Westernization is a political faction gradually formed and expanded within the ruling class after the Second Opium War, especially in the process of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. At that time, the landlord class in China began to undergo a new political division, and there appeared the Westernization School which advocated change and the die-hards who maintained the traditional system. At that time, the main representatives of the Westernization School in the central government were the aristocratic officials of the Manchu imperial clan represented by Prince Gong Yixin and the Han officials represented by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo and Zhang Zhidong in the local government.