Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei (19 March 1858 – 31 March 1927) was a Chinese political thinker and reformer in late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor sparked conflict between the emperor and his adoptive mother, the regent Empress Dowager Cixi. His ideas were influential in the abortive Hundred Days' Reform. Following the coup by Cixi that ended the reform, Kang was forced to flee. He continued to advocate for a Chinese constitutional monarchy after the founding of the Republic of China.

Quotes about Kang

• Kang’s vision was rooted in a radical reinterpretation of Confucianism. He saw Confucius not as a conservative sage but as a reformer and believed that a properly reformed monarchy could be the vessel for China’s modernization. His 1902 treatise “Datong Shu” (Book of Great Unity) imagined a utopian world of gender equality, global governance, and technological harmony—a vision that was both startlingly progressive and deeply hierarchical.
  … Kang Youwei may have been cast out of China, but from the Chinatowns of Vancouver to the lecture halls of New York, he built a movement that reshaped the global Chinese imagination.
  … It is not surprising that he finds admirers in contemporary Xi Jinping’s China although whether they share or even understand the spiritual roots of his message remains unclear.
  • Massimo Introvigne, "Kang Youwei: A Confucian Monarchist in the New World", Bitter Winter (March 2, 2026)