Why did the Meiji Restoration in Japan succeed?

Meiji Restoration is an epoch-making event in Japanese history and a successful bourgeois revolution. In addition to the favorable international political and economic conditions at that time, the Meiji Restoration was successful because Japan was a single nation with strong consistency and cultural homogeneity, a tradition of learning from foreign cultures, a unified domestic market, a high literacy rate and an ancient monarchy, that is, traditional authority. These are all important, but not the most important. So what is the most important thing?

The most important factors are the relative maturity of Japanese world outlook and modern consciousness, the role played by samurai and the characteristics of Japanese social structure. First of all, the Japanese people's world outlook and modern consciousness are relatively mature, which is the role of the Enlightenment. This is a key factor. In the process of transforming from tradition to modernity, western Europe was able to successfully carry out social revolution and change because? Third grade? In addition to its rise and function, the key point is that there were Renaissance, Religious Reform and Enlightenment before the reform.

It can be said that when people widely accept a new value and new concept, they will make powerful actions to change society. Similar to the social development in western Europe, before the Meiji Restoration, Japan experienced an enduring enlightenment thought. Although this movement can't compare with the enlightenment thought in western Europe, especially before the French Revolution, it is indeed the key factor for the Japanese to successfully carry out social changes and step into modernization.

Japanese enlightenment thought with modern significance has a long history. It began its initial contact with western civilization in the16th century and reached its peak in the second half of the19th century. The direct contact with westerners, the development of translation, the appearance of Lan Xue, the publication of dictionaries, the establishment of foreign research institutions and the establishment of foreign schools all provide good conditions for the westernization or modernization of the Japanese. At that time, no other country in East Asia could compare with Japan. The above situation has made the Japanese increasingly civilized in thought and gradually gained enlightenment and awakening.

This kind of enlightenment and awakening is manifested in at least three aspects: the first aspect is the change of Japanese geographical view and world view, that is, feeling empty from the center. Before the introduction of modern western ideas, the Japanese world outlook and geographical outlook were also self-centered, that is, central sense. However, Japanese people are not as central as China people? Huayi? This idea is so strong. What do China people call the Japanese? Dongyi? And the Japanese retaliated by saying that China is? Yi Xi? In the eyes of the Japanese, are North Korea, Ryukyu, Southeast Asian countries and western countries the same? Yidi? . At that time, the Japanese vision was only in East Asia.

Later, with the contact with modern western scientific thoughts, the Japanese's geographical view and world outlook gradually changed to modern times and began to get rid of East Asian cultural traditions. They gradually realized that neither China nor Japan is the center of the world, and they no longer called foreigners? Nanyi? Did you call? Red hair? .

The change of geography and world outlook is very important, because it can promote modernization and social change, make people in the traditional environment observe and think about the outside world calmly, rationally, objectively and scientifically, discover the general trend of the development of western countries at that time, and finally strengthen people's determination to learn from the West and make changes. The second aspect is the transformation of cultural values.

After entering the feudal society, Japanese people mainly yearned for China culture in cultural values. It can be said that China culture is the first ideological system of Japanese civilization and enlightenment. Although this cultural element has brought oriental classical civilization to the Japanese nation, it cannot make it step into modern history and make it understand and know the modern world. With the infiltration of western civilization into East Asia, the Japanese began to realize the differences between eastern and western cultures, specifically, the differences between traditional eastern culture and modern western culture, and their values began to change to western and modern. It was medicine that first promoted the transformation of Japanese cultural values, that is, modern western medicine based on anatomy and experiment.

Early Japanese medicine was mainly Chinese medicine and its variants, based on simple dialectics such as medical experience and balance between yin and yang, and its biggest defect was the lack of scientific experiments in the modern sense. At that time, Japanese doctors, like China people, didn't know much about the internal situation of the human body, and even misunderstood it. After western medicine was introduced into Japan, Japanese doctors soon found that the anatomical drawings in western medicine books did not match the records in China's literature, so they became suspicious. Through experiments and dissection, they realized that the theory of western medicine was correct.

The changes in medicine have made Japanese people's thoughts and horizons suddenly clear. They obviously felt the lack of original knowledge and the need to inoculate western civilization on a large scale. The third aspect is the awakening of unified nation and national consciousness. In ancient Japan, after being inoculated with China's bureaucratic civilization, there was a brief period of national unity and absolute monarchy. Due to the gestation of foreign civilization and the immaturity of local conditions, this kind of national unity and absolute monarchy has never been fully developed in Japan.

Since the 9th century, the Japanese people's sense of national unity and centralized state system have fallen asleep. The impact of modern western civilization has put forward such a topic for Japan, that is, Japan must form a political subject that can adapt to and meet this impact. To achieve this, we must achieve national unity and establish a centralized political system.

Under the impact of western civilization, Japanese people with lofty ideals finally passed? Wang Zheng is very retro? Imperialism is by no means a copy of the ancient empire, and certainly it can't be a traditional monarchy, although it is covered with traditional clothes because it is infused with modernity and modern cultural elements. Generally speaking, Japanese people's world outlook and modern consciousness are relatively mature, which is the cornerstone of successful reform. Without this maturity, the reform will not succeed. The second important factor for the success of Meiji Restoration was the role played by samurai. All movements need energy, and the promotion of social revolutionary movements must also gather enough social forces, otherwise it may be abandoned halfway or even reversed.

Young warriors are powerful social forces, military groups, cultural groups and revolutionary forces. As a landlord's armed forces, it was used in feudal China and medieval Europe, and by Japanese feudal warriors? Bushido? They are mentally armed, proud of the war, and dare to commit suicide by cutting their bellies, which makes them develop a particularly strong character. Their soldiers are more professional and effective than the feudal guards in other countries. At the same time, Japanese samurai are a cultural group, and learning literature and martial arts are two major responsibilities of samurai. For a long time, they monopolized Japanese culture, which made them superior to the general feudal guards. In addition, the Japanese samurai is still a revolutionary force.

Due to the financial difficulties of the country, their wages have been greatly reduced. They? Hate the Lord? , produced revolutionary thought, and accepted modern scientific knowledge and bourgeois political thought in Europe at the earliest. They not only have traditional values such as loyalty, due diligence, courage, sense of honor and death, but also have broad vision and great ambition to make Japan a world power.

It is inevitable that the advanced west will defeat the backward east. To break the routine, there must be strong social forces, such as the Japanese bourgeois juvenile samurai. They are literate and able to fight. When the revolution was ripe, they stepped forward, bravely shouldered the leadership responsibility of the revolution and successfully carried out the bourgeois revolution. The third important factor for the success of Meiji Restoration was the structure of Japanese society, that is, the framework of enfeoffment system.

Bian Xiao believes that these three elements are indispensable, which is the driving force of Meiji Restoration in Japan, but he also admires the Japanese's decisiveness and ability to absorb new things.