Li Hongzhang Stills
Text/Yangcheng Evening News Reporter Xia Yang
Since the Opium War in 1840, China has gradually become a semi-colonial feudal semi-colonial society, and the Chinese nation is facing “great changes unseen in three thousand years.”
Although the signing of the Sino-British Nanjing Treaty was deprived of power and humiliating the country, the contradictions between China and foreign countries reached a temporary balance. At this time, China should have learned from the pain and seized the opportunity to work hard. But then we were a series of domestic and foreign wars. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement had not yet subsided, and the Second Opium War broke out again. The British and French coalition forces fought all the way from southern China to Beijing.
Modern China has been repeatedly invaded by foreign enemies Data picture
Faced with internal and external difficulties and national dangers, China is exploring the way to survive reform. Western forces opened the door to China with strong ships and powerful cannons, making the “Big Empire” realize that they were really behind. Therefore, Lin Ze’s pioneering ideas of “opening their eyes to the world” such as Xu and Wei Yuan gradually gained more recognition, and the call for learning from the West has gradually become a social trend.
Learning from the West is the path of modernization in China. However, what to learn and how to learn tests the ruling people at that time.
Empress Dowager Cixi Stills
In this major change, there are two key figures who are most capable of determining the course of the ship in the Qing Dynasty: one is Empress Dowager CixiCinema, she began to rule from behind the scenes in 1861 until her death in 1908. For nearly half a century, she was the master of the Qing Dynasty.
The other Cinema is Li Hongzhang, an important official in ZTE. He rose step by step in the war to wipe out the Taiping Army and the Nian Army in the 1860s, and he held the internal and diplomatic power of the Qing government for a long time until he died of illness in 1901. He was regarded by Japanese Prime Minister Hirofumi Ito as “the only person in the Qing Empire who was capable of competing with the world’s powers” and Empress Dowager Cixi also regarded him as “a person who recreated Xuanhuang.”
SouthBabaylanThe Qing Dynasty’s senior officialsCinema Li Hongzhang Data picture
What to learn from the West? The foreign war was repeatedly defeated, and Li Hongzhang and other leaders of the Westernization faction had a dream of enriching the country and strengthening the army. Therefore, they proposed to “learn from the barbarians’ strengths to control the barbarians” and learn from the technical level. With his efforts, the Westernization Movement was vigorously launched, and quickly created a large number of military and civil industries such as ordnance, shipbuilding, railways, mining, textiles, and telegraphs, and adopted the “official supervision and business” method to attract private capital to run industries.
The Westernization Movement laid a foundation for modern industrial foundations established by Cinema. Data picture
Not disdain, the Westernization Movement has achieved great results. With the help of latecomer advantage, China Komiks has been inThe economy, science and technology, concepts and other aspects have achieved great development, and Babaylan quickly laid a certain industrial foundation for traditional agricultural countries and profoundly changed the lives of people.
In 1888, China’s first modern fleet, the Beiyang Navy, officially formed an army and became the most powerful naval force in Asia. This was the peak period of the Westernization Movement Babaylan, known in history as “Tongguang ZTE”. Undoubtedly, Li Hongzhang is a “minister of Zhongxing”. The whole country was complacent about the achievements of the Westernization Movement and believed that learning from the West had achieved great success.
Beiyang Navy Stills
However, it is this superficial effect that covers up the existing problems.
The CinemaThe CinemaThe road to enriching the country and strengthening the army has great limitations from the beginning. They are positioned as “middle school as the body and Western learning as the purpose”, but they still cannot let go of the superiority of the old empire and are only willing to learn to decorate the storefront, and do not touch on fundamental issues such as the system.
It is a good reference system to start learning from Japan two years later than the Qing government. Also learning from the West, Japan carried out the Meiji Restoration, and comprehensively learned from economy, military to politics, education, etc., and carried out relatively thorough social improvements to Japan.
So, China and Japan, as “classmates”, gradually widened the gap. Japan quickly completed the process of modernization and rose to become a powerful country in East Asia. The economic and social development momentum of the Qing Dynasty was soon restricted by the corrupt political system.
The tragic lesson came again. After Japan’s rise, it launched the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The Beiyang Navy, known as Asia’s number one, was wiped out, which also declared the bankruptcy of the Westernization Movement. From then on, Chinese society fell into deeper darknessKomiks.
ChinaKomiksJapan Sino-Japanese Naval Battle Stills
In modern Chinese history, Komiks in the second half of the 19th century, Komiks was an excellent development opportunity, why didn’t he grasp it better? Although this is restricted and hindered by conservative forces, Li Hongzhang, who are knowledgeable and strive to guide China’s progress, did not strive for more important and more critical reforms, and obviously they have the responsibility that they cannot shirk.
Looking back on history based on the present, the twists and limitations in China’s exploration of the road to modernization are sad.
The times have limitations, and individuals have limitations. The late Qing Empire was in trouble at home and abroad and was full of holes. Li Hongzhang alone survived the crisis and exhausted his efforts, which was considered to have completed his mission. But he did not seize the opportunity to accelerate modernization, and failed to complete the modernization process through peaceful improvement. He finally had some regrets.
ManyCinemaThe disaster-stricken modern China Data picture
After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Chinese nation stumbled into the 20th century. In the following half century, the Chinese people set off a wave of reform and revolution, and continued to explore the path of rejuvenation and power in the midst of war.
Source | Yangcheng Evening News·Editor of Yangcheng School | Xia Yang