Introduction

Abstract

The purpose of this book is to outline the history of China since the abdication of the last Qing emperor in early 1912. That abdication spelt the end of rule by a system of hereditary monarchy, which had emerged by the start of China’s recorded history some 3000 years before. Although the forms of government around the monarch or emperor had changed markedly through that long period, the basic principle of control at the top belonging to a royal house remained unchallenged, even while actual royal families were deposed as dynasties fell to be replaced by others. The disappearance of a hereditary emperor belonging to a named dynasty not only left a huge hole at the centre of Chinese political life but also deeply affected developments which were already occurring in the social, cultural and economic life of China. The collapse of the political system which had been made legitimate by traditional Chinese values left the Chinese searching for new ways to organise their society and for new values to legitimise their innovations, a process which proved both time-consuming and divisive, as will be detailed in the remainder of this text.