PREFACE The reform movement in China,lasting from 1898 to 1912,inaugu- rated by Kuang Hsu,temporarily eclipsed by the "Boxer madness,"and revived and directed by the great Empress Dowager,Tzu Hsi,until her death in 1908,gave way to revolution in 1911.Thereafter it became fashionable to decry the reforms begun under imperial auspices as the half-hearted,insincere attempts of a tyrannical dynasty to deceive and placate rising liberal opposition.The purpose of this study has been to examine the critical years before the collapse of the dynasty in an effort to discover whether the imperial protestations of reforming zeal were sincere,to what degree they were carried out,and,if they failed of reali- zation,what reasons were responsible for that failure.The question arises whether,had the revolution not come and had the Manchus retained the throne,China could have been transformed into a modernized state gradu- ally and comparatively peacefully,as Japan had been.In other words, was the uprising of 1911,in so far as it was political rather than economic, a "premature iconoclastic expression,"or was it a necessary if drastic preliminary to any effective reform of the Chinese body politic?The answer which has been tentatively formulated here is largely in terms of the earnestness and energy of Tzu Hsi and certain of her advisers as against the increasing debility of the ruling group,the corrupt state of the administrative machine,and the inflammatory nature of certain of the ideas which came to China from the Occident.In Japan the need for reform and Westernization was realized just when the dynasty was awak- ening to a renewed popularity and strength;in China it was recognized at a time when the ruling house was already far sunk in lethargy and deca- dence.This fact explains many of the startling differences between Japan and China in their attempts to assimilate and adapt to their needs the civilization of the West. The writer wishes to express gratitude to Dr.Stanley K.Hornbeck, then of Harvard University,who first suggested the possibility of such a study and who read the opening chapters in manuscript.Her greatest thanks,however,are due to Dr.Payson J.Treat,under whose direction this work,originally submitted as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Stanford University,was carried on and whose guidance and criticism have been of the utmost value. M.E.C. REED COLLEGE PORTLAND,OREGON December 15,1930 [5] [5