The First Parliament: Late Qing Elites’ Plan to Save the Nation, 1910–1911

In Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, Engels observed: "What people expect is seldom realized as they expect it. In most cases, many of the ends they pursue conflict and contradict one another; or else the ends themselves were impossible to achieve from the outset, or the means to achieve them were lacking. Thus, the clash of countless individual desires and actions in the realm of history creates a state of affairs wholly similar to that which prevails in unconscious nature. The ends of actions are intended, but the actual results are not; or the results may at first seem to correspond to the intended ends, only to turn out in the end to be something entirely different."