At the beginning of the 9th century, while the Japanese were still admiring the colorful ukiyo-e, the American fleet had quietly appeared on the surface of Edo Bay, and contradictions and conflicts were on the verge of erupting. Looking back at this period of Japanese history in the late Edo period, scholars in the past often cite the pedantic weakness of the shogunate as the main reason why Japan had to embark on the path of the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese historian Katsuo Inoue pointed out in "The Founding of the Nation and the Reform at the End of the Curtain" that the narrative of "internal and external troubles" at the end of the Japanese shogunate is actually a sense of crisis shaped by Japan's modern elite, and this sense of crisis is precisely the key to prompting Japan to embark on the path of militarism, thus completely subverting the traditional academic evaluation of this history.
As the ninth volume of Kodansha History of Japan, "The Founding of the Nation and the Late Shogunate Changes" was introduced to China for publication last year. In the following, the author reviews this classic work of Katsuo Inoue from many perspectives, and believes that this work breaks the limitations of previous research on the elite and the victorious side of the restoration government, and provides an important reference for re-understanding the origin of Japan's modernization; Reading this book by Chinese readers will help to deepen their understanding of the power of retro regression and progressive innovation in the alternation of the old and new in Japan's modern transformation. The original title of the article was "Japan's Modern Transformation under the Multiple Concerts of Founding and Reform."
"The Founding of the Nation and the Change at the End of the Curtain", by Katsuo Inoue, translated by Yang Yanfeng, New Classic Culture | Wenhui Publishing House, May 2021.
Japan's Modern Transformation under the Multiple Concerts of Founding and Reform
Written by | Qu Liang
(Center for East Asian Studies, School of Philosophy, History and Culture, Xiangtan University)
Japan is China's neighbor with water and water, and since ancient times, there have been intricate and inseparable entanglements and ties between China and Japan. In general, in the pre-modern era, Japan mainly borrowed from China's advanced system and culture, and under the dual tone of "harmony with the soul of Hancai" and "exotic mountains and rivers, wind and moon in the same day", it formed a "funnel-shaped" development model based on its own ideology and culture and specific terroir, absorbing and absorbing Chinese culture and system. However, in the 19th century, when the capitalist powers competed for colonies, China and Japan, because they adopted two completely different ways of modernization and transformation, embarked on the road of breaking away from Asia and entering Europe, civilizing civilization and difficult resistance, and self-improvement. In fact, since the Meiji Restoration, Chinese have been exploring why Japan, a country that belongs to the same East Asian civilization, has such a completely different choice from us in the process of modern transformation, from Huang Zunxian's "Chronicle of Japan", Dai Jitao's "On Japan", Jiang Baili's "Japanese", and then to the Japanese culture in the 1980s, the boom in modern economic research in Japan, we have been exploring the success or failure factors in Japan's modern transformation, to correspond to the risks and lessons that China should avoid at various stages of development. Japan's development since the modern transformation is also an important mirror for China.
In the past, people paid more attention to the success or failure of Japan in modern state building after the Meiji Restoration, but it was found that focusing only on the history of this period made it difficult to have a comprehensive understanding of the duality of modern Japan and pre-modern times and its wandering between Asia and Asia, and it was difficult to find the internal motivation for its transformation from a small country locked in a corner of East Asia to a huge empire that stirred up the world trend. In recent years, academics and non-governmental organizations have further followed how Japan, an East Asian country that did not shine in the pre-modern era, achieved rapid modernization and transformation, and how it exerted its economic, institutional and cultural traditional energy accumulated in the pre-modern era to occupy a place in the 19th century when the great powers were strife. In China, William Beasley's "Meiji Restoration", Jensen's "Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration", Donald King's "Japan Discovers Europe", Mitani's "The Black Ship Comes", Sasakik's "From the End of the Curtain to Meiji", Sakano Runji's "Unfinished Meiji Restoration" and other related works have been introduced and translated, and the Japanese academic circles in China have also carried out new explorations on the dual nature of the Meiji Restoration, the national conception before and after the Meiji, and the influence of the world situation in the 19th century on Japan, and promoted the re-understanding of the modern transformation period of Japan in the 19th century. Kodansha's ninth volume of Japanese history, "The Founding of the Nation and the End of the Shogunate Revolution", written by Katsuo Inoue, a professor at Kyoto University and Hokkaido University, starts from the dual internal and external changes in Japan in the 19th century, breaks the limitations of previous research on the elite and the victorious side of the restoration government, and attempts to restore the process of internal disintegration of the Taihei clan system from the perspective of the shogunate, Ezo, Western powers, neighboring countries in East Asia, and popular movements, and examines and criticizes the historical view of the previous Isazar chief center. The imperial view of history and the untruthfulness of the modern transformation of the central narrative provide an important reference for re-understanding the origins of Japan's modernization.
Repositioning the founding and reform of the shogunate in the late Edo period
Influenced by historical works such as the History of the Restoration since the Meiji Period, which emphasize the rapid rise of modern Japan and highlight the merits of the Restoration Government, the reconstructed vein of change throughout 19th century, such as "Closed Country - Perry Buckle - Shogunate Submission - Emperor ZunYi - Founding and Falling Down - Retro Monarchy", became a general understanding of the collapse of the Edo shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. In this constructed vein, the Edo shogunate has always shown its face as a feudal force that is stubbornly conservative in internal affairs and condescending in diplomacy.
Believing that the shogunate's lock-in on the country and the preservation of the country had led to the missed opportunity to fly overseas, Taguchi Yukichi branded the Tokugawa shogunate as "imprisoning the nature of man and suppressing man's desires" ("A Small History of Japanese Kaihua", 1884, pp. 16-17), while the "History of the Restoration" lamented the Edo shogunate's "internal peace and peace, and despised the foreign police" ("History of the Restoration", vol. 1, edited by the Bureau of Restoration History, 1939, p. 393), "the arrival of the great powers with their military might, In an instant, Zhou Zhang was confused... Perceiving the poverty of the ruling situation and choosing the way to open up trade and commerce in the country, his rash arbitrariness led to the expansion of controversy to the extreme" (Preface to the First Volume of the Restoration, p. 4), Hiraizumi Cheng regarded the disregard of the imperial court and the signing of treaties between the imperial court and the great powers as an act of monopolizing their own selfish interests and suppressing patriots, believing that this led to the fact that the general trend had gone when he faced the fall of the emperor ("History of Japan", vol. 3, pp. 613-657), Lian Norman, "History of the Japanese Restoration". The failure of the reforms in the late Edo shogunate was also attributed to feudal factional struggles (History of the Japanese Restoration, The Commercial Press, 1992, p. 207). However, Inoue Katsuo's book shows the reader the open and meticulous Edo shogunate, its far-sighted and familiar with the international rules of the "Public Law of Nations", and the pioneering appearance of the reformers who are committed to modernization.
The prologue begins with an emphasis on the shogunate's proactive response to the eastward expansion of Tsarist Russia at the end of the 18th century in making positive adjustments to its territorial map. Previously, the Ainu and other ethnic groups in the northern regions of Ezo land relied on seafood and furs to live freely, and the shogunate realized that Tsarist Russia had invaded along the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, and Alaska all the way to the Kuril Islands, and after learning that Tsarist Russia had established a Russian-American company to plunder the resources of the land and compete with the Ainu people for the fur tax, the "Defu Island Incident" changed the originally relaxed "Yiren-made Yidi" autonomy policy and took the initiative to include Ezo under its direct jurisdiction ("The Founding of the State and the Reform of the Late Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 16-18). This actually included the Ezo region, which had been outside the territory of the Heian period, into its own territory, in line with the concept of the "Northern Development Theory" of the intellectuals of the late Edo period, and laid the foundation for the establishment of Hokkaido in the Meiji era. This broke the illusion of the shogunate in modern Japan, which was isolated and ignorant, and mutilated people of insight, and proved to be the first to take a proactive posture in the face of the early threat of Tsarist Russia, the shogunate took a proactive posture at the first time, using the investigation data of drifters and messengers, and gradually applied the principle of the modern "public law of all nations" to occupy the territory first, becoming the pioneer of the modern Japanese policy of sovereignty ownership of islands and seas.
In the past, it was believed that the people under the shogunate system were living in poverty and could not overcome the low status hierarchy, and the shogunate's harsh treatment and oppression of the peasants caused them to cooperate with the low-level samurai movement at the end of the shogunate. However, the work points out that based on the fact that in the early days of Edo, there was already a basis for local peasant households to directly sue the shogunate, and a series of abolition of guilds and free trade principles promised by the shogunate in the later period, so that peasant households and lower-level village officials already had a sense of rights. The reason why peasant revolts occurred frequently after the Tempo Reforms was also because the peasant households were able to make the shogunate achieve their demands through methodical and less destructive sabotage activities, and even if the uprising failed, the punishment for the participants was relatively light ("The Founding of the Country and the Late Reforms", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 60-77). Compared with the harsh suppression and execution of the Raiders rebels by the Choshu Domain and the Exploitation and Oppression of peasants by the Meiji government, the shogunate's relatively loose policy toward the people under the internal and external crises of the late Edo period left a space for pluralistic expression ("The Founding and the Reform of the End of the Shogunate", Bunkei Publishing House, pp. 336-346) and interaction ("The Founding and the End of the Shogunate Change", Bunhui Publishing House, pp. 73-74), which is very different from the modern era when the people completely stooped to the emperor system as "loyal and patriotic" subjects. Inoue used a wealth of historical materials to try to find out that even in the late Edo period, which was plagued by internal and external difficulties, the relatively hollow shogunate structure did not infiltrate the people with a unified ideology and unquestionable absolutist royal power, which left room for the multi-layered beliefs and reformist movements of the people, and also accumulated energy for the educational revolution that made the best use of people after the abolition of the identity hierarchy in modern times.
The issue of the founding of the country has always been the main line of discussion in the study of modern Japanese history, and it is common sense that the external force of the "black ship coming to sail" of the American Perry fleet knocked on the door of Japan, and the shogunate was forced to sign a treaty of mourning and humiliation under the pressure of the great powers, and foreign issues caused the shogunate to lose its authority and accelerated the disintegration of the shogunate system (Nobuo Kiyosaburo: "The Two Meiji Restoration of Japanese Political History", Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1982, pp. 111-124). However, Inoue Katsuo, in light of recent historical materials and research, proves that the shogunate not only took the initiative to open up the country and strive to safeguard the interests of the country from loss, but also led the cause of western studies to open up a new path for modernization, and the shogunate's restoration work laid the foundation for the development of production in the Meiji era, the strengthening of the country and the strengthening of the army, and the revision of treaties. The book points out that when Perry insisted on urging the founding of the country on the grounds of supply salaries and exerting humanitarian pressure on the shogunate to expand the treaty port, both The Sumuro Rishijima and Therashi Fuzai, who was in charge of negotiations, learned the lessons of the Chinese Opium War according to the overseas situation in the Netherlands, and after comparing the "national law" of the national decree and the public law of all nations, he used various means such as negotiation, etiquette, and banquets to make various maneuvers, reducing losses and buying time for the shogunate and the various clans to deal with. (The Founding of the Nation and the End-of-Curtain Reform, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 164-187). Under the pressure of Tsarist Putiyatin and American Harris to further demand the founding of the country by coercion and inducements, the shogunate adhered to the limited founding bottom line to avoid the consequences of more severe losses than the Qing Dynasty's land cession and reparations, which eventually led to Japan's opening of ports but limiting the activities of the ships of the great powers to the permissible range ("The Founding of the Country and the Reform of the Curtain", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 202-211). Inoue Believes that even after inohi Nobuki Inoue signed a series of treaties, due to the shogunate's persistence and struggle, the treaty of trade prohibited foreign trading companies from doing business outside their places of residence, and this kind of trade protection barrier similar to today prevented the dumping of products of the British first powers, and also created import and export conditions for the rich merchants who operated raw silk and tea, which reversed the traditional argument of blindly emphasizing the destruction of Japan's traditional industries and brought uneasiness to society ("The Founding of the Country and the Reform at the End of the Curtain"). Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 274-281).
U.S. Perry Fleet landing map.
Although the shogunate actively responded to the colonial crisis through diplomatic mediation with the great powers and limited means of nation-opening through various historical sources and evidence, it also pointed out that the successive reforms since Tempo had ultimately failed due to internal imbalances in power, difficulties in uniting the populace, and financial loss, and believed that this eventually led to the shift of the main body that led to modernization to the Imperial Court and the Restoration Government headed by The Chief. The Tempo Reforms, which sought to limit the economy and recreational activities of the townspeople and prevent extravagant consumption, and confined the already mobile peasant households to their villages to ensure the payment of annual tributes, this attempt to expand fiscal revenues and rebuild the prestige of the samurai family instead intensified the shogunate's confrontation with merchants, high farmers, and lower samurai, and was the beginning of its internal loss of control (The Founding of the Kingdom and the End of the Shogunate, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 124-132). When Russia and Britain repeatedly invaded the territorial waters and broke the "Law of the Patriarchs" since the Lockdown Decree, the shogunate tried to mobilize the various clans to participate in the coastal defense cause in an attempt to strengthen the centralization of power, but due to the large amount of funds required for the construction of forts, the dispatch of ships and patrol personnel, the shogunate could not bear the huge financial expenses to transfer the burden to the various clans, causing the clans to unite with their local peasant households to collectively oppose, and the coastal defense cause was difficult to achieve ("The Founding and The Reform of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 133-142). External problems have highlighted the tense confrontation between the various clans and the shogunate, the shogunate in order to eliminate criticism and the power to implement the ancestral law based on itself, disposing of and cracking down on a large number of dissidents, the prison of the barbarian society caused Takano Nagahide and Watanabe Huashan to die one after another, seemingly strengthening the centralization of power but counterproductive, ushering in Mito Tokugawa Kishiaki's attempt to influence the shogunate on the grounds of the shogunate, and also lost the hearts and minds of some people of insight ("The Founding of the Country and the Change of the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 219-222).
Factional rivalries around shoguns exacerbated divisions within the shogunate, and Masahiro Abe, Kawaji Seima, Iwase Tadatoshi, Mizuno Tadatoku, and others who were the core of the shogunate, who had founded the country and promoted coastal defense, joined forces with reformer daimyōs such as Shimazu Kibin and Yamauchi Toyonobu to establish Mito Domain Kazuhashi Keiki, intending to gain the approval of the imperial court and participate in the administration of the Yu domain, and carry out drastic institutional reforms (Founding and The Reform of the End of the Shogunate, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 222-224). However, Ii Naohiro and others joined forces with the daimyōs to promote Kishu Domain, and after Keifu became a general and won the political struggle, Ii Naohiro not only suppressed and disposed of the Ichibashi faction, causing the shogunate to lose a large number of stable and enlightened people, but also caused the reformers and zhishi who had lost their power to use the reputation of Zhiyi to exert pressure in spite of the court's opposition to the signing of treaties privately, and it was difficult to maintain their prestige ("The Founding of the Country and the Reform of the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 237-241). Iei launched the Ansei Prison to execute Yoshida Shoin and Hashimoto Sauchi, which instead put the Choshu Domain on the front line of the fall, and also prompted satsuma Domain Okubo Ritsu, Arima Shinchi, Matsukata Masayoshi, and others to unite to take the first step in the "Retro Regamy of The King", and the change outside the Sakurada Gate not only showed the death of Ii in defeat, but also ceded the legitimacy and initiative in presiding over domestic and foreign affairs to the Imperial Court and the Emperor Shōguni faction (Founding and The Reform of the Shogunate, Bunhui Publishing House, pp. 241-244).
The book's repositioning of shogunate reform and founding on the one hand changes the impression of internal repression and external compromise of the shogunate, and on the other hand, it also expresses that in times of internal and external crisis, the government's efforts to lead the reform first require the concentration and unity of internal power, and various modernization measures under a new system that allows the participation of all forces. Otherwise, loose power, weak finances, undisciplined military power, and scattered popularity will exacerbate internal and external crises, and the reformers of the old system will eventually become their own gravediggers.
Stills from The Last Samurai.
Deconstructing the imperial view of history and the sachang centrism
Shaping the Emperor's Movement
The Meiji Restoration established the emperor's dictatorship system, and in order to find a reasonable and legal basis from history, conservative emperorists and political elites, in order to strengthen the historical rationality of the emperor's regime and the southwestern powerful clans such as Choshu and Satsuma in the "retro-monarchy" and "the fall of the King", portrayed the emperor and the secretary of state in the late shogunate period as a strong monarch and a powerful subject who strongly opposed the Western powers, and built the southwest strong emperor movement into the national spiritual background of the Meiji era.
With the success of the Japanese Empire's strategy of enriching the country and strengthening the army and the strategy of colonizing and rejuvenating the economy, Okuma Shigenobu proudly publicized the great cause of the reform of the Fallen Restoration through the "Fifty Years of the Founding of Japan", and even when the post-war reconstruction of the country was slightly improved, Shigeru Yoshida's "A Century of Agitation" still praised the emperor-centered restoration government for leading the people to stimulate social vitality and make Japan a great power ("A Century of Agitation", World Knowledge Publishing House, 1980, p. 8). After the war, Marxist scholars analyzed the process of establishing the japanese bourgeois regime, and also highlighted the fact that the southwestern powerful clan headed by Sa Chang combined with the imperial secretary headed by Emperor Xiaoming to open up the road of self-reliance and independence under the banner of "Honoring the Emperor And Yi", and finally overthrew the shogunate and established the restoration regime to establish Asia's first modern independent nation-state (Inoue Kiyoshi: History of Japan, Shaanxi People's Publishing House, 2011, pp. 193-204). When Chinese volunteers since the late Qing Dynasty sought a plan to save the country, they also regarded the new model of Japan's Meiji Restoration led by Sachang as a model for foreign resistance to the great powers (Tang Cai Changji, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1980, p. 98; The Collected Works of Huang Zunxian, Tianjin People's Publishing House, 2003, p. 16; The Collected Works of Cai Yi, Hunan People's Publishing House, 1983, pp. 17-18). However, the book believes that neither the Imperial Court nor the Southwest Power Domain initially had a modern nationalist sense of resistance to foreign powers, that Emperor Hyoming had adopted a position of rebellion against the regent Yingji Takatsu interfering in his political affairs, and that Choshu and Satsuma were only seeking the initiative in political activities in the name of emperor honor and shogun, and Iwakura regarded it as nothing more than issuing an edict in the name of the emperor for the purpose of returning to the peak of power, and that the action of the imperial court and the southwest power against the great powers was far lower than the infighting between the imperial court and the southwest power to fight for power and seek benefits.
Since the promulgation of the Prohibition and the Laws of the Public Family, the national functions of the Emperor and the Public Family Group have been limited to the reform of the Yuan, the conferment of officials, sacrifices, and prayers, and there has been little participation in actual political and diplomatic powers (Tianxia Taiping, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 28-36). However, since Perry knocked on the pass, in order to eliminate the obstruction of the hard-line Yi faction and win more support for the founding of the country, the old Naka Abe Masahiro took the initiative to present the U.S. State Letter to the imperial court in the hope of cooperating with the powerful clans in the form of the approval of the imperial court. However, Emperor Hyomyō's refusal to ratify the treaty and his uncompromising attitude provided a path for the reformist Daimyo to unite with the imperial court to pressure the shogunate and implement their claims (Founding and The Reform of the Shogunate, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 216-225). Emperor Hyomyō, on the other hand, made it clear on the issue of treaties to confront Taikoku Eagle Shogun, breaking the pattern of the shogunate monitoring and controlling the emperor and the imperial court through the five regents, including Sekibai, since the Tokugawa Iemitsu period, causing the secretaries of state to gradually gather under the account of the emperor who advocated shogi, and strengthening the cohesion within the imperial court ("The Founding of the Kingdom and the Change at the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 226-235). It was Emperor Takamei who showed a tough attitude on foreign issues that was very different from the founding of the shogunate, which also caused Mito, Choshu, Satsuma Clan, and Iwakura, who were originally excluded from the core power layer of the imperial court, to leverage the power chassis to grasp real power under the banner of the retrospect of the imperial government and the emperor ("The Founding of the Kingdom and the Reform of the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 226-235).
However, when Tokugawa Keiki came to power and co-opted the Gongwu faction, the British and French powers, and Emperor Hyomaki to carry out a new policy in an orderly manner, Iwakura Kushi and Sasaki could no longer sit idly by while the imperial court's power fell and the momentum of the shogunate fell into a trough, and the book even listed that Iwakura poisoned and refused to overthrow Emperor Hyomei and issued a secret edict on the retro coup d'état of the imperial government under the pretext of Emperor Muhito ("The Founding of the Kingdom and the Change at the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, p. 326). It can be seen that Inoue Katsuo believed that the emperor and the imperial court initially only participated in politics in the name of Shoji, and they only relied on the theory of the superiority of the divine kingdom and the theory of national form to envelop the powerful clans and heroes outside the power layer of the shogunate regime, and did not proceed from the actual situation overseas to seek a reasonable plan for Japan to confront the great powers. And when Emperor Hyomyō's opportunity to regain power against Iwakura's will and sasaga's will disappeared, they even replaced Takaaki to support the young emperor, clearing the way for the complete implementation of the overthrow of the curtain and the seizure of power. In this sense, the imperial court, which attempted to seize power by destroying the throne, was instead coerced by the princes such as Sasaga and Iwakura, laying the groundwork for the dominant politics of the elders and feudal lords after modern times.
Stills from Hidden Sword Ghost Claw.
In many places, the book is devoted to debunking the myth of Satsuma and Choshu Emperor Shōshū created by the History of the Restoration, arguing that the success of the Shogun-led Restoration of the Fallen Curtain was not due to their longer-term, more stable national vision and more favorable diplomatic skills than the shogunate, but to their long-term control of exclusive trade, amassing wealth and taxes, meritocracy, and change of strategy to win alliances since the reform of the domain. In the case of Satsuma specifically, from the Tenho to the Anzheng period, the feudal domain broke the hierarchy of status and used the transfer office guangxiang to carry out tax and debt reforms, reduced the financial burden, and obtained huge profits through the brown sugar monopoly system and smuggling trade, set up factories and purchased weapons ("The Founding of the Country and the End of the Curtain Reform", Wenhui Publishing House, 226 pages). It is precisely because Satsuma has strong hard power, whether Shimazu Kibin participates in shogunate politics through Shogi or Shimazu Hisamitsu dominates the public-military integration, Satsuma has always been closest to the core of power of the imperial court and the shogunate, becoming the biggest weight influencing the direction of Shogi and the founding forces. When Tokugawa Keiki's founding initiatives and the political system of the Lieboku Council greatly damaged Satsuma's interests, Saigo Takamori and Okubo Ritsuru immediately turned the head of the car and broke with the shogunate to the Sasaga Alliance and influenced the situation of the fall ("The Founding of the Kingdom and the Change at the End of the Shogunate", Bunkei Publishing House, pp. 316-319). Inoue also pointed out that despite the Sassa-Anglo-British War, it was not political power and economic interests that influenced Satsuma's political movements. Compared to Satsuma in the 19th century, which was at the center of politics, Choshu was initially excluded from the shogunate. After the personnel reform of the superiority of abilityism, the "Founding of the Kingdom and the Reform of the End of the Shogunate", which brought together the talents of Murata Kiyo, Zhou Bu Masanosuke, Kido Takayoshi, and other sages who were "diligent and dedicated" to the feudal government, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 155-160), used Nagai Yaraku's "Navigation Strategy" to obtain real profits from trade and lay the foundation for the military establishment within the domain ("The Founding of the Kingdom and the Change of the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 248-251).
In order to play a role in the internal and external situation, Choshu only gained political capital through the use of Yiyi, and from Kusaka Genrui to the extreme ideas and assassination measures of the "Tenju" party, they all tried to use the banner of King Qin to confront the shogunate (The Founding of the State and the Reform at the End of the Shogunate, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 259-268). Inoue criticized Choshu's terrorist assassinations and attacks on U.S. merchant ships in violation of public law as reckless acts (Founding and The End of the Curtain, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 259-268). He also pointed out that Takasugi's formation of the Strange Army, although claiming that The Rise of Grass Mang recruited farmers and merchants to receive rigorous and well-trained training, his implementation of harsh repressive executions and the collective brainwashing of the kamikaze concept made his downfall activities disgraceful ("The Founding of the Nation and the Reform of the End of the Curtain", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 305-314). It can be seen from Inoue's context that the Choshu Surprise Brigade, which created the predecessor of the Modern Japanese Army, has been of a harsh oppressive nature and extremist overtones of internal assassination and external attacks since its inception, and the various authoritarian and aggressive extremist activities of the modern Japanese Army have been further expanded on its extension line.
Looking at the development of the imperial court and the sassaki in the 19th century, the shogunate was only a way for them to exclude the shogunate and enter the core layer of power decision-making themselves, and the emperor was only a means of gathering people's hearts and ordering the world. In terms of external problems, the aggressive attack tactics and oppressive tactics adopted by the imperial court and the sahara were inferior to those of the shogunate, which tried to avoid conflict and buy time for gradual reform. In dealing with the people, as stated in the "History of restoration", the vast number of peasants and businessmen were not allowed to join in by promoting indomitable national integrity and lofty concepts. From Inoue's discussion, it can be seen that the significance of the rise of the Sajō and the Imperial Court As an early nationalism in East Asia emphasized in previous historical works is not prominent, and its nature of "saving the country and helping the people" is also greatly reduced, which coincides with the positive and negative effects of the Meiji Restoration brought to Japan by Chinese scholars in recent years (Yang Dongliang: "Meiji Restoration and The Reconstruction of Authority", World History, No. 2, 2019, pp. 1-16; Wu Yin, "The Meiji Restoration Double Shocked the World", Nankai Japanese Studies, 2018, pp. 3-9; Song Chengyou: "Rethinking Some Issues of the Meiji Restoration", Supplement to the Journal of Japanese Studies, 2019, pp. 184-186, etc.).
Stills from "Thirteen Assassins".
Multiple powers of the 19th century
Alternating old and new from a concerto perspective
Another highlight of Inoue's book is that it breaks through the traditional historical works focusing on the competition between the two major forces of the founding of the Saki and the Emperor, and brings the property resources, the northern ethnic minorities, neighboring countries, western powers, and people of all classes into the vision of modern transformation, and the alternation of Japan's political system, social structure, territorial territory, and foreign relations completed under the interaction and influence of multiple forces is not only progressive, but also has a negative impact compared with the Edo period.
Property resources were an important motivator for countries competing in East Asia in the 19th century, and they were also the key to causing the various forces in the shogunate to change their course. The book begins by pointing out that Ezo, including present-day Sakhalin Island, kuril Islands, and Hokkaido, is rich in furs and various types of marine fish, and its considerable trade profits and agricultural value brought by-products have led Russia and the shogunate to intensify competition in the area. Originally, under the "mall knowledge system" of the Matsumae Domain, the Ainu aborigines carried out limited and frugal development and activities, and through the trade in fertilizer, fish, and fur, the Ainu people played a central role in the hokzik cultural circle. When threatened by either the Peace Or the Tsarist Russia, the Ainu rebelled at great cost and did not lose their national vitality (Founding and The End of the Curtain Reforms, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 6-12). However, after the shogunate and Russia realized the great economic value of the area, they both increased their development and competition, and Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to repeatedly pressure the shogunate to open the country, resulting in the shogunate directly including it in the territory, the northern peoples led by Ainu lost their autonomy, and for the indigenous peoples, the alternation of the old and the new forced them to be bound to the development track of the modern Japanese state, no longer enjoying the freedom and quiet domination of their own land and resources ("The Founding of the Country and the Change of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 6-12).
Cotton and raw silk are important materials for the rise of rich farmers and merchants who have taken advantage of the opportunity of the founding of the country. Through the analysis of data and pictorial historical data, the handiworkers in the region of Japan gradually hired laborers for textile production since the 18th century, and with the continuous expansion of scale, they have trained skilled textile workers and carried out a series of mechanical innovations, but only because of the annual tribute economy and limited trade policy based on rice grains, such a mature industry was limited to the domestic market ("The Founding of the Country and the End of the Curtain Reform", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 25-43). After Yokohama became a treaty port, wealthy merchants and adventurous merchants gathered at the port, and they took advantage of the American Civil War and the scarcity of silkworm seeds in Europe to export cotton and silkworm seeds in large quantities, creating a monopoly pattern and attracting investment from the shogunate and Mitsui merchants, which laid a solid foundation for the Meiji era's "breeding industry" led by the textile industry ("The Founding of the Country and the Late Curtain Reform", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 25-43). Inoue argues that with the above industrial base and the retention of "national trade barriers" in foreign trade treaties, industry and commerce in the late shogunate era already had the strength to resist foreign products and capital, and did not claim that the founding of the country and commerce had dealt a devastating blow to Japan's traditional industries as it claimed ("The Founding of the Country and the Late Makuen shogunate Reforms", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 279-280). This also explains to some extent why the late shogunate era, although like India and China, was forced to open the country, but the new and old regimes were replaced by less than two decades to establish a government-led industrial system.
In previous studies, when comparing the successes and failures of the Meiji Restoration and the Western affairs movement, more attention was paid to the choice between the Chinese and Japanese governments and intellectuals for Western civilization. In the book, Katsuo Inoue argues that the pace of colonization of the great powers in Japan preceded China' origins, providing opportunities for the development of the shogunate and the restoration government. Since the late 18th century, Russia has frequently demanded the opening of the shogunate, but the distance coupled with the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War has led to a small impact on Japan by sporadic threats and demands for the founding of the country, and has also prompted the people and officials at the end of the shogunate to expand their ambitions to develop and annex the North by emphasizing Russia's external troubles (The Founding and the End of the Curtain Reforms, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 108-112). The U.S. Perry Fleet first opened the door to Japan through military threats, but after satisfying the salaries and one-sided most-favored-nation treatment for whaling ships, opening the window of its goods to the Pacific, the pace of its colonization of Japan was also slowed by the Civil War and the reconstruction of the South (Founding and The End of the Curtain, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 196-199). Although the United Kingdom also joined the ranks of opening Japan's treaty ports, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement and the Crimean War needed to use Japan to provide assistance, while France cooperated with Britain to restrict Tsarist Russia and exchanged weapons and technicians with the shogunate (The Founding of the Nation and the Reform of the Shogunate, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 190-196). Therefore, Inoue Katsuo believes that compared with the huge price paid after the Opium War in China, the shogunate's extensive acquisition of information on the invasion of China by the shogunate, and the fact that the powerful clans such as Sasaga used the essence of the great powers' arms dealers to make profits and purchased weapons in large quantities, made the Japanese colonial crisis at the end of the shogunate not as intense as emphasized in the "History of restoration" ("The Founding of the Nation and the Reform at the End of the Shogunate", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 285-286). And when the great powers realized the war and intervened in the rebellion, the powerful naval guns of the restoration forces and the new army of popular participation were enough to eliminate foreign interference and negotiate with the great powers to solve the problem of domestic regime change.
Since Tempo, the small people and sharecroppers whose lives were crowded by rich merchants and samurai have continued to carry out organized direct lawsuits and uprisings, and Inoue proves through pictorial materials that the low-level people of the late Edo period were not passive and blind ("The Founding of the Kingdom and the Late Reforms", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 77-98). Under the banner of the Raiders' propaganda to break the identity hierarchy and improve the situation, some of the people's originally moderate and orderly uprisings were gradually involved in the bloody sacrifices of the Raiders and the Fallen Curtain, and due to the differences in the goals of the people's demands and the goals of the Raiders, many of the soldiers who joined the Raiders were dissatisfied with the treatment and left the team and revolted, and Choshu adopted extremely harsh methods of repression to relent, but various kinds of smashing uprisings continued until the era of liberal civil rights ("The Founding of the Nation and the End of the Curtain Reform", Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 306-310). Nevertheless, popular activities were not yet unified by the idea of unification, and the people at the end of the shogunate instead carried out the "reincarnation" movement in the form of pluralism and insurrection, and did not unanimously support and throw themselves into the war as the people who accepted the ideology of the imperial state after the establishment of the modern imperial system (The Founding of the State and the Reform at the End of the Shogunate, Wenhui Publishing House, pp. 306-310).
Stills from The Light Guard at Dusk.
epilogue
In the context of post-war democratization and modernism, European, American and Japanese scholars have paid attention to the historical development of the Edo period in a way that is different from the modernization of Europe and the United States, especially after the Hakone Conference, the ideological and historical circles gradually affirmed the docking and continuity between the Edo period and the modern world. For example, Maruo Maruyama highlights its similarity to the Western European subject-guest dichotomy, rationalism, and nationalism (Maruyama Mamao, translated by Wang Zhongjiang: Studies in the History of Japanese Political Thought, Life, Reading, and Shinchi Triptych Bookstore, 2000), while Koan Xuanbang argues that "Edo as a Method" constructs another modern path that is different from Western Europe and Meiji Japan (Zian Xuanbang, Ding Guoqi Translation: Lecture Notes on the History of Edo Thought, Life, Reading, Shinchi Triptych Bookstore, 2017, p. 8). Influenced by this academic trend, the historical positivists have also proved through a large number of historical materials that the Edo period has developed a mature city, a splendid civic culture, a developed academic system, and a cultural and educational level. Inoue Katsuo, on the other hand, extended the line, arguing that 19th-century Japan itself was pregnant with modern factors, and made a positive evaluation of the shogunate's diplomacy after the founding of the country, but instead criticized the imperial court and the samurai clans who only sought political dominance. In fact, this is similar to Hiroshi Mitani's assertion that the shogunate was a pioneer of modernization (Hiroshi Mitani, "The Black Ship Comes", Social Science Literature Publishing House, 2017, pp. 267-274), and Sasakik's revelation of the relationship between the breach of the treaty and the seizure of power (Sasakik: From the End of the Curtain to Meiji, Beijing United Publishing Company, 2017, pp. 105-117), which reflects the post-war Japanese historians' policies of breaking away from Asia and entering Europe, rich countries and strengthening the military, and foreign expansion. It gave the Edo shogunate a significance that was different from the development path of imperial Japan. However, the rudiments of modern emperorism, state system, sovereign territory consciousness, and expansion ideas were also formed in the late Edo period, and it is a great regret of this book to omit Honju Nobunaga, Bendoriaki, Sato Nobuchi, Yoshida Shoin, and other figures and propositions that played a key role in modern Japanese national consciousness. However, it is precisely because of the translation and publication of works such as Inoue that Chinese readers can see the restoration of the old system and the old rulers, and look forward to new research works to reveal the power competition between retro regression and progressive innovation in the alternation of the old and new transformation of Japan's modern transformation, and unveil the veil of the "all-over bass" that determines the change of new and old forces.
Text/Qu Liang
Editor/Lee Yong-bo
Proofreading/Lucy