Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei Insert non-formatted text here I, Kang Youwei, was born March 19, 1858 in the Nahai, Guangdong province of China. Among my many notable titles I was a prominent Chinese Scholar, a Calligrapher, a teacher, a reformer and a political thinker. My life is a fascinating one as that at a young age, about when I was six or seven, my Uncle discovered that I was an intellectual genius, and so like most geniuses I was put into school to study Confucian classics which prepped me for the Chinese Civil Service Exams. To be anyone of importance in China you had to pass these exams because that was how you made something with your life and so there was an extreme amount of pressure put upon me to do well. Being in school put me on the path to become a scholar, a calligrapher, a teacher, a reformer, and political thinker, and so on.

While I was growing up in the Chinese education system, I began to notice that it was actually a broken system in need of major reform. For example, most of my time was spent studying for the eight legged exams, which were not the important part of the exams. The eight legged exams were artificial literary exercises done during the exams. The exams were stressful enough without having to worry about having to pass literary exercises that had nothing to do with the actual exams, and I vowed that one day I would change that. 
Being that I studied Confucianism, I am by all definitions of the word a Confucianist, however, studying for those exams was an extremely stressful process and thus I engaged in Buddhist meditation to help me relax. This is a strange practice to observe for a Confucianist, but it helped where other Confucianist methods did not. Engaging in Buddhist meditation is how my path for my life became clear. I was meditating and I had a vision about how to save the world. From that vision came the belief that is was possible to read every important book ever written and become a sage. I began what others call my “quasi-messianic” quest to save humanity.
I read as many books as I could get my hands on, all while preparing for my civil service exams. I took the Jinshi level exams three times because my ideas were so radical that the council failed my exam. However, I was smart on the third exam, and instead of being myself I wrote what they wanted me to write, and they passed my exam that time. The problem with them passing my exam is that they failed my good friend Liang Qichoa thinking his exam was mine. Once the council figured out their mistake it was too late for them to do anything about and so I passed on to be a Jinshi level graduate. My radical ideas consisted of educational and political reform. I wanted to modernize China and the way I wished to do that was to introduce some type of change into the state government. The thought of changing the government angered many conservatives of my time, especially the most powerful member, the dowager empress Cixi. 

My reforms were about revolution, industrialization, and modernization, these were dangerous ideas to have because they broke with tradition and upset many of the elder generations because it inspired the younger generations to stand up and do something instead of following traditions that did not always work. My reforms inspired the young Emperor Guangxu, who was more than willing to do the things needed for the reforms to successful. With permission from the Emperor I began to institute what is now know as the Hundred Days’ Reform. This was a reform movement that was supposed to institute national, cultural, political and educational changes throughout China. This reform movement began on June 11, 1898 and ended September 21, 1898, it ran its course in about 104 days. The reform failed miserably thanks to the coup d’état by the conservatives and which was being head by the Dowager Empress Cixi.

Dowager Empress Cixi did not simply hate my reforms; she hated me personally for filling the Emperor, her nephew, Guangxu’s head with liberal and non-conformist ideas. This was highly unacceptable and so doing what any woman of her caliber would do if she hated someone, she ordered me killed by slow slicing. 

Luckily for me I was away on an mission for the Emperor when Cixi made her move. Cixi had been retired and had let her nephew take up the mantle of Emperor as was his birthright, but upon hearing how Emperor Guangxu wanted to institute reforms into a system that she had worked hard to manipulate; she came out of retirement and placed the Emperor on house arrest. Cixi then went through and purged the government of people she did not see as useful or people that she saw as dangerous. Thus began my time in exile, although, I hate to use the word exile because I learned so much during this time when I was not allowed in China because should I have been caught I would have been killed on the spot. While in exile I travelled to many different countries including the United States, Canada, France, England, Japan and many others. I learned about the way of life for people of the countries I visited and tried to figure out how I could institute the things that I liked best into the way things worked in China. I further developed my philosophies while in exile and I was able to write my best known work Da Tongshu or book of great unity. Da Tongshu is mostly a compilation of my lecture notes which I shared with my students. All of my ideas that I lectured on in 1884 were gathered up and put together in one place. The book would have never taken shape had my students not encouraged me to write it. Writing took me twenty years, and I did not finish a first draft until I was in India during my exile. I published the first two chapters while in Japan in 1900, but the whole book was not published until 1935, eight years after my death. In Da Tongshu I propose a type of Utopia for not just China, but the whole world. This world would be free of political boundaries, and there would be a central government that was ruled with democracy. I proposed that there should be an end to the traditional Chinese family structure because that institution is a cause of great strife both men and women. Men are required to provide for the family and the women are required to take care of the family and the home. I believe that everyone should be able to do what they want to do and not be required to fulfill a predestined role. Family should be replaced by state-run schools and marriages should come in the form of one year contracts with the option of renewal at the end of every year. If the couple choose to renew then the marriage continues, if not, then the marriage dissolves and both parties move on. Da Tongshu is mostly a book that contains my enthusiastic belief in bettering humanity with technology. Towards the end of my life money was in short supply because investors in my Utopian world stopped investing in my ideas and looked to alternative ideas to invest in. At the same time my followers were tired of being cautious, and the wanted an active revolution, not a passive one. Both investors and followers turned to Sun Yatsen for that revolution. Now, I admit that I handled the money from my investors poorly. I was a bit too extravagant for my time, or any time, but I always travelled in comfort. China was very volatile during my time. I never changed my ideology, but over the span of twenty years, I went from being a popular yet dangerous liberal, to being a social pariah and an outcast. My time ended in 1927 when I was poisoned by an unknown source in the city of Qingdao, Shandong.

Sources: Spence, Jonathon D., The Search for Modern China, 2nd Ed, pgs 225,229,234 Cultural China History, Kang,Youwei, http://history.cultural-china.com/en/50History6659.html Cultural China History, Da Tongshu, http://history.cultural-china.com/en/50H6659H12261.html Cultural China History, Philosophical Views, http://history.cultural-china.com/en/50H6659H12262.html