The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China by Zheng Xiaowei

Author:Zheng, Xiaowei [Zheng, Xiaowei]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2017-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 6.1. Acting Governor-General Zhao Erfeng. Wikipedia.

After August 5, Chengdu’s struggle with the central government intensified. On August 7, after representatives at the shareholder meeting received Duanfang’s telegram asserting that “all of the activists are local troublemakers and the fair and righteous gentry managers are not supporting them,” they were infuriated. Chengdu leaders quickly drafted a telegram to Duanfang, accusing him of “arbitrarily interfering with the operation of the shareholder meeting.” They claimed that only those who were following public opinion (yulun) such as themselves could be considered “fair” and “righteous.” Notably, Zhao Erfeng threw his support behind the railway leaders, concurring with them that Duanfang’s telegram was “truly unreasonable.” Furthermore, Zhao agreed to forward the Chengdu elite’s rebuttal to Duanfang and in an expression of solidarity underscored his personal disagreement with Duanfang’s stand.79

August 8 marked the emergence of a new point of contention, which resulted from Zhao’s revelation that Li Jixun, the manager of the Yichang branch, had switched to the side of Duanfang and Sheng Xuanhuai. Reacting to this news with “huge anger” (da fen) and refusing to back down, the organizers of the shareholders’ meeting clashed with Beijing head-on. Opening the agenda on August 9 was discussion of “the Li Jixun problem.” Luo Lun and seven others marched to Zhao Erfeng’s office to entreat Zhao to forward to the court their request to impeach Sheng Xuanhuai and Li Jixun. Li Jixun was fired as a collective decision by all shareholders, who then asked Zhao Erfeng to order Li to hand in all railway paperwork within ten days. After August 9, Li’s behavior in “selling out the rail line” was widely publicized in propaganda newspapers in Chengdu, and the increasingly vicious verbal attacks against Li and his “treacherous behavior,” initiated by the Chengdu headquarters, made Li the second archenemy of the Sichuanese after Sheng Xuanhuai. For example, Xigubao reported that the Youyang Hometown Organization—Youyang being Li’s home county—had passed a motion to withdraw Li’s membership, to expropriate all his properties, and, most radically, to assassinate (an’sha) Li Jixun in Beijing.80 Outrage over the Li Jixun problem pushed the Sichuan people in an increasingly radical direction.

Meanwhile, the shareholder meetings lost no time in taking up the key issue on which to challenge the court—the voluntary surcharge tax (juanshu)—just as they had planned on July 31. On August 11, the shareholders discussed declining to submit the old and new juanshu tax as a way of alleviating the financial pressure on the Sichuanese while at the same time boosting the availability of money for building the railway. Anticipating that the magistrate might tell the gentry and landowners that they could not submit the standard tax (dingliang) before submitting the juanshu, they decided that in this case the gentry and landowners should submit their standard tax first and send it directly to the county seats, making it impossible for their actions to be construed as rebellion.81

While fighting against the Qing government over the issue of juanshu, the gentry at the shareholders meeting were not shy about levying their own tax on the Sichuan people.

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