Mental emancipation the greatest gift

Li's views are shared by Ma Yong, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Ma says that reconstructing the concept of the Chinese nation is one part of Chinese people's mental emancipation. "Contrary to the Qing Dynasty rulers who practiced ethnic discrimination, the revolutionaries spread the sense of ethnic equality, helping unite different ethnic groups into the republic," Ma says.

Exercising control over 14 provinces by December 1911, the revolutionaries were able to deal the death blow to the crumbling Qing Dynasty. Ma says: "In fact, a telegraph (sent then) shows that even the remaining royal army was ready to rebel, but the revolutionaries chose peaceful negotiations with the Qing rulers to found the republic."

This development is a good example of settling things through negotiation rather than force, he says. In the years following the 1911, the contract spirit combined with China's traditional value of faith set restrictions on politics and politicians. "After 1911, politicians did everything except deny (or reject) their public promises," Ma says. "Even the president was no exception. Yuan Shikai betrayed his inaugural promise by trying to restore the monarchy, and he lost everything."

Another part of Chinese people's mental emancipation, according to both scholars, was reconstruction of the concept of the Chinese nation. "The revolutionaries did raise the slogan, 'expel the Manchus' once, but soon they replaced it with 'harmony among all ethnic groups' when the end of the Qing Dynasty became imminent." And ethnic unity became part of the founding declaration of the republic.

By protecting the rights of and fostering equality among all ethnic groups, the revolutionaries raised national unity to unheard of levels, and thus helped build a Chinese nation in the modern sense of the term, Ma says.

The mental emancipation of the Chinese people accelerated the pace of the country's political modernization, because "modern politics can only be realized among free citizens, not subjugates, who are willing to participate in state affairs," says Cai Wencheng, a researcher in law studies at Lanzhou University in Gansu province.

According to Cai, political modernization includes not only legalization of its form, but also diversification of political actions in which every adult member of society necessarily takes part. By substituting royal power with people's will, the 1911 Revolution denied monarchs the legitimacy to rule the country and encouraged people to take part in state affairs.

The 1912 national election made people "aware of their ownership of the state". Cai says. And "people began to show unprecedented enthusiasm in state affairs (which) greatly promoted political diversification".

"Today, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, let's commemorate the mental emancipation of the Chinese people," Li says. "The liberation of China from monarchy, which the revolutionaries achieved, has helped China progress toward a modern state."

(China Daily 10/10/2011 page9)