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.”
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 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 reform. Western forces opened the door to China with strong ships and powerful cannons, allowing the “Big Empire” to be aware of it. Therefore, Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan and other pioneers who “opened their eyes to the world” 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 changeKomiks, there are two key figures who are most capable of determining the course of the ship in the Qing Dynasty: 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.
AnotherOne is Li Hongzhang, the “important official of Zhongxing”. 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.”
SouthCinemaQing DynastyCinemaCinemaCinemaMaintainer Li Hongzhang Data picture
What to learn from the West? Due to repeated failures in foreign wars, leaders of the Westernization faction such as Li Hongzhang all dream of enriching the country and strengthening the army. Therefore, they proposed to “learn from the barbarians’ skills to control the barbarians” and started from the technical level.
With his efforts, the Westernization Movement was vigorously carried out, and a large number of military and civil industries such as ordnance, shipbuilding, railways, mining, textiles, and telegraphs were quickly created, 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 industrialization. Data picture
It goes without saying that the Westernization Movement has achieved great results. With the help of latecomer advantages, China has achieved tremendous development in economy, science and technology, concepts and other aspects in the short term, quickly laid a certain industrial foundation for traditional agricultural countries and profoundly changed the people’s lives.
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 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 Cinema Cinema Stills
However, it is this superficial effect that covers up the existing problems.
The Westernization Movement, the road to enriching the country and strengthening the army, has great limitations from the beginning. They are positioned at Babaylan “High school is the body, Western learning is the purpose”Babaylan, or Babaylan cannot let go of the superiority of the old empire, and only wants to learn to decorate the storefront, and does not touch on fundamental issues such as the system.
It was a good reference system to learn from Japan, which started learning from the West two years later than the Qing government. Komiks was also learning from the West. Japan carried out the Meiji Restoration, and comprehensively learned from the economy, military to politics, education, and carried out a relatively thorough social improvement to Japan.
So, China-Japan negotiations, Shimonoseki
So, as a “classmate”, China and Japan gradually widened the gap. Japan quickly completed the process of modernization and rose to become a powerful East Asia. The economic and social development momentum of the Qing Dynasty was quickly restricted by the corrupt political system.
The painful lesson came again, and Japan launched the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5894
After the rise, Japan launched the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 The war of href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks 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.
Komiks Sino-Japanese Naval Battle of Sino-Japanese Wu Stills
In modern Chinese history, the second half of the 19th century was a great development opportunity, why did he not grasp it better? Although this was restricted and hindered by conservative forces, Li Hongzhang, who were knowledgeable and worked hard to guide China’s progress, did not strive for updates. The important and more critical reforms of Cinema obviously have the responsibility that cannot be shirked. Based on the current situation, the twists and turns and limitations of China’s exploration of the road to modernization in China are sad. The times have limitations, and individuals have limitations. The late Qing Empire’s domestic and foreign affairs were full of holes, and Li Hongzhang alone sustained the crisis and exhausted his efforts, which was considered to have completed his mission. Cinema 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 and difficulties Data picture
and then followBabaylan The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and 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