Guo Songtao (1818–1891)
Note: This article was originally published in 1883 of the "Southern Weekend" topic "Three Decisions of the Decade" on March 20, 2003
Guo Songtao, the first minister of the Qing Dynasty in Britain and France, not only dared to examine the Western political system, but also dared to affirm its strengths. However, his propositions are not tolerated in the world, and the end is desolate, not only was he spurned before his death, but after 9 years of death, there are still people who want to open the coffin and whip the corpse. The spark of the social elite's thinking was extinguished in a flash.
For many years, Guo Songtao has maintained the habit of giving a poem to the new year. On the first day of the first lunar month in 1883, at the age of 65, he looked at the old face in the mirror and was very depressed. In the chronicle poem, he wrote: Everything changes with the clouds in front of the eyes, and the mirror fades and borrows wine. The world is full of feelings, and the rise and fall are repeatedly discussed with whom?
It had been 4 years since he stepped down as the minister of the Qing Dynasty to Britain and France. Since Guangxu returned from London in the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), this erpin master of the dynasty has been idle in his hometown in Hunan.
If it were not for the creation of people and a trip to a foreigner's country, Guo Songtao would still be revered by the scholars.
Before his mission to Britain, he was already a well-educated man in China, and he had been trained in eunuchs for a long time, and had served as an inspector and a waiter, and "rewarded the two products to wear". When the Taiping Army arose, he sponsored Zeng Guofan to organize regimental training and establish the Xiang Army, known as the "Xiang Army God of Wealth". After defeating the Taiping Army, he devoted himself to foreign affairs, advocating the imitation of Western tools, the introduction of Western learning, the abolition of imperial examinations, and the encouragement of commercial industry. In the eyes of the world, although there were some bumps in the previous road to becoming an official, with his talents and learning and his deep friendship with zeng guofan and Li Hongzhang, who were important ministers of the imperial court, it was not a matter of expectation to walk a peaceful career and live an old life.
However, his later experience as a mission ruined the good times for the rest of his life.
The pain of the awakened dreamer
Guo Songtao was the first official envoy to England and France sent by the Qing dynasty government. At that time, in the Great Qing Dynasty, the princes, ministers, and celebrities were still at the level of diplomatic understanding of "hearing the foreigner's long and angry, and hearing the foreigner's short is happy", so they regarded the envoy as a messenger who undermined the name of the Qing. What's more, the Qing court sent envoys this time to apologize to Britain for the "Ma Jiali case". His Hunan compatriots were ashamed of his trip and tried to destroy his old mansion. At that time, there was even a very harsh couplet circulating: out of its kind, out of its strength, I did not see the world of Rong Yaoshun; if I could not do anything, I could do things to ghosts, so why should I go to the country of my parents.
But Guo Songtao decided that the situation was difficult and could not bear to sit idly by. Summing up the lessons learned since the Opium War, he believed that relying solely on righteous indignation and empty arguments would not help the hardships. If you can have one or two more people who understand the hypocrisy of foreigners and are familiar with their beneficial diseases, they can naturally have more strain skills. He was determined to be such an understanding person, to go to the West to learn their "art of strengthening the army and enriching the country" and "the way of learning and rejuvenating the art", especially to explore "those who have established the country through folk customs". Taking the strengths of the West, making up for China's shortcomings, and learning from the instruments and politics and religion shows that Guo Songtao's understanding is indeed higher than that of the people at that time.
After Guo Songtao went to Britain, France and other countries, he made detailed visits, read a wide range of books, and his insight and knowledge improved by leaps and bounds. He not only recognized that Western culture also had a long history of development, but also compared Western philosophies such as "Bafuzi" (Plato) and "Yafuzi" (Aristotle) with Eastern philosophers such as "Confucius" and "Mengfuzi", but also particularly admired the development of modern Western philosophy and science. He said: "The British say that the astronomical mystery was developed by Newden (Newton), and this source of British practical science (science) is also. In the past two hundred and thirty or forty years, the European countries have become richer and stronger, and they have all learned the merits of examination. ”
Of course, the most valuable thing is the progress of his understanding of the form of government (the foundation of the country). He gradually broke free from the shackles of the supremacy of monarchy, and dared not only to examine Western democracies, but also to affirm their strengths. He said that the state politics of the West are all public to the people, but China's state affairs for more than 2,000 years since the Qin and Han Dynasties are just the opposite. He attended the debates in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and also carefully studied the history of the political development of the British Parliament, and realized: "Pushing forward the foundation of its founding, so that those who are protracted and the country is in a state of strength, have a proposal to hold the state in the Parliament of Baal gate, and the Mayor (Mayor) governs the people with a sense of obedience to the people's wishes." The two are held together by the relationship between the king and the people. The prosperity and decline of the emperor, and the founding of the country for more than a thousand years was finally undefeated. Talent learning has risen one after another, and all have their own effects. This is also the foundation of its founding. ”
The upper demand for parliamentary politics and the lower for local autonomy is the political program of the constitutionalists at the beginning of the 20th century at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and Guo Songtao already had this preliminary understanding 30 years ago.
After a period of practical experience of living abroad, he gradually realized China's place in world civilization at that time. In the spring of 1878, the British newspaper The Times slammed the government for awarding the Persian King's Medal in recent years, arguing that "semi-civilized countries are not enough to award the medal". He sighed and said: Westerners divide the country into civilized, semi-civilized, and barbaric, while China is called semi-civilized. But before the Han Dynasty, only China had enlightenment, and the rest of the places Chinese called it "Yidi". Now that they have all been turned over, such as distinguishing between wen and ye according to the degree of development of civilization, it is now the turn of Europeans to regard China as "Yidi". Chinese scholars are still immersed in the dream of "Huaxia Center", how can it not be sad!
Three "crimes"
A person who is over the age of Hua Jia, who has read the Confucian classics for most of his life, has his mind full of old concepts such as "Heavenly Dynasty" such as "I have heard of the use of Xia to change yi, and I have not heard of those who have changed from Yi" and so on, but now he dares to admit the advanced of the West and the backwardness of China, and how much courage it takes at that time to admit it so thoroughly.
Because of this, he was intolerable to this society. Under the conditions of the time, as far as the social group to which he belonged was concerned, he had gone too far. So he was unable to secure his position and was constantly attacked, and the most vicious attack came from his deputy Liu Xihong.
Earlier, Guo Songtao had compiled a book called "The Chronicle of the Envoys" in detail, which praised the cultivation of Western politics and religion and the fact that China should adopt its way of governing the country. After he sent the book back to China, he submitted it to the prime minister Yamen for engraving, which immediately aroused the indignation of the Manchu scholars and doctors, who demanded that he be removed from his post and investigated.
He Jinshou, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, impeached him for "having two hearts in England and wanting Chinese subjects"; as a result, the book was denounced and destroyed by the Qing court, and it was strictly forbidden to become popular.
After this incident, his deputy Liu Xihong, believing that the time had come, immediately rose up and accused Guo Songtao of "three major crimes":
1. "The Yujiatun Fort is clothed with foreigners' clothes, even if it freezes to death, it is not appropriate to wear it." "------------------------------------
2. "Seeing that the lord of Brazil has stood up without permission, how can he pay tribute to the lord of a small country?" "------------------------------------
3. "The Birkin Palace listens to music and repeatedly reads music lists, imitating the actions of foreigners." Listening to music actually takes the music list.
Liu Xihong also openly threatened in the embassy: "I will not tolerate the people who are also accused of being traitors by this Beijing master." He also secretly impeached Guo Songtao's "Ten Paragraphs" and did his best to fabricate and frame him. Liu Xihong's accusations against Guo Songtao were not only frivolous, but also in line with international etiquette, and could confirm the British saying that Guo was "the most educated person in the East I saw". However, due to the strength and power of the conservative forces, from the imperial court to the Kyoshi doctors, there was a lot of scorn and accusations. He had to ask for a job due to illness when his term of office was not complete (only one year and seven months), and the Qing court immediately granted permission and took over zeng Jize.
Guo Songtao went out to the army in the spit and cursed, and returned to China in the spit.
On the day of his mission, he was also full of ambition, hoping to introduce the Western way of governing the country and make China revitalize and become rich and strong; after returning from the feathers, he had lost the confidence to continue to struggle, so he was also called sick and begged, and returned to his hometown. Guo Songtao arrived in Changsha by boat on May 5, 1879. At that time, xiangyin was in the midst of a wave of old-fashioned xenophobia, and the situation was quite tense; even the use of small steamers to tow wooden boats to the provincial capital was prevented by Changsha and Shanhua counties, and the slogan of cursing Guo Songtao for "hooking up with foreigners" was posted on the street.
Although Guo Songtao's official title of envoy had not been lifted for the time being, the local officials below the inspector were "arrogant and disrespectful". The resentment and loneliness in his heart is self-evident.
The fate of the pioneers of ideas
The pioneers of the world of thought were always in the minority in their initial stages, and their loneliness was always the same.
On his way back to China, Guo Songtao once inspected Gong Zizhen's collection and thought that he could understand "the way to deal with the villain and cure the fierce and stubborn". Aren't liu xihong and the like ghost and jackal? In this society where flies, ants, mosquitoes and fleas are rampant, where is the hope and future? When the ship arrived in Hong Kong, Guo Songtao went ashore to talk with Wang Tao, who was editing the "Circulation Daily" in Hong Kong. After the ship departed, Guo Songtao recalled the scene of visiting Wang Tao in Shanghai in 1855 at the Yinghua Bookstore, and wrote in his diary on the same day: "Reading Ziqian (Wang Tao)
"Yingtu Need Magazine", the buddha is like yesterday, twenty-five years ago. The elegance of a day, the friendship of the rain boat, xiao Xiao wind and rain in the heart, chanting Dongpo 'life everywhere knows what is like, should be like Feihong stepping on the snow and mud', in order to increase the sorrow. “
If it can be said that Guo Songtao had criticized the Western affairs clique for learning from the West more than ten years before the Sino-Japanese War, "forgetting its roots at the end of its reign, and ignorant of its origins in poverty"; then a political treatise that appeared in 1884 in the form of the legacy of Zhang Shusheng, the former governor of Liangguang, had already made a more specific exploration of the foundation of western countries, and clearly believed that it should focus on learning from the foundation of the West's prosperity and strength. The posthumous fold said: "The Fuxi people founded a country, have their own end, although they are indoctrinated and far inferior to China, but they are tamed and rich, and they have physical use." Nurturing talents in the academy, deliberating on the government in the house, the unity of the monarch and the people, the same heart from top to bottom, pragmatic and refraining from being vain, planning and then moving, this body is also. Ships, cannons, guns, mines, railways, wires are also used. China left its body behind and sought its use, no matter how much it tried to move, often did not reach each other, so that the iron ships were formed, the railways were reached in all directions, and the fruits were enough to be intimidated? At the same time, this fold also has the phrase "the saints and all things are the teachers, and the bodies of the Western people are taken to practice their uses" and so on.
Also in 1884, Zheng Guanying's "Diary of a Journey to the South" also had a very similar language.
After China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War to Japan, the inherent weaknesses of the foreign affairs movement were fully exposed, and the "Chinese body and Western use" showed that there were many limitations after practical testing, so the criticism of it by latecomers such as Tan Si became increasingly fierce and profound. Because in essence, although the "Chinese body and Western use" theory, which has a fair and equal posture, no longer openly opposes learning from modern Western civilization, its seeming restoration has maintained the foundation of the agricultural patriarchal society in its bones.
Around the time of The Imperial Household, China was still in the first stage of learning from the West, and people's understanding was still at the level of "Chinese body and Western use", and many Qingliu people could not even reach this level. What's more, Guo Songtao's thinking was obviously beyond his peers, and it was no wonder that the government and the public at that time could not tolerate him.
After Guo Songtao's return to China in 1879, the evening scene was very bleak. Although the British "Times" and the Shanghai "Zi Lin Xi Bao" carried articles praising Guo Songtao and hoping that the imperial court would use Guo's family, liu kunyi, an official of the Western affairs faction, repeatedly went up to the court to ask for Guo Songtao, but until Guo Songtao finally grew old in the old mansion in Hunan, he was no longer used by the imperial court. Guo Songtao, who had urged the government to support the private economy and hand over the official assets to the merchants, applied for the establishment of a steamship company three times in his later years, and the third time he directly received the support of Li Hongzhang, who was once in power, but in the end it came to naught. He who wanted to serve the country by examining the way of western strength and prosperity helplessly became a tide watcher in the face of the tide of "public opinion." In this state of mind, he can only resort to the pen, in a poem in his later years, "Drama Book Portrait", he sighed: "Learning is half general and half obvious, and he has embraced several times in his life!" However, he was also confident: "After a thousand generations, I will know that there is this person in the world." ”
In 1891, Guo Songtao, a pioneer of China's modernization and who never got rid of the name of "Han traitor" in the second half of his life, died of depression. Although some officials requested that the edict be given according to the custom and the transmission be established, the imperial court issued a decree saying: "Guo Songtao went on an envoy to the West, and the books he wrote were quite controversial, and what he asked was not allowed to be carried out." Until 9 years after his death, when the Boxer Rebellion was on the rise, there were also Jingguan Shangxiang who asked to open the coffin and whip Guo Songtao's corpse to thank the world.
※Author's Note: This article was written with the strong support of Professor Zhang Kaiyuan of Central China Normal University, and some of the materials in the article are quoted from his book "Divorce and Return", I would like to express my gratitude.
Welcome to your circle of friends