The thinker Yan Fu once had the experience of studying in Britain, and after returning to China, he was not used by the Qing court, and he was depressed, so that he became addicted to opium. This is also his cool search for a way out.
The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 had an unprecedented impact on Yan Fu's inner world, making him finally understand that the Qing court's 30-year so-called mastery of the long skill was a complete failure, and the Westerners did not really grasp the key to the prosperity and strength of Western countries. The defeat of the Sino-Japanese War put China at a critical juncture of extinction, and when the bad news came, Yan Fu could no longer sit calmly in his study. The patriotic passion surging in the young student's heart quickly turned into an urgent sense of mission to save the dead.
Yan Fu published four sensational papers in succession, including "On the Urgent Need of World Changes", "Yuan Qiang", "Breaking Korea", and "The Theory of Salvation and Survival", comprehensively reviewing China's serious shortcomings in academic politics and religion, and proposing his strategies for saving the world and becoming rich and strong.
The publication of these theories of time made Yan Fu a spokesman for the intellectual circles. For The sake of China's prosperity and strength, he shouted angrily. In "On the Urgency of World Change", he attacked the diehards in the imperial court and those pseudo-foreign affairs factions, accusing them of "good old and suddenly present", and only hoped that China would not have contact with the West on the other side of the ocean. Yan Fu pointed out in "On the Urgent Need for World Changes" that China's crisis situation is not a temporary social and political crisis, but a cultural crisis that has never existed in eternity: "Today's world changes have not been in urgent need since the Qin Dynasty. "My four-thousand-year-old cultural relics statement has been worried about the end of the day." "Our people are not humble in seeking the truth in the West, and they are fooling themselves by being clever."
In the face of such a crisis, only by clearly understanding the current situation and grasping the law of evolution of history can the country be freed from the crisis of extinction and extinction; otherwise, it will be difficult to get rid of the situation. He appealed that the conservatives in the imperial court could no longer rest on their laurels and close themselves off.
Yan Fu pointed out that the reason why the conservatives of the DPRK do not want to communicate with the outside world is that the people of Shenzhou had better not have contact with the Western countries. In this way, without external influence, the poor will be content with poverty, and the rich will be able to enjoy their success for a long time. However, such a result has deprived Chinese culture of the opportunity to communicate with Western cultural exchanges and communication, and the vitality of Chinese society has been suffocated. "Fu Shisheng today, those who do not see the effects of Western wealth and strength, those who have no eyes; it is said that they do not talk about wealth and strength, and China can be safe, that is, they do not use Western techniques, and wealth and strength can be caused by themselves, that is, they can use Western techniques, and there are no real talents who are able to access the affairs of the times, and they are not crazy and lose their hearts. But tired? Those who are appeased will correct the calendar, and those who are in trouble with the opportunities of heaven and earth. Its intentions are visible. Yan Fu knows very well that those who cling to the unchanging law of their ancestors will only lead China to a dead end.
In the article "Original Strength", Yan Fu put forward his famous Enlightenment program for national salvation. He called on the imperial court to "drum up the people's strength, open up the people's wisdom, and new people's morality." To drum up popular power is to advocate freedom and equality, to establish a house of parliament, and to implement a constitutional monarchy. The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War was not terrible. The terrible thing is that the people's strength, the people's hearts, and the people's morality have been lost. In today's China, only by working with one heart and one mind from top to bottom, eliminating accumulated shortcomings, and inspiring people's hearts and minds can we make the country rich and strong, so as to avoid the fate of subjugation like India.
Yan Fu further analyzed the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western politics and religion in "Breaking The Korean Era". In his view, the mode of operation of modern Western democratic politics is based on advanced theoretical systems and liberal democratic ideas, and it is impossible to succeed simply by relying on systems. In Western countries, the enforcers of democratic politics regard the state as the public property of the people, so all laws and decrees are based on the interests of the people, and it is precisely because of this that the rulers have won the support of the people and the country has flourished. In the Qing Dynasty at that time, the rulers regarded the state as the private property of the emperor and the grandfather, and in order to enjoy this kind of dynastic rule for generations, rule the people's thoughts, and prevent the people's resistance, they formulated government decrees that violated the law of social development contrary to the will of the people, and carried out criminal government that restricted democracy and freedom, resulting in the decline of national strength, and the state could only repeat the cycle in chaos. However, Yan Fu did not believe that China at that time should immediately introduce Western democratic politics, on the grounds that China had not yet arrived and the customs had not yet come to fruition, and its people were not enough to govern themselves. If you rush to do it, it is like having an ordinary person cut wood in place of a skilled carpenter. There are very few who go to cut wood in place of a clever carpenter who does not cut his fingers. Yan Fu believes that China should retain the current political system, intensify reform from the academic and educational aspects, establish a set of academic culture that advocates rationality and freedom, improve the quality of the people, follow the trajectory of evolution, and gradually return the government to the people, so that political reform can be finally successful.
Yan Fu's article "The Theory of Salvation and Death" has produced a more thorough play and explanation of the abolition of the eight-strand examination. He said at the beginning of the article that the trend of the world today has shown that if China does not change the law, it will inevitably lag behind the West and even lead to the decline of the country. So, what should be the first thing to change the law? In Yan Fu's view, if we want to change the law, we should first abolish the eight shares, and he pointed out that there are three drawbacks in the examination system that has lasted for thousands of years: one is "wisdom", the second is "bad heart technique", and the third is "nourishing the wanderer". He thought, "But what about the way of salvation?" He said, the eight strands were removed, and the Western learning was ,...... The East Sea can flow back, and my words will not be easy. After attacking the imperial examination system, Yan Fu turned his focus to traditional old learning. In his critique of China's "old learning", he divided it into three categories— Song Xueyi, Sinology, and Lexicography. For Song Xueyi, Yan Fu commented:
Extravagance and etiquette, widely speaking of sexual reasoning. Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, Zhu, Guan, Min, Lian, Luo. Several study cases, hundreds of words. "Faculty Of General Discernment", "Conclusion in Later Years". Guan Xue is diligent, Yongjia is systematic. Shen Ning, Dong Fa, successors Gu and Huang, "Ming Yi to be visited", "Ri Zhi" bibliography. Dress with big sleeves, Yao Xing Shun. The pool is sound and beautiful, thousands of miles away from people. Exorcise the captives on the stove, fold the slugs and reeds. Eight tables of operation, cage the world. If this is the case, I have to say a word, that is, there is no truth.
Yan Fu's "Thesis on Salvation and Death" was published after the signing of the "Maguan Treaty", in which it loudly shouted that "the unchanging law of China today must die", but Yan Fu's proposal for changing the law did not form a systematic idea of changing the law, he only proposed the abolition of the eight shares, advocated Western studies, and did not form a systematic program for change.
Despite this, Yan Fu's strategy of salvation was still a sharp sword that stabbed at the feudal defenders. In the article "Splitting Korea", Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, personally wrote a rebuttal and wanted to harm Yan Fu.
Yan Fu advocated political change to change backward and decadent China, and to this end, he also actively participated in the restoration activities. At the beginning of 1898, Yan Fu turned to the restoration method and initially put forward a more systematic restoration proposal. Just after the Spring Festival of that year, Yan Fu serialized his "Book of proposed emperors" in the "National News Daily", stating the necessity and urgency of changing the law. Unlike texts such as "Yuan Qiang", the "Book of the Proposed Emperor" is relatively cautious in its words. Yan Fu pointed out that China is facing a critical situation of imminent national destruction, and he analyzed the reasons for China's weakness, holding that China's weakness has reached the extreme so far, and the reasons for this are that "internal worries" account for seven-tenths and "external troubles" account for three-tenths. The crux of the internal worry is that since we know that the Fa cannot adapt to needs, we do not think about changing. Internal worries are not repaired, and it is difficult to return to the burden, which is the root of the disease. In the new situation of foreign invasion, it is not possible to continue to use the ancestors to rule the country, and it is necessary to use talents who are different from the ancient times to plan diplomacy and supplement internal reasoning. Yan Fu stressed that it is difficult to seek wealth, but it is difficult to manage money; it is difficult to seek talent, but it is really difficult to know.
Yan Fu advocated changing the law, but he saw that the difficulty of changing the law was extremely difficult, and all aspects were intertwined and unclear. He believes that the change of law should not only add new ones, but also remove the old, supplement the diarrhea and apply at the same time, and remove the old and cloth the new. But the failure of the Restoration and Reform, the ruthless history, once again shattered his hopes.
In fact, although Yan Fu supported the restoration of the law, he also had certain reservations about Kang Youwei's proposal for a change. Yan Fu's idea of restoration is mainly inclined to "education to save the country", believing that the reform of the country should start from the aspects of system, ideology and culture, that is, he proposed "drumming up the people's strength", "opening up the people's wisdom", and "new people's morality". Among these three aspects, he also believes that opening up the people's wisdom is an important way for the country to become rich and strong. He thinks that a sentence by the British sociologist Spencer can explain the truth of developing the people's wisdom: "The people can be transformed into infinity, but they cannot be expected." Although he propagated Rousseau's "theory of the people's covenant" in his article "Breaking The Koreans", he did not accept Rousseau's thesis on revolution. Because Rousseau's "Drum People's Pact" advocated the overthrow of the feudal monarchy and the realization of a democratic republic. He believes that Rousseau invisibly encouraged some people to achieve revolution through violence. Yan Fu said, "However, if you abandon my monarch and subjects now, can you?" A: It's a big deal. Why? The time has not yet come, its customs have not yet come to fruition, and its people are not enough to govern themselves. He believes that the conditions for radical change in China are not yet available.
Compared with yan fu's ideas, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, representative figures of the reform school, were eager to achieve success, with the utilitarian color of the old-style literati. Kang Youwei's Reform and Reform Law advocated that political, economic, educational, health, and military aspects should immediately learn from the West, so that "the government can do everything possible" and "a thousand trees and pear blossoms" overnight. He believes that non-total change and sudden change are not credited. Kang Youwei also opposed the Westerners' proposition of changing the law, holding that the Westerners only "changed them on one or two things, not on the fundamental law, so that the branches and branches were still ineffective." According to his idea of changing the law, "three years and grand planning, five years and organization, eight years and effective, ten years and hegemony." ”
Kang Youwei laid out a timeline for the effects of the reform and reform method, and Yan Fu was even more dissatisfied. Yan Fu believes that it will take at least 60 years for China to become rich and strong.
Although there were differences in yan fu and Kang Youwei's ideological ideas on the restoration and reform of the law, after the failure of the restoration and reform, Kang and Liang fled overseas in panic, and Yan Fu was also affected, but Yan Fu's idea of restoration was relatively mild, so after Empress Dowager Cixi launched a coup d'état, she only ordered the governor Yulu to check it at any time and was not severely cracked down.
Yan Fu advocated the use of Western systems to transform China, and he introduced Western academic thought to China, hoping to influence the ideological concepts of Chinese. He translated it into The Evolution of Heaven in 1896. After the publication of "The Theory of Heavenly Speech", it immediately caused a sensation and produced a huge response in society. Within a year, the version published by Hubei Qiuyang woodcut and the lithographic version of Tianjin Qiqi Jingshe appeared. After the publication of the Commercial Press in 1905, 20 editions were printed by 1921. The vastness of the book's impact on society and the enthusiasm of new-minded people for it are evident.
Why has "The Theory of Heavenly Speech" become a book loved by Chinese readers, and has a wide impact on society, causing people to think seriously?
This has a lot to do with the social background at that time. Since the Opium War, China's passive beatings, the many demands of the great powers, and the sense of national peril have made people deeply worried about the fate of the country. Patriots, in particular, often ask: Is China really about to perish? Where is the future of the country, and how can China strive to become stronger and revitalized? In this common voice, the "Heavenly Speech" came out. Through Yan Fu's translation, he told people that in the face of the national crisis, China needs to seek change. According to the evolutionary laws of "victory over inferiority" and "natural selection of things" in the "Theory of Heavenly Evolution," Yan Fu tried to tell people that as long as China "rules the sky at its disposal," as long as it is angry and self-reliant, and seeks to become stronger, China still has a way out. "The Theory of Heavenly Speech" was sought after by readers, reflecting the common sentiment of most people at that time who were eager to seek a road to prosperity and strength for China.