The Early Meiji Reform In The Eyes Of The PU PAO(1872-1879)

The Meiji Reform has epoch-making significance in Japanese history, which played important role in Japanese Modernization. In a narrow sense, the reform meant anti-Tokugawa alliance used force against the Tokugawa and raised the Meiji oligarchy, which we called "the Meiji Restoration". In a broad sense, it meant modernization and reform in public administration, education, society and so on from 1853 to 1893. During this period, how much did Chinese know about the Meiji Reform? What was the attitude of Chinese public opinion to such reform? How did the reform influence Chinese reform? This thesis focuses its lines on those questions and tries to give some answers by reviewing the reports and critics about the Meiji Reform on the PU PAO during the period of 1872 to 1879.The thesis consists of introduction and four chapters.Introduction: To introduce in a detail way of the significance on selecting the topic, the related research retrospection from the abroad and at home, and the research emphasis in the thesis.The first chapter: the PU PAO reports of the early Meiji Reform. In the chapter, the content will be shown in tables to compare in detail on the PU PAO reports and comments of the Meiji Reform from the yearl872 to 1879. During that period, there was a total of 306 relative reports, among which 155 concerning economics, 59 concerning culture and education, 58 concerning politics and law, and 34 military affairs. The economic aspect involved transportation and communication; finance, monetary and trade; mining and land cultivation. The culture and education aspect contained social customs, school education, and culture revolution. The politics and law aspect involved politics and criminal law revolution, and the resistant movements. The aspect of military affairs focused on a series of Japan military reforms at that time, without mentioning the events of Japan's invasion in Taiwan and in Ryukyu. Three parts will be discussed related to this aspect, which are armament promotion, military service reform and military education.The second chapter, the timeliness of the PU PAO reports on Japan Meiji Reform. The timeliness not only reflects the PU PAO's sensitivity of the Meiji Reform, but also shows that the focus of The PU PAO was the Meiji Reform. By classifying and analyzing the materials, it is found that the PU PAO paid much attention to the transportation development and the domestic public reflection at the early time of the Meiji Reform. In this chapter, the timeliness of the PU Pao reports on the MeijiReform will be discussed by analyzing the reports on the above events. In the aspect of transportation development, the PU PAO once reported the railway and shipping development of Japan. The PU PAO had reported continuously on Japan's railway and the Mitsubishi Coastal Shipping Company development process. Besides that, the PU PAO fed back timely the public reflection in Japan by reporting a series of resistant movements, which were the peasant resistance on the land-tax reform before and after the year 1873, the Satsusa Rebellion of 1877, and the murder of Okubo in 1878.The third chapter: the inclination and attitude of the PU PAO's reports. In this chapter I will mainly discuss the inclination and attitude of the PU PAO's reports on the early Meiji Reform. As the PU PAO was founded by a British man called Richard and had its office in the foreign settlement in Shanghai, the attitude of its reports and comments was quite neutral. However, the paper was published in China and was read mainly by the Chinese people. In addition, the chief editors of the PU PAO were the traditional scholars. Therefore, the reports and commentaries about the Meiji Reform in the paper were also influenced by the social value judgment of that time. In particular, the newspaper took an obvious attitude and inclination when reporting the political and social revolution of the Meiji Reform. In this chapter, the attitude and inclination of the PU PAO's reports on the Meiji Reform will be discussed from two aspects, which are the reports of...