淸末 紀年法의 構想과 民國紀年의 採擇

Abstract

I contemplated in this article the relationship between the various calendar systems and the Minguo era in the twentieth century. Because of Xinhai Revolution, it expected that the Huangdi era that the revolutionists had claimed would substitute the emperor era of the dynastic system. However, the interim government of the Republic of China adopted the Minguo era instead of the Huangdi era. So the various calendar systems in the late Qing Dynasty was not absorbed in a new nation. To investigate the cause of that severance, I traced the transition of calendar systems since the late Qing Dynasty in a diachronic view. Then I minutely investigated the relationship between the Huangdi era and the Minguo era. The challenge to the emperor era at the late Qing Dynasty was not abrupt. In the late Qing Dynasty the anti-Qing group denied the emperor era, and in the middle of nineteenth century the Christian era encroached the base of the emperor era. In this social change, the constitutionalists and the revolutionists could seek the way of modern state and find the calendar system that substitute the emperor era. The Kongzi era and the Huangdi era have historic significance that they broke the order of time of the emperor era and founded the new order of time. That the nationalism of the revolutionists reached the limit since the revolution and intrinsic flaw of the Huangdi era were the immediate reasons why Kongzi era and particularly the Huangdi era could not adopt as the calendar system of the Republic of China. The theory of national revolution could not match with the ideology of the Republic of China that claimed to harmonize five nationalities. As the national icon, the limitation of the Huangdi era was clear. Moreover, that the Huangdi era has no definite beginning was a fatal deficiency. The disagreement on the beginning already caused confusion among the revolutionists before the revolution, and the discussion never found agreement. Because of those reasons, the Huangdi era eventually could not enter the system of the Republic of China and exit the stage of history.