Self Strengthening Movement Essay
China’s Self-Strengthening Movement (1860 - 1894) is often regarded as a failure. To what extent do you agree with this assessment?
‘Why are the Western nations small and yet strong? What are we large and yet weak? We must search for the means to become their equal ... At first they may take the foreigners as their teachers and models; then they may come to the same level and be their equals; finally they may move ahead and surpass them. Herein lies the way to self-strengthening.’1
Following Feng Guifen’s [the innovator the movement] view on Self Strengthening, why then did the the movement fail? The period of 1860 through to 1864, between the end of the Third War with the West and the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, were critical years in China which dictated the result of the country. At the conclusion of the Taiping Rebellion, along with the peace agreements with Britain and France, China entered a period of ‘relative stability’2 and restoration. The exposure to China’s weakness through the Opium Wars, the unequal treaties and the mid-19th century rebellions forced the Qing government to acknowledge the need to strengthen their country. The aim of the Self-Strengthening movement was to build a strong defense against modern powers while still preserving the customary Chinese ways. However official’s ignorance of the requirements for industrial modernization proved an obstacle of Self-Strengtheners. This was due to their belief in maintaining Chinese traditional ways, Confucianism philosophy and also their great concern to protect China’s sovereignty against Western imperialism. Leading officials tired to adapt Western devices and institutions modeling the movement on the attractive though misleading doctrine of ‘Chinese learning as the fundamental structure, Western learning for practical use’3. However the generation of 1860 to 1900 clung to the ‘shibboleth that China could leap halfway into modern times, like leaping halfway across a river
‘Why are the Western nations small and yet strong? What are we large and yet weak? We must search for the means to become their equal ... At first they may take the foreigners as their teachers and models; then they may come to the same level and be their equals; finally they may move ahead and surpass them. Herein lies the way to self-strengthening.’1
Following Feng Guifen’s [the innovator the movement] view on Self Strengthening, why then did the the movement fail? The period of 1860 through to 1864, between the end of the Third War with the West and the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, were critical years in China which dictated the result of the country. At the conclusion of the Taiping Rebellion, along with the peace agreements with Britain and France, China entered a period of ‘relative stability’2 and restoration. The exposure to China’s weakness through the Opium Wars, the unequal treaties and the mid-19th century rebellions forced the Qing government to acknowledge the need to strengthen their country. The aim of the Self-Strengthening movement was to build a strong defense against modern powers while still preserving the customary Chinese ways. However official’s ignorance of the requirements for industrial modernization proved an obstacle of Self-Strengtheners. This was due to their belief in maintaining Chinese traditional ways, Confucianism philosophy and also their great concern to protect China’s sovereignty against Western imperialism. Leading officials tired to adapt Western devices and institutions modeling the movement on the attractive though misleading doctrine of ‘Chinese learning as the fundamental structure, Western learning for practical use’3. However the generation of 1860 to 1900 clung to the ‘shibboleth that China could leap halfway into modern times, like leaping halfway across a river
Bibliography: A.J. Koutsoukis, From Manchu to Mao: A History of Modern China, 1993 A.Morales, East Meets West [4th Edition] 1815 - 1919, Macmillan 1997 J.K Fairbank, China: A New History, Harvard University, 1992 Tom Ryan, China Rising, 2009, HTAV