What is the Westernization Movement and its historical position?

Westernization movement, also known as self-help movement and self-improvement movement in the late Qing Dynasty. This movement was a "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth" movement launched by the Westernization School in 19 from 1960s to 1990s, which introduced western military equipment, machine production and science and technology to maintain feudal rule. (The slogan in the early stage is "self-improvement" and the slogan in the later stage is "seeking wealth")

Although the Westernization Movement did not make China rich and strong for more than 30 years, it introduced advanced western science and technology, which led to the emergence of the first batch of modern enterprises in China and objectively promoted the emergence and development of Chinese national capitalism.

The fundamental guiding ideology is "self-improvement" and "wealth". Its classification ideas are "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" and "learning from China and using the West". The first four words "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" show the relationship between the Westernization Movement and foreign capitalist aggressors, that is, the way to learn western skills to resist western aggression.

Historical background:

Domestic background

After the failure of the two Opium Wars and the blow of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, some bureaucrats in the Qing Dynasty began to realize the power of the West to build strong ships and guns. In order to relieve domestic troubles and foreign invasion, realize the prosperity of Qiang Bing and maintain the rule of Qing Dynasty, they began to learn western culture and advanced technology, so some people called it Westernization School. Prior to this, some scholars proposed to learn from the advantages of western countries in order to enhance national strength. For example, Wei Yuan advocated "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" in Atlas of the Sea, and Feng Guifen advocated "taking China's ethics as the original, supplemented by the skills of other countries to make it rich and strong" in Anti-Learning.

Shortly after the Second Opium War, the Qing government temporarily filled the stomachs of foreign invaders with territory, sovereignty and a series of economic and trade privileges, and the domestic peasant war also entered a low tide, thus showing a temporary "stable" situation, the so-called "peace between China and foreign countries." However, in the ruling group of the Qing Dynasty, some sober authorities, such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo and Prince Gong, held the central political power and did not reduce their sense of crisis over the rule of the Qing government because of the emergence of this "draw". Zeng, Li, Zuo and others all made great achievements for the demise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They witnessed with their own eyes the great power of foreign invaders to "suppress foreign societies" in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, thus feeling a potential long-term threat. In the face of China's "unprecedented changes for thousands of years", they inherited the idea of "learning from foreigners and mastering foreign skills" put forward by "politicians" such as Wei Yuan, and tried to put this idea into practice. One is to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the other is to revive Xu Tu under the condition of "peace" at home and abroad.

International background

Since13rd century, the world environment has changed. Western capitalism began to sprout. After long-term labor and accumulated experience, farmers and craftsmen improved their production tools and developed agriculture. Machines began to appear in the textile and metallurgical industries. Not only improves the output. It has changed the relationship between people and divided different classes. Driven by the opening of new sea routes, the Renaissance, the Religious Reform Movement, the bourgeois revolution and the industrial revolution, by the time of the Westernization Movement, the capitalist world system had been initially completed, and mankind had entered a new era, which was also the necessity of historical development. The main features of this new period are integration and modernization. Pay attention to a unified world market, and scattered and backward countries will inevitably integrate into the whole. Modernization means that capitalism replaces feudal autocracy, which is a historical necessity. This is also the reason why the Westernization Movement tried to modernize. Under the trend of globalization, China is passively involved. At that time, China did not experience long-term accumulation and bourgeois revolution, but China's Westernization Movement was inseparable from the world trend.

Movement factions:

From the 1950s to the early 1960s, the main contradiction in society was the contradiction between the peasant class and the landlord class. 1864 After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the main social contradiction was the contradiction between the Chinese nation and the imperialist powers. At that time, China began to move towards a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The western bombing opened the door to China, and the great uprising centered on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom impacted the ruins of the Manchu dynasty. It can be said that "internal troubles and foreign invasion" came together, and the Qing ruling group began to divide into die-hards and westernization groups.

the westernization group

In the Westernization Movement, the central representative of the Westernization School was the local representative Aisinggiorro Yixin.

There are Xianghuai Group such as Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Guofan and Zuo, as well as Chonghou, Shen Baozhen, Liu Kunyi, Tang and Zhang Jian. They advocate learning from western sounds, light, electricity, culture, ships, trains, machines, guns, newspapers and schools, under the banner of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth". People think that if China wants to be rich and strong, it must learn from the natural science and even social politics of the western bourgeoisie. Therefore, we advocate the development of "western learning", the promotion of "westernization", the establishment of military factories, the production of new weapons, and the establishment of a new army in order to achieve the goal of "self-improvement." In order to solve the problems of raw materials, capital and transportation of military industry, and then vigorously set up civil industry, mining industry and transportation industry, in order to achieve the purpose of seeking wealth and resisting foreign capitalist aggression and expansion.

diehard

The representatives of the die-hards are the teachers of the Tongzhi Emperor, the ministers of the Ministry of Industry and the university students, such as Woren, Song and Jin. In the central region, mainly some mainland officials. The die-hards, represented by Japanese benevolence and righteousness, sang that "the way to build a country lies in respecting propriety and righteousness rather than Machiavellian, and the fundamental purpose lies in people's hearts rather than technology", and advocated that "loyalty is the armor and propriety is the god" to resist foreign aggression. The Westernization School opposes the old school, thinking that the old school is "very noble and correct", but "taking propriety and righteousness as the backbone and loyalty as the armor is not conducive to self-improvement. In the past two or three decades, Chinese and foreign officials have failed to control the enemy and only used empty words to fill their responsibilities, which led to the changes in Geng Shen. " Westernization and die-hards attacked each other and the struggle was fierce. The Prime Minister's Office is the central organization to promote the Westernization Movement. However, the influence of the Westernization School is mainly not in the central government of the Qing Dynasty, but in the governors and governors who hold local real power. Cixi understood that in order to maintain the dominance of the Qing Dynasty, she had to rely on the powerful Westernization School which was appreciated by foreign invaders. So she temporarily adopted the strategy of supporting Westernization.

process

main course

On the first day of December in the tenth year of Xianfeng (186111), Prince Gong Yixin, together with Gui Liang and Wen Xiang, wrote six articles of association to coordinate foreign affairs and launched a westernization movement aimed at Qiang Bing, a rich country.

186 1 Xin You After the coup, Cixi, who was in conflict with the original conservative forces, stepped into the ruling center. In order to maintain her dominant position, she adopted the policy of fostering the Westernization School. After the Westernization School entered the political stage of the Qing Dynasty, it introduced advanced western science and technology on a large scale and set up modern military and civilian enterprises, and China's modernization movement developed rapidly.

In the early days of the Westernization Movement, the Westernization School established a number of modern military industries under the banner of "self-improvement" and adopted advanced western production technologies. Under the auspices of Li Hongzhang and others, a number of large-scale modern military industries such as Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and Tianjin Machinery Bureau came out one after another. In just a few years, China has possessed the production capacity of various military products such as cast iron, steelmaking and machinery, including new weapons such as cannons, firearms, ammunition, mines and ships, and equipped some troops. They also set up a number of military schools, such as Tianjin Beiyang Naval Academy, Guangzhou Torpedo Academy, Weihai Naval Academy, Nanyang Naval Academy, Lushun Torpedo Academy, Jiangnan Army Academy and Shanghai Artillery Training School, which made important contributions to national defense.

The establishment of Beiyang Navy is one of the highest military achievements of Westernization Movement. Although the Beiyang Navy failed in the end, it was once an advanced military force in China that could deter the ocean, occupying a place in the history of the world navy, and in the process of cultivating the Beiyang Navy, it also promoted the development of a series of modern undertakings.

With the establishment of military industry, the Westernization School realized that the strong national defense foundation lies in the economic development of the whole country, which needs the support of energy, steel and other industries. At the same time, in order to safeguard national interests, we should also develop the national economy and "compete for profits" with foreigners. As a result, they put forward the slogan of seeking wealth, and civil industry and new transportation industry also developed.

In the later period of the Westernization Movement, in order to solve the difficulties of military industry in terms of capital, fuel and transportation, the Westernization School set up many civilian industries under the banner of "seeking wealth". 1872, Li Hongzhang established China Merchants Bureau for Ships in Shanghai. This is the first private enterprise founded by the Westernization School. Only three years after its establishment, China Merchants recovered more than two million silver13 million for the Qing government, and also developed overseas business, breaking the monopoly of foreign shipping companies.

Later, China's modern mining, telegraph, postal service, railway and other industries appeared one after another. During the Westernization Movement, light industry also developed vigorously. From 65438 to 0880, Zuo founded Lanzhou Weaving Bureau, which became the originator of modern textile industry in China. China's modern textile industry, waterworks, power plants, machine reeling, ginning, paper making, printing, pharmacy, glass manufacturing, etc. Both were established in the 1970s and 1980s. Driven by the Westernization Movement, China's civil industry developed rapidly, which laid the foundation for China's modern industry.

timetable

186 1 year, the Anqing ordnance institute founded by Zeng Guofan hired China craftsmen to imitate western-style firearms, which was the earliest modern military industry in China. From 1862, it took three years to develop China's first ship "Huanggu".

186 1 year, the Qing government established the Prime Minister's Office for International Affairs, which was a newly established diplomatic institution of the Qing government.

1862, Shi Jing wentong pavilion was established in Beijing, which was the earliest westernization school in Qing dynasty (1902 was merged into Shi Jing wentong pavilion).

1863, "Guangdong Pavilion" was established in Shanghai; The following year, the "Guangdong Pavilion" was established in Guangzhou. The main purpose of Cantonese Pavilion is to cultivate talents who are proficient in foreign languages.

1865, Jiangnan manufacturing bureau was established in Shanghai with a translation hall; In the same year, Jinling Machinery Manufacturing Bureau was established in Nanjing.

1866, Mawei Shipping Bureau was established in Fuzhou.

1870, the General Bureau of Ordnance Machinery was established in Tianjin (later renamed Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau).

1872, China merchants ship was established in Shanghai; The first batch of overseas students sent by China officials went abroad, and they were selected under the guidance of Yung Wing.

1875, suggesting that all provinces set up foreign schools; Set up the item "westernization and enterprising" in the imperial examination.

1878, Lanzhou Weaving Bureau was established in Lanzhou, which is the earliest machine woolen mill in China.

1880, the machine weaving layout was established in Shanghai, which was the earliest machine cotton textile factory in China. In the same year, Shi Jing Wentong Museum was established in Tianjin to purchase warships; Set up a north-south telegraph office.

188 1 year, Kaiping Mining Bureau was established.

1882, Lushun military port was established.

1885, the Qing government established a new naval yamen; Established the Army Ordnance School in Tianjin.

1890, Hubei Gun Factory was established in Hanyang; Established Hanyeping Coal and Iron Plant in Hubei and Jiangxi.

Final outcome

During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Beiyang Navy was completely annihilated, which marked the complete loss of the strength of the Qing navy and the bankruptcy of the 35-year Westernization Movement.

Guiding ideology:

The most fundamental guiding ideology of Westernization Movement is "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth". ? Its classification ideas are "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" and "learning from China and using the West". The first four words "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" show the relationship between the Westernization Movement and foreign capitalist aggressors, that is, learning western skills to resist western aggression. The last four words, "Chinese style and westernization", show the relationship between the Westernization Movement and China's traditional feudal culture, and show the respective positions of middle school and western learning in the Westernization Movement, that is, middle school is the mainstay and western learning is the supplement. "Learning from foreigners and mastering their skills to control foreigners" and "adapting Chinese style to the west" are also the basic principles of the Westernization School in dealing with the relationship between Chinese and Western nationalities and cultural exchanges between China and the West in the Westernization Movement. In the Westernization Movement, from Feng Guifen's "China ethics as the foundation, supplemented by the skills of making the country rich and strong" to Xue Fucheng's "learning from foreigners and keeping the way of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou and Kong", all served as a theory for the leading thought of the Westernization Movement.

Feng Guifen, a Westernization thinker, first put forward the view that "Chinese style is used in the west". 186 1 in his book "protests in schools", he said: "China's ethics is the original, supplemented by the skills of countries to become rich and strong". He handled the relationship between middle school and western learning with the master-slave relationship of "foundation" and "assistance". Literally, the person who put forward word for word that "middle school is the body and western learning is the use" is Shen, editor of World Bulletin. 1April, 896, he said: "Chinese and western learning arts, each has its own gains and losses. For the sake of Chinese, it is appropriate to take middle school as the body and western learning as the use. "'middle school' and' western learning' were originally put forward as learning." "Chinese style and western style" was originally used by society, political power and rulers. Shen's punishment here is "body" and "use", not as a distinction between ends and means, but only as a priority. This distinction between primary and secondary is "for China people. "It is to develop the Chinese nation, to maintain the excellent cultural tradition of the Chinese nation when learning and introducing western science and technology, and to maintain the characteristics of the Chinese nation in the great cultural exchanges between China and the West. We should not only use China's knowledge, but also put China's knowledge in the main position, and combine western learning with China's national conditions to serve the development of the Chinese nation. Therefore, the slogan "Learning from the Middle School as the Body, Learning from the West for Use" simply reflected the general ideological tendency of China people at that time. It can even be said that this slogan was a patriotic banner when the western capitalist invaders used advanced western learning as a means of aggression against China. So it has been popular in China for decades. Thinkers of the old and new Westernization School are constantly raising this banner and constantly expounding the content of this slogan.

Main signs:

Military aspect: actively establish a new military industry and train the Nanyang navy.

Train the new army and establish three navies: Nanyang, Beiyang and Fujian.

Economy: Establish various civil enterprises such as ships, railways, telegrams, mining and textiles.

Culture: set up new schools, send overseas students and train westernization talents.

Politics: 186 1 year, the Prime Minister's Office was established.

start a business

Character Zeng Guofan Li Hongzhang Left Li Hongzhang Left Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang Zhang Zhidong

industry

Anqing ordnance college

Jiangnan manufacturing bureau

Fuzhou navigational affairs management bureau

Shanghai Shipping Investment Promotion Bureau

Kaiping mining bureau

Lanzhou weaving bureau

Shanghai mechanical weaving layout

Hanyang Iron Works, General Administration of Telegraph

Hubei weaving

official mission

Time186118651866187218761878-1880.

1878

1893 reconstruction

1880 1890 1892

location

Anhui Huai

Ning, and then moved to Nanjing.

Shanghai Fuzhou Shanghai Luanxian Lanzhou Shanghai Tianjin Wuhan Wuhan.

Enterprise nature

(1) Westernization enterprises adopt western technology and equipment for production and belong to modern enterprises. (2) The military industry founded by the Westernization School in the early stage was funded by the Qing government, and the products were distributed to the army. The management mode is feudal yamen. Although these enterprises used machine production, they were essentially feudal official enterprise with capitalist factors. (3) The civil industries founded by the Westernization School in the later period mostly took the form of official supervision, commercial operation and joint venture between officials and businessmen. The products are mainly put on the market as commodities, and the management adopts the labor employment system, so it is essentially a capitalist enterprise with feudal factors.

Create newspapers and periodicals

From the 1970s to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, about 20 modern newspapers and periodicals were run by Japanese people. Except Fuzhou and Xiamen, the rest are mainly in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Hankou.

During the Westernization Movement, the main newspapers and periodicals were Shen Bao and Wan Guo Bao, both of which were founded during this period. ?

Other newspapers include: Collection of Events in Western Countries, 1873, which was first published in April, and Circular Daily hosted by Wang Tao.

Open a new school

1862, Prince Aisingiorro Yixin founded the Shi Jing Wentong Museum for the first time, which opened a chapter in the modernization of education in China.

The main types of new schools established in the Westernization Movement:

(1) Foreign language schools, such as Shi Jing Wentong Museum founded by 1862, and Shanghai Cantonese Museum (added to be a comprehensive school after 1866).

(2) Military schools, such as Fuzhou Ship Administration School and Beiyang Navy School.

(3) Technical schools, such as Shanghai Machinery School and Tianjin Telegraph School.

Characteristics of running a school: Compared with traditional official schools, these new schools have trained a number of new talents, such as translators, military personnel and technical personnel. The teaching content includes western learning, such as western language and western art; Adopt a new teaching organization form, annual curriculum and class teaching system. ]

Students who choose to study abroad

Learning advanced western science and technology to change the backward state of the Qing government was initiated by the Westernization School.

Students studying in the United States

Students studying in the United States

The original purpose. During the Westernization period, studying abroad went through two influential periods: young children studying in the United States and students from Fujian Ship Administration School studying in Europe, that is, 1872- 1875. The Qing government sent four periods of 120 young children studying in the United States; 1877- 1897 four groups of students from Fujian ship administration school went to study in Europe.

On August 1872, 1 1, thirty young children sailed from Shanghai to San Francisco, USA, and began their study abroad for fifteen years. In the history of more than 2,000 years in China, the event of "opening a new era" has been hailed as "the achievement of founding a country, unprecedented". From 65438 to 0877, under the active advocacy of officials such as Shen Baozhen and Li Hongzhang, 33 people selected from the Bureau of Shipping and the School of Shipping Administration embarked on the journey of studying in Europe. 188 1 year, Li Hongzhang advocated that the Maritime Bureau send 10 people to study in Britain, France and Germany. 10 In 886,10 students from Beiyang Navy and other schools went to Europe again.

Translate books

In the 35 years since the Westernization Movement, the development of cultural publishing has reached an unprecedented level. Shi Jing Wentong Pavilion, Shanghai Dialect Pavilion and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau Translation Library were the centers of western translation at that time. The translation of books has gone through the process from pure western scientific and technological works and books to natural science, social science, humanities and other works, and even the latter is slightly dominant.

Shi Jing Wentong Museum has translated 36 books in western languages. Among them, China's first Chinese translation of international law: Wheaton's Law of Nations (1864); The first Chinese translation of Diplomacy: Madden's Club of Stars (1876); The First Chinese Version of Economics: Forsyte's Rich Country Policy (1860). The Translation Hall of Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration is the institution with the largest number of western works and the most outstanding achievements in the late Qing Dynasty. It lists many scholars, translators and some foreign missionaries.

The translation and publication of a large number of western works and the emergence of newspapers and publishing institutions in modern China have broken the barriers between Chinese and western cultures and the ice of traditional culture, and greatly promoted the exchange and integration of Chinese and western cultures.

Establish a telegram

Main line: 1886, the land route from Fengtian to Hunchun due to the needs of border defense in the three northeastern provinces; 1887, due to the breach of the Yellow River in Zhengzhou, the power line from Jining to Kaifeng in Shandong was set up. 1888, the Guangdong official line was built in Nanxiong, and the commercial line went from Jiujiang, Jiangxi to Ganzhou, reaching Yuling and entering Nanxiong, making the official newspaper well informed. 1890 "Xiangfan is the main road leading to several provinces in Beijing, and the border of bei chu is in an emergency", starting from Shashi to Xiangyang, 1893 added Xiangyang-Laohekou line. 1895 connected an electric wire from Xi 'an to Laohekou. "In this way, the northwest electric wire has to be sent by two lines, and there is no danger of blocking."

Branch line: 1884 Add Tianjin-Jingcheng and Shahe-Jiaozhou power lines; 1898 JIAOZHOU-Qingdao power line, Hubei Wuchang-Daye, Daye-Jiujiang line, "Because the poles on the north bank of the upper reaches of Hankou are flooded every year, in order to prevent false positives, the south bank line is added in case of emergency"; 189 1 Xuzhou-Taizhuang line, 1892 Anqing-Luzhou line; 1898 Jinan-Jining Line in Yellow River Disaster Preparedness, Xuzhou-Suqian Line in Canal Disaster Preparedness and so on.

Function: Telegrams are mainly for the needs of business and economic development. In addition, the official lines of northwest, northeast, southwest and north Korea, which account for about 30% of the total, have played an active role in military and economic aspects, just like the commercial bureau lines. ?

railroading

Since Britain built the earliest railway in the world in 1825, its economic, political and military functions have been more and more recognized by people, so European and American countries have followed suit, and railway construction has made great progress in just over ten years. The advanced intellectuals in the late feudal period of China were deeply attracted by the western capitalist world after observing this amazing new thing. For example, Lin Zexu's Records of the Four Seas, Wei Yuan's Records of the Sea Countries and Xu Jishe's A Brief Introduction to the World, all of which have made a preliminary introduction to railways. Hong Rengan, on the other hand, put forward specific suggestions on building railways in China in his book "Senior Minister" in 1859. He said: All provinces in China should have railways, "thinking that there is no disease in the whole country".

As early as the first year of Tongzhi (1862), 27 British and American foreign firms, such as Jardine Matheson and Qicheng, suggested to Li Hongzhang to build a railway from Suzhou to Shanghai, which was rejected. The following year (1863), another British engineer, Stevenson, suggested to the Qing government to build six railway trunk lines, namely Hankou to Shanghai, Hankou to Guangdong, Hankou to Sichuan, Shanghai to Fuzhou, Zhenjiang to Beijing and Guangdong to Yunnan, which were also rejected. In the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865), American businessmen built a railway more than a mile long outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing as a sample, which attracted the attention of Chinese people, but it was demolished by the yamen led by Bujun in a few days. In the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), Jardine Matheson built a railway from Shanghai to Wusong, which aroused unanimous opposition from officials. Finally, under the pretext of crushing a soldier, he bought it for 282 thousand silver and demolished it and threw it into the sea.

Later, due to the increasingly obvious intention of Japanese aggression against China, the 22-mile railway from Tangshan to Xugezhuang was built in the seventh year of Guangxu (188 1), but locomotives were not allowed, and donkeys and horses were used to tow carriages on the railway.

Historical influence:

Although the final result of Westernization Movement was a failure, its influence on modern China was also enormous. ?

(1) Influence on modern military: The Westernization School unanimously advocated learning from foreigners in order to enrich Qiang Bing, resist foreign aggression and save the national crisis. The Westernization Movement began with military self-improvement. In order to achieve military self-improvement, the Westernization School mainly focuses on three aspects: first, establishing a modern military industry; The second is to establish a modern coastal defense navy and improve the weapons, equipment and training of the army; The third is to establish a modern military academy and cultivate new talents in Lu Haijun. Under the auspices of Li Hongzhang and others, a large number of large-scale modern military industries came out one after another. The naval yamen, established in 1885, is in charge of the navy and coastal defense, which promotes the modernization of the navy and national defense. The improvement of the fighting capacity of the Qing army and its resistance to foreign aggression delayed the historical process of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The military self-improvement of the Westernization Movement enabled China's army to invest in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression with modern new weapons and equipment. It started the modernization process of China's army.

(2) Impact on modern economy: In the process of establishing military industry by Westernization Movement, the most difficult problems are capital, raw materials and transportation. Therefore, after establishing a military industry under the slogan of "self-improvement", the Westernization School began to set up civilian enterprises under the slogan of "enriching the country", focusing on a series of projects supporting the military industry, such as mining, smelting, shipping and railways. Under the advocacy of Westernization School, many dignitaries were proud of setting up Westernization, which profoundly shook the concept of "attaching importance to agriculture and neglecting commerce" in China's thousands of years of civilization since Shang Yang's political reform, promoted the development of China's modern economy and capitalism, and significantly increased the capitalist economic components in the social economy, which was of great significance to the birth and development of modern enterprises and national capitalism in China.

(3) Influence on modern politics: The feudalism of the founder of the Westernization Movement led to the failure of the Westernization Movement, which made other people with lofty ideals see the defects of the Westernization Movement in the process of modernization in China and stimulated the process of modernization in China.

(4) Influence on modern culture: Westernization Movement is the beginning of modern education. To carry out the Westernization Movement, it is necessary to have talents who are proficient in Westernization, but the traditional imperial examination system education in China is far from meeting the needs of Westernization sports teams for talents. Therefore, setting up new schools and sending overseas students has become an important measure of the Westernization Movement. Open a new school. From 1960s to 1990s, Westernization School established 24 new schools, which mainly trained new talents in translation, engineering, weapons, communication and medical treatment. Although these schools are small in scale, they still broke the ancient imperial examination system, trained a group of modern scientific and technological intellectuals different from the traditional ones, opened up the social and cultural atmosphere to a certain extent, and laid a certain foundation for the abolition of the imperial examination system in the future. Sending overseas students, in order to learn advanced western science and technology more systematically, Westernization School sent more than 200 overseas students to the west, and trained a large number of new talents with western knowledge for the cause of Westernization. On the one hand, it also greatly promoted the modernization of education in China and prepared the preliminary cultural conditions for the modernization of China society.

Historical evaluation:

nature

Westernization Movement is a self-help movement led by the ruling class of failed feudal landlords. ? Mary Clabaugh Wright, an American sinologist, commented on the "self-improvement" movement at this stage: "Not only a dynasty, but also a civilization seems to have collapsed, but due to the extraordinary efforts of some outstanding people in the 1960s, they finally came back to life and lasted for another 60 years." ?

Characters Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan Zuo Li Hongzhang Zhang Li Hongzhang Hongzhang

Industrial Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration Fuzhou Shipping Bureau Kaiping Mining Bureau Shanghai Weaving Layout Hanyang Iron Works Hubei Weaving Bureau Telegraph General Administration Ship Investment Promotion Bureau

find

time

1865 1866 1876

1878

1893 reconstruction

1890 1892 1880 1872[2 1]?

Positive role and significance

From the early 1960s to the 1990s, there was a brief "reconciliation between China and foreign countries". In order to maintain the feudal rule of the Qing government, some enlightened people in the ruling group took a series of measures to "strengthen themselves" and "seek wealth". Although the purpose is to get rid of "internal troubles and foreign invasion" and maintain feudal rule, this movement is in line with the historical trend. Objectively, it promoted the development of China's productive forces, promoted the emergence and development of Chinese national capitalism, resisted the economic input of foreign capitalism to a certain extent, and promoted the modernization of China's education and national defense. ?

Its significance is manifested in:

1. The Westernization Movement promoted the development of modern productive forces in China and the emergence of Chinese national capitalism.

2. The Westernization School resisted the economic input of foreign capitalism to a certain extent;

3. Westernization Movement opened the gap of feudal education system;

The Westernization Movement promoted the modernization of national defense.

limit

The Westernization Movement did not make China prosperous.

The reasons for the failure of Westernization Movement include the disadvantages of traditional feudal system, lack of complete plan, insufficient understanding of principals, opposition from conservatives, corruption of bureaucratic political style and so on.

In the Westernization Movement, although the Westernization School advertised itself as a "new policy of self-improvement", they were all guardians of feudal traditional thoughts and had no intention of learning the capitalist political and economic system at all. They only advocate learning western technology and strongly oppose any form of feudal thought and system change. They just wandered around the barriers of the feudal kingdom, thinking that they had created something new, so they failed to show "self-improvement" and "revival" in the face of foreign invasion. On the contrary, under the attack of foreign powers' aggressive forces, the "meritorious service" held by feudal ideological defenders soon failed.

Conclusion:

19th century, the world has been in the era of social Darwinism, and the failure of any international or domestic struggle may be regarded as backwardness. The Westernization Movement was also classified into this category because of its defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, but it was only one of a series of "failures" in China's modern history. Although the process of "self-improvement" can be criticized, the structure of traditional China has been broken-the Westernization Movement took the introduction of technology as a means to enrich Qiang Bing; The Reform Movement of 1898 believed that constitutionalism could save the country. During the May 4th Movement, China people realized that the reform should start with ideas. Although no one planned in advance, the advancement of this series of reforms made us feel that history has its own logic.