Zhang's elevation of individual persons to act as sagely founders resolves only part of founding's paradoxes. What of the role played by external rather than internal forces, such as political structures, in shaping the actions of citizens? Could republican governance be successfully executed by installing the correct institutions, without recourse to motivated personal efforts at founding and regime-building? Many of Zhang's contemporaries insisted that these feats were both theoretically unnecessary and practically impossible. Many of them, including such influential writers as Liang Qichao, Du Yaquan (1873–1933), and Gao Yihan (1885–1968), began urging the development of personal virtue rather than political involvement or institution-building – a so-called renzhi (rule by man) position – to bring about social stability and renewal.

This focus on the quality of leaders, rather than on any particular political institution or form of involvement, soon became a mainstream rallying cry for dispirited elites frustrated by China's obvious failure in establishing republican government. Not long after the founding of the first Chinese republic, Sun Yat-sen stepped down as provisional president. The newly elected president of the Republic, Yuan Shikai, soon began maneuvering for greater power. He dissolved the national assembly and, many believed, assassinated opposition leader Song Jiaoren, whose views on constitutional government were inspired directly by Zhang Shizhao's work in such publications as the Minli bao. In this period of pessimism and crisis, many intellectuals began to doubt the efficacy of Western-style institutions – such as the assembly or the presidency – for assuring China's prosperity and national strength.