Chapter 19 Chapter 18 From the Opium War to the Self-Strengthening Movement

Today, with a depth of 150 years, we may have a different view of the series of actions before the Opium War than our predecessors, although the basic facts have not changed.Let me talk about Lin Zexu, the imperial envoy first, he can also be regarded as taking the initiative.He wrote about 20 copies of his letter to Queen Victoria appealing to Britain to stop the opium trade automatically, and would give one copy to any European ship returning west, please deliver it on your behalf.But he didn't take the news that the British will gather ships to go on an expedition to China to heart.He thought that the actions of the British were nothing more than intimidation.On the one hand, he inquired about the Law of Nations (Law of Nations) written by Emeric de Vattel; The provisions, which have been neglected all along, have been carried out vigorously and vigorously, and the literal meaning is not compromised, and the method of implementation is still "collective responsibility".That is to say, when he dealt with criminals, he divided them into categories (for example, treating all British people as a group), only trying to adapt to the convenience of the bureaucratic system, regardless of the inherent fairness of each individual.Charles Elliot certainly has no intention of resolving the dispute peacefully.He persuaded the British merchants to hand over the opium to him, because he was the British business supervisor. After he changed hands, the imperial envoy would be responsible to the Queen of England for confiscating and burning the opium.Since it constituted the basis for the compensation of 6 million silver dollars in the future, it was included as part of the 21 million yuan of post-war compensation Britain requested from China.Emperor Daoguang (real name Yan Ning, 1821-1850) cannot be said to be upright in dealing with issues during his reign.He demands more from his subjects than they can handle.At first he encouraged them to act rashly, and when things went wrong, he did not hesitate to sentence each of them to death, although in general the sentence was traditionally reduced to exile on the frontier.

There is nothing remarkable about the war itself, but this is the first time that the majesty of the "celestial dynasty" has been punctured.Britain sent 4,000 expeditionary troops, and their equipment and training were far superior to those of the Qing army. In early 1840, the government declared war on behalf of Britain.Soon they occupied Dinghai in Zhoushan, blocked the estuary of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, and threatened the capital of China by going northward.The Qing Dynasty may also capitulate at this time.The personnel of the two parties have constituted a temporary agreement, but it was denied by the governments of both parties afterwards.Beijing thinks the concession is too much, Westminster thinks it is not enough.

When fighting resumed in the autumn of 1841, the British occupied Ningbo on the coast of Zhejiang.After reinforcements, the expeditionary force has 10,000 soldiers and 14 steamships.The resistance of the Chinese army at the mouth of the Pearl River and at Zhoushan was heroic but to no avail.The full-scale counterattack was presided over by the nephew of the emperor, but Meng Lang and missteps were added after the failure.Many staff members in his headquarters are all literati and have no military training.Ten days before the counter-offensive, they only hoped that Ningbo would be recovered soon, so they used Lubu, which predicted victory.In order to prepare war expenses, silver cabinets were set up in different places to receive the cash paid by the local governments ordered by the imperial court.A large number of silver coins came in and out of this silver cabinet, but the total number could not be matched.Firearms are made improvised on the battlefield by inexperienced people based on books from 200 years ago.The Chinese fire raft originally hoped to burn the British ships, but was hit by the opponent at a long distance and set on fire.The night attack on Ningbo fell into the trap of the British. In the summer of 1842, organized resistance ended and the British occupied Shanghai and Zhenjiang, the latter near the Grand Canal, especially the north-south channel.A month later, the Treaty of Nanking was signed.

The peace treaty included huge reparations, as mentioned above.China ceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and opened Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Xiamen, and Fuzhou for five-port trade. After that, the tariff rates for import and export were stipulated, and it was decided that the documents between the two countries should be equal in the future.The next year's appendix decided that the tariff rate was roughly 50% of the value, and China recognized extraterritorial jurisdiction. The US consul used it to adjudicate cases related to the British, and granted "most-favored-nation treatment", that is, China made concessions to any other country after that. , the same preference shall automatically be accorded to Great Britain.The Sino-French Treaty and the Sino-US Treaty shortly after the signing of the Nanjing Treaty also included most-favored-nation clauses.

For more than a century, Chinese writers and Western writers have criticized Emperor Daoguang and his officials.Numerous words of condemnation, such as arrogance, irresponsibility, corruption, etc., are piled on their heads.Although no one can defend them and get rid of such bad reputation, but in hindsight today, with the weight of organization and cultural traditions on their heads, it is impossible for anyone else in their position to do so. very different.China is a large group composed of countless villages, and the disadvantages in it are even greater than corruption.Her entire organization simply cannot be managed numerically.If China is allowed to remain closed, she will continue to use spiritual and religious operations to cover up organizational flaws.The imperative to govern with beauty is backed up with an almost religious force.So even in the midst of the crisis, Lin Zexu, the imperial envoy, was still reciting poems and admiring the moon.Traditionally, he is required to keep moral vision in his performances to the emperor and announcements to the people, and this requirement is more important than the truthfulness of the content.But Lin Zexu was not dishonest.In this way, there is indeed an element of self-deception in the public psychology of the Chinese people.Truth does not come from objective observation, but from the will of the emperor.The greatest virtue of the Son of Heaven is not to give everyone what they deserve, but to be impartial.Daoguang can punish Lin Zexu for charging the army; but he can also sentence his cousin Yijing (the general who counterattacked Ningbo) to death (later reduced).Such impartiality is what unites the faculties.

The Qing Dynasty was less introverted and less competitive than the Ming Dynasty.However, continuing the Ming Dynasty, it also absorbed many of the former's characters.It is due to a delicate balance that hundreds of millions of farmers live in peace and employment and tens of thousands of bureaucrats work peacefully.In order to maintain such a balance, the Qing Dynasty not only made greater financial reforms but also sought technological development.Since then, we can also notice that after the defeat of the Opium War, the Qing government did not organize an investigation committee to determine the circumstances of the incident and the responsibilities of each person afterwards.No officials were sent abroad for inspection, and no organizational changes were made.American officials offered to provide blueprints for building ships and guns, but they were flatly rejected.Manchu and Han bureaucrats accepted all kinds of harsh treatment in the Treaty of Nanjing and the Annex.On the contrary, it mentioned that the documents of the two parties should be communicated on an equal footing in the future, opening the door for the "barbarians" to peck at will, which made them uneasy.Qiying contacted and negotiated with Sir Henry Pottiiger of England, and his report to Emperor Daoguang continued to belittle Western state institutions, taking their lack of Chinese-style facade consistency as evidence of immoral character.There is no mention of China's many shortcomings.

But the misfortune of the Chinese is that the exchange of fire between the two sides near Chuanbi Island in the Pearl River on November 3, 1839 A.D. has permanently destroyed their non-competitive position with the outside world.Even the integrity of the fight against drugs will not work.China's history for the next 150 years has become a long struggle for survival.Basically, a huge agricultural country with a loose structure due to social values ​​and generous measures has always been able to accommodate administrative irregularities. In the future, it will be forced to become a numerically managed country①.Ordinary observation does not make clear the difficulty, since a work of this magnitude can only be brought about by a mass movement, and only by the hundreds of millions of peasants and poetic magistrates—that is, the main characters in this society— — Only by participating in hands-on can there be hope.From here we can also get out.The purpose of tightening the internal connection and bringing it closer to modern technology is not only to "make the people rich" as Adam Smith said.Judging from the deeds of the next century and a half, this is a struggle for life.

『①It is usually rarely mentioned that Britain itself has to undergo a period of transformation before it can become a commercial country.Before the Reformation, Italian bankers managed the exchange of their income in England. They usually paid in advance to the Holy See, and then used the money collected from various places to form a contract with the British shepherds.Here they manipulated the export of British wool to the Continent.The Bank of London called it "Lombard Street" because the Italians of the day were called "Lombards" (Lombards).Therefore, the area of ​​the Italians has the phenomenon of "concessions" that will appear in China in the future. There are special areas in the treaty ports opened by the treaty, which are managed by Westerners.Under the above circumstances, Italians also enjoy "extraterritoriality".Extraterritoriality is nominally reciprocal, but it means nothing to the British.Because there are few British people living in Venice, Genoa and Anna.England was at a disadvantage because commercial laws could not be enforced in the countryside.Therefore, at that time, Britain could not say that it could manage the national character or the currency.This situation was corrected during the Civil War and after the Stuart dynasty. 』

At that time, this scene was still unclear when the Nanjing Treaty was signed on the British ship "Cornwallis" on August 29, 1842.That was in recent decades, and we still have no way of understanding that the violence and turmoil before my eyes is part of a long and bitter struggle; a struggle that dates back to Emperor Daoguang and the imperial envoy Lin Zexu, and continues to this day.Only when all the truth comes out will we realize the enormity of this gigantic movement. The provisions of the Nanjing Treaty and the Annex probably lost their effectiveness due to the derivation of facts in the future.The recovery of Hong Kong by the People's Republic has yet to be effected; but an agreement for a peaceful takeover has been signed.This royal colony was divided into three parts: Hong Kong Island was ceded in 1842, as above.The Kowloon Peninsula was already on the mainland, ceded by the Sino-British Treaty of Beijing in 1860.The so-called "New Territories" extend from the originally ceded Kowloon to the mainland, including 90% of the entire colonial area. Due to the 1898 Kowloon Lease Treaty, it was leased to the United Kingdom for 99 years and expired in 1997. Mark the date when all areas are scheduled to return.Beijing has promised to allow local people to manage themselves, and will not change the existing economic system and legal system within 50 years after taking over.

How the "one country, two systems" marked by this regime will be implemented in the future remains to be revealed. What historians can point out is that a country with a large territory and a large population will be replaced by a commercial control method instead of an agricultural control method.The problem is complicated.Roughly speaking, when everything becomes stable, the concept of the country and the definition of Marxism may change their customary masks because of China.Obviously, the Sino-British compromise on Hong Kong was decent because it dealt with the problem as part of a larger problem later on.There are geographic and cultural influences, not just economics and politics.

The narrative of this book has to go back to the middle of the 19th century. Ten years after the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, it was not the defeated country that felt more dissatisfied but the victorious country.The peace treaty opens China to commerce, but commerce depends on the voluntary and active participation of both parties.What if the inhabitants of the treaty ports were encouraged by the bureaucracy to adopt a hostile attitude towards outsiders?If a Chinese businessman signs a contract with a foreign businessman, but breaks the contract and flees to the mainland, which is not under the jurisdiction of the consul, how should he deal with it?How can foreign merchants protest that inland officials are imposing costly re-export duties on the same goods if they pay the prescribed duties?There are more questions about the opium trade. The 1842 peace treaty never mentions opium.Will its trade be open in the future?Or is China's anti-smoking law still in effect?In a nutshell, if the "system of treaties" is to be effective, all trading countries should set up permanent representatives in embassies in Beijing, the mainland of China should be open to foreign businessmen, and the entrepot tax should be restrained. If the opium trade has been opened, it should be expressly acknowledges that it is legal. In 1856 there was a new opportunity to make the above demands.The Sino-French and Sino-US treaties were signed in 1844, and included clauses that could be revised 12 years later.The British are based on the most-favored-nation treatment. If France and the United States propose to amend the treaty, of course they can also enjoy the benefits. Since 1854, diplomats and naval officers of the three countries have traveled north and south along the Chinese coast in an attempt to obtain a response from China with fruitful results.Among Chinese officials, the governor of Guangzhou, Ye Mingchen, was the most stubborn.The citizens of Guangzhou also resisted the British entering the city for several years.Compounding the problem was the extreme xenophobia of the new emperor, Wei Feng (real name Yi Chi, who reigned from 1850 to 1861).The situation prompted the two European nations to resort to military action again, in what some historians have dubbed the "Second Opium War." A Chinese ship registered in Hong Kong, flying the British flag.Ye Mingchen's soldiers boarded the ship and removed the British flag, which gave the British an excuse to use their troops.Soon France also joined, the reason being that a French missionary was killed by Chinese officials in Guangxi.The Crimean War and the Sepoy Mutiny slowed down this joint action for a while.But the Anglo-French forces assembled for a time, and they captured Canton without difficulty in the last days of 1857.At that time, Mingchen was captured and died in Calcutta.Guangzhou was ruled by the British for 3 years during the war. In the summer of 1858, British, French, American and Russian warships assembled on the coast near Tianjin.The former two take military action, while the latter two are watching from a close distance.The Dagu Fort was captured and Tianjin was occupied.The so-called Tianjin Treaty was signed in June, but it actually included four treaties.These treaties generally allow countries to send envoys to Beijing, the tariff value is 50% and the re-export tax is 2.5%. In addition, the inland ports are named as commercial, so all the inland provinces, including Taiwan and Hainan Island, China recognizes that foreign ships can sail in inland river.Citizens of these countries holding passports are free to travel to and from the Mainland.In the Sino-British Treaty, the opium trade was recognized as legal.China compensates Britain and France for military expenses. The above treaties shall enter into force after the governments of the two sides approve the exchange of copies.The next year, foreign warships were preparing to carry out the exchange. When they arrived at the coast of Tanggu, the Dagu Fort was being repaired, and there were obstacles in the section from Haihe to Tianjin.Only the American envoy accepted the instructions of Chinese officials to enter Beijing by land to exchange copies, although the reception from the Chinese side was not friendly.The Russian envoys came to China by land, and the exchanges were like rituals.The British and French envoys led 18 ships, determined to clear the obstacles in the river, and clashed with the new artillery positions on the fort.The Chinese troops were commanded by the Mongolian general Seng Gelinqin. Four British warships were sunk and six were injured. More than 400 people were killed or injured. However, in the end China still had to compensate for the losses. In 1860, 18,000 British troops and 7,000 French troops hired 2,500 Chinese coolies in southern China to serve as logistics. After attacking Dagu by land, Tianjin was occupied.On the way, the peace talks delayed the progress of the coalition forces, but in October they had already occupied Beijing.Emperor Xianfeng fled to Rehe and died in the palace.The Old Summer Palace was not far from today's Peking University as the emperors left the palace one after another. It was first plundered by the coalition forces, and then burned down by the order of Lord Elgin. In 1860, the Sino-British Sino-French treaty was signed by Xianfeng’s younger brother, Prince Gong Yiyi, who recognized the validity of the 1858 treaty, ceded Kowloon to Britain, and recognized the right of French priests to purchase real estate in mainland China. The one who gained the most from the chain of events was Russia under the rule of the tsar.The Russian envoy claimed to have contributed to persuading the British and French troops to leave Beijing, and claimed and obtained the land north of Heilongjiang and east of the Ussuri River, including Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in China and Japan. During the Gu period, the Russians entered the open area to survey the boundaries and build houses, and threatened the Chinese magistrates to accept their sovereignty.The land under its jurisdiction exceeds 300,000 miles. The Sino-Russian Treaty in 1860 only recognized the fait accompli and expanded its scope. During this period of foreign aggression, Man Qing still had to fight on the other side in order to continue his life.Beginning in 1850, central and southern China were involved in several large-scale civil strife, the most threatening of which was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom led by Hong Xiuquan.This rural private school teacher once received a leaflet from a Christian missionary on the streets of Guangzhou, and after being frustrated in the imperial examination, he was plagued by illness, so he had hallucinations in a coma.After recovering, he read the leaflets, and he truly believed that he was the son of God Jehovah and the brother of Jesus Christ.At that time, the villagers in Guangxi were in distress and persecuted by the government. Listening to his gospel was incitement.Therefore, it is not difficult for him to instigate several accomplices with similar backgrounds to drive the persuaded farmers from then on.His God-worship will meet for good and worship the true God. All believers are brothers, and all believers are sisters.The demons they swore to wipe out include not only village idols, but also corrupt officials and their slaves. In the spring of 1851, Hong Xiuquan launched an attack against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He himself was the Heavenly King, and the other five assistants were the East, West, North, South, North Kings and Wing Kings.The lack of shaved hair on the forehead and the lack of braids behind the head make them look different from others.These believers are passionate, but also controlled by tricks, and they immediately fail repeatedly to send young people to suppress them. In 1852, within a few months, the Taiping army besieged Guilin and Changsha, the provincial capitals of Guangxi and Hunan, although neither city was captured.Hong Xiuquan abandoned the siege of these two places and continued northward, taking Wuchang, the capital of Hubei Province, in early 1853.Since then he has owned a large number of ships and has taken many arms and supplies from the Manchurian army.So far, he has 500,000 people under his command.Two months later, the Taiping Army possessed important towns along the Yangtze River between Wuchang and Nanjing, so they made Nanjing their capital and renamed it "Tianjing".They entrenched for 11 years, until the summer of 1864. From today's perspective, the enthusiasm of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should not be overemphasized.Only in a very vague form, the figures of heaven seem to suggest that Chinese peasants are regarded by traditional politics as a general group of producers without the ability to speak, and it seems that they should be changed. If this is not the case, China will not be able to produce a new order to adapt world trend.But the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not the answer to this question.In the past, a lot of history followed the deeds before and after, and blamed Hong Xiuquan for not doing his best in the Northern Expedition after taking Nanjing, for not uniting with the so-called "Nian Bandits" in the central and northern regions or the "Small Knife Club" in Shanghai, and for not winning the sympathy of Westerners.Originally, when Westerners were negotiating with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they thought Beijing was unreasonable, and imagined that the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were Christians, so they might be better opponents.From the perspective of the overall organizational structure, this kind of speculation is too small to be meaningful today. Because of their sense of fighting, irrational characters, lack of confidence in the government, and primitive communism, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom characters are in some ways like the Protestant left wing during the European Reformation.In Europe, however, left-wing activity is disruptive only in the cities.Hong Xiuquan tried to launch a national campaign because of his fragmentary Christianity, which was even less effective, because the freedom of conscience advocated by Protestantism lacked practical significance in rural Chinese society.The Shenji of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have never left the witchcraft character. They started from the lower levels of society, and they did not expect to integrate the whole society in terms of organization.If all the people are liberated, the only way to disintegrate society is to see the destructiveness of the kingdom of heaven. In this way, the structure of traditional state society, which has endured for a long time in the past, can still function at this time.In particular, the imperial examinations are used to select scholars, and a hidden method is used to give material rewards to the relevant people and instruct them to maintain orthodox social values. This social value has been passed down from Mencius to the present, so that the end of cultural and educational power in rural society is the state power. The starting point of power, the two phases are stitched together without gaps.It is also impossible to strictly distinguish whether this is an economic organization or a social habit.The status and basic organization of the Chinese emperor are close to that of the God in the Old Testament.He also acquires practical powers in various ceremonies.Although judging from later deeds, the Qing Dynasty misused this arrangement repeatedly (such as the Empress Dowager Cixi’s detention of Emperor Guangxu and her enthronement as a young child Xuantong, etc.), but in the middle of the 19th century, it was obviously necessary to change the dynasty and replace the various organizations of the traditional dynasty. too early. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom banned opium, prostitution, footbinding, concubines, and gambling.But its advocacy of equality between men and women cannot prevent the highest figures from wives and concubines.The capital was established in Nanjing, and all the kings no longer lived frugally. After 1856, their superiors were already fighting each other.The so-called acre system of the Celestial Dynasty was originally written in a traditional structure, and it was always just an article on paper. The "Tianchao" also held its imperial examinations. Judging from the data of the current examination papers, even the person who wrote the questions clearly understood the social and economic significance of the imperial examinations. So Zeng Guofan was able to use the traditional authenticity as a call to exterminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for the Qing Dynasty.He was born as a civil servant in the imperial court.Like Qi Jiguang 300 years ago, his "Xiang Yong" was recruited in the countryside, and the officers were selected by him. Many of them were small landlords from Hu Township, Zeng Zhi's hometown.As a result, the spiritual unity among the troops was consolidated.His military expenses come from "likin", which is a new kind of re-export tax on goods, and he also has subsidies from various places, probably both voluntary donations and Lepai.The navy he organized was actually a kind of amphibious force, living on inland riverboats and armed with firearms, making warfare more mobile.Xiangyong was first trained as a regiment and hired to protect the local area. Because its effectiveness surpassed that of formal troops, after 1854 he went to various provinces, and his number increased several times from the initial 20,000.After the full-scale battle between the Hunan Army and the Taiping Army began, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and its two major tributaries, namely the Xiangjiang River and the Ganjiang River, became a point of contention.Walled cities are contested not only for their strategic value, but also for their manipulation of population and resources.The two warring parties used brutal methods against each other, and the killing of prisoners happened frequently.Food is scarce in war zones.The prevalence of epidemics and the reduction of the population contributed to the end of the subsequent war. However, after 1860, the Taiping Army lost control of the inland provinces and revived, extending the rebellion to the coastal areas of the Yangtze River Delta, where Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai were contested.The silk industry in the region suffered a blow.It was also during this period of war that Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan's subordinate, showed his face.Following the example of the Hunan Army system, he organized a Huai Army in Anhui Province, where he was born.The Manchu war against Britain and France ended, and the "ever victorious army" also participated in the crusade against the Daping army.They were originally a volunteer army organized by Shanghai merchants, using Westerners as officers to defend the local area.So far, it has been sponsored by the great powers and officially assisted the government army in the war.Their exploits established the romantic fame of American Frederick Townsend Ward and British General Gordon (Charles George Gordon).With their help, Li Hongzhang wiped out the eastern coastal area, enabling Zeng Zhi's Hunan army to recover Nanjing in July 1864. Hong Xiuquan committed suicide by taking poison beforehand.The elimination of the remnants of the Taiping Army in Fujian was completed the following year.Even the last period of the war lasted as long as the American Civil War for four years, while the Chinese civil war had more casualties and fewer problems to solve. 『②The casualties of this war are estimated to reach 20 million. 』 The name "Self-Strengthening Movement" comes from "Tian Xingjian, a gentleman strives for self-improvement".Using this slogan to summarize China’s great imitation of the West in the 1860s and 1870s, the name already shows a defensive motive. People who advocated learning from the West at that time were afraid that their actions would be criticized, so they quoted scriptures to emphasize the difference between the times. necessary.At the same time, they also used the explanation of "Chinese learning is for ritual, and Western learning is for application" to explain that learning from the West is nothing more than a technical thing.Within various basic conditions, they never depart from the tradition of Chinese culture. In fact, even if there are criticisms of them, their attitude is not harsh.However, the scope of the reform movement itself was so narrow that it could not achieve the desired effect. In 1860, 10 years after the signing of the peace treaty between the countries and China, the relationship between the two sides was good for a short period of time.Now that the Westerners have been satisfied by China, they will not put more pressure on them.Hardliners such as Ergin and Henry Parkes have left China, and a group of new diplomatic figures such as the British minister Rutherford Alcock, the US ambassador Anson Burlingame, and the Irishman Hector who served as China's general tax department Germany (Robert Hart) both advocated that the two parties treat each other with sincerity and goodwill.They believed that, with proper encouragement, it was in China's own interest to keep the door open.At the same time, Prince Gong assisted the young emperor Tongzhi (real name Zai Chun, reigned from 1862 to 1874) in order to "discuss politics". He also felt that the world brought by the treaty could not be avoided. The situation of foreign barbarians paying tribute.Because of this harmonious atmosphere, the self-improvement movement made great progress for a while. In 1861, Beijing set up the Prime Minister’s Yamen for International Affairs to treat foreign envoys and manage various affairs arising from treaties, which existed at the same time as the old-style ministries.Tongwen Academy was also set up to teach foreign languages, and soon other similar schools were opened in various treaty ports."Elements of International Law" by Henry Wheaton was translated into Chinese in 1864 and printed by the Prime Minister's Office.In the last few years of the decisive battle with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Chinese military commander who was born as a scholar was very impressed with the steamship and the new equipment.Therefore, once the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was suppressed, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and another leader of the Hunan Army, Zuo Zongtang, took advantage of their status as governors in various places to set up machinery bureaus and shipyards in large southern cities. Hire outsider technicians.After 1870, relations with European countries deteriorated again, and this move did not stop.China Merchants Steamship was established in 1872.A group of Chinese schoolchildren were sent to study in the United States.The Kaiping Coal Mine began in 1876, near Tianjin.During this period, Chinese cities also began to be connected by telecommunication. With these activities, the self-improvement movement represents a simple-minded purpose: China hopes to use Western technology to enrich its military power.What the reformers needed were ships and guns, so they set up shipyards and arsenals.All reforms are also isolated from other departments, so as not to interfere with the old legal regulations.The "Westernization" talents trained are destined to be the technical assistants of the old Chinese bureaucrats, so the traditional education system will not be changed, and the procedures for selecting scholars through the imperial examination will remain unchanged. This limited goal is always unobtainable for reasons that cannot be explained.At that time, the so-called "Westernization" was actually "Western things", which were the result of the entire modern Western material civilization. It was due to the society's emphasis on efficiency and the demand for accurate income everywhere.This is completely contrary to the position of China's bureaucratic organizations.The latter has a huge structure and has always stood in a non-competitive position. For hundreds of years, it only hopes to maintain a generally decent standard to maintain internal cohesion.Due to the difference in lifestyle, the West adopts mercantilism, while China maintains agricultural social habits.This difference in habits affects every weapon maker and user, not to mention their organizers and coordinators.This difference also affects every day, in every action. These arsenals and shipbuilding bureaus were set up like commercial organizations, but they had no corresponding companies with which to have commercial relationships.They are manufacturers, but there are no material and parts suppliers and salesmen in society.They have contacts with the outside world, and their relationship is loose.The accounts in the organization cannot be carefully accounted for.They also cannot prepare a budget because the government itself does not have a budget to speak of.There must be no standards for personnel control, because the entire economic life of China lacks personnel control standards. Calling the above situation "corruption" may be misleading about the whole problem.Corruption must arise from the deterioration of a formerly normal form, and to condemn it in such a moral name requires acknowledging that a complete system existed beforehand.It did hold water before it deteriorated. In fact it doesn't stand up.A test came immediately in 1884, when China was at war with France over its suzerainty over Vietnam.In a short period of time, the French fleet made Taiwan's Keelung Fort useless, and also occupied Penghu.When the French looked back to mainland China, it took them only a few hours to destroy the Fuzhou Shipyard Bureau. This Mawei shipyard was also opened with French funding in the past. At the end of the Sino-French war in 1885, China felt that its barriers were lost and its weaknesses were exposed. It could only stand up and fight to the death. Ten years ago, Japan disregarded China's sovereignty and conquered Taiwan on its own.In the northwest corner of China, Russia has seized another large piece of land.The Treaty of Petersburg in 1881 was nominally a diplomatic victory for China, but China still had to pay the Tsar 9 million yuan and lose the territory around Lake Bakhash.In the year of the armistice with France, Britain also took Burma as its protectorate. At the end of the 19th century, due to the maturity of the Western Industrial Revolution, it was already the era of Social Darwinism.A loser in any struggle may be considered poor in character.China's consistent diplomatic failures also make the self-strengthening movement look bad.At the very least, it cost China 20 years of precious time.But in modern Chinese history, it is only the first time in a series of "failures".Only recently have we had the opportunity to put this sequence of events in a more positive light.With new depths, we can assert that, even if they fail, they are an inevitable step before a great revolution.In contrast to the lack of reaction after the Opium Wars, the reforms of the 1860s were serious steps forward in practice.Because of this, reformers still have to protect themselves in the name of tradition.They are cautious, but they have dug a big hole in the structure of traditional China.The result of their "self-improvement" is disappointing in our opinion, but judging from the time and environment of the day, it is not surprising.We must not forget that to industrialize China, they still had to start by compiling the most basic mathematics textbooks, and students who learned languages ​​were limited to those under the age of 14.This reminds us how far its path is!The self-improvement movement is based on the acceptance of technology. After more than 30 years.In the "Hundred Days Reform" in 1898, preparations were made to write a constitution and reform the system.Another 21 years later, China entered the era of the Republic of China, and the intellectuals realized that the reform should not only start with themselves, but also with their own ideas.Although there is no plan, this set of things is moving forward, and there seems to be a ladder, which makes us feel the power of history.It has its logic; its long-term rationality also allows the Chinese revolution a little more time to make full preparations, and puts considerable pressure on it to carry it through to the end.Given the magnitude of the problem at present, all these huge scale and depth can only be regarded as reasonable and effective.