, Huang Hsing chuan-chi (Taipei, 1952), p .3; HsUeh, Huang Hsing, p p . 17-18.

2

Liu K'uei-i, p .2. Liu K'uei-i, pp,4-5, 3

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In Chekiang and Anhwei, where the Kuang-fu-hui

(Restoration Society) had established its influence, the revolutionary pattern was similar to the Hunanese, This

society, formed in the winter of 1904, had its genesis in the Association for Universal Military Education (ChUn-kuo-min ch i ao-yli-hu i ) founded by Huang Hsing and other radical students, when the Resist Russia Volunteer Corps was disbanded by the Japanese government at the request of Peking. The Association, ostensibly devoted to the

"cultivation of military spirit and patriotism", aimed at the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. Its members later returned to China, trying to carry out subversion in their home

provinces. Some of them went to Shanghai in the fall of 1904, and there they organized an assassination squad with plots to kill several high-ranking Manchu officials. They met Ts'ai Yiian-p'ei, a Chekiang scholar and educationalist, who offered to co-operate with them. Subsequently, they formed the

Kuang-fu-hui with Ts'ai as its head. In order to increase their strength, Ts'ai thought it expedient to make alliance with traditional anti-Manchu forces and quickly recruited T 'ao C h 'e n g -chang, a Chekiang secret society leader. T'ao

later became an influential figure in the Kuang-fu-hui

because of Ts'ai's incompetence as a revolutionary organizer. The Kuang-fu-hui consisted mainly of Chekiang and Anhwei

natives, and its headquarters were moved to Shao-hsing in Chekiang, where sporadic revolts based on the secret

societies were launched.^ 1

Feng Tzu-yu, "Kuang-fu-hui", H H K M , I, 515-17. T'ao Ch'eng- chang's own account described the origin of the society in a similar way. However, T'ao pointed out that the original motive for its founding was to organize assassination

activity. Looking for ruffians to carry out the work, Ts'ai YUan-p'ei harnessed T'ao to his cause, because T'ao had good

connections with the secret societies. T'ao willingly

entered Ts'ai's service, because they were from the same part of Chekiang and T'ao respected Ts'ai for his virtue. See "Che-an chi-llieh", H H K M , III, 16-17. On the secret society influence after the Kuang-fu-hu was established, the accounts of Feng and T'ao were identical.

1 4 4

In Kiangsu, new intellectuals were the key factor and the driving force. Using Shanghai as their base, the

revolutionaries in this province concentrated their efforts on press propaganda for good reasons. Shanghai being a publishing centre, student periodicals, both imported from Japan and published at home, received the widest publicity and found the best market in all China. The revolutionaries, taking refuge in the International Settlement, set up several organizations such as the Education Association (Chiao-yli- hui) and the Patriotic Society (Ai-kuo hsüeh-she). It was in

the Settlement that the young propagandist, Tsou Jung, published the most popular anti-Manchu pamphlet, Ke-ming-

chün , with a preface by Chang Ping-lin, in May 1903. It was also here that the famous Su-pao (Kiangsu Journal) case

occurred in July when Tsou Jung, Chang Ping-lin and several other writers were arrested by the Chinese government and were charged with seditious libel. The case led to

considerable diplomatic complications and ended, after many months of trial and negotiations, in May 1904 with the

sentences of Chang and Tsou to three and two years'

imprisonment respectively.1 Even during the Su-pao affair, revolutionaries in Shanghai managed to put out several lively periodicals such as'the Kuo-min jih-jih pao (National Daily), the 0-shih ching-wen (Important News on Russia), later

changed to Ching-chung jih-pao (The Alarm Bell), and the Chung-kuo pai-hua pao (The Chinese Vernacular). Dozens of other pamphlets appeared in 1903-1904, the most popular being the vernacular works of C h 'en T'ien-hua, namely, Meng-hui- t 1 ou (Sudden Realization), C h m g - s h i h - c h u n g (Alarm to Arouse the Age) and Shih-1 zu-hou (The Lion Roars). Indeed, the publishing industry in Shanghai during the years 1895-1911 was so flourishing that this period has been designated the

1

The best account of the Su-pao case is Y.C. Wang, "The Su- pao Case: A Study of Foreign Pressure, Intellectual

Fermentation, and Dynastic Decline", Monumenta Serica, 24 (1965), 84-129.

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"golden period" of the Chinese p r e s s .^

Thus it can be observed that the revolutionary process operated in different ways according to individual provinces. In Hupeh it was an inte11ectua1-mi1 it ary movement, In Hunan, Chekiang and Anhwei the secret societies were the operative force, while in Kiangsu press propaganda was given first preference.

In spite of their provincial characteristics, there was a certain degree of co-operation between fellow

revolutionaries. The Hupeh men preferred to act together with their closest neighbours, the Hunanese. In fact, the K'o-hsUeh pu-hsi-so consisted of many Hunanese, who also belonged to the Hua-hsing-hui. Some of its officials,

notably Sung Chiao-jen, a Hunanese, and Ts'ao Ya-po, a Hupeh native, always travelled to and from Changsha, and maintained close contact with Huang Hsing.

Because of the administrative and geographical

relationships between Hupeh and Hunan, any uprising in either province would almost certainly create repercussions in the

other. In late July or early August 1904, Huang Hsing made a trip to Wuchang and was welcomed by the K'o-hsiieh pu-hsi-so. Huang told the Hupeh men that he had set a revolt for

November 16, 1904, the seventieth birthday of the Empress Dowager. The K'o-hsiieh pu-hsi-so pledged support for it, Subsequently, Sung Chiao-jen was sent to Changsha, while

1

Lin Yu-tang, A History of the Press and Public Opinion in China (Chicago, 1936), p.94. For the revolutionary career of Ch'en T 'ien-hua, see Ernest P. Young, "Ch'en T'ien-hua (1875- 1905): A Chinese Nationalist", Papers on China, XII (December 1959), 113-62. A revised version under the new title,

"Problems of a Late Ch'ing Revolutionary: Ch'en T'ien-hua", can be found in Hsiieh ChUn-tu, ed. , Revolutionary Leaders of Modern China (New York, 1971), pp. 210-47.

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