China newspaper industry in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China based on the centenary data of 1911

As early as before the Qing court prepared for constitutionalism, the newspaper industry in China was actually quite developed. Newspapers, represented by Times, Ta Kung Pao, Times and Beijing Daily, are well-known in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. After the Qing court promulgated the Outline of the King James Constitution, the Constitutionalists set up newspapers and periodicals in various places. As of May, 1911, according to incomplete statistics, there were more than forty newspapers and periodicals that only held a constitutional position.

Constitutional newspapers in the late Qing Dynasty

Ironically, the constitutional imperial edict was promulgated on September 1, 1906, and on September 29, the same month, the Beijing dialect daily and the Zhonghua newspaper were blocked at the same time, on charges of "arbitrarily discussing state affairs, fabricating rumors, echoing bandit parties, and making irresponsible remarks." The real reason is that the Chinese newspaper published the news that the Qing court secretly executed two royalists who returned from Japan, while the Beijing Daily ridiculed the arrest of a Taiwan Province man who came to Beijing by mistake for Sun Yat-sen. Peng Yizhong, the newspaper owner, was exiled to Xinjiang on the grounds of murder.

In a word, the basic position of these newspapers is "asking the emperor for democracy". In the process of running a newspaper, it was frequently examined and interfered by the Qing court. Therefore, many newspapers have not existed for a long time. For example, Beijing Daily, sponsored by Wang Kangnian, was founded on March 28th, 1907, and was ordered to close by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on August 26th because of the case of Yang Cuixi. The organ publication "On Politics" of the Political News Agency was closed down less than 10 months after its publication.

The people who presided over the speeches in these newspapers were intellectuals in the transitional period. After the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905, a large number of scholars either went to study in the West or participated in new schools or speech institutions in China. At that time, famous writers included Liang Qichao, Da Sheng, Xiong Fanyu and Gu Zhongxiu.

More than a dozen of the above 40 newspapers are related to Liang Qichao, either as writers or publishers. For example, every issue of Guo Feng Bao was edited by Liang Qichao and sent to Shanghai for printing, half of which were written by Liang. With these opinion leaders as the center, the Constitutionalists have formed a number of speech centers.

Constitutionalists first kept great hopes for preparing for constitutionalism. After the introduction of the official system reform plan in November 1906, their attitude changed. This administrative system reform is nothing more than abolishing several small departments and changing the names of several departments. In fact, it is still a change of medicine. For example, in the central ministries and commissions, the proportion of Manchu and Han officials changed from 50-50 to 60-40. Nanfang Daily is extremely dissatisfied with this, saying that "it is a trick of autocracy in the name of fake constitutionalism."

The first revolutionary newspaper

In the autumn of 1899, Sun Yat-sen sent Chen Shaobai to Hongkong to organize a newspaper to publicize revolutionary ideas. As the British Hong Kong government prohibited Sun Shi from entering the country, Sun Yat-sen had to buy machines in Japan to raise funds, and told Chen Shaobai to name the newspaper China Daily. China Daily was officially published in Hongkong on January 25th, 1900, with Chen Shaobai as the president and editor-in-chief. The newspaper published a journal and a journal at the same time, with a dozen columns. The most popular column for the general public is "miscellaneous", which is to publish popular jingles and jokes in China to satirize current events.

The China Journal was published until 1913. It is generally believed that it was not revolutionary in the early days, and many of its ideas were the same as those of the constitutionalists. Some early serial articles only advocated limiting monarchical power and expanding civil rights, but did not clearly advocate revolution. In August, 1900, the newspaper published Zhang Taiyan’s "Please Strictly Refuse Manchu People to Enter the National Assembly" and "Discarding Braids", and then began to advocate Manchu Revolution.

When the newspaper published Zhang’s article, it added a sentence, publicly calling the Qing government a "barbaric government", which clearly expressed the newspaper’s position. In 1903, Guangzhou’s Ling Poster accused the revolution of anti-Qing, and China Daily published an article to refute it. The two sides fought each other in writing for months, while revolutionary figures in Guangdong submitted their books to the newspaper, expressing their support for the newspaper, and the sales of China Daily increased greatly.

China Daily is not only an organ of speech, but also a propaganda organ of the Xing China Association. Revolutionaries often hold secret meetings in the newspaper office at 27 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong. The command post of Huizhou Uprising was also located here. In a word, China Daily not only advocates revolution, but even directly launches armed struggle, which is one of its major characteristics.

Another newspaper, The National, founded in Tokyo, is more revolutionary. The newspaper severely condemned the Qing government’s act of flattering foreign countries and betraying the country, accusing them of stealing peace and being willing to hand over sovereign territory to others. If China wants to stand on its own feet and China wants to be rich and strong, it is necessary to overthrow the Qing government and make a revolution. The newspaper also introduces the revolutionary thought and history of European and American bourgeoisie to readers. They pay special attention to the correction of the concept of communication, for example, to separate the "state" from the "imperial court" and to be nationals rather than slaves.

Sue reported: strict censorship of speech

Su Bao was founded on June 26th, 1896 by Hu Tiemei, registered with the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai by his Japanese wife, and written by Zou Tao. In the early days, it was a tabloid newspaper, which was sold to Chen Fan in 1898 because of excessive debts. Chen transformed it into a clear discussion newspaper, which criticized the Qing court. Later, Chen became close to Cai Yuanpei and joined the China Education Association. In 1903, Zhang Shizhao became the main writer of Su Bao, and there were even more anti-Manchu revolutionary remarks.

On June 22, this year, Su Bao published an article "Homicide", openly advocating violent revolution. The article said, "This enemy, with five million evil clowns, occupied our land, paid for food and clothing, paid taxes, killed my ancestors, annihilated my compatriots, ravaged my culture, and bound my freedom … Today’s homicidal, that is, revanchism."

On June 20th, two days earlier, Wei Guangtao, the governor of Liangjiang, had reported to Cixi the recent remarks of Su Bao, saying that Su Bao "published cloth fallacies" and ordered that Mi Na be banned. On June 29th, a police detective went to the newspaper office to arrest people, including Chen Fan, Cheng Jifu, Zhang Taiyan, Zou Rong, Qian Baoren and Long Jizhi. After that, the newspaper continued to publish newspapers and criticized the authorities for their crimes. Finally, the newspaper office was closed on July 7.

The Qing government entrusted lawyers to accuse Zhang Taiyan and others of "slandering the world and slandering the government" in mixed court. In the face of the trial, Zhang Taiyan said generously that the word’ Zai Tian Clown’ in the book violated the sacred words. I only know that the Qing emperor was Manchu and didn’t know the so-called sacred words. "

On May 21, 1904, the concession authorities and the Shanghai magistrate jointly tried the case and announced that Zhang Taiyan was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and Zou Rong was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. When Zhang Shizhao later recalled Su’s report, he said, "There is no taboo between his words. He denounced Zai Tian as a clown, which is more expensive than a relative and a thief. Only the publications in Tokyo, Hong Kong can do it, but in the mainland, he dared not or refused." This shows how strict the censorship of speech was in the Mainland at that time.