Chapter 12 2. Teachers from barbarians have good skills but do not control barbarians

If it is said that the first Opium War did not touch China too much, the "two crows" brought infinite pain to the Celestial Dynasty.The capital was attacked by foreigners, and the capital of the empire was occupied by foreigners for the first time in more than three thousand years.After learning from the painful experience, the court decided to change course. Due to differences in how to solve the many domestic crises, whether and how to learn from foreigners, the court officials were divided into two factions: the die-hard faction and the Westernization faction.The Westernization Movement was represented by Yi in the central government and Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong in the local area. They advocated the use of advanced Western technology to maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty, which was the purpose of the Westernization Movement.Both factions want to maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty, but there are differences in how to maintain it.One side advocates that it is enough to maintain it intact, while the other side argues that it should be done.There were three debates between the Westernization faction and the diehards.

The first is the debate between Hua and Yi.The die-hards attack the Westernization School for learning advanced Western technology to change the barbarians into summer, and to destroy China's rule and ethics.China's modern exploration is struggling. Why did Japan succeed so quickly? Regardless of who I learned from, I am still Japanese.In China, people have learned from us for thousands of years. Now we learn from them. After learning, am I still me?The Chinese people have a very strong idea. If you let us learn from foreigners, it will change the summer with the barbarians. If the Chinese all think that the foreigners are advanced, and graduates from Peking University and Tsinghua University go to the United States, isn’t that turning the barbarians into the summer?Of course, this is easy to win, because regardless of whether it is a diehard or a Westernization faction, their purpose is the same, that is, to use foreign guns and artillery to defend our Tao of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou and Confucius, and to defend Confucian civilization.

The second debate is the debate of Taoism.The Tao is the system, and the implement is the technology.Do the Chinese value the system or the technology?Of course it depends on the system.The diehards sang "the way to build a country is to respect etiquette rather than strategy, the fundamental plan lies in people's hearts rather than skills", and advocated "taking loyalty as armor and etiquette as a scull" to resist foreign humiliation.How to resist the foreigners when they come, give him lessons, lecture on the Four Books and Five Classics, and use the scriptures to kill the foreigners. The diehards are all famous Neo Confucianists.The Westernization School said, Great Scholars, you are very good, but "using loyalty as armor and etiquette as a shield is not conducive to self-improvement. In the past 20 or 30 years, because Chinese and foreign officials have not obtained the key to defeating the enemy, they have only used empty words Responsibility has resulted in the Gengshen change."King Gong asked Mr. Woren, the representative of the diehards, if the Gengshen Incident happens next time, and the coalition forces attack Beijing, do you dare to go to the front line to argue with the British, and dare to wear your armor and hold your dry oar To teach someone?If you dare, then the king will obey the order of the great scholar, and Woren was so scared that he did not dare to go to the court for more than 20 days, saying that my ankle was sprained and I could not walk.

The third debate of righteousness and benefit followed closely.A gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, and a villain is a metaphor for profit. This is how Wang Anshi was attacked. He was building factories and railroads all day long, so he was just a bunch of villains.In the end, the court understood, and the empress dowager also understood, just shouting slogans there, can the money in the treasury grow by itself?Through this debate, the Westernization Movement basically defeated the power of the diehards, and the Westernization Movement rose and developed. The Zongli Yamen was the central agency for promoting the Westernization Movement, but the forces of the Westernization School were mainly governors and governors, who held real local power.Zeng Guofan, governor of Liangjiang, moved to Zhili. He was the governor of Zhili. His official title was governor of Zhili and other local admirals. military and civilian affairs.And because Zhili Province is located in an important place in Gyeonggi, the governor of Zhili is known as the head of the border ministers.As soon as Zeng Guofan left, Li Hongzhang made up for it, so Li Hongzhang was also the governor of Liangjiang and moved to Zhili.

After the mid-Qing Dynasty, eight governors were established for local officials: Zhili, Liangjiang, Shaanxi-Gansu, Fujian and Zhejiang, Lianghu (that is, Huguang), Liangguang, Sichuan, and Yunnan-Guizhou.There are also three governors of Water Transport, Donghe and Nanhe.Liangjiang is the most affluent place, and the three provinces of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Anhui also have large territories.Zuo Zongtang moved from Fujian, Zhejiang to Shaanxi and Gansu, and Zhang Zhidong moved from Guangdong to Huguang. Basically, four of the eight local governors in the Qing Dynasty accounted for it. Zhang Zhidong was the governor of Huguang for more than 30 years.In the Qing Dynasty, the governor was the most senior local governor, with jurisdiction over one or two or three provinces, and also the title of Yushi Youdu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and he was the second rank; he was added with the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, and he was the first rank.

When Zeng Guofan was in crisis, he maintained the rule of the Qing Dynasty and the old culture.Although he did not personally participate in the war with the British and French allied forces, the influence of Westerners penetrated deep into the Yangtze River. Zeng Guofan, who fought along the Yangtze River, knew well that the old culture could not save China.Zeng Guofan paid attention to naval forces, and believed that superiority on water can also determine superiority on land. Western weapons and military training methods are superior to ours, so he advocated self-improvement, buying Western ships and guns, and using barbarian weapons to control barbarians.

Later China realized that the barbarians could not be controlled, and that it would be good not to be ruled by the barbarians, only self-improvement.Yi’s foreign guns and artillery were too powerful. Therefore, in the early stage of the Westernization Movement, “self-improvement” was used as the banner to establish modern military industries. The more important ones were Zeng Guofan’s Anqingnei Ordnance Institute, Li Hongzhang’s Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Zuo Zongtang’s Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and Chonghou Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.Through the Westernization Movement, it took the army of the Qing Dynasty more than 20 years to complete the transition from cold weapons to gunpowder weapons, which took 500 years for the armies of Western countries.

The Westernization Movement played a considerable role. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was pacified and Nanjing was recovered in 1864, the Hunan Army still shot arrows. When the Sino-French War broke out in 1884, the Qing army had already opened fire.By the time of the Sino-Japanese War, the equipment level of the Chinese army was ahead of the Japanese army, and it was a matter of cowarding soldiers and generals, not equipment.When it was shown in a TV series, it was the Revolution of 1911, and the Qing soldiers even raised two bronze hammers.In fact, the equipment level of the Qing army is not much worse than that of the great powers, especially light weapons.Maybe machine guns and cannons are not good, guns are all right, and of course they play a certain role in defending the country.

In the later stage of the Westernization Movement, in order to solve the difficulties in military industry funds and fuel transportation, they played the banner of "seeking wealth" and built modern civilian industries-Li Hongzhang's Shanghai Shipping Merchants, Tianjin's Kaiping Coal Mine, Zhang Zhidong's Hanyang Iron Works And Hubei weaving layout.During the period of the Republic of China, the largest arsenal was in Hanyang, so the guns used by soldiers at that time were called Hanyang-made, which were actually imitated German Mauser guns. Why was it made in Hanyang? Hanyang has the largest arsenal. Why is the arsenal in Hanyang, because Hanyang has an iron factory? .

The Westernization Group also planned coastal defense. After the establishment of the three naval fleets of Beiyang, Nanyang, and Fujian, a naval office was established. What China suffered from several defeats was the loss of the sea without defense. The sea is not like the land. The sea is connected, and it can come from anywhere.During Zeng Guofan's tenure as governor of Liangjiang, he recommended Li Hongzhang to practice Huai army in Shanghai.Li Hongzhang put forward the idea of ​​setting up a special coastal defense. After 1875, the imperial court appointed Li Hongzhang, Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, to establish the Beiyang Navy.

In 1875, Li Hongzhang ordered four gunboats in England through Hurd, the chief tax officer, and began the history of the Qing Dynasty's navy purchasing warships from abroad. Soon, the cruiser was ordered from the United Kingdom to show off its power and bravery. Because he was dissatisfied with the warships ordered in the UK, after repeated comparisons, Li Hongzhang ordered the ironclad ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan from the German shipyard. In 1881, Li Hongzhang successively chose to build naval bases in Lushun and Weihai. In 1885, the Navy Yamen was established, and Li Hongzhang sent his ministers abroad to order the cruisers Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan and Laiyuan respectively to Britain and Germany. On December 17, 1888, the Beiyang Navy officially announced its establishment and promulgated and implemented the "Regulations of the Beiyang Navy" on the same day.Since then, modern China has formally possessed a naval fleet that was the ninth largest in the world and the largest in Asia at that time.At that time, the U.S. Navy was the twelfth in the world, and the Chinese Beiyang Navy was the ninth in the world, not counting the Nanyang and Fujian Navy. The Westernization Movement also established new schools to train talents. From 1872 to 1875, the government sent 30 young children to study in the United States every year, and they would stay in the United States for many years. Moreover, these children lived and died according to their own destiny, and those who went there were all poor children.Who would dare to go there for a rich kid?Unlike today, all the rich kids go there. Rich kids take the imperial examination and become officials. Why go to the United States if they have nothing to do?No one wants to go abroad.At that time, when it was said that going abroad was going to foreign barbarians, maybe the people there would eat them up, and no one dared to go.So only these people go to the United States. When they go to the United States, they go in robes and jackets with big braids. When they come back, they are all dressed in suits and leather shoes. They have to be careful when kowtowing to Li Zhongtang, because the braids are fake. Don’t lose them when you kowtow. It's a pity that very few of these people have learned, probably only the first batch of young children have learned. You think this group of people will come to the United States, and they will know what is good after seeing it. Democracy and freedom are much stronger than this autocracy. It is embarrassing to see the president there by his first name, but here we have to kneel when we see the emperor.It turns out that our Chinese envoys stationed abroad, when new envoys come and old envoys want to return to the country, they have to go to the pier to meet them. When the new envoys read out the imperial edict, all the staff of the embassy knelt there. When receiving the imperial edict, foreigners just watched They looked around like monkeys, what's going on, this thing is so fun, they lie there on all fours, and only go to the embassy after reading the imperial decree.Later, the Chinese also felt that this was too harmful to the country, so they invited the imperial court, and the imperial court approved it. The ceremony will be held in the embassy, ​​so let's not show our eyes on the pier.Because China must be somewhere, on the pier, when the imperial envoy comes, you have to go to the pier, you have to go to the city to meet him, and you have to proclaim the imperial decree there, you have to kneel, you can't go back to the Yamen to kneel catch.After the minister's wife finished binding her little feet, and dried the white cloth that bound her feet, the foreigners thought that China was in mourning and that the emperor was dead, so they all came to offer their condolences. When they were shocked to hear that the great emperor passed away, we all came to mourn.The Chinese are stupid, there is no such thing.The man said, why are you hanging white cloth? It’s a foot-binding cloth. Foreigners don’t know how to wrap their feet properly. Therefore, when many ideas conflict, this group of people is unwilling to accept the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty. The court looked at it. ,broken. So an edict was issued to recall the young children who went abroad that year.Quite a few children came back without finishing their studies, some went to college, and some didn't come back, and ran away under the cover of his foster family.CCTV filmed a five-episode documentary. Several young children ran away, married locals, and interviewed his grandson. He was completely white in appearance, and he could only speak English, not a word of Chinese.Those who came back brought back advanced concepts. The Westernization Movement cannot be said to have gone bankrupt, but it just failed to make China prosperous and strong. What is the reason?It means only introducing technology without improving the system.Li Hongzhang sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Yamen: "The system of Chinese cultural relics is far superior to Westerners in everything, and firearms alone cannot match it." Our system is much better than that of foreigners, and firearms alone cannot match it. This one is not good, so " If China wants to strengthen itself, it is better to learn foreign sharp weapons; if it wants to learn foreign sharp weapons, it is better to find the tools to make weapons, and learn from its methods without making the best use of its people.”We only need to learn foreign military technology, and we don't need to learn anything else.We are far above Westerners, so there is no need to learn from them, they should learn from us. And Zheng Guanying thinks: You have to learn from other people's system, learn from other people's style, you can't just ignore it.We believe that Chinese learning is the body, Western learning is the application, and the Chinese body is the Western application.Zheng Guanying clearly pointed out that this should not be done. They "Westerners build a country...Educate talents in the school, discuss politics in the House of Representatives, the monarch and the people are one, the top and bottom are united, pragmatic and guard against falsehood, and make decisions before moving. This is the same. Ships, artillery, Foreign guns, torpedoes, railways, and electric wires have their uses. China left its body and seeks its use, no matter how hard it is to make progress, it is always irrelevant; it makes iron ships line up, and railways extend everywhere, and it is enough to rely on.” ?Your optical foreign guns, artillery, ships and mines can't solve the problem at all.Learning from the West in modern times, Japan learned more thoroughly, including the first "Constitution of the Empire of Japan" in modern Asia in 1888. No matter how conservative it was, it was also the first constitution in modern Asia. Japan was the first in Asia to establish a constitutional monarchy s country. In addition, some in-depth and detailed analysis of the Westernization Movement found that the rise of the Westernization Movement began when there were no internal worries and the large-scale peasant resistance had just been suppressed.Second, there was no foreign aggression, and the big powers were busy consolidating their vested interests, so no major war broke out, and the various forces in China and foreign countries "reconciled" for the time being.At this time, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat were just emerging and relatively weak, so no one resisted the imperial court.As the great powers further put forward new demands for aggression, they will no longer be satisfied with what happened after the two Opium Wars.Although the peasant uprising was suppressed, the peasants will continue to resist in the future, and the bourgeoisie will also rise up to resist as its power grows stronger. Therefore, the internal and external troubles are only temporarily subdued. The Westernization Movement was launched against such a background. Why did a large-scale war break out again by 1894?The great powers are no longer satisfied with their vested interests. They want to carve up the world and export capital, so another war broke out.When the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, this requirement was satisfied, and then there was another 30 years of peace between China and foreign countries. After the "September 18th" Incident and the July 7th Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Little Japan launched a large-scale war of aggression against China.These five large-scale wars of aggression against China in modern Chinese history were divided into three waves.The two Opium Wars were the first wave, the Sino-Japanese War and the Eight-Power Allied Forces were the second wave, and the Japanese invasion of China was the third wave.There are more than 30 years in the middle, giving China a chance to breathe, and China's development is to use these 30 years.Why did you give you a chance to breathe for more than 30 years in the middle?Imperialism is consolidating vested interests.Of course, the War of Resistance Against Japan was very special, because the British and the United States did not need this kind of warfare to invade China, and the European and American powers did not need it. Little Japan could only use this method because of its economic backwardness. Once the world economic crisis broke out, it could not get rid of it. Considering that the benefits obtained in the previous war were no longer satisfied, and new demands for aggression were made, it took almost thirty years.Just like you need time to digest after eating breakfast, you can’t get up in the morning and eat fried dough sticks, pancakes, soy milk, eggs, milk, more than a catty, two catties, you just have such a meal at 8 o’clock, and you have another meal at 9 o’clock, you have to Cried.You have to have a meal at 12 o'clock, roast chicken and goose at 12 o'clock, add a few fish, and a catty of rice goes in again, and you have to come at 6 o'clock in the evening.So the two Opium Wars for foreigners were breakfast, and then they needed to digest. The Sino-Japanese War and the Eight-Power Allied Forces were lunch, and the Anti-Japanese War was dinner.Western countries need time to consolidate their vested interests, and we took advantage of a gap. The Westernization Movement ultimately failed to make China prosperous and strong.The modern industries it founded were mainly government-run, government-supervised and business-run, and government-business joint ventures. They did not have the nature of modern enterprises, or they were not modern enterprises.Modern enterprises are bourgeois enterprises, and they should still be run by businessmen and private individuals.After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the imperial court gave great support to private enterprises, and even the state can give you half-buy half-free land for factories and give them a lot of support. What about us?They are all run by the government, and even suppress the development of private capital, so the bourgeoisie cannot develop.The general office of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is the fifth grade. It is like going to work. The idlers get out of the way and avoid quietly. The factory manager goes to wear Hualing. The workers are not doing well at work and are late. I will give you 50 boards. Secondly, the forces were dispersed and no modern industrial system was formed.The few factories built by the Westernization Movement were concentrated in a few limited places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.If you want to build an arsenal, you must first have a steel factory. If you want to have a steel factory, you must first have the resources to keep up, and there must be coal mines around.If an arsenal is built and the arsenal is built, all the machines are imported from foreign countries. If they don’t sell you the machines, you won’t be able to drive them.There will be a steel factory, and the coal is imported from foreign countries, which is even more ridiculous, so the Westernization Movement did not form a modern industrial system in China. Look at the education established by the Westernization Movement.During the Westernization Movement, the new type of education established only trained some specialized talents, but failed to establish a modern education system.Several batches of young children went out, and more than a hundred of them were recruited back before they finished their studies. Later, some foreign students were sent one after another, for example, to the UK to study the navy, but the problem is that most of the foreign students who just went out What are Chinese scholars still doing?The Stereotypes in the Four Books and Five Classics imperial examinations are still doing this.So there is no modern education system. Yan Fu, a well-known figure in modern Chinese history, is the author of the translation of "Tianyanlun".Yan Fu graduated from the Greenwich Naval Academy in the United Kingdom. The Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito was his classmate. Ito Hirobumi came back and became the Prime Minister of Japan.This is not an official, no official and no rank, why can't Yan Fu be an official?Education is not enough, why is education not enough?Some international students have PhDs from the United States. That’s nonsense. Are you a Jinshi in China? What’s the use of a doctor?So this group of overseas students can only do things and not be officials when they come back. Those who come back have to hold up the Four Books and Five Classics, and read and test from the beginning.It is estimated that there are not many who can pass the exam. You think he reads the biography of General Washington in English all day long. Now that the monarch, minister and minister, father and son, there must be resistance.The biggest official may be Tang Shaoyi, who later became Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Qing Dynasty and the first Prime Minister of the Republic of China. At that time, the atmosphere was much more open.The group of people who went out at the beginning couldn't do it, and no one took care of them. That is to say, the industry and education of the Westernization Movement could not solve China's actual problems, and the navy was even more of a facade, a luxury yacht for the empress dowager and prince.You must know that the main role of the navy is to compete with the enemy at sea, and it is useless to hide in the port all day.Of course, the Westernization Movement failed in the end, but it started the modernization of China, introduced technology, cultivated talents, stimulated national capitalism, and resisted foreign economic aggression. After all, when factories in China were set up and domestic products were sold, there were fewer foreign products. .