Kang Youwei

The Man Who Tried to Reform the Qing

Kang Youwei is the famous or infamous reformer already mentioned during that discussion of the 100 Days of Reform and the plan to assassinate the Empress Dowager.  Kang’s ideas were also discussed in Losing the Mandate of Heaven.  Now let’s consider him, not as a foil to the Empress Dowager, but in his own right.

Kang was born in the Three Districts (Sam…