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Evening Drum and Morning Bell （6）
Five Ministers Went Abroad  |
| CCTV.COM 2002-06-20 15:06:03 |
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 In 1905, Sun Yat－sen wrote four big characters: “Wind from All Sides”. They summarized the political situation in China. In November, Min Bao （“People’s Journal”）, organ of Tong Meng Hui, began publication in Tokyo. In the opening article of the very first issue, Sun Yat－sen proclaimed for the first time his Three Principles－－Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. Min Bao became the best－selling influential magazine of that time. Hereafter, Tong Meng Hui was established one after another at home and abroad. As described by Sun Yat－sen, it was the eve of a great revolutionary movement of our nation. A single political spark could start a prairie fire.
In answer to America’s anti－China tactics, a gigantic movement banning American goods was underway in China. Indignant people in Shanghai set fire to the car of the American consul. A patriotic movement against imperialism was underway with full momentum.
 The tumultuous political situation forced the Qing court into a stance of reform. Under the advice of a minister, Wu Tingfang, the Qing court reformed laws, abolished death penalty by dismembering the body and other inhuman practices.
On July 16, l905, the Qing court decreed that Zai Ze and four other ministers were to go abroad to the East and West for an inspection tour to prepare for constitutionalism. Five ministers boarded a train at Zhengyang Gate railway station. A young man carrying a bomb boarded too unnoticed. He was Wu Yue, one of the assassins of the Revolutionary Party. Regretfully, the bomb went off ahead of time. The unsuccessful assassination caused a tremendous stir. The 5 ministers had to postpone their departure for 3 months.
Their tour was an unforgettable impression for the 5 ministers who had never been abroad. They went separately to 13 countries including Britain and the United States. The Western world at the beginning of the century was immersed in peaceful happiness and wealth. The ministers marveled at the telecommunications, advanced transportation, new entertainment facilities they saw. Today, we’ll find it hard to imagine their complicated feelings. I wondered how the pig－tailed Zai Ze and Duan Fang walked in and out the parliament and congress halls in Europe and the United States. Duan Fang was once trapped in a revolving door in San Francisco. It was quite a laugh.
The 5 ministers sent back reports about each country they visited. We found these reports in the No. 1 Historical Archives of China. Like travel－notes, they vividly recorded the Chinese people’s impressions of their first encounter of the outside world.
Six months later in 1906, all 5 ministers returned to China. Finding it hard to write a proper report to the court from their cursory tour, they made Liang Qichao, who was in exile in Japan and in a wanted list, to write part of it. In this report, they named the advantages of constitutionalism. The report greatly enhanced Empress Dowager Cixi’s decision on carrying out a “new administration”.
In 1906, the Qing court announced its constitutional preparations, stipulating a 9－year preparatory period for setting up a constitutional government. The vast majority of the people were full of doubts over the so－called reform while the revolutionaries opposed it firmly. The Qing court was no longer able to improve its image of decadent feebleness and of being a traitor to its country.
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