uean Shih-k'ai and dismissed him at the
beginning of 1909; Yuean's supporters remained at their posts. Yuean
himself now entered into relations with the revolutionaries, whose
centre was Canton, and whose undisputed leader was now Sun Yat-sen. At
this time Sun and his supporters had already made attempts at
revolution, but without success, as his following was as yet too small.
It consisted mainly of young intellectuals who had been educated in
Europe and America; the great mass of the Chinese people remained
unconvinced: the common people could not understand the new ideals, and
the middle class did not entirely trust the young intellectuals.

The state of China in 1911 was as lamentable as could be: the European
states, Russia, America, and Japan regarded China as a field for their
own plans, and in their calculations paid scarcely any attention to the
Chinese government. Foreign capital was penetrating everywhere in the
form of loans or railway and other enterprises. If it had not been for
the mutual rivalries of the powers, China would long ago have been
annexed by one of them. The government needed a great deal of money for
the payment of the war indemnities, and for carrying out the few reforms
at last decided on. In order to get money from the provinces, it had to
permit the viceroys even more freedom than they already possessed. The
result was a spectacle altogether resembling that of the end of the
T'ang dynasty, about A.D. 900: the various governors were trying to make
themselves independent. In addition to this there was the revolutionary
movement in the south.

The government made some concession to the progressives, by providing
the first beginnings of parliamentary rule. In 1910 a national assembly
was convoked. It had a Lower House with representatives of the provinces
(provincial diets were also set up), and an Upper House, in which sat
representatives of the imperial house, the nobility, the gentry, and
also the protectorates. The members of the Upper House were all
nominated by the regent. It very soon proved that the members of the
Lower House, mainly representatives of the provincial gentry, had a much
more practical outlook than the routineers of Peking. Thus the Lower
House grew in importance, a fact which, of course, brought grist to the
mills of the revolutionary movement.

In 1910 the first risings directed actually against the regency took
place, in the province of Hunan. In 1911 the "railway