A provisional government after the revolution
Following the Wuchang uprising in 1911, several provinces broke with the Qing court, and revolutionary forces began organizing a new central government. Sun Yat-sen took office as provisional president of the Republic of China at Nanjing on January 1, 1912, making an oath and issuing a declaration. The Qing court remained in Beijing, and military and political negotiations continued between north and south. Coordinating government, armies and finances was urgent.
Office and commitments in the oath
Sun’s handwritten oath is dated the first day of the Republic’s first year. He pledged to consolidate republican government and improve people’s livelihoods, connecting his office with the establishment of order after the revolution. He also stated that he would leave the provisional presidency once the republic was stable and internationally recognized. The commitments described public consent as the source of authority and defined a transitional task for the government.
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The declaration’s program for government
The inaugural declaration set out a program for bringing together communities, territory, military affairs, administration and finance. Sun called for adjusting relations between the center and provinces, coordinating differently organized armies and reforming finances and the economic order. Abroad, he proposed peaceful relations and the fulfillment of a state’s obligations alongside its rights. Provincial and military activities were placed within a project of republican central government.
References: [2]
Constitutional arrangements and the transfer of government
The Qing emperor abdicated in February 1912, and Yuan Shikai was subsequently elected provisional president. The Provisional Constitution promulgated in March assigned sovereignty to the people and defined the powers of the senate, provisional president, ministers and courts. It listed freedoms and rights including petition and election, and required ministerial countersignature for the president’s laws and orders.
Sun left the provisional presidency in April, and central government moved to Beijing. Although the Nanjing government was brief, its oath, declaration and constitution placed republican politics, popular rights and government organization in new institutional documents.