中国通史纲要：英文 by 白寿彝

Author:白寿彝
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 外文出版社
Published: 2008-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

5. Culture and Learning After the Opium War

Academic and cultural circles after the Opium War also witnessed a period of change and struggle. Some of the enlightened officials and educated people of the landlord class—like Lin Zexu (1785-1850) and Wei Yuan (1794-1857)—developed the Ming-Qing tradition of stressing the practical application of learning. They turned their attention to real problems such as critically examining China's relations with foreign countries and exploring the use of new technologies and theories to develop production.

Lin Zexu, who so strongly opposed the British importation of opium, was farsighted on the question of China's relations with other countries. He sought out information about conditions in foreign countries as well as their views on China. While in Guangzhou, he organized people for translation of foreign newspapers and books, and sponsored the publication of the books, Four Continents and China's Affairs in the Words of Foreigners. At the height of British aggression, he took note of the question of defence of the northern border by saying, "Russia is the country that will give trouble to China!" Lin Zexu was also concerned with water conservation. In his later years, he helped agricultural development in Xinjiang by building canals and ditches and cultivating 37,000 qing (755,000 acres) of farmland there. His writings were compiled into the Works of Lin Zexu.

Wei Yuan helped Lin Zexu draft proposals on water transport of grain to the capital, irrigation and salt revenue administration. Before the Opium War, he edited Imperial Collection of Essays on Government. At the outbreak of the war, he participated in planning the resistance against the British on the Zhejiang front. Later he wrote Records of Warrior Sages, a history of the military operations of the Qing emperors, as a contrast to the military incompetency of the time. He also wrote Illustrated Records of the Maritime Nations in one hundred juan on the history and geography of foreign countreis and the policies China should adopt towards them.

Like Gong Zizhen who advocated political reform, Wei Yuan believed that "any change, whatever the extent may be, brings good order, and the more thoroughly the old ways are changed the greater the benefit to the people". He advanced the idea of "learning from the foreigner to restrain the foreigner" and criticized those in power for refusing to adopt superior Western technology and looking down at machinery as a "strange trick". In other words, he advocated China's learning the advanced technology of the Western capitalist countries and their methods of organizing and training armed forces for defence against foreign aggression.

Wei Yuan's idea of political reform was based on the view of historical evolution. He said: "There is no law which does not change over hundreds of years, and there is no law which is limitless and unchangeable." Believing that "knowing" comes from "doing", he opposed the idealistic theory of knowledge of "knowing before doing". He believed knowledge originates from direct experience and denied there was any innate, supra-experience knowledge. His principal works also included Collected Works of the Guweitang Study.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.