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Chapter 241 The Westernization Movement Doomed to Failure

After the defeat in the First Opium War, the Qing government remained indifferent and had no intention of changing.

It was not until after its defeat in the Second Opium War that the closed-door Qing government thought about reform and self-strengthening.

After all, the situation has become so corrupt that one after another unequal treaties that undermine the country's rights and humiliate the country have been signed.

If there is no way to open the curtain of the self-improvement movement, the demise of the Qing Dynasty is right in front of us.

But to be honest, ancient people from all dynasties were speechless about the Qing government's slowness.

The first Opium War occurred in 1840. The Qing government was completely defeated by the hail of bullets from foreign powers. At that time, the Qing government should seek change.

But as a result, the Qing government was indifferent and had no countermeasures at all, and it wasted 20 years in vain.

It was not until the Second Opium War in 1860 that the Qing government was pinned to the ground and rubbed by the British and French forces. Only at this time did it think about reform to become stronger.

But it is a pity that according to what the anchor said, the Westernization Movement ultimately failed.

I originally thought that the Old Summer Palace would become a symbol of the Qing Empire's strength, but I never thought that it would end up in ruins.

"The troops returning from Beijing, especially the French Expeditionary Force, were all dissatisfied with returning to Europe carrying the stolen goods."

If the self-strengthening movement could have been carried out after the failure of the first Opium War, maybe we could have resisted the second Opium War by foreign bandits, and the Old Summer Palace would not have suffered this disaster.

"When the British and French forces broke into the Old Summer Palace arrogantly, Wenfeng was surrounded by only two dozen eunuchs armed with traditional cold weapons."

"In August of the 10th year of Xianfeng's reign, I just arrived at the Old Summer Palace and took office."

"In the days following October 1860, , all the royal treasures in the Old Summer Palace were looted."

"The Old Summer Palace was built during the years of Yongzheng and Qianlong. It can be said that it was built with the efforts of the whole country and the hard work of two generations of emperors. It is a great legacy left to future generations by a talented and accomplished emperor like Yongzheng."

Even he couldn't bear to take a second look at the royal treasures stored in the Old Summer Palace.

"The two Opium Wars in 1840 and 1860 forced China to open its doors."

"In this completely unequal confrontation, Wenfeng knew that he was powerless and finally chose to face the disaster calmly."

"This was a heavy blow to Emperor Xianfeng, who was hiding from the war in the Chengde Mountain Resort."

"On October 18, 3,500 British troops stormed into the Old Summer Palace again and set fire to it. The fire burned for three days and three nights."

Even though what was burned was the Old Summer Palace in another time and space, and the Old Summer Palace in his era was still being built with nationwide efforts, it still made him depressed and extremely unhappy.

But what he was even more angry about was that the unscrupulous descendants of the Aisin Gioro family failed to protect their ancestors' country and allowed foreign bandits to ruin it.

“As mentioned in this article, Beijing’s spoils of war came from the imperial garden, the Old Summer Palace.”

"There are about 600 groups of pavilions and pavilions with plaques hanging on them, covering an area of ​​350 hectares. It is known as the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens."

"On August 1860, , after the commander of the British land forces on the British-French allied expedition to China landed in Beitang, Tianjin, within three months, he completed his goal of capturing Beijing."

"On March 1861, 3, the New York Times in the United States published a report on the Second Opium War, titled "Hong Kong sells rare treasures, Beijing's spoils of war are dazzling."

"Qi Ying's unprecedented power after the war as a signer of the Treaty of Nanjing is enough to illustrate this point."

You must know how much effort he put into creating the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens.

"The article mentioned that Hong Kong transports troops, military rations and other military supplies from Britain and France every day."

"Historically there is no special record of whether he participated in the looting of the Old Summer Palace, but in a circulated photo, he is clearly next to a piece of exquisite and expensive Chinese porcelain, and there is a sense of pride in his eyes. and greed.”

“When the Chinese people, who have been humble and forbearing under the nourishment of agricultural civilization for thousands of years, encounter the wolfish expansion of Western powers, whether to continue to be conservative and autistic, or to bravely move towards self-improvement, is the choice that the Chinese nation must face when standing at the juncture of history. .”

"On October 1860, AD, this masterpiece in architectural history began to suffer catastrophic disasters for several days."

"However, for Emperor Daoguang and the bureaucrats who handled the negotiations, it was a relief."

Yongzheng: The Old Summer Palace, which I spent a lot of effort to build, was burned to the ground by bandits.

“Except for the fact that the people of Guangzhou resolutely opposed the entry of foreigners into the city and launched a massive movement, and a few scholar-bureaucrats sadly compiled several books on understanding foreign countries, there is no sign of how much this incident shook the system.”

“By the time of Yongzheng and Qianlong in the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Old Summer Palace had gathered a group of unique garden landscapes.”

"Although these eunuchs were fearless and resisted bravely, every flesh and blood body faced bullets flashing with sparks."

He felt inexplicably heartbroken when he heard that the robbers had looted the Old Summer Palace and looted all the royal treasures inside.

"Now that it is destroyed in the hands of Xianfeng, one can imagine the pressure on the ancestors."

"Most of the loot went to Europe and the United States, with Hong Kong alone spending at least £1 million on these rare luxury items."

"The signing of a series of treaties such as the Treaty of Nanjing is undoubtedly a slap in the face to most Chinese people."

"His personal future seems extremely bright, but at this moment, the future of the entire Qing Dynasty is still bleak."

"And he will never have the chance to see the self-improvement movement that is about to begin."

But in the end he got the advantage of the robber, which made him angry just thinking about it.

Ancient people from various dynasties can't help but guess that if the Qing government had not wasted these 20 years and began to reform and strengthen itself after its defeat in the First Opium War, the outcome might have been very different.

“They are secretly grateful that they finally got rid of the trouble of foreigners’ demands to go directly to Beijing for negotiations and limited it to five open ports.”

"A French officer sold the author of this article a necklace made of pearls and jade for a high price of two thousand pounds. One hundred and forty pearls were as big as cherries. The officer even had a few pieces that clearly belonged to the Qing Dynasty. A precious gem owned by the Emperor himself.”

"Wen Feng, the minister in charge of the Old Summer Palace, has a proud resume."

"So that in the next year, in 1861, the young emperor, who was only thirty-one years old, passed away."

"The Treaty of Beijing between China and Britain and China and France stipulates that foreign ministers shall be permanently stationed in Beijing, and the reparations between Britain and France will be increased to eight million taels."

"The Tianjin Foreign Business District was opened to the outside world and allowed foreigners to live in it. The British cut off the Kowloon Peninsula."

"Even the Russian minister, playing the role of mediator, was able to induce the Qing Dynasty to sign the Sino-Russian "Beijing Treaty" and skillfully seize China's territory north of Heilongjiang and east of the Ussuri River."

"This enabled the Russians to seize 400,000 square kilometers of China's land without spending a single soldier or a bomb."

"Even though its sovereignty was violated time and time again, the Qing government, which had always been closed to the country, still showed passivity and insensitivity to advanced Western technology."

Li Hongzhang: From the first Opium War to the Second Opium War, we failed to take the initiative to learn from the West and missed twenty years of development opportunities.

After the imperial court was defeated in the First Opium War, it was forced to open five treaty ports.

During this process, the Qing government should continue to work hard and strive for strength.

As Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan said, learn from the foreigners and learn skills to defeat the foreigners, just open your eyes and see the world.

But it is a pity that the Manchus in the court did not think so, and he was helpless as a Han official.

Having dealt with the Manchus all his life, he also knew what the Manchus thought.

The Manchus thought it would be good now. There used to be one treaty port, but now five treaty ports are enough.

As far as he knew, this idea was common among the Manchus.

He often thought that if the Westernization Movement had happened twenty years earlier, the scenery might have been different.

"Before the First Opium War, the Qing government, which had a vassal system for hundreds of years and regarded itself as the supreme kingdom of heaven, never took Westerners seriously."

"After the war, the Qing Dynasty, which was led by the Westerners, still could not face the fact that the West was stronger than itself."

“Inside and outside the Qing government, we still believe that Chinese civilization is the best, that enemies of the barbarians are uneducated, and that learning from the West will defeat the defenses of the barbarians and Xia.”

"It can be seen that compared with the loss of land and national rights, the sense of cultural superiority seems to be more comforting to the Qing government."

"The series of treaties of the Second Opium War firmly locked China under foreign privileges, making it impossible for China to escape the plunder of this system for a long time."

"The British and French allied forces captured the capital, forced the emperor to flee, and burned the royal gardens known as the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens. This marked the ruthless humiliation of this ancient civilization that claimed to be the center of the world."

"Four years later, the Taiping Rebellion was suppressed, and it was entirely due to its internal reasons that the Qing government succeeded in quelling the civil strife."

"After the signing of the treaty, there was a temporary calm and the internal crisis temporarily disappeared, which made some Han literati begin to think from a deeper level about the crux of the internal and external troubles in the past two decades, and China's first modernization efforts were born. .”

"History began more than 150 years ago when the first self-improvement movement of Chinese civilization in the modern sense began."

"The Westernization Movement, which had three specific goals of seeking strength, seeking wealth, and cultivating practical talents, was intended to enhance the Qing Dynasty's ability to resist foreign humiliation and suppress internal strife."

"At the same time, it is also beneficial to the country's prosperity and national rejuvenation, and starts the process of China's modernization."

"But the outcome of this seemingly vigorous movement faded away like falling flowers and water, and it ultimately ended in failure."

Zuo Zongtang: Alas, it’s too late to regret it. The court should have paid attention to Lin Zexu’s suggestion from the beginning, otherwise it would not be in this situation today.

In the First Opium War, the Qing army was completely defeated by the weapons of the Western powers. At that time, it should embark on a movement of self-improvement.

But it is a pity that the court was not aware of this from top to bottom at that time, and even Lin Zexu was criticized for raising it.

Lin Zexu asked his friends to compile a book called "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", which clearly put forward these concepts of self-improvement.

As a result, the whole country criticized, rejected, and boycotted this book from top to bottom.

According to what he learned, the book reached Japan and caused a great response.

Japan reprinted more than twenty editions of it in a short period of time, so this book played an important role in enlightening Japan's Meiji Restoration twenty years later.

Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan compiled books for the enlightenment of the Chinese people, but the Chinese people refused to accept them.

It was not until the Second Opium War twenty years later that the whole government realized the power of foreign guns and artillery.

They had to admit that foreign guns and cannons were more advanced than the swords and spears of the Qing army, and using them was not to use barbarians to transform Xia.

A clear understanding is the first step, and the second step is not only to buy but also to make.

"Most of the Westernization ministers who vigorously carried out the Westernization Movement were Han officials headed by Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang. They were all outstanding candidates in the imperial examinations."

"During the Taiping Rebellion, following the Qing government's strategic principle of using Han to control Han, the three of them were able to show their strength."

"But in the political situation of favoring the Manchus and suppressing the Han, they needed to be extremely cautious in every step they took, and every move of the Westernization Movement had to be reported to the Qing court."

"At this time, the conservative forces within the Qing government were still strong, but there were also some important figures in the ranks who supported the Westernization Movement."

"One day in 1864, a battleship arrived near Tianjin."

"The new Prussian Minister Lifus, who was about to take office in Beijing, suddenly discovered that there were three Danish merchant ships at Dagu Port."

"Since Prussia and Denmark were at war in Europe, Lee Fuss ordered the capture of Danish merchant ships as a trophy on his way to office."

"Shortly after the completion of the Law of All Nations translated by American missionaries at Tongwen Guan, an affiliated organization of the Prime Minister's Office, the Qing officials refused to accept Li Fusi as the minister stationed in Beijing in accordance with the relevant regulations of international law in the Public Law of All Nations, on the grounds that this would expand the European war to The behavior in China is illegal."

"In the end, Leefus had to release the Danish merchant ship and pay fifteen hundred dollars in compensation."

"This courageous and far-sighted Qing Dynasty official was none other than Prince Gong Yi, who was the Prime Minister at the time."

"The Prime Minister's Office also immediately issued 300 public laws of all nations to the provincial authorities, so that the officials of the imperial court began to learn to use international rules to safeguard national rights and interests."

"Emperor Daoguang had nine sons, the fourth son was Emperor Xianfeng, and the sixth son was Aixinjue Luo Yi."

"Prince Gong, Yi, has a noble status, is alert, brave and powerful, and has a decisive style."

"In 1861, Prince Gong stayed in Beijing and signed a series of unequal treaties."

"After learning from the pain, together with the bachelors Gui Liang and Wen Xiang, we wrote a memorial entitled "Six Articles of Regulations Drafted by the General Administration of Foreign Affairs".

“This memorial is a comprehensive reflection and summary of the failures of the two Opium Wars by the ruling class of the Qing government who suffered severe psychological setbacks.”

"One of its major breakthroughs is to finally admit that Russia, Britain, France, the United States and other countries are stronger than the Qing Dynasty. Regardless of whether they suppress or appease, they will face the loss of national interests."

"And in frustration, Emperor Xianfeng had no choice but to play it accurately."

"These six suggestions include setting up a special yamen to handle foreign affairs; setting up a trade minister in Tianjin to manage the three northern ports; ordering Guangdong and Shanghai to each send two translators proficient in foreign languages ​​to Beijing as errands; among the Eight Banners disciples, Select those who are talented and under the age of thirteen or fourteen to learn foreign languages; business conditions inside and outside Haikou and newsprint from various countries are reported to the Prime Minister's Yamen on a monthly basis."

"Although this memorial does not show that the Qing rulers were willing to proactively understand changes in external affairs, it at least showed that they were willing to face reality."

Prince Gong: Zeng Guopan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang were all local officials. Without the support of the central court, it would be difficult to implement the Westernization Movement.

It is no exaggeration to say that he was the most knowledgeable person in the court and deeply understood the importance of the Westernization Movement, so he chose to support the three of them.

The reason why he supported learning from the West and launching the Westernization Movement was mainly because he discovered a secret from the negotiations.

After the defeat in the Second Opium War, he stayed to negotiate with the British and French forces.

During the negotiation process, he suddenly discovered an important point. Britain and France did not want to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and become emperor. Britain and France only demanded trade, customs duties, concessions, and military compensation from the Qing Dynasty.

He felt that if this was the case, the Qing Dynasty could even cooperate with Western powers.

As long as the Western powers did not overthrow the Qing Dynasty, they could support the use of foreign guns and artillery.

"In order to enrich the country and strengthen the military, officials in various provinces actively updated old military systems and equipment, and set up military industries to manufacture guns."

"In 1861, Zeng Guofan founded the Anqing Ordnance Institute in Anhui. Later, Li Hongzhang established the Foreign Artillery Bureau in Shanghai. Zuo Zongtang also began to imitate equipment such as open-fire artillery and caseless guns in Fujian."

“In 1865, China’s first large-scale military industrial enterprise with relatively sophisticated equipment, Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Administration, was founded in Shanghai.”

"The General Administration of Manufacturing has successively built a translation hall, a steam hammer factory, a gun factory, a black powder factory and a gun factory."

"Although the technology of the guns and artillery produced is still nearly ten years behind that of foreign countries, the role of the Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Administration in the process of modernization of China's military industry cannot be underestimated."

"Another large-scale military industrial enterprise was the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, which was established in 1866 when Zuo Zongtang was in Fujian. Its main task was to build warships and artillery, and it successively built the warships Dieffenbachia, Zhenhai, and Yangwu."

"More importantly, it cultivated a group of skilled craftsmen who could independently imitate ships and engines and complete various processes according to the drawings. Therefore, in 1874, all foreign technicians and craftsmen employed were dismissed."

"By 1894, the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau had built a total of thirty-four ships, including cruisers, torpedo boats and other ironclads."

"By the time of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the number of military-industrial enterprises established in various provinces across the country had spread across 18 provinces, reaching 34."

"In 1889, Zhang Zhidong, who had just been transferred to the governorship of Huguang, took the lead in establishing China's first modern large-scale steel factory in Wuhan - Hanyang Iron Works."

"And relying on it, a series of military industrial enterprises such as Hanyang Arsenal were established, and Hanyang Manufacturing became famous throughout the country."

"In addition to establishing modern factories in various places and producing weapons themselves, the Qing rulers realized that in the process of external and internal wars, the original military system dominated by the Eight Banners and the Green Camp had reached the time for reform."

"Although the Hunan Army and the Huai Army with new regiment training have strong combat effectiveness, there is still a big gap in equipment and management compared with foreign countries." "After the Second Opium War, the interests of Western countries in China have become closely related to the Qing Dynasty. They were closely tied together, so they constantly recommended the Qing Dynasty to train and build new-style armies."

"In 1862, two battalions and an artillery team, trained by seventeen British officers and using British and Russian guns, began training in Zhili. This was China's first new-style army."

"Thereafter, the formation and training of new armies became a common phenomenon on the political stage of the late Qing Dynasty, but these new armies played an extremely important role in subsequent history."

Liu Che: It would be great if these gun factories were built on my Han territory. Then there would be nothing to do with the Huns.

He was envious of the various factories built by the Qing Dynasty. They were wasted by the Qing Dynasty, but they could be put to good use by the Han Dynasty.

But when he thought that the massive books the host would prepare for him later should contain content in this area, he gave up his envy.

"However, the huge financial pressure also caused the Westernization Movement to face an unprecedented bottleneck. Opponents in the court demanded an end to the Westernization Movement in the name of national treasury deficit."

"But Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan submitted a report to analyze the international situation and insisted that it could not stop."

"In September 1876, Li Hongzhang reported to the imperial court that the country must first get rich before it can become strong, especially in people's livelihood, and the country's foundation can be strengthened."

"Therefore, starting from the end of Tongzhi, various civilian industries targeting rich countries began to be established on a large scale, and the breakthrough was the shipping industry."

"The China Merchants Museum in Shenzhen records the arduous entrepreneurial journey of this national industrial and commercial pioneer during the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty."

"At that time, the central government of the Qing Dynasty was trapped in the old thinking and excluded private citizens from handling shipping. It imposed various prohibitions on routes and stops, which seriously hindered the development of coastal shipping."

"The Westernization bureaucrats headed by Li Hongzhang called for allowing Chinese businessmen to set up their own steamship companies. Since Chinese businessmen cannot be prohibited from taking foreign ships, why should they be prohibited from purchasing their own ships."

“In January 1873, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty finally broke with the old thinking and established the Steamship Investment Promotion Bureau in Shanghai.”

"The government will set up a commercial bureau to solicit the equity capital of ships owned by private merchants."

"In fact, the Qing government established the company, and private capital participated in the form of shares. This system is called government-supervised commercial management."

"Due to the rise of military industrial enterprises in various places, coal and other energy sources are becoming increasingly scarce."

"So Li Hongzhang and others began to propose mining coal mines for widespread use."

"By 1884, a total of twelve coal mines were opened, most of which were run by government officials and merchants."

"Li Hongzhang also changed the General Telegraph Bureau into a government-supervised commercial office and recruited private funds for development."

"Before the Sino-Japanese War, the total number of official and commercial power lines nationwide reached 46,492 miles."

"Basically, a national telegraph network has been formed that reaches the Sino-Russian border in Heilongjiang in the northeast, Gansu and Xinjiang in the northwest, Fujian and Taiwan in the southeast, and Yunnan and Guangxi in the southwest. It is a breathable national telegraph network that is thousands of miles apart."

"In just over thirty years after the Second Opium War, Chinese society went from being completely isolated and unaware of the outside world to building ships, transmitting telegraphs, and building railways."

Li Hongzhang: Fortunately, the emperor understood the righteousness well. The memorial I submitted requested the establishment of a bureau to attract investment and trial ships. It was approved three days later, and the investment bureau was established.

The reason why he urgently established the Investment Promotion Bureau was to develop the shipping industry and solve the dilemma of water transportation.

Since ancient times, China has had a history of water transportation for thousands of years.

Water transportation refers to transporting the official grain of the imperial court from the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River via waterways, inland rivers, and canals to the imperial court, the north, and the Beijing, Tianjin, and Tang Dynasties.

By the late Qing Dynasty, this mode of water transportation could no longer be maintained, partly due to canal blockage and sedimentation.

On the other hand, after the two Opium Wars, a large number of foreign sea ships arrived in China.

Foreign sea-going ships have strong transport capacity and fast speed, but the original wooden sand ships of the Qing Dynasty have no advantage.

It is also under this situation that in order to solve the difficulties in grain transportation that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

Only then did he propose to the imperial court that he would purchase large-scale foreign steam-powered ships, establish China's modern merchant fleet, and develop the national shipping industry.

"However, for China, the unprecedented changes are not limited to economic changes."

"In the past, the Qing Dynasty's external management was divided into three different departments based on the relationship between kinship, distance, superiority and inferiority, namely the Ministry of Rites, the Lifanyuan and the Honglu Temple."

"Their main function is to arrange the flights and reception etiquette for envoys from various countries who come to Beijing to pay tribute every New Year's Day."

"Countries hosted by the Ministry of Rites show the courtesy of the imperial court and belong to friendly countries."

"The Western countries coming from the open port of Guangzhou will be under the jurisdiction of General Guangzhou."

"As the heavy national gate slowly opened under the constant bombardment of Western ships and cannons, more and more Western faces began to appear in every corner of this ancient empire."

"This movement to learn from the West, launched by Han bureaucrats, has made more and more people pay attention to the world outside the country."

“Following the establishment of the Tongwen Museum in the Prime Minister’s Office in 1862 to cultivate diplomatic talents, the Cantonese Dialect Museum was established in Shanghai in 1864. Subsequently, various new schools were established in Hubei, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and Guangzhou.”

“At the same time, the establishment of Fuzhou Shipping School, Tianjin Naval School and Tianjin Armed Forces School became the predecessors of China’s earliest military academies to cultivate military talents.”

“In 1872, after ten years of deliberation, the Qing government decided to send overseas students to the United States every year for four years, led by Rong Hong, China’s first overseas student and a graduate of Yale University in the United States.”

"These students are studying in politics and law, engineering, mining, chemistry and other majors, among which Zhan Tianyou and others are successful."

"Among the local officials, there was the Shipping Minister Shen Baozhen who selected students to study in England and France."

"After Shen Baozhen was transferred to the governorship of Liangjiang, Ding Richang and other successor ministers continued this undertaking."

"This group of students studying in France has achieved good results, and many of them will become the backbone of the navy in the future."

“At the same time, institutions such as Tongwenguan, Shanghai Machinery Manufacturing Bureau Translation Hall, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and other institutions began to translate Western works in large quantities.”

"Since then, Western political, legal, military, engineering, scientific, historical and other works have entered China."

"Chinese people have a more direct understanding of the world than in the early days of Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, and they also have more opportunities to perceive the West up close."

"In 1875, Guo Songtao, who had deep personal relationships with Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others, became the Qing Empire's first minister to the UK. It seemed that the Qing government was finally on the right track in dealing with relations with foreign powers."

“But since the 19th century, the international legal system with nation-states as the basic unit that Western countries have gradually established is still very unfamiliar to the supreme rulers of the Qing government who have just experienced more than ten years of reform. "

Guo Songtao shook his head dejectedly, and he suddenly had a headache when he thought about everyone's opposition to his work.

From the 1860s to the 1880s, there were very few people in the Qing Dynasty who could go global, and he became the luckiest one.

Although he was said to be the first minister of the Qing Empire to Britain, in fact he was stationed in several European countries.

The reason why the Qing Empire sent so few ministers to Europe does not mean that the Qing government had no money.

But because there was nothing to do, the Qing government had very little communication with European countries, so there was no need to set up embassies in every European country.

As one of the first envoys to go on a diplomatic mission, the Qing government required him to keep a diary every day and write down everything he saw and encountered in Europe.

In his diary, he described the Western political system, cultural system, and educational system in such detail.

Later, when his term of office ended and he returned to the Qing Empire, the Westernization Movement had already been underway for more than 20 years.

As a result, as soon as he published the diary, he encountered widespread opposition. The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty reprimanded him for worshiping foreign countries.

He published the book with good intentions and wanted to let the Chinese people know more about the situation in the West, but he ended up with such an end, which made him depressed all the time.

"Guo Songtao was not the only Qing official who died of depression during the Westernization Movement. Their deaths were more or less inevitably related to the inevitable contact and collision with the West."

"Hu Linyi was a Jinshi during the Daoguang Year. He was known as a famous minister of ZTE together with Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others because of his meritorious service in suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement."

"From the court's perspective, Hu Linyi is capable, meritorious, and loyal."

"Even for such a capable minister, when he saw the Yangtze steamer moving rapidly upstream, he still felt an indescribable fear of foreigners in his heart, and he soon died of fear."

"Zeng Guofan was completely different. He built a new type of ship in Anqing in 1862, but it failed during the trial voyage."

"However, this did not discourage him. He became more determined to unlock the secrets of manufacturing ships and guns in order to break the foreign monopoly on advanced firearms technology."

"However, historical figures like Zeng Guofan were rare at that time."

"Among the foreign ministers, there are huge differences in attitudes towards Western civilization."

"In the minds of more officials, the unwillingness to learn and change has become a terrible historical inertia."

"After the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty was in the process of collapse of its own system."

“The speed of adjusting mentality and promoting self-improvement seems to have never been able to keep up with the speed of self-collapse caused by the failure of confrontation with foreign civilizations.”

"In 1894, the disastrous defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of - dealt a heavy blow to the entire Qing Dynasty. This made the efforts of the Westernization Movement, which aimed at Chinese learning as the body and Western learning as the application, look like a mirror in the water, with little effect."

Li Shimin: It will definitely not be easy for a backward civilization to learn from an advanced civilization, and it will definitely encounter great resistance.

Most officials of the Qing Dynasty were unwilling to learn from the West. As the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, he knew their thoughts very well.

Even if he wanted to carry out reforms within the Tang Dynasty, he would be blocked by many civil and military ministers, and this was only a reform within the same civilization.

It is conceivable that the civilization of the Qing Dynasty was completely different from that of the West. How difficult it was for the conservative Qing Dynasty ministers to accept a brand new civilization.

The systems of the Qing Dynasty and the West were hugely different, with different political systems, cultural systems, educational systems, military systems, and economic systems.

Asking a group of veterans who have been accustomed to Chinese civilization all their lives to accept the new Western civilization will undoubtedly meet with great opposition.

Moreover, he could see that the Westernization Movement reforms of the Qing Dynasty were mainly focused on the economic field.

Without reforms in the political and cultural systems, the possibility of achieving the success of the Westernization Movement solely through reforms in the economic field is slim and almost impossible.

"The actual operators of the entire self-improvement movement were the Westernization ministers, but the leader at the imperial court level was Prince Gong Yi."

"But sadly, the powerful Prince Gong is still a pawn that can be removed, because he has the dictatorial Empress Dowager Cixi above him."

"In 1861, the dying Emperor Xianfeng decided to leave the already turbulent empire to his eldest son, Zai Chun, who was only six years old. This moment also determined the final destination of the Qing Dynasty."

"In the next nearly fifty years, Zaichun and his successors did not become the true masters of this country."

"Because the new emperor's biological mother, Yehenala Xingzhen, was the Empress who dominated the empire for half a century."

"In 1861, Prince Gong Yi helped Cixi launch a coup and wiped out all the ministers appointed by Emperor Xianfeng when he died."

"From then on, Yi became a pawn of Empress Dowager Cixi in front of the officials in the outer court, but Cixi was always wary of the development of Yi's power."

"Due to the successful settlement of negotiations with Britain and France and the smooth establishment of the Prime Minister's Office."

"Prince Gong became the most popular political figure in the Qing Dynasty because of his combination of political affairs minister, chief military minister, prime minister's office minister, and minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, this also aroused the vigilance of the Empress Dowager Cixi."

"In 1884, the Sino-French War broke out, and the military aircraft commanded by Prince Gong Yi were at a loss."

"The Empress Dowager Cixi dismissed Prince Gong and Yi from all their positions on the pretext of being lethargic."

"Since then, there has never been a capable leader in the center of the Qing government."

"After Prince Gong Yi faded out of politics, the people who took over as central leaders were Prince Chun, who was in charge of the naval office, and Prince Li, the head military minister."

"These two mediocre people have become even more incompetent under the criticism and obstruction of conservatives."

"The Westernization Movement relied heavily on the management of local officials, and every decision made faced attacks from so-called conservatives."

"Most of these conservative ministers are educated people who hate the aggression of foreign powers and believe that any compromise or negotiation is a loss of power and humiliation of the country."

"And any behavior of learning from the West will lead to the transformation of Yiyi into Xia, which will tarnish Chinese civilization."

"This kind of moral purism is valuable in terms of value, but it often does nothing on the practical level of society, and even becomes a hindrance to social progress."

Li Hongzhang: The Queen Mother has always adopted the principle of balance in her employment strategy.

The Westernization Movement never developed smoothly and was always compromised.

He believed that this situation occurred mainly because Empress Dowager Cixi did it deliberately.

The Queen Mother could not say that she did not want the Westernization Movement people at all. She knew that these people must be present so that the Qing Dynasty could have hope.

However, the Westernization faction should not be allowed to become too powerful. There was always a group of opponents supported by the Queen Mother.

The Queen Mother supports the Westernizationists today and the opposition tomorrow. She always seeks a balance between the two sides and does not allow one side to dominate.

Therefore, it can only be said that the self-improvement movement of the imperial court was determined by the soil of the Qing Dynasty and the current political system of the imperial court, which destined the Westernization Movement to encounter great resistance.

"The self-improvement movement that emerged in the post-Opium War period, or also known as the Westernization Movement, is also called the Tongguang ZTE."

"The outcome did not bring about the revitalization that the Qing government expected, but instead resulted in a more complete defeat, and subsequently China fell into a greater crisis."

"The shortcomings of the employment system and systemic corruption ultimately ruined this self-improvement movement. Its experience and lessons are worthy of careful study and reference."

“One day in 1887, the Tianjin Military Academy imitated Western manufacturing methods and made a small hydrogen balloon.”

"During the test flight, the rope unexpectedly broke and the balloon floated westward in the wind."

"The authorities issued a notice to the surrounding officials and citizens. If any soldiers or civilians find it, they will return it to the church immediately and record the date and time that it was found."

"After delivery, in addition to providing financial aid according to the distance of the journey, I will also reward you with ten taels of silver."

"In August of the same year, the Tianjin Armed Forces Academy held another test flight, and the battalion and defense commanders of the navy's troops stationed in Shenyang were invited to observe."

"This is the first time that China has trial-produced and trial-launched its own manned balloon. This launch of a small hydrogen balloon is an interesting hint."

"Although the modern industrialization efforts carried out under the skin of the old system have struggled, China has still not stopped exploring advanced technologies from the West."

The Westernization Movement of the Qing Empire finally ended in failure, and ancient people from all dynasties were filled with emotion.

Faced with internal and external difficulties, the Qing government's self-improvement movement ultimately came to nothing.

In fact, no one was surprised at the failure of the Westernization Movement. Instead, they thought it was normal for the Qing government to fail.

After all, from the anchor's narration, ancient people from all dynasties only felt Wan Qing's corruption and ignorance.

Under the continuous outbreak of peasant uprisings internally, under the attack of the eyeing external powers, and coupled with the chaos in the Qing government, the court was full of chaos.

The time, place, and people were favorable, and no one had an advantage, so the failure of the Westernization Movement can be imagined.

Ancient people from all dynasties paid no attention to the defeat of the Qing government, but sympathized with the people of Wanqing who were in dire straits.

Everyone can see very clearly that the Qing government's self-improvement movement has failed, and the people's suffering will only increase.

(End of this chapter)