清光绪三十一年(1905年)是不平凡的一年。日本以君主立宪小国打败沙皇俄国,震动了整个清廷。朝野上下普遍将这场战争的胜负与国家政体联系在一起,认为日本以立宪胜,俄国以专制败。于是,立宪为变革中国之关键迅速成为朝野上下的共识。7月,慈禧派载泽、端方等五大臣出洋考察宪政。次年,五大臣先后回国,建议实行“立宪”。不过,他们指出,“今日宣布 Thirty-one years Guangxu (1905) is an extraordinary year. Japan defeated Tsarist Russia with a small constitutional monarchy and shaken the entire Qing court. Both the ruling and opposition parties generally linked the outcome of this war with the state government, believing that Japan was constitutionally superior and that Russia ruled autocratic. Thus, the key to constitutional constitutional reform of China has quickly become the ruling consensus both in the government and the public. In July, Cixi sent Ze and Duan Fang to inspect the constitutional government. The following year, the five ministers successively returned to China, suggesting ”constitutionalism.“ However, they point out, ”announced today