China was in a transitional period in modern times. From an independent country to a semi-colony (semi-independence) and a colony, it is a downward sinking process; It is an upward development process from feudal society to semi-feudal (semi-capitalism) and then to capitalism. These two processes are contradictory, interrelated and mutually restrictive. Without national independence, real social progress cannot be guaranteed, and without social progress, real national independence cannot be won. The fundamental force to prevent imperialism from dying in China and promote the social development in China lies in the indomitable and heroic struggle of the people against aggression and oppression. The two national wars against British opium aggression and British-French allied invasion, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's peasant war against the Qing Dynasty were such great people's struggles. The Westernization Movement does not belong to the people's resistance movement. Its historical position and role can never be compared with the great struggle of the people. However, on the other hand, there is a tortuous connection between the Westernization Movement and the people's struggle. The Westernization Movement can be said to be a by-product of the national war and the peasant war. Some people of insight in the feudal ruling class were awakened by the gunfire of the national war, explored the reasons for the victory or defeat of the war, took advantage of the new situation caused by the peasant war, followed the trend of historical development, and gradually moved towards capitalism, secretly or objectively accumulating material strength for China's independence and progress. Therefore, it cannot be completely eliminated by resistance movements that do not belong to the people. From Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's introduction of foreign guns, imitation warships and "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" to Feng Guifen and Li Hongzhang's "learning from foreigners", "making foreign weapons" and "learning from each other's strengths and relying on them", it is in one continuous line, which clearly shows their clear understanding of "turning foreign countries into summer" in order to resist foreign aggression under the baptism of national wars. Learning from the advanced western capitalism at that time was the fundamental way for modern China to strive for independence and progress. In the 65438+60s, there was another possible prospect of learning from western capitalism, that is, destroying the rule of the Qing Dynasty through peasant wars. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom won the national victory, it carried out the plan of "Learning from the West" designed by Hong. This prospect may be more brilliant than the Meiji Restoration in Japan. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed after all, and it may not become a reality. A bright future is just a wishful thinking of some historians. The grim historical fact is that the peasant war disrupted the feudal ruling order, overthrew a group of decadent old dignitaries and broke the "family law" of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty. However, it did not overthrow the Qing Dynasty, but only suppressed the peasant war with limited powers in its hands, creating a new situation that enabled Li Hongzhang and others to emerge. These upstarts practiced Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's idea of learning from the West on the ruins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which lasted for decades and formed ". For Li Hongzhang and others, suppressing the peasant war in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is naturally a heinous crime; However, after the suppression, they did not retrogress in an all-round way, but made progress, learning from the west for the sake of the country's prosperity and struggling against the feudal diehard forces at that time in order to learn from the west. What they did at least objectively led to the excavation of the seeds of capitalism. Therefore, the Westernization Movement showed the irreversible trend of social progress in China and reflected the great historical role of the peasant war in twists and turns. The 200-year-old feudal rule of extreme absolutism and the reactionary policy of shutting the country out seriously hindered the development of China's commodity economy, damaged the growth of capitalist factors, and made history enter modern times without the birth of the bourgeoisie. The task of learning from the west had to be undertaken by the enlightened faction of the landlord class at the initial stage. Since the Westernization Movement is a movement for the landlord class to learn from the West, it must be feudal and conservative. Later, it was summed up as the slogan of "middle school as the body, unified learning for use", which appropriately reflected the guiding ideology of the Westernization Movement. Feudalism is the foundation for the landlord class to settle down. Westernization school has no intention of destroying this foundation, but only wants to graft capitalism on this basis, and its original intention is even to strengthen this foundation. It is simply unreasonable to ask the landlord class not to maintain the feudal system and even to have anti-feudal ideas. As a landlord class, trying to graft capitalism on the basis of feudalism should also be said to be a progressive tendency and an enlightened expression. Therefore, the slogan of "learning from foreigners' skills as the body and learning from foreigners' skills for use" still has its positive significance in the initial stage of western learning. "Middle school as the body" has always been like this. No one objected or raised any objection, and there was no need to emphasize or vigorously defend it. The Westernization School exposed "middle school as the body" only to show that they have not deviated from their original ways. "Western learning serves China" is a new concept with practical significance. It is aimed at the ignorance of the feudal die-hards, who are arrogant and refuse all new foreign knowledge, thus emphasizing the necessity of learning from the West. If the problem is mentioned in a certain historical range, it is not difficult to see that the initial focus of "middle school as the body and western learning as the use" is to advocate and protect the introduction of western learning. Only later, when bourgeois reformists demanded to change feudal absolutism and implement western constitutional monarchy, this slogan was reactionary to resist reform.