/kloc-Before the middle of the 0/9th century, Japan, like China at that time, was an isolated sleeping country in the eyes of western observers. This is because as early as the 6th and 7th century AD, Japanese worshiped China as a teacher and sent many "Sui envoys" and "Tang envoys" to study China culture comprehensively, so that almost all of them inherited China culture. British Lu Se alcock commented: "Japan is really a country. Following the Opium War of 1840, after the British opened the gate of China by force, in 1853, the American "black ship" (warship) also knocked on the door closed by the Japanese shogunate for 2 18, and Japan also faced the fate of being slaughtered by western powers following China. At this time, although the doors of China and Japan were opened, the western powers themselves faced many difficulties, and their invasion and partition of East Asian countries were not ready. That is to say, when China's "Westernization Movement" and Japan's "Meiji Restoration" began, both China and Japan had the opportunity to become East Asian powers in terms of their external environment. However, China's conservative concept of cultural backwardness affected the development direction of China, and the "Westernization Movement" did not touch the fundamental problems of China society; Japanese reformists seized the opportunity in time and chose the decisive "ending", which made Japan "rush out of the most dangerous pass" (Kiyoshi Inoue's Modern History of Japan).
During the Meiji Restoration in Japan from 65438 to 0868, one of the five vows that Emperor Meiji swore to the gods was to "learn from the world", and learning all foreign advanced science and culture became Japan's programmatic national policy. Huang Renyu, a famous scholar, said: "The Japanese nation attaches importance to nature and does not indulge in abstract concepts. In technical work, the Japanese often show their unique ability of intensive research and the characteristics of easy coordination between people. " An example can illustrate this problem well. 1543, a Portuguese merchant ship crashed on a small island in Japan, and the crew on board sold a musket to the local leader at a price of 1200 gold. The Portuguese were ecstatic. However, the Japanese soon learned to make muskets and improve them. By the beginning of the17th century, the price of muskets had dropped to 1.2 gold each. In the book Chrysanthemum and Knife, anthropologist Ruth Benedict described the Japanese character as an elegant and restrained chrysanthemum and a contradictory character as strong and tenacious as a sword. This kind of personality and the multi-ethnic composition system of Yamato nationality make Japan inherit the essence of China culture, but it can better grasp the cultural trend.
Yamato has always been a nation that is good at learning. It is famous not only in the field of science and technology, but also in politics, military affairs, economy, culture, religion and many other fields for learning the advantages of advanced nations. G·C· Allen, a famous economic historian, said: "Japan didn't suddenly (after 1868) acquire such energy and endless ambition that affected the western world. Judging from its entire historical development process, the Japanese have the ability to quickly absorb and digest new ideas and methods, and more importantly, they have the ability to organize and practice boldly. " At this time, it was the golden age of the world industrial revolution, and a new culture of the industrial economy era was gradually taking shape. In the eyes of the Japanese, the Chinese Empire, which had always been regarded as the behemoth of East Asia, was easily defeated by a small group of British expeditions, which greatly stimulated the Japanese. However, the real reason that directly prompted Japan to start the Meiji Restoration, turn its target to a new research object, and declare "leaving Asia and entering Europe" is that the Japanese have a clear understanding of China culture, that is, "flashy, lacking ambition, paying attention to false reputation and ignoring actual results." As a result, when the Beiyang Navy was about to be wiped out by the whole army, the commander of the Japanese Navy, Ito Sukehiro, said in a letter of persuasion to the Beiyang Navy's prefect Ding: "Today's defeat is not the crime of Jun, but also the result of his ignorance."
At that time, the living expenses of Empress Dowager Cixi were 42,000 silver a day. The actual value could buy a Yoshino-class cruiser, and the cost of two months could buy a super capital ship. The Japanese warship Yoshino, which sank the Zhonghua Zhiyuan, was ordered by the Qing government at the Hanover Shipyard in Germany. Later, because the naval military expenses were misappropriated and there was no money to pay, it was purchased by Japan. Therefore, the reason why China failed in the Opium War was not that we were defeated by others, but that we had collapsed from the beginning, because a small court that was greedy for its own pleasure would not care about the interests of the country and the sufferings of the people. During the Meiji Restoration, the awakened Japanese put forward three national policies of "enriching Qiang Bing", "fostering" and "civilization", and began an urgent March to catch up with the West. Japan's amazing ability to learn and copy has been fully demonstrated at this time. Only eight years after the Meiji Restoration, namely 1876, the Japanese "black ship" pried open the North Korean market; 1894 During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the Japanese won a lot of reparations in China. 10 years later, Japan defeated the powerful Russia again. China people, on the other hand, have been adhering to the idea of "learning from the middle school as the body and using western learning for the purpose" of the Westernization School, and think that China's fundamental system and culture are the best, as long as it learns from western science and technology. Therefore, we turned a blind eye to all changes in western society, thus failing again and again, and finally becoming the target of arbitrary slaughter by western powers.
Although the invasion of China by western powers makes people feel sympathy and anger, it is really puzzling that such a big eastern country has no strength to fight back. In the article History of Opium Trade, Marx expressed a kind of confusion about China: "A great empire, which accounts for almost13 of the world's population, ignores the status quo, is content with the status quo, and is artificially isolated from the world, so it tries its best to deceive itself with the illusion that China is perfect. Such an empire is doomed to be defeated in a desperate duel. " In fact, China's sorrow began as early as when Yue Fei, a national hero who resisted gold in the Southern Song Dynasty, was killed on trumped-up charges, and the bloody massacre policy in the early Yuan Dynasty also doomed the complete demise of China's national spirit. Nicholas negroponte, the "father of digitalization", said: "In a sense, the stronger a culture's own strength (whether it is national, institutional, intergenerational or other types of culture), the less likely it is to incubate innovative spirit. Habitual and deep-rooted ideas, widely circulated norms and various standards of behavior are all enemies of new ideas. Any society that is proud of harmony and balance is almost impossible to induce alternative ideas. " The harmony of a system is naturally achieved, and the basis of innovation coordination is the most important content in harmony, which is the value of innovation.
From 1298, when Kyle Polo wrote Travel Notes of Marco Polo in prison, to 1687, when Confucius: China Philosopher edited by four priests, such as Bai Yingli and Yin Duoze, was published in the west, westerners admired and yearned for China culture. However, when Voltaire and other enlighteners regarded China as a romantic ideal and reached the acme, a negative force soon became strong. 1736, Nicola Blanchard pointed out in the book "The Origin of Oriental Autocracy" that China people are stuck in the past, isolated from the world, and practice an ancient, rigid, declining and barbaric autocracy. Subsequently, westerners made a serious analysis of China's economy and culture with their unique vision and standards. Therefore, the invasion of China by westerners is based on the understanding of the cultural essence of China and the disadvantages of China's autocratic system.
However, Japan's performance in modern development is just the opposite of that of China. They advocate "learning from the middle school is for the use, taking western learning as the body", learn from the western cultural structure and scientific education system with an open mind, and then give full play to their creativity and intelligence to carry out transformation. It can be said that before the Meiji Restoration, Japan was almost isolated from the world except following the trend of China, and its development model was different from other capitalist countries. But judging from the strategy adopted by Japan, it is undoubtedly successful. [U] Studying the development law of modern Japan, we find that Japan has always regarded Europe and America as partners, China as competitors and the world as its own market; China, on the other hand, has long regarded itself as a big country, always taking Europe and America as competitors and Japan as partners (never taking Japan as competitors), and developing its own market into the world. The final results of these two completely different development strategies are obviously different. China has been wandering in developing countries for a long time, while Japan has already entered the ranks of developed countries. [/u] Of course, in essence, this kind of innovation in Japan is not entirely due to their own innovation, but because it is faster and more effective to adopt and imitate others' innovations. This difference comes from the understanding of the essence of commercial civilization and the establishment of the core system.
The reason for this development and change between China and China is that the Japanese have always been proud of Japanese culture. Forcing the Japanese to accept western culture is an extremely embarrassing thing. Even the idea of revitalizing the so-called "national studies" is still very popular. Therefore, some people can't simply understand the breadth and depth of western culture. However, it is such amazing Japanese changes that have completely shaken the confidence of China people and finally forced China people to realize the importance of change. It is really impossible for this society to change any more, so the history of modern social changes in China has finally begun. Judging from the development process of Japan, the biggest feature is "seeking change with change" and it has the ability to develop rapidly. The key to Japan's modern economic miracle is that private enterprises have well grasped the essence of "seeking change through change", so they have performed well. Especially in the face of strong competitors, Japanese enterprises can not only quickly absorb the management essence of European and American enterprises, but also create according to their own characteristics, so products made in Japan have more unique advantages than those made in Europe and America. The most prominent feature of Japan's strategic success is its rapid economic development, from a feudal country to a "post-industrialized country". It can be said that Japan is a successful example of Eastern civilization learning from Western civilization. However, due to various historical reasons and historical disputes between China and Japan, we have never really studied and recognized Japan as an example.
The difference between China and China is also reflected in the education system: the Japanese's strategic mistakes and backward consciousness are mainly manifested in the failure to establish an advanced education system that develops synchronously with the world. At the end of 19, Smith once commented on the education in China at that time. He said: "The education in China cannot make the educated become a subject they can understand and use in a certain sense." Facts also show that China's education has not made greater progress so far, because 100 years have passed, from the first Nobel Prize of 190 1 to 2004, among the 672 winners, China scholars are still zero. Reischauer, a famous American expert on Japanese studies, concluded: "In fact, the education system is the main reason that has the greatest influence on Japanese society and enables Japan to grow." As early as before the Meiji Restoration, Japan's education was almost the same as that of the most advanced western countries at that time. Since then, education has been put in the first place. In the first year of Meiji alone, more than 2,400 foreigners from 23 countries were invited to teach western organizational management and production methods.