Cultural Oppositions Crush Great Attempts to China’s Comeback:
The Self Strengthening Movement
(Chinese For Self Strengthening Movement)
By: Haley Horowitz
November 22, 1895
The Self Strengthening Movement, beginning
in the 1860s, was established to bring western ideas while maintaining Chinese
ideals. They wanted to strengthen
the moral character of government officials using Chin Tzu and their Confucian beliefs. The size of China and amount of
officials made it impossible for China to unify. Large figureheads were dispersed through the government. Li
Hongzhang and Empress
Dowager Cixi were great influences on this movement. Because of the way Empress Dowager set
up government, there was no central power(1). Power was diffused through
government which was the main reason to the failure of the movement. Wang Tao
created more disunification. But had they used his methods, the movement may
have been successful. Wang Tao was
a reformist and radical
Li
Hongzhang reformer
who exclaimed that the
the social and technological aspects of westernization need
to come hand in hand in order for the movement to work(2). Because the Chinese wanted to maintain
their own ideals, Wang Tao’s notion failed and he was prosecuted. As an end result, the self
strengthening movement was a failure, but some advances did take place. The first telegraph company was
established(3), along with rebuilt infrastructure, built refuges, reforesting,
dispersing food, and military improvements. Most famously, he Kaiping Coal mine and railway
were established. All in all, the
self strengthening movement failed to strengthen china’s time of
struggle, and we are left with unanswered questions and unclear plans for the
future.
Empress Dowager Cixi
Sources
1. http://womenhistory.about.com/library/bio.blbio_cixi.htm
2. www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/wangtao.html
3. Hooker, Robert, www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/SELF.HTM, 27 January, 2003
Pictures
1. Li Hongzhang: http://www.lcsc.edu/modernchina/u3s1p6.htm
2. Empress Dowager Cixi: http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/
fists.html