Why is it said that the early Republic of China, especially during the Beiyang Government period, was like "another Spring and Autumn and Warring States"? Because it uniquely achieved a high level of freedom of thought and speech in modern Chinese history. Officials' assets could be publicly announced in newspapers, and even the income and assets of Beiyang government officials and presidents were subject to social supervision. For example, the annual income of the Republic of China's President Li Yuanhong reached 2 million silver dollars, a figure publicly disclosed through newspapers rather than kept secret; newspapers could be privately owned and openly criticize the president and government. Intellectuals within the system received salaries but could criticize authorities without hesitation. Hu Shi repeatedly openly criticized the government's autocracy, inefficiency, and conservatism in articles, while Lu Xun, earning a monthly salary of 400 yuan from the Ministry of Education, published "The True Story of Ah Q" to critique social realities. Although the Beiyang Government was politically chaotic, it legally ended the "subject-citizen" status, making China the first republic. Due to relaxed ideological control, it sparked the second wave of ideological liberation in the Chinese nation since the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. The New Culture Movement thus arose, with a new generation of intellectual elites like Hu Shi taking center stage. Universities gained relative independence, Confucianism was abolished as the sole orthodoxy, women's right to education was established, and modern educational systems, pinyin phonetics, and monogamy were gradually formed. Many well-known universities familiar today also originated during this period. Economically, private capital grew 22 times in just 16 years, and Shanghai had become an Asian financial center. Even amid constant warlord conflicts, there was a shared bottom line of "not killing in Tianjin." Diplomatically, as a victorious power in World War I, Beiyang reclaimed rights and refused to sign the Paris Peace Treaty, leaving a rare example of toughness in modern Chinese history. However, this period full of institutional experiments and vibrant ideas was ultimately simplified to "warlord chaos." The overlooked bright side of this history precisely reveals that China once truly approached another possibility.