Both Chen Liqiu and Li Chunzhai have overseas experience. Li Chunzhai was a member of the first European mission in China. Chen Liqiu is successful. This person is China's first ambassador to the United States, Chen Lanbin. This record has caused me great confusion. If Guo Songtao praised the West as understandable, it would be incomprehensible for Chen Lanbin to say so.
Because Chen Lanbin is a very conservative, stubborn and extremely anti-Westernized person in history. His most famous story in history is that he ruined China's earliest initiative to send overseas students to the West.
At that time, China's earliest diplomatic mission in Europe and America had an interesting composition. The imperial court specially found two people with very bad relations to be ambassadors and deputy ambassadors of these diplomatic missions. Because the court didn't trust these people, it found two enemies, one supervising the other. This also reflects Dihua's way of employing people.
Among the European missions, Zheng Zhi Guo Songtao was a man famous for praising the West, and later he was called a traitor in China. His deputy, Liu Xihong, is an extreme conservative. He snitched at home all day, exposing Guo Songtao's praise of foreigners, which was outrageous, and he reported many trivial things.
Once Guo Songtao visited a British base, and it was raining that day. The Englishman handed Guo Songtao an umbrella and he hit it. Liu Xihong immediately reported that he dared to hit foreigners' umbrellas. As a China person, he should have backbone. He can't even play in the heavy rain.
On another occasion, Guo Songtao was invited to a concert. He picked up the program in front of the table and turned it over several times. Liu Xihong also reported that listening to foreigners' music was not enough. You have to watch other people's programs, which shows how much you admire foreign things and flatter foreign countries. ...
The task of the United States is just the opposite. The Deputy Minister of the Mission to the United States is a well-known enlightened person. He is also the first graduate of Yale University in China, and it is Rong Hong who wrote The Introduction of Western Learning to the East. He graduated from Yale University in 1860. After returning to China, he encouraged westernization. Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang appreciated this man very much and sent him to the United States as an agreement and Chen Lanbin as an ambassador.
Yung Wing suggested that China send overseas students to the United States, so he had a plan to study young children in the United States. The first batch of dozens of children studied English there for several years. After graduation, I entered an American university to study my major. These people have basically been admitted, and many of them have been admitted to famous universities.
But when they just entered the professional study, Chen Lanbin reported to China that Yung was up to no good, and that it must not be done, and that a gentleman from China had gone to the west to study, so this matter should be stopped quickly. Both Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan disagreed with his encouragement, but because of the support of the emperor, the matter finally fell through.
This is a pity, because these people will not achieve much in the future except as translators. Some of them continue to study and become famous, such as the famous Zhan Tianyou. There are still some people who engage in politics, but there are basically no people who engage in technology, because they were recalled in advance.
Rong Hong described Chen Lanbin as an extremely conservative person in his memoirs, saying that when he talked about the West in court, he often "punched his sleeves" and rolled up his sleeves, looking like a westerner. A man who is very hostile to the west, but he tells a completely different story in private.
What these people say in officialdom is completely different from what they say in private. When Chen Lanbin talked about the West in court, he waved his fists and danced with his sleeves, but privately he was a person who lamented the beauty of politics and folk customs in western countries.
Liu Xihong: Western View in Personal Diary
Liu Xihong accused Guo Songtao of worshipping foreigners all day, but Liu Xihong later kept a diary and published it after his death. Looking at his diary, you will find that he is more "worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things" than Guo Songtao. Moreover, he is really a smart man and observes the west very carefully.
For example, the British official once invited Liu Xihong to visit the prison, but Liu Xihong refused. He thought, it must have been decorated in advance, and he couldn't see the real thing. But he was considerate and wrote down the prison address. One day, he went there and suddenly offered to go in and have a look. After he went, he said that the prison is very humane and good for prisoners, and they have a normal means of making a living after training them. It is really kind.
On another occasion, a British department asked him to visit a reformatory, which he said was also arranged in advance. But it was really good that he went to do a private interview anonymously. He went to a place outside London to have a look. Later, he said that there are many workhouses in Britain, except London, both in cities and in rural areas.
In Liu Xihong's view, this place is simply wonderful. The poor have no food and clothes. As long as they apply, the state can solve this problem for them. We now think this is a very low-level thing, and he thought it was already excellent. Moreover, he found that this was indeed an institutional arrangement in Britain, and he said it was really "extremely benevolent".
Liu Xihong thinks Britain is a very interesting country. This country is United from top to bottom, ruling the country by courtesy and not passing on state affairs. There are no idle officials, refugees, barriers between superiors and subordinates, and ruthless politics in this place; The place was neat and solemn, and the people rejoiced. "If you don't just want to be rich and strong, you can't wait for the Xiongnu and Uighur."
Many people in China say that westerners have no other advantages except fighting, that is, Xiongnu and Uighur are first-class. But Liu Xihong said that westerners are very kind and moral, which China didn't understand.
In the1870s, China and Japan had a good relationship at that time. The two countries know each other better. When they came to the west, they were all orientals, so they were all villagers. Therefore, they often drop in. Once, the Japanese minister came to dinner and chatted with Guo Songtao, saying that our two countries have no money and the state levies taxes. The people are disgusted and unwilling to pay taxes. In Britain, people are willing to pay taxes. Why?
Liu Xihong said that the taxation of the British people is determined by the members elected by the people in the parliament. Everyone needs this kind of public service, so of course everyone is willing. This is what we often say, "no representative, no tax". Although Liu Xihong didn't use this word, he made it very clear. He said, if we levy taxes, who wants to pay taxes? What is the tax for? Everyone knows that, of course, no one wants to pay.
Guo Songtao was surprised. Guo Songtao said in his diary that Liu Xihong still has such knowledge. Liu Xihong said this about Britain in his diary, but what did he say in court? On the contrary.
Therefore, people in China seldom praised the West in court at that time, because politically incorrect people were vulnerable to persecution. Guo Songtao, for example, was reported and dismissed for "lamenting the beauty of politics and folk customs in western countries every time". Some people say that he is a traitor and should be punished. Later Zeng Guofan and others saved him.
However, these people who reported Guo Songtao know better than him, such as Liu Xihong.
Zhang Shusheng: Tell your heart when you die.
At that time, there was another kind of people who kept silent on these sensitive issues without tattling. Zhang Shusheng, Li Hongzhang's deputy, is like this. He has no place in the history of thought, because he is not a thinker and has no works, but he is an old hand in officialdom and has done many officials, basically a big official near a trading port. He also organized people to study Westernization and recruited some people like Xue Fucheng as his staff. So although he has never been abroad, he actually knows the west.
Zhang Shusheng said something very conservative. He once wrote to the emperor: "On the theory that China's cultural relics are above all nations, we should not imitate Westerners one by one except for training, shipbuilding and thrift." . In other words, the west has nothing to boast about, that is, it can fight, so we may have to learn something about the military, and we don't need to learn anything else.
But by 1884, he was seriously ill, and he dictated a letter to the emperor. This relic was sent to Beijing by horse, and he was already dead when he was sent to Beijing. We usually say that people are kind when they die, and birds are sad when they die. When he died, he spoke his mind without thinking about being an official. He said that we should learn from foreigners now, and mainly not from the military, but from physical training rather than application.
Zhang Zhidong is a generation behind him. We think that Zhang Zhidong is a more open-minded person, but Zhang Zhidong advocates that "middle school is the body and western learning is the use". In fact, before Zhang Zhidong, many people said that "middle school is the body and western learning is the use", but these people did not pretend to be enlightened, such as Zhang Shusheng.
However, Zhang Shusheng said on his deathbed: "It is also practical for western talents to be trained in schools and demonstrated in houses, and for the people to unite as one." . Its education, its political system, this is the most important. As for ships, guns, railways and electric wires, "China kept him and asked for his use. No matter how hard it is, it is often not worthy, so that iron boats can do it, and railways can reach four. What is enough?
He took it as a trivial matter to build a strong ship and several cannons. He said these things are useless without a body. Second, these usages have been learned, but they don't actually work. Therefore, he demanded that "the body of westerners should be adopted and used by them".
At that time, many people advocated this, and Guo Songtao also said so. But these words are biased by Confucianism, because they don't really respect businessmen, so they think that what the West really deserves to learn is not that westerners run companies, but that the world is public and actually about the political system.
Because propaganda in front of Cixi may be beheaded, we should talk about building strong ships and using strong guns. But people in China think it's good to build strong guns for ships? Of course not.
So, what are the values of Liu Xihong and Chen Lanbin? Is it based on their private words or officialdom words? What's the difference between their values and western values if what they say in private is the standard? Are they telling the truth in officialdom? I think it's bullshit.