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College samenvatting unit 2-6
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Chinese Modern HistoryUnit 2: Restoring Imperial Rule
Themes and Guiding Questions
Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895)
What did the Self-Strengthening Movement reformers do?
What were their arguments in support of change? What were their arguments
against change?
1898 Hundred Days’ Reform
How did the First Sino-Japanese War lead to this event?
What were the differences between the reform program of Kang Youwei and
that of the Self-Strengthening reformers? What were the similarities?
Key terms
Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895); Industrialization; First Sino-Japanese War
(1895); Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895); Constitutional monarchy; 1898 Hundred Days’
Reform; Boxer Uprising (1899-1900); Boxer Indemnity (1900); New Policies
or xinzheng reforms (1901-1911).
Video Lecture
In this unit we will look at the responses of Qing statesmen and intellectuals; we’ll focus
at two attempts at reforming the Qing state: (1) the self-strengthening movement and (2)
the Hundred Days’ Reform. Faced with external and internal threats, Qing intellectuals
and officials searched for solutions to make the Qing state more effective in mobilizing
its resources against threats. However, the search for solutions also became a search
for identity. “How can we deal with these powerful, aggressive, expansive foreigners
and still preserve our own valuable heritage? How can we change to meet their
challenge and still remain ourselves?” – Qing statesman Xu Jiyu. Although the Qing
rulers were Manchu, the civil bureaucracy that governed the heartland of China
remained Chinese. This cultural system shaped the identity of these elites; and so to
ask them to accept foreign ideas and technology was almost like surrendering their
sense of self. So how do you negotiate change while maintaining this sense of self?
Chinese Modern History 1
, Socio-cultural changes. Another reason why Qing statesmen and intellectuals saw
foreign ideas as an existential threat was how rapidly foreign ideas circulated Chinese
society. For instance the Taiping rebels that used foreign religious ideas for legitimation.
Additionally, an increasing number of literate members of the middle class were
exposed to these foreign ideas, e.g. from popular magazines. Many educated Chinese,
especially those living in treaty port areas, were consuming and even actively
embracing these new ideas. In the face of these socio-cultural changes, Qing
statesmen felt additional pressure to reform the Qing state.
Self-Strengthening Movement: 1861-1895 自强运动 zìqiáng yùndòng
It is called a movement even though the participants were almost exclusively members
of the Qing scholar official class. The movement lasted from 1861 to 1895. Historians
also call this event the Tongzhi Restoration and the Foreign Goods Movement 洋務運動
yángwù yùndòng. Some historians call the movement the Tongzhi Restoration because
Tongzhi refers to the reign name of the Qing emperor; and the reformers call was to
restore the imperial rule of the Tongzhi emperor. ‘Foreign Goods Movement’: because
the reformers talked of adopting western or ‘foreign’ things and not modern things.
These reformers characterized the reforms as westernization and not modernization.
The terms modern and modernization only became used in China later in the early
twentieth century, especially after the May Fourth Movement.
The key Qing statesmen who advocated for the Self-Strengthening reforms were:
Prince Gong, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zhang Zhidong. These statesmen came
to recognize the urgency of reforming the Qing state, because they had direct contact
with foreigners or they led the suppression of domestic uprisings. For instance, Prince
Gong led talks with the British during the Second Opium War and worked with them in
establishing the imperial maritime customs. Zeng Guofan led the suppression of the
Taiping rebels and later the Nian rebels. These experiences made them appreciate the
usefulness of western technology and administration that was needed to enhance the
Qing’s state capacity to rule.
But what did these reformers do? They created new government institutions that were
necessary for the Qing state’s dealings with western powers. These institutions included
the Zongli Yamen (Foreign Affairs Office), which managed the Qing’s state diplomatic
relations with all foreign powers. They also created the Imperial Maritime Customs,
which was responsible for assessing and collecting taxes on all goods coming in and
out of ports in Qing China. And they also created the Tongwenguan (translation office),
Chinese Modern History 2
, which was dedicated to translating important texts in foreign languages into Chinese. To
be sure these functions interacting with foreigners (tax collection and translation) were
not entirely new to the Qing state, but what’s new was that these functions were now
carried out by specialized government agencies. Earlier these functions were taken up
as needed by individual high-ranking officials and their staff. The creation of these new
government offices had long-lasting effect on both Qing state and Qing society.
Another area that the Self-Strengthening reformers targeted was the military. The string
of defeats in the hands of foreign armies and domestic rebels exposed glaring
weaknesses in the Qing army and navy. In particular their lack of discipline and their
inferior military technology. The ships of the Qing navy could not match those of the
British navy; the British naval ships were faster and could navigate shallower water than
the Qing navy ships. The self-strengthening reformers then set about purchasing the
most advanced military technology from the west as well as hiring western military
advisers. They also set up facilities for manufacturing military equipment; setting up
Arsenals in Shanghai and Tianjin. The Fuzhou Navy Yard was also set up for
manufacturing western-style navy ships. These reformers also established institutions
for training a new generation of military officers: the Beiyang Army and the Imperial
Chinese Navy. Also: Tianjin Naval Academy and Tianjin Military Academy.
To support the upgrading of the military, the reformers set up a limited number of
industrial enterprises to provide materials and fuel that the military needed. These
enterprises were joint private-public enterprises, in which the state remained oversight
while the merchants managed daily operations (e.g. Kaiping Coal Mines, Pingxiang
Coal Mines, Shanghai Cotton Mills, Hanyang Ironworks, Mohe Gold Mine, China
Merchants’ Steam Navigation Company and Daye Iron Mine). Additionally, the reformers
saw the need for a new infrastructure for communications. The Imperial Telegraph
Administration and the Imperial Post Office were created to facilitate faster
communications within the state bureaucracy and the military.
The most eloquent articulation of the Self-Strengthening Movement rationale came from
Zhang Zhidong 張 之洞 (1837 -1909), who was a scholar who successfully passed the
exams and gained an official post in 1863, well after the suppression of the major
rebellions and the establishment of the treaty system. He was involved with the
activities of the Self-Strengthening Movement, including setting up the Hanyang
Ironworks. "Chinese learning for fundamental principles [or essence] and Western
learning for practical application [or use].” This phrase has come to represent the
rationale of the self-strengthening movement; the reformers valued Chinese and
Chinese Modern History 3
, western ideas for different purposes. Chinese ideas formed the moral and spiritual core
of Chinese identity, whereas western ideas provided the means for utilitarian purposes
such as governmental administration and warfare.
Zhang Zhidong on the division between Chinese and western knowledge: "Exhortation
to Learn 劝 学篇" (1898), an essay which was as much an appeal to the conservatives
for the need of reforms as it was an admonition of those demanding far-reaching
changes to imperial rule.
Chinese values, ideas, traits, practices to preserve:
"maintain the state";
"preserve doctrine of Confucius" (Three Bonds and Four Cardinal Virtues);
"protect Chinese race";
"master the classics";
"the Four Books, the Five Classics, Chinese history, government and geography".
Western values, ideas, traits, practices to adopt:
"Western administration, Western technology, and Western history";
"Education, geography, budgeting, taxes, military preparations, laws and
regulations, industry and commerce, belong to the category of Western
administration."
"Mathematics, drawing, mining, medicine, acoustics, optics, chemistry, and
electricity belong to the category of Western technology."
Western values, ideas, traits, practices to reject:
The "theory of people's rights";
The idea that "everyone has the right to be his own master";
"foreign books of religion”.
The irony is that Zhang’s defense of the self-strengthening movement was written when
the Qing state had lost yet another war, the First Sino-Japanese War, and this loss
called into question the effectiveness of the self-strengthening movement’s reforms.
The Hundred Days Reform (1898) 戊戌变法 wùxū biànfǎ
Chinese Modern History 4
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