Excerpt from the Internet; Ming and Qing Dynasty books
What made China what it is today? Geography, Culture, Ethnicity, Ideology...... There are a lot of interpretations in various fields, but they are all looking for "internal causes"; And those that profoundly determine China's destiny and affect the direction of the country's history and future direction often come from "external factors" that are seriously underestimated - different countries and civilizations in the world.
No country has ever been able to exist independently of the influence of other countries and regions in the world, and its acceptance and attitude towards the cultures of other countries often profoundly determine the fate of the country and even the life and death of its citizens.
For China, there are five countries that are the most critical, each of which has had a profound impact on China in different ways, and is even closely related to our destiny today:
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India
It has the most extensive influence on Chinese culture
Among foreign cultures, if the influence on Chinese is profound and widespread, it is Buddhism. It was through Buddhism that India became the first foreign civilization to have a profound impact on China.
The main reason why many people underestimate the influence of India is that its introduction belongs to ancient times, and the influence has long passed. In fact, the shadow of Indian Buddhism has long penetrated into our culture, and it is ubiquitous, even beyond the daily intuition of ordinary people.
◆ Buddhism has influenced almost all literary masters in China since the Han Dynasty. I don't understand Buddhism, I can't read Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Zhou Zuoren...... Even "Water Margin", "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Golden Vase Plum" are difficult to read.
◆ If you don't understand Buddhism, your understanding of China is incomplete. Buddhism is one of the three pillars of Chinese culture. The so-called Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, "interpretation" is Buddhism.
◆ Buddhism has also deeply shaped our daily expressions and monuments. Words related to Buddhism, such as "state of mind" and "equality", can be produced in a small dictionary. Whether it is Wutai Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, or Shaolin Temple, Dunhuang Grottoes...... It's all related to Buddhism, and without basic knowledge of Buddhism, you can only see the scenery, not the culture.
◆ Most importantly, we think most deeply about some of the most important issues in life, which also comes from Buddhism. As Liang Wendao said: Buddhist philosophy is a very logical science in all aspects of the philosophical system, and I think that in terms of practice, Buddhism provides the most complete and systematic method, so when I go to Buddhism, I immediately feel that the fate is very deep, and I enter it very quickly.
The influence of Buddhism on Chinese culture is far more than that, and it is difficult to list them all. And Buddhism is just a direct influence of India on us. In addition to Buddhism, Indian civilization has had a number of indirect influences on us through its contributions to the world:
The first is the field of mathematics, where Indian mathematical research has influenced Asian countries such as China and European countries such as the Mediterranean region through two routes.
The second is trade, where India's trade with Southeast Asia dates back to the Mauryan era. India's trade with the Mediterranean dates back to the first century A.D. and even earlier. The science of Indian civilization has participated in the shaping of world civilization through trade and other means, which is often overlooked by most people.
▲The murals of the Buddhist theme of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang
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United Kingdom
It was the first to influence China's modernization
Compared with other countries, Britain's influence on modern China can be said to be the earliest, dating back to before 1840:
◆ In 1796, Emperor Jiaqing, who had just ascended the throne, announced a ban on the import of opium. The following year, the ban was reaffirmed again. The East India Company had to ostensibly stop the opium trade in Canton, but secretly engaged in opium smuggling.
◆ In 1808, 10 British warships lost at Annam, and under the pretext that the Atlantic Ocean was occupied by France, they broke into the west of the chicken neck and forcibly landed in Macao. The British warships' disregard for China's territorial sovereignty has cast a shadow over Sino-British relations.
◆ In 1838, in order to force China to abandon its anti-smoking policy, the British naval commander in India, Mattalon, led a warship into Chinese waters. The British colonialists had torn off the last veil and were ready to use force to achieve their diplomatic and commercial goals. Two years later, the Opium War broke out.
◆ After the Opium War, the Qing government was forced to sign a series of humiliating peace treaties with Britain and other Western powers for land reparations. Through these unequal treaties, Britain gradually acquired large tracts of land and many other privileges in China on Hong Kong Island, South Kowloon and the New Territories, and a dream of more than 200 years came true. As a result, China has been reduced from a great feudal empire to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal state (but in a sense, the process of China's modern modernization is also gradually unfolding).
After World War II:
◆ On January 6, 1950, Britain became the first Western power to recognize the People's Republic of China.
◆ On the issues of North Korea, Taiwan, and China's seat in the United Nations, unlike the United States, the United Kingdom has relaxed trade restrictions on China, opening a gap in the US "embargo" policy against China. The British government declared that Taiwan belonged to China and should be returned to the People's Republic of China; In the early 60s, Britain voted in favor of the proposal to restore the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, but Britain voted in favor of the American proposal that listed the issue of China's representation in the United Nations as an "important issue" and required a two-thirds majority vote of the United Nations General Assembly to be adopted.
◆ In July 1983, China and the UK began constructive negotiations on the Hong Kong issue, and in 1984 an agreement was finally reached, and the heads of government of the two countries formally signed a joint statement on the Hong Kong issue.
◆ On 1 July 1997, the Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, and the concept of "one country, two systems" became a reality, and China-UK relations entered a new stage.
In China's modern history, many people only remember Britain as the initiator of the Opium War, but they often ignore another important dimension, that is, although Britain was the first country in China's modern history to "shoot" China, it also broke China's policy of closing the country in the late Qing Dynasty, and as the first country in the world to achieve modernization, Britain forced China in the late Qing Dynasty to open its doors and integrate into modern civilization. The formation of modern China was largely inspired by the British.
▲ Soldiers of the late Qing Dynasty armed with modern muskets
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Japan
It has done the most harm to modern China
Japan had the greatest influence on modern China, as the Sino-Japanese War changed the course of China. In 1936, the Nationalist Government was preparing to shift from discipline to restriction, but the "77 Incident" not only interrupted this leap, but also completely changed the structure of China's political forces.
Truth be told, in more than 100 years, no country has had such a profound impact on China in all respects as Japan.
◆ After the reform of the law, many Japanese terms entered China: ban, procedure, active, specific, purpose, right, obligation, third party, occasion, ministry, representative, barbaric, initiator, police station, police, prosecutor, photo...... It's all over the place.
◆ In the 15 years before the founding of the Republic of China, a total of 956 Japanese texts were translated into Chinese, and only 16 were translated into Japanese at the same time. In the fifteen years after the founding of the Republic of China, 1,759 copies were translated from Japanese to Chinese. The impact of a large number of translated books, especially textbooks, on culture and education can be imagined. One of the main elements of the New Culture Movement was the Vernacular Bunka Movement, whose predecessor, the "Bunkan Unity" movement, originated in Meiji Japan.
◆ Since 1896, a large number of Chinese students have been studying in Japan, and in 1906 alone, there were 8,600 students, making it the largest study abroad movement in the world at that time.
◆ Japan is also a model for institutional reform and social improvement. The Meiji Restoration enabled Japan to "break away from Asia and join Europe" and become a world power, setting an excellent example for China. Most of the reform edicts promulgated by Guangxu in the Wuxu Reform Law were copied from the "Examination of the Japanese Political Change".
◆ The revolution in China also started in Japan. Sun Yat-sen traveled all over the world's powers, and finally chose Japan as the base camp of his revolution. He saw Japan as a natural ally of China, and after the defeat of the first Canton Uprising in 1895, he fled to Yokohama, where he cut off his braids, put on a suit, and grew a mustache.
The above is not a bad aspect, and then let's look at the other side.
◆ In 1894, Japan launched the First Sino-Japanese War and created the "Lushun Massacre", which killed about 20,000 people after four days and three nights of robbery, massacre and rape. The Treaty of Shimonoseki signed the following year was the most serious unequal treaty since the Treaty of Nanjing, which seized China's Taiwan and other places, further undermining China's sovereignty and integrity.
◆ In 1928, more than 17,000 Chinese officials and civilians were burned to death, more than 2,000 were injured, and more than 5,000 were captured.
◆ On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army planned the Wicker Lake Incident and suddenly launched an attack on the Chinese troops stationed in Beidaying, Shenyang. This was the 918 Incident. In just 4 months, the Northeast has fallen.
◆ On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army caused the Lugou Bridge Incident and began a full-scale invasion of China. In the Nanjing Massacre, civilians and prisoners of war were massacred, looted, and raped for six weeks, massacring more than 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians, and burning down one-third of Nanjing's houses. By 1945, China had suffered more than 35 million military and civilian casualties and $500 billion in property losses.
Even Nazi Germany, an ally at the time, described Japan's outliers in China as a "beast group" (judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East).
Japan, a neighboring country that makes the Chinese have mixed tastes, now look at Japan, can no longer only look at it from a nationalist perspective, while remembering history, we should remain objective and prudent, as a mirror of China, what made Japan embark on militarism, and what made Japan rise rapidly after the war and become a phoenix? What is the friction and collision between Japan and China? What is the relationship between China, Japan and the United States? These questions need to be interpreted and reflected on in the context of the history of Japan as a whole.
▲Japanese soldiers in the July 7 Incident
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United States
It has been of greatest help to modern China
Although the "Sino-US relationship" is still tense today, there are many things that we have never heard of when we look back at the history of China and the United States.
◆ In 1926, the Nationalist Government launched the Northern Expedition, which was resisted by warlords in various places and intervened by imperialist countries. The United States was the first to recognize the Nanking government and supported China's reunification, which eventually allowed China to complete its reunification in form.
◆ In 1919, the Paris Peace Conference decided to transfer all German rights and interests in Shandong to Japan, and the Treaty of Versailles caused a lot of public sentiment in China, but it was not until November 1921, at the initiative of the United States, that the Washington Conference was convened that the Shandong issue was peacefully resolved. This was the first time since 1840 that China had not lost its sovereignty but had regained some of its sovereignty.
◆ The year after the September 18 Incident, US Secretary of State Stimson sent a note to the Chinese and Japanese governments, which is known as the "doctrine of non-recognition," explicitly opposing Japan's armed occupation of China and not recognizing the "achievements" of Japan's aggression.
◆ During World War II, the United States took the lead in abolishing the unequal treaties imposed on China and actively supported China in becoming a member of international relations. As a result, at the end of 1943, China participated in the Cairo Conference of the World Power Summit for the first time, and its international status was unprecedentedly enhanced, and it became one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council after the war.
◆ During the Westernization Movement, the Qing court sent four batches of 120 young children to the United States to study, and the United States cultivated the first batch of international talents for China. Cai Shaoji, president of Peiyang University, Zhan Tianyou, a famous engineer, and Tang Shaoyi, premier of the early Republic of China, are all among them.
◆ Yenching University is the largest and highest-quality institution of higher learning in modern China, founded by the American Stuart Leiden. Dozens of high-level universities, middle schools, and girls' schools founded by the Americans later evolved into the best schools in China, such as Qilu University, Jinling Women's University, and St. John's University.
In fact, the United States has not been able to provide much support and help to modern China, but why has the relationship between the two countries repeatedly fallen to the freezing point? This has always been a very perplexing question at present.
▲Chinese and American soldiers during World War II
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Soviet Russia
The impact on China is the most complex
For more than 3,000 years, China's threat has largely come from the north. Zuo Zongtang, an important minister at the end of the Qing Dynasty, said, "After all, it is a Chinese patient, and its Russia is also." That's right.
◆ Through unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Nebuchu, the Treaty of Kyakhta, and the Treaty of Aihui, Tsarist Russia invaded 4.5 million square kilometers of China's land. The Trans-Khingan Mountains, which it occupies, are larger than the three eastern provinces, and the vast Siberian region is rich in mineral deposits. It directly led to the serious compression of the living space of the Chinese, the restriction of migration, and indirectly led to the subsequent population policy.
◆ In 1898, China and Russia signed a treaty to lease the Port of Arthur, Dalian Bay and the nearby waters to Tsarist Russia, and from then on, the entire territory of Northeast China became the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia.
◆ All wars will be slaughtered in the form of extermination. In order to rule the Chinese people, Japan and the Manchu Qing Dynasty still considered preserving the Chinese bloodline, while Tsarist Russia only needed property and land and "slaughtered everything", resulting in no Chinese in the Far East now.
◆ In 1924, with the help of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Kuomintang established the Army Military Academy in Guangzhou. The Soviet Union sent Borodin to serve as an adviser to the Kuomintang government in Guangdong, and vigorously promoted the establishment of a joint front between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. The political commissar model in the Soviet army was widely used in the Whampoa Military Academy and the National Revolutionary Army in the future.
◆ From 1923 to 1926, before the start of the Northern Expedition, the Nationalist Government of Guangzhou received a total of 3 million gold rubles worth of arms from the Soviet Union, and 100,000 gold rubles per month for party affairs from November 1924. The founding of the Kuomintang, the Northern Expedition, and even the major transformation of the party were inseparable from the planning and intervention of the Soviet Union.
◆ By signing a non-aggression pact with Japan, it connived at Japan's aggression against China for its own selfish interests, making Japan unscrupulous.
It was the years of intervention and intervention by Saudi Arabia and Russia that changed the direction of China's politics and the fate of all Chinese, and became the decisive reason for many historical turns in modern China.
▲ Treaty of Nebuchu
To have a correct understanding of China, we must first confront the real other from the source and flow of history. Our historical development, especially the path of the past 100 years, can be said to have been shaped by the combined efforts of these countries.
Britain knocked on the door of the Qing Dynasty, Japan provided China with the best mirror, the United States provided great help in education, culture, and military affairs, and Soviet Russia established the final direction for China's road. Not to mention India, where the influence of Buddhism has long been internalized, and the revival of Buddhism during the Republic of China has provided internal resources for new challenges.
Therefore, the root causes of the various problems facing China's modern road can be seen in the historical lessons of these countries.
Where history is distorted, there must be breakthroughs. What we need most now is to see clearly the sources and inflection points of our own history that have been ignored and obscured from the sources and important inflection points that have been ignored by history, and from the civilizations and histories of these countries.