History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
Zhang Zhidong, one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, read the history books, and his main contribution was to launch the Foreign Affairs Movement, revitalize industry, train the new army, run education, and make contributions to China's modernization at that time.
For a long time, there has been a theory that Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, actually inadvertently became a gravedigger of the Qing Dynasty.
The reason is this: In recent years, some scholars who study the history of the late Qing Dynasty and the history of the Republic of China have turned their attention to another role of Zhang Zhidong - he surpassed Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai and was praised as the "number one gravedigger" of the Qing Dynasty.
Zhang Zhidong took the good phase and promised himself to be loyal, operated in Hubei for more than ten years, and trained an elite new army, originally wanted to extend the number of qi in the empire, but the result backfired, the Wuchang uprising, a gun and fire broke the veins of the dynasty. History's jokes are so big that it is truly confusing.
There is some truth to this statement, but is it really the case? Through the smoke and clouds of history, Xiaobian will find the truth for you.
The truth is, who was the real gravedigger of the Qing Dynasty? Is it Zhang Zhidong? We may have been wrong for a century.
The main reasons why this is said are as follows.
First, the clan is clean, not the world.
This thesis comes from a great Tang Dynasty poet, Du Mu wrote an argumentative literary work "Afang Gongfu", Du Mu was a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, or an official, an official to Chizhou, Muzhou Assassin History, the official Wailang. Therefore, his argument is still reasonable, and "A Fang Gong Fu" has become one of his masterpieces, and it has become our high school textbook.
Du Mu wrote in the Afang Palace endowment that the destruction of the Six Kingdoms lies in themselves, and the demise of the Qin State lies in itself.
alack! Those who destroy the Six Kingdoms, the Six Kingdoms also, not Qin Also. The qin of the clan, qin also, not the world also.
Then Du Mu explained why he said this: Sigh, if the six countries cherish their people, and the people and the country are united, who can destroy the six countries?
After the unification of the Qin state, if you do not abuse the people's strength, do not use severe punishment and tyranny that exceed the limit, rest well, and cherish the people of the six countries, you can qin ii, iii, and even the ten thousand generations are monarchs, it is possible, who can destroy it?
To make each of the six kingdoms love its own people is enough to reject Qin. Those who love the Six Kingdoms of Qin Fu will be given the third generation to become a king in all lifetimes, and whoever gets it will be destroyed.
The people of the Qin State did not have time to sigh, and the posterity lamented for them; the posterity did not take it as a lesson after sighing, and also let the later people lament them.
The Qin people did not have time to mourn themselves, and the descendants mourned. Posterity mourns, but does not learn from it, so that future generations will mourn the future generations.
Many dynasties can not jump out of this cycle of strange circles, that is, when the dynasty develops to a certain extent, land annexation, gradually concentrated in the hands of landlords and strongmen, the poor have no place to stand, once they encounter disasters, there is no timely relief, or the regime caused by too many people being overwhelmed by heavy taxes and miscellaneous taxes is worth pondering.
Second, Kangxi and Qianlong were inadvertently wrong.
The Qing Dynasty died in a closed country, and the thinking was solidified, not Zhang Zhidong, Kangxi, qianlong has already seen the beginning.
During the Kangxi Dynasty, foreign missionaries came to China, and the famous Tang Ruowang and Nan Huairen served in Qin Tianjian, and Zhang Cheng, Bai Jin, Nan Huairen, and Min Ming accompanied Kangxi on many occasions to inspect Saiwai and Jiangnan.
During the Qianlong period, the Western missionary Liu Songling and others were at Qianlong's side.
Missionaries offered dioramas, telescopes and other items, and Kangxi and Qianlong did not realize the fact that the science and technology of the West at that time, since the Renaissance, freed themselves from the shackles of the Western Church and began to flourish. I thought that foreigners were just exquisite in their workmanship.
Because of the solidification of their thinking, China has never lacked exquisite things, but a few foreign priests have been around them for decades, and they should be able to understand some of the situations of the industrial revolution in the West, but they have not attracted attention.
At that time, the attitude of Kangxi and Qianlong should be dismissive and arrogant, and they should be self-absorbed, after all, China used to be a "heavenly kingdom", and westerners who wanted to come to them could not come up with anything to shoot.
In the midst of the song and dance, the armament was relaxed, forgetting the signs of this change that had not occurred in three thousand years after decades, the crisis of the prosperous world, and the quiet coming.
Third, the foreign affairs movement is only a simple reform, and the implementation of the political system is not thorough, and there are certain limitations.
After Zhang Zhidong presided over the foreign affairs movement, the Qing Dynasty army did have a modern steamship and gunboat, but the political system was not changed to a constitutional monarchy accordingly, and the state was established into a pattern of separation of powers. In the official arena, various factions are openly fighting and cheating, and the national defense and military are strong and strong, and discipline is lax.
After decades of foreign affairs movement, the initial results were achieved and they began to be proud of the enemy. In the process of dealing with Western countries, they believe that Westerners "do not benefit the people of our land" and just want to take advantage of trade, so they relaxed their sense of armaments. In fact, the fact that in 1840, foreign foreigners successfully landed in Tianjin by setting up a few cannons on the coastline with the help of their ship guns.
Since the official establishment of the Beiyang Navy in 1888, no more ships have been added, and the age of the ships has gradually aged, compared with the new warships added by Japan, the firepower is weak, the rate of fire is slow, and the speed of navigation is slow.
The Beiyang Marine Division has 25 warships and 4,000 officers and men. Before the Sino-Japanese War, the beiyang fleet's three major bases of Dagukou, Weihaiwei and Lushun were completed. However, the military reform of the Qing Dynasty basically stayed at the low stage of improving weapons and equipment, and although the total strength of the army and navy reached more than 800,000 people, it was backward in organization, chaotic in management, in ruined training, and low in combat effectiveness. After 1891, the Beiyang Marine Division even stopped buying guns and ammunition.
In 1895, in the Sino-Japanese War, when China was defeated, China was bullied by Japan, who had been hanged by China before, which was a great shame.
After the signing of the Maguan Treaty, the interests of the great powers in China were divided.
The whole country was shaken, and the patriotic poet Qiu Fengjia wrote about the spring sorrow, writing about the situation at that time: "Spring sorrow is difficult to send to look at the mountain, and the past is shocking and tearful." Forty million people wept in unison, cutting off Taiwan last year today."
On July 16, 1905, the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905), under the arrangement of Cixi, the Qing Dynasty sent Zaize and The Household Attendant Dai Hongci, the Soldier Attendant Xu Shichang, the Hunan Inspector Duanfang, and the Shangbu Right Minister Shaoying to go abroad to investigate the political system, which is the "five ministers going abroad" in history.
But whether it is a constitutional monarchy or a parliamentary constitution, the emperor can be retained, but the power of the emperor is not as great as before. Therefore, when Zaize pushed the Qing Dynasty to emulate Japan's reform and reform law, after the constitutional monarchy, the Qing Dynasty believed that this was a reform that lost power and was not implemented.
The attempt to restore the Hundred Days failed, the constitutional monarchy was abandoned, and at this point, the Last Chance of the Qing Dynasty to save itself was wasted by itself.
So, who was the real gravedigger of the Qing Dynasty? It was none other than the Qing Dynasty itself.