As a result, from an early age, he was sent by his family to study the Confucian classics to pass the Chinese civil service exams.

However, as a teenager, he was dissatisfied with the scholastic system of his time, especially its emphasis on preparing for the eight-legged essays, which were artificial literary exercises required as part of the examinations.

[1] Kang called for an end to property and the family in the interest of an idealized future cosmopolitan utopia and cited Confucius as an example of a reformer and not as a reactionary, as many of his contemporaries did.

In 1879, Kang traveled to Hong Kong and was shocked by the prosperity there, which started his interest in Western culture and thoughts.

When he was returning home, he stopped over in Shanghai and bought many Western books there, and started developing his ideology based on these writings.

Through it, Kang became acquainted with Governor-General Zhang Zhidong and received his financial support to inaugurate the Paper of the Society for the Study of the National Strengthening (Qiangxue bao) in January 1896.

In protest against the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and over 600 civil examination candidates signed a petition to the Guangxu Emperor, known to history as Gongche Shangshu movement.

[8] Kang and his noted student, Liang Qichao, were important participants in a campaign to modernize China now known as the Hundred Days' Reform.

[10]: 129 Some advocated that a Han be installed as Emperor: either the descendant of Confucius, who was the Duke Yansheng,[11][12][13][14] – which Kang briefly endorsed before dropping the idea and returning to the idea of a Qing monarch[15] – or the Ming dynasty Imperial family descendant, the Marquis of Extended Grace.

General Zhang Xun and his queue-wearing soldiers occupied Beijing, declaring a restoration of Emperor Puyi on July 1.

Chinese-British biographer Jung Chang gave Kang Youwei unfavorable criticism due to his role in spreading numerous vilifying stories about the Empress Dowager.

Among those stories including accusation Cixi of murdering Empress Dowager Ci'an, driving her own son to death, and massively appropriating naval funds.

Chang asserted that Kang Youwei was a "master propagandist" who also harbored an intention to become an emperor by claiming as the reincarnation of Confucius, although he later abandoned that plan.

[19] Kang proposed a utopian future world free of political boundaries and democratically ruled by one central government.

Kang outlines an immensely ambitious, and equally inhumane, eugenics program that would eliminate the "brown and black" racial phenotype after a millennium and lead to the emergence of a fair-skinned homogeneous human race whose members would "be the same color, the same appearance, the same size, and the same intelligence".

[20] Some of the methods envisioned for achieving this end included forced relocation to colder regions inhabited by whites coupled with sterilization of those suffering from diseases or whose mental and/or physical attributes were deemed exceptionally grotesque.

It is worth noting that although Kang felt that the white and yellow phenotype could coexist in his ideal scheme, he ultimately felt that white was nonetheless superior to yellow, and that the latter under ideal circumstances could be eliminated within the span of a century (prior to the advent of the "Great Unity").

His desire to end the traditional Chinese family structure defines him as an early advocate of women's independence in China.

In this spirit, in addition to establishing government nurseries and schools to replace the institution of the family, he also envisioned government-run retirement homes for the elderly.

He also believed that as a result of technological advances, each individual would only need to work three or four hours per day, a prediction that would be repeated by the most optimistic futurists later in the 20th century.

[23] The sufferings associated with man's physical life are: being implanted in the womb, premature death, loss of a limb, being a barbarian, living outside China, being a slave, and being a woman.

The things that cause suffering because of the esteem in which they are held are: wealth, eminent position, longevity, being a ruler, and being a spiritual leader.