Contemporary Appraisal of Yuan Shikai’s Monarchical Movement: Focusing on ‘The Chronicle of the Monarchical Movement’,a Series of Articles in “Eastern Miscellany(東方雜誌)”

The main evaluation of Yuan Shikai in the last century was that he was a reactionary being to the development of modern China. In particular, the image of a Yuan as ‘Country stealer’ was formed for a long time due to the monarchical movement he promoted in the last stage of his life. In recent years, various re-evaluations have been attempted, which has freed Yuan Shikai from the image of a reactionary person to some extent, but the monarchical movement is still a historical event that symbolizes the final failure of Yuan Shikai. In this paper, I analyzed the contents of the ‘The Chronicle of the Monarchical Movement(帝制運動始末記)’ serialized articles in the July-October 1916 issue of the ‘Eastern Miscellany(東方雜誌)’, the largest magazine in Republic of China, published by the Commercial Press. Specifically, the following contents were examined. First, I checked the activities of major organizations that promoted the movement which began to appear in August 1915. Subsequently, the process until Yuan Shikai approved the monarchical system was tracked in detail. In addition, I looked at the progress of the National Protection War that took place from January 1916, and the process leading to the cancellation of the monarchial movement. Du Yaquan, the author of ‘The Chronicle of the Monarchical Movement’, had a critical view of the Yuan Shikai regime. However, he described the incident, excluding criticism of Yuan Shikai’s personal elements. He prioritized organizing the progress of the case accurately and demanded that readers judge themselves what the problem was. Du yaquan pointed out the injustices and inadequacies that appear in the way the contemporary regime operated constitutional politics by explaining the progress of the Monarchical Movement in detail.