Learn history to learn At this stage of the Westernization Movement, everyone was vigorously criticizing the "ignorance and conservatism" of the people in power. But what they never thought were, such as " Yilian , Wenxiang , Zeng Guofan , Zuo Zongtang , Li Hongzhang , Zhang Zhidong , "these people were actually the most change-minded and insightful talents in Chinese society at that time.
China's modernization path has been going from Opium War . How difficult is it? This is probably only possible to explain by personal experience. China's modernization in that era was completely "from nothing to something", and there was not even a stone that could be referenced, and they were touching themselves and crossing the river.
The Qing Dynasty initially launched modernization
When we talk about modern Chinese history, we often say that the Qing Dynasty was ignorant and backward and feudal and conservative. These are all backward points in the Qing Dynasty's political system, but we cannot deny that the Qing Dynasty was indeed the beginning of modernization in China. Since 861, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement has been initially pacified. From the central government of the Qing Dynasty to the local government, a trend of learning Western science and technology has begun. The middle school history textbook says, "The central government is mainly Yi圣 and Wenxiang, and the local government is headed by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and others."
Prince Gong Yiyi realized China's own backwardness since British and French coalition British and French coalition Bombing the Old Summer Palace, so he began to learn Western military technology with the goal of "self-improvement". 861, they specially hired foreign officers to train recruits in Tianjin. In the same year, they set up , the capital Tongwenguan in Beijing, to cultivate a large number of talents who are proficient in foreign languages, and began to study in English, Russian, French and other languages, and later added German and Japanese foreign languages. Specializes in translating foreign science, literature, and military science and technology books, and recruits young Manchu and Han talents in China for study and training.
With these translation talents who are proficient in foreign languages, Li Hongzhang began to open a foreign language school in Shanghai based on their studies. By 864, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang established the Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing General Administration in Jiangnan . This is the earliest new factory in modern Chinese history and became the prototype of Shanghai Machine Bureau later. If you push this time backwards, Zuo Zongtang founded a shipyard in Fuzhou, Fujian in 1865. Then in 1869, Li Hongzhang opened a machine manufacturing bureau in Tianjin. In 1971, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang began to select students to go to the United States to study abroad.
1871 The initiator of the Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty began to change his goals. Self-improvement was just a self-righteous idea. When the Qing Dynasty began to strengthen itself, it was not until the Qing Dynasty began to strengthen itself that the country was so short of money, so the Westernization Movement later focused on seeking wealth. In 1875, based on the development of the Westernization Movement, the Qing Dynasty initially established its own national defense based on Li Hongzhang's Huai Army. Li Hongzhang's personal view is that preparing for the navy can serve China to a great extent. As long as the enemy is killed by the ocean, there is no war in China's inland. Under the influence of this concept, Li Hongzhang 875 was planned to build an iron armored warship. In 1876, he selected elite young officers from the Huai Army to study army knowledge and sent elite students from Fujian and China's Naval Academy to learn about manufacturing warships and driving warships without Britain and France. Why go to , English, French, and Germany to learn these knowledge respectively? This is because at that time, the German Army was recognized as the strongest in Europe and even the world, while the British and French navies were recognized as the first and second in the world. The Qing Dynasty where Li Hongzhang was also tried to achieve the strength of the British and French coalition forces in the two Opium Wars.
880 This group of students went through four years of foreign university study and returned from their postgraduate study. Li Hongzhang started naval education in China based on this group of people, handled Naval Academy in Tianjin, set up telegraph bureaus and built railways to serve the country's military and national defense.In the later period, when you were 1881, you founded the Mining Bureau in Kaiping, opened a machine cloth factory in Shanghai, and explored gold mines in Mohe, Heilongjiang. In fact, it was because the Westernization Movement spent too much money and the court could not afford it. Li Hongzhang and others had to find ways to make money by themselves, so the slogan of "seeking wealth" was actually for "self-improvement".
The difficult exploration of China's modernization
Until 888 Li Hongzhang established the Beiyang Navy, which was initially seen as a great step for China's modernization. China's modernization cause was actually started based on national defense. If it were in the Qing Dynasty environment at that time, it was originally intended to change the political system and national system, it would not be promoted in any case. The legal principles of national defense and military have enabled China to establish its entire modernization, but the political system and the top-level ruling country in the Qing Dynasty and the Manchu noble families were unable to fully Westernize it like Japan, so the Westernization Movement and modernization were doomed to fail at that time.
If the Westernization Movement started from 861, Yi861 hired foreigners to train the new army and founded the Tongwenguan, to 894 textbook, the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 marked the failure of the Westernization Movement. In the whole 33 years, the three emperors, Xianfeng , Tongzhi , and Guangxu , were replaced. The political situation in the court was not stable enough and various policies were extremely difficult to implement. We can also see that the goal of the Westernization Movement was to focus on "self-improvement". The early Westernization Ministers still believed that China was not short of money, and the concept that the Celestial Kingdom had omnipotence still existed in the hearts of advanced ministers such as Li Hongzhang. However, when the Westernization Movement was really handled, it was discovered that there was a shortage of money everywhere and no money was available anywhere.
The pace of self-reliance in the Westernization Movement was limited by the backward productivity of that era. This is a preliminary concept, but why did Japan, which is also in Asia, still successfully handle the 130-year achievements of the Meiji Restoration in the case of so much weaker than China's finances? In fact, the gap between the two is nothing more than the gap between the political system and the perspective of whether the supreme ruler is willing to take care of it. If personal personal interests are heavy, national interests will inevitably be weakened, and in the end the entire country will be eaten up by a group of worms. In this situation where the general environment cannot be changed, even those who are willing to do things will still have to join in with it.
Judging from the development of the modern history of the Westernization Movement, in fact, Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan and others did not have a comprehensive plan in the early days, and they all took one step at a time. At first, I knew that self-improvement needed Western military weapons, so I set up two machinery manufacturing plants in Tianjin and Jiangnan. The essence of the two factories is an arsenal serving military and national defense. But later, I found that even if the new weapons were bought and manufactured, no one would use them. Therefore, at this time, specialized technical talents must be cultivated. Therefore, under this demand, "martial arts schools and dispatching officers to study abroad" began to be established in various parts of China.
After possessing military weapons and talents who can use it, it was discovered that modern military must have modern transportation. Otherwise, if you walk on two feet, several months have passed, so what else can you fight? Therefore, modern transportation serves modern military services, shipyards, various communications and telegraph bureaus and railways began to be built across China. By the time these things were almost established, Li Hongzhang, the Qing Dynasty, found that it would not work to purchase modern national defense based on the Qing Dynasty's tax revenue, and there was no such much money to invest in the modern cause, so in the later stage, they began to "seek wealth".
Li Hongzhang founded Shipbuilding China Merchants Group to operate and operate the transportation of rivers, lakes and seas in China, so that these transportation conveniences and benefits are not all occupied by foreigners. The weaving factory was later established to save the money lost by China's handicraft industry. Opening various coal mines and gold mines also increased revenue for the Westernization Movement.These advanced figures of the Westernization Movement's self-improvement had no reference goals at the beginning and did not set a comprehensive goal for China's modernization. They just knew that modernization of national defense must be done, otherwise the country would be destroyed. After embarking on this path, found that it was necessary to go further and finally to the end, the Qing Dynasty was revolutionized and the modern state system was founded to succeed.
Inspiration of modernization
In fact, when I read this, I should have quite understood the development of China's modernization cause. If I don’t understand it enough, the author will explain it to you using examples in life. You will know why Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and others carried out the Westernization Movement to maintain the Qing Dynasty's rule at that time, and eventually became gravediggers of the Qing Dynasty. Please allow me to take women in life shopping as an example.
A beautiful woman will buy cosmetics in order to become beautiful. When she uses up her cosmetics, she finds that she needs another one. After buying the blush, she finds that she is not evenly applied with her hands. So you need to buy a blush brush. After my face was dressed up beautifully, I found that the clothes on my upper body were too ugly, so I needed to buy a good-looking piece of clothes at this time. After I had good-looking clothes, I found that my pants were simply not worth it. At this time, I had to buy pants again. After buying pants, I found that the shoes were not fashionable enough. After all these were done, I found that the whole body was beautiful and the makeup was exquisite enough, but my face and figure were not enough to match. At this time, some people simply went for plastic surgery and completely changed themselves.
Many things cannot be achieved in one step. Only when you start to do it will you find the problem and then solve it after you find the problem. After the development of things reaches its extreme, changes will occur. Only after the change will the development of things be prevented, so that things can continue to develop. The leaders of the Westernization Movement at that time had no talent to control the whole thing. Human wisdom was constrained by time and space. However, as long as they tried their best to do it, they would work hard for it and repeatedly do so for the country's progress. This is the real situation of China's modernization from the perspective of God, and it is also the real human nature.
The late Qing Dynasty was at the corner of history. Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang... If this group of people wanted to lead a huge and complex country out of the predicament, it was impossible for them to have a so-called "comprehensive construction plan" that coordinated the overall situation and was in line with the historical period. If someone insists on saying that there is something, it is just unpracticeable. Touching yourself to cross the river is usually the best choice. So for us personally, since nothing can be predicted in advance, it is better to do it first. After doing it, you will definitely encounter problems and think about solutions to the problem.
Conclusion
In the process of reading history, no matter how much grievances the Chinese with a pure heart have suffered in their lives, they still feel patriotic when they read the country is backward and beaten. Only after we understand modern education do we know how great the responsibility is as a Chinese citizen. We have missed the first industrial revolution and caught up with the tail of the second industrial revolution, but we must not miss the third and fourth times.
has never been an empty talk for the country to cultivate talents, and historical education is not a slogan. The reason why there are so many refined egoistic people in China today is that they have not read the bloody and tears of history of China's modernization.
