In the 19th century, East Asia was in turmoil, and not only Was China in the midst of internal and external troubles, but also Japan, its neighbor to the east, was also in trouble. In order to save the people, the patriots of the choshu and Satsuma clans of Japan overthrew the rigid Tokugawa shogunate under the slogan of "Honoring the King". Saigo Takamori, Sakamoto Ryoma, Kido Takayoshi, etc., politicians from low-ranking samurai backgrounds completed a great change, known in history as the "Meiji Restoration", but later Saigo Takamori rebelled against the Meiji government and betrayed the reforms, which on the surface was a rebellion, but in fact it was a fierce conflict between the spirit of "Westernization" and "Reform" in Japan.
In the 19th century, the life of the lower samurai in Japan was very miserable, although they had a fixed salary, but the amount was not worth mentioning in the face of rising prices, and even this little money was sometimes cut, because the samurai master Daimyo was also in financial crisis and could only "default on wages".
Forced to make a living, many samurai put down their dignity, converted their gardens into vegetable gardens, or directly engaged in handicrafts, while those low-ranking samurai who scrupulously fulfilled their duties, maintained self-esteem, and did not want to engage in business, could only envy the wealth of others, and lived a miserable life of demolishing the eastern wall and repairing the western wall. Although the merchant class belonged to the "lower class" of society, it had a much better life than the samurai because of its high professional income. The huge gap between social identity and treatment made the samurai resentful and dissatisfied with the shogunate.
Except for the samurai, the peasants' lives were not much better. In 1833, under the continuous blows of natural and man-made disasters, the terrible "Tenpo Famine" broke out in Japan, and at least hundreds of thousands of people died of famine and plague. Rice merchants took advantage of natural disasters to hoard and make a lot of "national disasters and wealth", but the government allowed monopoly and colluded with them. The angry people pointed their finger at the incompetent Tokugawa shogunate and organized rebellions everywhere. Although the shogunate, which was deeply in crisis, tried to respond with the "Tenbo Reform", it had little effect because of the accumulated shortcomings. Seeing that the reforms were ineffective, the people further lost confidence in the shogunate.
The West used its ships and cannons to run rampant in East Asia, forcibly opening the door of China in the Opium War of 1840. In 1853, U.S. Navy Commodore Perry led a fleet into Edo Bay, kicked open the door of Japan, and a year later signed the "Kanagawa Treaty" with the Tokugawa shogunate, which officially ended Japan's policy of national isolation that had lasted for more than 200 years.
Later, the shogunate signed a series of unequal treaties under the pressure of the great powers. These cowardly compromises were regarded by the Japanese as a great shame for the country, which severely dampened the prestige of the shogunate and made the vast number of people smell the crisis of Japan's becoming a semi-colony.
Internal and external troubles ensued, and the Tokugawa regime was in a hurry, unable to deal with internal social problems or confront foreign invaders. Faced with the current situation of mountains and rivers floating to zero, the Japanese people strongly hope for a thorough reform and a "rebirth" that shocks history.
Located in the southwest of Japan, the choshu and Satsuma domains are fierce and fierce, and they have been thorns in trouble from ancient times to the present. The low-ranking samurai here were very dissatisfied with the chaos caused by the shogunate and foreigners, so they took patriotism as the starting point and shouted the slogan "Honoring the King". This group of "aspirants" advocated the overthrow of the shogunate that "blackmailed the Son of Heaven to order the princes", returned power to the emperor, and drove out foreign forces to maintain the integrity of national sovereignty.
They fanatically carried out hostilities against Westerners, vandalized foreigners' property everywhere, and planned a failed coup d'état in 1864. This led to foreign retaliation and pressure from the shogunate, but the shogunate was already weakened and unable to control the local princes who had become increasingly powerful as a result of the successful reforms.
Just as the shogunate was trying to build a modern army to save itself through foreign assistance, the southwestern two domains also signed a "Sasaga Alliance" agreement to jointly oppose the shogunate. At the same time, due to the full-scale invasion of imperialism, Japan's social economy was on the verge of collapse, and unrest broke out everywhere.
The apex of chaos was Nagoya's "Okay! "In the riots that lasted for months, men and women stormed the homes of merchants and landlords, snatched wine and food, and then danced and drank in the streets. These people were mad at utter despair of society, and in order to express their emotions and hopes, they made up a song:
From the west, Choshu butterflies flew in; From the port of Yokohama, money poured out. What's not to like? All right! Is this bad? That's good!
Seeing that the whole society was no longer able to bear it, in November 1867, the four clans of Choshu, Satsuma, Tosa, and Saga declared that the "Great Government would be returned" and demanded that the shogunate return power to the emperor, so a civil war officially broke out with the shogunate known as the "Bochen War". However, as the "Kohara" rebellion spread throughout the country, the entire society lost its ability to organize, and the Tokugawa shogunate was completely unable to fight with the Southwest Xiong domain.
Samurai of satsuma domain in the Battle of The Fives
On January 3, 1868, the clan soldiers entered Kyoto, and in April the shogunate's stronghold of Edo surrendered and was renamed Tokyo, ending all resistance in 1869. The Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for 265 years, came to an end, and the low-ranking samurai from the Southwest Domain, led by patriots such as Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Ito Hirobumi, became the de facto rulers of Japan.
After the War, the new authorities understood that the arduous task had only begun, and they believed that only radical reform could get Japan out of its predicament. For example, Hirobumi Ito said in his memoirs that their goal was to "prosper, power, and culture" and to make Japan "recognized on an equal footing as one of the most powerful and civilized countries in the world." ”
In order to achieve this goal, the new Japanese government, headed by Emperor Meiji, carried out drastic social reforms. The reformists carried out a top-down restoration movement in roughly three steps.
First, abolish the previous practice of dividing society into four classes: soldiers, farmers, workers, and merchants, and re-divide society into aristocrats - Chinese, scholars - high-ranking samurai, commoners - the masses, and then gradually lifted many restrictions on the relationship between occupation and society.
Second, abolish the feudal counties and implement the centralization of power. The power of the local daimyo was withdrawn, and the central government assigned special personnel to manage the counties in order to strengthen the central government's control over the localities.
Third, establish a new army based on conscription. The reduction of the samurai and the deprivation of the samurai's right to carry the sword ended the historical task of the samurai as a professional soldier.
It can be seen that the above three points are all learning from the West, the first is an attempt to establish a Western-style civil society; the second is to imitate the form of political organization of the Western powers; and the third is to actively move closer to the Western military system by establishing a new army.
Because of the big steps, this large-scale reform caused a civil uproar, except for sporadic popular uprisings, the more serious rebellions were initiated by the samurai who were not willing to fall. The reason is obvious, the samurai have just helped the new regime defeat the shogunate, and as soon as they turn around, they are knocked to the ground, and the samurai who are deeply betrayed by the new government have gathered around Saigo Takamori.
Saigo Takamori
Although Saigo Takamori was a hero in the Pengchen War and a standard-bearer of the Fallen Curtain Sect, he was an old samurai living in the past in his bones, stubbornly adhering to tradition. Therefore, after a disagreement with the new government, he resigned and returned to his hometown, because of his strong samurai atmosphere and the open establishment of a samurai school, disgruntled samurai came to him, and he became the spiritual leader of the old samurai.
Samurai vs. The New Army
A large number of samurai who believed that they had been betrayed by the Meiji government surrounded Saigo Takamori, who instigated his mercenary uprising, and finally Saigo Takamori reluctantly rose up in Kagoshima to rebel against the new regime he had fought with his own hands, which was the "Satsuma Rebellion" in 1877. However, the samurai led by Saigo Takamori were defeated by the modern new army composed of civilians, and eventually lost and committed suicide, his defeat was the last stubborn resistance of the conservative forces, and the defeat of the war also symbolized the official end of the samurai era.
Realistically speaking, the Meiji Restoration cannot be understood as a simple "Westernization." Many of the key reforms were more like expedient measures to get rid of outdated old institutions than to imitate the West, and the reformists had to break their wrists and revolutionize the old in order to implement policies that were more in line with the socio-economic environment. Even with the purely Western context of political organization and economic reform, the Meiji Restoration did not copy the Western system, but adopted a gradual operation according to Japan's unique national conditions.
The unwillingness and anger of conservatives such as Saigo Takamori, compared with "Westernization", they hate "reforming the old" more, they respect tradition, maintain tradition, and live according to tradition, and the so-called tradition is rooted in the blood of the national cultural background, and no one will easily let go. But to take a step back, if we cling to the shortcomings and think that the traditions of the past cannot be moved, I am afraid that when the social crisis is not over, the traditions will be completely destroyed in great turmoil. Instead of regretting it in the end, it is better to take the initiative to reform the tradition to adapt to the new situation while still having the choice, so that the tradition will survive in another way. But the conservatives' pretentiousness prevented them from embracing new things, and their arrogance blocked hopes of reconciliation with the reformers.
In addition, Saigo Takamori resisted the "revolution" not only because of his loyalty to traditional Japanese culture, but also because of his character. Saigo Takamori once said to Sakamoto Ryoma, "What you said the day before yesterday is different from what you said today, so how can you win my trust?" Sakamoto replied, "Not so." Conforming to the trend of the times is the way of a gentleman! Saigo, once you've decided on something, you want to follow through. But do so, and in the future you will be behind the times. ”
From the dialogue between the two, we can glimpse the character of Saigo Takamori: persistent, stubborn, and unwilling to change easily. He always adhered to the samurai spirit, although running back and forth for the rights and status of lower-class samurai was the work of a responsible gentleman, but he did not think about Japan's future from a macro perspective, and in the harsh international environment of danger, the Meiji Restoration was a difficult way for Japan to give up. Whether it is "Westernization" or "reform of the old", in essence, it is Japan's self-help behavior, Saigo Takamori's obsession with resisting the "reform of the old" is equivalent to resisting the wave of reform, and the only end is failure.
Reference: A Concise General History of Japan, Ieda Xijia
A History of Japan, Conrad Totman
History of Japan by John W Hall
The Meiji Restoration, william g. beasley
Modern Japanese History: From the Tokugawa Period to the 21st Century, Andrew Gordon