"We have now received Her Majesty's decree to devote ourselves fully to China's revitalization, to suppress vigorously the use of the terms
new and old, and to blend together the best of what is Chinese and
what is foreign. The root of China's weakness lies in harmful habits too
firmly entrenched, in rules and regulations too minutely drawn, in the
overabundance of inept and mediocre officials and in the paucity of truly
outstanding ones, in petty bureaucrats who hide behind the written word
and in clerks and yamen runners (administrative clerks) who use the
written word as talismans [an object that brings good luck] to acquire
personal fortunes, in the mountains of correspondence between government
offices that have no relationship to reality, and in the seniority system
and associated practices that block the way of men of real talent."
Qing Reform Edict, January 29, 1901
How did the Boxer Rebellion lead to the Reform Edict?