The whole of China was astonished by the Republican Revolution that broke out on 10 October 1911. On 12 October, Su-chou governor Ch’eng Te-ch’uan (u two dots), in the company of members of Kiangsu Provincial Council, Yang T’ing-tung and Lei Fen, invited Chang Chien from Nan-t’ung to draft together, deep into the night, a telegram petition to advice the court to announce the immediate implementation of a new constitution and a congress, with the hope that these acts could halt the engulfing revolution. On 13 October Ch’eng Te-ch’uan (u two dots) decided to first forward the telegram to generals and senior officials in numerous provinces, requesting them to sign their names in support, but few responded.
The telegram petition was finally hastily sent out to Peking on 16 October. However the court did not reply. On 22 October, the Republican soldiers reached Ch’ang-sha and established the Military Government of Hunan. By December, fifteen provinces had declared independence in succession. The rage of revolution was unstoppable. Although the telegram petition could not save Ch’ing dynasty from demise, the telegram draft became a precious historic document that recorded the final effort of the monarchists to save the imperial throne.
Yang T’ing-tung kept the telegram draft for many years. In 1921 he asked the eminent painter Wu Hu-fan to create a painting titled Autumn Night Petition. He mounted the telegram draft and the painting together as part of a handscroll. After the fall of mainland China In 1949, the descendant of Yang brought the handscroll to Taiwan, and it was eventually gifted to the National History Museum. Recently the historian Ch’en Ying acquired a copy of the book Photographic Record of the Autumn Night Petition Handscroll, published in 1971. Ch’en Ying chronicled the whole story and induced much reflection. Had the imperial throne decided to implement constitutional monarchy earlier, the success and failure of the Republican revolution would be hard to fathom.
Curatorial and Editorial Department
