The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 can be said to be a turning point in Chinese history. Prior to this, although China had been opened by Western powers, it was still immersed in the dream of a kingdom in heaven. Even the most enlightened Westernizationists like Li Hongzhang think that China is only inferior to people in artifacts, and is not lagging behind in politics and culture. This is true of the most enterprising Westernization school, let alone the traditional scholar-officials and ordinary people.
(The failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 shook the Qing dynasty)
But the failure of the Sino-Japanese War completely shattered this dream. If we say that losing to the powerful Western powers is excusable, It would be a shame to lose to the little Japan that was once on the fringe of the tributary system. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, China has called Japan the Japanese. For a long time, Japan has been a symbol of backwardness in China. Today, the kingdom of heaven has been defeated by the former Japanese pirates, which caused a shock throughout the Qing Dynasty.
After the fiasco of Jiawu, two agitations arose in the Qing Dynasty. One was that young students headed by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao began to advocate the reform. Second, the Qing government began to send a large number of students to Japan to learn about modernization experience.
After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the people of Japan were full of keen interest in how Japan changed from weak to strong through learning from the West. People of insight in China hope to learn from Japan. A prosperous country and a strong army enabled China to quickly get rid of the fate of being backward and beaten and become a modern country.
The idea of Japan was passed on to China through these Chinese students studying in Japan, and it has shaped many characteristics of modern China to a large extent.
1. The Qing government actively sent students to Japan
After the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty began to actively send students to Japan. In 1896, the Qing government sent the first batch of students to Japan, a total of 13 people. Ren Qing's minister to Japan, Yu Geng, took them to Tokyo Higher Normal School through the Japanese government.
Later, in 1899, the Qing Dynasty sent a second group of students to study in Japan. The Governor of Huguang, Zhang Zhidong and Governor of Liangjiang, Liu Kunyi each selected 20 students, a total of 40 students stayed in Japan. Among them, 33 studied military and 4 studied law. Students who study abroad in Japan receive subsidies from the Qing government at a standard of 25 yuan per person per month. Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong sent silver dollars to the Japanese embassy in exchange for yen.
The Qing government actively studied abroad, and the Japanese side responded positively, but the reason for the response was not the hope that the Qing Dynasty would grow, but the Japanese high-level officials at the time believed that accepting Qing Dynasty students would be beneficial to Japan interest. At that time, the Japanese Minister to the Qing Dynasty Fumio Shizano believed that accepting students from the Qing Dynasty could cultivate China's pro-Japanese forces, which in turn would benefit Japan's future interest in China.
Shiye Fumio wrote in his letter to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs: "The effect of this invitation lies not only in the success of this matter, but also in spreading the new talents influenced by our country among the old empire. From this, we began to support our power in East Asia............. The Qing Dynasty industry and commerce people will establish contact with Japan, which will become the ladder for our industry and commerce to expand into the Qing country. As for the legal literature, they will plan the Qing country according to the Japanese system. In the future, as this is the case, our country’s power on the mainland is immeasurable. Because of the relationship between these students in Japan, our country’s power is unknowingly strengthened in the East Asian continent.” It can be seen that the Japanese accept foreign students solely for the sake of Japan's influence in China is Japan's hegemony in East Asia.
Since it was in the interest of Japan, Japan was very active in accepting Chinese students at the time, and even issued subsidies to sponsor Chinese students. Because of the high aspirations of the Qing Dynasty and Japan, the number of international students increased rapidly. By 1901, as many as 4,000 Chinese students had studied in Japan. In 1904, there were only 94 Chinese students in the law and politics course at Hosei University in Japan. By October 1906 The monthly number reached an astonishing 843. In the fifth period of April 1908, there were 1215 Chinese students studying abroad, including Wang Jingwei, Dai Jitao and others.
Only from JapanA crash course is enough to see how far the number of Chinese students studying in Japan has grown in 10 years.
2. Why Zhang Zhidong encourages Chinese students to study in Japan
So why did the Qing Dynasty send students to Japan so actively? Since the content of study is modernization and Western technology and systems, why not send students directly to Western countries, but to Japan, where they learned art later? Regarding this point, Zhang Zhidong has discussed:
To the country of study tour, the Western is not as good as the Eastern, and the road is close to the province, and you can send more; to China, it is easy to study; the Eastern language is similar to Chinese, easy Familiar ; Western learning is very complicated, and the Eastern people have deleted those who are not important to Western learning, and the Eastern people have modified them. The situation and customs of the Central and Eastern countries are similar, easy to imitate, and twice the result with half the effort.
(Zhang Zhidong is an active advocate of studying in Japan)
It can be seen that Zhang Zhidong believes that studying in Japan is relative to studying in the West , There are several advantages, one is the distance, the second is that Japanese and Chinese characters are close, which is easy to understand, and the third is that Western knowledge is too complicated. Japan has deleted the redundant part of Western knowledge. You can learn the essence directly when you go to Japan. , And Chinese and Japanese cultures are close to each other and can be imitated, so the result is twice the result with half the effort.
In addition, Zhang Zhidong believes that compared with the West, there is another point that Japan is worth learning from China, that is, the experience of a latecomer country from weak to strong. Zhang Zhidong believes that Japan was only a small country before, but in a very short time. From weak to strong inside, no longer being bullied by the West, this is of great reference for China.
By the beginning of the 20th century, studying in Japan had completely overwhelmed studying in the West and became the mainstream choice for Chinese students studying abroad.
3. The benefits and consequences of sending students to Japan
As Zhang Zhidong said, studying in Japan can quickly learn essential Western knowledge, and can learn from the experience of Japan’s rise as a latecomer, and The similarity of culture does reduce learning difficulties.
But the problem is that the Western culture introduced by the Japanese is filtered, reflecting the values that the Japanese consider important, rather than the original things in the West. The so-called essence is all defined by Japan, which makes China The Western systems and values learned are all second-hand goods and Japanese, so they have a distinctive Japanese color and are even biased by Japan.
(Some of Sun Yat-sen’s ideas are also influenced by Japan)
For example, the Western liberalism introduced in Japan is actually very different from the Western native. Japanese liberalism is Individuals have personal freedom with respect to the family and the lord, but there is no freedom for the emperor of Japan and the country. Therefore, he can advocate free love and marriage while calling for women to be comfort women. Western liberalism first advocates personal relatives. The independence and personal rights of the monarch are inviolable. Such distortions are too numerous to mention and have greatly affected China. ji
Lu Xun is also studying in Japan
The advantage of studying Japan is that you can quickly carry out centralization and modernization, and quickly enrich the country and strengthen the army, but its sequelae and side effects are also immeasurable. , Now he still affects us.
More exciting, welcome to pay attention to my headline number / WeChat public account: Meditation Tocqueville
