The invasion of western powers directly led to the change of social nature in China, which transformed China from a feudal society into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. In my opinion, the change of social nature is the source of the whole change in China.
First of all, national sovereignty has been damaged, or feudal sovereignty has been damaged. This makes the bound brains of China intellectuals for two thousand years finally have a chance to jump out of Confucian poetry, books, rituals and music, and then run at high speed to think about ways to save the country and survive. Some people are thinking about how to defend sovereignty, so there is the Westernization Movement represented by Li Hongzhang and the Reform Movement of 1898 of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. Some people saw the hope of overthrowing the feudal dynasty and establishing a democratic country, so they met Sun Yat-sen's China League. No matter what historical limitations these people's thoughts have, they are of great significance today.
Advanced ideas were brought to China actively or passively, which directly influenced the way of running schools in China for more than two thousand years. Foreigners have come to China to run schools, and various new schools have blossomed everywhere in China. With the support of the Qing government, many people have been sent abroad for ideological baptism. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, a large number of real professors and scholars emerged in this period, and a large number of people who could be called "great men" in this era. I think this is inseparable from the social instability brought about by the invasion of western powers. I think this is the second time in 5,000 years that China can really be called "a hundred schools of thought contend". For the first time, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which had five thousand years' money, it was all troubled times.
The invasion of western powers brought unprecedented changes to China's thoughts, because it not only made a qualitative leap in the thoughts of intellectuals, but also made even ordinary people who were regarded as the most thoughtless, such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was a peasant uprising movement. Except for the leader Hong Xiuquan, who is a scholar and has only heard a little about Christianity, most of them are uneducated farmers. However, it is such a group of people who can conquer half of China.
Of course, the invasion of western powers did not bring any harm to China people's thoughts. For example, opium has seriously damaged the physical and mental health of the people in China. However, all kinds of invasions by western powers made the people of China agree that Yali pear is very big. However, compared with the Qin Dynasty, China used stale Confucianism to muzzle people's thoughts, which were dwarfed.
There is no doubt that the invasion of western powers has caused great losses to China. However, ideologically, it has brought China unprecedented ideological emancipation and thinking generation. As people often say, opportunities and crises coexist. We should look at history dialectically and not blindly deny foreign aggression. In my opinion, this is a resounding slap in the face for China by the western powers.
Finally, I want to state my position and sum up my overall attitude towards foreign aggression. I believe that foreign invaders will never invade any country with any goodwill. In the face of aggression from other countries, what we have to do is of course to fight back with the most primitive instinct. What needs to be declared is whether it is an act of aggression. It is not decided by other countries, but by the people of the "invaded" countries. )