The Great Change: Fifty Years of Reform in the Late Qing Dynasty
谌旭彬 著
Zhejiang People's Publishing House
"Gengshen's Change"The theme of "The Great Change" is the reform and transformation of the late Qing Dynasty. Specifically, it focuses on the reform process from the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861) to the third year of Xuantong (1911). The reason why we don't start with the 20th year of Daoguang (1840) is because although the British army knocked on the customs in that year has always been regarded as the beginning of modern Chinese history, this war did not wake the Qing Empire from its old dream. During the First Opium War, most of the gentry in the coastal areas regarded the British army only as the Ming Dynasty's Japanese invaders, and even felt that they were inferior to the Japanese invaders.
After the end of the First Opium War, few intellectuals in the coastal areas who knew the "Yi Qing" best felt that the Qing Empire needed to implement reforms with reference to the external environment. Liang Tingfang is a native of Shunde, Guangdong, and has always paid attention to "Yiwu", served as Lin Zexu's staff, and was a witness to the British army's knock in 1840. But even a figure like Liang Tingfang, when summing up the lessons after the war, still insisted that the Daoguang era was "the heyday of the Celestial Empire", and there was no reason to learn Xi from foreigners, otherwise it would be too unseemly. Liang was convinced that the foreigners' artillery originated from the "mine flying artillery" technique of China during the Ming Dynasty, and the foreigners' ships came from the drawings given to them by Zheng He, and even the foreigners' mathematical attainments "also got from China". This was true of the gentry and intellectuals in the coastal areas, and the rest of the population could be imagined.
The real thunder occurred in the tenth year of Xianfeng, that is, in 1860. On the 29th day of the eighth month of the old calendar of this year, the officials of the Qing Empire witnessed the city of Beijing fall into the hands of the British and French forces. A Beijing official who called himself "Zo Manyesuo" said that the foreign soldiers entered the city through Andingmen, and after they climbed the city wall, they drove all the Qing troops away, raised colorful flags, and overturned all the cannons placed by the Qing army at the head of the city and threw them into the ditch, and installed the cannons they brought with them. The muzzles of the guns unanimously pointed southward, facing the Forbidden City for the first time. A few days later, on September 5, Prince Gong, who had stayed in the capital to negotiate with the foreigners, was shocked to see "the smoke and flames in the northwest area" and learned that it was the foreign soldiers who were burning down the palaces in the Old Summer Palace and Sanshan. He later told Emperor Xianfeng, who had fled to Chengde, that the fire had not yet been extinguished when he ascended to the heights to lookout, and that he was "unbearable to be sad and miserable" and "unable to bear to cry when he saw the situation".
This year is the year of Gengshen according to the Ganzhi year. The emperor's escape, the fall of the capital, and the burning of the Old Summer Palace palace are known as the "Gengshen Change" in the historical memory of the Qing Dynasty. In contrast, no one calls the British army's knock in the twentieth year of Daoguang (1840) the "Gengzi Change". For example, Wei Yuan has a book that records the beginning and end of the British army's knocking on the pass, which was originally called "The Legend of the Yi Ship Kou Hai", and later renamed "The Legend of the Daoguang Yang Ship Expedition". The word "requisition" was a common word in the Qing Empire's traditional Huayi order, meaning that things were still within the control of the Qing Empire, at least according to the Qing court itself.
Chen Xubin bluntly said that the "Gengshen Change" is not. The fall of the capital and the burning of the palace were unprecedented for the Qing army to enter the customs and rule for more than 200 years. The widespread use of the term "Gengshen Change" meant that temples and rivers and lakes had to admit that efforts to maintain the traditional order had failed, and that they had to tolerate the emergence of an unpopular and powerless new order in the Qing Empire. The modernization reform of the late Qing Dynasty was initiated in this kind of heartbreak and heartache.
Inverted U-shaped curve"The Great Change" believes that the reason why the end of the reform of the late Qing Dynasty was the Xinhai Revolution was because the reform of the past 50 years was not a rising curve, but an inverted U-shaped curve. Its watershed, the apex of the inverted U-shaped curve, was the Jiashen Yishu in 1884. In the first half of the curve, the basic trend of reform is to break through all kinds of obstacles and persist in moving forward, and in the second half of the curve, the basic trend of reform is to slow down and slow down, and finally to counter-reform.
In the first half of the period, the presiding officers of the reform were the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong Yitong, and the specific promoters were Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Shen Baozhen and other local governors, as well as some intellectuals who "looked at the world squarely". The short-term purpose of the reforms was to reverse the Xianfeng Emperor's line of governance, reunite the bureaucracy to reshape the centripetal force of the regime, and ease relations with the outside world in order to free up his hands for the complete suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The long-term purpose of the reform was to introduce advanced technologies from the great powers, including taxation techniques and military technology, to enhance the strength of the Qing Empire, especially the combat effectiveness of the army. At that time, the popular saying that "mastering the art of Yi to control the razor" pointed out that the ultimate purpose of this reform was to subdue the arrogant Yi people and rebuild the glory of the Celestial Empire.
To this end, the diplomatic system, the military system, the tax system, and the education system are the main targets of reform. The diplomatic system was transformed from the Imperial Court to the Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen, which was formally connected with the modern treaty diplomacy system and sent envoys abroad. The military system has been replaced with a large number of foreign guns and artillery, and it has devoted itself to building its own modern arsenal, and has purchased foreign ships to form a modern navy. The tax system was mainly to introduce the modern tariff system, and to levy taxes, and to engage in opium finance, so that the Qing Empire's tax revenue increased on a large scale. The main targets of the education system are foreign language translators, those who can operate modern machines, and those who can fly modern warships. Before Jiashen Yishu, most of the reformers, from the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong, to the local governors of the Western-style faction, to the enlightened intellectuals of the people, all expressed their support for this.
The Sino-French War that broke out in 1883 was regarded by the government and the opposition as a "big test" to test the effectiveness of the reform of self-improvement in foreign affairs. From the Empress Dowager Cixi to the internal and external ministers, to the civilian gentry, they all believed that the Qing Empire, after more than 20 years of self-improvement and reform in foreign affairs, should have the ability to fight the French army and keep the vassal state of Vietnam. As a result, Li Hongzhang, Prince Gong, and the ministers of the Prime Minister's Yamen, who had a conservative stance on the war, were collectively expelled from the decision-making center.
In the end, the Sino-French War ended with mutual victory and defeat on the battlefield and no indemnity in the peace treaty, which to a certain extent met the expectations of the Qing Empire for self-improvement and reform of foreign affairs in the past 20 years. Since then, the era of "Tongzhi" between the king and the queen has ended, and the Empress Dowager Cixi, who does not understand the true value of reform, has become the only powerful decision-maker, and she feels that Zhongxing has been largely completed, and the time for pleasure has come. The whole empire was shrouded in an atmosphere of arrogance, and self-improvement reforms began to slow down.
In terms of foreign affairs, Premier Yamen has gone from being the focus of reform to being a firefighter in the Sino-foreign conflict, and "knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent and integrating into the international community" has become empty talk. On the military side, the modernization and reform of the army almost stopped in the next decade, and the Beiyang Naval Division was also limited by funds and could only be declared an army with a remnant formation. Changes at the level of the military system, such as the creation of an independent Admiralty, are out of the question. The reform in the economic field stopped at the government's supervision and commercial management, the steamship China Merchants Bureau rapidly turned from prosperity to decline, and the Hanyang Iron Works could not produce a single qualified steel rail for a long time. The reform of the imperial examination was even more unmoving.
Tragedy soon struck. The reform of the late Qing Dynasty began with the shame of the fall of the capital and the flight of the emperor in the "Gengshen Change", and finally returned to the "Gengzi Change" in 1900 when the capital fell and the empress dowager fled with the emperor. History has come full circle of 40 years and is back to the starting point.
Chen Xubin pointed out that in this process, many of the gentry in the government and the opposition who had previously opposed the "mastery of the long technique" have become activists calling for the introduction of advanced technology and advanced equipment after experiencing various practical lessons. Many of the gentry in the government and the opposition, who had previously only advocated "mastering the skills of the people," have also become activists calling for the implementation of institutional reforms and changing the era of monarchy to the era of civil rights after experiencing various practical lessons. The most dramatic change was that the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was originally the presiding officer of the reform, gradually became an obstacle to the reform and became the object of urgent reform.
Revolution and ImprovementOn February 12, 1912, the Qing court issued the "Edict of Abdication" in an embattled state, and the Qing Empire officially ended. There is a popular reflection on this Ding Revolution in later generations, saying that "the revolution interrupted the reform", arguing that the Xinhai Revolution not only abolished the Qing court and autocracy, but also abolished the late Qing constitution, which was more valuable, more likely to succeed, and less costly for social transformation. This argument was once very marketable.
In Chen Xubin's view, this kind of reflection is not supported by historical facts. Because the so-called late Qing constitution was dead long before the gunshots rang out in Wuchang. This is manifested in the fact that after the establishment of the school, it still persisted in carrying out the Four Books and the Five Classics and insisted on taking loyalty and filial piety as the foundation; when organizing and training the new army, Manchuria was still the standard; the purpose of initiating the reform of the official system was only to increase the degree of centralization of power of the emperor and the empress dowager; and the abolition of the imperial examination was only forced by the internal and external situation to make some statements.
It was not until the gunshots rang out in Wuchang, seeing that the use of force to suppress had failed, and the governors in various places generally took a wait-and-see attitude, that the center of the Qing court issued the "Nineteen Articles of Faith of the Constitution" on November 3, 1911, completely abandoning all the powers in the "Outline of the King James Constitution" to the emperor and all kinds of "no interference in the parliament", and came to a 180-degree comprehensive change: promising that the emperor's power should be "limited to what is stipulated in the constitution". Unfortunately, it's too late.
How to understand the relationship between revolution and reform? Chen Xubin believes that if the "interrupted reform" refers to the "preparatory constitution" that the Qing court center is willing to carry out, then this kind of reform should be interrupted. According to the "Preparatory Constitutional Charter" and the "Outline of the King James Constitution" promulgated by the Qing court, it was only engaged in a new style of enlightened autocracy. If the "interrupted reform" refers to the constitutional monarchy demanded by the constitutionalists, then the gunfire in Wuchang did not interrupt it, because the political demands of the constitutionalists were the same as those of the revolutionary party, which was to "rejuvenate the people's rights and reform the autocracy", and whether to retain the monarch was not the central issue. After all, the revolutionaries had no intention of keeping the monarch, but the constitutionalists never insisted that the monarch must be retained.
Common sense holds that the full name of revolution is "violent revolution" and the full name of reform is "peaceful reform." This distinction is very directly related to people's long-standing Xi of dividing revolution and reform by means rather than by ends. But is there really only one form of revolution, "violent revolution"? Can there be a revolution that is not violent?
The Great Revolution argues that in the last decade or so of the Qing Empire, revolution and reform were never opposing camps. Whether a political movement is revolutionary or not depends on whether its political demands have the option to change the form of government and reinvent political rules. If there is, it is a revolution, and if it is not, it is limited to tinkering with the existing system, then it can only be regarded as reform. If we do not not not demand a change in the form of government, but also take violent measures to replace the current regime, it will only be a change of dynasty that will only increase the suffering of the people.
In short, after the division of revolution and reform by political demands, it is the turn to distinguish between "orderly revolution" and "disordered revolution" by violent or peaceful means. If we understand this, we will not dwell on the question of "revolution interrupting reform". As Chen Xubin argues, in the last decade of the Qing Empire, revolution and reform were not so much in conflict with each other, but rather as the former providing impetus for the latter.
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