The Political Impact of Students Returned from Law and Administration Courses in Japan

The Political Impact of Students Returned from Law and Administration Courses in Japan by Roger R. Thompson The shadow of the 1911 Revolution has obscured the role played by the Qing dynasty in promoting a significant degree of social and political mobilization. Often overlooked in the studies of revolutionaries and constitutionalists alike are the widespread insti tutional innovations undertaken ~Y the Qing.[1] Although we do have studies of new-style schools, ~new armies, and provincial assemblies, little attention has been paid to the law schools (fazheng xuetang) and the local self-government schools (zizhi yanjiusuo) that were established.[2] The relationship between returned students, law schools, selfgovernment schools, and efforts to reach peasants suggests that social and political mobilization, down to the village level, was a goal not only of revolutionaries and some local elites, but also the government itself. In making these points, I will focus upon three cities, Tokyo, Tianjin, and Chengdu, as a way of tracing the influence of the "Japan model" in China. This model, as it was interpreted in Tianjin by Yuan Shikai and his associates, was adopted by the Qing government and touted throughout China from 1905 on. In the opening up of China after the disaster of the Boxer Uprising, more Chinese were able to travel overseas, especially to Japan, to study. Sent on family, public, or government monies in the decade before the 1911 Revolution, the number of Chinese students in Japan would peak at between 7,000 and 8,000 in 1905-06.[3] In refiguring our view of this period, we must begin to redefine the term "returned students," for the people I will be focusing upon were not, in general, young people in their late teens and early twenties.[4] These were older men, some of whom were officials or expectant officials, while others may have simply held traditiona! examination degrees. This influential group, studying primarily at Japanese law schools, returned to play significant roles in the government in the final years of the dynasty. These so-called returned students could be found in county yamen, provincial bureaus, and metropolitan ministries. The pioneers in this group had attended regular classes in some of Japan's best universities , including Waseda, Chuo, Meiji, and Imperial. The Qing government recognized their achievements with special exams in Beijing, held in 1903 and 1905. In the second of these, fourteen men, all of whom had studied in Japan, entered the Forbidden City, were tested, and were subsequently awarded the highest honors in the traditional examination system, the jinshi and juren degrees.[5] The precedent was established. Several months later, in September 1905, the traditional examination system was abolished and new-style examination degrees, like a 1inshi for law or economics, could be won only by those who had studied overseas. [6] So many clamored for this opportunity--but few were willing to learn Japanese and attend regular classes--that special accelerated courses were offered at some of Japan's best universities. In these accelerated courses, students listened to lectures given by Japanese professors and translated into Chinese. The most influential of these programs had been established in Tokyo at one of Japan's premier law schools. Hosei University's accelerated course in law and administration (fazheng sucheng ke) began in May 1904 with 94 students. The fifth and final class of 385 students graduated in 1908, bringing the total number of graduates to 1,145. (7] After )their return to China, these men were called upon to share their knowledge with colleagues in new government bureaus or with students in provincial level law schools. Their students, in turn, were expected to play a role in local selfgovernment schools at the county level. Although first conceived as simply a specialized arena in a developing system of new-style schools, Chinese law schools had a political significance that aeri ts our further attention. In effect , they served as new-style schools for Chinese officials waiting for a job. New-style schools were closed to anyone over the age of 30 sui; Chinese law schools, however, allowed students as old as 45 sui.[8] Local self-government schools, while not part of the formal structure of...