History of the Qing Dynasty: The first government-run foreign language specialized school at the end of the Qing Dynasty - Tongwenguan
preface
At the intersection of Chinese and Western cultures, it is inevitable that all collisions will occur, just as we have learned political knowledge, new things will be blocked by old things, especially the generation of ideas, there will inevitably be certain obstacles.
cause
The establishment of The Prime Minister Yamen made the people of the Qing government realize that China should learn advanced Western culture and should not appear in our country in a closed posture.
▲Prime Minister Yamen
outcome
After experiencing the baptism of Western culture, today's literati no longer only accept the traditional culture of the East, and the Western affairs movement has risen.
▲Representative of the Western affairs movement
disposal
1. Yi Bi's advanced ideas
When it comes to china's famous schools, we think of Tsinghua and Peking University, which are not only one of the top schools in China, but also have a long history.
After the Qing Dynasty experienced the Second Opium War, Yi Bi found that China and the world had been derailed, and there were very few people who could handle foreign affairs. Once China alone was strong, now many Western countries are better than China, and their language is not understood by the Chinese people.
▲ British army painter painted the 1860 Chinese War
Therefore, Yi Bi first prepared a letter to request the establishment of the Prime Minister's Yamen, in order to be able to set up a special department to handle the affairs of Western countries.
Then Yi Bi found that China is now lacking not only departments, but also talents. After experiencing the Opium War, Yi Bi found that Britain's guns and ammunition were very developed, while China was relatively backward, and Yi Bi felt that China should not only study history, but also learn science and mathematics.
So in 1866, Prince Gong Yi bi founded the Tongwenguan under the prime minister Yamen, and recruited jinshi to study astronomy and arithmetic.
▲ Yi Bi
2. Cixi's support
However, the Qing Dynasty was a feudal society, and they still maintained their own idea of heaven and heaven, so many people maintained opposing views on Western culture.
However, Cixi was very supportive, because his rights were also supported by Yi Bi, and when Cixi launched the Xin You's coup, many countries in the West supported Cixi, so Cixi was not very exclusive of Western civilization.
So Cixi ordered Wu Ren to recommend talents, but Wu Ren was the most opposed to Chinese learning Western civilization, because in his cognition, the West was a barbarian study that could easily lead to the collapse of China.
However, Yi Bi did not let Go of Wu Ren in this way, and later Wu Ren was transferred to the Prime Minister Yamen to handle government affairs, but the Prime Minister Yamen was all dealing with the work of connecting the East and the West, and Wu Ren could be said to have no idea, and Wu Ren did not agree to go.
However, Cixi's order had to be listened to, as a minister in the imperial court, he could not say that he would not, so he could only claim that he had a foot disease and asked to go home to recuperate, cixi was also very generous, and directly gave Wu Ren a month to recuperate.
The reason why Yi Bi insisted so much that Chinese learn astronomy was because Yi Bi found that astronomy was one of the most studied disciplines in the field of science in the West in modern times.
Chinese students also learn Western civilization, but only English, Yi Bi felt that since it was a rich country, it was necessary to learn astronomy, so she added a subject to the Tongwen Museum, that is, astronomy.
Although yi bi now had the support of Cixi, his ideas were still hindered by many people in the imperial court, who believed that Western civilization was not worth spending chinese scholars to study.
Uzigri Ujren (1804–1871)
3. The victory of the Tongbunkan
At that time, the Qing Dynasty was still a feudal kingdom, and everyone was creating a subject belonging to Western knowledge in the opposition to the Tongwenguan, just at this time to catch up with the great drought, so the officials who opposed the Tongwenguan wrote letters one after another.
They believe that this great drought is a warning to the heavens, because the existence of the Tongwenguan has angered the heavens, so the heavens have punished the great drought, and if they can turn back as soon as possible, there will be no great drought.
Cixi was also very angry when she saw the situation, she had asked Wu Ren to go to the Tongwenguan before, that is, she felt that the people who opposed the Tongwenguan did not know the importance of learning Western civilization, so she wanted them to have contact, so that they could understand more and would not oppose.
▲Cixi (November 29, 1835 – November 15, 1908)
As a result, Wu Ren said that he was sick at home, and Cixi had already let him recuperate, but now the opposition is still very strong. Yi Bi saw that many people in the imperial court were opposed, so he also said that his persistence led to natural disasters, and it was not the Prime Minister Yamen who were not, and all the people in the Prime Minister Yamen should be dismissed from their posts and investigated.
Yi Bi's ability to retreat made Cixi even more resentful of Wu Ren and others, and he elevated his simple opposition to Western civilization to a confrontation between parties.
Cixi believed that it was a discord between them, so she grabbed a little thing to launch a partisan dispute, and Wu Ren and others did not dare to speak out when they saw the situation, so the Tongwenguan still operated as usual, but there were many opposition voices, so there were very few people who entered the Tongwenguan, but under the efforts of Yi Bi.
Their Westerners have persisted for more than thirty years, laying the foundation for China's development.
▲Tongwenguan generally refers to the Tongwenguan of the Beijing Division
brief summary
Tongwenguan was the first foreign language school in the Qing Dynasty, and in this school many talented people were trained to connect China with the world.
【References】
"Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", "Jade Bead Curtain", "The Beginning and End of the Establishment of the Beijing Division tongwenguan"