Abstract: On February 12,1912,the Qing emperor issued a series of imperial edicts to arrange his abdication, to confer the transfer of sovereignty from the emperorship to the new republic, and to grant Yuan Shikai the full power to organize a provisional republican government. These imperial edicts demonstrated that Republic of China inherited the whole territory of the Qing empire and they played a significant role in constructing a multi-national“Chinese nationality.” But these edicts and the following unification of the North and the South failed to build a solid foundation for republican politics and even caused controversy over legitimacy in the early Republic period. Thus, it can hardly be successful to find a constitutionalism tradition in China like the one originated from the British“glorious revolution”