Westernization movement

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After the Opium War，many Chinese intellectuals recognized that Western civilization had an advantage over chinese civilization，so they called for learning from the West in order some day to defeat it.Following the model of Lin Zexu who advocated：Pay the Western foreigner back in his own coin” ，such intellectuals as Zeng Cuofan ，Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang ，etc.，launched the Westernization Movement to introduce techniques of Western capitalist pro duction Their intent was to modernize in order to preserve the rule of the Qing government.They built shipyards，textile mills and so on；especially they developed the northern Navy ，whose total tonnage ranked first in Asia and eighth in the world.On the surface，the Qing seemed to be developing idly in the area of technology and manufacturing，which is to say that it seemed to have begun its modernization.But in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895，the Northern Navy of the Qing dynasty was defeated.The loss of this war was con sidered to be the failure of the westernization movement as a way of modernizing China，for the Northern Navy was the comprehensive embodiment of that Movement.The Chinese had drawn another lesson from the defeat and began to doubt the existing system.

The fact that the grand Middle Kingdom was defeated by a So-called little Uncivilized country awakened more Chinese.Many people felt this to be really galling andhumil iating.But after drawing a lesson from this bitter experience the Chinese began to realize that Western civilization includednot only material civilization，but also political and economic systems，and that the latter were even more important.As a result，such intellectuals as Kang Youwei ，Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong initiated the Reform movement of 1898.They wanted to modernize China by copying the West ern political and economic systems which had been learned by the Japanese before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.

Liang Qichao For example, to reform the old government organization, to better staff and simplify administration, to abolish the an cient Chinese examination system, to build new Western-style schools, to permit people to freely set up newspapers and soci eties, to establish General Bureaus of Railways, Mines, Agriculture, Industry and Business, etc. They even recommended an English man, Timothy Richard, as an adviser of Emperor Guangxu. Finally, however, this was bitterly stran gled by conservative feudal forces because the Empress Dowager Cixi felt that the movement threatened her power, and some staff wanted to retain their stature The failure of the Reform Movement produced many more repercussions than that of the Westernization movement Many of the advanced intellectuals of china came to find that the modernization of China could not succeed only by ad vancing the material civilization and reforming the he political and economic systems without introducing the modern West ern ideas and the beliefs which underlay the western civilization. This led finally to some movements, whose central point was Down with Confucianism. ? But as Down with the Con fucianismmeant essentially Down with China’s Own World, the movement destroyed the soul and the spiritual universe of the Chinese. As a result, it did not succeed in integrating the essence of Chinese civilization with the program of modernization .

The Chief Reason for the failures Why did the great movements of modern Chinese history not achieve their goal of modernizing China? The principal reason was that the leaders of the movements fell into a ni hilism regarding Chinese civilization. The Westernization Movement was to modernize China by learning Western sci ence and technology. The reform Movement was to modern ize China by imitating the Western political and economical systems. Both these reflect a deeper level of nihilism regarding Chinese civilization. Because of this they all chose Western patterns as the prescription for dealing with the problems of Chinese modernization and failed to integrate these into the dominant trends of Chinese civilization they failed to see the importance of its unique culture.

In fact，in the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties，a Confucian transformation was led by three great Confu cians：Wang Chuanshan ，Huang Zongxi and gu yanwu .They found that though the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties had been prosperous，these dynasties were subjugated by two foreign nations respectively，the Yuan and Qing dynasties.They noted that the Confucianism of the Song and ming dynasties laid particular stress on the”Inner Sage or self-cultivation，but lost sight of establishing the”Outer King.Thus，they want ed to transform Confucianism from the”Inner Sage to the“Outer King mode But this way was not pursued consistently.Up to Qianlong and Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty textual criticism was absent，so the approach of transforming Confucianism was cut Neither the Westernization nor the reform movement led to a transformation.All agreed the problem to be that of the”Outer King，which was approached in two manners for Gu YanwuHuang Zongxi and Wang Chuanshan it was through Chinese national traditions；for Zeng Guofan，Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang’sWesternization Movement and Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao’s Reform Movement it was through Western Learning.Therefore，both approaches were fundamentallyminority movements，rather than movements of Chinese na tional life .

Later on a figure who introduced Western ideology intothe Chinese minds.That was Yan Fu ，the first president of Peking University Yan Fu was born in Fujian Province in 1854.When he was young，he was admitted into a school studying the knowl edge of ships.When he graduated there at 19，he was sent to the navy and had been working as an intern for five years.after that，he was also sent to study navigation at Greenwich University in Britain.However，in 1902，he was appointed as the president of Translation Bureau of Jingshi Daxuetang ，which could be called the mother of Peking University.From then on，his career shifted from navigation to education .

For the first time in the Chinese history Western Ideas were transferred in China by Yan Fu’s Translation of Aldous Huxlley’s work Evolution and Ethnics.The Chinese version he put was Tianyanlun，which caused tremendous impacts upon the minds of the Chinese intellectuals.In addition，he did something important to develop new education in China .

In 1912，Yan Fu was appointed as the chief guardian of Jingshi Daxuetang.In May this year，the name of Jingshi Daxuetang was changed into Peking University.AndYan Fu ac cordingly became the first president of it.However，in October，because of complicated reasons，he was forced to resign Although he was in power just for several months in PekingUniversity.

In june 1912.as a result of excessive investment of the Yuan-Shikai government on military construction，the de partment of finance tried to reduce the budgets on education，and the funds allocated to Peking University were cut.Worse still，on July 7th，the department of education ordered Peking University to close the door.Realizing the importance of edu cation for a country’s fate and status，Yan Fu wrote a two thousand character article to argue that Peking University should be operated not only to nurture the future constructors for the country but also to conserve and disseminate the culture.he also wrote about the reform measures which were to be taken to improve the university.After long struggles with the government，the department of education agreed to con serve Peking University.Moreover，the propaganda of the importance of Peking University initiated by Yan Fu also won the international position for it.On july 29th，British educational Council and London University acknowledged Peking University as a university, which also laid foundation for the international academic status of Peking University Besides, Yan Fu had also performed reforms to the teaching of Peking University, which proved to be effective However. due to the friction with the government resulting from the protection of Peking University, Yan Fu was forced to leave the university in October.