Some people said: "The GDP of the late Qing Dynasty is the first in the world, which is 5 times that of Japan, why can't we win Japan?" ”。
This statement has been circulating for several years, but it is a completely false proposition.
First, let's talk about GDP.
The phrase "the world's largest GDP in the late Qing Dynasty" was put forward by the British economic historian Angus Madison in his book "A Thousand Years of The World Economy", in which he said:
From 1700 to 1820, China's GDP not only ranked first in the world, but also increased its share of the world from 22.3% to 32.9%, the largest proportion of a single economy in the world's total GDP in history.
The concept of GDP was formally proposed by Harvard University economist Simon Smith Kuznets in 1934, and in the late Qing Dynasty, there was no so-called GDP concept, and Madison only pushed back through historical data.
In addition, even if this data is true, it is still 1820, when the Opium War had not yet broken out, the Qing Dynasty was still a heavenly kingdom, and the Industrial Revolution in Britain was not yet completely completed.
By 1894, when Daqing was bullied by Japan, he was already an old man whose body was hollowed out, and even the most profitable customs revenue was controlled by the British, and what GDP was talked about.
In fact, in 1894, the annual income of the Qing Dynasty was 90 million taels of silver, and in Japan it was 150 million yen, equivalent to silver, which was about 90 million taels, and the income of the two countries was basically equal.
That year, the GDP of the United States surpassed that of the United Kingdom for the first time, becoming the world's first, and it has remained so far.
Second, let's talk about the problem of whether to win the fight.
The war between countries is a comprehensive national strength, a military strength, a national will, a high GDP, but it means that you are slightly richer, if you are not willing to spend money on the battlefield, then what strength do you have to fight with the opponent.
On GDP, some people say that the GDP of the Northern Song Dynasty accounted for 80% of the world's GDP, and it was not just abused by the Jin Dynasty, why did Song Huizong not use a GDP to strangle Jin Taizong?
The root cause of being bullied by Japan in the late Qing Dynasty has nothing to do with GDP, but lies in the degree of awakening of the two countries.
In the 1850s, when China and Japan were invaded by European powers almost simultaneously, Japan was awakened at the first time, actively embracing industrial civilization and completely transforming itself. And I was still intoxicated in the beautiful dream of the Heavenly Dynasty, and even though I was beaten again and again, I still stubbornly said: "You barbarian states are too ignorant of martial virtue."
Two bullied countries, two different path options
Before 1853, Japan was also a feudal country that was closed to the outside world, and although there were also emperors, the power of the state was in the hands of the "shogunate", which is the "Tokugawa shogunate" that we often see in history textbooks.
The shogun was the supreme ruler of Japan, occupying a quarter of the country, and the rest of the country was divided into "domains", and the ruler was called "Daimyo", similar to my "princes". The "prefectural" and "feudal" together constituted the United Front class in Japan, and the other ruling classes were divided into "peasants, craftsmen, and merchants."
In order to maintain its rule, the Tokugawa shogunate also introduced a closed-door policy, prohibiting Trade between Japanese ships and foreign merchant ships, and allowing only China, North Korea, and the Netherlands to conduct foreign trade in one place in Nagasaki.
This, highly similar to the Qing Dynasty, retained a treaty port in Guangzhou while closing the country to the outside world.
In 1853, U.S. Admiral Perry led a fleet to Japan, forced Japan to open a treaty port, and signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan.
The invasion of European and American capitalism has shaken the development of Japanese shogunate rule, and the "curtain fall movement" has begun to break out.
The Japanese also understood the principle of "no name for the master", so they put up the slogan of "supporting the emperor" and demanded that the Tokugawa shogunate return the power of the country to the emperor.
At that time, the 15-year-old Meiji Emperor had just succeeded to the throne, and he also took the opportunity to put forward the slogan of "retro monarchy", and together with the reformers, he overthrew the rule of the shogunate and established a "constitutional monarchy" centered on the emperor. Since then, a series of reform measures have been introduced, allowing Japan to move towards a high-speed capitalist society, known in history as the "Meiji Restoration".
The Meiji Restoration was an important milestone in the history of Japan's modern development.
In 1956, the Second Opium War broke out in China, the Anglo-French army fought from Guangzhou to Beijing, and the Xianfeng Emperor ran to Rehe with Cixi and handed over a mess to Prince Gong Yishi.
This is not the first time that European and American powers have organized a group to bully China, as early as 1840, Britain has come to China to do things, unfortunately, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty has been beaten, and he still wants to be the boss.
After the Second Opium War, the Qing Dynasty suffered heavy losses, not to mention the reparations, and 1.5 million square kilometers of land in the northeast were looted by the Russians.
Not long after, the Xianfeng Emperor died, and the strong woman Cixi seized power, and she began to reuse the Han minister Zeng Guofan, destroying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and winning a respite for the Qing Dynasty.
From 1864 to 1894, these 30 years were the best time for the development of the Qing Dynasty, and if we could painstakingly think hard and thoroughly reform the decadent system, Japan would always be China's little brother. Unfortunately, Daqing wasted this great opportunity.
Daqing is not without effort, but it has not worked hard to the root.
After the Second Opium War, Prince Gong Yishi gave a piece of advice to the imperial court, asking to learn from the West and introduce advanced industries, technologies and weapons from the West.
Cixi was also very supportive, so in the imperial court, a reform faction headed by Yi Bi was formed, smashing the local areas, and forming a western faction headed by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong.
Suddenly, a vigorous foreign affairs movement began.
In the past 30 years, the Qing Dynasty has indeed changed. Militarily, we have the Beiyang Marine Division, the new-style army, and the military academy; industrially, we have telegraphs, we have railways, and we have modern enterprises; educationally, we have opened the Beijing Division and the Tongwen Museum, sent international students to study in the United States, and founded newspapers.
It can be said that in those 30 years, China and Japan were racing on the same track, but in the Sino-Japanese War 30 years later, the Great Qing Dynasty handed over a seriously failed answer.
Why, in the face of The invasion of Europe and the United States, China and Japan carried out reforms at the same time, but the gap 30 years later is so large?
As far as Japan is concerned, the Meiji Restoration was built on the basis of the Japanese Emperor's "seizure of power", And Japan, which was not originally the Emperor of Japan, was the Japan of the Tokugawa Shogunate, "the cub selling The Field is not painful", the whole, give me a hard time to rectify, the more movement, the more the shogunate's power can be completely eradicated.
Therefore, the Japanese emperor carried out thorough reforms in the political, economic, and military aspects, studied the Western constitutional monarchy as a whole, established a cabinet system, "broke away from Asia and entered Europe," and completely embraced the embrace of Europe.
At that time, the European powers invaded the world, and the fundamental purpose was to establish a dumping channel for goods, but because European industry was ahead of the world, many countries had not yet reacted, including China, and had not yet learned the rules of the game for Europeans.
Japan's Meiji Restoration allowed Japan to thoroughly learn and apply the rules of the game after the industrialization of Europe and the United States, and thus embarked on the road of the great powers.
As far as the Qing Dynasty is concerned, the Western Affairs Movement is a repair and repair carried out under the premise of keeping the rule of the Qing Dynasty unchanged.
If weapons do not work, they will import weapons, if industry does not work, they will import industry, and if education does not work, they will study abroad, but Daqing did not realize that the gap between him and the European and American powers lies not in this little fur, but in the change of the rules of the whole game.
China's farming culture for thousands of years has cultivated a self-sufficient mindset, but in the era of industrialization, it is about global integration, full openness and exchanges, and about equal trade between countries, rather than China's tributary system that has lasted for thousands of years.
The gap between the Qing Dynasty and Japan began to widen gradually in those 30 years, so that in the end, Japan dared to invade us.
The fiasco of 1894 was rooted in ideas
In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, which was the largest war between the Qing Dynasty and Japan, and a knockout match after 30 years of reform between the two sides.
For the Sino-Japanese War, everyone was most impressed by the naval battle, the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed, and Li Hongzhang's painstaking efforts for more than ten years were burned.
In fact, many people don't know that the land war and the great Qing lost were also a mess. Since Ye Zhichao escaped from Korea, the Japanese crossed the Yalu River and gradually captured Lushun, which has seriously threatened the security of Beijing and Tianjin.
For the loss of the Beiyang Fleet, the Qing court was actually not distressed, it was nothing more than spending some silver to build it, but for the Japanese to invade their hometown in the northeast and even break through Shanhaiguan, this was a big problem for Cixi.
Under these circumstances, Cixi urgently activated Prince Gong Yi bi and began to negotiate reconciliation with Japan.
Did China really not have the ability to continue fighting at that time? not necessarily.
Friends who are familiar with this period of history know that there is a saying that "the Sino-Japanese War was a war fought by Li Hongzhang alone." What do you mean? That is to say, at that time, the Qing Dynasty did not use the strength of the whole country to compete with Japan, and the southern army did not move at all, and even the "brother troops", the Nanyang Water Division, and the Fujian Water Division did not move.
Why didn't Cixi dare to continue fighting, not because she couldn't move, but because she didn't want to fight.
"Protect the Great Qing, do not protect China, protect Manchuria, and do not protect China", this is the guiding ideology of Cixi. reparations? Yes, cut the land? Yes, but there is one thing that cannot be touched by the royal status of the I Love Shin Kyora family.
Some people will say, "Don't wrongly accuse Cixi, Cixi didn't say this." It didn't matter if she didn't say it, in fact, that's what she did.
After the Second Opium War, she signed a series of unequal treaties with foreigners through Prince Gong Yishi to ensure her ascension to the throne; in the Sino-Japanese War, it was also because the Japanese were about to pass through Shanhaiguan that she hurried to negotiate peace; the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, she ran to Xi'an to take refuge, and after receiving assurances from foreigners not to kill her and let her become empress, she asked Li Hongzhang to go to Beijing to sign a treaty.
After being beaten three times and signing three traitorous treaties, did Cixi change? Not really.
After the Gengzi Incident, everyone realized that it was useless to just engage in the foreign affairs movement, and it was necessary to change the system and learn from the Western constitutional monarchy, so the constitutionalists appeared and called on the Qing Dynasty to carry out a new round of reforms.
The action of establishing a constitution had begun, but Cixi set a tone: "Great power is unified in the imperial court, and the government is public opinion." What's the difference between that and before? Moreover, a "few years" period was set for the constitution. Obviously, Cixi meant, "When I die, you can change it as you please, but don't try to shake my rule when I am."
According to the Western system, the imperial examination was abolished, a new army was established, and a parliament was established, but once the core power of the imperial court was involved, there would be many obstacles, and it would not be abolished by a single military aircraft department, let alone the formation of a cabinet and the abolition of imperial power.
Even after Cixi's death in 1908, Zaifeng, who succeeded him, still used this set of ideas, and the opening of the mouth was "Daqing, is the Great Qing of our family"
Fundamentally, they did not realize that "the Great Qing Dynasty is only a part of my majestic China, manchus, only a part of my Chinese descendants", let you take care of things for a few days, and you will really regard this Chinese land as your own home
In addition to Cixi's "self-preservation thought", the decay of the Great Qing Dynasty was really rotten to the point of home.
First of all, let's talk about the imperial court.
In order to get herself a feng shui treasure land for the elderly, Cixi began to spend a lot of effort to build the Summer Palace, which became the "No. 1 project" in the imperial court at that time, and also became the largest oil and water department.
Every year, a huge amount of money was invested to build that broken place, and even the military expenses of the Beiyang Marine Division were embezzled, and as soon as Li Hongzhang applied for military expenses, Weng Tonggong shared both hands and a stall: "If I have money, won't I allocate it to you?"
The Beiyang Marine Division claims to be "the eighth in the world and the first in Asia", but who knows that the Beiyang Marine Division has not purchased new weapons for 5 years, and it is clear that the "rapid-fire cannon" is a necessary weapon for the marine division, but there is no money to buy it.
In contrast, in Japan, the emperor took the initiative to use his own private money to develop the navy, and even put aside harsh words, eating only one meal a day, and also using the money for the military.
On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Army had grown to 7 divisions, 70,000 active troops, and 230,000 reserves; a modernized navy with 31 large and small warships, 37 torpedo boats, and a total tonnage of 60,000 tons was built.
When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, it was the day of Cixi's 60th birthday, and she carefully prepared for it for several years. When the front line was fighting, she watched the drama for 3 days in a row and said: "If anyone makes me unhappy today, I will make him unhappy for a lifetime."
So decayed, the Great Qing yan has the reason for invincibility.
Let's talk about the grassroots.
Do you know how the ordinary Beiyang Marine Division is trained? Others said, "I mean where to fight," and beiyang sailor said, "I mean where I am fighting."
What do you mean? Before firing the shells, the number of yards in advance was measured, and the so-called exercise was just a "show."
Because there had been no war for many years, the warships of the Beiyang Marine Division had become "special vehicles" for the members of the imperial court, and some warships had actually carried out the "tertiary industry," some engaged in transportation, some engaged in smuggling, and some engaged in tourism.
The generals even took the lead in decay, gathering people to ask for money was a trivial matter, and even after the Weihaiwei War, Laiyuan pipe belt Qiu Baoren, Weiyuan pipe belt Lin Yingqi actually landed on the shore to find flowers and ask willows.
There are such sailors, how to win the battle.
After the Meiji Restoration, why did Japan dare to be so arrogant
The Meiji Restoration was successful, but it also had a major after-effect, that is, militarism with the Japanese emperor at its core.
For a long time, Japan has been ruled by "samurai", and after the Meiji Restoration, the samurai class remained the ruling class of Japan, and they were called "Chinese".
In 1887, the Japanese General Staff Headquarters formulated the so-called "Qingguo Conquest Strategy", which gradually evolved into a "mainland policy" centered on the invasion of China, in a vain attempt to conquer China and Korea, unify Asia, and dominate the world.
The first thing Japan used to practice was North Korea.
In 1882, taking advantage of the civil unrest in Korea, Japan sent troops to Korea. After that, he coveted Taiwan, Ryukyu, and finally in 1894, a direct conflict with the Qing Dynasty broke out.
As for the Sino-Japanese War, the Great Qing was passive in response to the war, while Japan took the initiative to provoke trouble, and even when the Great Qing announced the official start of the war with Japan, Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu went so far as to say excitedly: "The Great Qing has finally entered a state of war with the Empire."
In the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan won.
For a long time, China has been the leading big brother of Japan, the Japanese kimono was imported from the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese script, including some Chinese, and the Japanese prefectural system is also to learn from The Chinese sub-feudal system.
The victory greatly stimulated japan's appetite.
In 1904, Japan took the initiative to challenge Tsarist Russia, and the Russo-Japanese War broke out, because it was located in the Far East, the Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been fully repaired, and Russia was difficult to supply, and finally lost to Japan.
Taking a small country as a projectile, singled out the two major empires of the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia, and won both battles, this cannot but make Japan's militarism boil.
In 1914, Japan took the initiative to participate in The First World War, after which it acquired Germany's rights and interests in Shandong, in 1931 it created the 918 Incident in northeast China, in 1937 it invaded China in an all-round way, in 1941 it challenged the United States, and in 1945 it was beaten back to its original form.
For decades, Japan emerged from the ashes and re-emerged as a world economic power. What is worth vigilance is that Japanese militarist ideas still exist, and right-wing elements beautify World War II, erase history, and visit "shrines."
From the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 to the present, the centennial journey, the awakening of the lion, China is no longer the late Qing Dynasty, and the tragedy of history will not repeat itself!