4 The Presidency of Yuan Shih-k'at regain those levels of centralization that had characterized the Ch'ing and earlier dynasties.The new character of the external challenge required un- precedented degrees of centralization.On the other hand,the heightened desire among the elite outside the government for participation in politics- Chapter 1 a desire traceable in part to nationalist concerns and abetted by reforms stimulated by nationalism-invigorated institutions and movements that China in the Early Twentieth Century seemingly reduced the center's power.Nationalism,the liberal call for participation in government,the appeal to the efficiency of concentrated autocratic power-these issues entered into the old debate about degrees of centralization.The debate was not closed in Yuan Shih-k'ai's time,nor is it yet. In this sense,then,the period is a further chapter in an ancient question After the 1911 Revolution,the republican president Yuan Shih-k'ai estab- about China's polity.But the new circumstances in which the question was lished a bureau for the compilation of an official history of the Ch'ing dy- restated mark off the contemporary answers as conspicuously twentieth nasty.As he did so,he praised the Ch'ing for having"abolished its old century.The towering presence of Western and Japanese imperialism ways and reformed itself,effecting a revival in its declining years."This means that,as we look back,Yuan's presidency also partakes of patterns evaluation,rare among Chinese,was common before the revolution among that refer not so much to a Chinese past as to a Third World future.Its foreign observers,who were partly admiring,partly fearful.For foreigners, problems and its policies often evoke the experience of other Asian coun- that China had finally undertaken the voluntary adoption of Western insti. tries and some African ones as they have struggled in recent decades for tutions confirmed feelings of cultural superiority.After decades of resis- national autonomy.My understanding of Yuan's presidency comes from tance or paltry modifications,it seemed that China was,in the first years looking at China's experience in the aftermath of the 1911 Revolution in of the twentieth century,seriously altering her institutions along Western both a Chinese and a global context. lines.On the other hand,with the flattery of imitation went demands for equality and redress of grievances and,more disturbing,the beginnings of means to exact attention for her demands. Impressive as the reforms of the late Ch'ing may have been compared with past efforts,they were not for all Chinese.At the elite level,the ef- fects of the reforms were apparent.New political relationships(notably through representative institutions of government)were being established. New methods of administering the law (a new court system)with new laws (modifications in old codes)were spreading from the top down,with a great distance to go to reach many ordinary people.New security agencies (a modernized army and police system)were in partial operation by the end of the dynasty,protecting the elite from its foreign and domestic chal- lengers.New schools with new curricula,new professions,new ideas,new styles of life were emerging.The urban environment was acquiring a new face.A foreigner with long experience in China commented on Peking's aspect on the eve of the revolution:"...I find that the city is being trans- formed.Macadamised roads are being made everywhere;every important