CHINA'S REVOLUTION
GENERAL LI YUAN HUNG, THE LEADER OF THE REVOLUTION Frontispiece.
CHINA'S REVOLUTION
1911-1912
A HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL
RECORD OF THE CIVIL WAR
BY
EDWIN J. DINGLE
WITH 2 MAPS AND 36 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY
1912
(All rights reserved.)
TO
THOSE WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES AND
TO THE NEW CHINA PARTY
IN THE HOPE THAT THEIR STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM
MAY HERALD THE DAWNING OF A DAY OF
RIGHT AND TRUTH FOR CHINA
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This volume is a popular history of the Revolution inChina that broke out at Wuchang, Hankow, andHanyang in October of 1911. The narrative containsa good deal of new information touching uponrevolutionism in China, and the events leading up to thepresent climax. The magnitude of this Revolutioncannot possibly be understood yet; but this volume iswritten in the hope that it will enable the studentotherwise untutored to understand much that one absorbsin Chinese life.
When the Revolution broke out, I was residing inHankow. Throughout the war I remained in Hankow,leaving this centre for Shanghai during the days whenthe Peace Conference was held in that city. I am apersonal friend of the leader of the Revolution, GeneralLi Yuan Hung, and, by virtue of having all the timebeen in possession of much exclusive information frombehind the political curtain, am probably equipped towrite of the main doings of the Revolution in that areawhere its effects were most marked. On the veryeve of the Revolution, a book written by myself waspublished simultaneously in England and America,which contains some strangely prophetic utterances, andwill give the reader who has not made Chinese politicsa study a general idea of the condition of the countrywhen the Revolution made the scales drop from theeyes of her teeming millions.[1]
I wish gratefully to acknowledge the kind officesof Mr. Thos. F. Millard, editor of the China Press,for allowing me free use of the columns of that journal.Much of my information has been culled from theC.P., although many of the articles were written bymyself for that newspaper, whilst the war was inprogress; but I am largely indebted to that paper alsofor many of my general later facts.
Especially also do I wish to thank the Rev. BernardUpward, of Hankow, for the assistance he has renderedme whilst this volume was being prepared. Thechapter entitled "Some Revolution Factors" is fromMr. Upward's pen, as is also that headed "YuanShih K'ai"; many of the illustrations shown in thevolume also are reproductions from Mr. Upward'ssplendid collection. My w