Why is there a "sad complex"
There are so many "sad feelings" in China's modern history, which stems from the fact that China's closed-door policy since Kangxi was knocked down by the western powers, and China's dream of Taoyuan was bombarded by them.
Historically, China has always valued agriculture over commerce, valued land over the sea, defended and attacked heavily, and was self-sufficient, which enabled China to completely solve the problem of self-survival under the condition of closed doors. Coupled with "vast territory and abundant resources", China people have always believed that China is the center of the world, and other ethnic groups are uncivilized. The nationality in the East is called Yi, the nationality in the West is called Rong, the nationality in the South is called Man, and the nationality in the North is called De, all of which are demeaning and contemptuous.
Since 1840, such a big country, which has been in Enshi and seldom offended others, has been forced by the west to sign 1000 unequal treaties that humiliated the country for more than a century. Not only did it temporarily or permanently transfer the territory to foreign countries, but it also lost nearly 2 billion taels of silver, and the customs almost handed it over to foreigners. This is indeed a humiliating history that everyone in China can't forget, especially when China almost never took the initiative to provoke anyone but suffered this tragic disaster innocently. China, which was decadent but felt good about itself, was dragged into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society by the great powers, and a lingering "sadness" naturally settled in the hearts of Chinese people for a long time.
Talk less about "sadness" and adjust the view of history
The "sad complex" is understandable. But the question is who is to blame? Today, a hundred years later, what we should do is to tell the tragic experience and accuse the atrocities of the western powers, or to look at the process of the rise of the west in a deeper level and sum up the lessons of that history?
The law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest, now looking back at that period of history, there can never be any "equal" treaty between the vibrant west and the decadent Manchu. Whether in nature or in human society, this is a very cruel but unchangeable law.
Great men have talked about this problem. Marx said: "Complete isolation from the outside world was once the primary condition for the existence of old China. When this isolation was destroyed by British atrocities, it was bound to disintegrate, just like a mummy carefully kept in a closed coffin, it would inevitably disintegrate as soon as it came into contact with fresh air." Deng Xiaoping said: "To change the situation of being beaten behind, we must break the closed state and open to the outside world. After the Western Industrial Revolution, an important reason why China fell behind was that the feudal rulers at that time adopted a foolish closed-door policy and did not seek progress. They could not keep up with the times and could not resist foreign aggression. "
Looking back at the strong rise of those great powers and the weak development of modern China from today's height, it seems that it should be summarized that the factor that caused the historical tragedy of modern China was of course the insolence of western powers, but more importantly, China did not seize the opportunity and embarked on the road of modernization first. History must not be forgotten, but it is not only the glory or suffering, but also the experience and lessons. History needs reflection. What can be reflected is not what others shouldn't have done at the beginning, but why they didn't do it at the beginning, why they didn't seize the historical opportunity and become a world power in advance. Only in this way can we take history as a mirror and revise the road signs of China's future development.
Look at the world from another angle
The country we call a big country is not a world power at first, and some even live in a tiny place. However, they have successfully completed the social development process from small to large and from weak to strong. Their success lies in seizing the historical opportunity and going out when they are innovating. In the process of going out and innovating, they have achieved economic and political modernization to varying degrees and become world powers. We must never completely deny this historical process because some of them later declined, even as Germany and Japan once went astray. In fact, it is precisely because of the solid foundation of the past that today, the largest of those big countries is still a world power, and the smallest is still the most developed country.
More importantly, there is another side to this problem. Western countries bullied China, but from the perspective of modernization, they forced China to open its doors, which also prompted China to be involved in the whirlpool of the world market. There is a book called Milestones of China's Modernization, which lists 360 firsts that mark China's modernization process. No matter in politics, economy, diplomacy, or in ideology, culture and education, they have direct or indirect ties with western countries to varying degrees.
Therefore, we need to look at the western countries from another angle, not only as big powers invading and expanding everywhere, but also to explore the reasons and mysteries of their prosperity, from which we can learn the rich nutrition of China's revival. It is not appropriate to demonstrate the theoretical and practical rationality that they actually do not go to the ocean, the market and the modernization with the flaws, twists and turns and even crimes in their rising history.
A "big country" is not just a few countries, but a development trend that conforms to the trend of the times. All countries that want to make a difference in the world must pay attention to and integrate into this trend. Looking at the world and history is probably the most important thing.
World powers are not born.
It is not easy to become a rising power. Some scholars have pointed out that there are many factors for the rise of great powers, including historical opportunities, economic strength and psychological preparation.
Among these three aspects, historical opportunity refers to the objective environment, which is the fairest and almost the same for all countries. The key lies in how each country interprets it. Complaining is a sign of cowardice. Economic strength refers to the rising material conditions within the people. However, the strength of economic strength is always relative in time and space. China's GDP is now among the best in the world, but its per capita GDP is out of the top 100. So, is China's economic strength strong or weak? Is there a foundation for rise or revival? Therefore, the author thinks that psychological factors may be more important. However, psychological factors are not just a short sprint, but a permanent sense of strength.
What is the power consciousness? It's not the illusion that you miss the extravagance of the past or lament that you are rich now, or that you will be strong in the future. These are actually the mentality of weak countries, even the spirit of Ah Q or the method of spiritual victory at the national level.
The true sense of power is a kind of full trust in treating oneself, a peaceful attitude towards history, and a profound vision of facing the future instead of being immersed in the past. The consciousness of strengthening the country should be an eternal and upward psychological normal, and it is a development concept of openness, pioneering, enlightenment, tolerance, inheritance and innovation. Opportunities are given to countries with a sense of power, and strength can only be realized by countries with a sense of power, and opportunities and strength can only be further sublimated in the sense of power.
World powers are not born. China's success in the past two thousand years was not born, nor was it accidental that it perished a hundred years ago. We should not think that without the twists and turns in modern history, China would become a world-class power. (Kong is a professor at Peking University Institute of International Relations. )
Interviewee: O-type blood boys-Chief Operating Officer1Grade 2 1 1-7 14:55.
The real mystery of the rise of France
Any great idea is like a beautiful flame. Whether it can generate huge energy depends on whether there is dry wood in need. For a country, the most important "dry wood" is the quality and education of its citizens. Take France as an example:
Influenced by the Renaissance, the Protestant sects produced by the religious reform in the16th century struggled with the old religions, and their means of winning over children and the masses was education. Through this campaign, all parties attach importance to mathematics, geography and history in education methods, pay attention to the application of physics teaching and practice, and deliberately develop students' intelligence This has greatly improved the quality of the new generation in France. The training workshop for primary school teachers, established in 1684, is the earliest normal education institution in Europe and plays a key role in ensuring the quality of teachers. /kloc-before the 0/9th century, French higher education enjoyed the honor of laurel, and its academic level was very high in Western Europe.
Rousseau was a famous thinker during the French Enlightenment in the18th century. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland. 10 years old, my father fled Switzerland because he was framed. Rousseau 13 years old began to make a living by himself. He worked as an apprentice, handyman, copywriter and tutor. The humiliation and coldness of relying on others, as well as the poverty of long-term wandering, cultivated Rousseau's "cruel and unfair" resistance consciousness. 1762, Rousseau's long educational philosophy novel Emile came out. In this masterpiece, which was conceived for 20 years and written for 3 years, Rousseau lashed out at the decadent politics, religion and especially education in France at that time. He put forward the idea of cultivating new people who really meet the needs of society and described the blueprint for cultivating new people. As soon as this long article was published, it caused a sensation throughout France and western Europe. The French government ordered the arrest of Rousseau and the burning of Emile. Rousseau was forced to flee to Switzerland and left England the following year. 1767, Rousseau returned to France and took refuge in the suburbs of Paris. 1772, he finished the last self-critical book-confessions. 1778 passed away.
Rousseau's educational method was inherited by his compatriot Pestalozzi, a Swiss. The Swiss government first implemented education by developing children's different abilities according to their age groups. Later, the governments of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Russia and the United States also sent experts and officials to study. Everton School, founded by Pestalozzi, has become an "international college" renowned in Europe and America. Interestingly, the Swiss government first adopted this teaching method, and the American government launched a massive "Rousseau and Pestalozzi Education Thought" campaign. The former has become the richest country in the world today, and the latter has become one of the hegemons in the world today.
1789- 1794 The French Revolution was a more thorough and profound bourgeois revolution after17th century British Revolution and18th century American War of Independence. In education, all the ruling forces of the bourgeoisie have made plans, among which condorcet, Reppel and lavoisier are famous. Although these plans were not put into practice at that time, they had an impact on French education. In particular, condorcet's proposal to the Legislative Assembly in 1792 provided a basis for French and other countries to discuss the educational development in19th century.
It can be seen that the appearance of Napoleon in France at the beginning of the19th century is no accident, but an explosive catharsis of energy after the rapid improvement of the quality of the whole nation. However, during the Napoleonic period and thereafter, French education succumbed to religious forces and became more and more conservative, and religious forces regained the power of education. Until the 20th century, the influence of religious thought and church on education was further weakened. More than 50 church organizations engaged in education and other activities were dissolved, and more than 3,000 church schools were closed. 1905, the French government explicitly announced the abolition of the Fallot Act. But at this time, France has lost its advantage in national quality, especially the science that conflicts with religion was destroyed once, and finally failed to rise from the ground again.
Unfortunately, it fell short!
The real mystery of Germany's rise
From17th century to18th century, Germany fell behind Britain and France politically and economically, and was divided for a long time, with more than 300 feudal countries acting in their own way. These countries, especially Prussia, Austria and other big countries, are trying to train obedient subjects and handy soldiers through education in order to strengthen their rule and expand their military strength. Therefore, they are eager to transfer the management right of state schools from the church to the state and vigorously advocate compulsory education. As early as the second half of16th century, some states, such as Wittenberg and Saxony, promulgated compulsory education laws. Since17th century, most states have been competing to enact such laws. One of the most famous is the decree issued by Frederick II of Prussia in 1763, which further stipulates that children aged 5 ~ 12 must go to school for education, otherwise their parents will be fined.
Practical middle school was born in Germany at the beginning of18th century, a century earlier than Britain and France, which gave Germans the rigor and connotation required by natural science! From 65438 to 0708, Himmler, a devout believer, founded the "Middle School of Mathematics, Mechanics and Economics" in Halle, mainly teaching mathematics, physics, mechanics, nature, astronomy, geography and law, supplemented by painting and sketching. Since then, some cities in Germany have established such schools one after another, and some practical middle schools have added subjects such as architecture, commercial manufacturing, trade and economy. This is a new school with both general education and vocational education. It excludes the pure classicism tendency of teaching subjects and course contents, and adapts to the needs of the gradual development of German capitalist economy. However, because its graduates are not allowed to enter higher education, their status is very low, so there are not many students, and they are quickly surpassed by the United States without family values and lost to the United States in scientific application.
Influenced by the French Revolution in18th century, its outstanding performance in education is pan-Irish and Humboldt reform. Pan-Aiism is deeply influenced by the French bourgeois enlightenment thought, especially Rousseau's thought and German neo-humanism. Pan-loving educators such as Basto, Salzman and Bi Ke believe that the highest goal of education is to cultivate people with practical knowledge, pan-loving thoughts, health and optimism. Therefore, we should attach importance to moral education, physical education, labor education, modern language and natural science knowledge, adopt children's free development and attach importance to physics teaching. They love children, affirm their good nature, oppose scholasticism and classicism education, and prohibit corporal punishment. This method was later introduced to the United States, Russia and Japan.
1807- 18 15 during the Prussian-Hardenbergh reform, K.W.Humboldt, a historian and political activist, served as Minister of Education. He carried out a series of reforms in school education at all levels according to the spirit of neo-humanism. In primary education and normal education, famous educators such as Stilwell appeared by actively implementing Pestalozzi's educational thought, expanding teaching content and improving teaching methods. Since then, Dewey's educational model developed in the United States has also developed on this basis. In secondary education, practical secondary schools have been further developed, and subjects such as history, geography and natural science have been added, and teachers have been selected through examinations, breaking the situation that only priests are teachers. In terms of higher education, Humboldt clearly stated earlier that the task of a university is to impart knowledge of various subjects to students and develop science (that is, as a teaching center and a scientific research center). The University of Berlin, which he founded and led, is a typical example of this.
Because Germany attaches importance to education earlier, the strength of the country also comes from more advanced and reasonable methods. This is another obvious example of quality education, which has nothing to do with genes and chromosomes boasted by some people!
The real mystery of Japan's rise
Japan's post-war rise benefited from attaching importance to education and personnel training. Former Japanese Minister Araki Wanfu once pointed out: "From Meiji to today, China's social and economic development, especially the post-war economic development, is amazing and attracts worldwide attention. The important reason for this situation can be attributed to the popularization and development of education. " Schultz, a famous American development economist, said: "After the war, Japan's material capital stock almost disappeared, but an important part of its national wealth-people with knowledge level still exist in large numbers." The history of attaching importance to education in Japan can be traced back to the Meiji Restoration. As early as 1872, when the Meiji government promulgated the Learning Law, it put forward a very clear slogan in the Announcement of the Academic System, to achieve "no family in the city can learn, and no family can learn." Then, starting from 1886, the Meiji government announced the implementation of compulsory education throughout the country. After about 30 years of hard work, primary education has finally been popularized throughout the country. Moreover, in chronological order, Japan is also the first country in the world to popularize compulsory education nationwide, four years earlier than the United States and 10 years earlier than France. As former Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo said in a policy address: "People are the wealth of a country, and education is the foundation of national politics." This should be the root of the miracle of Japan's rise.
The rise of Japan after the war benefited from the pursuit of perfection and Excellence. Ji Tianmao is the most famous Japanese Prime Minister after the war. In his later years, he wrote "Hundred Years of Agitation" in passionate language, summarizing how the Japanese nation overcame difficulties, was far-sighted, enterprising, good at learning and pursued perfection. He said that the Japanese nation has a professional spirit of stopping at perfection. Unless you don't do it, you must do your best, which is deeply rooted in the blood of the Japanese nation. This is the main reason why Japan has been the second economic power in the world after the Meiji Restoration and the post-war economic miracle. Drucker, a master of management, said that there were three mentors for Japan's economic take-off after the war. The first tutor was Dodge, who taught the Japanese to develop the economy, first of all, to stabilize monetary finance and fix the exchange rate between the Japanese yen and the US dollar at 360 yen. The second tutor is Deming, the father of total quality management. Drucker said that quality management was invented by Americans, but it was the Japanese who applied it perfectly and realized it. The third tutor is Drucker himself. He taught the Japanese how to think about strategy and implement management by objectives. Drucker also has a profound study of Japanese cultural spirit. At the age of seventy, he was honored as a professor of Japanese art and culture at the University of Tokyo, and he was proud of it. Drucker and Ji Tianmao have the same idea. The second division believes that the real interest of the Japanese nation is the pursuit of perfection and perfection of professionalism. No matter what you do, you should strive for the best, focus on nothing and strive for perfection. Behind this spirit is an extremely humble learning attitude and an open mind that always absorbs the strengths of others. Akio Morita said: "The secret of Japanese enterprises' rapid progress in a short period of time lies in the fact that business operators always think that Japan lags behind others in all fields, thus creating a sense of urgency. They are willing to pretend to be European and American students, insist on paying tuition fees, learn business practices and attract new technologies. " "In Japan, people are constantly pursuing the improvement of efficiency and productivity, even for a simple tool like a screwdriver. From design to processing, it has been carefully thought out and studied. "
And China people resort to deceit, opportunism and deception. . . This is the general psychology in China today. Is there still a big gap compared with the Japanese professional spirit of pursuing perfection and Excellence? !
The real mystery of America's rise
The United States attached great importance to education as early as when it was a British colony. By 1775, the population of 13 British colony was only 2.6 million, but following the example of universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, nine colleges such as Harvard and Yale were established, and the educational environment was even better than that of Beijing today. Primary education in the colonial period was quite developed. Several northern colonies, represented by Massachusetts, paid special attention to universal education. 1647, the authorities issued a decree, stipulating that a town should have a primary school as long as there are 50 households, so town schools emerged in the north. This kind of local authorities' intervention in education has gone beyond the principle of running a school in the metropolitan country of England, and laid the advantage of national quality in one fell swoop!
In this world, there is hardly an educated person who doesn't know the American Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal, and the creator endowed them with some inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." When we listen to the greatest voice in human history with boiling blood, please don't forget that there is another great thing in the United States, that is, the Constitution advertises the cultivation of national citizens through education. In order to popularize education, they first adopted Lancaster tutorial system in Britain. 18 18 Lancaster himself was also invited to the United States to preach the tutorial system. British education can't meet the educational requirements of this new country. 1843, Horace? Horace Mann (then director of education in Massachusetts) visited Germany and introduced the teaching system in Prussia at that time. At the same time, he vigorously promoted the ideas of European educators such as Rousseau and Pestalozzi, and primary schools across the United States began to adopt the most advanced teaching system in Western Europe.
After the Civil War, American higher education developed faster, and there were more than 200 newly established universities in this period! While learning from the academic model in Europe at that time-Berlin University, John F? At 1876. Hopkins University, establishing a university research institute, devoted to advanced academic research; On the one hand, according to 186 1 and 1890, the Congress allocated land in various states to fund large-scale agricultural (industrial) industrial (art) colleges, and soon cultivated a large number of professionals suitable for industrial and agricultural development, from which the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University came. When the College of Workers and Peasants was first established, it was once ridiculed as "Muniuwa College" because there were many poor students studying in it, and it was far ahead of Europe in the popularization of higher education. Facts have proved that the poor people's desire for wealth is much higher than that of rich children! This has created a group of high-knowledge talents who dare to take risks and innovate for the United States. When their desire for wealth was ignited, it was a volcano, a tsunami and the climax of the second industrial revolution!
After the civil war, public middle schools were originally four-year comprehensive middle schools, which required students to pursue further studies and obtain employment. At this time, the number of students has increased dramatically year by year, while the number of scholars preparing for promotion has decreased while the number of people preparing for employment has increased. Therefore, vocational preparation is gradually taken as the main responsibility, and the curriculum is changed accordingly, and natural science and practical subjects are strengthened, which is a remarkable feature of American middle schools. Public middle schools gradually take career preparation as their main responsibility, and the curriculum has changed accordingly, and natural science and practical subjects have been strengthened, which is a remarkable feature of American middle schools. Moreover, 1880 MIT founded an industrial middle school, and 1888 Minnesota founded an agricultural middle school. Since then, a large number of vocational middle schools have emerged. Europeans don't like vocational middle schools because of secular ideas, while Americans who believe that "all men are created equal" don't have this historical burden. Vocational middle schools have trained a group of industrialists and inventors, and the Wright brothers, the inventors of the first airplane, are one of them.
According to statistics, from 1870- 1940, the population of the United States tripled, while the number of middle school students increased by 90 times. The slogan at that time was: "Secondary education opens the door for all school-age youth". By 19 18, there were more than 20,000 high schools in the United States, while in China, a country with a population of1200 million, 198 had only a little more than10,000. It can be seen that the high efficiency, high technology and high output of the United States depend on science and technology and advanced education. Today, the method of basic education in the United States has been improved several times on the basis of Dewey's educational method. The slogan of education is "No Child Left Behind", and each state spends 40% of its tax revenue on education. In the 1980s, it monopolized about 70% of the patented inventions, won more than 70% of the Nobel Prize in Natural Science, and ranked first in the total number of Olympic medals.
"206 1 Plan" is a curriculum reform project for primary and secondary schools in 2 1 century, which was initiated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in conjunction with the American Academy of Sciences, the Federal Ministry of Education and other 12 institutions. It represents the trend of curriculum and teaching reform in American basic education. To this end, the United States mobilized more than 800 scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers and educators from universities and primary and secondary schools to participate in this grand project to rebuild the wisdom of young people. They summed up the profound changes and future development trends in science, mathematics and technology after the war, absorbed the achievements of educational reform in the United States since the 1980s, and created new Americans in 2 1 century.
A country in peacetime is qualified to talk about who is the first!
conclusion
The rise of great powers depends on science and technology, and the contest between countries is, in the final analysis, the contest between national quality and talents. To put it bluntly, the overall national quality of China is not the same as that of developed countries, because it is difficult to accept other people's educational ideas. The British historian Toynbee studied 2 1 civilizations that appeared in history and then died out one after another. The conclusion is that the cause of death of these civilizations, without exception, is not homicide, but suicide. They lost the vitality of innovation and were eliminated by history.
1876, when the United States celebrated its independence 100 anniversary, it held an international exposition in Philadelphia, with 37 countries participating. At that time, the Qing government also sent an exhibition group. At this Expo, Britain exhibited the latest steam locomotives, the United States exhibited high-power motors and generators, Germany exhibited precision machine tools for processing guns, and China exhibited 27 sets of ear scoops and embroidered shoes made of pure silver.
This is the gap of the times!
A country in peacetime is qualified to talk about who is the first.