Evaluate the causes and failure of the self-strengthening movement. How did its failure affect China up to 1912?

It was a failure for the Qing in the long term for it aroused Western

during the Zhou Dynasty, China was experiencing a great deal of political turmoil. A major part of this era was called the Period of the Warring States. It was a time when there were numerous wars that occurred due to the conflict that existed between seven states. (Watkins, 2013) These warring states were the Han, Wu, Zhao, Chu, Qi, Yan and Jin. According to Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler of the book Traditions and Encounters, “This period forced some people to reflect on the nature of society, and the roles of humans beings within society.” The authors continued saying that it forced others to “identify principles that would restore political and social order.” (Bentley & Ziegler, 2011) The principles of Confucianism were established and followed in order to help the citizens of China to live and govern their communities more efficiently. Through Confucianism, Confucius helped legitimize China’s rule and bring about order in the mist of turmoil. The effects of Confucius’ principles are still seen and felt today in many aspects of modern day Chinese society. Veritably, there were points throughout Chinese history where Confucianism affected almost every aspect of life in China. Confucius has impacted the development of Chinese thought and culture in various ways from education to politics, to familial relationships.

Traditions & Encounters: Chapter 8, page 185: “Confucius emphasized personal qualities like ren, li, and xiao because he believed that individuals who possessed those traits would gain influence in the larger society...only through enlightened leadership by morally strong individuals was there any hope for the restoration of political and social order in China” This quote demonstrates the main three principles that Confucianism was based upon are what Confucius believed would better society. These principles would create a stronger government, leading to better policies, and a stronger sense of unity in the people.

Confucianism in China had been a way of life, a state ideology as well as a combined philosophical, religious, and social system. Fundamentally, Confucianism focused on

However, the Confucian culture is exclusive to the contemporary political culture. In contemporary China, although socialist political culture has been widely spread and the actually implemented with the aid of the power of the state apparatus, people are still unable to completely get rid of the influence and control of traditional Confucian culture. In Confucian culture, the unity political view had the most influence, and the divine right of authority and the benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith, combined with the Chinese characteristic of the small peasant consciousness, made socialist political system also exist some traces of traditional political culture inevitably, and a large amount of the residual traditional culture values affect the process of political development in a variety of ways (Bell, 2010). Today as you can see, the development of market economy makes profound changes taken place in people's social interest structure. Corresponding to it, while people's political consciousness is fundamentally unified under the banner of socialism and patriotism, but the concrete political tendencies such as political attitude, emotion and policy orientation appear differentiation, which

Confucianism is a traditional ideology that has already penetrated into every Chinese head. Its main principle is to follow the past, changes and new technologies or new objects are not necessary. Whatever happened in the past are the best standards to follow. The way that Qing government responded after being defeated in the Opium War was shocking from current perspective. China accepted all the unfair treaties to cover the

The unification of China was under the dynasties Qin and Han. There were formed schools of thought called Confucians, Daoists, and Legalists. These school of thoughts worked to bring political and social stability to China during the rule of the late Zhou dynasty which were chaotic years. Legalist principles and imposed centralized imperial rule were adopted by rulers of the Qin and Han dynasties. Political stability was the foundation of economic prosperity for the Han dynasty. There was a search of political and social order, unification of China, and a transition from economic prosperity to social disorder.

Thesis- Confusionism was a very good and effective way to make people respect others. Argument development- confucianism was easy way to Rule China because it helped with people stop having wars for power.

After the Opium Wars, Chinese intellectuals had started to become aware of China’s weakness on the world stage. By 1900, defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, the failure of the Boxer Rebellion and the humiliating treaties that followed, made it clear to all. The old empire was in decline with the inadequacies of tradition exposed. A critique of the Confucian Doctrine, had begun. China needed to rejuvenate, rewriting the weaknesses of the old empire into a youthful nation. The questioning of nationhood coincided with a rising class of literati learning outside of China. Those such as Liang Qichao, believed that the huge gap between China and the West was not because of race but different educational systems within which, the education of children was vital. Ideas of Social Darwinism and the survival of the nation spread, furthering the symbolism of the child through the prism of the nation. Reformers in this class fervently critiqued the Civil Service Examination system in relation to foreign aggression. Lin Shu denotes, “thousands of literati were trained to be familiar with Confucian classics and historical books, but they had no ability to deal with invaders.” In this way,

Therefore, with no incentive to produce, the economy stagnated due to the state’s rigid economic control, and unrest among the lower class grew. As China moved toward socialism, the nation contradicted itself ; the Communist party tried to maintain strict control while still achieving economic growth, which generated conflict between the household, the collective, and the state.

Furthermore, the Marxist revolutionary government of Communist China dealt with Confucianism negatively. “In the early 20th century, both before and after the fall of the Qing dynasty, Confucianism was harshly criticized by the New Culture Movement. (Adler 6)” The assumption of this movement was that “virtually everything about China’s traditional culture was holding it back from becoming a modern nation-state.” In fact, Confucianism was high on the list of culprits in this “blanket rejection” of traditional China. “The New Culture Movement criticized Confucianism for its age and gender-based hierarchies, which had become quite rigid during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Communist thinkers also joined this anti-Confucian trend, so by the time of the Communist victory in 1949 Confucianism in mainland China seemed virtually dead. (Adler 7)” “After the Communists took power their anti-Confucian rhetoric only increased. In addition to their professed opposition to social hierarchies, they viewed Confucianism as a feudal ideology. (Adler 8)”

Following Feng Guifen’s [the innovator the movement] view on Self Strengthening, why then did the the movement fail? The period of 1860 through to 1864, between the end of the Third War with the West and the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, were

In nineteenth-century China the idea of reform was beginning to develop, especially, with the introduction of the Westerners and their technology. Reform and self-strengthening in China were seen as a beneficial concept to some Chinese leaders. Many scholarly Chinese had different opinions about reform and Western methods. Woren greatly opposed Western reform and the self-strengthening movement, but several people felt that it was good in moderation, such as Xue Fucheng, Zhang Zhidong, and Wang Tao. Tan Sitong and Liang Qichao, who were considered "radical" reformers, loved the idea of reform and were all for the Western methods. These six reformers debated and fought for what they truly believed but the reform of China was inevitable and

1900s China saw a century of fluctuating development and progress, which is recognised through various political, economic and social changes. The early division of the period encountered some change for the country yet this was not as significant as the latter change in which China’s political landscape metamorphosed into one of total contrast to the former. Foreign intervention was of course a reason and usually the root cause for the changes that occurred, particularly in the first half of the century until 1962 whereby there were still some minor influences by the foreigners but other factors seemed to have caused these later changes. It could be deduced that yes, foreign powers did have a significant influence over the transformation

The Great Leap Forward is well-known for the failed economic and social campaign started by the Communist Party of China in between 1958 to 1961. The Communist triumph in China by mobilization of peasants and civilians to fend off Japanese military during World War II and the Nationalist soldiers in the civil war between 1946 and 1949. After the success of using the man power throughout the mobilization, the Party believed that they could apply the same method for the economic development. Before the Communist Party took over the country in 1949, China was in under poor agriculture based economy with its infancy level of industrialization which makes China remaining in less developed country. The majority of the population in the rural area lived upon the labor-intensive farming. In order to alleviate regarding issue, Mao assured that the central government need to induce the nation to focus on “the transition from socialism to communism” for the entire country (Mesiner, 1977, p. 227). The socialist state of the nation was yet to be consolidated in the beginning of 1958. The reorganization of the country from socialism to communism portrayed as idealistic idea under impoverished state. Nevertheless, the Party considered this immature state of socialist society as an opportunity to improve the nation as whole. In 1958, the new Chinese Communist Party initiated the Great Leap Forward movement which implementing the collectivization by merging small group of local farmers into