Chapter 54 Introduction to Fifty Years of Chinese Evolution (February 1923)

The friends in the declaration office organized the 50th birthday for their "Old Mr. Weng Shen", and asked someone to write a birthday essay with many topics, and assigned this topic to me.Hehe, it just so happens that this "Old Mr. Shen" and I are of the same age, I'm afraid I'm still an older brother who has been around for a few days.So I am a little bit interested in this longevity article. But one thing, we writers are most afraid of people asking me to do it.Because other people's titles may not be consistent with what I want to say.Should I do his questions, or should I speak my words?Just like this topic, the first embarrassment is that the scope is too broad. If I want to write an article worthy of the name, I am afraid that hundreds of thousands of words will be required; Dozens of big essays in the compilation", I handed in a blank paper and finished.The second embarrassment is that the purpose is too narrow and cruel. The topic is fifty years of evolution. May I say that it is evolution?Since it is a birthday celebration article, it is forced to include a certain style of "good praise and good prayer", so it is even more difficult to write.Now that I have been forced to write a fuss under this topic, I have two statements that I must declare first:

First, what I said cannot cover all issues in China, because I do not have the academic ability to observe and criticize each item.If I give a rough idea of ​​how to improve something, this article of mine will definitely become a superficial ink scroll.I advise you, it is better to read the dozens of great articles below.Gentlemen, please don’t misunderstand that this article of mine is a summary of the following dozens of articles. I just wrote down a few things that I felt when I was writing. It is absolutely organized and has no style.To be honest, my article is just a "miscellaneous feeling", not an "introduction".

Second, the topic is about "evolution", so I naturally have to talk about it within the scope of evolution, but I can't if you want me to brag for China.Regarding our dear country, I certainly want to "hide the evil and promote the good", but if there is something wrong with the old man, we should not "hide the disease and avoid medical treatment".So even though I say that he evolves, I often mention the land force that does not evolve. In this way, it is simply "wrong".Okay, just write out the wrong text indiscriminately. two There is one major event, which is the continuous efforts of our ancestors for five thousand years, which has never been interrupted. In the past fifty years, it is still going on violently and has achieved great results.What is it?I named him "The Expansion of the Chinese Nation".It turns out that our Chinese nation was just a few small tribes in the beginning, and we got some bases in Shandong, Henan and other places. Over thousands of years, we slowly grew... long... and grew into a huge clan with no friends to build this great tribe. A mighty country.There are two methods for his growth: first, he assimilated countless foreign races inside and outside the country, and second, people of his own race migrated to the border every year to expand the territory.The history of the past five thousand years has all followed this route, and I don't have to cite many stories to testify.In the past fifty years, there have been a few aspects of this matter that have been very successful. Let me tell you:

1. After the Hongyang Rebellion, there was the Miao Rebellion in the southwest, which spread widely, and it took more than ten years to settle down.This time it was pacified, but it was somewhat of a fundamental solution. From now on, I can guarantee that there will be no such phrase "Miao bandits" in China again.It turns out that my family's case against the Miao people is a big public case since the Yellow Emperor, Yao, and Shun. It has been going on for thousands of years and has not been completely resolved. In these fifty years, the last paragraph of the article about Huangdi's attack on Chiyou was completed. , It is indeed an event worthy of a special book in history.

2. The Revolution of 1911 and the abdication of the Qing Dynasty had a lot of political significance. I will talk about it later, and from the perspective of national expansion, the value is really not small.It turns out that the Donghu people have been messing with us for 1,700 to 800 years. The Xianbei of the Five Hu and Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as Murong Yan, Tuoba Wei, and Yuwen Zhou. , Manchuria ran in and called Qing, and these are all Donghu people.We have had enough of suffering from them, but after running in, generations after generations have been assimilated by us.The group of Manchurians who came last had been divided for the longest time and assimilated the most thoroughly.Manchuria can be regarded as the great summation of the Donghu nation, and it can also be regarded as the end of the Donghu nation.In the past fifty years, the Sinicization of the Manchus has been carried out at full speed. After the revolution, every Manchu has a Chinese surname on their heads. From then on, there will really be no Manchus in the world.This is to integrate all the Donghu people from the past 2,000 years and change the composition of the Chinese nation. This is a major stage in the expansion of the Chinese nation.

3. The development of the inland people to the Northeast and Northwest is also a major cause in the past 50 years.In the three eastern provinces, the Manchurians used to use it as a place to retreat, and they used some blockade methods to prevent the inlanders from colonizing.Since the Sino-Japanese and Japanese-Russian wars, this place has become the zone of the Fourth World War, the transportation agencies have been opened up, and the economic situation has changed drastically.On the one hand, although many rights and interests fall into the hands of others, on the other hand, the density of the relationship between the people inside and outside the Guan has indeed increased compared to before.Looking at the northwest, since Zuo Zongtang opened the government of Gansu and Shanxi, the power of the interior has been expanding there day by day, and Xinjiang was rebuilt as a province during the Guangxu period. Therefore, the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions that have been inseparable from us since the Han Dynasty have been completely incorporated into China. The territory is the same as the mainland.This kind of national expansion is still spreading in all directions day by day.Outer Mongolia, Altai, Qinghai, Chuanbian, etc. are all in the process of progressive activities.

4. The cause of overseas colonization has also developed significantly in the past fifty years.In the former Nanyang area, since the Ming Dynasty, Fujian and Cantonese people have colonized in large numbers. Recently, with the development of European business power, the economic power of our overseas Chinese has also established some foundations.There are also America, Australia, etc., which were unknown to us in the past, but now the overseas Chinese have moved here, but it has become a world problem.All of these things happened in the past fifty years, and they are all a sign of the expansion of our nation.

The expansion of the nation is the most fortunate thing.Therefore, it can be proved that our nation is in the age of youth, not yet an adult, and is still growing there every day.In the past fifty years, he has indeed achieved several unfinished business for thousands of years, which cannot but be said to be a good result of the hard work of the people.Most regrettably, there are several aspects that have completely failed: the first is Taiwan, the second is North Korea, and the third is Annan.In the first half of these fifty years, Taiwan has become a destination for development, just like Xinjiang; in the second half, it was snatched away.Both North Korea and Annan are the foundations of our ancestors who have repeatedly won and lost, and they are completely given away in our hands.Overseas colonization has also been attacked head-on everywhere.We must know that our nation will advance, and other nations will also advance. If we do not make new efforts in the future, I am afraid that we will have to turn around and have no chance to continue to expand.

three In terms of learning and thinking, we cannot help but think that much progress has been made, and indeed a path of great progress has been opened for the future.The biggest key here is the elimination of the imperial examination system.The imperial examination system has a history of more than a thousand years, and it is really deeply rooted.His biggest fault is that he has turned the mentality of scholars across the country into hypocrisy, conventionality, and generalization, and blocked the source of intellectual and ideological development.The movement to abolish the imperial examinations had already begun in the early part of the past fifty years. Guo Songtao, Feng Guifen and others said that they devoted all their energy to launching a general attack on the imperial examination system.For about ten years, after several twists and turns, this cultural barrier was finally broken.Today's remnants of the past are very normal, but from the perspective of historians, it cannot be regarded as a major event in fifty years.

What knowledge do we have in the past fifty years that we can present to others?Ashamed to say, it is almost nothing.But the brains of these scholars have really changed.I remember that in the second year of Guangxu, Guo Songtao, a British minister who was sent to the United Kingdom, wrote a travelogue. There is a paragraph in it, which roughly says: "The barbarians today are different from the past. They also have a civilization of two thousand years." Oh, it's amazing, The spread of this book to Beijing aroused the public indignation of the scholar-bureaucrats of the Manchu Dynasty. Everyone reviled and participated in it every day.Once upon a time, the phrase "New Culture Movement" has become the catchphrase of the general reading society.Marx almost competed with Confucius, and Ibsen almost overthrew Qu Yuan.Whether this kind of psychology is right is another question. In short, the drastic changes in thinking in the past forty years are indeed unprecedented in the past four thousand years.For example, the ideological world used to be a pond of stagnant water. Although there were many duckweed and algae covering the surface, the price did not move all year round. Now there is a phenomenon of "the source of the source is muddling around, day and night".Although the direction and result of his flow are not quite clear yet, no one can but say that he is evolution in terms of his movement from stillness.

There is an old saying that goes well: "Learn and then know what you don't have." In the past fifty years, the Chinese have gradually realized their own deficiencies.The awareness of this idea can be regarded as the cause of the progress of knowledge on the one hand, and the result of the progress of knowledge on the other hand.In the first period, I felt insufficient from the utensils.This feeling started gradually after the Opium War, and during the Tongzhi period borrowed foreign soldiers to quell the civil strife, so Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and his group felt that foreign ships and guns were indeed beyond our reach. , I felt the need to sacrifice myself and follow others, so the Fujian Shipping School, the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau, etc. were gradually established.However, during this period, the ideological circles were rarely affected, and the most memorable of these was the translation of several scientific books in the Manufacturing Bureau.Although these books seem very old and superficial now, some of the translators were quite loyal to learning.In that era, they were able to produce such works, in fact, thanks to him.Because scholars at that time could not speak foreign languages, and those who spoke foreign languages ​​did not read books, so these translated books really paved the way for the second issue of "Western scholars who do not understand foreign languages".In the second period, I feel inadequate from the system.Since the defeat in the war with Japan, those who are interested in the country are really like a thunderbolt in their sleep. Because they thought, why the majestic China has declined to this field, it is because of the bad political system, so they use "reform and reform" as a big banner, When the movement started in society, the vanguards were Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.This group of people has a solid foundation in Chinese knowledge, but they don't know a single word of foreign language.They can't tell people "what foreign learning is and how to study the Fa", but they can only shout loudly every day, saying: "The old things in China are not enough, and foreigners have to learn many advantages." At that time, it had a great effect.Their political campaign was a complete failure, and only the abolition of the imperial examination mentioned above was considered a success.This incident can indeed open up a new situation for the future. Many domestic schools and many foreign students have flourished during this period.The seeds of the new movement in the third period can also be said to have been sown from this period.The most valuable cultural productions in this issue are the several books translated by Yan Fu, which can be regarded as introducing a part of the main ideological trend of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, too few people in the country can appreciate it.In the third period, I feel that there is a fundamental lack of culture.The time elapsed in the second period is relatively long—from the Sino-Japanese War to the six or seven years of the Republic of China.In the middle of about twenty years, although the political world has changed a lot, the ideological circle can only be regarded as the same color.To put it simply, in the past 20 years, I have always felt that our politics, laws, etc. are far inferior to human beings, and I wish to move in other people's organizational forms one by one, thinking that if we can do this, everything will be solved.Nearly ten years after the success of the revolution, everything I hoped for has come to nothing, and I gradually feel a little bit disappointed, thinking that social culture is a complete set, and it is absolutely impossible to use the old mentality to apply the new system, and gradually requires the awareness of the whole personality.Just when the European War came to an end, the global trend of thought has been reinvigorated, and the newly returned overseas students have produced a few characters, and mustered up the courage to carry out the movement of total liberation.So in the last two or three years, a new era has been marked. The progress of thinking in these three periods, if you try to use the figures in the early and late periods as a yardstick to measure him, it becomes clear: the first period, such as Guo Songtao, Zhang Peilun, Zhang Zhidong, etc., can be regarded as very new monsters.By the second period, Song Tao and Pei Lun had died, but Zhidong was still there.In the first half of the second period, Zhidong was still a person who advocated morality, but in the second half, he actually became a representative of old-fashioned thinking.In the second period, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Zhang Binglin, Yan Fu and others were all warriors in the new thought circle, standing in the front row.By the third period, many new youths ran to the front line. These people were squeezed out one after another, and they had even been completely discharged from the army.This metabolic phenomenon can prove that the blood of the ideological world has been circulating very quickly in the past fifty years, and it can prove that the body of the ideological world has gradually become stronger. Comparing the past 50 years with this 50 years, these 50 years are indeed an evolution; comparing our 50 years with those of others, we feel ashamed.Let's see what America has been like in the past fifty years, what has Japan been like in the past fifty years, what has Germany been like in the past fifty years, and what has Russia been like in the past fifty years?Although their political successes and failures are different, and their joys and sorrows are unequal, as for the academic and ideological circles, they are really making rapid progress!It is the old countries such as Britain and France, and which one is not running forward?We have been arguing about new learning for decades. May I ask if there have been one or two inventions in the world that can be regarded as the world, have there been one or two works in the publishing industry that have filled the world?Hey, I have to wait and see how it goes after the third issue. Four "In fifty years, everything else can be called evolution, but politics alone may be completely degenerated." This sentence is said by almost ten thousand people in unison, and even I rarely object.Although, from a fundamental point of view, it can also be said that the most evolved thing in China in the past fifty years is politics. It turns out that politics is created by public opinion, not only "Democracy" politics is built on the consciousness of the majority, that is, dictatorship and oligarchy are also built on the consciousness of the majority.No matter what kind of politics, there must always be the active support of the majority—or at least the negative acquiescence of the majority in order to exist.Therefore, the people's political consciousness is actually the root of political evolution.It is true that China's specific politics in the past fifty years has only degenerated but not evolved, but from the perspective of national consciousness, that consciousness is indeed becoming clearer day by day, and it is expanding and becoming more conscious day by day.What do you feel? First, I feel that anyone who is not Chinese has no right to manage China's affairs. Second, I feel that all Chinese people have the right to manage China's affairs. The first is the spirit of nation-building, and the second is the spirit of democracy.These two spirits were not absent in the past, but the consciousness was often in a sleepy state, hazy, but in the past fifty years—in fact, it has been nearly thirty years—it has clearly manifested.I dare say that since the abdication of Manchuria, if another ethnic group wants to attack the old articles of Wuhu, Yuan Wei, Liao, Jin, Yuan, and Qing to "take control of China".That's something that will never come out.I dare say that the signboard of the Republic of China that has been put up will never be removed for thousands of years from now on, no matter how sage you are like Yao and Shun, as violent as Qin Shihuang and Ming Taizu, as cunning as Cao Cao and Sima Yi, If you want to be the emperor of China, no one will ever agree.Don't underestimate him for this kind of fact, don't say that he has only empty name and no reality.There is a good old saying: "The name is the guest of the truth." If everything can have a "rectification of the name" in the society, then the second step of "responsibility for the truth" will naturally follow.In short, in the past 30 years, our people have done the following things: the first is to eradicate the politics of foreign rule for more than 1,000 years since the Five Husbands of China; Politics is gone forever.Moreover, these two undertakings were not just random coincidences. They were indeed accomplished by the people's fundamental awareness and great efforts.From this point of view, it really deserves the word "evolution". In the ten years since the founding of the Republic of China, the political phenomenon is indeed disgusting, but I don't think there is any need to be disappointed.For it arises from two particular causes, which, however, are about to be eliminated.The first thing is that during the revolution, because the people's own strength is not yet sufficient, they have to rely on their own forces to provide support.This kind of power was originally a wandering soul of the old era.The old era has a history of more than 2,000 years, and his wandering spirit can be regarded as "extracting the essence and using the macro", and it is inevitable to be rampant for a decade or two.Now half of his fortune has passed, and he will soon be completely wiped out. After some time, a new political era will naturally emerge. (If it is not appointed by heart, in fact, it should be the case.) Second, things in society are tense and relaxed, which is the norm.From Jiawu, 1898 to 1911, many people with lofty ideals were really exhausted and exhausted, and there will naturally be a moment of inertia in the middle.It is a pity that many people who fought for the doctrine died at the sacrifice of the times.Those who are newcomers can't catch their breath for a while, so the middle section becomes bleak.But I think this era has also passed. The former guiding figures seem to have passed through a breath, reawakened and struggled again, and the fighting power in the rear is getting stronger day by day.Under this situation, of course, there is a new atmosphere. In short, I am completely optimistic about China's political future.My optimism comes from the pessimism of ordinary people.I feel that China in the past fifty years is just like the era when silkworms turned into moths and snakes shed their shells.Transforming into a moth and shedding its shell is naturally a very difficult and painful thing, but it can be done easily there.As long as he has the ability to change and morph physically, and the awareness that he must change and morph psychologically, then, after going through the inescapable hardships and pains, the future will be another world.So I think the possibility of evolution is the greatest for the politics that everyone thinks is degenerate. Fives In addition, there are quite a lot of various evolutionary situations in society. Unfortunately, my academic ability is too weak, and I can't mention it in a hurry.Fortunately, there are also works by famous experts, which can be brought into full play.Let me just write out my personal "casual feelings" and express my willingness to continue to work hard with our old "Mr. Shen".