Key words: Gao Xiang, the author of "The Concept Change of Modern Social Transformation in the Early Qing Dynasty", was born at 1963, and is an associate researcher at the Institute of History of China Academy of Social Sciences. Modernization is an important topic that has been widely concerned by domestic academic circles in recent years. It should be said that studying the social development of China in Ming and Qing Dynasties from the perspective of modernization has broken through the simple mode of demonstrating the social changes in Ming and Qing Dynasties only through the germination of capitalism, enabling people to study the traditional social structure of China from a relatively broad perspective and answer the question of whether China society has developed and to what extent. The study of modernization has deepened people's understanding of social forms and promoted ideological emancipation and academic development. However, whether in international or domestic academic circles, modernization is not so much a theory as a perspective and way of thinking. So far, we haven't found a modern academic framework that really suits the historical development of China. The lack of theory will inevitably limit the in-depth study and aggravate people's differences in understanding of China's historical development path. This paper mainly investigates the social transformation in the early Qing dynasty, but before entering the text, it is necessary to make a theoretical explanation on modernization. ?
First, the core of modernization is capitalism.
When investigating the social development in Ming and Qing Dynasties, there is such a contradictory phenomenon in academic circles: on the one hand, some scholars try to prove that China's traditional society has the internal motive force to move towards modernity, and try to prove that China started the modernization process at the end of Ming Dynasty (some even think it was earlier), but on the other hand, they deny the existence and development of capitalist factors, and even regard the research on the seeds of capitalism that year as the wrong product under the guidance of dogmatism and as the "wrong proposition" that should be abandoned. This raises a question, what is modernization?
I don't want to make textual research on the etymology of "modernization" here, but it is necessary to point out the fact that the so-called "modernization" in today's academic circles, in its original meaning, refers to the so-called wave of social change that has mainly appeared in the western world since16th century. There is only one core content of this wave of social change, that is, capitalization, that is, replacing the traditional (or feudal) with capitalist mode of production. Some scholars have suggested that capitalization is not equal to modernization. There is some truth in this statement. Indeed, modernization has a broader social connotation than capitalism, and capitalism is not the only bridge to modern times, and the stage of capitalism is not insurmountable, but we should attach great importance to the following two facts: First, as a substitute for the natural development of feudal society in the usual sense, capitalism is the only choice. So far, historians have not found any other possible development direction of feudal society (or traditional society or medieval society) except capitalism under the condition of natural social evolution; Second, before the 20th century, capitalism has been the most important driving force for the transformation of human society from tradition to modernity. Many important achievements and basic principles of modernization (such as the Enlightenment, market theory, the rise and spread of modern science, etc. ) is gradually formed and perfected in the process of the occurrence and development of capitalism. Talking about modernization without capitalism is just like talking about commodities without market, which is inconceivable in theory and impracticable in practice, and so is the study of traditional social transformation in China. ?
If we admit that the core of modernization is capitalism, and there is no modernization without capitalism, then we can't simply deny the discussion on the budding of capitalism in academic circles, and we won't use the research on modernization to oppose the research on the budding of capitalism. It should be admitted that the current academic discussions on commodity economy, urban development, regional economy and social structure are all based on the academic research on the budding capitalism of that year. Of course, studying the occurrence and development of capitalism in China should be the core content of studying China's modernization history. ?
Modernization in a complete sense in history, although centered on the rise and development of capitalism, has a broader social significance after all. To measure whether a society is moving towards modernization, we must determine some minimum standards. Measuring China's social development by different standards may be the most important reason why academic circles have drawn different conclusions on the same issue for a long time. In my opinion, the so-called modernization should at least include the following three aspects: the rise and development of capitalist mode of production characterized by service market and freelancers; The traditional personal attachment gradually disintegrated, individual freedom expanded, and the government institutionalized and standardized social management; The emergence and dissemination of social concepts with modern significance have adapted to the above changes. ?
In the specific historical research, there are two main breakthrough points about modernization: first, from the perspective of production mode, its basic point is the development level of productive forces; Second, from the perspective of superstructure, its central content is political system and ideology. The former is the foundation, which can reveal the fundamental motivation of the formation and development of a certain social form. The latter is very important. We can answer questions about the speed, mode and mode of social development from the perspectives of social control, values and ideological changes. Only when the research results of these two aspects are fully integrated and integrated can we make a generally accurate judgment on the development level of an era. ?
From the perspective of historical research, there is still much room for discussion on our understanding of the social development in the Qing Dynasty, which shows that we have not paid enough attention to the research in the field of ideology, especially social concepts. If we don't fully absorb the research results in the ideological field (such as the history of ideas, academic history and concept history), our explanation of some problems will appear rigid and mechanical, and even there will be a one-sided tendency to simplify social development into economic development and capitalism into market economy. A typical example is the understanding of the budding capitalism. In the past, we often regarded it as a simple economic history issue, and put too much energy into the study of productive forces and relations of production, ignoring the basic fact that capitalism is not only an economic phenomenon, but also a social and cultural phenomenon. Along with the capitalist mode of production, the concept and spirit of capitalism must be born. The birth of a new mode of production also needs a suitable cultural soil, which needs to be straightforward? What is the current situation? It's hard to serve badgers? Our understanding of it cannot be complete and accurate. In fact, even if we conduct pure economic history research, we should pay full attention to people's ideas. Man is the most active factor in social production, and his social concept directly affects all his economic activities. Thought should be one of the most important windows for us to understand an era. For the researchers of Ming and Qing history, this is conditional. ?
After a brief analysis of the basic concepts of modernization, the author will make a rough investigation on the social development of China in the early Qing Dynasty. In my opinion, during these two hundred years, on the basis of a large number of modernization factors in the late Ming Dynasty, China society showed an obvious trend of transformation from tradition to modern times, which was clearly reflected in the political field, economic field and social concept field. ?
Second, relax social and political control at the grassroots level.
To study the traditional society in China, we must attach great importance to political issues. There is a simple reason. China's traditional society is a highly centralized autocratic politics with imperial power as the core. The government is not only an authoritative tool to adjust the distribution of interests of all social strata, but also directly interferes with the composition and flow of all social strata, affecting the lifestyle and moral fashion of an era. ?
There were two obvious trends in the evolution of China politics in the early Qing Dynasty: first, the centralization of political power, which was manifested in the central government's control over local governments, and the emperor's control over bureaucracy was gradually tightened, which led to an unprecedented severe extreme monarchy in the Gan Yong period. The second is the relaxation trend of the government's control over grassroots society. This trend was very obvious in the Qing dynasty, but it has not attracted the attention of academic circles so far. ?
The relaxation of the government's control over grass-roots society in the early Qing dynasty began in the early Qing dynasty, especially in the Yong-Gan period. Its outstanding performance is that many disadvantages left over from history were gradually eliminated during this period. For example, the policy of eliminating untouchables in Yongzheng dynasty liberated a large number of people at the bottom who had been enslaved for generations and had low status. Ruan Kuisheng's Tea Idle Guest Talk, Volume II, Inheritance of Musicians Idle Beggars, records that in the first year of Yongzheng, during the Shi Yu period, Shaanxi musicians fabricated their native place, and the descendants of the world ordered them to be prostitutes, and the gentry came to drink at a call. Those who know shame are sometimes incompatible. Check his ancestors. They are innocent priests. "Because Yongle refused to join the army in the Ming Dynasty, he put his children in a teaching workshop and begged to drive them away. Command: "This performance is very good and should be submitted to the Ministry for discussion. "We will also check provinces similar to this one and almost order them to change jobs." Inheriting this suggestion, Ga played out the lazy people in Shaoxing and the beggars in Changshu. ?
In fact, at that time, it was much more than that. For example, in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), the "servants" of Ningguo Mansion in Anhui and the "guards" of Huizhou Mansion were exempted. In the seventh year, Yong Zhengdi personally ordered the improvement of Guangdong? Family situation, announced? The household is "a good citizen, a place that cannot be despised and abandoned" and is not allowed to drift because of "strong differences" in local habits. Order approval? When a household lives on the ground, it is "based on a neat person" and "Shi Hao sticks are not allowed to bully and expel". Although the opening-up policy of the Qing court was not thorough, it allowed beggars, musicians and beggars to last for hundreds of years. The situation of households, attendants and servants has been improved, and many of them have become establishment households and gained personal freedom. The increase of freemen will inevitably lead to the strengthening of social vitality, which is obviously a great historical progress. ?
/kloc-in the 0/8th century, the de facto abolition of poll tax and the reduction of various corvees reflected the innovation of social management methods and the improvement of people's living environment to varying degrees. ?
Freedom of migration is one of the most basic personal freedoms. In the early Qing dynasty, the migration rights of ordinary people were obviously expanded. In order to strengthen political control, the rulers of China often took measures to restrict people's free migration, which even led to serious social unrest in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, this tradition was broken. Although the Qing court still restricted the migration of people within the system, most of them failed to implement it. For example, the Qing court banned people from moving to Mongolia on the surface, but it was not strictly enforced. Only in the early days of Qianlong, outside Gubeikou, there were "hundreds of thousands of households" where "mainlanders went to farm". The reason is simple: Mongolia has become an important place to attract the surplus population in the mainland. "There are more and more hukou now, but the land in each province is so big that it cannot be increased." Therefore, the government has to "consider circulation to support nothing." Even in Northeast China, where the blockade policy has been implemented, the Qing court changed its policy in the late Qianlong period, allowing people to enter and leave freely. In the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (1792), Emperor Qianlong wrote a letter: "Although there are mixed flags and people in Shengjing and other places, the land is vast and fertile, and the poor and their families can support themselves, that is, there are many people and they will never make trouble. Why should they be banned? "The expansion of people's freedom of movement has objectively produced two important consequences: first, a large number of landless people have moved to border areas, which has promoted the development of border areas, developed agriculture, industry and commerce and education in border areas, and made remarkable progress, and the economic, cultural and social outlook has shown an obvious trend of integration with the mainland; Second, a large number of people flowed to urban areas, especially to the central city, which led to a sharp increase in the non-agricultural population in the Qing Dynasty, resulting in a large number of cheap industrial and commercial labor, a further expansion of the commodity (including agricultural products) consumer market, and increasingly mature conditions for social and economic restructuring. ?
The Qing court did not strictly interfere with the daily life of ordinary people. Although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the implementation of enlightenment, they emphasized that "ruling the world, not making laws in a hurry, focusing on enlightenment". However, researchers should pay attention to the fact that the main content of education is to strengthen the ideological control of intellectuals, which has strong pertinence and policy in implementation and cannot be simply summarized as cultural absolutism or literary inquisition. Generally speaking, the control of the Qing court on civil society life was relatively loose, and as long as it did not openly resist imperial rule, it generally did not interfere too much. For example, during the Qianlong period, Hu Ding, an imperial envoy, asked for a ban on Water Margin, which was adopted by the Qing court, but was "not accepted by outsiders". "Although the ministers and ministers read out the cases, they sang at the table as before." But the local officials "claimed to preach the' extensive training Oracle' every month, but it was all empty talk, so that the ignorant were caught in the French open again without warning." The Qing court always took quiet nature as the way to govern the country, and its core content was that the government could not interfere too much with people's lives. Li Guangdi once said in Kangxi: "Red tape is full of troubles, which will eventually harm people. It is better to let it be. " Emperor Kangxi repeatedly stressed: "It is useless to pay in the land, even if it is enough." He also said: "I have visited ordinary people and said that corrupt officials have no reason to kill for money." Or officials are incorruptible and blindly cause trouble, which is even worse for the people. "It is from the standpoint of quiet nature that the Qing Dynasty did not take strong rectification measures against the phenomenon of extravagance. Emperor Kangxi said: "I don't think vulgarity can be changed suddenly, but it should be guided subtly." He also said: "If there is something in the world that can be heard but inconvenient to do, it is also true." Yong Zhengdi also stressed that "those who make laws must be able to ban them and then ban them; If they ban them knowing that they can't win the law, the law won't work. " Taste said, "I also know the disadvantages of luxury." However, bad habits also follow. Once they are suddenly banned, if the legislation is strict, they will never be observed. "It's very important to be reasonable, change customs, and take your time." Fogg said, "It is forbidden to wear colorful clothes, so that we can distinguish them from others. If the rich obey Busu, it will inevitably lead to the failure of order, and the law will be difficult to severely punish, which will only make things worse and have no benefit. " If it works, businessmen will be banned, clothes will be put on, and the prosperity of China's cultural relics will be gone, which will only drive away the humble desires of the stingy rich. " ? This political thought of letting nature take its course has enabled ordinary people to enjoy a more relaxed living environment for a long time. Of course, some officials (especially some neo-Confucianism bureaucrats) tried to cultivate the custom of sorting out, but it was generally difficult to maintain it for a long time. For example, during the Yongzheng period, Zhu Shi, a famous Neo-Confucianism scholar, was appointed as the Governor of Zhejiang. "It is forbidden to light scaffolding, play in water, burn incense at women's temple fairs, visit mountains and watch plays. "As a result, people are quite dissatisfied with this." Wang's shoulders are full of money such as selling pulp and cakes. He is behind closed doors, but he is not proud. "With Li Jue as the commander-in-chief, everything will be restored as before", "everything will be based on the wishes of the people and the interests of the people will be praised and prayed". The reduction of government intervention in society provided a good policy environment for the change of lifestyle and social concept in Qing Dynasty. ?
It should also be pointed out that the Qing court's control over the social economy mainly did not rely on government coercion, but through economic means. For example, in order to adjust the distribution of social wealth and improve the lives of the lower classes, the Qing court consciously promoted government-run projects and even took measures to encourage businessmen to build large-scale projects, so that "local craftsmen and poor people can make great contributions with their capital, so that they can make up for their shortcomings." As for price adjustment, it is more through the market. In the 29th year of Qianlong reign (1764), Yin Jishan, governor of the two rivers, published "Please forbid buying, buying and selling at short prices", which fully showed the level of handling grain stocks through market regulation in Qing Dynasty. Grain storage in Qing dynasty is called the situation of seven grains and three crops. That is to say, every year when young crops fail, the government will open warehouses to sell grain to stabilize food prices and prevent soaring food prices from affecting the lives of urban residents. When I was in Qiu Cheng, I bought grain, enriched storage, and prevented the price from plummeting, and the cheap grain hurt farmers. It should be said that this is a reasonable government action. Yin Jishan pointed out the disadvantages in the implementation of this policy, that is, when the green and yellow are not connected, all localities buy them one after another. When they arrive in Qiu Cheng, it will lead to price fluctuations and "hinder people's food", and proposed to take measures to improve this system and further determine government behavior according to market supply and demand conditions and price conditions. Yin Jishan suggested: "In the future, all provinces, counties and counties that store rice grain, except in the year of poor harvest, if the rice price is too high to help the people eat, they may as well add more rice and allow them to deal with it according to the actual situation. In a normal year, the price is flat, so you don't have to stop harvesting rice, or you can stop it all. " Always look around and improvise. If one stone is sold less in spring, one more stone will be accumulated in the warehouse. "If Qiu Cheng can't buy a stone, the people will have more rice and food than a stone, which will benefit the people. It is true that Yin Jishan's recitation reflected that the Qing government attached great importance to people's livelihood, but more importantly, he explained that when dealing with economic issues, whether involving government officials or the public, the government mainly relied on market regulation rather than simple administrative orders. The government attaches importance to the role of market regulation, which means that people have more freedom in economic issues and their economic interests can be more guaranteed. ?
Third, the development of commodity economy and the germination of capitalism.
No matter how researchers evaluate the historical position of the early Qing Dynasty, it is undeniable that China's commodity economy developed to a new level in the early Qing Dynasty. Theoretically speaking, commodity economy is one of the most important criteria to examine whether a society has the conditions to step into the modern era. Commodity economy is not equal to capitalism, but it will inevitably produce capitalism to a certain extent, and capitalism can only be produced in commodity economy, which is an ironclad historical fact. The early Qing Dynasty was a period of high prosperity and development of China's commodity economy, especially in the southeast, and the urbanization process was very obvious. This has been fully discussed in academic circles, so I won't repeat it in this article. Here, I only add some materials according to the situation of Shaanxi in the late Qianlong period recorded in the diary of Eugene by Li Sui. Shanxi's financial industry developed in Qing Dynasty. In addition to well-known banks, there is also the so-called "accounting bureau", which is a little-known financial institution. Its customers are mainly candidate officials. "Journey to the West" was published for three years: Fenzhou (Zhou) and Pingyang (Yang) counties, mostly making a living by trade. Ten times the profit, there is no such thing as official debt. The rich take their money to the capital and set up accounting firms. If it is a borrower, the first thing to say is deduction. Such as nine buckles, called one thousand, is actually nine hundred. Depending on the distance of shortage, the number of deductions varies from 89 to 45, or even 28. In addition to the deduction, add three minutes of monthly interest. A mother has the right to give birth to a child, and three months later, the child will have another child. Rolling count, with hundreds of gold, accumulated a surplus of ten thousand in a few days. ?
The opening of the accounting bureau has affected the social life in Beijing. Li Xie recorded: "There is a rogue in Beijing who chose a vacant official and needed to borrow some money to achieve a satisfactory result. This is called pulling the fiber." The pawnbroking industry is also very developed: "The south bank of the river is Huizhou people, called Huizhou merchants; To the north of the river are Jin people, known as Shanxi merchants. We were so hungry that we didn't have the ability to get some gold, so we had to lose everything and pay the high-quality library. Iraq took advantage of its embarrassment, but it was a fish. If the value of something is ten, give it two. Its book coupons are also light in gold, rice in beads, moth in fur and clothes in clothes. It is evil, so it is cheap. Three years of golden beads, two years of clothes and fur are not redeemed, so things are not their own. " The ransom is worth three cents, and pearls are more valuable. "According to Li's observation, Shanxi, which is located in the mainland, has shown the trend of urbanization. Like the iron stone in Yuci County, this is a remote place. When it is dry, it is actually a "densely populated, huge town". As for Jiangzhou, "the city faces the Fen River, and the boat can reach the Yellow River. Cities are dusty and merchants gather. "The citizens are proud of Huawei, and the women think that the clothes are clothes. The right side of the mountain is called Little Suzhou. Regional division of labor in social production has also emerged. For example, "Zezhou and Lu 'an belong to the Party, and all the food is given to Tsinghua Town, so there are people on the right side of the mountain who have never known crabs, so Zezhou eats crabs. "There are many flowers and trees in the city. Papaya, oranges and grapefruit are all strong, and their writing style is better than other counties." The information used above is only the result of Gui Li's personal observation, and his vision is very limited. However, according to this, we can still see that Shanxi society was still relatively dynamic at that time. If we combine these materials with Shanxi's famous banking, salt industry and medicinal materials industry, and with the urban development of Pingyao and other places, we can't simply use the word "static" to summarize Shanxi society. Shanxi was not a developed area and was not typical during the Qianlong period. What really reflects the level of commercialization and urbanization of China society in the early Qing Dynasty is the towns in the south of the Yangtze River, industrial and commercial centers such as Guangzhou, Linqing and Hankou, and the appearance of big businessmen and business gangs (for example, "Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the richest, and those with tens of thousands or two hundred thousand are more difficult to count, some are unknown, but only a few million have begun to spread to the population"), and regional economic division of labor is taking shape (for example, "Jiangsu and Zhejiang have always given food and rice to Huguang"). In my opinion, it is not the lack of information, but how to analyze the information to study whether there is a budding capitalism in China's traditional society. The germination of capitalism does not mean the capitalist mode of production in the full sense. It is normal to keep some or even more feudal remnants, as long as two basic conditions are met: first, it mainly produces goods that serve the market, not other things; Second, the production process is mainly completed by freelancers, not family members or other non-free workers. As for the scale of production, there is no need to demand too much, and there is no need to overemphasize the continuity of capitalist germination or the proportion of commercial capital transferring to industrial capital. After all, budding does not mean a capitalist handicraft workshop in the full sense, nor does it mean establishing a stable capitalist economic system immediately. In the eighth year of Yongzheng (1730), the mode of production described by Li Wei, the governor of Zhejiang Province, should be said to have a typical capitalist nature. Li Wei said that the Soviet Union's 15-square miscellaneous office, where department stores gather, provides a channel for merchants to enter Tianjin. Among them, blue and blue fabrics are bought here. Be sure to polish it with a big stone foot after dyeing. That is to say, there is a man named Baotou who buys water chestnut-shaped boulders, wooden rollers, men and houses, recruits craftsmen to live in, and sends rice and firewood to the inn to grind noodles. The salary of each horse is 10 cents and 30 cents, all earned by craftsmen. According to the name, Baotou Silver and San Qian give six cents a month to compensate the rent collector. Learn this line, not lean and powerful, are all counties in the north and south of the Yangtze River, handed down by hand, painted, the rate is mostly single. ?
The information revealed in this material is that cloth vendors provide cloth and wages, Baotou provides equipment, recruits and manages workers, and workers get paid through labor and piece work, and the products produced are supplied to the market. As far as its production organization form is concerned, it is very similar to the capitalist handicraft workshop described by some British people in the16th century. ?
Similar capitalist modes of production were not uncommon in the early Qing Dynasty. "The rich give their capital for the benefit, but the poor make a living by the Terracotta Warriors. They are only interested in profit and dare not disturb the people. " This was a common form of production organization at that time, but employees did not have a serious personal attachment to their employers. The so-called "weekdays, * * * eat, equal to each other, not for orders, no owner." In fact, during the Qianlong period, with the development of commodity economy and the accumulation of social wealth, the germination of capitalism in China had a new development compared with that in the Ming Dynasty. Shang Yue said: "Compared with the late Ming Dynasty of Ganjia era, commodity economy and social division of labor have been the so-called primitive accumulation period of capitalism from an economic point of view." Deng Tuo said: "From the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it was about 65438+80 s to 65438+90 s, which was the embryonic period of China's capitalist factors." After the Qianlong period, in economically developed areas, capitalist factors entered the growth period from the embryonic stage. During this period, "the primitive accumulation process of capital continued to develop, and the process of workshop handicraft industry system and agricultural commercialization also showed some qualitative new changes." If historical conditions continue to be conducive to the growth of capitalist factors in China, then it is entirely possible for China to independently develop into a capitalist society. ". If capitalist production is not regarded as unattainable, we should admit that their conclusion is reasonable. ?
What researchers need to attach great importance to is that the increase of commodity economy and capitalist factors injected new vitality into China's social life in the early Qing Dynasty. This is manifested in at least two aspects: first, it has accelerated the change of lifestyle, which is called "the official style of North Korea has changed greatly". "In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the old people were only honest and honest, and even the literary talent was not as good as riding horses." Hong summarized this change as "lust is conducive to development, shape is fragile, knowledge is skillful, and temperament is conducive to thought". The core content of the new social fashion is "lust", which is closely related to the advocacy of southeast merchants at that time, especially salt merchants, that is, the so-called "luxury customs originated from salt merchants, but were practiced by other merchants to impress the rich" Second, the relationship between businessmen and intellectuals is closer, and intellectuals are the first of the four. In the Qing dynasty, there was no strict social boundary between literati and businessmen, and the flow between them was regular. Shen? As the saying goes, "the ancients were divided into four people, and the descendants were divided into four people." Jpua, an ancient scholar, is a scholar, and only the descendants of Shang Dynasty can be scholars ",which is the concentrated embodiment of this social reality. In the early Qing Dynasty, many important intellectual elites had business backgrounds, and many important academic activities were directly funded by businessmen, such as Ma Yue, a salt merchant. He made extensive friends with famous scholars in academic circles, and once sponsored famous scholars such as Quan and Li E. Therefore, there is a sentence in Yuan Mei's hanging poems after his death that "there are thousands of pictures and histories, and literati support their lives". Jiang Yong and Dai Zhen are two important figures in Ganjia Sinology. Their academic activities are funded by Wang Wufeng, a salt merchant in Shexian County, who is also a devout scholar. Man is the product of the environment. It is impossible to strengthen the ties between intellectuals and business circles without affecting social ideology. The pluralistic trend of social concepts in the early Qing Dynasty, which the author will analyze later, is to a great extent an important product of social and economic changes. During the Jiaqing period, Ji Jing wrote "The Theory of Three Generations of Wisdom", and he lamented: "Ancient
Businessmen are not allowed to ride horses and wear clothes, and people are ashamed to chase them to the end, so few people do it, so they have money. People of later generations are all ashamed of chasing after the end, and there are many, so they are profitable. "His words vividly reflected the change of Gansu's views on businessmen and enterprises. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the early commerce and capitalism not only developed on the basis of the late Ming Dynasty, but also produced new and important social influences. ?
Fourth, the rise and spread of anti-traditional ideas.
At any time, the progress of society should be reflected by the progress of ideas. One of the most important indicators to measure whether a traditional society is transforming into a modern one is to see to what extent members of society have broken through the shackles of traditional concepts. In the nearly 200-year history of the early Qing Dynasty, China culture completed a far-reaching historical change, ending the exclusive position of Neo-Confucianism in the intellectual world, and the social concept of the intellectual class showed an obvious diversified trend: opposing the shackles of traditional ethics and advocating human freedom; Oppose academic monopoly and advocate independent thinking; Opposing extreme monarchy and advocating "ruling the world" became an important feature of anti-traditional thought in the early Qing Dynasty. This reform began in the early Qing Dynasty and was completed in18th century. Objectively, it laid an original but indispensable cultural foundation for the full-scale start of China's modernization after the mid-Kloc-0/9th century. ?
Since the Song and Ming Dynasties, Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism has always been in the leading position of orthodox thought. One-sided propaganda of general ethics and moral preaching by management scientists has become the spiritual shackles of monopolizing the truth and restricting the freedom of thought, that is, "a wise man must keep his word and not read other books", and even become a scholar, a "loose echo" to break through the shackles of neo-Confucianism preaching, and a basic prerequisite for the diversification and modernization of social concepts in the early Qing Dynasty. ?
Intellectuals' criticism of Neo-Confucianism in the early Qing Dynasty went through two stages. During the Shunkang period, he mainly criticized Lu Wang's Xue Xin. At the same time, the orthodox neo-Confucianism experienced a short revival process. By the time of Yungan, with the rise of Sinology, anti-traditional thinkers pointed their criticism at the orthodox Zhu Cheng School, not only denying the rationality of its natural principles, but also questioning and criticizing Confucian classics advocated by Neo-Confucianism by empirical methods, which led to the overall decline of Neo-Confucianism. Since then, the influence of Neo-Confucianism in the ranks of scholars has been sharply weakened, that is, the so-called "modern scholars fought for the study of Han and Confucianism, and verbally attacked Song and Confucianism almost north and south." People pursue the "Holy Way" and the way of learning changes accordingly. Sun Xingyan said: "If today's Confucianism wants to know the Holy Way, it must first test the books written by Duke Zhou and Confucius, then the Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty, then the explanations in the Tang Dynasty, and finally the quotations from the Song Dynasty and the articles to be quoted by later generations." The anti-Song ethos even influenced the educational activities of emperors. Emperor Qianlong lamented: "In the past two years, ministers from all walks of life have quoted classics and said what they saw, but they have not really put the books of Confucian nature in the Song Dynasty into practice and took the lead in showing what Confucianism is." Recently, there are not a few scholars who pay attention to words, and the psychologist Gai Xian. "It can be said that the real decline of Neo-Confucianism, which lasted for hundreds of years, began in the18th century. After that, Neo-Confucianism never revived, and even the short-lived prosperity in the early Qing Dynasty is gone forever. ?
Denying the moral preaching of Neo-Confucianism to protect righteousness and destroy human desires and advocating human freedom are the core contents of the ethical concept reform in the early Qing Dynasty. Dai Zhen, a master of Chinese studies, angrily condemned Neo-Confucianism for "killing people by reason". He pointed out that a reasonable academic, a reasonable society and a reasonable politics all have a basic principle, that is, to respect people's desires and do everything possible to satisfy them. Therefore, he put forward an ethical proposition with "get what you want" and "get what you want" as the core: "It is enough for you to get what you want." The most outstanding anti-traditional thinker in the early Qing Dynasty was Yuan Mei. The core content of Yuan Mei Thought is to oppose the bondage of ethics and morality and advocate the freedom of human nature. In Yuan Mei's view, love is human nature, a natural and inevitable existence, and it is against the original intention of sages to talk about sex without human feelings. It is worth noting that Yuan Mei's emphasis on emotion and desire has a strong realistic pertinence. He tried to combine his academic thoughts with the reality of Qing dynasty rule. From the perspective of respecting human feelings, Yuan Mei believes that the personnel management of the court should be based on the principle of being appropriate and expressive, and not against human feelings. Yuan Mei clearly pointed out in the essay "Qing Shuo" in Volume 22 of Collected Works of Kokura Mountain Residence that governing the country must be based on respecting people's lust. He said: what is the reason why the world expects saints to rule, and why should saints talk about ruling the world? There is nothing but desire. Old people think of peace, few people think of it, and so do people's feelings; And those who are "old, young and young, young and young" are saints. "Good goods" and "lust" are also human desires, and the people who make them are "hoarding", "including food", "complaining" and "not extravagant" and are also saints. If people have no lust, human beings will be extinct for a long time, and the world will not need to be cured; If a saint has no passion, he is indifferent and will not rule the world. ?
The anti-ethical thoughts of Dai Zhen and Yuan Mei were not isolated in the early Qing Dynasty. "The human heart cannot be suppressed, and the king depends on human feelings" has become the knowledge of many scholars. In the process of advocating independent thinking, intellectuals in Qing Dynasty formed a trend of doubting Confucian classics, that is, boldly questioning and even criticizing Confucian classics, thus promoting the further liberation of social thoughts. Yuan Mei clearly pointed out that scholars should never treat Confucian classics with superstition, but should believe that doubting Confucian classics is not prohibited by saints. From the standpoint of "seeking truth" in academic research,