Was educational reform in China’s New Policies “genuine reform”? The critical role of political ideology (1901-1904)

The nature of the New Policies in China (1901–1911) has been hotly debated for decades. While scholars doubt the sincerity of the Qing government in their pursuit of constitutional reform, there is a general agreement on the high quality of their educational reform. Some even consider their educational innovations as “genuine reform” but condemn the political reform as “pseudo reform”. How could educational reform be independent of political influence? To understand the institutional change in education in the final decade of imperial China, this article analyses the relationship between educational reform and political ideology in the New Policies before 1905 by comparing the 1902 and 1904 Decrees on education. It will be shown that the 1902 Decrees deemphasised the imperial orthodoxy, and they were therefore unacceptable for the ruling circle and did not work out. The 1904 Decrees, on the contrary, succeeded because of their accordance with the dominant political ideology. The “genuineness” of the educational reform in the New Policies seem not to be an indicator of the central government’s determination to pursue fundamental reform before 1905. Rather, to a large extent, this determination was manifested in the substantial achievement of educational reform at the local level during 1906 to 1911.