Delayed Modernization —— Power and Space of Reform in Late Qing Dynasty

Ray

1840 the opium war made the ancient Chinese civilization meet the challenge of a foreign civilization that was superior to itself for the first time. This war forced China to begin to stumble along the road of modernization with deep humiliation. The reason why China's modernization road is so difficult and tortuous is not only because it is foreign, forced and late-developing, but also because the Qing Dynasty, the ruler of China at that time, didn't know the significance of this challenge as the beginning of modernization for a long time, so he was at a loss, passive step by step, delayed again and again, and finally lost the opportunity of active change and "modernization". This active self-loss not only led to the final collapse of the Qing Dynasty, but more importantly, the "modernization" of the Chinese nation was greatly delayed and suffered heavy losses.

Foreigners' knees and ladies' toilets

In fact, after the Opium War, when the treaty of nanking was signed and China was forced to open the "five-port trade" between Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai, the Qing government still had considerable room for reform. However, the Qing government knew nothing about the significance of the new challenges it faced, and still held the arrogant concept of "heaven is above the country", which delayed the initial opportunity of reform from the beginning. Lin Zexu was undoubtedly one of the few enlightened officials in Qing Dynasty, and his knowledge of the outside world was the representative of "advanced China people" at that time. From some details, we can see people's understanding of the outside world at that time. There have been various opinions about this since the British envoys met the emperor and refused to bow down during the Qianlong period. As soon as the British envoy saw Emperor China, he was awed by "Tianwei" and could not help kneeling down. Another way of saying this is that foreigners' knees are different from those of China people, and they can't bend at all, so they don't kneel down. When the Opium War broke out, some people thought of this second statement and believed it. So it was suggested that although the "red-haired fan" is good at naval warfare, it is not good at ground warfare because its knees cannot be bent. Therefore, China's army only needs to prepare more long bamboo poles. When the two armies meet, it is difficult for them to get together, and China's army can easily win. This statement also has a considerable impact on Lin Zexu. Of course, he doesn't believe that English people are born with bent knees, but because of bandages on their legs. On the eve of the war, he thought that "except guns, foreign soldiers were not allowed to attack and stab, but their legs and feet were wrapped tightly, which made it inconvenient to bend and stretch." If nothing can be done on shore, it is inevitable. " Lin Zexu's understanding is still so, and others can imagine. For example, Yang Fang, a famous soldier at that time, went to Guangzhou to prevent and suppress the British army in 184 1 year, served as Counsellor, and attached General Yishan to Jing. After arriving in Guangzhou, he thought that the British ships were almost accurate in drifting on the water, and the hit rate was much higher than that of the Qing army's fixed fortress on land. There must be some kind of witchcraft. He thinks that the filth used by women can best "attack evil with evil", so he comes up with a clever plan to collect toilets used by many women and put them on bamboo rafts to get out of the castle. As a result, of course, it failed to "break evil" and the fortress was broken by the British army. At that time, someone wrote a poem saying that "the dung bucket also talked about clever tricks, which spread all over Guangdong." "Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle." This is common sense of military strategists, and both sides of the war try their best to understand each other's situation. But in modern China, this kind of "common sense" did not apply, or was not allowed to be used. Being in the front line of fighting against foreigners, Lin Zexu should of course try to understand the feelings of foreigners as much as possible, and hire a special translator to translate and introduce the relevant situation for him, and compile the Annals of Sizhou, which gives a preliminary introduction to the geography, history and politics of more than 30 countries on five continents. This is also the first book in modern China that systematically introduces the outside world. From 1842 to 1843, Wei Yuan, a good friend of Lin Zexu, was entrusted by Lin to compile the Atlas of the Sea based on the Records of the Four Continents, and made a detailed introduction to the Book of Changes. But Wei Yuan still insists on the traditional view in this book. In the face of modern geography, he spent a lot of time "researching" and concluded that "Aurora has been regarded as China since ancient times, which means that its weather is moderate, not its terrain is in the middle." In other words, although China is not in the "center" geographically, it is still the center of the world in terms of civilization, education, laws and regulations. However, he realized that "Diyi" is good in the physical level of "Qi", which China can learn from. Therefore, he specifically introduced his advanced technology of manufacturing naval guns and training soldiers, and clearly proposed to "learn from foreigners to control foreigners." The Opium War gave Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and others a preliminary and objective understanding of the outside world. However, The Records of the Four Seas, compiled by Wei Yuan and Lin Zexu only to understand the enemy's situation, is regarded as a big violation of the Tao, and it is considered that "knowing foreign countries" and "learning foreign countries" are crimes in themselves. How do they learn about those "barbarian countries" through "opening the world"? They even had to clear their names for "knowing foreigners" and "understanding foreigners" in order to "control foreigners". It is precisely because of this courage that Lin Zexu was praised by later generations as "the first person who opened his eyes to see the world" in modern times. Even if they just "know foreigners", their policy of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" will inevitably be more severely condemned. Escaping from reality can only make reality more harsh. Therefore, China's "ocean map" has very limited influence on China for a long time. However, it had a great influence after it spread to Japan, and it was reprinted more than 20 times in just a few years. It is through this book that the Japanese ruling and opposition parties have a better understanding of the world trend. It can be said that this book played a very important role in the Meiji Restoration in Japan. A book aimed at enlightening China's reform was neglected in its own country, but it was very popular in foreign countries, which inspired foreign reforms and, in turn, invaded China. This is the irony of history and the tragedy of China. In the following years, the simple phrase "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" always caused heated debates, but both sides had no objection to the purpose of "controlling foreigners". Therefore, no matter how fierce they attack each other, even until they die, no matter whether they stick to "summer defense" or advocate "complete barbarians", their purpose is to "save the country", so they can all be attributed to nationalism or patriotism in a broad sense in essence. But unfortunately, people often regard only those who strictly abide by the "distinction between Chinese and foreigners" and oppose "learning from foreigners" as nationalism or patriotism. For "learning from foreigners to control foreigners", the purpose of "controlling foreigners" is erased, and then it is labeled as "changing foreigners", "worshiping foreign countries", "traitorous countries" and "colonizing", which makes it in an absolutely negative and inferior position in morality/politics, so it can only be parried at most (except in the May 4th period), and then it can make righteous remarks by virtue of its superior position in morality/politics. In this way, in the evolution of modern ideas, the so-called "nationalism" often has a certain degree of closure and exclusiveness, and should actually be called "narrow nationalism." Modern history shows that this kind of "nationalism" has greatly hindered the real prosperity of China, and actually caused great harm to the country. We should have a clear understanding of this and remain quite vigilant. China's modest achievements in modern times, but it was precisely in many different periods and to varying degrees that she advocated "learning from foreigners" ("seeking truth from the west"? "Post-colonial era"? ) the result of the efforts of people of insight at the expense of slander. Perhaps this is the so-called "historical dialectics".

Unexpected decentralization

After the Opium War, China began to open its own door in humiliation, and had to open the "five ports" of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai to "trade" with foreigners. However, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty are still unwilling to face up to the reality and admit the existence of a foreign civilization at least "one level" with themselves. However, after the door is opened, it can't be closed, and it is increasingly impossible to deal with foreign countries. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty refused to recognize or deal with barbarians. In their concept, there is still only "managing princes" and no "diplomacy". It can be said that it didn't know the beginning of this "change that hasn't happened in 3,000 years", but in reality it had to deal with the outside world, so it set up a "Minister of Trade with Five Ports" and wanted to limit its relationship with "First" to trade, not political and diplomatic relations. Moreover, ministers who handle "five-port trade" have always been listed as part-time imperial envoys, that is, they are neither specialized nor specialized. By the early1960s, after the Second Opium War, the forms of Sino-foreign negotiations were more diverse, and foreign invaders were increasingly dissatisfied with the foreign negotiations handled by five trade ministers who were also local officials. Under various pressures, the Qing government set up the Foreign Affairs Office of the Prime Minister, which was an expedient measure. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty naively thought that "once military affairs are abolished and foreign affairs are simplified, they will be abolished and returned to the military department to implement the old system." However, with the development of the times, the "Prime Minister's Office" has not been abolished, but its authority is getting bigger and bigger. Not only the "negotiation" in a purely diplomatic sense belongs to its Prime Minister, but also all the "trade, customs duties, missionary work, recruitment of Chinese workers, border defense, navy, shipping, acquisition of ordnance, establishment of machinery manufacturing enterprises, posts and telecommunications, railways, mining, training, new schools, etc." belong to its Prime Minister. However, an institution with such great authority has never lost its ". "Most of the Wang sent by him was part-time and failed to do his duty faithfully", and he also failed to put forward an overall contingency plan. It was not until July 190 1 that the Qing government, under the pressure of the great powers, ordered the Prime Minister's yamen to be changed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In other words, more than 60 years after the First Opium War, the Qing government had to abandon the old system of "China rule" and set up a formal specialized agency. Because of the long-term reluctance to give up the old system and formally recognize the existence of "diplomacy", the Qing government had to "diplomacy" with aggressive powers, so the foreign negotiations of the Qing government were often left and right, inconsistent and endless. For example, the Qing government set up the Prime Minister's yamen in order to stop foreign powers' requests for permanent envoys in Beijing. At the same time, it set up the posts of "Minister of Nanyang" and "Minister of Beiyang" in Nanjing and Tianjin respectively, hoping to use this as a "breakthrough" to handle foreign affairs nearby, so that foreign powers felt it unnecessary to be permanent ambassadors in Beijing. In the administrative system, Minister Nanyang "is in charge of the general affairs of foreign affairs and domestic negotiations, Shanghai's entry into the Yangtze River, and the three provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang are also in charge." Minister Beiyang is in charge of Beiyang Westernization and coastal defense. Every customs in Tianjin, Shanghai, Donghai and Shanhai knows how to treat it. However, the ministers of South and Beiyang had nothing to do with the government of the Prime Minister. The yamen of the Prime Minister only plays the role of consultant, communicator and observer. The two ministers deal with small matters independently when negotiating with foreign countries, and major issues do not go through the Prime Minister's yamen. In this way, there are actually many diplomatic channels, which are difficult to coordinate with each other. However, to the surprise of the Qing rulers, these measures made the ministers in the north and south become local officials with temporary power. When the Qing court first set up these two "ministers", they were all Manchu nobles, trying to directly control foreign negotiations and prevent the local officials of the Han people from growing. However, contrary to expectations, the evolution of the ministers of South Beiyang made the newly rising Han officials gain momentum and greater power. The power of the governors of Liangjiang and Zhili, who also held these two posts, was much higher than that of other governors, and they actually became the first governors. Such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai. Those who have held these two positions successively have been in power for a period of time and played an important role in the country's diplomacy, military affairs, finance and economics, and government affairs. Finally, Beiyang became an independent political interest group. The reason why the local officials of the Han nationality can gain such great power is mainly because of the peasant war in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It was in the battle to suppress the Kingdom of Tian Ping that Han officials who had been oppressed for a long time gained considerable power and rose rapidly. For the Qing regime, this change of power structure is of great significance, which makes the leading force of change begin to move down. The Qing dynasty was ruled by foreigners, and it always carried out a high-pressure prevention policy against the Han people. Although many senior officials were appointed by a Manchu, the real power was in the hands of Manchu nobles. There are also some very important positions, such as Home Secretary, Zong Zheng of Zongrenfu, Shangshu of Li Fanyuan and so on. , can only be served by Manchu nobles, governors and governors in various places are mostly served by Manchu. Military ministers, especially the chief military minister, are mostly Manchu nobles, and the military power is even more "non-fake Han Chinese", with only a few exceptions, such as Nian Gengyao's Western Expedition, but the outcome after the victory is rather miserable. After the Taiping Rebellion broke out, the Qing court still followed the traditional practice and led troops to encircle the Manchu nobles. However, the Taiping Army was on a roll all the way. Manchu aristocrats who led the army to the war either fled or died tragically. No one can stop the Taiping Army's attack. At this time, some landlords and gentry of the Han nationality automatically set up group training to help the Qing army suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In this critical situation, the Qing court had to order local group training to be widely organized in various places to jointly suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with the Qing government. Xiang Army, Huai Army and a group of Han officials or local gentry, represented by Zeng Guofan, Zuo and Li Hongzhang, have made great achievements in suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and mastered considerable real power. In other words, the fighting capacity of the official national army is not as good as that of the civilian armed forces, and the embryonic form of "soldiers will block" has begun to appear. Before 1860, most governors were Manchu. Although Zeng Guofan, commander-in-chief of Xiang Army, fought side by side with Taiping Army for 67 years, it was not until August this year that the Qing court was awarded the title of official unified army, and was named Governor of Liangjiang and Imperial Commissioner. In the future, more and more Han Chinese became princes, while Manchu gradually became only one tenth of them. Especially in Xiang Huai Army, there are more governors. Zeng, Zuo and Li were in power for a period of time, and Li Hongzhang served as the governor of Zhili for a long time and became the head of the governor. In Manchu-Chinese relations, a considerable part of power was transferred to Han officials; In the relationship between the central and local governments, the local power is getting bigger and bigger, and the original highly centralized power model has begun to change. These new bureaucrats of the Han landlord class, who started from suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, have a deeper understanding of China and the general trend of the world, especially their personal experience in suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, making them realize the power and importance of foreign guns, trains and ships. At this time, they had the right to be rich and have the right, and it was under their initiation and auspices that China's first modernization movement, the Westernization Movement, began. However, it has been more than twenty years since Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan put forward the idea of "learning from foreigners". In such a sinister environment as modern China, twenty years is very precious.

Foreign languages, guns, guns, foreign countries ...

The Westernization Movement was full of resistance from the beginning and was extremely unsuccessful. The peasant uprising in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom almost destroyed the Qing government, but at such a critical juncture of life and death, they hesitated about "saving lives" such as copying foreign guns, guns and ships. The "Westernization Movement", which is regarded as "moderate" today, was accused of "preventing the collapse of foreign countries and promoting chaos" (as serious as the accusation of "total westernization" today), and once encountered unimaginable and incomprehensible opposition. Using modern large-scale machine production to manufacture guns, ships, telephones and telegrams is obviously an indispensable measure for rulers to survive in modern times, but it has met with strong opposition from diehards in the ruling class with the legitimacy of traditional ideology such as "making Hong Kong prosperous in the summer". However, in the face of successive internal and external troubles, the rulers still have to "westernize" in order to survive, which opens a rare gap for learning from the West. First of all, from the introduction and imitation of military sharp weapons to the level and stage of comprehensive research on science and technology needed by western machinery industry. However, the "Westernization Movement" encountered great resistance every step forward, resulting in an unimaginable heated debate today. It is natural to learn foreign languages, sound, light, electricity and other natural science knowledge to run westernization. China's tradition is that "the metaphysical is the Tao and the metaphysical is the implement". Only by studying the classics of sages, collecting chapters and sentences, and taking the imperial examination to gain fame and fortune, is the "right way", and "skill" has always been regarded as "carving small skills" or even "strange skills and cunning" In other words, in the pedigree of traditional knowledge in China, only Confucian classics have a very low status, while natural science knowledge is hardly regarded as a kind of "legal" knowledge. However, in the face of reality, the Westernization School had to "bow its head", put forward learning foreign languages and various natural science knowledge, and established a "literary library" for learning foreign languages and natural science knowledge. In 1866, they went one step further. Last week, they proposed to recruit people from the "right path" to study sound, light, electricity, chemistry and astronomy in order to improve the status of natural science knowledge. This idea has aroused great dissatisfaction and strong opposition from the die-hards. They put forward that only by "reading the books of Confucius and Mencius and learning the way of Yao and Shun" can we "know the body and use it". "Why do you want to make it skilled and specialize in shipbuilding and gun making?" "the way to build a country lies in respecting ceremony rather than tactics, and the fundamental picture lies in people's hearts rather than skills." People think that learning natural science knowledge means "becoming a foreigner, keeping righteousness" ... After several years, the people of China will never stop suffering. "They think that" technology "will disturb" people's hearts ",so they are worried that innovation and self-improvement will inevitably lead to the technicalization of" official team ". "Hold the handle of choose and employ persons, shed Germany and professionals. Why can they be traitors from ancient chaos? " It has been repeatedly emphasized that officials should be ideological experts with "honest people's wisdom" as their major, rather than technical officials who are single-minded and pragmatic, that is, they should focus on the so-called "equipment" and "purpose". In order to oppose this idea, the die-hards even blamed it on the long drought and lack of rain, saying that it was "a warning from heaven" and that the move was "unreasonable, unpopular and unpopular." The majority of literati were also very disgusted with the Westernization School's move, and many couplets appeared at one time: "There were many tricks, which made the small court have a tongwen museum; The military plane has no foresight and lures the children of good families to worship different classes as teachers. " "Not in the same breath, Sven will lose." "Confucius disciple, Mr. Guigu." There are also many slang words among the people, such as "nonsense, nonsense!" Everyone is taught by Catholicism. "Under this pressure, the enrollment of Wentong Museum has been severely hit, the number of students has dropped sharply, and there are basically no' right path' people. The plan of Westernization School to improve natural science knowledge has been seriously frustrated. For modern countries, railway construction is very important for economic development and national defense. The Westernization School saw this in the early 1970s of 19, but there were many opponents who thought that building roads would destroy geomantic omen and violate Long Mai ... Therefore, railway construction was not "legal" for a long time. It's just that some westernization officials built some railways sporadically within their sphere of influence, and some of them were stripped before they were built! It was not until 1889 that the Qing court issued a decree that the road construction dispute came to an end. The obvious benefits of building railways have been debated for nearly twenty years, not to mention others. All kinds of "Westernization", such as shipbuilding, laying electric wires and cutting coal, have caused heated debates and met with strong opposition and great resistance. In these debates, science and technology are described by die-hards as "strange skills and cunning" that undermine Confucian ethics, and Confucianism is the foundation of the country, so the introduction of science and technology naturally destroys the foundation of the country. They believe that learning sound, light, electricity and other things related to "foreign countries" is "taking foreign countries as teachers", resulting in "preventing foreign countries from collapsing in summer and promoting chaos", which eventually leads to "changing foreign countries into summer". In the struggle against the Westernization School, the die-hards ignored or appealed to public opinion many times, cleverly exploiting their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses and attacking their weaknesses. First of all, they try not to entangle with the westernization theory on the level of "use", which is obviously unfavorable to them, but attack in the abstract metaphysical field of "Tao", which transcends practice. All purely technical and strategic issues, such as building roads, laying lines, building ships and making guns, whether coastal defense is important or blocking defense, are highly politicized, moralized and ideological, then rise to the height of "Tao" and then be opposed. Because we can escape the practical test of utility on the level of Tao, we can use the traditional theory of "the integration of Tao and apparatus" with strict logic to aggressively refute the seemingly fragmented theory of "the separation of body and utility" of the Westernization School. Taking out the specific content, this kind of criticism can also show an eloquent moral justice and rationality. For example, in the abstract sense, who can say that "the way to build a country should be based on propriety and righteousness" is wrong? The "prosperity" advocated by the Westernization School is caricatured as "abandoning righteousness for profit", which is naturally immoral. Secondly, they firmly grasped the shortcomings and mistakes of political failure (many of which were not the fault of Westernization) and "Westernization" at that time, and made a big fuss to impress people. Emphasize that "the most important thing at this time is not astronomy, but personnel; Not smart in math, but smart in political accomplishment. The book lists examples such as the decline of people's livelihood and the injustice of officials, and also links the westernized "loss of current politics" with natural disasters. They took great pains to confuse the disadvantages caused by the old system they tried to maintain with the disadvantages and mistakes of westernization, in order to oppose any change and completely revive the old system. Third, they equate "foreigners' skills" with foreign powers' invasion of China, and "foreigners have enemies with China and the enemy". Therefore, learning western learning means "learning from the west and making great efforts", not just "forgetting one's ancestors" but "recognizing thieves as fathers". In modern China, which was repeatedly invaded by foreign powers, such accusations can arouse people's feelings and public opinion, making it difficult to implement measures that are really conducive to prosperity. Because die-hards always moralize this technical issue, they become the dominant "defenders" of traditional discourse, while enlightened people are at the disadvantage of "immorality". Therefore, the enlightened people in the rulers can only passively avoid or avoid this ideological debate (as a part of the rulers, the enlightened people can only avoid but cannot throw away or "rebuild" this ideology). However, in the face of the aggressive ideological offensive of the die-hards, the Westernization School, which wants to be "pragmatic" but hates "retreating", has to face the challenge of the die-hards and cannot avoid the basic theoretical problems that must be solved. At the beginning of the Westernization Movement, Feng Guifen's famous assertion that "China's ethics is the original, and the country's prosperity is supplemented" became the blueprint for the Westernization School to deal with Chinese and Western cultural issues in the future. On this basis, Westernization officials represented by Zeng, Zuo, Li and Zhang Zhidong and Westernization intellectuals represented by Feng Guifen, Xue Fucheng, Wang Tao and Zheng spared no effort to learn from the West. They put forward the theory of "flexibility and self-improvement" that "poverty leads to change, and change leads to communication" and "not sticking to the laws of ancestors"; Put forward new economic theories and educational theories such as "opening up sources to get rich" and "running schools to educate people", and finally crystallize into a highly generalized theoretical model of "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the use". This model is like a double-edged sword, but it is obviously defensive, either to resist the attack of the die-hards or to counter the challenge of the reformists. But for a long time at the beginning, its main purpose was to challenge the die-hards, defend the spread of western learning to the east, and find legal basis. Its function and significance cannot be underestimated. The Westernization Movement in the past 30 years has been developing slowly in the face of great resistance from within the class. In the complicated modern China, the controllable space for the Qing government to exercise "Westernization" slowed down again. For the purpose of "striving for strength", the "Westernization" without system reform will inevitably turn to the stage of "seeking wealth" when it develops to a certain stage. People realize that the prosperity of western countries lies in "national wealth", and the real foundation of "national wealth" lies in "people's wealth". The prosperity of trading ports and the introduction of large-scale machine production have created a group of new businessmen. However, the country's political and economic system is still a traditional system, which seriously discriminates, hinders and suppresses the development of private industry and commerce. In this way, social, economic and political changes are in full swing, and the requirements of supporting and developing industry and commerce are naturally put on the historical agenda.

"Ancestral Method" and "Western Method"

After the political system reform was put forward as a historical requirement, it was not the central courtiers or local officials who really promoted political change in action, but the lowest class in the "ruling class", that is, the "scholars" with poor fame and fame, and the driving force for change moved down again. The fiasco of China's army in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 provided them with an opportunity to step onto the historical stage and launched a very tragic Reform Movement of 1898. The basic view of the reformists is that "civil rights" is a strong foundation. The mistake of the Westernization School is that Qiang Bing can only be rich and strong by building strong ships and machines, but it fails to realize that the secret of "learning from the West and politics from the West" is to "expand civil rights". Of course, they think that the best concrete form of "expanding civil rights" in China can only be "constitutional monarchy", not "democracy * * * and". At that time, the "scholar" marked by "writing on the bus" was the lower class of the ruling class, but it was still a class within the system and did not want to be "revolutionary". In the book "On the Bus", Kang Youwei put forward an important viewpoint of "National Political Law". Two years later, in the Five Books of Emperor Shangqing, he clearly proposed to formulate a constitution, "taking the laws of various countries and dividing the constitution into public and private." In the Examination of Japan's Political Reform for Emperor Guangxu's reference, he wrote: "When Japan changed its national system, the whole body of the reform always took the order of Tianjin affairs, the scope of Tianjin people's aspirations, the outline of the struggle, and made the world follow suit, so it was a political achievement." He believes that "political change is the formulation of laws and constitutions" is indeed the key to the problem. However, during the "Reform Movement of 1898", they were well aware of the huge opposition. In terms of political reform, "reform" actually does "administrative" measures such as eliminating redundant staff, abolishing institutions, and setting up institutional bureaus, without promulgating decrees on establishing a constitution or opening a parliament. In other words, they want to start with administrative reform and gradually carry out political system reform. However, this little reform will inevitably infringe on the vested interests of some people, and among them, it is the reduction of institutions and officials that shocked the "hundred officials". This is only one of the more important items in the 100-day New Deal. Emperor Guangxu announced in an imperial edict: "The state has official positions and performs its duties. Officials outside Beijing, big or small, follow the old system, which is not without redundancy. Recently, ministers have made a lot of speeches, mostly layoffs. " "Now it's time to start Baidu. There are many things to do, and spending money is also common. How can just providing useless extra expenses hinder urgent use? " Some yamen are "extremely simple in business, half in name only, and will be abolished soon ..." However, the abolition work encountered great resistance from officials, so it was not smooth, and they had to order again, demanding that "the yamen in Beijing are short of redundant staff, which should be cut and which should be merged, and discussed as soon as possible." Other provinces should also "seriously cut and merge, strictly screen sand, and all redundant staff in their bureaus will be abolished." However, the reform failed before the specific reduction measures were implemented. One of the important factors is that a large number of redundant old officials who have been laid off have stood on the side of conservative forces because their personal interests have been damaged. The huge bureaucracy is powerful and its interests are inviolable, so it is invincible. However, without its reduction and withdrawal, the reform cannot be carried out, and it is doomed to be on thin ice, full of difficulties and obstacles, and it will be wiped out if you are not careful. The adjustment and streamlining of the huge bureaucracy and the placement of "redundant staff" should be carried out with greater "strength" or redeemed with considerable "interests", which is impossible for the incompetent Guangxu emperor and reformists, and it is difficult to implement the strategy of implementing political reform with administrative reform. In this regard, the reformists have a deep understanding. Kang Youwei once said that when Tan Sitong and Xu Lin were the four ministers of military aircraft, "they wanted to open a house again, and the old party and I tried our best to stop it." Interestingly, the Reform Movement of 1898 was always accused of being radical, but the reform scope implemented by the Qing government in just a few years went far beyond the New Deal of 1898 and constitutionalism, but it was often promoted as a model of improvement. For example, during the "political reform" period, we didn't dare to propose "abolishing the imperial examination" at all, but only proposed to reform the examination content and replace "learning stereotyped writing" with "strategizing", but it was strongly opposed. The reformists were accused of being "sinners", "scum of the literati", "advocating heresy, betraying sacred religion, destroying ethics and misleading people" ... Even Kang Renguang, Kang Youwei's younger brother, who later became one of the "six gentlemen", saw the fierce opposition and had to persuade Naixiong to slow down this strategy: "Stereotyped writing has been abolished, and I advised Xiong Bo to brush his clothes as soon as possible, although there are many. Relatively speaking, one of the most remarkable achievements of the Reform Movement was the establishment of a new political newspaper. When someone talked about the "reformists" in the late Qing Dynasty, he once said: "The discussion of the new party prevailed and began with the current affairs newspaper; The disintegration of the new party members also began with The Times. "Whether this is appropriate can be ignored for the time being, but at least it shows the importance of current events, and further, it also shows the importance of the New Newspaper at that time. Because China has always had only the official "luxury newspaper" and no real "newspaper". The so-called "treasure" is just a copy of the imperial edict of North Korea, which is roughly equivalent to the modern "official gazette". Later, there was the Beijing Daily, but the content was "The first palace gate was copied, the second imperial edict and the second memorial were copied by the cabinet every day. "China modern newspapers are run by foreigners. With the opening of trading ports and the increase of foreign newspapers and periodicals, some people of insight in China began to realize the important role of modern newspapers and periodicals, and the voice calling for running newspapers was growing. Kang Youwei has repeatedly expounded the importance of establishing newspapers and periodicals in Two Books of Emperor Shangqing and Three Books of Emperor Shangqing. He believes that newspapers and periodicals have the function of "establishing newspapers to be knowledgeable." All the evils in China are caused by shielding and unmasking, so Mo Liang is the only one. In the first issue of Current Affairs, Liang Qichao published the article "On the newspaper is beneficial to state affairs", arguing that "the strength of a country lies in its communication", and "getting rid of the general rules is different, and newspapers are also its leading end. "Newspapers and periodicals are the eyes and ears of the country. Without them, it is a' waste disease'. " Those people in the world who get rid of diseases will be reported in newspapers. "As for the general remarks in the newspaper," See what you know and see what you are guilty of, and learn from it. The listener is not bright, the purpose is to slander and destroy Meng. Or it's misery loves company * * * Difficult, lonely and angry, advocating protection, in order to become a mere trifle. Then Gu called it the rise and fall of the world, the base of ordinary people, and the responsibility of ordinary people. "He not only realized the importance of newspapers to national politics, but also saw the importance of modern newspapers to civil society. In addition to military affairs, the newspaper also recorded in detail the life and death of the number of people, the surplus of people's industry, the courses studied, the projects of products, the new theory of style and the new system of musical instrument art. In a word, "what you learn is what you get", through open communication and discussion in newspapers and periodicals, not only "connects from top to bottom" but also "enlightens people's wisdom." The more you read newspapers, the smarter you become. The more newspapers there are, the stronger their country will be. "China's tradition of slandering wooden drums and asking local officials for advice is essentially different from that of modern newspapers and periodicals, and reformists know this. However, at this time, they are not conducting a theoretical research and demonstration that is divorced from reality. Instead, I want to use the undead, use "tradition" to serve "modernity" and use "once had" as the legal basis for "institutional innovation". As "within the system" reformers, at this time their