Kang youwei biography

K'ang Yu-wei (K’ang Youwie, 康有為; March 19, 1858 – March 31, 1927), was one of the most prominent scholars and political reformers of modern China, and a key figure in the intellectual development of modern China.

He is particularly well-known for his radical reinterpretations of Confucianism and for his role as the Emperor's adviser during the abortive Hundred Days Reform movement of 1898. K’ang was born in 1858, to a prominent scholarly family in Guangdong, and received a traditional education in the Confucian classics.

Kang youwei biography wikipedia

Finding these studies oppressive, he began to study Buddhist and Western thought, and developed his own interpretation of Confucianism. He became convinced that the Chinese government must modernize its political and economic institutions in order to withstand the threat of foreign imperialism, and initiated several reform movements.

During the Hundred Days Reform movement of 1898 he became a close advisor of Emperor Guangxu; when the Empress Dowager end