On November 6, 1865, Hurd, the British guest minister of the Qing Dynasty, Customs, General, Taxation, and Affairs Bureau, submitted a paper titled "On the Outsiders' View" to the Prime Minister's Yamen. memorandum. He repeatedly stated in the memorandum that "foreignization" such as railways, ships, telegraphs, mining, and diplomacy not only had various benefits, but also "established a very strong connection between China and the West and enabled China to engage in innovative undertakings with confidence." , without risk of regression." In 1866, the British diplomat and sinologist William Wade, who invented the first Chinese pinyin method, also submitted a proposal called "A Brief Theory of New Meanings" to the Prime Minister's Yamen, expounding on the exchange of ministers, the establishment of Western schools, and the practice of Western methods. The necessity of soldiers. Witoma also bluntly said that today's Western countries are not the barbarians of the past. If China does not recognize this fact and adopt Western civilization, civilization, achievements, and achievements, then China's future will be disasterous. How difficult.

In fact, before these two "old friends of the Qing government" wrote the letter, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty had already realized the necessity and urgency of engaging in "Westernization". However, what made them determined to reform was not the aggressive foreigners in the two opium wars, but the Taiping Kingdom, which was trying to change the dynasty. Tai Ping Tian's country's self-army rose, and they purchased foreign guns and cannons at high prices from their "foreign brothers" for a long time. As early as 1854, when the famous general Luo Gang of the Taiping Army was stationed at Hukou, "there were four foreigners, ghosts and sons around him." In April 1862, a foreign store in Shanghai was sold to the Taiping Army within one month, with 3,046 foreign guns, 795 cannons, 10,947 pounds of gunpowder, and 4.5 million caps. In the same year, Li Xiucheng, the loyal king, had "many cannons and 20,000 guns under his command. Their firearms were a hundred times more sophisticated than those of the Hunan Army." If the stone falls, the stone will crack and the iron will fly." People at the time commented, "The thieves had no skills and bravery...they only had foreign cannons. The barbarians overestimated their value, and half of the gold and silver stolen by the thieves after the war went to the barbarians."

In the face of the British, Facing the strength of the Union Army, ships, weapons, artillery, and the Qing government, they could remain indifferent; but they could no longer sit still in the face of Taiping's Western weapons. Zeng Guofan reported in a memorial that steamships "can suppress rebellion and can be diligent and far-sighted", which is "the first priority to save the day today". Zuo Zongtang proposed for Zeng Guofan in "Recovering the Chen Yang, Helping People to Suppress and Collect Rice to Transport Tianjin", "Learning from the wisdom of the barbarians to build, cannon, and ship can especially bring eternal benefits." Li Hongzhang also stated in the "Original Letter from Jiangsu Governor Li Hongzhang to the Prime Minister's Office" that "China's civil and military system, degree, and everything are far superior to those of the West, and its independent fire and weapons are out of reach." Therefore, foreign guns must be purchased. Cannon, set up, bureau, manufacture, build, gun, artillery, "to support attack and suppression".

At that time, in the Beijing government, the censor Wei Muting also presented a famous memorial: "It is said that fire weapons are the decisive skills for military camps. In recent years, Western weapons have been the most refined. Western, Western With merchants and peddlers as the foundation of the country, Britain and France are now willing to help suppress chaos, make foreign goods flow smoothly... There are many people in China who have extraordinary talents and abilities, and they pay attention to their abilities, so they can use ships, cannons, etc. "The army and weapons are much better than those in the West." Under the reform consciousness that swept the country, Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Yi Jian, Wen Xiang and others acted and adopted the same ideas as those of the senior officials twenty years ago. The foreign policy of Ying and Ye Mingchen to restrain and appease the barbarians, as well as Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's practice of learning from the barbarians to learn national defense and military skills, we can see the strengths of both: "The barbarians are dedicated to making profits and have no other purpose. We can firmly believe that Erhai State can achieve fruitful results." "It is easy to restrain oneself by showing integrity"; "The art of self-improvement must be practiced first, and the military...it is urgent to strive to revitalize it, so that if the enemy is in compliance, we can be in peace, and in the opposite direction, we can be prepared." But twenty years ago, it was only a minority. At this time, a leap-forward change called "foreign affairs" and "self-improvement" has been formed.

From the late Qing Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court's foreign affairs, officials, and officials carried out the industrial movement across the country with the slogan and purpose of "learning from the foreigners and developing skills to control the foreigners". The movement began at the end of 1861 (the tenth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty) and ended in 1895, lasting for nearly 35 years. According to different goals, foreign affairs, transportation, and movement can be divided into two stages: the early stage and the late stage.

After the two British-French allied armies lost, Taipei, Tian, ??and Guo uprisings, the upper echelons of the Qing court formed two camps, the "Westernizers" and the "Conservatives" in response to internal and external troubles. The foreign affairs factions represented by Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang advocated imitating the customs of officials, strong industrial technology and business models, and utilizing official offices, official supervision of commercial offices, and official-business cooperation. Develop modern industry through business and other models in order to obtain powerful military equipment, increase national treasury, revenue, increase national power, and maintain the rule of the Qing court.

Almost at the same time as the "foreign affairs movement", Japan also began the "ming, governance, maintenance, and innovation." Li Hongzhang was quite moved when he learned that a disciple from a Japanese sect was willing to go to the West to work as an apprentice in a factory in order to obtain "tools for making tools." He quoted a famous saying from the Book of Changes: "Every life is endless, and everything can be accomplished." He suggested that the imperial court should set up a new subject in the imperial examination system for candidates who are proficient in technology: "If you want to learn foreign sharp tools, it is better to find tools that make them." If you want to learn the techniques and people who make them, you may want to set up a special subject to obtain scholars. If the scholars are dedicated to wealth and fame throughout their lives, they will be successful in their careers and their skills will be refined. Talents can also be gathered."

The backbone of the foreign affairs faction is engaged in the suppression, peace, movement, and diplomatic activities with foreign countries. Born in China, he has a certain understanding of Western countries, especially his powerful military power. Therefore, during the period of foreign affairs, all activities were based on the development of modern military forces. , things are the central purpose. During the Westernization Movement, the Westernizationists established China's earliest modern military and industrial industries and used large machines to produce civilian industries with a capitalistic nature for the sake of the people, race, property, and class. The emergence of the level has had a certain stimulating effect.

Learning skills from the barbarians in order to control the barbarians was first proposed by Wei Yuan, a famous thinker in the Qing Dynasty and an advocate of new thinking. This idea can be seen in his book "Hai Guo Tu Zhi". The complete explanation of learning from the foreigners and developing skills to control the foreigners is to "learn the advanced and advanced techniques of the Westerners so as to resist the invasion and invasion of the powerful Westerners". To develop skills is to make sure that not everything must be learned from the West, but only the advanced military, affairs, techniques, and techniques of the West. To learn from the foreigners is to learn from the West. This view is completely different from the great power of the Celestial Dynasty that has been aloof for thousands of years. At that time, it entailed taking great political risks.

It is worth mentioning that Wei Yuan’s idea of ??learning skills from the barbarians in order to control the barbarians had a great influence on later generations. This is the deepening of "Western learning for practical use".

However, regardless of whether they are "learning from barbarians and developing skills to strengthen themselves", the purpose of activities of the Westernization faction or the conservative faction is to maintain the shaky rule of the Qing Dynasty, so in essence there is no difference between the two factions. However, it laid the foundation for China's modernization and had a strong back-up effect. It also revealed China's arduous journey towards modernization.

The Westernization Movement was the first large-scale imitation/implementation of Western styles, industry, and culture in modern China. It was a reform movement from top to bottom on the premise of maintaining feudal imperial power. Foreign affairs, military affairs, sports, and sports introduced a large number of Western scientific and technological achievements after the 18th century, introduced and translated a large number of Western works and documents, trained the first batch of overseas students, opened the door to Western learning; studied the construction of modern corporate systems A large number of industrial and chemical enterprises were established, opening up the road to China's future industrial development and modernization.

The direct result of the maritime movement - the destruction of the Qing navy in the Battle of Jiawu, Haiwu, etc., brought the maritime movement to a sad end and dealt a heavy blow to the Qing court. The upper class paved the way for the next century, Japan, Wei, and Xin, and also profoundly influenced a group of Chinese people born at the end of the 19th century. After the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Horse-Guan, recognize Korea's independence, cede Taiwan, Penghu, Liaoning, Eastern Peninsula, and a number of territorial waters to Japan. The crisis of the Qing court's rule was further aggravated; Japan's first military victory in Chinese history profoundly inspired the Japanese people's national will. This knowledge had a profound impact on the cultural, ideological and political trends of China, Japan and the two countries, as well as the national destiny.

Wei Yuan's "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" advocated "learning from the barbarians to develop skills to control the barbarians", and Feng Guifen's "Xiaofenlu Protest" advocated "taking China's ethics and famous teachings as the original, supplemented by the prosperity of all countries" technique". On the first day of December in the tenth year of Xianfeng (January 11, 1861), Prince Gong Yi?, together with Guiliang and Wenxiang, presented the "Six Articles of Regulations for Coordinating the Overall Development of Foreign Affairs" and implemented a plan to enrich the country and strengthen it. , foreign affairs, transportation, movement as the goal. Shortly after the end of the second Anglo-French coalition, because the Qing government used territory, sovereignty, and a series of economic, trade, and special rights to temporarily satisfy the requirements of foreign invaders, domestic farmers and people The war has also entered a low ebb, thus presenting a temporarily "stable" situation, which is the so-called "peace" of "reconciliation between China and foreign countries". However, in the rule of the Qing Dynasty, some relatively clear-minded people in power, such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Prince Gong who held power in the center, did not do so because of this "harmony". The emergence of the Qing dynasty reduced their sense of crisis, opportunity, and governance towards the Qing government. Zeng, Li, and Zuo all established special honors for the annihilation of the Taiping, Tian, ??country. They used foreign countries to invade and conquer the Taiping, Tian, ??country's "Hua Yang". During the "Suppression, Meeting, and Suppression", we saw with our own eyes the tremendous power of foreign invaders, strong ships, sharp guns, and thus felt a potential long-term threat. Facing China's "changes not seen in thousands of years", they inherited the idea of ??"learning from foreigners to develop skills" proposed by Wei Yuan and other "Jingshi School" and tried their best to put this idea into practice. The first purpose is to suppress Tai, Ping, Tian, ??Guo, and the second is to reduce Xu Tu to a subordinate official under the conditions of "peace" between China and foreign countries.

In the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the ministers of the Central Committee, the General Manager, the Government Office, and Prince Gong, Wen Xiang, and Shen Guifen became the representative forces of the Westernization faction in the Central Committee.

Among the local representatives, most are related to Zeng Guofan: Zeng Guofan, Chonghou, Zuo Zongtang, Shen Baozhen, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi, Tang Tingshu, etc.

The foreign affairs brought to China modern banking system, modern postal system, new education (new learning), new style army (Manchu, Qing, New, Military), new ideas (Japanese, He), railways, heavy industry (mines and iron plants) and other achievements that influenced later generations. It has narrowed the distance between China and the world in terms of cultural exchanges, business contacts, and science and technology.

The institutions and systems established during the Western Movement can still be seen today, such as: postal service, telecommunications system, railway system, railway system, Tong, Zhao, Shang, Bureau, Jiang, Nan, Shipbuilding, Shipyard, Transportation, Bank, etc. have all continued from the late Qing Dynasty to the present day.

The foreign affairs movement lasted for more than thirty years, until 1895, when the Jiawu War broke out, China was defeated by Japan, and its focus was The project Beiyang, the fleet, was overthrown, and the Westernization Movement ended and ultimately failed. Li Hongzhang summed up his life in his later years: "The things I have been doing all my life, including training, soldiers, navy, and army, are all paper tigers. How can I really let go of them? They are just glossing over, just superficial, and can be perfunctory if not exposed. ”

There are many reasons for the failure of the foreign affairs movement, including the lack of a complete plan, the lack of knowledge of those in charge, the opposition of conservative people, and the corruption of officialdom and political style. ,wait. For example, the Empress Dowager Cixi moved money to build the Summer Palace, but also tried her best to obstruct the development of foreign affairs.

Huang Renyu pointed out in "Chinese History" that the so-called "Westernization" is due to Western society's emphasis on efficiency, which is very different from traditional Chinese social habits. The use of every weapon and weapon is restricted by traditional culture and ideas, and these are affected in every aspect. For example, to open various industrial factories, the society needs the cooperation of various commercial organizations, such as parts, banks, insurance, etc., but these were all lacking in China in the 19th century; accounting did not have perfect management concepts, making accounting The project cannot be effectively verified; personnel management is not standardized due to the lack of modern personnel management thinking in traditional culture.

Although the Foreign Affairs, Movement, and Movement failed, they also achieved certain achievements, which will affect China's future development. The Westernizationists boycotted the export of goods, which stimulated Chinese nationalism, capitalism, and capitalism.

During its foreign affairs, movement, China introduced Western learning and promoted openness of mind. The introduction of Western science and technology made China begin to modernize. The Tongwen Museum founded during this period cultivated many talents. Students studying abroad acquired skills. These students had a certain understanding of Western science and technology, and they were of great help to China's future development.