The Research On Pi Xirui’s Reform Thoughts

Since the modern times,the two successive defeats of the Opium War and the Sino-French War have repeatedly declared the China ’s poverty,vulnerabilities and backwardness.Under the spurs of being beaten and colonized again and again,the desire to save the country and make it strong began to accumulate and upsurge among the Chinese people.China’s crushing defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 made the national salvation important,so the Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898 led by Kang Youwei,Liang Qichao and so on appeared.Pi Xirui is one of the participants.With the rise of the Reform in Hunan,Pi Xirui gradually transformed from a traditional intellectual to a reformist who devoted himself to the reforms.In this Reform,Pi elaborated his thoughts through 12 speeches,which centered on Hunan and the South Society.Politically,based on the Western “group theory”,he criticized the factions’ fight of traditional Chinese academy,and in order to provide a good environment and cohesive forces for the transformation of the political system,he tried to reorganize the bad atmosphere of academic exclusion to achieve the union of intellectuals;Economically,in order to redeem economic privileges and revitalize the economy,he advocated the reform of westernization from the economic system,production,and management methods in combination with local realities,and fought with western powers in business by developing the national industry and commerce;In foreign policy,to meet the needs of the times,he gradually changed the total resistance before the Sino-Japanese War into accepting a broad-minded and advanced western technology and through the speech of the Southern Society,he inspired the wisdom of the people and proposed a foreign policy of "civilized exclusion" timely;In education reform,he initially advocated the abolition of the "selecting scholars based on stereotyped writing" and reformed the content of the imperial examinations.After the rise of the new-style schools,he committed to the practice and the promotion of new-style teaching,and proposed to abolish the imperial examinations.Throughout Pi’s reform thoughts,it covered many aspects such as politics,economy,diplomacy,education,etc.These thoughts were based on China’s history and cultural traditions,which were more adaptable and catered to the Chinese people’s psychological identity under the special era changes.It retained the essence of China’s ideological civilizationfor thousands of years and adapted to the modernization timely.As an intellectual deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture,compared with Kang and Liang,Pi was more traditional and had close contact with Chinese traditional thoughts.If Kang and Liang ’ s reforms were compromises with the tradition,Pi’s reforms were more ambiguous and more moderate.At the same time,compared with Kang and Liang,Pi’s reform practice was limited to local area,and Pi was not as influential as them in the Reform.However,as a speech leader of the Southern Society,he paid attention to the current politics and the development trend,and adapted to the local conditions.The insightful reform proposal had made certain contributions in Hunan to inspire people’s wisdom,improve the social atmosphere,and promote local area’s progress.