Meiji Restoration is the starting point of Japan's modernization. Meiji government vigorously promoted the new capitalist policy, which greatly promoted the development of society. At the same time, China was also carrying out the vigorous Reform Movement of 1898, but it failed. Why does history have two different results?
From the internal conditions and social background, first of all, the conditions of Japanese modernization are better than those of China. Due to the development of social productive forces and commodity economy, the feudal society of both countries gave birth to the seeds of capitalism. However, in the middle of19th century, neither of these two countries had sufficient socio-economic preconditions for bourgeois revolution. Only because of the colonial aggression of western countries, Japan and China were forced to put the task of "adopting bourgeois mode of production" on the historical agenda. As the overall level of Japanese economic development is slightly higher than that of China, its modernization conditions are superior to those of China. Second, although the Tokugawa era in Japan and the Qing Dynasty faced a serious crisis, the situation was different. Before the Meiji Restoration, the Tokugawa era in Japan had become the target of public criticism. Its crisis is mainly reflected in the following aspects: first, Japan has experienced fierce and lasting peasant uprisings and civil riots, which have strongly impacted the rule of the shogunate and the decadent feudal system. Second, the struggle and division within the ruling class are becoming increasingly fierce. The old ruling class, the samurai class, not only has sharp and complicated contradictions in its upper level, but also the increasingly poor lower-level samurai's dissatisfaction with the upper level has developed to the serious degree of "hating their masters as enemies", and some samurai have even transformed into the bourgeoisie, leaving the shogunate in an extremely isolated situation. In addition, Fan Qiang's centrifugal tendency is also growing. 1864 and 1865, the shogunate sent troops to conquer Changzhou vassal twice, indicating that the contradiction between shogunate and strong vassal has also become public. However, Japan's feudal system, because of its rigid land ownership and closed social structure, not only failed to adjust these contradictions, but collapsed itself. However, this did not happen during the Reform Movement of 1898 in China. Since 1864, it has been cheated and used. Within the ruling class, Manchu aristocrats, who held the power of the Qing government, surrendered and compromised to foreign aggression forces and colluded to stifle the people's revolution in China. Concessions were made to the Han landlords at home, and the feudal regime of the Qing Dynasty was temporarily maintained by relying on the warlord bureaucrats headed by Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang to suppress the peasant uprising and handle national defense diplomacy. Although there are disputes among westernization, die-hards, imperial party and post-party within the ruling class, the conservative forces are still very strong on the whole.
From the perspective of power comparison, whether modern social changes can be realized under the immature conditions of capitalism and bourgeoisie depends largely on whether an innovative force can be separated from the old ruling class camp and how powerful it is. During the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the influence of the shogunate was very fragile and was in an extremely isolated situation. The reform forces took the middle and lower class samurai as the core, promoted the emperor as the banner, and United the strong vassals against the shogunate, with both bases and troops. Farmers and citizens also actively participated in and supported the anti-curtain armed forces, thus forming a powerful reform camp and overthrowing the old shogunate regime in one fell swoop. China is not like this. The "four in one" formed by landlords, businessmen, usurers and bureaucrats is closely related to the existing economic and political system, and Confucianism, the core of traditional culture, is their common ideological norm. Moreover, this reactionary force is supported by powerful foreign aggression. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish the opposing innovative forces in this ruling camp with special cohesion. For example, China's reform forces are centered on bourgeois intellectuals, relying on emperors who have no real power and uniting with a few bureaucrats. No base, no military power, no financial power. "Compared with the Conservative Party, the ratio of 1 0,000 to 1 is extremely small." Therefore, as soon as the conservative forces fought back, the reformist forces collapsed instantly.
From the implementation of policies and measures. After the overthrow of the Tokugawa era in Japan, the Meiji government issued an order and adopted a series of reform measures, such as returning old books, abolishing vassal counties, reforming feudal status, abolishing feudal salaries, reforming local taxes, reforming education, developing industries, amending unequal treaties, and finally formulating a constitution and convening a parliament, making Japan a capitalist country with constitutional monarchy. In China's "Reform Movement of 1898", although Emperor Guangxu also issued a series of letters on politics, economy, military affairs, culture and other aspects, it could not be implemented because the bourgeois reformists did not have political power and the conservative forces were powerful.
After Meiji Restoration, Japan's economy grew rapidly. In order to gain greater benefits, the Japanese government began to launch a war of aggression against foreign countries, and participated in the first and second world wars, both of which ended in failure. The second world war dealt a devastating blow to Japan, but Japan rose at an alarming rate after the war. I think it mainly includes the following main reasons:
1. Thanks to the emphasis on education and the cultivation of talents, former Japanese minister Araki Wanfo once pointed out: "From Meiji to today, China's social and economic development, especially the post-war economic development, is amazing and valued by the world, which can be attributed to the popularization and development of education." Schultz, a famous American development economist, said: "After the war, Japan's material capital stock almost disappeared, but an important part of its national wealth-people with knowledge level still exist in large numbers." The history of attaching importance to education in Japan can be traced back to the Meiji Restoration. Japan is the first country in the world to popularize compulsory education, four years earlier than the United States and 10 years earlier than France. As former Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo said in his policy address: "Citizens are the wealth of a country, and education is the foundation of national politics." This should be the root of the miracle of Japan's rise.
2. Benefit from the pursuit of perfection and excellence. The real interest of the Japanese nation is the pursuit of perfection and perfect professionalism. No matter what you do, you should strive for the best, focus on nothing and strive for perfection. Behind this spirit is an extremely humble learning attitude and an open mind that always absorbs the strengths of others. Akio Morita said: "The secret of Japanese enterprises' rapid progress in a short period of time lies in the fact that business operators always think that Japan lags behind others in all fields, thus creating a sense of urgency. They are willing to pretend to be European and American students, insist on paying tuition fees, learn business practices and attract new technologies. "In Japan, people always pursue the improvement of efficiency and productivity, even for a simple tool like a screwdriver. From design to processing, it has been carefully thought out and studied.
Conclusion: The rise of great powers depends on science and technology, and the contest between countries is, in the final analysis, the contest between national quality and talents. To put it bluntly, the overall national quality of China is not the same as that of developed countries, because it is difficult to accept other people's educational ideas. A country in peacetime is qualified to talk about who is the first, so what we have to do is to improve the quality of our people.