康有为

In 1898 康有为 and his student 梁启超 persuaded the young Guangxu Emperor (光绪) to launch sweeping modernizing reforms (戊戌变法). Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) crushed the movement after just 103 days — six reformers were beheaded (戊戌六君子), but Kang escaped to Japan and continued campaigning for a Qing restoration for decades.

His utopian work 《大同书》 envisioned a future world without nations, families, or private property — a startlingly radical vision for a late-Qing Confucian scholar.