First, from the Opium War to the Sino-Japanese War: the landlord class learned the "artifact"
1. Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan: "Open your eyes to see the world"
Westerners have long been called to pay tribute to China. On the eve of the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty faced a crisis, and European and American powers rose and stepped up their external expansion. In the Opium War, China was defeated by a western island country, which seriously impacted the traditional concept of worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things in China. Some patriotic feudal scholar-officials opened their eyes to the world in the face of grim reality and sought ways to strengthen the country against aggression. Lin Zexu was the first person to "see the world" in modern China. Lin Zexu set up a translation library in the yamen to imitate western warships, and took the first step of "learning from foreigners". The "long skill" he advocated mainly refers to military science and technology. Wei Yuan further put forward the idea of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" in his book "The Records of the Sea Chart", and clearly put forward the specific contents and methods of learning from the West. In addition, the books introducing world knowledge at that time also included A Journey to Kang and A Biography of Ying Huan. The spread of these ideas provided valuable ideological preparation for China's early modernization, broadened people's horizons, and guided people to pay attention to the world situation, which had a certain impact on the ideological trend of modern reform and political reform.
2. Westernization School: "Middle school is the body and western learning is the use"
After the Second Opium War, foreign economic aggression intensified, and there was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement at home, so the political situation was in jeopardy. The Westernization School, seeing that the western ships are powerful, advocates that "middle school is the body and western learning is the use" and changes the status quo. Middle school refers to the traditional culture of China, especially the Confucian classics; Western learning refers to western culture, mainly modern science and technology. "Middle school as the body" is based on China's Confucian classics as the basis for determining the fate of the country; "Applying Western Learning" means adopting the modern science and technology of western capitalist countries, imitating some specific measures of western countries in education, taxation, military equipment and so on, and holding a new westernization policy to save the declining Qing Dynasty.
During the period of 65438+ 1960s and 1990s, the Westernization Movement was carried out for more than 30 years under the banner of "learning from foreigners and constantly striving for self-improvement". The Westernization Movement trained a group of translators, military and scientific talents, which opened a window in communicating modern Chinese and western cultural exchanges and learning modern western science and technology. However, "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application" is the premise of the landlord class's road choice, that is to say, they forcibly grafted the advanced western military and economic technology (that is, advanced social productive forces) to the backward social system, which violated the law of social development and was doomed to failure.
Second, from the Reform Movement of 1898 to the eve of the May Fourth Movement: the bourgeoisie learns the "system"
1. Reformists: study constitutional monarchy.
The early reform thought came into being after the 1960s of 19, accompanied by the introduction of western capitalist ideology and culture and the emergence of national capitalism. The early reformists realized that learning from the west should not be limited to the "object level", but must rise to the fields of economy, cultural thought and political system in order to save the nation and survive. However, the early reform thought did not rise to a systematic and complete theory, let alone put it into practice.
19 in the 1990s, the reform thought was further developed. The reformists, led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, combined the western capitalist political thought with the traditional Confucian thought and culture in China, and put forward a systematic theory and a clear policy agenda. They demanded constitutional monarchy and the development of capitalism in China. Through the argument with the feudal diehard forces, the social and political theory of the western bourgeoisie began to spread in China, and some intellectuals got rid of the shackles of feudal thought, forming the first ideological emancipation trend in modern China, which promoted the upsurge of the reform and political reform movement. Yan Fu, a famous thinker, used the theory of evolution as an ideological weapon to demonstrate the urgency and rationality of the reform, so as to achieve the purpose of saving the nation, striving for self-improvement and preserving species. Although the Reform Movement of 1898 only lasted 103 days and failed, it had an impact on the feudal autocratic system and traditional concepts, promoted the awakening of China people and played an enlightening role in society.
2. Revolutionaries: Learn from the Democratic Republic.
19 At the end of the 20th century, the bourgeois revolutionaries headed by Sun Yat-sen began to transform China with the idea of democratic revolution, put forward the Three People's Principles, demanded democratic republic and developed capitalism. During the period of 1905- 1907, the bourgeois revolutionaries and royalists had a heated debate. The core issue of the debate is whether to overthrow the Qing government by revolutionary violence. As a result, the thought of democratic revolution spread further, forming the second ideological emancipation trend in modern China, and promoting the arrival of the bourgeois revolution climax. Although the achievements of the Revolution of 1911 were stolen by Yuan Shikai, the concept of democratic republic has been deeply rooted in people's hearts.
3. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao: Studying "Democracy" and "Science"
After the Revolution of 1911, the great powers supported Yuan Shikai to proclaim himself emperor and stepped up their aggression against China. China's advanced elements seek a new way to change this situation. Economically, capitalism in China developed further during World War I, and the bourgeoisie strongly demanded the implementation of democratic politics in China. Ideologically, the Revolution of 1911 made the concept of democratic republic deeply rooted in people's hearts, and Yuan Shikai's pursuit of respecting Confucius and restoring ancient ways was intolerable to democratic intellectuals. However, the former bourgeois reformists and revolutionaries did not thoroughly criticize feudal Confucianism when propagating their political opinions. Therefore, the emergence of the New Culture Movement was not only the product of the comprehensive effects of economic, political, ideological and cultural factors at that time, but also the inevitable result of long-term material and ideological preparation in modern China.
19 15, Chen Duxiu founded "New Youth", holding high the two banners of "democracy" and "science", and made the fiercest attack on feudal autocracy and feudal moral thought. Chen Duxiu's "democracy" refers to the bourgeois democratic thought and politics; "Science" mainly refers to the laws and spirit of modern natural science. The bourgeoisie preaches democracy and opposes feudal autocracy