Li Hongzhang Stills
Text/Yangcheng Evening News Reporter Xia Yang
Since the Opium War in 1840, China has gradually become a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, and the Chinese nation is facing “great changes unseen in three thousand years.”
The signing of the Sino-British Nanjing TreatyCinema has lost power and humiliated the country, but the contradictions between China and foreign countries have reached a temporary balance. At this time, China should have learned from the pain and seized the opportunity to work hard. But then welcoming a series of domestic and foreign wars. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement had not yet subsided, and the Second Opium War broke out again, and 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 the reform map. 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 Zexu and Wei Yuan and other pioneering ideas of “opening their eyes to the world” have 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 Cinema Stills
In this major change, there are two key figures who stand on the bow of the Qing Dynasty and are the most capable of deciding the course of the big ship: one is Empress Dowager Cixi, who began to rule behind the curtain in 1861 until her death in 1908. For nearly half a century, she was the master of the Qing Dynasty.
The other is Li Hongzhang, the “major official of Zhongxing”. He rose step by step in the war to eliminate the Taiping and Nian Army in the 1860s, and for a long time he controlled the internal and diplomatic power of the Qing government until he died of illness in 1901. He was regarded by Japanese Prime Minister Hirofumi Ito as the “only person in the Qing Dynasty who was capable of competing with the world’s powers” and Empress Dowager Cixi also regarded him as the “recreating Xuanhuang”.
Li Hongzhang, an important official of the late Qing Dynasty, Komiks Cinema Data picture
What to learn from the West? Komiks repeated failures in foreign wars, and leaders of the Westernization faction such as Li Hongzhang all dream of a rich country to strengthen their troops. Therefore, they proposed to “learning the barbarians to defeat the barbarians” and started from the technical level of Cinema. With his efforts, the Westernization Movement was vigorously carried out, and a large number of military and civilian industries were quickly created, including military and civilian industries such as ordnance, shipbuilding, railways, mining, textiles, and telegraphs, and the “official supervision and business” method was adopted to attract private capital to run industries.
The Westernization Movement laid a certain foundation for modern industrial development. Data picture
Not to be ignorantBabaylan said that the Westernization Movement has achieved great results. With the help of latecomer advantages, China’s short-term economic and scientific institutionsTechnological and conceptual development has been made, rapidly laid a certain industrial foundation for traditional agricultural countries and profoundly changed the lives of the 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, known in history as “Tongguang ZTE”. Undoubtedly, Li Hong’s chapter is the “Secretary of ZTE”. 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 Komiks Stills
However, it is this superficial effect that covers the existing problems.
The Westernization Movement, a path to enrich the country and strengthen the army, had 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.
China and JapanBabaylanStill
As a “classmate”, China and Japan 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 painful 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 darkness.
Sino-Japan Naval Battle between China and Japan Stills
In modern Chinese history, the second half of the 19th century was an excellent development opportunity. Why did Babaylan fail to grasp the Cinema 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 cannot shirk responsibility.
Looking back on history, the twists and turns in the exploration of China’s modernization pathKomiks and limitations in the exploration of China’s modernization path, make peopleBabaylan sighed.
The times have limitations, and individuals have limitations. The late Qing Empire was in trouble and full of holes. Li Hongzhang alone sustained the crisis and exhausted his efforts, which was considered to have completed his mission. But he did not seize this opportunity to accelerate modernization and failed to complete the modernization process through peaceful improvement.
Modern China with many disasters Data picture 平台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学台网中国大学�