From the Opium War to the Westernization Movement was the first stage of the spread of western learning to the East. In the closed-door era before the Opium War, foreign countries were so bizarre and distant. China people regard western civilization as an overseas anecdote. However, closure cannot strengthen itself and it is difficult to protect the country. During the Opium War, facing the aggression of western capitalist powers, the people of China took the first step to learn from the West. At that time, many scholars were ashamed to talk about western learning, and only a few far-sighted reformers began to pay attention to western learning. At this moment, the true patriot is not a feudal bureaucrat who is full of loyalty to the monarch and protecting the country and takes "China's death to survive" as his spiritual comfort, but a man of insight separated from this corrupt bureaucracy and scholar-bureaucrat class. Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and Gong Zizhen's practical academic thoughts, reform tendency and attempts to learn from the West are devoted to calm and realistic political thinking. They are the enlighteners of learning from the west in modern times. Their basic idea is to understand the situation of foreigners and "learn from foreigners to control foreigners." These opinions show that the trend of learning from the west in modern times was integrated with the spirit of patriotism from the beginning. Including Lin Zexu's manual translation of Four Continents compiled by some chapters of Murray's Encyclopedia of Geography (184 1 year) and Lin Zexu's 50-volume masterpiece Oceanography compiled by Wei Yuan (1842). As well as A Brief Introduction to Welcome (1848), A Brief Introduction to Red Hair English by Jiang (184 1), A Record of the Sea (1842) and a small English Story (65438). These works introduce the geography, history, politics, military affairs and economy of western European countries. Wei Yuan, as the representative, recognizes the western military superiority and sophisticated weapons. Therefore, Wei Yuan put forward in "Hai Tu Zhi": "The skill of easy learning includes three, one warship, two firearms and three training methods." He advocated building a shipyard and an arsenal in Guangzhou and hiring engineers from France and the United States. According to statistics, "in1821-1861,at least 66 people agree that China must acquire such warships and guns".
If the idea of "learning from foreigners" has been put forward in the Chinese and foreign wars, then in the next domestic class war-the war between the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, especially after the war entered the decisive battle stage for a long time, it is still inevitable to raise the issue of western learning. Therefore, China people have accelerated the pace of learning from the West and started the Westernization Movement of "training troops by force" and "enriching Qiang Bing", which is essentially a westernization movement in military and technology.
At that time, the two sides of the war raised the question of learning from the West from different positions. Hong Xiuquan used the "God" in western missionaries' sermons to fight against the evil in the world in his early days. And with the goodwill of "one country under the sun", we will make good friends with foreign countries while resisting foreign aggression. A foreigner personally experienced the friendship created by the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan: "We are really happy to be called' foreign brothers', because almost all China people call foreign countries' foreign devils'." & lt Translation of History of Sino-foreign Relations, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, p. 264, 1985. & gt Later, there was Hong Rengan's "Senior Minister's New Chapter", which put forward capitalist ideas such as developing modern communications, setting up banks, protecting industry and commerce, rewarding scientific inventions, protecting patent rights, encouraging private mining, and allowing wage labor. However, these were not in harmony with the tense war environment at that time and the economic development level of China. Therefore, apart from buying a few foreign guns and tools and hiring a few foreigners, it is difficult for the Taiping Army to make a difference in learning from the West.
After the Second Opium War, Chinese and foreign reactionary forces joined forces to suppress the Taiping Army, which opened the prelude to the Westernization Movement in China. However, the Westernization School's thought of "enriching Qiang Bing" and the action of training troops with weapons make them look like people from a two-faced country in the mirror, and there is another face of "harmony with foreign countries" on the opposite side. In the media role of foreign missionaries and the information brought back by China's first diplomatic envoys abroad, the Westernization School learned more about the love and learning of the West and became the forerunner for China people to learn from the West at that time. The Westernization School is still immersed in the feudal old learning kingdom of China Shilin, and some of them have made progress by actively introducing western learning. This is from a batch of works on mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, medicine and agriculture during the Westernization Movement, such as geometric elements, algebra, acoustics, optics, electrical encyclopedia, Gezhi Enlightenment, chemical identification, chemical quality inspection, inscription identification, and western medicine proficiency. According to a rough plan, "since the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan founded the Manufacturing Bureau, with the translation of western books as the first meaning. A few years later, there were hundreds of winners. The people who set up the National Cultural Museum in Shi Jing and the western scholars in China were first translated. By the twenty-second year of Guangxu, there were about 300 readable books. "
Both the Westernization School and the peasant heroes of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom introduced western learning to a limited extent from opposing positions. After all, because the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were limited by the knowledge of small producers, the Westernization School had a broader vision. So when Rong Hong went to Jinling to meet Hong Rengan, the dry king, and put forward seven suggestions, such as organizing the army and awarding the education system, the dry king gave him a gift of righteousness. Later, he went to Zeng Guofan and participated in the establishment of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Go abroad to buy machines, take overseas students abroad, and translate Goldon's geography and Parsons' contract theory. Hong Rong's choice in the comparison between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Westernization is intriguing. It mainly shows that the Westernization School is superior to the peasants in the tendency to learn from the West. However, the westernization school's introduction to western learning is mainly based on practical purposes and mainly focuses on western learning skills. Generally speaking, they learn from the west. Of course, "there are many loyal scholars, such as Uncle Ren and Hua, who have translated dozens of scientific works, as well as several works on international law and other political aspects. Since then, China people know that westerners still have knowledge hidden behind boats and guns, and their views on western learning have gradually changed. Although this is a very small number, ordinary scholars still despise and reject this kind of' foreign goods'. " & lt Liang Qichao's Academic History of China in Recent 300 Years, China Bookstore, 1985, p. 27. & gt
From the Reform Movement of 1898 to the Revolution of 1911, it was the second stage of the spread of western learning to the east. At a higher level and in a wider scope, it opened the door to the spread of western learning to the east. Both reformists and revolutionaries are keen on western learning and learn from it in order to make China rich and strong. At that time, the Qing court authorities were also forced to open the restricted area to a limited extent, change government affairs, and adjust reforms such as industry and commerce and education. As far as the import of western learning is concerned, there are two obvious characteristics at this stage, which break through the boundary of pure technology introduction of Westernization School. First, attention to the western political system; The second is to introduce western academic ideas, especially social sciences. The two are interrelated and complement each other.
First of all, a group of early reformers and individual westernization groups put forward the idea of learning from the West not only in skills, but also in political and social systems. Feng Guifen advocated learning from the West and political reform in the "student tide". "If the law is not good, I will condemn it; Although Xunshan's method is quite arrogant, I will take it. " & lt Protest at School, Volume II, Page 10. & gt Guo Songtao, a thinker of Westernization School and China's first ambassador to Britain, believes that the road to prosperity in the West lies in political civilization, and China should learn from western institutional relics. He has similar ideas, such as Wang's "In the Garden" and Xue Fucheng's "My humble opinion on raising foreign countries". Wang Tao founded a modern newspaper, Circular Daily, on 1873. After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the deep national crisis evolved into a wave of reform and change. Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and many other people of insight in the Reform Party have done pioneering work for the spread of western social sciences in China. Kang Youwei began to contact western learning from 1879. 1895 In August, he and Liang Qichao founded Chinese and Foreign News in Beijing. In June, 5438+the following year 10, a strong society was established in Shanghai, and the journal of the strong society was held. In August of the same year, Current Affairs, the mouthpiece of the Reform Movement, was founded in Shanghai. During the two years of 1896 and 1897, more than 20 political academic groups were established and 27 newspapers and periodicals were sponsored. In order to introduce western learning and western politics, Xu Wei compiled a book, East and West Studies, which is divided into three categories: Historical Records and Politics. Liang Qichao published "General Theory of Reform" in "Current Affairs", and put forward the idea of reforming the official system and education with the western bourgeois evolution theory as a weapon. In order to advocate western learning, he also compiled the Series of Western Politics and Bibliography of Western Learning, and listed more than 300 kinds of western learning books translated by China in three categories: learning, politics and teaching. In the preface, Liang pointed out: "The country wants to strengthen itself by translating western documents; Scholars should stand on their own feet and take it as their duty to read more western books. " However, Liang criticized for forgetting his ancestors, belittling middle school and advocating equal emphasis. In "abandoning western learning, China scholar middle school will be useless;" As far as middle schools are concerned, western scholars' western learning must have no foundation. "
In the downward trend of history, bourgeois revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing, Song, Chen Tianhua and Zou Rong bathed in Europe and America, criticized Kang Liang's reformism, publicized bourgeois revolutionary thoughts, and took it as their responsibility to establish bourgeois harmony. During the Revolution of 1911, the dissemination of western revolutionary ideas became the mainstream of the spread of western learning to the east. Sun Yat-sen himself accepted western learning when he arrived in Honolulu in 1878. "At first, I saw the strangeness of the ship and the vastness of the sea; Naturally, there is a desire for western learning and a desire for the poor world. " & lt Dr. Sun Yat-sen's answer to Professor Giles, see Zou Lu's Historical Draft of China Kuomintang, p. 1 194. & gt Later, he traveled across the ocean, visited Europe and America many times, and was widely exposed to the social reality of western capitalism, bourgeois politics, economic theory and various socialist factions. After long-term thinking and argumentation, Sun Wen Theory with the Three People's Principles as the core was formed. During the Revolution of 1911, the number of Japanese students studying in Europe and China increased greatly. They run newspapers, translate books and write books overseas. 1900 students studying in Japan set up a translation and compilation agency, followed by a translation and compilation agency for scientific and technological books and a translation and compilation agency for Hunan. From 190 1 to 1904, 533 books on history, philosophy, law and politics, education, diplomacy, military system, agriculture, mining, industry and commerce, physics and chemistry, health and other countries have been translated.
From the early years of the Republic of China to the May Fourth Movement, it was the third stage of the spread of western learning to the east. At that time, on the one hand, the Republic of China was founded, the democratic atmosphere was high, and academics tended to be free; On the other hand, Yuan Shikai and others carried out feudal restoration activities, and the feudal culture with Confucianism as the banner ran rampant for a while, launching a counterattack against the new capitalism. The Kuomintang, the Socialist Party and many other small parties were dissolved; During the period of Nanjing Provisional Government, there were about 500 newspapers in China, most of which were banned. The retro wave of worshipping Confucius, sorting out the quintessence of the country and putting the quintessence of the country in the first place pervades the social and academic fields. Yuan Shikai put forward "Confucius and Mencius" in "Promulgating Essentials of Education", and the "Specific Education Outline" stipulated that "Confucius should be respected to the end, and Mencius should be respected to make it useful." & lt Shu Xincheng, ed. Materials of Modern Education History in China, Volume I, Page 26 1. & gt
Facing the counterattack of feudal old learning, the new learning is struggling. Chen Duxiu said: "The new belief in equality and human rights, which is the basis for importing a western-style social country, is indispensable for Confucianism, which is incompatible with this new society, new country and new belief. On the contrary, it is not only impossible to block. " < Chen Duxiu's Constitution and Ethics, New Youth, Volume 2, No.3 >; As a result, a new cultural movement broke out under the banner of "science" and "democracy", and a fierce dispute between the old and the new began. Before and after the May 4th Movement, the earth thawed, a hundred flowers blossomed, and society mushroomed. Western philosophy, history, economic sociology, political science, socialism, anarchism, pragmatism, reformism and other social thoughts widely flowed into China. In natural science, 19 13 established the China Institution of Engineers, with Zhan Tianyou as its president, and the Journal of China Institution of Engineers was published. 19 14, the Chinese science society was founded by several students studying in the United States (the venue was in the United States, and then moved back to China), and the magazine Science was founded the following year. The people in the Science Society include agriculture, forestry, biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, civil engineering, machinery, electrician, mining and metallurgy, medicine, physics, mathematics and so on. Many of them are the founders of modern science in China. In the social sciences, Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Wu Yu, Lu Xun and other stars in the ideological and academic circles have done pioneering work for spreading Western learning and establishing various disciplines of social sciences and modern literature and art in China. For example, Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi's contribution to the popularization of vernacular Chinese, and Hu Shi's Outline of the History of China's Philosophy (Volume I), although with many problems, abandoned the old way of saying philosophy from the Confucian classic system in China, and opened a precedent for exploring the history of China's philosophy with modern methods.
During this period, academic exchanges at home and abroad were quite active, and the number of China students studying in Europe, America and Japan increased significantly. After World War I, hundreds of people went to France to work and study. They brought back all kinds of academic knowledge and information from overseas. Some scholars with world influence, such as Dewey, an American pragmatic philosopher, and Russell, an English philosopher, also gave lectures in various provinces and cities in China shortly after the May 4th Movement, and their lectures were published and distributed throughout the country.
At this stage, the greatest contribution of western learning is the spread of Marxism in China. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, some people talked about Marx and socialism, but they didn't really understand it after all, and their influence was limited. Only after the October Revolution and the May 4th Movement did Marxism really spread widely in China, and only then did some people master socialism scientifically. Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Chen Wangdao and Li Da all made historic contributions to the spread of Marxism. Marx and Engels' Manifesto of the Productive Party and other works, and the experience of Russian proletarian dictatorship and proletarian revolution have won more and more people's understanding in their colonization. In modern times, the democratic and evolutionary political and historical concepts, regarded as the standard by advanced people in China, began to give way to socialism and class theory. Before and after the May 4th Movement, the spread of Marxism in China was undoubtedly the greatest achievement of western learning spreading to the east.