When we look at the history of the late Qing Dynasty and the history of the world together, we feel that we are separated every time.
In the photos circulated on the Internet of Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States, Li Zhongtang is wearing a yellow jacket, wearing a flower feather on his head, combing long braids, standing in the middle of a group of people in suits and leather shoes, with high-rise buildings in the background, feeling like an ancient person traveling to modern times. It is estimated that at that time, Westerners looked at him similarly to us now looking at some chiefs in the deep mountains and old forests.
Li Hongzhang was incompatible with developed countries, but he was only a microcosm of China's backwardness in the world at that time. At that time, in all respects, the late Qing Dynasty and the developed countries of the West seemed to live in two different worlds. However, we also have people who open their eyes to the world, such as Zhang Zhidong.
History textbooks say that he was a representative of the Westernization School in the late Qing Dynasty, advocated "Chinese style and Western use", and opened many new factories and schools. In fact, Zhang Zhidong was the first person in the mainland to propose an "eight-hour work system."
Moreover, the factories and schools opened by Zhang Zhidong are all based on concepts that have been used in the West for decades or even centuries, and even equipment that they have obsolete. However, the time when Zhang Zhidong proposed the "eight-hour work system" was in 1888. This was only two years after the United States announced the eight-hour work day in 1886.
The eight-hour work day was not proposed in 1886, but was first proposed by a man named Robert Owen in August 1817.
Robert Owen resented the capitalists' emphasis on machines ignoring human needs, and he believed that workers should work in a comfortable and tidy environment, and also pay attention to the number of hours they work. At that time, the workers worked about 14 hours a day, and he took the initiative to reduce his working hours to 10.5 hours, and built many dormitories for workers, so that each family could be divided into a two-bedroom apartment.
In addition, these workers' dormitories are also very humane, and he did it 200 years ago with the "20-minute oxygen inhalation method in the park", which has become very popular recently. The workers' dormitory he built was lined with greenery, and there were recreational activities in the evenings, and his physical and mental health were taken into account.
Because of these things, he is known as the pioneer of modern management.
At the same time, he also proposed the concept of preschool education. He believes that what human beings are raised to be in early childhood and childhood, and what kind of people they are in adulthood. Therefore, pre-school education is particularly important. Not only did he write his own teaching materials and curriculum, but he also founded a kindergarten school. This should be the oldest kindergarten in the world.
It was this man who came up with the slogan of the eight-hour day in August 1817. He said workers need "8 hours of work, 8 hours of leisure, 8 hours of rest". This was followed by a fifty-year effort, until Karl Marx, at the International Workers' Congress in Geneva in September 1866, explicitly proposed the introduction of an "eight-hour workday".
However, an initiative is only an initiative and has no legal effect. This was followed by another 20 years of exploitation, until 1886, when a general strike and demonstrations of up to 350,000 workers broke out in Chicago and other cities in the United States. Three years later, in 1889, May Day was established.
As early as 1888, when workers' demonstrations broke out in Chicago and other cities in the United States, and before the International Labor Day appeared, Zhang Zhidong proposed the eight-hour working day, which can be said to be a very new concept.
At that time, in 1880, France dug the Panama Canal to recruit Chinese laborers from the mainland through Hong Kong. However, due to long working hours, harsh environments, and infectious diseases, the mortality rate is high.
With a high mortality rate, there was naturally not enough manpower to build the Panama Canal, so French companies wanted to recruit another group of Chinese laborers. They proposed the idea to Jang Zhidong in 1888, and in his reply to the other party's telegram, Jang Zhidong proposed an eight-hour work day.
The telegram said that the Bama River had recruited Chinese workers, and that there was no abuse and that the charter was credible. Please agree with a proper clause stipulating that the working hours shall not exceed eight o'clock a day, and that food, lodging, medicine, transportation, pensions, and regulations shall be treated, and that all interests shall be prohibited, and that ill-treatment shall be prohibited.
That is to say, you don't have enough people to build the canal, and if you want to find some Chinese to work, you can. But the issue of treatment must be clarified first. The working hours should not exceed eight hours a day, and the food, accommodation, medical expenses for illness, how to transport the coffin back after the death, how to calculate the pension, and how to manage it on a daily basis must be discussed in advance.
It can be seen from here that Zhang Zhidong, as a minister of foreign affairs, has fought for many rights and interests for Chinese workers. However, the factories he opened in China, such as the Hanyang Iron Works and the Hubei Gun Factory, did not implement an eight-hour work system.
He must know that it is more difficult to implement this set of theories at home than to fight for it abroad. After all, 1888 was only the fourteenth year of Guangxu. That year, Guangxu had just gotten married, and all the major national affairs were Cixi's words. It was difficult to get Cixi to agree with this view.
It was not until 1922, when Cixi died and the Qing Dynasty was gone, that the workers of our country officially put forward the appeal of the "eight-hour working day" at the first national labor conference.
At this time, 34 years have passed since Zhang Zhidong proposed the eight-hour work system. Whether or not Zhang's factory implemented this, he was the first Chinese to propose an eight-hour workday.