A Study On Coastal Defense Thought Of Early Reformist Thinkers

After the outbreak of the Opium War,China faced the first large-scale military threat from the ocean.With the repeated defeats of the Qing Dynasty in the war of aggression against China,the coastal defense crisis and the dynasty crisis were superimposed,which made it worse.After the second opium war,Chinese ideology appeared early reformers,they inherited Lin Zexu,Wei Yuan’s coastal defense thought,learned the lessons of the sea defense defeat,the introduction of western advanced coastal defense thought,and the combination of China’s coastal defense situation and specific national conditions,speak out,emphasize the importance of coastal defense construction,active in the practice of coastal defense construction in the late Qing Dynasty,gradually formed the system of coastal defense thought.The coastal defense thought of the early reformist thinkers can be roughly divided into three stages: 1860-1874 is its generation stage,here,early reformist thinkers under the influence of Lin Zexu,Wei Yuan’s simple coastal defense thought,formed its preliminary coastal defense thought,its "war-defending" coastal defense strategy is a breakthrough to Wei Yuan’s defense "take defense as war" coastal defense thought.The year 1874-1884 was the deepening stage of this thought.This year,when Japan invaded Taiwan,and the government were greatly shocked.Early Reformist thinkers made suggestions for the construction of coastal defense,and their coastal defense thought gradually got rid of the influence of the traditional coastal defense thought of Lin and Wei,and they put forward the " fight with the enemy With the strategic proposition of fighting in the ocean ",it attaches great importance to Taiwan’s defense,and puts forward the idea of cultivating naval talents and building a strong navy.The year 1884-1894 was the climax stage of this thought.During this period,China’s coastal defense crisis was further deepened,and the Qing government also realized the importance of coastal defense construction,and made great progress.The early reformist thinkers put forward the strategic thought of "combination of attack and defense and key defense",and their ideas of coastal defense construction were more specific,such as cultivating naval talents and improving the establishment of the fleet.The coastal defense thought of the early reformist thinkers took patriotism as the core and had obvious stages.Its value lies in the initial awareness of sea power,efforts to protect the country’s maritime rights and interests.Restricted by personal experience and time background,early reformists thinkers coastal defense thought has some limitations: they lack of professional military education,mostly outside the decision-making circle,and in the late Qing dynasty the state was poor and weak,the construction of coastal defense is limited by the lack of funds and it is difficult to develop the grand plan,which also limits the early reformist thinkers to carry out their coastal defense thought.However,it is difficult to criticize the limitation of the individual era.In short,the importance of the early reformist thinkers’ coastal defense thought in promoting the modernization of China’s coastal defense is self-evident.