As it is obvious that China needs to make changes to its system, our country has decided to adopt some Western ideas, while still preserving our traditional values. Leaders are heading this movement (known as the Self-Strengthening Movement/Policy) in an order to advance China's standing in the world. Chinese learning would still be the center of Chinese civilization, but Western learning would have a secondary role. The goal is to establish modern institutions, develop basic industries, improve our communications and transportation system, and modernize the military(1).
We have began production of things such as arsenals, steamships,
cannons, in order to further enhance our modernization. Everything
was done according to Western models. Using their technology and
science will help us build railroads, coal mines and other industrial
means. We plan on shifting our government from a direct government
management to a government-supervised and merchant-managed method
in the near future. The first effort towards foreign power that
we must make is to gain back the empire that was taken by Russia.
Foreign powers took over our peripheral states that had acknowledged
Chinese control and paid tribute to the emperor. They gained control
over many parts of our land(2). If we adapt to their culture,
it is a possibility that they will take our country more seriously
in foreign affairs, and not just take advantage of our land.
This Self-Strengthening movement is headed by anti-Taiping generals
such as Tseng Kuo-fan, Li Hung-chang, and Tso Tsung-t'ang. They
urge "the use of the barbarians superior techniques to control
the barbarians" (3).
Which basically means that we should
use all of their good techniques to try and control them. This
movement is truly needed if we ever want to make a stand in this
world. The Western countries just keep developing and prospering
faster and faster, and we need to do something so we wont fall
too far behind. Our teachings are becoming too out-dated, this
world is changing and developing, so we need to go with it all.
On the contrary, how can we really expect to have it all? We
want all the superior Western technology plus our Confucian teachings,
and we want our country to be moving forward. "Western
means for Chinese ends" (4) is what our country is pushing
for.
Some say that since China is adopting
these Western ideas, it will be contaminated by them and they
wont have a culture of their own eventually, because "the
ends are affected by the means" (5). If we want to have all
the new technology but still preserve our basic teachings in this
period of modernization,
something radical will have to happen. Japan was able to make
Confucianism compatible with modernization, but they had to make
changes in the heart of their civilization. If this is ever going
to work in China, we are going to need to educate a new leadership
of people who will be able to run the country successfully under
our new conditions (6).
There are many advantages and disadvantages to gaining Western ideas. It is hard to tell at this point whether it will be a good thing for our country. Something needs to be done about our country's technology and education though, and this just might be the answer.
Sources
1. Leon Poon, Emergence of
Modern China:II [http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/modern2.html#movement]
January 28, 2002
2. Ibid.
3. Encyclopedia Britanica, The Self-Strengthening Movement [http://www.britanica.com/eb/article?eu=127722&tocid=71777],
January 30, 2002
4. Conrad Schirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese
Civilizations (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1989),
454.
5. Ibid., 454.
6. Ibid., 454.
Image Sources
1. Taiwan Documents Project, "Liaotung Convention" [http://www.taiwandocuments.org/liaotung.htm] January 31, 2002
2. Voices from the Past, "Tseng Kuo-fan" [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/breath/Faces_asthma/VIIA38.html] January 31, 2002
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