The Huaxinghui (), commonly translated as the China Revival Society or China Arise Society, was founded by Huang Xing and Zhang Shizhao on 15 February 1904 with the election of Huang Xing as its president, in Changsha of Hunan for the explicit political goal of overthrowing the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

and establishing a democratic and free

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

. Many of its members later became key figures of the

Tongmenghui The Tongmenghui of China was a secret society and underground resistance movement founded by Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others in Tokyo, Empire of Japan, on 20 August 1905, with the goal of overthrowing China's Qing dynasty. It was formed ...

Background

In 1903,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

made seven requests to the Qing Dynasty in an attempt to invade and occupy

Northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

. This action shook Japan. The ''

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'' first published this news, and the Chinese students studying in Japan held a student conference at the Kinkikwan () in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. In early June, Huang Xing returned to China from Japan as an "athlete" of the Army and National Education Association () 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 (), Song Jiaoren, Zhang Shizhao and others to hold a secret meeting at the home of Peng Yuanxun (), Baojia Bureau Lane, West District of Changsha, and decided to organize an anti-Qing revolutionary group to name "Huaxinghui", and called it " Huaxing Company" () to the outside. The group's members amounted to hundreds of people, mostly

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

s. Its purpose was to "expel the Tatar barbarians and revive Zhonghua" (); its strategy was to launch a war in Hunan, and the provinces respond to "go straight to Youyan" ().

History

The China Revival Society was dominated by students from

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

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 Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...

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.

Background

History

References

Further reading