The Westernization Movement did not free China from the fate of national peril. What is the main reason?

The industrialization of any country is guided by the ideological emancipation movement. The tragedy of the Westernization Movement is that the feudal traditional thoughts of the people who led the movement remain the same. The failure of the Opium War didn't make China people realize the corruption of the feudal system, but only made some people of insight admit the foreigners' "building a strong ship and gaining profits". Therefore, these people of insight are looking for Qiang Bing, a powerful country. China's modern industrialization began with the modernization of weapons. Ten years after the signing of the Beijing Treaty, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and others began to introduce foreign arms production technology. 1855, Zeng Guofan set up a small arsenal in Jiangxi, 186 1 year, and set up an arsenal and dock in Anqing, Anhui. 1865, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang established Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai. This factory produces some small armored speedboats, rifles, artillery, bullets and so on. Although these early factories played a very limited role in enhancing national strength, they were the beginning of Westernization Movement and modern industrialization in China. 1. Incomplete Westernization Movement: The period when the Westernization Movement began was about the Meiji Restoration era when Japan underwent great changes. In other words, China's modern industry started no later than Japanese. But why is the result of Westernization Movement completely different from that of Meiji Restoration? By the beginning of the 20th century, Japan, a "small country", had become an industrial and military power, while the Chinese Empire, which is famous for its vast territory and rich resources, was still poor and weak, only beaten and invaded. The difference between the two is of course institutional. Meiji Restoration was a peaceful bourgeois revolution, the essence of constitutional monarchy was bourgeois democracy, and the Westernization Movement was only an economic revitalization under the feudal system. If the political system remains unchanged, there will be no economic take-off. Institutions are created by people and can also be changed by people. It is thought that determines people's behavior. Therefore, the economic difference between China and Japan lies in the system, and the difference in the system lies in the ideology. Before the Meiji Restoration, there were also some ideological emancipation movements in Japan. Although the idea of "leaving Asia and entering Europe" is completely westernized, some people still think it is "excessive" today. But there is no ideological "overcorrection", which is not enough to change a nation's deep-rooted traditional thinking. China did not have such a thorough ideological emancipation movement at that time. Although there are many excellent things in China traditional culture, as the mainstream ideology of feudal system, its essence is conservative and closed. This tradition of thousands of years has penetrated into everyone's blood in China and has become the most powerful obstacle to China's modernization. Lenin said that tradition is a terrible force. In China, this tradition is terrible enough to stop all historical progress, even the tiny economic progress that doesn't touch the political system at all. It is this powerful and terrible tradition that the Westernization Movement encountered. Second, take the railway as a mirror: a conservative nation will almost resist all new things different from tradition. The experience of China Railway illustrates this point. As early as the first year of Tongzhi, 27 British and American foreign firms, such as Jardine Matheson and Qicheng, suggested to Li Hongzhang to build a railway from Suzhou to Shanghai, which was rejected. The following year, another British engineer, Stevenson, suggested to the Qing government to build six railway trunk lines, namely, Hankou to Shanghai, Hankou to Guangdong, Hankou to Sichuan, Shanghai to Fuzhou, Zhenjiang to Beijing and Guangdong to Yunnan, which were also rejected. In the fourth year of Tongzhi, American businessmen built a railway more than a mile long outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing as a sample to attract the attention of Chinese people, but it was demolished by the government under the command of Bujun in a few days. In the sixth year of Guangxu, Jardine Matheson built a railway from Shanghai to Wusong, which aroused unanimous official opposition. Finally, under the pretext of crushing a soldier, Jardine bought it for 282,000 silver, demolished it and threw it into the sea. In the seventh year of Guangxu, a 22-mile railway from Tangshan to Xugezhuang was built to pick up coal, but locomotives were not allowed, and donkeys and horses were used to tow carriages on the railway. This is a unique and unprecedented absurd move in the world railway history. Railway is the product of modern industry and the premise of industrialization. Vogel, a Nobel Prize winner and American economist, proved the important role of railways in industrialization. While Chinese people are still boycotting railways, railways have run rampant in Europe and America. In the sixth year of Guangxu, Liu Mingchuan, a former governor of Taiwan Province Province, wrote a letter entitled "Building Railways for Self-improvement", but it was resolutely opposed by conservatives such as Zhang Jiaxiang, a bachelor of cabinet, and Liu Xihong, a member of the General Political Department (who was also the deputy ambassador to Britain Guo Songtao). The reason is nothing more than that feng shui and dragon veins will be destroyed and foreigners will covet them. The real reason for the opposition is the fear of destroying China's inherent traditions. The anti-new attitude of traditional thought has become the biggest obstacle to China's industrialization. Advocates of railway construction do not criticize conservatives from the ideological roots, but seek supporters in power groups. Li Hongzhang's support for railway construction depends on the support of Prince Chun, the minister of supervision of the naval yamen. Although the railway was built later, the conservative thought was not touched. Because of this, every small progress in early industrialization was achieved through political struggle. Third, the root of failure: the founders of the Westernization Movement did not and did not want to touch traditional ideas. In fact, not only did they have no contact with feudal ideas, but even they themselves were followers of traditional ideas. At that time, the differences between the conservatives and the Westernization School were not in the fundamental ideological understanding, but in the views and practices on specific issues. For example, different attitudes towards railways. Of course, compared with conservatives, the Westernization School is still progressive. After all, they turn a blind eye and advocate "learning from foreigners." Although this "long" is completely technical. However, the Westernization School did not fundamentally get rid of the feudal traditional culture. This is the fundamental reason why the Westernization Movement failed and the early modernization process in China was extremely slow. The ideological characteristics of the Westernization School are embodied in Zhang Zhidong's famous theory of "Chinese style and western use". "Taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application" means realizing "learning from foreigners" on the premise of maintaining feudal autocracy and traditional ideas. Some scholars think that this kind of thought is a technique of Zhang Zhidong, aiming at learning from the West, but if it is said publicly, it will be opposed and can only be realized in a roundabout way. However, I don't think so. Deeply influenced by traditional culture, Zhang Zhidong was a government official and an important official in the Qing Dynasty. His thoughts and positions determined his attitude towards the Qing Dynasty and feudal traditions. The difference between him and the conservatives is not whether to maintain the feudal system, but how to maintain it. Conservatives believe that the exclusion of feudal system is the best guarantee, and westernization school knows that it is necessary to seek institutional stability through technological changes. The use of "western learning" is for the sake of "Chinese style" of western learning, that is, the system and technology are completely unified The successful experience of Meiji Restoration in Japan changed both "style" and "use". The failure of Westernization Movement lies in wanting to "use" instead of changing "style". It took a lot of money to promote industrialization with the feudal system, and some industries were established, but until the demise of the Qing Dynasty, China's industrialization still did not take substantial steps. Therefore, the industrialization of any country is guided by the ideological emancipation movement. Ideological emancipation is a complete denial of the feudal mainstream consciousness. We can't want national liberation, and we can't stop stubborn conservatives from meeting God with granite heads. But leaders who promote industrialization must emancipate their minds. The tragedy of the Westernization Movement is that the feudal traditional thoughts of the people who led the movement remain the same.