ABSTRACT
In the late nineteenth century, both internal rebellions and external wars forcibly prompted the Qing rulers to conduct reforms in a variety of areas including the law. As a result, the late Qing state adopted a more tolerant attitude toward skipping and false complainants as well as collective complainants. It also attempted to establish a special Administrative Court expressly to deal with commoners' complaints against officials. In addition, the last years of the Qing witnessed a greatly enhanced role of public and private media in publicizing people's individual and collective complaints. All of these efforts, in theory or in practice, further expanded and strengthened subjects' natural right to complain. As the West moved into China and China became more aware of the rest of the world, Chinese at various levels of society turned to the West and Japan for institutions that could increase communication between the top and bottom of society. Opening the “word road (yanlu)” was a perennial Chinese ideal that seemed also to offer the prospect of wealth and power essential to compete with the foreign powers. Despite these reforms, the late Qing state was marked by rampant official corruption and breaches in the rule of law. As a result, complainants proliferated and many of them faced frustration in efforts to gain redress of their grievances. The late Qing reforms ultimately failed to achieve their primary goal of saving the dynasty. Inspired by new ideologies as well as old principles, they nonetheless had a tremendous impact on the succeeding polities that styled themselves republics.
