The Guangxu Emperor launched the reform drive by issuing an initial decree urging the acquisition of “useful” foreign knowledge, marking the opening of the Hundred Days’ Reform (Wuxu Reform).
As part of the reform program, the Guangxu Emperor authorized the creation of the Imperial University of Peking (later Peking University), intended as a modern national institution for higher education and educational administration.
Reform advocate Kang Youwei was granted an audience with the Guangxu Emperor, after which Kang and his associates gained increased influence over the reform agenda and draft decrees.
Over the summer, the Guangxu Emperor issued dozens of edicts aimed at restructuring administration, education, the examination system, and modernization efforts; the speed and scope of these measures intensified conservative opposition at court.
The imperial charter and regulations for the Imperial University of Peking—associated with reformers including Liang Qichao—were approved, helping institutionalize one of the reforms that would outlast the political backlash.
Court conservatives rallied behind Empress Dowager Cixi, viewing the reforms as threatening entrenched interests; the widening political split set conditions for a decisive move to end the reform experiment.
Reformers sought military support amid escalating court resistance; accounts commonly place a key approach to Yuan Shikai in mid-September as reformists explored using New Army forces to counter conservatives.
Cixi and allies moved against the reform faction, detaining the Guangxu Emperor and seizing effective control of the government, bringing the Hundred Days’ Reform to an abrupt end.
After the coup, the Guangxu Emperor was confined under house arrest (commonly described as at Yingtai in Zhongnanhai), eliminating his capacity to implement or defend the reform decrees.
Key reform leaders escaped arrest following the coup and fled abroad (notably to Japan), preserving reformist networks that would continue advocating constitutional change from exile.
In the coup’s aftermath, six prominent reformists—later memorialized as the “Six Gentlemen of Wuxu”—were executed in Beijing, symbolizing the suppression of radical court-led reform.
With Cixi back in control, most reform edicts—many never fully implemented—were suspended or rolled back, although select modernization initiatives (notably modern schooling) persisted in altered form.
Reformers in exile helped organize the Baohuanghui (Protect the Emperor Society), founded in Victoria, Canada, to promote constitutional monarchy and defend the imprisoned Guangxu Emperor’s cause.
Hundred Days' Reform (1898)
