The of the late Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were invaded many times by foreign powers. China failed many times under this invasion, but there were still many scholar-bureaucrats who insisted on the general concept of trusting Chinese learning as body and Western learning for application. This concept caused many Chinese people to believe that Westerners only won in terms of weapons. But after losing the same war with the Japanese in the Eastern countries, this concept changed.
The awakening after the Sino-Japanese War The disastrous defeat
The Sino-Japanese War was bad, but it was also good. Of course, I don’t need to go into detail about the bad aspects. This is something everyone knows, but the good side is because the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894 inspired the Chinese people to understand themselves. It was also because of the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War that the Chinese people truly realized who I am today. People at that time have particularly painful historical memories of this failure. There are even many documents left behind that say that the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 was divided into four major defeats. So what did these four major defeats look like?
The first failure on the Korean Peninsula caused the Qing Dynasty's closest vassal state, Korea, to be seized by the Japanese. The second failure caused the direct loss of sea control in China's internal sea Bohai Sea . The third failure caused the Japanese to start landing from Lushun on the Liaodong Peninsula . After they landed, they began to massacre Chinese civilians, which shocked the entire capital area. When they failed for the fourth time, the Beiyang Navy was completely destroyed. The modern navy that the Chinese had worked hard to build for thirty years was gone.
In the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Chinese paid a compensation of .23 billion taels of silver. The lesson learned this time was too painful, which caused the entire Qing government to fall into a tragedy panic. Many people even doubted that they were just dreaming, because in their own impressions, China had never lost in the war between China and Japan, and China was still such a big country, while Japan was a country with such a small territory. How could China lose? This is simply a strange thing that shocked people all over the world.
Many people do not know the details of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894. They even speculate that it was definitely not fought by the Japanese themselves. Many people wonder whether the British and French forces came to burn the Old Summer Palace in the name of the Japanese. Some people even believe that there were traitors within China who betrayed the Chinese army’s intelligence to the Japanese, which is why the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1899 was so miserably lost. Are these guesses correct? Many ministers and scholar-bureaucrats at the time thought they were right, but it was indeed the Japanese who won the war without the British and French forces following. There were indeed traitors in China, but wasn't the biggest traitor Empress Cixi?
From Western Devils to Japanese Devils
When I was studying Chinese history, when I learned about the Sino-Japanese War , I felt quite angry. Even our history teacher was very angry. More than 1,000 years have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan, and the dissatisfaction and anger in the hearts of the Chinese people have not disappeared. The history and historical figures of that year were probably even more angry than us! We can see that the moods of scholars and today’s scholars are actually the same. When today’s scholars read this period of history, they are a microcosm of the anger of those scholars back then.
The Qing Dynasty shortly after the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 was just in time for the imperial examination. In this imperial examination, many scholars actually knew the news of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. Many of them are no longer in the mood to take exams. Many scholars in the capital gathered together to petition, led by Kang Youwei and others. They hoped that Emperor Guangxu could cheer up, that Emperor Guangxu could move the capital to fight a protracted war with the Japanese, that Emperor Guangxu would not sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and that Emperor Guangxu would change China's current situation through reforms. The of the late Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were invaded many times by foreign powers. China failed many times under this invasion, but there were still many scholar-bureaucrats who insisted on the general concept of trusting Chinese learning as body and Western learning for application. This concept caused many Chinese people to believe that Westerners only won in terms of weapons. But after losing the same war with the Japanese in the Eastern countries, this concept changed. The awakening after the Sino-Japanese War The disastrous defeat The first failure on the Korean Peninsula caused the Qing Dynasty's closest vassal state, Korea, to be seized by the Japanese. The second failure caused the direct loss of sea control in China's internal sea Bohai Sea . The third failure caused the Japanese to start landing from Lushun on the Liaodong Peninsula . After they landed, they began to massacre Chinese civilians, which shocked the entire capital area. When they failed for the fourth time, the Beiyang Navy was completely destroyed. The modern navy that the Chinese had worked hard to build for thirty years was gone. Many people do not know the details of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894. They even speculate that it was definitely not fought by the Japanese themselves. Many people wonder whether the British and French forces came to burn the Old Summer Palace in the name of the Japanese. Some people even believe that there were traitors within China who betrayed the Chinese army’s intelligence to the Japanese, which is why the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1899 was so miserably lost. Are these guesses correct? Many ministers and scholar-bureaucrats at the time thought they were right, but it was indeed the Japanese who won the war without the British and French forces following. There were indeed traitors in China, but wasn't the biggest traitor Empress Cixi? From Western Devils to Japanese Devils The Qing Dynasty shortly after the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 was just in time for the imperial examination. In this imperial examination, many scholars actually knew the news of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. Many of them are no longer in the mood to take exams. Many scholars in the capital gathered together to petition, led by Kang Youwei and others. They hoped that Emperor Guangxu could cheer up, that Emperor Guangxu could move the capital to fight a protracted war with the Japanese, that Emperor Guangxu would not sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and that Emperor Guangxu would change China's current situation through reforms. In addition, after these foreigners came to China, they did evil and bullied the Chinese people everywhere with their advanced weapons. Therefore, the Chinese people dared not speak out against these foreigners at that time. Because the Qing government could not protect its own people and had actually become a foreign court after the failure of the two Opium Wars, the Chinese people secretly and angrily called these Europeans "Western devils." But after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, this title fell on the Japanese again. What kind of change does this indicate? From hating Japan to learning about Japan To put it bluntly, not many people in the Qing Dynasty could figure out where Britain and France were, and not many princes and ministers knew how long it took to get from China to Japan. Before the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese had almost no concept of geography and just felt that They believed that China was the center of the world, and believed that foreign countries such as Britain, France, Russia, and Japan were all around China. However, this state of affairs was broken after the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894 and exposure to Western geographical concepts. Everyone knew that there is Europe to the west of Asia, and Britain, France, Russia and other countries are European countries. Because they are located in the west of China, people call it the West. The previous state of the Japanese was actually similar to that of China, even worse than China, because since the Black Ship Incident Americans have hardly regarded Japan as a country, but as a region or a subordinate tribe of China. They are crazy plundering Japan, but Japan has no way to do anything. However, since the Meiji Restoration The Sino-Japanese War was bad, but it was also good. Of course, I don’t need to go into detail about the bad aspects. This is something everyone knows, but the good side is because the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894 inspired the Chinese people to understand themselves. It was also because of the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War that the Chinese people truly realized who I am today. People at that time have particularly painful historical memories of this failure. There are even many documents left behind that say that the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 was divided into four major defeats. So what did these four major defeats look like? In the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Chinese paid a compensation of .23 billion taels of silver. The lesson learned this time was too painful, which caused the entire Qing government to fall into a tragedy panic. Many people even doubted that they were just dreaming, because in their own impressions, China had never lost in the war between China and Japan, and China was still such a big country, while Japan was a country with such a small territory. How could China lose? This is simply a strange thing that shocked people all over the world. When I was studying Chinese history, when I learned about the Sino-Japanese War , I felt quite angry. Even our history teacher was very angry. More than 1,000 years have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan, and the dissatisfaction and anger in the hearts of the Chinese people have not disappeared. The history and historical figures of that year were probably even more angry than us! We can see that the moods of scholars and today’s scholars are actually the same. When today’s scholars read this period of history, they are a microcosm of the anger of those scholars back then. Because of the resentment of the Chinese people towards the Japanese at that time, because of the huge humiliation that the Japanese forcibly imposed on the Chinese. Therefore, many Chinese people began to call the Japanese "Japanese devils" after the Sino-Japanese War. Before that, the name "Japanese devils" was actually used to call the British and French people. Since the Opium War, the Chinese have seen many foreigners. Hating Japan is a historical normality. This is a normal emotion of the Chinese people. Because the national wisdom was not developed at that time, many people did not understand the geography of the world. , until after the Opium War and the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895, it became a trend for Chinese people to learn Western knowledge and culture. Many people realized that it would be too late if they didn’t learn. At this time, a large number of world geography, culture and technology books were introduced to China. Although many ordinary people were not reading or literate, there were always literate people who spread these geographical concepts. The Chinese people are a little more familiar with Japan. Many people along the coast have actually been to Japan. There are also many stories among their ancestors about following the Wanli Emperor to aid Korea and fight against Japan. Because the island country of Japan is located between the Pacific Ocean and the East Asian continent, which is on the eastern sea of China. At that time, the people may not know the Pacific Ocean, but they knew that there would be an ocean later, so Japan was listed as the leader of the Oriental countries. In addition, the Japanese caused evil in Lushun and China during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, so the Chinese people began to call the Japanese "Japanese devils" after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.
The Sino-Japanese War inspired national consciousness
A war made all Chinese people wake up, and a war made all Chinese people understand.Even though this war cost .2 billion taels of silver as compensation, it was still worth it. The failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 made the Chinese spontaneously start their own enlightenment movement. In just a few months after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 and the news of the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki spread back to the country, the Chinese people's morale took on a new look. The Chinese people in the past still had dreams of a celestial empire, and they still felt that although they were not number one in the world, they were still the largest empire in East Asia. At that time, most Chinese people from top to bottom were rejecting the West.
But after losing to the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894, people began to pursue Western ideas and culture crazily, and various intellectual and cultural books from the Western world began to be translated. Various schools focusing on the study of Western culture have sprung up in major cities in China. After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, many people in China felt that the imperial examinations that had been used for thousands of years could no longer select talents. The loss of Chinese-style talents to Japanese and Western-style talents during the Sino-Japanese War showed that there was a big problem with Chinese education at that time.
Because the cultural gap between China and the West is so big, and the Chinese have been accustomed to being self-centered for thousands of years, there were very few people in Chinese society who could learn both Chinese and Western knowledge. It took too long for them to be able to translate Western social science works, ranging from a few months to several years for proofreading. Therefore, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, although there were many more Chinese people who wanted to read foreign books and learn Western ideas, these books and materials could not be found in civil society. At this time, because there is such a demand, everyone is constantly exploring.
After exploring, I found that the country with these books and materials is actually Japan, which just defeated China, but the Japanese are a country that hates China! Could the patriots of that era really stoop down and go to Japan to learn these Western thoughts and cultures? Those of us who are lucky enough to live in future generations can clearly know that this is indeed the case. Faced with national hatred and the country's future, countless Chinese people with lofty ideals have chosen the latter. Even though they carry a huge hatred for Japan, they still maintain a humble and respectful attitude and go to Japan to study and learn their strategies to save the country. If not, where will China go in the future?
Conclusion
We have always liked to say that the Japanese are a nation that is good at learning. But in fact, the nation that is best at learning is ourselves. Throughout its history, China has always been open and inclusive, learning from other countries. However, since the Qing Dynasty in 1644, the mentality that the Chinese people have inherited from ancient times seems to have been slowly eliminated by the ban. A big net of "everything in the heavenly kingdom" woven by the emperor of the Qing Dynasty has enveloped China for 267 years. To regain the national spirit and reshape the Chinese spirit, why not even "use Japan as a teacher"?
Even though this war cost .2 billion taels of silver as compensation, it was still worth it. The failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 made the Chinese spontaneously start their own enlightenment movement. In just a few months after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894 and the news of the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki spread back to the country, the Chinese people's morale took on a new look. The Chinese people in the past still had dreams of a celestial empire, and they still felt that although they were not number one in the world, they were still the largest empire in East Asia. At that time, most Chinese people from top to bottom were rejecting the West.
But after losing to the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894, people began to pursue Western ideas and culture crazily, and various intellectual and cultural books from the Western world began to be translated. Various schools focusing on the study of Western culture have sprung up in major cities in China. After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, many people in China felt that the imperial examinations that had been used for thousands of years could no longer select talents. The loss of Chinese-style talents to Japanese and Western-style talents during the Sino-Japanese War showed that there was a big problem with Chinese education at that time.
Because the cultural gap between China and the West is so big, and the Chinese have been accustomed to being self-centered for thousands of years, there were very few people in Chinese society who could learn both Chinese and Western knowledge. It took too long for them to be able to translate Western social science works, ranging from a few months to several years for proofreading. Therefore, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, although there were many more Chinese people who wanted to read foreign books and learn Western ideas, these books and materials could not be found in civil society. At this time, because there is such a demand, everyone is constantly exploring.
After exploring, I found that the country with these books and materials is actually Japan, which just defeated China, but the Japanese are a country that hates China! Could the patriots of that era really stoop down and go to Japan to learn these Western thoughts and cultures? Those of us who are lucky enough to live in future generations can clearly know that this is indeed the case. Faced with national hatred and the country's future, countless Chinese people with lofty ideals have chosen the latter. Even though they carry a huge hatred for Japan, they still maintain a humble and respectful attitude and go to Japan to study and learn their strategies to save the country. If not, where will China go in the future?
Conclusion
We have always liked to say that the Japanese are a nation that is good at learning. But in fact, the nation that is best at learning is ourselves. Throughout its history, China has always been open and inclusive, learning from other countries. However, since the Qing Dynasty in 1644, the mentality that the Chinese people have inherited from ancient times seems to have been slowly eliminated by the ban. A big net of "everything in the heavenly kingdom" woven by the emperor of the Qing Dynasty has enveloped China for 267 years. To regain the national spirit and reshape the Chinese spirit, why not even "use Japan as a teacher"?
