1, learn from foreigners to control foreigners.
Wei Yuan was a great scholar with first-class knowledge of western learning at that time. He compiled 100 volume Atlas of the Ocean, introduced western knowledge extensively, and put forward the idea of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners", trying to absorb advanced western technology and make China rich and strong.
Lin Zexu was the first person to see the world. He recruited talents to translate foreign books and periodicals. Wei Yuan proposed to learn from foreigners in order to control them, which is a wise saying in China's Atlas of Overseas Countries, the first book of knowledge about, written by the famous thinker Wei Yuan (1794- 1857). Wei Yuan, a good friend of Lin Zexu, once served as the chief of staff of Jiangsu deployment envoy and governor, and was also a famous scholar who insisted on "seeing the world with his eyes open" at that time. Wei Yuan wrote in his book that the purpose of compiling Atlas of Sea Countries is to "learn from foreigners and master their skills to control them". Later, Yan Fu translated several western academic works, such as Evolution, Primitive Wealth, Group Learning, The Bound of Group Power, General Explanation of Society, Laws and Meaning, and introduced western evolution, economics, politics and sociology to China systematically. Wei Yuan is a person who explicitly proposed to learn from the West in the modern history of China. He pointed out in "Description of a Sea Country": What is a book? He said, "attack foreigners with foreigners, pay foreigners with foreigners, and learn from foreigners to control foreigners." The so-called "learning from foreigners" mainly refers to learning a set of strengths of western capitalist countries in military technology. Wei Yuan said: "Three skills of foreigners: one warship, two firearms and three training methods." He not only advocated buying naval guns from the west, but also emphasized introducing advanced industrial technology from the west and manufacturing naval guns himself. The so-called "controlling foreigners" means resisting aggression and defeating the enemy. Wei Yuan explicitly raised the question of whether to learn from the "long skills" of western countries and whether to defeat foreign invaders. He stressed that those who are not good at learning from foreigners should be controlled by foreigners. Starting from the standpoint of anti-aggression, Wei Yuan showed brilliant patriotic thoughts by learning from foreigners and mastering foreigners.
2. Self-improvement and seeking wealth.
The Westernization Movement, also known as the self-improvement movement, refers to the improvement movement of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" initiated by the Westernization School all over the country from 186 1 (Xianfeng started at the end of October) to 1894. After the two Opium Wars, the ruling class of the Qing government was divided into "Westernization School" and "Old School" on how to solve a series of problems of internal and external troubles. The Westernization School advocated developing new industries, enhancing national strength and maintaining the feudal rule of the Qing government. It also laid a certain foundation for China's modernization.
Second, the bourgeois reformists-saving the country through reform
Under the influence of the development of national capitalism, the serious national crisis and the early reform ideas, the bourgeois reformists headed by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao combined western political theory with traditional Confucianism, and put forward the reform ideas with the establishment of constitutional monarchy, the development of capitalism and the study of western science and technology culture as the main contents, trying to save the nation from peril and develop capitalism, and developed this idea into a reform movement, and then carried out the Reform Movement of 1898, which played an enlightening role in society.
Third, the peasant class-helping the Qing Dynasty to save the country
Facing the division of China by imperialism, the broad masses of peasants at the bottom of society put forward the slogan of "helping the Qing Dynasty to destroy the foreign countries" from the simple patriotic thought, and launched a vigorous boxer movement in an attempt to achieve the goal of "destroying the foreign countries" by "helping the Qing Dynasty" in order to save the nation from peril. However, due to its spontaneity, unclear understanding of the essence of the Qing government and general exclusion, it ended in failure under the joint suppression of Chinese and foreign reactionary forces.
Fourth, bourgeois revolutionaries-revolution to save the country.
With the development of national capitalism, the deepening of national crisis, the successive failures of reform and improvement, and the Boxer Movement of "helping the Qing Dynasty" to save the country, the revolutionaries gradually realized the essence of the Qing government. In order to open up the road of independent development of national capitalism, they publicized the idea of democratic revolution and put forward the idea of overthrowing the Qing government by violence. Due to the development of the situation, the revolutionaries finally launched the Revolution of 1911, overthrew the feudal monarchy, dealt a heavy blow to feudalism and imperialism, and created conditions for the development of national capitalism. However, because the bourgeois revolutionaries did not put forward a thorough revolutionary program, fully mobilized the masses, did not have a strong leadership organization, and did not establish revolutionary armed forces, they finally gave the fruits of the revolution to Yuan Shikai under the attack of imperialism and feudalism, and their desire to save the country was not realized.
Five, the bourgeois industrial school-industrial salvation school.
The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the feudal monarchy and cleared some obstacles for the development of national capitalism. Nanjing Provisional Government promulgated a series of laws and measures, which stimulated the investment enthusiasm of the national bourgeoisie. During the First World War, because European imperialist countries were busy with war and temporarily relaxed their economic aggression against China, China's national capitalist industry gained a development opportunity between imperialism and feudalism, and a short spring appeared. This makes some national bourgeoisie have the idea of saving the country by industry, trying to achieve national prosperity by developing national economy. However, after the First World War, imperialism made a comeback, which made the national capitalist economy gradually decline, and the road of saving the country by industry was not feasible.
Six, bourgeois intellectuals radical Democrats-saving the country with ideas
After the failure of the Revolution of 1911, due to the further spread of western enlightenment in China, the bourgeoisie demanded the implementation of democratic politics. Under this condition, the bourgeois radical democrats put forward two slogans, democracy and science, and set off a new cultural movement in the ideological and cultural field. This movement shook the dominant position of feudal thought and liberated people's minds unprecedentedly. However, because it was not combined with mass movements, it was impossible to change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature of China society and truly achieve the purpose of saving the country.