China has been a prosperous country in military science since ancient times. The brilliant achievements of ancient military science intoxicated the people of China and made them proud. However, after all, it is only a war theory that adapts to the era of cold weapons. Since the18th century, with the rise of bourgeois revolution, the emergence of industrial revolution and the vigorous development of natural science in European countries, the form of war has undergone tremendous changes, and new military doctrines adapted to modern warfare have emerged. Because the Qing government pursued the policy of "closing the country to the outside world" for a long time, it knew little about the great changes in European countries. It was only on the eve of the Opium War that I was surprised to find that there was a vast world outside the "world". People used to think that "barbarians" were barren and tasteless, but now they have become strong enemies. A group of people of insight, represented by Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, began to look to the west, trying to explore the principles and manufacturing methods of new firearms and warships, and compiled their own research experience into a book for the authorities to collect as a reference for the anti-aggression war. Among them, Wei Yuan's book Pictograms of Overseas Countries depicts the historical geography, national customs and the present situation of western science and technology of dozens of countries on five continents, and then begins to re-examine China's military status, and puts forward the slogan of "learning from foreigners and mastering foreign skills", which actually puts forward the requirement of changing traditional military science.

(A) the brewing period

With the slogan of "learning from foreigners" as a symbol, China's modern military thought entered the gestation period. During this period, more and more people began to hold an open attitude towards the world, and advanced western military technology and military theory adapted to modern warfare began to be introduced into China. China military technical experts such as Gong Zhenlin, Pan Shicheng and Ding tried to introduce western military theory earlier. Most of them have personally experienced the artillery fire of the Opium War, and they are more aware of the huge gap between China and the West in science and technology, trying to bring some new ideas to the closed-door and boring Qing military academy by introducing the knowledge of western military technology. Most of them had more or less contact with Lin Zexu during the Opium War. * * The same ambition prompted him to devote himself to the manufacture of western weapons, and wrote a series of military technical works, such as Illustration of Cast Gun and Iron Mould, Illustration of Cardinal Gun Rack, Illustration of Attack Ship Mine, Illustration of Cast Gun, etc. Most of these works were compiled by Wei Yuan, a close friend of Lin Zexu. Their thoughts and views also merged into the voices of Lin, Wei and others demanding the reform of China's army. However, the social status of these people is not too high. Except Wei Yuan, Gong Zhenlin, Xian Cheng and Ding Gongzhan, the only governor, Lin Zexu, has been convicted and sent to Xinjiang. His thought didn't get due attention in Qing society, which advocated "righteousness" and despised "the last skill". Moreover, as the first China people to see the world, their understanding of western military technology is also very limited. The explanation of the principle of weapon manufacturing mostly stays in the stage of experience summary and phenomenon description, which also makes it impossible for the study of western long-term skills to rise from skill to science, and from scattered and fragmented introduction to systematic and comprehensive introduction. Therefore, for a long time after the Opium War, the backward forces clinging to the remnants still occupied the forum of China's military science, and the traditional military thoughts applicable to the cold weapon era still occupied people's minds. The insights of Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and others are hardly recognized by feudal literati who despise Yidi. Some Qing military scientists turned a blind eye to the rapidly developing modern western military theory, talked about compiling and annotating ancient military books all day, and were immersed in the absurdity of the theory of military yin and yang, such as the wind dominating the weather. Even in 1845, when the Russian government took the initiative to send a batch of books on modern western military theory to the Qing court, the Qing government sealed them tightly like a scourge to avoid confusing the Chinese people with heresy. As for how to resist foreign aggression, there is no decent way.

/kloc-The 9th century was a great peasant uprising that swept across the country, which defeated green camp, the corrupt and invincible Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, and forced some people in the ruling class to change course and form a new army to act as the main force to suppress the peasant uprising. Among them, the Xiang Army, which was formed by Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi, broke the "ancestral law" of the Qing Dynasty, implemented a unified system of "the soldiers will have their own", used clan and regional ties to close the relationship between officers and soldiers, and strengthened the soldiers' physical quality, personal combat skills and tactical awareness through strict training, thus replacing the Eight Banners and green camp and becoming the main military force relied on by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. During the bloody suppression of peasant uprisings, Xiang generals wrote a large number of books and memorials about army building, training and operations, which were incorporated into their collections by later generations. Hu Linyi also presided over the compilation of A Brief Reading of History, Ancient Strategies and General Outline of Famous Officials in Past Dynasties. Zuo edited Chu Barracks System, Zhu wrote Yong Ying Important and Zhu Lianyong Yan and other military works. Judging from their writings and speeches, their military training system and art of war were mostly imitated by Qi Jiguang in the Ming Dynasty, but they dared to break new ground in the fields of recruiting generals, troop establishment, military training and operational tactics, which objectively opened the way for the reform of military science in the late Qing Dynasty.

(2) Initial development period

The Westernization Movement of 65438+, which rose in 1960s and 1970s, strongly promoted the development of China's modern military thought. Li Hongzhang, a representative of the Westernization Movement, became interested in foreign guns when he joined hands with western troops to suppress the Taiping Army in Shanghai. After he took over the regional defense of Zhili (now in charge of Hebei), he deeply felt that this was a "change that has not been seen in a thousand years" (Li Wenzhong Guild Hall Manuscript, Volume 24); "barbarian country" ships travel at a speed of thousands of miles a day, telegrams travel at a speed of thousands of miles, military equipment is hundreds of times accurate, artillery shells are invincible, and land and water passes are unlimited. Is a powerful enemy that China has never met; Only by studying western military theory seriously can China stand on its own feet. Under the guidance of this idea, China set up a translation hall in Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau, and China scientists such as Xu Shou, Hua and Xu cooperated with foreign missionaries to translate a large number of western military works, from the initial exploration of "sharp weapons" to the pursuit of "the method of making good use of sharp weapons" (Preface to Firearms). These military translations have played an important role in introducing advanced land and sea battles in the West, establishing new military language to replace the traditional military language in China, and constructing modern military ideology with new military concepts. Among them, a large number of books on western military theory and technology, such as A Brief History of Firearms (also known as A Brief History of Victory Action), My humble opinion on getting cold feet, and Shipyard Map (also translated as Shipyard Map), were regarded as westernized must-read by the rulers in the late Qing Dynasty, so they quoted their remarks and adopted their views. China's military theory has also undergone obvious changes in national defense policy, strategy and tactics. In 1970s, the discussion on coastal defense began to change the tradition of "attaching importance to land but neglecting the sea" and established the strategic policy of attaching equal importance to coastal defense and blockade defense. The debate about aiding Vietnam before and after the Sino-French War strongly impacted the concept of "suzerain-vassal" which lasted for thousands of years. At this time, although people still pay attention to the strategic thinking with oriental wisdom, China's traditional military science system has been unable to meet the needs of modern warfare as a whole, and its disintegration trend is inevitable. Of course, the road of military science reform in China in the late Qing Dynasty was tortuous. The narrow concept of "preventing summer" has made some stubborn conservatives try their best to limit their activities of learning from the West to some extent. Even the ancient array, which has long been proved useless in modern wars, is dominated by this concept and refuses to quit the war stage. When Li Hongzhang led the Huai army to Shanghai, he was "ashamed that China's military equipment was far inferior to that of foreign countries. He warned his soldiers with an open mind and humiliation every day, and learned one or two secret methods of westerners, so as to gain something in the future and confront them" ('s Letter of Public Rights Peng Liao, Volume II), but the result was resisted by most of his subordinates. While the Huai Army adopted western tactics, the General Battle Map of Foreign Gun Team published by 1865438 and the Illustration of Foreign Gun Training published by 1 still stuck to the traditional formation method, resulting in many grotesque formations. Even Zhang Zhidong, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, is quite open-minded; 19 In the 1980s, it was still emphasized: "How can the wisdom and skill of generals, the military courage of soldiers and China's enthusiasm for doing things learn from others and not seek innovation and change?" Therefore, I advocate "abandoning what is appropriate and not learning" in foreign military action (Commemoration of the Complete Works of Zhang Wenxiang, volume 1 1).

(3) All-round development stage

Before and after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, many sober patriots could no longer tolerate the slow and tortuous process of military reform, and began to deeply reflect on the ancient art classics that prevailed for thousands of years and re-evaluate their times value. Zheng pointed out: "There is no difference between husband and soldier, but it is different from ancient times to the present;" There are not many people, but the situation is divided into Chinese and foreign countries. Today's battle does not belong to the battle of the 21 ST history. Today's tactics are not found in Sun Wu's military books. " Chen Longchang also said: "China has talked about many carefree military strategists, but thirteen articles of Sun Tzu's Art of War and Qi Xinshu are still popular today. This is called practicality. In addition, the so-called compromise is rarely required, and it will be defended by the past and the present. Fortunately, for decades, the guns of the country prevailed between wars, and the old laws were difficult to keep, and one of the keys to the change of military affairs was also. " (A Brief Introduction to Chinese and Western Military Strategies, Volume 20)1The fiasco of the Qing army in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 made more and more people see clearly the necessity of imitating western methods to reform the military system, create new troops and adopt new tactics. The New Book of Military Science, edited by Xu, has collected a wide range of information on western military, organization, weapons and equipment, logistics support and so on. It is intended to establish a new military theoretical system completely different from traditional military science. However, Zhang Zhidong and others criticized the wrong way of military reform in the past, and advocated adopting western military tactics in an all-round way, adopting a new establishment system, reforming the old military service system, updating grain regulations and improving the economic situation of officers and men. In fact, they are clearing the ideological obstacles for the large-scale introduction of western military doctrine. Some officials who specialize in training soldiers, such as Nie Shicheng, who wrote "The Course of Huai Army Wu Yijun", Dunhe Shen, who compiled "The Compilation of Self-Strengthening Army and Western Law", and Yao Xiguang, a teacher of Tianjin Military Equipment School, etc. Duan, Feng and other officials of Beiyang Military Academy wrote My Opinion on the Yangtze River Fort and My Opinion on Raising the Navy, and put forward the general plan of China's Yangtze River defense and naval construction. In other words, under the auspices of Yuan Shikai, he compiled Detailed Explanation of Training Exercises and Brief Record of Newly-built Army Soldiers, which described in detail the camp system formed after training with western methods, and it was rich in modern western military science. During this period, the tactics of combining "steady and hard battles" with cold weapons and firearms, which were popular in the past, were abandoned, and the tactics of flexibility, firepower and cooperation between infantry and artillery were advocated instead. The idea of imitating the origin of westerners getting rich, vigorously developing industry and commerce, establishing a perfect military education system based on national defense construction, and implementing compulsory military service system has also begun to be accepted by more and more people. However, for the purpose of maintaining feudal rule, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty never gave up the command power of the autocratic monarch over the army, the service purpose of the army and the sense of loyalty and filial piety of the soldiers in ancient military science. The principle of military training put forward by Yuan Shikai, that is, "Tao must learn from the past, and law must be timely" ("General Theory of Military Training"), represents this basic attitude of the ruling class to military reform. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the vicious expansion of warlord forces, Yuan Shikai and others even trumpeted the sense of loyalty and filial piety of soldiers, but the object of loyalty and filial piety of officers and men has changed from feudal emperors to themselves. This method of indoctrination of officers and men's political thoughts, which was full of feudal dross and had a strong color of feudal private army, still existed until the early Republic of China.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of students studying in Japan, represented by Cai E and others, began to abandon the feudal dross in ancient military science and fully introduce modern western military theory. During their study in Japan Island, these people received systematic bourgeois military education, and their knowledge structure and ideas were quite different from those of military theorists who had never been abroad. Under the strong stimulation of national peril, they are not satisfied with the detailed introduction of western military theory by domestic military theorists, but intend to introduce western modern military concepts and ideological systems in an all-round way. Therefore, in 1902, Cai E published "National Character of Soldiers" in Xinmin Congbao, and advocated the education and cultivation of national character of soldiers for 40 million compatriots in China, which fundamentally changed the quality of the Chinese nation and revived the spirit of martial arts. Others published articles in magazines, criticizing China's historical tendency of neglecting economy and ocean, and advocating the establishment of China people's concept of sea power. During this period, some famous western military theories were introduced to the people of China. For example, the works of Mahan, the founder of "Sea Power Theory", and the relevant chapters in "On War" (then translated into "On War") by clausewitz, the authority of western military theory, were all translated into Chinese and published in China. At the same time, some people have a strong tendency to copy when introducing western and Japanese military science. For example, when Dunhe Shen compiled the Compilation of Western Laws of Self-Strengthening Army, he tried to match western books word by word; When Chen Fengxiang compiled the Law of War, he not only copied the Japanese military course at the chapter level, but also copied the wrong statement that war can enlighten the people, invigorate the national prestige and make the people rich. Cai E and others began to consider how to absorb the essence of Chinese and foreign military theories impartially and integrate them according to China's national conditions. Although this is still an attempt, it also shows that this generation of military theorists have different theoretical pursuits and China's military pursuits in the collision of Chinese and Western military cultures.