practical application
In modern history, Wei Yuan was the main advocate of the thought of practical application.
biography
Wei Yuan was born in the 59th year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, namely 1794, and died in the 7th year of Xianfeng, namely 1857. Formerly known as Yuanda, the word is silent and deep, and he is from Jintan, Shaoyang County, Hunan Province. Father Wei Banglu was a small official in charge of books. When Wei Yuan was ten years old, there was a serious famine in his hometown. At that time, my father was in Jiangsu, unable to help them, and family life was extremely difficult. But even in this case, Wei Yuan insisted on reading and studying. He likes reading history books. This made his uncle very unhappy, because it was not part of the imperial examination system, but Wei Yuan stole it.
Wei Yuan was not very proud in Vanity Fair all his life, because he looked down on the complicated style of writing of Confucianism and his thoughts were different from those of traditional literati and bureaucrats. So at the age of twenty-nine, after winning the imperial examination, I failed the exam. At the age of fifty-one, I ranked nineteenth in the three lists. Once, the examiner thought that his handwriting on the paper was scrawled, and he was disqualified from the palace examination. It can be seen that Wei Yuan's personality is the main reason why he has been unable to win the lottery.
However, Wei Yuan still has real talent and learning. There was a suggestion named Chen Ling, who won the first place in Jinshi. He likes the vitality of Wei Yuan very much. I also showed my article to Wei Yuan and asked Wei Yuan for advice. Although Wei Yuan was not a scholar at that time, he was a powerful person, but Chen Ling resisted the pressure and interacted with Wei Yuan.
After Wei Yuan officially entered the Jinshi at the age of 51, he went to Yangzhou, Gaoyou and other places to be a magistrate and county magistrate. Prior to this, he mainly served as an aide and wrote for seeking ways to save the country. After he met Gong Zizhen, he became good friends, and at that time he was called a "holding friend". They were all dissatisfied with the stale style of writing at that time and didn't want to be Confucian nerds. Instead, we should study the true knowledge of "practice theory" with an open mind, that is, "the study of heaven, earth, east, west, north and south" and actively seek ways to reform and strengthen ourselves.
His life witnessed the drastic changes in modern China, and he also participated in it, devoting himself to saving the country and enriching the people. "Learning from foreigners to control foreigners" is his famous thought.
When Wei Yuan was thirty-two years old, He Changling, Jiangsu minister, asked him to compile The Imperial Classics, which was completed in Wei Yuan a year later, with 120 volumes, including politics and economy. Due to the collection of a large number of social and economic data, the guiding ideology is practical, which has a great influence at the end of this century and has been appreciated by many people. Almost everyone who cares about national affairs has this book.
1840 During the Opium War, Wei Yuan's attention shifted from internal reform to resisting foreign invasion. He also rushed from Yangzhou to the front of Zhejiang to directly participate in the resistance, but later Lin Zexu was dismissed by the corrupt government and exiled to Xinjiang, while traitors like Qishan were reused. Wei Yuan personally rushed to Zhenjiang to see Lin Zexu off.
Wei Yuan, who could not serve his country on the battlefield, wrote The Story of Wu Sheng and The Map of the Ocean. Wu Shengji was written as early as 1829, and was officially completed in 1842. The book uses martial arts in the early Qing Dynasty to encourage people to work hard to defend their country.
1853, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured Nanjing, Wei Yuan, like Zeng Guofan, also organized Yong ying in the local area to prepare for repression. Later, he was framed for delaying the transmission of information and was dismissed. Shortly after his reinstatement in the second year, he resigned and returned to his hometown on the grounds that "there are too many troubles in the world to be an official". Finally, he lived in a temple in Hangzhou to study Buddhism and didn't see any guests. He died there at the age of 64 and was buried in Hangzhou.
haiyangdituji
This book embodies Wei Yuan's thought of "applying what he has learned".
It is adapted from the annals of four continents written by Lin Zexu. People helped each other when they learned about the compilation of his book. Some people copied relevant maps to him, and others sent him maps of Britain drawn by British soldiers captured in Taiwan Province Province. With the encouragement of friends, Wei Yuan completed the 50-volume Atlas of the Ocean in only half a year, and then it took four years to expand it to 60 volumes, to 1852, and then compiled it into 100 volume. This book is the first modern book written by China people to introduce the national conditions of all countries in the world. Including politics, economy, military affairs, history, geography, culture and so on, and in the book, Wei Yuan also focuses on his important thought of resisting aggression and strengthening the country and enriching the people. Later, this book spread to Japan, which attracted much attention and became an important reference for modern Japan to resist western colonists.
The rulers of the Qing Dynasty were frightened by the weapons of western powers, but Wei Yuan knew it clearly. He advocated the establishment of military industry, learning new weapons technology, and finally conquering and defeating the powers. This is the famous "learning from foreigners to control foreigners". However, Wei Yuan is not a weapon-only person. He attaches more importance to the role of people. No one commands him, so having a good weapon doesn't mean anything, which indicates the end of the Sino-Japanese War in the future. At the end of "Map of the Sea: Chapter 3", Wei Yuan shouted from the heart: "It is to get people away! I'm just looking for someone! "
Philosophical thinking
Wei Yuan's thought of reform and self-improvement obviously inherited the tradition of Legalism and believed that the world was constantly developing. In the Opium War, he actively analyzed the war situation, thought that the strength of the strong and weak sides could be transformed, and put forward specific strategies and tactics to make the enemy stronger and we weaker, that is, put the enemy into battle, make British warships and artillery useless, and give full play to our advantages of adequate supply and familiarity with the terrain. With these factors, coupled with correct command and cooperation, we can also defeat the backward British guns.
Wei Yuan believes that "doing" is the real source of knowledge, not a dead book. Without "doing", you can't get useful knowledge. He has a vivid metaphor for this: "put on (that is, read) the five mountains and think that it is better to be a woodcutter's foot than to know the mountains;" It's better to catch a glimpse of the guests (referring to overseas traders) than to talk about the breadth of the sea. "It is better to know the taste of eight treasures (expensive recipes) than to taste them." Therefore, Wei Yuan pays attention to practical investigation and study. When he learned that the British had set up Huaying College in Singapore and asked China people to teach Chinese, he was worried that no one in China had done anything similar to understanding foreign countries, so he began to compile the Atlas of the Ocean.