Preface

1. Introduction

The Historiographical Background

Problems With the Sources

More Problems With the Sources

A Critical Tradition

2. The Crisis of Imperial Authority

Keng-shen and Its Legacy

The Meaning of T'ung-chih

Tz'u-hsi as Sole Regent

The Enigma of Tz'u-hsi

Tz'u-hsi's Quest for Legitimacy

The Tripartite Coalition

3. The Victim

The "Glorious Succession"

Life in the Great Within

Kuang-hsu versus the "Necessary Evil"

The Politics of Filial Piety

Kuang-hsu's Apprenticeship

A Troubled Career

4. The Scholars in Court Politics

The Pearl-Concubine Incident

The "Emperor's Faction" Reconsidered

Kuang-hsu's Part

The Scholar-Celebrity

Ming-sl'zih at War

The Crisis 0f Leadership

Setbacks

5. The Scholar-Celebrity

The Sage Syndrome

The Aspirant

The "Wild-Fox Meditator"

On Post-War Reconstruction

The Peking Project

The Shanghai Project

An Assessment

6. An Incipient Radicalism

The "Modern Sage"

Confucianism in a New Key

The Cultural Crisis

Reappraisals of Tradition

The Transitional Generation

Incipient Radicals

7. K'ang's Third "March" on Peking

The Kiaochow Crisis

Forays into Court Politics

K'ang and His Patrons

K'ang and the Censors

The Pao-kuo Hui Incident

Weng's Changing Attitude

8. The Hundred Days

The Idea of Self-Strengthening

Developments Prior to the Hundred Days

The Decision

Weng T'ung-ho's Downfall

The New Power Configuration

The New Policies

The Nature of the Reforms

9. The K'ang Yu-Wei Affair

Difficulties

A Chief Adviser?

K'ang's Uncertain Prospect

Confrontations

The Shili-wu Pao Dispute

A Grand Design

K'ang's Role in 1898

10. The Coup d'Etat

K'ang as a Factor

Yang Ch'ung-i Strikes Again

The Foreign Element

The Coup

An Anti-Dowager Plot?

Conspiracy and Counter-Conspiracy

11. Epilogue

1898 in Historical Perspective

K'ang and the Reform Movement

The Power Trap

Appendix

Notes