China was in a transitional period in modern times. From an independent country to a semi-colony (semi-independence) and a colony, it is a downward sinking process; It is an upward development process from feudal society to semi-feudal (semi-capitalism) and then to capitalism. These two processes are contradictory, interrelated and mutually restrictive. Without national independence, real social progress cannot be guaranteed, and without social progress, real national independence cannot be won.
The fundamental force to prevent imperialism from dying in China and promote the social development in China lies in the indomitable and heroic struggle of the people against aggression and oppression. The two national wars against British opium aggression and British-French allied invasion, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's peasant war against the Qing Dynasty were such great people's struggles. The Westernization Movement does not belong to the people's resistance movement. Its historical position and role can never be compared with the great struggle of the people. However, on the other hand, there is a tortuous connection between the Westernization Movement and the people's struggle. The Westernization Movement can be said to be a by-product of the national war and the peasant war. Some people of insight in the feudal ruling class were awakened by the gunfire of the national war, explored the reasons for the victory or defeat of the war, took advantage of the new situation caused by the peasant war, followed the trend of historical development, and gradually moved towards capitalism, secretly or objectively accumulating material strength for China's independence and progress. Therefore, it cannot be completely eliminated by resistance movements that do not belong to the people.
From Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's introduction of foreign guns, imitation warships and "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" to Feng Guifen and Li Hongzhang's "learning from foreigners", "making foreign weapons" and "learning from each other's strengths and relying on them", it is in one continuous line, which clearly shows their clear understanding of "turning foreign countries into summer" in order to resist foreign aggression under the baptism of national wars. Learning from the advanced western capitalism at that time was the fundamental way for modern China to strive for independence and progress.
In the 65438+60s, there was another possible prospect of learning from western capitalism, that is, destroying the rule of the Qing Dynasty through peasant wars. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom won the national victory, it carried out the plan of "Learning from the West" designed by Hong. This prospect may be more brilliant than the Meiji Restoration in Japan. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed after all, and it may not become a reality. A bright future is just a wishful thinking of some historians. The grim historical fact is that the peasant war disrupted the feudal ruling order, overthrew a group of decadent old dignitaries and broke the "family law" of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty. However, it did not overthrow the Qing Dynasty, but only suppressed the peasant war with limited powers in its hands, creating a new situation that enabled Li Hongzhang and others to emerge. These upstarts practiced Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's idea of learning from the West on the ruins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which lasted for decades and formed ". For Li Hongzhang and others, suppressing the peasant war in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is naturally a heinous crime; However, after the suppression, they did not retrogress in an all-round way, but made progress, learning from the west for the sake of the country's prosperity and struggling against the feudal diehard forces at that time in order to learn from the west. What they did at least objectively led to the excavation of the seeds of capitalism. Therefore, the Westernization Movement showed the irreversible trend of social progress in China and reflected the great historical role of the peasant war in twists and turns.
The 200-year-old feudal rule of extreme absolutism and the reactionary policy of shutting the country out seriously hindered the development of China's commodity economy, damaged the growth of capitalist factors, and made history enter modern times without the birth of the bourgeoisie. The task of learning from the west had to be undertaken by the enlightened faction of the landlord class at the initial stage. Since the Westernization Movement is a movement for the landlord class to learn from the West, it must be feudal and conservative. Later, it was summed up as the slogan of "middle school as the body, unified learning for use", which appropriately reflected the guiding ideology of the Westernization Movement. Feudalism is the foundation for the landlord class to settle down. Westernization school has no intention of destroying this foundation, but only wants to graft capitalism on this basis, and its original intention is even to strengthen this foundation. It is simply unreasonable to ask the landlord class not to maintain the feudal system and even to have anti-feudal ideas. As a landlord class, trying to graft capitalism on the basis of feudalism should also be said to be a progressive tendency and an enlightened expression. Therefore, the slogan of "learning from foreigners' skills as the body and learning from foreigners' skills for use" still has its positive significance in the initial stage of western learning. "Middle school as the body" has always been like this. No one objected or raised any objection, and there was no need to emphasize or vigorously defend it. The Westernization School exposed "middle school as the body" only to show that they have not deviated from their original ways. "Western learning serves China" is a new concept with practical significance. It is aimed at the ignorance of the feudal die-hards, who are arrogant and refuse all new foreign knowledge, thus emphasizing the necessity of learning from the West. If the problem is mentioned in a certain historical range, it is not difficult to see that the initial focus of "middle school as the body and western learning as the use" is to advocate and protect the introduction of western learning. Only later, when bourgeois reformists demanded to change feudal absolutism and implement western constitutional monarchy, this slogan was reactionary to resist reform.
The process of Westernization Movement from its occurrence and development to political bankruptcy generally reflects the process of China people learning from the West. China's "control by foreigners" is the result of the failure of foreign wars. Therefore, the first thing that attracts people's attention and is put on the agenda is to learn military-related science and technology from the West. The Westernization School organized new military industries such as shipbuilding and gun-making, and began to change the backward situation of China's army relying solely on primitive weapons such as knives, guns and boats, and trained the first generation of industrial workers and scientific and technological talents in China. Subsequently, the Westernization School further realized that economic strength is the basis of military strength, and "it is necessary to get rich first and then get strong", so learning from western economic facilities was put on the agenda. The first batch of large-scale new industrial, mining and transportation enterprises appeared in ancient China, and capitalism and bourgeoisie began to grow gradually. Then, when people realized that western economic facilities must have corresponding economic and political systems to achieve results, that is, when the bourgeoisie gradually matured politically, the Westernization Movement was on the verge of political bankruptcy. The practice of the Westernization School proved that the seedlings of capitalism could not thrive on the feudal basis, or the seedlings withered or the foundation broke, which was always incomprehensible to the Westernization School with strong feudal colors. Contrary to expectations, it just shows the objective and progressive role of the Westernization Movement in this respect.
Westernization school is not only feudal, but also often has great compromise with the outside world, which is determined by their class attributes. As representatives of the landlord class, they are very weak. Opposition to the broad masses of the people is the root of their weakness. Under the pressure of the autocratic court, which was afraid of losing power, and under the restriction of the intertwined feudal stubborn forces, the Westernization Movement gained considerable momentum and achieved little effect. Li Hongzhang compared Meiji Restoration; "Japan is presided over by its monarch, and its subjects are United, so wealth and talent are endless. One or two foreign ministers in China are holding them, moving into the evening, doing early and rolling late, but they dare not estimate their ultimate status. Therefore, China is "rich in shellfish, but not talented in shellfish, which is not only far worse than western countries, but also worse than Japanese" 1. In the grim situation of the growing disparity between Chinese and foreign forces, Li Hongzhang struggled to support and save the decline, but in view of the heavy resistance inside and outside the court, he lacked confidence and even felt that the future was boundless and full of danger. He described China at that time as a tragic scene that "we are stuck in the same boat, building a building with rotten wood, and we don't know if it capsizes a little", and issued a cry that "East and West countries are becoming stronger and stronger, and China has nothing to rely on". Weakness inevitably leads to compromise. Whenever imperialism runs roughshod over, it has become a feature of Li Hongzhang's foreign policy to do everything possible to avoid meeting foreign soldiers, which has also attracted the name of "traitor". However, compromising to avoid war and trying to resist aggression are not absolutely mutually exclusive. Avoiding war belongs to diplomacy, and trying to resist aggression belongs to internal affairs. The two are not exactly the same thing. The Westernization Movement is an internal affair, and it is obviously of great significance to actively strengthen national defense construction, enhance military strength, engage in economic construction and seek protection of rights and interests. As for the effect, it is restricted by various subjective and objective conditions, and we can't simply judge the advantages and disadvantages by success or failure. Can the failure of Sino-French War and Sino-Japanese War be attributed to the establishment of Westernization Movement? From the Westernization School to the bourgeois reformists and even the bourgeois revolutionaries, there is a wrong understanding, that is, the so-called "whether there are problems is not outside, but inside", thinking that as long as the country is rich and strong, foreign problems can naturally be eliminated, but because of its own weakness, it dare not directly oppose imperialism. The Foreign Declaration of the League publicly stated: "All treaties concluded by China with other countries in the past are still valid"; The vested rights of all outsiders are protected as a whole "(Complete Works of Li Wenzhong? Letters between friends, vol. 12, p. 3). Isn't this the recognition of all unequal treaties and the privilege of foreign powers' aggression in China? Knowing this, we can understand that Li Hongzhang's statement that "treaties between countries are fixed and difficult to change" and "living in today's world and expelling foreigners from Japan" are purely "false". How can we set the requirements of the Westernization School at a height that the bourgeois revolutionaries can't reach?
The Westernization Movement is still in the period of "free" capitalism in the world, the European and American powers have not completely manipulated China's financial and economic lifeline and military and political power, and the bureaucratic comprador bourgeoisie in China has not yet formed. Therefore, it is necessary to further study the westernization school represented by Li Hongzhang as "comprador bureaucracy" and the "government-run commercial enterprises" established during the Westernization Movement as "bureaucratic capital". As for citing some materials after the Sino-Japanese War to prove the comprador nature of the Westernization Movement, if it is definitely a reactionary traitorous movement, it will be even more difficult to be approved. Before the Sino-Japanese War, almost all progressives supported and supported the Westernization Movement. Even if they criticized it, it was a formal discussion. Its purpose is to hope that the Westernization Movement will be better, but most of the opponents are feudal die-hards. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Li Hongzhang, who was in charge of military diplomacy, dared not make peace and was forced to sign the treaty of shimonoseki, which humiliated the country. However, after the Sino-Japanese War, the political reform was notorious. The news is worth considering.
In the early years of Qing Dynasty, the so-called "scholars" represented by Gu, Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi appeared among feudal scholars. In view of the peasant war in the late Ming Dynasty, they summarized the lessons of the Ming Dynasty's national subjugation, criticized the empty talk of Neo-Confucianism, advocated practical learning, reformed the disadvantages of the times, and emphasized the way to enrich the people and strengthen the army. From Kangxi, Yongzheng to Qianlong, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were afraid that this study would be detrimental to Aisingiorro's rule. However, "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world", and China intellectuals have a fine tradition of caring about the fate of the country. Before and after the Opium War, in the face of great historical changes, Lin Zexu, Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan and others inherited the ideas of Gu, Huang and Wang, and attributed their road to becoming rich to learning from the West. After the peasant war in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan, Zuo, Li Hongzhang, etc. Take care of Gu, Huang and Wang, follow Lin, Gong and Wei, carry out the Westernization Movement and practice the method of learning from the West. Although they have such serious weaknesses and limitations and committed such mistakes and even crimes, they are more worthy of sympathy and affirmation than those feudal die-hards who do not do practical things, pay attention to etiquette and justice, are subject to handlers in many ways, and are picky about details. Evaluating historical figures can only be compared with predecessors and contemporaries, otherwise it is not a scientific historical attitude and will inevitably become harsh.
The Westernization Movement is certainly not a successful movement, and history has condemned its failure. First of all, foreign capitalism does not want China to be rich and strong, and it constantly intervenes by political, economic, diplomatic and even military means. However, westernization often succumbs to the pressure of foreign capitalism. Secondly, the feudal die-hard forces were afraid that their foundation and power would be destroyed, and they restrained and hindered them politically, economically and in public opinion, while the Westernization School often struggled against this oppression. Thirdly, the feudal nature of the Westernization Movement stifled the vitality of the Westernization Movement, such as bureaucracy, corruption, extravagance and waste, appointment of private individuals, misappropriation of corporate shares and so on. In this sense, westernized photography is not only the founder of new enterprises, but also the destroyer of these enterprises. The experience and lessons of the failure of Westernization Movement deserve to be summarized and taken as a warning.
In an era of catastrophe of the Chinese nation, in order to prevent China from falling into semi-colony and colony, political representatives of different classes carried out different forms of exploration and struggle. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Revolution of 1911 are the main manifestations of these explorations and struggles. Although these explorations and struggles failed, they all had a beneficial impact on China's social progress to varying degrees. Learning from the West is an important issue facing contemporary China society. Advocating learning from the West or opposing learning from the West has become one of the important touchstones for evaluating historical figures or events in modern China. The Westernization Movement is an inevitable stage for China to learn from the West in modern times, and its historical significance cannot be erased because it is a movement for the landlord class to learn from the West.