This book describes four major events between the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, namely, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Sino-Japanese War and the Reform Movement of 1898, the Boxer Rebellion, Eight-Nation Alliance and the Revolution of 1911. For the Qing Dynasty, the views of online people are quite extreme. Men are more disgusted with the Qing Dynasty because of nationalism and modern humiliation. Women, on the other hand, were influenced by movies and TV series and had a good impression on the Qing Dynasty. A Qing dynasty, also have different views. However, the world is different from time to time. By the Ming Dynasty, China's culture had already declined, except for modernization, which had reached a dead end. Even the Han Dynasty could not easily deal with the western European powers who were reborn from China. What's more, the Qing Dynasty brought four dowries back to Tibet from Manchuria and Mongolia, which were generally more meritorious. Although suncus murinus's hairstyle made me very disgusted, judging from the development history of the whole country, we should also affirm that the rule of the Qing Dynasty was of certain progressive significance.
Then, in the later years of the Qing Dynasty, why did you encounter such a once-in-a-lifetime change? Readers should know that the evolution of our China society is very slow. Since 2000, but the emperor took turns to do it and came to my house next year. You know, although the western European powers were still in the dark Middle Ages hundreds of years ago, their people were miserable and their nobles were humble. However, after hundreds of years of ideological progress, scientific research and development and colonial plunder have far surpassed the development of China in terms of system, culture and science and technology. Europeans who admired China culture in Kangxi period turned to despise China during Tongzhi period.
According to China's traditional thinking, if you foreigners hit me like this, you should kill me and be the emperor of China yourself. But Britain, a colonial empire, is better at cooperating with the local upper class to exploit the colonial people. In the face of such a vast territory of China, although my mouth is watering, I can't do it after all.
The British forcibly opened the market in China, which led to another thing. Before, China's foreign trade channel was Guangzhou. After the opening of other ports, there was a wave of unemployment in Guangzhou, the public security environment in Guangzhou changed and the uprising continued. At this time, a handsome boy failed in the imperial examination and fell ill. After returning to his hometown of Guangxi, he set up an army by preaching. It was this humble army that fought from Guangxi to Hunan and from Hunan to Nanjing and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
According to the traditional script, rulers like Hong Xiuquan and Yang fired the first shot to overthrow the decadent dynasty. However, due to their lack of experience in ruling and struggle, they can only be used as a prelude to changing the dynasty. The insurgents behind will take over their baton and pounce on the ruling machine of the Qing Dynasty in waves until the Qing Dynasty perishes. But this is a change that has never happened in a thousand years. In order to safeguard their own interests in China, the British strongly supported the Qing government. By sending bureaucrats to control the customs in China, the Qing government had a solid financial foundation. With a solid financial foundation, coupled with the anti-traditional nature of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. So the Qing government finally formed an encirclement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which extended the life of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for another half century. However, since then, China's internal affairs have been greatly restricted by international diplomacy. The will of great powers affects the political situation in China.
In the Sino-Japanese War, China was defeated by the Japanese. Reform and power became social knowledge, and Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others stepped onto the historical stage. Fortunately, Kang Youwei is not a person who can change China people. The Reform Movement of 1898 failed under the resistance of reactionaries, and the radical attitude of reformists made Cixi's character change greatly. Not only the reformists were eliminated, but also the centrists who supported the reform, such as Li Hongzhang, were alienated. Everything in junior high school is under the control of royalty, but how can we do a good job in politics with these bugs? Together with the Boxers in Shandong and the nobles in Beijing, the most humiliating and painful invasion of China by Eight-Nation Alliance occurred in the history of China.
Speaking of it, it stems from a misunderstanding. Cixi listened to gossip, and a great power asked her to abdicate to Guangxu, so she declared war on the eleven great powers. As soon as this old bastard fainted, the people of China suffered. After this incident, relying on Li Hongzhang's skillful diplomatic provocation and struggling to maintain, China's Qing Dynasty actually made reparations without ceding its land. Now many people say that Britain and the United States are good to China, and I don't know where to start. Britain has a lot of trade interests in China, and a complete market is certainly better than a divided market. As for the United States, it is because its establishment is short-lived, and when it wants to colonize, it has missed the opportunity. China didn't fall into Poland and Ottoman Turkey, not because Britain and the United States were good, but because China was too far away from them.
Even the most conservative people will be shaken after the Boxer Rebellion. The Qing dynasty has lost its meaning of existence. The book also tells some anecdotes about Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai, which are quite interesting. For example, Sun Yat-sen himself is not a native of China, which is why he was defeated in many wars. On the successful day of the Revolution of 1911, he was still washing dishes in San Francisco to make money. Yuan Shikai's family failed in the imperial examination all the time. It was not until his grandfather's generation that he suddenly made great efforts to make his father and son a scholar and his younger brother a juren. Yuan Shikai's role is more inclined to be a general who trains soldiers and a cunning politician. Originally, he was a general of Cao Cao. Unfortunately, at that time, China no longer needed Cao Cao, but needed Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and Cai E.
From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the people of China have been struggling for modernization. We can now say that modernization has been completed by more than half, at least we have made great achievements in the economy. Now that we have a material foundation, we also have spiritual construction. Firstly, China's literature, aesthetics and philosophy need modernization, which is the foundation of China culture. If you lay a solid foundation, others will naturally follow. I believe that in the middle of 2 1 century, a large number of outstanding scholars will emerge in China, and Chinese civilization will usher in a heyday.