Diplomatic Credentials Failed to Deliver

Year of production2014

In 1905, the Qing Empire was on the verge of collapsing. In order to pacify the political turmoil at home, the Qing government plans to reform politics. In the name of creating China’s first Constitution, five high-rank officers, Zaize 載澤, DAI Hongci 戴鴻慈, XU Shichang 徐世昌, Duangfang 端方 and Shaoying 紹英 were sent to Japan and the West to survey their constitutional politics. Upon hearing the news, WU Yue, a revolutionary, fearing that constitutional monarchism would kill off true democracy, decided to stop the change. He bomb attacked the five officers in Zhengyangmen East Railway Station and he was killed. The “Diplomatic Credential Presented to the Great British Empire” and “Diplomatic Credential Presented to the Great French Republic”, collected by the National Palace Museum, were Diplomatic Credentials prepared for these diplomatic missions. Because of Wu's opposition, they remained in Forbidden City and then went to Taiwan. They witnessed the decline of constitutional monarchism and the rise of democracy in China.