Kang Youwei statue

The Royalist Society was a political organization organized by Kang Youwei in the Thousand Islands of Canada in July 1899. Later, he established the same organization in America, Southeast Asia, Japan, Hong Kong and Macao and other places. The Royalist Society was an enemy of the bourgeois revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen, adhered to the constitutional monarchy and opposed the revolution. Its main member Liang Qichao lured a group of members of the Royalist Society in Honolulu and other places to join the Royalist Society, causing great losses to the revolutionary organization of the Xingzhong Society. After the Qing government announced the "preparatory constitution" in 1906, Kang Youwei, who was far overseas, changed the Royalist Society to the "National Constitutional Council" on February 13, 1907.

In July and August of that year, Liang Qichao, Jiang Zhiyou, Chen Jingren, and others gathered some royalists to organize the Political News Society in Tokyo, Japan, founded the Political Theory, and issued a manifesto enumerating four major programs: (1) Implement the parliamentary system and establish a responsible government; (2) Enact laws to consolidate the independence of the judiciary; (3) Establish local autonomy, which is the authority of the central and local governments; (4) Prudent diplomacy and maintain reciprocal power. In the manifesto, they also tried their best to express that their proposition "for the sake of the monarch is really beneficial and harmless", that they "have no intention of violating the dignity of the royal family", and "will never disturb the peace of the country", in order to exchange for the trust of the Qing government. In November 1908, Zhengwen Society held its inaugural meeting at the Jinhui Hall in Nitta, Tokyo. Members of the Alliance and international students attacked the meeting to show their opposition and resistance. After the establishment of Zhengwen Society, except for Liang Qichao and a few others, most of them returned to China to develop organizations. In February 1908, the headquarters of Zhengwen Society was moved from Tokyo to Shanghai, and the general director Ma Liang presided over the affairs of the society. He founded the School of Law and Politics, sent people to contact the constitutional organization, communicate with princes and ministers, and gradually established branches in various places. In addition, the society had a very close relationship with the Preparatory Constitutional Association in Jiangsu. In July 1908, Zhengwen Society called the Constitutional Editorial Office in the name of all members, asking for a parliamentary meeting within three years. This move was quite provocative to the national constitutional activities. Empress Dowager Cixi had long been dissatisfied with the activities of the Zhengwen Society, and had not released her old grievances against Kang and Liang, so she decided to ban this move. It coincided with Chen Jingren, the head of the legal department who participated in the Zhengwen Society, writing to impeach Yu Shiyi, the minister of constitutional examination who advocated delaying the constitution. The Qing government took the opportunity to dismiss Chen Jingren and ordered him to be banned on August 13 on the grounds that the Zhengwen Society was "a lot of rebellious criminals" and "torn the henchmen... conspiring to incite chaos". As for the National Constitutional Council, it only operated abroad and collapsed after the 1911 Revolution.