In 1894, according to the Chinese Ganzhi Chronology, it was the Year of Jia Wu, and in this year, a large-scale war broke out between China (the Qing Empire) and Japan, historically known as the Sino-Japanese War.
The Sino-Japanese War ended with the total annihilation of the Beiyang Marine Division and the defeat of China. Although the Qing Empire had failed several times against the Western powers before this, the Sino-Japanese War had destroyed the national self-confidence and self-esteem of the Qing Empire as never before.
The defeat of the West can also be attributed to ignorance and unfamiliarity, but I can't find a reason to comfort myself by the defeat of Japan, which the Chinese Empire knows and despises for hundreds of years. So, more than a hundred years later, what are the modern people's misunderstandings about this humiliating war?
Misconception one is that the Sino-Japanese War was the "Great Patriotic War" of the Qing Empire from the beginning, just like the First and Second Opium Wars. In fact, the Qing Empire turned the war of armed intervention in Korea's internal affairs into a war against Japanese aggression.
In 1894, the Korean family rebelled (Dongxue Party uprising), seeing that they could not stabilize the situation, they asked the suzerainty Qing Empire for help, and the Qing Empire was still a little uncertain after weighing the pros and cons.
At this time, the Japanese suddenly stood up and said, "Why doesn't your government come to the DPRK as soon as possible... My government will have no other intentions", that is to say, "Lao Qing, you should go and help your little brother cut the fight, I will definitely not make you bad." The Qing Empire gave Japan a "Can I Trust You?" In the end, he still picked up the guy Shi'er and went to North Korea, and after arriving in North Korea, he flattened things in three moves and two styles.
The Qing Empire was just about to go back after its business, when the Japanese sneaked to Korea with a forty-meter-long machete thief.
Japan: Lao Qing, when are you coming back?
Qing Empire: I'm leaving, what are you going to do?
Japan: Ah, I'll just take a look, just hang out.
Taking advantage of the gap in the Qing Empire to pack its luggage, Japan replaced the big man behind the Korean Peninsula with his own person (Li Yan, the prince of the Xingxuan Compound who supported the king's biological father, should come to power as regent).
After the Qing Empire looked at its own territory and population, the thunder was furious and couldn't bear it: What's the matter, let's make a place to touch it?
At this time, Japan is no longer ready to ask for a face: touch! Let's go?
Qing Empire: Go!
Here it is necessary to explain why Japan has to come to Korea to make trouble, there are three reasons.
First, at that time, Japan's Ito Hirobumi cabinet was facing a case of distrust in the Japanese Diet, and it was urgent to need a war to divert the attention of the people, knowing that for a government, whenever there was a crisis in power, choosing to go to war on the outside world was a good medicine to divert contradictions and unite people's hearts.
Second, Japan formulated the "mainland policy" as early as 1887, and the annexation of Korea was an established national policy, and the initiation of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War was entirely planned.
Third, in the East Asian region at the end of the 19th century, one was a feudal empire that returned to the light, and the other was a capital state that was about to emerge, and in this case, China and Japan must not be able to avoid a war.
Misconception two, in the end, the war was fought in the end to fight for comprehensive national strength, and the reason why the Qing Empire suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Jiawu was because its comprehensive national strength was inferior to that of Japan. In fact, in 1894, the Qing Empire still had a great advantage over Japan in terms of comprehensive national strength, and the Qing Empire was like the sun at four o'clock in the afternoon, although it was falling, it was also hotter than the sun at four o'clock in the morning.
What was the specific comparison of the comprehensive national strength of the Qing Dynasty before and after the Sino-Japanese War?
Population: About 400 million in the Qing Empire and 40 million in Japan.
The land area: about 10 million square kilometers in the Qing Empire and about 370,000 square kilometers in Japan.
Fiscal revenue: 88.67 million taels of silver in the Qing Empire, 58.69 million taels of silver in Japan.
Export volume: 127.4 million taels of silver in the Qing Empire, 60.28 million taels of silver in Japan.
Import volume: 135.06 million taels of silver in the Qing Empire, 59.62 million taels of silver in Japan.
Military industry: Qing Empire: 21 military enterprises, more than 15,000 employees, only Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau 4521 horsepower; Japan's 4 backbone enterprises, 10132 employees, the total horsepower of 2205
Available troops: The Qing Empire has a complex name, with more than 1 million and 350,000 combat capabilities; seven Japanese divisions and regiments with a total of 70,000 people and a total mobilization of 240,000 troops.
From the above data, we can see that China's economic strength, army size, military output, and resources during the Sino-Japanese War were far superior to Japan.1
Misunderstanding three: The Sino-Japanese War was a war between the two countries, and it was a one-on-one challenge between Qing and Japan. In fact, it was a silver player who singled out four kings and one who was about to go to silver for a total of five players.
In fact, during the Sino-Japanese War, the world was no longer an isolated and closed world, but an integrated and open world. At that time, European and American countries were in the transition from capitalism to imperialism, and Japan's provocative behavior was to a certain extent tacitly accepted and even supported by Britain, France and Virtue.
Since the black ship incident in 1853, the United States opened the door to Japan, it has always hoped that Japan can become its own invasion of China and Korea' hunting dogs, the United States wants to cultivate a hunting dog that can go to China to help it steal vegetables, and now this hound dog takes the initiative to practice stealing vegetables in China, and does not have to give food to itself, and the United States is happy that it is too late.
Russia in the Far East has always been delusional to invade northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, and in European affairs, it always likes to point fingers, and the world's boss Britain, of course, does not like to watch Russia grow bigger, and also hopes to pull Japan into northeast China for its own use and contain Russia together.
France and Germany have always been reluctant to see Britain, a good neighbor, eating alone, and acting as a churning stick to snatch things from the Hands of the British, and certainly will not miss any opportunity to bite the meat on China.
Several capitalist powers that can represent almost the whole world hope that the Qing Empire and Japan will pinch and hope that Japan will win.
From a global perspective, the inevitability of the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War in the Qing Empire. On the surface, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War was a struggle between the aging and decaying Qing Empire and the pretentious Japanese state, but in fact it was a war in the Far East, but it was just a gladiatorial arena for Western imperialist countries to be spectators and sponsors.
The victory of the Qing Empire was not in line with the wishes and interests of the "sponsors", so defeat was inevitable. The Far East at the end of the 19th century and the Middle East today are similar, and if you can understand the victory of the Syrian government army, it is not difficult to understand the defeat of the Qing Empire.
As for the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the author believes that there are many aspects, both the Qing Empire's misjudgment of the imminent war of aggression, as well as the loss of sea power and its own strength, etc. In fact, the most crucial thing is that the author believes that the Qing Empire has caught up with the great changes of the millennium, and the backward and decadent feudal system is far from being able to compete with the developed capitalist system, and even if the Sino-Japanese War does not occur, the decline of the Qing Empire will occur sooner or later.