Chapter 3 The Western "long skills" sent by the first artillery fire

In the thirteenth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1656 A.D.), the Qing government promulgated a sea ban order, announcing that "pian sails are not allowed to enter the sea" and "pian sails are not allowed to go overseas" (Vol. Since the end of Ming Dynasty, the limited cultural exchange activities between China and Western countries.In the era of thousands of sails in Europe, China began a sad retreat. In 1840, the cannons of British warships opened the door to China.Two years later, China and Britain signed the "Nanjing Treaty" that forced China to cede territory and pay compensation, and was forced to open its treaty ports.Why was China defeated? In 1841, Liu Yunke, governor of Zhejiang, concluded: "Its (referring to the British) guns and firearms are all fierce and exquisite, and they must be beyond China." With the gradual understanding of the situation in the West, people began to vaguely realize a new thing, that is, the strength of ships and guns.However, it was not until 20 years after being forced to open the country that the Qing government adopted a policy of learning Western technology aimed at "enriching the country and strengthening the army", so a movement came into being.

It is urgent for China to seek self-improvement.Anyone who understands current affairs should adopt Western learning and make foreign utensils as the way of self-improvement. The door is open, and there are more opportunities to deal with foreigners, but there are very few talents who are proficient in foreign languages.In the tenth year of Xianfeng (AD 1860), the Prime Minister of the Qing government requested the establishment of Tongwen Hall; in the second year of Tongzhi (AD 1863), French and Russian language halls were opened, and the Russian Hall of the Qianlong Cabinet was merged, collectively known as Jingshi Tongwenguan established the first official school in my country to teach foreign languages ​​in this way, with the purpose of cultivating translation talents.Subsequently, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu Province, also requested to set up a Cantonese dialect center in Shanghai in the second year of Tongzhi, to train translation talents in the same way as Tongwen Hall.In the fifth year of Tongzhi (AD 1866), Prince Gong Yixin asked to set up a hall in the Beijing Normal University to teach astronomy and arithmetic.Since then, the students of Tongwenguan have gone from simply learning Western languages ​​to learning Western science as well.The Tongwen Museum and the Guang Dialect Museum were the heralds of the orientation towards Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty.

"If you want to learn from barbarians and adopt barbarians' skills, the best policy is to be selected as Jimin." In order to learn more about the actual situation of the Western powers, the Qing government's Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen sent Zhixian Binchun to lead officials and students to travel abroad in the fifth year of Tongzhi.At that time, Prince Gong Yixin, who was in charge of the Zongli Yamen, and others made a memorial, which is excerpted as follows: Since the exchange of contracts between countries, foreigners have come and gone to China, and they have become more and more familiar with all the conditions in the provinces; however, China has not been fully aware of the conditions of foreign countries, and it is always difficult to handle negotiations.The minister waited for a long time to send people to various countries to explore their pros and cons, in order to get some clues and borrow money to raise funds... This is because the Chief Taxation Department Hede came to the Chen Yamen and talked about Yixian's desire to return to China on leave, as if from the Chen Yamen Send one or two students from the Tongwenguan to go to England with Iraq to see the country's customs and customs. Let the staff member and Yizi write Shi Guangying go with the student and Hart.Even if he pays attention along the way, he will record all the mountains and rivers, customs and customs of the country at any time, and bring them back to China to prove...

As a result, Bin Chun and others became "the first people from the east to the west", which opened the prelude to China's foreign exchanges.In the second year, the Qing government sent Zhang Jing, the Prime Minister of State Affairs, and Dao Zhigang, Hua Ling, the Customs; .These officials who went abroad for inspections really experienced Western culture and education abroad. Their knowledge and reports, such as Binchun's "Chengcha Notes" and Zhigang's "First Envoy to Taixi", etc., attracted the attention of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.Zeng and Li mentioned this in their memorial to the emperor:

Since Binchun, Zhigang, and Sun Jiagu were ordered to travel to various countries twice, they have also seen the essentials of overseas situations, such as maps, algorithms, Buyao, sea surveying, shipbuilding, and tool making, all of which are related to using soldiers. , all Westerners who travel and study in other countries and gain great skills will immediately be extended to the academy and taught by different subjects. It is directly regarded as the study of body, mind and life in military administration and ship administration. They also advocated that "it is advisable to urgently select bright children and bring them to study abroad, with emphasis on strength." This has led to the action of selecting young children to study in the United States.