The Controversy on Constitution and the Insertion of Modernity in Late Qing Dynasty

Zheng Guanying was the first man to use the term of constitution in modern sense.He and other Confucians,such as Kang Youwei,elucidated the universal meaning of constitutional monarchy and endowed the term of constitution modern color with the Confucian theory.Not the logical validity and possibility but the purpose of grafting purport of modernity with traditional academic resources is the question of inference from the Confucian doctrine to modern program.In the view of modernity,the Qing government's use of the word constitution and the description in the Outline of Imperial Constitution are related to the substantial regime arrangement.All these reflect that the term constitution has a strong sense of modernity in the late Qing Dynasty.