If we want to find the longest and most difficult history in Chinese history, it must be a hundred years of modern times. In the past hundred years, China and the world have undergone earth-shaking changes. China has gone from being an invincible world hegemon to a "fat country" that everyone can bully. And the Qing Dynasty, which had never been a monarch, had also quietly collapsed in the modern century.
Today, the demise of the Qing Dynasty is an inevitable trend of history. The old feudal dynasty will eventually be replaced by a new system, which is also the inevitable law of human society. But if the Qing government at that time could make radical changes from top to bottom, from the inside out, there might still be a chance of survival.
There was once such a US president who pointed out a clear path for the Qing government. His name was Grant, he was the 18th President of the United States, and he was the first president in U.S. history to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He lived through the American Civil War and made great achievements, and was the first five-star general in the United States.
Grant has a set of wars, but he is overstretched in governance. During his presidency, he did not make any proud achievements, and finally ended his political career without re-election. Then he began to travel around the world, from the Americas to Europe, and from Europe to Asia.
In 1879, Grant came to China, and as former president of the United States, then Foreign Secretary Li Hongzhang received Grant. Because Grant suppressed the southern army, Li Hongzhang was also one of the suppressors of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. The two have similar life histories, meet and hate late, and chat is very speculative.
At that time, the Qing government and Japan were still in a state of tension, and because Japan annexed China's Ryukyu Islands, war broke out on both sides. In order to ease the relationship, Li Hongzhang hoped that Grant could mediate and see if the matter could be resolved peacefully. Grant readily agreed.
Unexpectedly, after arriving in Japan, because Grant was only a former president, there was no deterrent to speak. The Japanese government did not accept Grant's request for mediation, and Grant was ashamed not to help Li Hongzhang. However, before leaving, he deliberately left a letter to Li Hongzhang, in which he expressed some of his views on how the Qing government could save itself.
The full text is as follows: "China's great harm lies in a weak word, the state is like a person, a weak person is invaded by a hundred diseases, and a strong person is not invaded by external evil." He suggested that Li Hongzhang and the Qing government follow the example of Japan and follow the example of Western law and widely practice trade, so that the country is bound to become stronger and stronger, and all countries dare not invade and insult. Otherwise, Japan, with a strong force of 10,000 troops, can drive straight to China for three thousand miles. ”
Presumably, the Meaning is that the Qing government should emulate the Japanese way and learn from the Western development model. By intensifying our efforts to open up to the outside world and trade, so that the country becomes rich first, its national strength will naturally become stronger.
Li Hongzhang later handed the letter to Cixi intact, but Cixi did not take it seriously at all. She felt that the Beiyang Admiralty was already the first navy in Asia, so how could Japan "directly pound China for three thousand oceans"? Still going my own way, I didn't want to make any changes.
Unexpectedly, only 15 years after Grant left China. In 1894, the famous Sino-Japanese Battle of Jia-Wu broke out, which ended in a total defeat of the Qing army. The Beiyang Marine Division, which Cixi was proud of, was completely annihilated in this war.
The war was undoubtedly a huge blow to the Qing Dynasty, and China's position above Japan for thousands of years was lost. It also allowed the international community to see that the Qing Dynasty was a soft persimmon, and countries like Japan could also pinch it casually. Indirectly triggered the invasion of China by the later Eight-Power Alliance, and the great powers set off a frenzy to divide China.
In addition, the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War also announced the complete failure of the previous Qing government's conservative study of Western technology. The most typical example is the Beiyang Marine Division, which was single-handedly cultivated in the foreign affairs movement, and its entire army was destroyed, which also meant that the foreign affairs movement was completely defeated.
And all this accelerated the later demise of the Qing Dynasty. If Cixi could have listened to Grant's words and actively made corresponding adjustments and changes, instead of being stubborn and conservative, passively being carried away by the nose, the Qing government might not have died. Unfortunately, history does not assume that Cixi eventually buried her dynasty with her own hands.