Since the Opium War in 1840, China's national doors have gradually opened. Along with the mutual exchange with foreigners, the thinking of the Chinese people has gradually changed in recent times. In the context of this national crisis, Lin Zexu became "the first person in modern China to open his eyes to the world." In 1839 (the nineteenth year of Daoguang), Lin Zexu went to Guangzhou as a minister of Chincha, and while strictly prohibiting opium, he actively explored the general situation outside the region, and sent people to collect and translate foreign language materials for reference. The "Encyclopedia of World Geography" written by the Englishman Murray attracted lin Zexu's attention, and soon he sent someone to translate it into Chinese and polish it, and finally became the first systematic world geography in China at that time- "Four Continents".
The "Chronicle of four continents" briefly describes the geography, history and political conditions of more than 30 countries in the four continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, which not only opens up the horizons of the Chinese people, so that they can see the "Western" world outside the "great powers of the Heavenly Dynasty", but also promotes the process of modernization of the Qing Dynasty that pursues the policy of "closing the country and closing the country". The birth of "Four Continents" can be described as extraordinary, its unique significance lies in the first step in looking at the world, which has influenced many scholars who have studied foreign history in the future, which is a pioneering work.
Chronicle of Four Continents
On the basis of the Chronicle of the Four Continents, Wei Yuan wrote the Atlas of the Sea Kingdom. Wei Yuan expanded the other documents and periodicals collected at that time and many of his own papers, and greatly enriched the "Four Continents" by writing the "Atlas of the Sea Country". He not only inherited Lin Zexu's "eye-opening" move, but also raised it to another height, putting forward the viewpoint of "Shiyi long skill to control Yi", which is more "zhiyi" than Lin Zexu's "Shiyi", which is a practical view of "learning to apply". This is the starting point of the ideological changes of our people since recent times - learning from Western artifacts. Lin and Wei both believed that China had lost artifacts to the West, and they hoped that "Shi Yi would use his long skills to control Yi", that is, to learn from Western artifacts to counter the West. In the eyes of Lin and Wei, the Western jianchuan cannon was the magic weapon for the west to win, so they believed that as long as the Qing dynasty had a jianchuan cannon, they could sit back and relax and continue to dream of "the kingdom of heaven and heaven". This is their limitation, but we also need to take into account the historical background of the time and the class in which they are located, and we cannot say that Lin and Wei have achieved nothing. Lin and Wei introduced and introduced a large number of materials on Western history, geography, politics, and military affairs, which triggered a boom in "Western studies" and made an important preparation and accumulation for the later development of the Western affairs movement. Lin Zexu is worthy of being "the first person in modern China to open his eyes to the world".
Lin Zexu Humen sold cigarettes
The time came to 1861, when Cixi launched the Xin You coup and seized power, reused the Westerners, and began a mighty Foreign Affairs Movement. In essence, the Foreign Affairs Movement is in line with the ideas of Lin and Wei. Lin and Wei advocated the idea of "mastering yi and changing skills to control Yi", while the Foreign Affairs Movement inherited the ideas of Wei Yuan and other "Jingshi factions" and tried their best to put this idea into practice, and their historical significance lies in putting the theories of their predecessors into practice. After the fiasco of the Second Opium War and the baptism of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement at home, some of the more clear-minded authorities within the Qing government, such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Prince Gong Yibi, who held great power in the center, did not reduce their sense of crisis in the Qing government's rule because of the emergence of a temporary peaceful situation. Zeng, Li, and Zuo all established a special honor for the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and in the "Huayang Hui Suppression" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom by means of foreign invaders, they saw with their own eyes the great power of the foreign invaders' strong ships and cannons, and thus felt a potential long-term threat. They feel that China is facing "unprecedented changes in thousands of years", and they hope to launch a foreign affairs campaign to seek Xutu Zhongxing.
Western affairs sports enterprises
In the early days of the Western Affairs Movement, the Qing Dynasty established a number of modern military factories with the main purpose of learning Western military technology. In the later period of the Western Affairs Movement, due to the lack of funds, Zhang Zhidong and others opened modern Chinese civilian factories to prepare funds, that is, the so-called "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth". The core idea of this movement is "to control the yi of the teacher, and to use the Chinese body in the West" . The first to propose this idea of chinese and Western use was feng Guifen, a thinker of the Western school. In 1861, he said in his book "The Protest of the School": "Take the common name of China as the original, supplemented by the technique of wealth and strength of the countries". He uses the master-slave relationship of "ben" and "auxiliary" to deal with the relationship between middle school and Western learning. From this idea, it can be seen that the essence of the foreign affairs movement is a self-salvation movement carried out by the feudal landlord class in order to maintain its own rule.
In the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, the Beiyang Navy was completely destroyed
However, it is undeniable that the Western affairs movement set a precedent for the modernization of modern China and had a broad and far-reaching impact on future generations. The Western affairs movement was not only a simple movement to learn Western military science and technology, but also a window to the outside world for people at that time. Under its influence, it gave birth to the early Chinese national bourgeoisie. Therefore, we cannot simply regard the foreign affairs movement as a failed political movement of the feudal ruling class.
When looking at past history, it is necessary to take into account not only the historical context of the time, but also the class in which it belongs. Zeng, Li, Zuo, and Zhang were all feudal scholars, and when they saw the country's internal and external difficulties, they were able to stand up and use their own efforts to save the danger, and I think it is meaningful to look at their deeds from this point alone. The American sinologist Mary Rui commented on this stage of the "self-improvement" movement: "Not only a dynasty, but also a civilization seems to have collapsed, but thanks to the extraordinary efforts of some outstanding figures in the 1860s, they finally survived and continued for another sixty years." ”