First, about the Kangxi era.
On the eve of Kangxi's accession to the throne (that is, in the middle of17th century), China and the world were at the critical juncture of the transition between the old and the new, and were experiencing the turmoil of war and change. The British bourgeois revolution, taking the Netherlands as an example, finally sounded the death knell of feudal society, and world history entered the capitalist period. The colonial expansion of European powers soon reached China's immediate neighbors: the Spanish had occupied the Philippines; The Netherlands has taken control of Indonesia, and the striker has arrived in the southwestern vassal state of Japan; Britain, France and Portugal established many colonial strongholds in India and Indochina Peninsula. Portugal and the Netherlands are divided into Macau and Taiwan Province provinces of China; Russian troops have extended to the Heilongjiang River valley in China. This situation was both a challenge and an opportunity for the Qing Dynasty at that time. If we can take advantage of the opportunity of westerners' spreading to the east (shortening the space distance) to facilitate contact and understanding, speed up economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West, step up the study of advanced western science and technology, and boldly carry out social changes, we will take the lead in building a capitalist power in the East when the gap between the East and the West is not too big and the focus of westerners' struggle has not been concentrated in China. Otherwise, it will inevitably become the second Philippines or Indonesia. The external situation urges China to change and strengthen itself. At home, the feudal society has been shaken by the chaos in the late Ming Dynasty, thus paving the way for change.
First of all, the seeds of capitalism appeared in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and were gradually growing in the early years of Kangxi. The performance is as follows: with the further development of handicraft industry and the expansion of production scale, it is common for a workshop to employ hundreds of people; Businessmen are employers all over the country, and large commercial capital groups such as salt merchants, grain merchants, cloth merchants, Shanxi draft merchants and Guangdong exporters have emerged one after another, with millions of capital at every turn; The increase of non-agricultural population makes the urban economy more prosperous; In rural areas, due to the dominant position of farmers in Shunkang period, the personal attachment relationship in rural areas was greatly relaxed compared with that in Ming Dynasty, and the free mobility of employees increased, which may provide more labor for the development of capitalism. It shows that the reform has certain economic conditions.
Secondly, feudal political ideology is also facing unprecedented doubts and challenges. Li Zicheng, who was born with a disability, successfully overthrew Ming Sizong, who was not fatuous. Therefore, orthodoxy, destiny, respect and inferiority, and morality and stupidity are all difficult to explain. Manchu can not only enter the customs as emperor, but also "savagely" China people's clothes and hairstyles, so the theories of "differences between China and foreign countries" and "changing from summer to foreign countries" are self-defeating. Most of the generals of the Ming Dynasty fell to the Qing Dynasty, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Li Yong relied on the soldiers of Dashun Daxi Army who overthrew the Ming Dynasty to deal with the Qing army. Who can distinguish between "official" and "thief"? Manchu and Wu Sangui were sealed by the Ming Dynasty, pretending to avenge the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, they regarded the Ming Dynasty as a bandit and spared no effort to destroy it. Which is the "monarch" and which is the "minister"? Everything is out of order. The dislocation of class relations, ethnic relations and even family relations (there were countless examples of conflicts between father and son, husband and wife, brothers and master and slave at that time, and it was said that the chaos almost swept away feudal ethics, which was not unreasonable) deeply shook the ideological foundation of feudal rule and caused people to have a crisis of faith: Is the feudal order really eternal? What is more reasonable? /kloc-When Li Zhi first opposed Confucianism in the 6th century, few people understood it. At this time, people of insight responded greatly. The ideological circles headed by Gu, Huang Zongxi, Tang Zhen and others set off a movement to openly oppose absolute monarchy. They shouted the slogan of "for all, not for one surname", and advocated that "the people of the world are made by the power of the world", and even called the monarch "the great harm of the world" and said that "since the Qin Dynasty, emperors have been thieves"; Advocate the legitimacy and supervision of public opinion; Advocating local autonomy; Emphasize that industry and commerce are as important as agriculture. In order to "enrich the people", we must develop industry and commerce. Wang Fuzhi and Yan Yuan also claimed that "human desire" and "utility" were justified, and that "justice in nature" meant "keeping friendship for the benefit". It is required to enrich Dajia as "the life of the country" (5) and openly call for power for the bourgeoisie. These "heresies" were unforgivable in the past, but they coincided with the thoughts of European humanism and enlightenment thinkers, indicating that everyone in the early Qing Dynasty-in fact, the earliest reformist thinker in China-had realized the necessity of fundamental and capitalist reform of the old system. Reform has a certain ideological basis.
Thirdly, judging from the social foundation at that time, the chaos in the Ming and Qing Dynasties made people gradually turn to the West for spiritual support. This can be seen from the large number of foreign believers.
In contrast, Louis XIV, the contemporary king of Kangxi in France, is much wiser. At the beginning of Louis XIV's accession to the throne, French industry and commerce lagged far behind Britain and the Netherlands. In order to strengthen competitiveness, Louis XIV carried out bold reforms. He reduced the commodity tax rate, canceled some domestic barriers, provided state subsidies to newly established handicraft workshops, encouraged foreign trade, and supported shipbuilding. The state funded the establishment of many large foreign trade companies, and strived to expand the influence and power of his country overseas, so that the capitalist factors in the French economy developed rapidly and quickly gained a competitive position with Britain.