Huaxinghui

Not to be confused with Revive China Society.

The Huaxinghui (traditional Chinese: 華興會; simplified Chinese: 华兴会; pinyin: Huáxīng Huì; Wade–Giles: Hua-hsing hui), commonly translated as the China Revival Society^[1] or China Arise Society,^[2] was founded by Huang Xing and Zhang Shizhao on 15 February 1904 with the election of Huang Xing as its president,^[3] in Changsha of Hunan^[4] for the explicit political goal of overthrowing the Qing dynasty^[5] and establishing a democratic and free country. Many of its members later became key figures of the Tongmenghui.

China Revival Society

華興會 华兴会
China Revival Society leaders. Photo shot in 1905 in Tokyo. First row left: Huang Xing, fourth from left: Song Jiaoren
Merged into	Tongmenghui
Formation	February 15, 1904; 120 years ago (1904-02-15)
Founder	Huang Xing
Founded at	Changsha, Hunan
Dissolved	July 30, 1905; 119 years ago (1905-07-30)
Type	Revolutionary organization
Headquarters	Changsha
Leader	Huang Xing

Background

In 1903, Russian Empire made seven requests to the Qing Dynasty in an attempt to invade and occupy Northeast China. This action shook Japan. The Asahi Shimbun first published this news, and the Chinese students studying in Japan held a student conference at the Kinkikwan (錦輝館) in Tokyo. In early June, Huang Xing returned to China from Japan as an "athlete" of the Army and National Education Association (軍國民教育會)^[6] and planned new actions in Hunan and Hubei. On November 4, 1903, in the name of celebrating his 30th birthday, Huang Xing invited Liu Kuiyi (劉揆一), Song Jiaoren, Zhang Shizhao and others to hold a secret meeting at the home of Peng Yuanxun (彭淵恂), Baojia Bureau Lane, West District of Changsha, and decided to organize an anti-Qing revolutionary group to name "Huaxinghui", and called it "Huaxing Company" (華興公司) to the outside.^[7] The group's members amounted to hundreds of people, mostly intellectuals. Its purpose was to "expel the Tatar barbarians and revive Zhonghua" (驅除韃虜，復興中華);^[8] its strategy was to launch a war in Hunan, and the provinces respond to "go straight to Youyan" (直搗幽燕).^[9]

History

The China Revival Society was dominated by students from Hunan who had returned from Japan. Nevertheless, from the very beginning it had strong ties with secret societies, especially with the Ko Lao Hui whose organizational structure the Huaxinghui paralleled, particularly in the field of the military chain of command. This connects to the primary goal of the Huaxinghui: to "kick out the Tartars" through assassinations of important Manchu officials.

After two failed plots, in November 1904 and early 1905, Huang Xing fled to Japan. There he met Sun Yat-sen in the summer of 1905 for the first time in Tokyo, in order to discuss the possibility of the merger of Sun's Xingzhonghui and the Huaxinghui. A compromise was reached, and Huang decided to support Sun fully. At this point the Huaxinghui had ceased to exist. On 20 August 1905, Sun Yat-sen was elected Tsung-li (premier) of the new party named Tongmenghui. Today historians generally agree that without the Huaxinghui's participation, the founding of the Tongmenghui would not have been possible.^[10]

References

1. Hao Ping (31 March 2013). Peking University and the Origins of Higher Education in China. Transaction Publishers. pp. 390–. ISBN 978-1-936940-47-9.
2. Jens Bangsbo; Thomas Reilly; Mike Hughes (1997). Science and Football III: Proceedings of the Third World Congress of Science and Football, Cardiff, Wales, 9-13 April, 1995. Taylor & Francis. pp. 330–. ISBN 978-0-419-22160-9.
3. Ke-wen Wang; CRSN Staff (10 November 1997). Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Routledge. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-1-135-58325-5.
4. James Z. Gao (16 June 2009). Historical Dictionary of Modern China (1800-1949). Scarecrow Press. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6308-8.
5. Giovanni Ciotti; Hang Lin (25 July 2016). Tracing Manuscripts in Time and Space through Paratexts. De Gruyter. pp. 174–. ISBN 978-3-11-047753-5.
6. Zhu Yuhe; Ouyang Junxi; Shu Wen (2001). History of the Xinhai Revolution. People's Publishing House. pp. 166–. ISBN 978-7-01-003314-3.
7. Chinese Kuomintang Centennial Wind Record. Yanbian University Press. 1994. pp. 215–. ISBN 9787563407149.
8. Guo Qin (1 May 2011). The storm is coming: redrawing the historical map of the Xinhai Revolution. Hunan People's Publishing House. pp. 2–. ISBN 978-7-5438-7140-3.
9. Yang Tianshi (1 August 2011). The End of Empire: A Concise History of the Xinhai Revolution. Yuelu Publishing House. pp. 142–. ISBN 978-7-80761-636-8.
10. Edwin Pak-wah Leung; Pak-Wah Leung (1992). Historical Dictionary of Revolutionary China, 1839-1976. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-26457-3.

Further reading

• Chün-tu, Hsüeh (1961). Huang Hsing and the Chinese Revolution. Stanford Studies in History, Economics, and Political Science. Vol. XX. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.