In the late Qing Dynasty, China's frontier crisis was relatively serious, and not only the sea frontier crisis, but also the inland frontier was also threatened by imperialist aggression. Britain had two wars of aggression against Tibet, and Russia had demands for aggression in Xinjiang and northeast China. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was already left and right, and it was difficult for many people at that time to protect its own frontier areas on its own.
It was in this context that in the 1870s, the theory of coastal defense represented by Li Hongzhang and the theory of Cypriot defense represented by Zuo Zongtang appeared, and the purpose of both factions was to preserve China as much as possible. However, under the conditions at that time, if the Qing Dynasty itself wanted to preserve Xinjiang, Tibet, Mongolia and northeast China, it seemed to be more difficult, especially when the financial pressure was relatively large, and we could only concentrate on naval construction, or recover Xinjiang, and we could only choose one of the two, then there should be a trade-off. The two factions made completely different choices.
Zuo Zongtang insisted that Xinjiang is very important and must be recovered by sending troops to recover, while Li Hongzhang believes that although Xinjiang is a large place, it has very little output, and compared with the military expenditure that must be invested in recovering Xinjiang, there are few benefits that can be obtained, so there is no need to invest too many resources in the Xinjiang issue. Because the Qing Dynasty had a history of passing through the northwest, there was a tradition of historical geography research in Xinjiang, and some people agreed with Zuo Zongtang's point of view, but from the mainstream opinion of the imperial court at that time, the threat from the sea was more imminent, and the construction of the navy should be given priority.
In the end, Empress Dowager Cixi made a compromise decision to still invest limited financial funds in naval construction to defend coastal defenses, but also agreed with Zuo Zongtang's claim to recover Xinjiang. However, the imperial court did not have the ability to make any substantial support for the recovery of Xinjiang, especially the inability to allocate funds to help Zuo Zongtang procure the weapons and equipment he needed to send troops to Xinjiang. In order to send troops to Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang finally came up with a way to borrow foreign debts, that is, to raise funds through Hu Xueyan's borrowing from the great powers.
After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan opened its mouth on the issue of indemnity, and China's crisis deepened again. In this context, China has emerged the idea of changing the law and strengthening itself, that is, the Pengshu reform method represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. In the process of changing the law, Tan Sitong, as the second generation of officials, played a very important role, and finally generously died after the failure of the change, which has always been a positive image. But it is also in his writings that we find that he once advocated the sale of Xinjiang and Tibet, Mongolia and northeast China.
According to the Complete Works of Tan Si Tong, Tan Si wrote to the Guangxu Emperor: "Try to prepare for the present time, and the land that has been cut does not need to be discussed." Yidang sold Xinjiang to Russia and Tibet to England to pay off the arrears of 20,000 yuan. With the strength of tens of thousands of miles in the two realms, my strength can not be defended in the end, and I am tired of it, and the sale is not only worth twenty thousand, but it can still be used for the purpose of changing the law, and ask Britain and Russia to protect China for ten years. If the fee is insufficient, then the land on the edge of Manchuria and Mongolia can also be sold, and the value of the land sold is nearly 100,000. The land of a province in Xinjiang is no less than 20,000 square miles, even at a low price, and each party should also sell silver for five or two, which is what Xinjiang deserves 100,000 yuan, and I am willing to get less than the price, thinking that the capital for ten years of protection is also. And the price does not have to be cashed, ironclad ships, railway steel bars, wooden planks, guns, fast guns and all the machines used can be paid. Therefore, Guangxing School, no township and one pay no school, opened a large house, and there was a house of parliaments with one official and one yi. ”
Here it can be seen that Tan Sitong had his own preconditions when he made such a proposal to sell xinjiang, Tibet, and parts of Mongolia and northeast China. These prerequisites include: First, compared with the great powers, the Qing Dynasty was no longer able to continue to maintain these frontier areas, and after all, they were all plundered by the great powers; second, it was impossible for the Qing Dynasty to defeat the great powers; therefore, third, China could only sell and realize these areas as soon as possible while they were still in its own hands, so as to win the protection of the great powers and provide a relatively safer and more stable external environment for China to change the law and strengthen itself.
Here, we can see that although some readers represented by Tan Sitong hoped that the Qing Dynasty would implement the New Deal as soon as possible and change the law and strengthen itself, this was progressive at that time. But at the same time, it can also be reflected that under the continuous blows of the great powers, they have actually lost confidence in China, believing that these border areas of China will eventually be lost, and instead of finally being beaten and then cutting the land and paying compensation, it is useless, it is better to sell it as soon as possible when they still have the opportunity to sell, and they can also get a part of the funds to support the transformation of the law and self-improvement.
In fact, the crises facing Xinjiang and Tibet, Mongolia, and Northeast China at that time were indeed very deep and multiple. In addition to the invasion of the great powers, as the Qing Dynasty entered the late dynasty, the original management model of the frontier areas had also been seriously decayed, and there had been a serious sovereignty crisis in both Xinjiang and Tibet. Moreover, along with the decline of the Qing Dynasty's ability to manage the frontiers and the infiltration of imperialist forces, some factors of instability and even rebellions appeared in the concentrated ethnic groups in these frontier areas.
Even on how to understand the relationship between the border areas and the areas inhabited by Han chinese in the interior has also a serious difference of opinion. This understanding of Tan Sitong was a very typical view at that time. For example, in the ideas of the extreme anti-Manchu revolutionary faction at that time, an extreme nationalist proposition was developed, demanding a Manchu revolution, believing that Xinjiang, Tibet, Mongolia and northeast China were not China's old territories in the first place and could be abandoned for the sake of the success of the revolution.
Moreover, there are many different views on what China is. Some people think that the future Of China should take the territory of the counties and counties during the Han Dynasty as the basic territory, which will inevitably involve Korea and Vietnam, while the other advocates the ming Dynasty's two capitals and thirteen provinces as the basic territory, and all have their own reasons. Even in the debate between the constitutionalists and the revolutionaries, Yang Du believed that the reason why China had to implement a constitutional monarchy was that Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet only recognized the Qing Dynasty, not China, so it was necessary to retain the Qing Emperor in order to preserve these frontier areas.
In the first chapter of his new book "The Birth of the Century", recently published by Professor Wang Hui of Tsinghua University, these two propositions represented by Yang Du and Zhang Taiyan are discussed. Generally speaking, whether it is the constitution advocated by Yang Du or the full revolution advocated by Zhang Taiyan, it is China's reaction under the dual pressure of imperialism and civilization theory, based on different understandings of the situation. Although they all have different degrees of error, they are first discussed under the impetus of a strong sense of crisis.
But Wang Hui found that the interesting thing is that although Zhang Taiyan and Yang Du both discussed the problem in the same context, their judgments of the situation were completely different. Although Yang Du advocated the establishment of a constitution to preserve the frontier, his premise was that imperialism was invincible, and Zhang Taiyan believed that because of the contradictions and struggles between the great powers, China was temporarily spared the fate of being divided, and the border areas had not yet fallen. Therefore, Zhang Taiyan believes that only the Territory of the Ming Dynasty in China, that is, the interior, can first become self-reliant after the revolution, and then gradually operate the frontier areas.
Not only that, Zhang Taiyan also defined Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia as the three wildernesses in the way China handled the frontier areas in history, and Vietnam and Korea as the two counties during the Han Dynasty, although Burma was not included in the history of counties, but also set up a propaganda envoy department during the Ming Dynasty, and colonial rule was relatively less cruel, so it can be gradually operated after the revolution in the future. In other words, although Zhang Taiyan advocated a revolution and temporarily ignored the frontier areas, he would re-incorporate the regions including Korea, Vietnam, and Burma into China's territory in the future.
That is to say, in Zhang Taiyan's view, imperialism is not invincible, there are also serious contradictions and crises within imperialism, and as long as China can complete its internal mobilization through revolution, it will be able to stand on its own feet and become strong again. The Chinese revolution must not only be anti-imperialist, but also necessarily anti-colonial, and at the same time it must overcome the inherent contradictions of the capitalist economic system, so as to eventually surpass capitalism and imperialism, and find a new way out not only for China but also for the vast colonial areas and countries represented by Asia.