This study examined how the national assembly(guomindahui) formed in modern China from the viewpoint of development of mass rally. The national assembly is the mass rally where people participated as the nation and developed the public opinion for national issues while the political participation of the people was not institutionally secured. The organizer exercised pressure on the government’s political decisions by announcing the resolutions of the rally inside and outside the country.
The mass rally in modern China began from the regional national assembly of the all circles coalition(gejielianhe) at the end of the Qing Dynasty and developed into a nationwide national assembly through the save-the-nation movement of the students who studied in Japan. The national assembly encouraged the nation’s political involvement during the May 4th Movement and was asserted as a major method for resolving domestic and diplomatic problems. The absence of the republic Constitution and National Assembly continued, and the national assembly was reorganized when important national issues broke out.
This study confirmed that the regional national assembly at the end of the Qing Dynasty climaxed in 1910 and developed into the nationwide national assembly in 1919, thereby supporting senior scholastic view which considers the Chinese Revolution and the May 4th Movement as two stages of the consecutive republican revolution.