The republic that Sun Yat-sen (sūn zhōng shān 孙中山) and his  associates envisioned evolved slowly. The revolutionists lacked an army, and the power of Yuan Shikai (yuán shì kǎi  袁世凯) began to outstrip that of parliament. Yuan revised the constitution at will and became dictatorial. In August 1912 a new political party was founded by Song Jiaoren (sòng jiāo rén 宋教仁 1882-1913), one of Sun’s associates.

Although the Manchus (mǎn zú 满族) were not Han Chinese and were strongly resisted, especially in the south, they had assimilated a great deal of Chinese culture before conquering China Proper, and set up the Qing Dynasty (qīng cháo 清朝). Realizing that to dominate the empire they would have to do things the Chinese way, the Manchus retained many institutions of Ming (míng cháo 明朝) and earlier Chinese derivation. They continued the Confucian court practices and temple rituals, over which the emperors had traditionally presided.