Chapter 7 Section 3 Give up your life to serve the motherland

This is a poem written by Ma Junwu, a student studying in Germany, which represents the aspirations of the majority of students studying in Europe.These students returned to China one after another after 1880.As young people who have systematically received Western capitalist education, they have become a new generation of intellectuals in China, just like the young children who went to the United States back then.For example, Wei Han, the first batch of students studying in Europe, returned to China to work in the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau. After reading a large number of Chinese and foreign materials on shipbuilding, they studied carefully, tried repeatedly, worked hard for four or five years, and finally designed and manufactured it by themselves. China's largest and newest cruiser at that time, the "Kaiji", shattered the arrogant remarks of foreigners that the Chinese could not master shipbuilding technology in a short period of time.Afterwards, they supervised the construction of Jingqing, Huantai, Guangjia, Pingyuan, Guangyi, Guanggeng, Guangyou and many other ships. Even foreigners have to say: "China is so good at making and driving. Let go and do it yourself." The Qing court also had a similar view on this. Li Hongzhang said in "Playing Out of Foreign Studies and Employment, Please Reward All Members": "The manufacturer can freely make new types of marine engines and things that are needed, and the driver can manage it. Driving an iron-clad warship, dispatching troops, and adding experience should not be borrowed from foreigners. They are manufactured by Wei Han, Chen Zhaoao, Zheng Qinglian, and Lin Yiyou, mined and smelted by Luo Zhenlu and Lin Qingsheng, and piloted by Liu Buchan, Lin Taizeng, Jiang Chaoying, Fang Boqian, and Sa The ice is quite excellent. The rest can be made into pottery if melted in pottery."

These young people who stayed in Europe have both modern science and technology and theories, as well as noble patriotism. They hope that China can be independent, prosperous, democratic and free like Western countries;They were the key figures in the modernization of the navy in the Qing Dynasty. For example, Lin Taizeng served as the left-wing commander of the Beiyang Navy after returning to China, and Sa Zhenbing was the commander of the navy.The belts of 12 major warships of the Beiyang Navy, such as Lin Taizeng in Zhenyuan, Liu Buchan in Dingyuan, Ye Zugui in Jingyuan, Lin Yongsheng in Jingyuan, Qiu Baoren in Laiyuan, Fang Boqian and Chaoyong in Jiyuan Huang Jianxun, who is in charge, is a student studying in Europe.In the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894, most of them were brave and firm, showing the spirit of patriotism.Jingyuan led Ye Zugui, and after the ship caught fire three times and was shot dozens of times, he still calmly took charge of the battle and directed the attack.Chaoyong Guan led Huang Jianxun to be brave and tenacious in the battle. Unfortunately, the battleship caught fire and almost sank. He led the whole ship to float and sink in the sea and rescued them with long ropes. To no avail, he died with the warship at the age of 43.Jingyuan Guan led Lin Yongsheng to be fearless in the face of danger. He led the officers and soldiers to shoot fiercely at the enemy, and at the same time commanded the personnel to put out the fire from the warship being shot, and rushed to the enemy bravely. Unfortunately, he was shot and died at the age of 42.Dingyuan Guan led Liu Buchan to take command of the injured naval admiral Ding Ruchang not long after the battle started. He arranged the formation skillfully and changed it every moment so that the enemy's artillery fire could not hit the target.At the critical juncture of the fierce battle, he ordered gunnery officers Shen Shoukun (student in Europe) and Xu Zhenpeng (student in the United States) to aim at the No. More than 100 officers and soldiers were killed or injured, and the dead bodies were piled up on the deck.Later, in the battle of Weihaiwei, Liu Buchan was surrounded by the Japanese army on all sides. He would rather die than surrender to the enemy, and committed suicide by taking poison.The heroic and tenacious deeds of the students studying in Europe who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the invasion of foreign enemies have been eulogized from generation to generation and have become a shining example of the Chinese nation in resisting foreign aggression.

Although the main gains from studying in Europe are in the military, the democratic ideas of the Western bourgeoisie have also influenced these students to varying degrees.Among them, Yan Fu, who studied driving skills at the Greenitz Naval Academy in the United Kingdom, is the most famous one.After Yan Fu came to the UK, in addition to studying the compulsory courses in the school such as naval tactics, public law of naval warfare, and gun camps, he also cared about Western philosophy and social theories.He made full use of every opportunity, eagerly absorbing nutrition from the works of some great thinkers in Britain and France.When he returned to China in June 1879, he was not only a top student at the Naval University, but also had a deep understanding of the thoughts and culture of Western capitalist society.After returning to China, he served as the principal of the Beiyang Naval Academy for 20 years. His thoughts have many similarities with those of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.He also emphasized that in order to save the country through self-improvement, it is necessary to encourage people's strength, open up people's wisdom, and renew people's morality.Encouraging the people's power means strengthening the people's physique, mainly prohibiting opium and footbinding; enlightening the people's wisdom is promoting the people's wisdom, mainly abolishing imperial examinations and stereotyped essays, advocating Western learning, and learning new knowledge; Morality, advocates the implementation of Western "democracy", "freedom", "equality" and political systems.He believed that the main measures to be taken were the establishment of the House of Representatives, the abolition of the feudal patriarchal system and ethics.Yan Fu carefully studied and accepted Darwin's theory of evolution, and became the first believer in the bourgeois theory of evolution in China.His translation of the book "Evolution of Heaven" by the British biologist Huxley shocked the whole country. Taking the opportunity of translating this book, he shouted loudly: As long as China is determined to reform itself, China can still be saved from perishing; , whose fate remains in our own hands. The book "Tianyanlun" became popular in the country at a time when the Chinese nation was in peril. It played the role of a wake-up call and became the theoretical basis for patriots to save the nation and survive.And "natural selection, survival of the fittest" has become the most popular mantra in society.These were all things that the Qing government did not think of when they sent overseas students, but they became the driving force for the development of China's modernization.