Chapter 25 Chapter 24 Upsurge of Studying in Japan——Chinese Students Studying in Japan in the Early 20th Century

Sending international students is an important way for cultural exchanges between countries, and these international students can often serve as bridges and backbones for international cultural exchanges.In the ancient Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, groups of Japanese students and monks braved hardships and dangers to study in China.In modern times, the direction of studying abroad between China and Japan has reversed. At the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of Chinese students flocked to Japan to study. At that time, a Japanese scholar Aoyagi Atsuhisa vividly described the grand occasion of "study in Japan": "Students made an appointment with each other to turn right, bid farewell to domestic schools, and bought a boat to go east. Tianjin, south from Shanghai, comes like a tide. Whenever there is a boat going to Japan, we must rush to get on it first, and the boat is full...In short, every second counts, so that we can arrive in Tokyo as soon as possible.” Chinese people flock to Japan to study, most of them are young students , There are also the sons of princes, princes, scholars, serving officials, and even women with bound feet and white-haired old men are not far behind.Some couples go together, some fathers and sons and brothers accompany each other, and there are cases where the whole family and clan study abroad.Foreign students, sent by the government or raised their own funds, traveled eastward one after another, and there was an endless stream.It constitutes a spectacle of staying in Japan that was very prosperous in the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.

Why is there such a huge upsurge of studying in Japan?The most fundamental driving force is the strong desire of Chinese intellectuals who are under serious national crisis to learn from Japan to revitalize China.Especially after China's defeat by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, the majority of Chinese intellectuals saw that Japan had learned from the West after the Meiji Restoration, and had achieved great results in making the country rich and powerful.Therefore, one after another advocated to emulate Japan and save the nation.Going to Japan to study in person, directly understanding the experience of Japan's reform and prosperity, and absorbing the Western culture introduced and digested by Japan, has naturally become the path that many Chinese patriotic young people yearn for.

Secondly, the Qing government’s policy of advocating and encouraging studying in Japan also played an important role in the formation of the upsurge of studying in Japan.Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, strongly advocated studying in Japan as early as 1898. He said: "Going abroad for one year is better than studying Western books for five years", "One year in a foreign school is worse than three years in a Chinese school", "To study abroad The country of China, the West is not as good as the East." In 1903, the Qing government officially issued the "Regulations for Rewarding Graduates of Study Tours": "For those who have graduated from universities and middle schools in Japan, they will also be awarded Jinshi and Juren after passing the examination." In 1905, the Qing government decided to stop the imperial examinations, and studying abroad became knowledge Molecular important way out.The Qing government also encouraged both official expenses and self-funding, which promoted the development of the upsurge of studying in Japan.

Third, the policy of the Japanese government to actively attract Chinese students and the attitude of the Japanese government and the opposition to welcome Chinese students are also important reasons for the upsurge of studying in Japan.The Japanese government believes that absorbing Chinese students can not only strengthen the relationship between the two countries, but also increase Japan's foreign exchange income. More importantly, it can expand its power in China and compete with Tsarist Russia for hegemony in the Far East.At that time, all walks of life in Japan, especially the education sector, attached great importance to the work of accepting Chinese students, and specially set up a group of schools that specially accepted Chinese students, such as Rihua School, Chengcheng School, Hongwen School, Zhenwu School, Dongbin School, and Jingwei School. , Hosei University Law and Politics Accelerated Course, Waseda University Qingguo International Students Department, Chinese Women's International Students Normal Arts and Crafts Accelerated Course affiliated to Shijian Girls' School, etc.In addition, there is another obvious reason. Compared with studying in Europe and the United States, studying in Japan has convenient conditions such as geographical proximity, convenient transportation, cost savings, and similar writing customs.

The first time the Qing government sent students to Japan was in 1896, when Yu Geng, the minister in Japan, selected 13 students from China including Tang Baoe to study in Japan out of the need for embassy work. During the Reform Movement of 1898, the Qing government ordered the provincial governors to send students to study in Japan. By 1899, there were more than 100 students from each province to study in Japan, and most of them studied military affairs in Chengcheng School. In 1903, there were more than 1,300 Chinese students studying in Japan. From 1905 to 1906, Chinese study in Japan reached its climax.Due to factors such as the abolition of the imperial examination system by the Qing government and Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, the number of students studying in Japan soared to more than 8,000, and the boom in studying in Japan reached its peak.The downward trend gradually appeared in the future. There are many reasons. For example, the Japanese government promulgated the "Regulations against Overseas Students", and formulated various restrictions and discriminatory measures against Chinese students, which aroused the resentment of students studying in Japan. Therefore, the stay in Japan program was cancelled. In 1906, the Qing government promulgated regulations on studying abroad, restricting the qualifications of students studying in Japan. Only those who had a high school education and had studied Japanese were allowed to study abroad. Moreover, the dispatch of students for accelerated courses was stopped, which made the enthusiasm for studying in Japan begin to cool down.At the same time, school education in China is gradually becoming popular, and Japanese teachers are also hired to teach in China, so it is not necessary to study abroad for general education.In addition, Japan's education funding has been cut, while European and American countries, especially the United States, have begun to actively recruit Chinese students.Therefore, the number of students studying in Japan dropped to more than 5,000 in 1908-1909, and only about 4,000 in 1910.After the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, many students studying in Japan who cared about the future of the motherland rushed to return to China and plunged into the torrent of revolution. The number of students studying in Japan dropped sharply to just over a thousand.

In the 19th century, almost all the foreign students sent by the Qing government to Europe and the United States studied science, engineering and military affairs. However, Chinese students studying in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century studied a wide range of majors, from politics, literature and history, foreign languages, teachers, military to science and engineering, agricultural medicine, and business. As well as music, art, sports, everything.Moreover, most of them study liberal arts, and among them, political science and law and the army are the most popular.Another feature is that there are many fast-track subjects and general subjects (equivalent to the nature of middle school), but not many actually enter the undergraduate course, and even fewer can graduate from the university.This reflected the trend of the times and social unrest at the time.Most of the students studying in Japan are eager to seek success and return to the country to contribute to the service. In addition, the proportion of self-funded students is high and the mobility is high.There are also a few playboys who come to Japan to study abroad just for gilding and fun.

Chinese students studying in Japan come to Japan, which is undergoing capitalist construction, from the semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, and everything is very fresh.As soon as many students studying in Japan arrive in Japan, they go to bookstores, read newspapers, listen to lectures, and seek new knowledge.The various new knowledge and new ideas that Chinese students studying in Japan come into contact with in Japan encourage them to develop patriotism and democratic revolutionary ideas.What stimulated them even more was the discrimination and humiliation by the Japanese because of the poverty of their motherland.Sometimes students studying in Japan wearing Chinese costumes and long braids walked on the street, and Japanese children followed behind and scolded them.Some students studying in Japan passed by the Shimonoseki Contracting Office or saw the "trophies" of the Sino-Japanese War displayed at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.All these strongly stimulated their national feelings, aroused their patriotic enthusiasm, and made them even more dissatisfied with the corruption and betrayal of the Qing government.Therefore, there was a surge of patriotism among the students studying in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century.With the national crisis and the development of the revolutionary situation in China, coupled with the influence of the bourgeois democratic revolutionary ideology and the education of practical struggle they came into contact with in Japan, many students studying in Japan gradually turned from patriotism and reformation to revolution.They took advantage of the conditions of studying abroad to hold various rallies, organize revolutionary groups, and publish revolutionary publications and books. Tokyo, Japan became an important base for Chinese bourgeois revolutionaries in the early 20th century.The main members and backbone of the Tongmenghui led by Sun Yat-sen were all students studying in Japan.The main confederates of the Tongmenghui in each province are also mainly students studying in Japan.In the more than 10 armed uprisings held by the Tongmenghui, students studying in Japan participated in or took command of each of them. At the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of students studying in Japan joined the revolution, which strongly promoted the development of the revolutionary situation and made great contributions to the cause of the Chinese bourgeois democratic revolution.

Chinese students studying in Japan also carried out a large number of cultural exchange activities in Japan. Through the establishment of newspapers and magazines, compiling and publishing books, etc., they digested and transformed the bourgeois new ideas, new culture, and new knowledge from the West and Japan. Then it will be widely disseminated to the international student community and domestic educated youth.Due to the large number of students studying in Japan and their great energy, the publications they published were of various types, new contents, and flexible formats, which had an outstanding effect on enlightening people's wisdom and creating revolutionary public opinion at that time, and had a great influence.

The publications run by Chinese students studying in Japan began with "Kaizhilu" and "Compilation of Translated Books", which were first published in the winter of 1900. After 1903, more and more students from various provinces went to Japan, and they organized associations and alumni associations of foreign students in their provinces, and established publications with regional characteristics, such as "Hubei Student Circle", "Zhejiang Tide", "Jiangsu", "Yunnan ", "Sichuan" and so on. After 1906, students studying in Japan reached a climax in running newspapers and periodicals. In addition to political magazines and literary journals promoting the revolution, some professional journals were also published, such as "Music Magazine" and "Journal of Medicine".According to incomplete statistics, at the beginning of the 20th century (1900-1911), there were at least 70 to 80 kinds of publications published by Chinese students studying in Japan.These publications reflected the situation at that time and the pulse of the times, expressed the thoughts and feelings of the students studying in Japan, and also reflected the exchange and integration of Chinese and Japanese cultural thoughts.

The translation of a large number of Japanese books is also a major contribution of Chinese students studying in Japan to Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges in the early 20th century.When they arrived in Japan, they learned Japanese, read a lot of Japanese books, and were eager to introduce new ideas and knowledge to the people of the motherland, so they set off an upsurge of translating Japanese books. In 1900, Jin Bangping, a student studying in Japan, established the Translating Book Collection Agency in Tokyo. A large number of works by scholars on politics, economy, history, law, etc., as well as Chinese translations of Japanese versions of works by famous Western scholars such as Rousseau and Montesquieu.Lu Shifen, a student studying in Japan, and others also founded the Textbook Translation Agency to translate and compile Japanese middle school textbooks for use in new schools in various provinces in China. In 1902, Yang Du and Huang Xing, students studying in Japan in Hunan, organized the Hunan Translation and Translation Society, which published the publication "Yu Xue Yi Bian", and also translated and published various Japanese works, textbooks and teaching reference books for primary and secondary schools. In 1903, Fan Diji, a student studying in Japan, selected and translated the "General Encyclopedia", including more than 100 works on social sciences and natural sciences. In 1904, the "Fujian Society Series" issued by students studying in Japan in Fujian also mainly translated Japanese documents.According to incomplete statistics, in just three years from 1902 to 1904, more than 300 kinds of Japanese documents were translated mainly by students studying in Japan, accounting for more than 60% of the total number of foreign language documents translated in China in that year.

In the early 20th century, Chinese students studying in Japan translated a large number of Japanese books, which not only introduced new knowledge, new culture, and new ideas from Japan and the West, but also promoted the development of Chinese culture, education, and printing and publishing.At the same time, a large number of Japanese vocabulary has been introduced to enrich the Chinese vocabulary.Among them are Japanese transliteration of foreign language Chinese characters such as concrete, club and so on.A large number of phonetic Chinese characters are Japanese free translations of foreign languages, such as publication, atom, philosophy, class, and doctrine.There are also Chinese characters created by the Japanese such as glands and 瓩.According to incomplete statistics, there are at least 800 words imported from Japanese in modern Chinese. In short, at the beginning of the 20th century, there were tens of thousands of people studying in Japan from China.The large number of people, the large scale, the wide range of majors studied, and the frequent activities carried out are also rare in the history of studying abroad in the world. The upsurge of studying in Japan in the early 20th century not only effectively promoted the cultural exchange between China and Japan, but also had a great influence on the modern Chinese revolutionary movement and modernization construction.A large number of famous politicians, military strategists, writers and scholars also emerged.