Hong Rong, who was praised as "the father of overseas students in China" by later generations, studied abroad in his early years and became the first oriental who systematically accepted the new western education and obtained a formal degree. After returning home, he inspected the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and wrote seven suggestions. Take part in the Westernization Movement, and buy "tools for making tools"; Participated in the political reform and was elected as the Speaker of the National Assembly of China; He preached * * * and revolution, planned the "Red Dragon China" project, and became the only patriot in modern China who participated in all mainstream events. Among them, the Westernization Movement has the longest time, the most activities and the greatest contribution. Professor Yu Mingxia once wrote an article summarizing Rong Hong's achievements and actions during the Westernization Movement that started the pace of China's modernization:
Hong Rong's Main Achievements in the Westernization Movement
(Yu Mingxia, History Department of Xuzhou Normal University, Xuzhou, 22 1009)
Hong Rong was the first overseas student in China in modern times. His outstanding contribution to China's social modernization is mainly manifested in his extensive participation in the Westernization Movement. Its main achievements are: first, buying a new machine; Second, put forward the "four rules" aimed at reforming current politics and enriching the country and strengthening the people to the Qing court; Third, plan and implement the cause of young children studying in the United States in order to realize their ideal of "saving the country through education".
Keywords Yung Wing's Westernization Movement Zeng Guofan's "Chen Sixiang" Young Children Studying in America
Hong Rong (1828—1912)1854 graduated from Yale university in the United States. He was the first person from China who received a systematic education from western capitalism and obtained a degree in modern China. From 65438 to 0855, he returned to his long-lost motherland with the ambition of rejuvenating China. He traveled to Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, participated in Zeng Guofan's Westernization, participated in the Reform Movement of 1898, and finally turned to the bourgeois democratic revolution led by Sun Yat-sen, so the main years of his life were basically consistent with the modern history of China.
Hong Rong has lived abroad for a long time and is not familiar with Chinese. His main work, My Life in China and the United States, is an autobiography written in English. Starting from 1863, Rong Hong took part in the Westernization Movement with the aim of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth" at the same time, which lasted for more than 30 years. He had contacts with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other leaders of the Westernization School, and he knew the Zeng family well, so his main achievements during the Westernization Movement were also carried out with the support of Zeng Guofan.
1. Visit Nanjing after graduation.
When studying at Yale University in the United States, Hong Rong witnessed the prosperity and progress of the western capitalist society, and wanted to know how to contribute to the rejuvenation of the poor and backward motherland in the future. He said: "During my study, I came into contact with corruption in China from time to time, especially in the last year. Every time I think about it, I feel unhappy about it. " [②] In order to change the situation of "corruption in China", Yung Yung's vision is: "To instill western learning in China, and make China more civilized and prosperous" [③]. In other words, it is necessary to introduce modern western natural science and humanities into China through education, improve people's ideological and cultural quality, reform all kinds of drawbacks, and get rid of old ideas, so that ancient China can join the ranks of advanced countries in the world modernization.
Hong Rong Thought is the forerunner of China's theory of saving the country through education in modern history. Throughout his life, he struggled to realize this ideal. Later, the influence continued to expand, and many advanced people with patriotic ideas put forward various similar ideas, forming a very appealing ideological trend of saving the country through education. However, in China in the 1950s of 19, Yung Hong's thought was still too lofty to get a bosom friend.
After 1855, Hong Rong returned to the motherland, and all the dark realities he saw and heard made him feel infinitely depressed, confused and anxious. He once wanted to get rich through business, "with strong financial resources", in order to realize the ideal of saving the country. But it didn't take long for him to find that this idea was naive, and since he was "determined to reform, he must make great achievements. If he only moved his career, his career would eventually be equal to fishing for the moon" [4], so he decided to abandon business and go into politics.
At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution, which shook the land of China at home and abroad, was going on vigorously. Rong Hong expressed deep sympathy for this. He believes that due to the brutal and dark rule of the Qing government, "without Hong Xiuquan at that time, China would be in a revolution" [5]. Therefore, in June of 5438+0860 1. 1.00, Hong Rong made a field trip from Shanghai to Tianjin, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to decide her future political direction. At this time, Wang Hongren, who was in charge of state affairs in the kingdom of heaven, knew Hong Rong when he was in Hong Kong, so he deeply welcomed the long-distance visit of his old friend. Yung Yung then put forward seven suggestions to Wang Gan to reform the kingdom of heaven [6]:
"1. Organize the army according to the appropriate military system; Second, establish an ordnance school to train the most knowledgeable officers; Third, build a naval school; Fourth, build a kind government; 5. Hire experienced talents to serve as administrative advisers of various ministries; Sixth, promulgate school education systems at all levels, with Jesus teaching the Bible as the main course; Seven, the establishment of various industrial schools ".
The above seven suggestions have the following characteristics, which need to be explained:
First of all, the proposal covers military, political, educational, economic and other fields. Although it is aimed at the reality of the kingdom of heaven, its political ideals are basically included. The sixth item says that "taking the Bible as the main course" in schools at all levels has the color of strengthening religion, but its motive may be to cater to Hong Xiuquan's thought of integrating politics and religion, which is a self-proclaimed leader, and to facilitate the implementation of the reform plan.
Secondly, of the seven recommendations, four are related to education. As for the other three suggestions that have nothing to do with education, the sources of "good army" officials, "good government" officials and "administrative consultants at all levels" are all cultivated and created by schools. It can be seen that Hong Rong's thought of saving the country through education is the gist and fundamental purpose of the seven suggestions.
Thirdly, compared with the "Senior Minister's New Chapter" put forward by Hong Ren Gā n @ ① in 1859, the seven reform proposals outlined by Hong Rong are obviously much simpler. Limited to space, please refer to my essay "From Tencel System to Senior Minister's New Chapter to See the Changes of Peasant War" [7]. But in terms of its basic spirit, both of them are the best blueprints designed to make China step into the modernization hall quickly. Unfortunately, these two blueprints were lost in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. On the contrary, after the rise of Westernization Movement in Qing Dynasty, some contents in economy, military affairs and education were put into practice one after another.
Hong Rengan expressed his appreciation for Rong Hong's seven suggestions, because their reform ideas are deeply consistent. I immediately hoped that Yung Wing could stay in Tianjing (Nanjing) as his backup, and immediately sent an official seal engraved with the word "Yi" and a letter of authorization written on yellow satin. According to China's official system, "Yi" is a four-level title with a higher status. This is naturally a great honor for Rong Rong, who has made no contribution and has nothing to do with heaven. However, after careful consideration, he politely declined the kindness of Ganwang. There are four main reasons:
First, Yung Yung thinks that although Hong Ren Gā n @ 1 has lived in Hong Kong for a long time, he knows the modern situation of European and American countries and has certain knowledge. "Every big country in Europe is rich and powerful, so they can also know where their keys are" [8], but he is "good but can't use them", that is, he agrees verbally but can't implement them.
Second, yung wing already knew that Hong Ren's gā n @ 1 didn't have much real power. Although nominally the first in the class, he always gets a hundred slaps. But in fact, everything must be discussed by the "king" who holds the military power, "with the consent of the majority" and then "with the consent of the heavenly king" A year before this, Hong Ren G ā n @ 1' s senior minister's new chapter was published with the consent of Tianwang, but it still could not be implemented in the kingdom of heaven. If Rong Rong pinned his hopes on him again, wouldn't it be more "seeking fish from the edge of the wood"? [⑨]
Third, the military situation in the later days of the Kingdom of Heaven became increasingly grim. Anqing, a military town in the upper reaches, was tightly besieged by the Xiang army after 1860, and the situation was extremely critical. If Anqing falls, Tianjing will lose its barrier. At this point, the bad news of Anqing's defense war kept coming. When Yung Hong arrived in Tianjing, how could he not know these things? He lacks confidence in the future of the kingdom of heaven, and naturally he is unwilling to put all his eggs in one basket and take risks easily.
Fourth, although Yung Yung expressed sympathy for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to a certain extent, he was constantly informed of many new situations after the actual investigation, which made him even more reluctant to pin his ambition of serving the motherland on such a regime. "Every time I meet the leader of the Taiping Army, I can't believe that his behavior and planning will succeed." He came to the conclusion that "the Taiping Army's behavior has almost no ability to benefit China, so it can be asserted" [attending].
In this way, Yung Wing left Nanjing with a depressed mood to find a new way to realize his political ideal.
Second, he joined Zeng Guofan's shogunate after the rise of Westernization Movement.
186 1 year later, some people of insight within the ruling clique of the Qing dynasty began a westernization movement with the content of learning western military, economy and science and technology.
In the early stage of Westernization Movement, "striving for strength" was the main thing, and in the later stage, it turned to "seeking wealth" in economy. 186 1 Shortly after Zeng Guofan captured Anqing in August, he founded "Anqing Inner Ordnance Institute" and began to imitate foreign guns, which was the first military enterprise in modern China. However, from the beginning, he regarded "learning from foreigners" as too simple. He thought that it was not difficult to achieve success as long as he bought western warships and guns first, and then "visited thoughtful and intelligent people, then started exercises and then tried to build them" [① ①]. So in his shogunate, he recruited a group of first-class "thinkers" in China at that time, such as Hua Weifang, Xu Shou, Li and others. However, the trial-produced gun was not ideal, so Zeng Guofan wrote in his diary: "It is not suitable for reading new mountain guns" [① ②]; Outside Dongcheng, Anqing, "the bomb exploded in mid-air and blossomed before landing" [① ③]. Obviously, the shell "blooms" (explodes) without landing, so it has no lethality. Later, Zeng Guofan ordered people to copy a boat named "Huang Gu", but it was "slow but ineffective" [① ④]. Therefore, he gradually realized that it is impossible to create a large number of excellent weapons by relying entirely on the manual operation and simple imitation of self-taught and native scientists. "If a worker wants to do a good job, he must sharpen his tools first." Only by introducing the latest western machines and advanced technology can he succeed.
When Zeng Guofan was at a loss, several of his screen guests recommended Rong Rong and praised him for studying in the United States. "He is ambitious and often wants to work for the government to make China rich and strong" [① ⑤]. Zeng Guofan attached great importance to it and ordered people to deliver letters three times. This eager attitude towards literati is somewhat similar to the "three visits to the thatched cottage" in the Three Kingdoms period, which made Hong Rong deeply feel a sense of being knowledgeable. 1In August, 863, he came to Anqing and suggested that a "machine factory" should be set up as the "mother factory" first, and then several "sub-factories" should be set up to "manufacture all kinds of gun-making machinery" [16]. Then, various components produced by these different machines are assembled to become new weapons such as guns, cannons and warships. Hearing this, Zeng Guofan was utterly confused, so he wrote in his diary: "Uncle Li Ren (that is, Li) and Rong Chunfu (that is) sat for quite a long time. Let your name shine, a macro (same as "Hong"). Cantonese people are familiar with foreign affairs. I lived in Citigroup (that is, the United States) for eight years, so I asked him to go abroad to buy utensils and make utensils "[① ⑦].
1863165438+1In late October, Zeng Guofan, as the governor of the two rivers, officially granted Yung Wing full authority to buy aircraft in the west and entrusted him with five military posts. Such uninterrupted trust and constant promotion fully illustrate Zeng Guofan's urgent mood of learning from the West. As a result, Yung Hong officially stepped into his official career, became an official of the Qing government, made his mark in the Westernization Movement and made positive contributions.