Zhanjiang Normal University, 524048 Gao Yongxing.
Many villains emerged in the modern history of China, such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Empress Dowager Cixi and Yuan Shikai. They played different roles in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China and became important figures in China's modern history. How to evaluate these villains? Many people like to belittle these people as worthless, because people only see their ugly side and think they are villains. It's not fair! We should give these villains a fair evaluation and restore the true colors of history. I take Yuan Shikai as an example to talk about how to evaluate the villains in China's modern history.
The so-called "villain" in history is actually a difficult concept to determine, because with the development of history, many historical figures who used to be regarded as "villains" have become "positive figures"; However, many praised "positive figures" have become "negative figures". This is because with the development of history, people's understanding has changed, people's evaluation criteria have also changed, and the evaluation results are naturally different. This is what we must make clear when evaluating the villains in China's modern history.
Let's take a look at what Yuan Shikai has done all his life. It mainly includes: First, small station training to establish a new type of army in China's modern history. Second, "selling out" the reformists led to the suppression of the Reform Movement of 1898 by the Qing court, which hindered the progress of China society; Third, brutally suppress the boxer movement; Fourthly, he stole the achievements of the Revolution of 1911, and "Hongxian monarchy acted on its own", resulting in the ugly drama of the restoration of the emperor system; Fifth, it accepted Article 21 which seriously damaged China's sovereignty.
To evaluate the villains in China's modern history, I think we should adhere to the following principles.
The principle of seeking truth from facts. This is the basic principle for us to evaluate the characters, and it is also the basic requirement for evaluating the negative characters in China's modern history. Many scholars are vague about the main facts of the characters because their research is not deep enough, which is inappropriate. For Yuan Shikai, we should seek truth from facts, don't distort the facts, and give him a true historical face. Let me talk about two controversial events about Yuan Shikai. In recent years, scholars have had a heated debate about Yuan Shikai's "betrayal" to the reformists. Many scholars have demonstrated from the perspective of historical materials that Yuan Shikai did not betray the reformists, but there were other reasons that led to the suppression of the reformers by the Qing court. Whether Yuan Shikai really betrayed the reformists, I dare not draw a conclusion, but I must find out. For Yuan Shikai stealing the achievements of the Revolution of 1911, we only saw the process and results of Yuan Shikai's years of autocratic behavior, but ignored the background and reasons of Yuan Shikai's autocratic behavior. Now we know clearly that after the Revolution of 1911, China did not embark on the * * *, and various restoration forces were stirring. Most China people were more accustomed to the old political order. In this way, after the Revolution of 1911, the voice of establishing a "strong government" is endless. Both at home and abroad feel that it is too early for China to go to * * *, so there is a public opinion about the restoration of monarchy and Yuan Shikai's ugly drama about monarchy. Of course, whatever the background and reasons, Yuan Shikai's autocratic behavior is an unforgivable mistake. But if we really understand these backgrounds and reasons, we will realize that Yuan Shikai's restoration of monarchy is the historical necessity of China. It can be seen that the principle of seeking truth from facts requires us to fully understand everything in order to make a correct evaluation of the characters.
Class principle. To analyze and evaluate a person, we must understand his class nature. Yuan Shikai represents the landlord and comprador class, that is, the feudal landlord class and imperialism. This determines that Yuan Shikai should safeguard the interests of both the feudal landlord class and imperialism. He trained in a small station, which strengthened the military strength of the Qing government and safeguarded its rule, as evidenced by the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion and the Revolutionary Army. The suppression of the Boxer Rebellion clearly reflected his class nature. Later, when the Qing government fell, he still represented the interests of the feudal landlord class, because the Revolution of 1911 did not accomplish the task of anti-feudalism, but was stolen by the landlord comprador class represented by Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai can stand on the political stage in China because he is supported by imperialism, so he represents the interests of imperialism and is a comprador class. In the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he adopted the policy of compromise and avoidance, borrowed money from the aftermath and accepted the "Twenty-one Articles", which reflected this point. When we evaluate Yuan Shikai and other negative figures in China's modern history, we should think from their class standpoint, and we can't totally deny their class from their class standpoint.
The principle of splitting into two. We can't affirm or deny all the characters when we evaluate them, but we should split them in two. Any positive person or negative person is a social person, and historical figures have their complexity and versatility. Even sages and great men, it is not too difficult to point out their shortcomings and mistakes; And those big villains are not necessarily bad things. Of course, what Yuan Shikai did was not all bad, not bad to the end. At first, he wanted to pass the imperial examination and make a difference in politics, but in the end he failed. He wants to make a difference in politics, not to do bad things. Later he trained at a small station. Although it brought repression to the Boxer Rebels and bourgeois revolutionaries, the warlords scuffled, but it brought the modernization of the army to China, which was a major turning point in China's military. I don't want to overturn the conclusion that Yuan Shikai is a villain, but I just want to show that villains also have a good side.
The principle of the requirements of the times is whether it meets the requirements of the times. As we all know, an important period of Yuan Shikai's life was in the era of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the rise of the Republic of China. The mainstream at that time was democracy and harmony. Regardless of the mainstream thought at that time, Yuan Shikai resolutely promoted feudal autocracy, and also engaged in "worshipping Confucius" and "worshiping heaven", and finally called the restoration of the emperor. Judging from the process and results, this is against the historical trend. Failure is the result of going against the times. Yuan Shikai's dream of emperor lasted only 83 days, and then he died of depression.
The principle of patriotism. Only in the modern history of China did China's diplomacy have real significance. Diplomacy was unequal at that time. As a backward country, China has no diplomatic rights. Yuan Shikai adopted a traitorous policy in diplomacy. He did not hesitate to sell his country's sovereignty in exchange for loans from imperialist countries. He accepted the "Twenty-one Articles" of humiliating his power and country and fulfilled his dream of being an emperor. We should stand on the position of patriotism and criticize Yuan Shikai's traitorous policy.
From the above five principles, we can see that Yuan Shikai, as a representative of the negative figures in China's modern history, basically denied what he did, but also had a positive side. As a serious historical research, to evaluate the negative figures in China's modern history, we need to adhere to the above five principles and not have our own personal feelings, so as to make a scientific and fair evaluation of these figures.