There were two imperial restorations in modern Chinese history, one by Yuan Shikai, and the other of the dethroned last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Pu Yi, supported by Zhang Xun. The person who played a key role in defeating the two restorations was, paradoxically, Liang Qichao (1873-1929), a former royalist like Kang Youwei. In the struggle against the first restoration, Liang instructed his student, General Cai E, to slip back to Yunnan Province to organize an anti-Yuan army. In the struggle against the second restoration, he helped General Duan Qirui in drawing up military strategies for the expediton against Zhang Xun and defeating the restoration farce in 12 days.

Liang Qichao, with Zhouru as his courtesy name and Rengong and Cangjiang as his literary names, was from Xinhui of Guangdong Province. As a child prodigy, he passed the Xiucai degree provincial examination at 11, and the Juren degree provincial examination at 16. He went to the capital for the Jinshi degree national examination at 18, but he failed. From the book Information About the Globe he learned that there was western learning too. After returning home, he became a student of Kang Youwei and accepted his theory of reform.

In 1895, he went to the capital again with Kang for the national examination, where they initiated among the scholars of Guangdong and Hunan Provinces a memorial to the imperial court against signing the humiliating Shimonoseki Treaty with Japan. After his failure to pass the examination for avocating reform in his paper, he stayed in Beijing to help Kang in publishing the "Domestic and Foreign Information" and organizing the Society for National Strengthening in which he served as secretary.

During the "100-Day Reform". he was awarded the title of Sixth-Grade Official in charge of universities and publishing houses. He presented quite a few memorials to the emperor for the abolition of the old examination system and encouragement of technology. After the coup d'etat against the reformist he fled to Japan.

After the 1911 Revolution, Liang published The Construction of New China in which he proposed "Republicanism with a nominal monarch". He became the leader of the Republican Party in 1913 which was merged with the Democratic Party and Unification Party in the same year into the Progressive Party in opposition to the revolutionary Guomindang. As a council member of the new party, he served as Minister of Justice in Yuan Shikai's government. However, when Uan showed intention to restore monarchy, he resigned the post and started the magazine Great China. After his failure in dissuading Yuan from proclaiming himself emperor, he published an article raising the banner against monarchy restoration, and instructed General Cai E to slip back to Yunnan for the organization of an army against Yuan. He himself went to the south the next year and organized a military council in which he served as Chairman and Commander. After Yuans's death, he disbanded the council and published an open telegram for Duan Qirui to organize a new cabinet.

During the restoration of the Royalist General Zhang Xun, Liang took up the post of Adviser in the headquarters of the Expedition Army and drafted the proclamation against the Royalist General. After the defeat of Zhang, he was appointed Minister of Finance until the collapse of Duan's government. In December 1918, he went on a visit to Europe.

In the spring of 1920, Liang retired from politics and became tutor of the Research Institute of Qinghua University and concurrently professor of a few other universities such as Nankai. Academically he was a distinguished scholar of his time. He made an extensive introduction of western learning, ideology, and culture for the enlightenment of the people, and made comprehensive, systematic, and profound studies of ancient Chinese culture. Among his valuable works were The Learning of Mohism, The Philosophy of Laozi, The History of Buddhism in China, Chinese Academic History of the Recent 300 Years, History of Chinese Culture, Introduction to the Learning of the Qing Dynasty etc. In the field of philosophy, he and Zhang Jun mai were both representatives of the "Mystical School" of the 1920s. Also an advocate of "revolution of poetry", and "revolution of novels", he was a forerunner of vernacular Chinese. He also put forward "revolution in the field of history" and repudiated the theory that centres on the monarch. But at the same time he propagated the theory that heroes create the world and was of the opinion that reform should be carried out step by step.

Liang Qichao died of illness in Beijing at the age of 57. His works were collected and compiled into 148 volumes.