A Research On The Modernization Of Military Education In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China（1840-1927）

The Opium War in1840subjected the Qing Dynasty to the painful blow from thewestern capitalist countries for the first time. The bitter defeat of the army and the harshinvasion of foreign vessels and cannons shocked the whole country. This cruel fact indicatedthat the old military training projects and selection standards were outdated and unfit to trainmodern military talents. It was a historical tendency and necessity to create new-type militaryeducation. The Reformers led by Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan proposed new military opinionssuch as “beating barbarians with barbaric tactics”. This urged the country to train new-typemilitary personnel together with other factors such as the threat from western big powers, theexample of modern military civilization and the main trend of the times of saving andenriching the country and establishing a strong army.Since1960s, the military modernization movement, pushed by the Westernization Group,rose with the slogan of “self-improvement”. Its first step was to set up modern militaryindustry. The utilization of western military equipment brought about essential changes inmilitary education: the modern western methods of military training and management wereintroduced continuously; some new military education contents emerged in successionincluding mathematical knowledge, military theories, strategy and tactics, weaponmanufacturing principles and maritime knowledge. In the Westernization Movement, militaryeducation stayed on the superficial level of learning western military technologies and didn’tadvanced to the realization of the modernization of military systems and military thoughts. Itwas true that the guiding thought of “Westernized Chinese Style” was a breakthrough in themodernization of military education, but there was little prospect of further development. Themilitary modernization could not be realized without the transformation of military systemsand military thoughts. Nevertheless, with the developments of China’s military educationmade by the Westernization Group, the entire society began to progre ss along its own path.The establishment of a series of military industrial institutions including FuzhouShip-building Bureau promoted the development of civilian industries; the national bourgeoisie developed rapidly; studying in America for children and studying in Europebroadened people’s vision; the intellectual class with modern democratic consciousnessbegan to form, etc. For military education, the thought of quick success and instant benefitsbegan to change gradually. The learning of western military education had gone far beyondthe range of “excellent skills” and extended to western military systems and military concepts,breaking through the fences of unifying Confucianism. During the period of New Policies inthe late Qing Dynasty, the government actively adopted the military education reform whichwas firstly advocated by some ministers of foreign affairs and began to absorb westernmilitary systems and educational contents. The military education reform had quietly becomethe fashion in the society. Military education altered the unplanned situation of isolation andblind development so that a relatively formal military education system began to beestablished and that military education institutionalization came into being.After the Revolution of1911, the establishment of the bourgeois regime laid thefoundation for the full absorption of western culture. While absorbing western culture, thebourgeoisie started to examine the problem of the localization of military education, trying tofind a meeting point between traditional education and western education. The tendencybegan to emerge of military education localization. The reason that the Huangpu MilitaryAcademy became one of the four most famous in the world was that it combined theadvanced western training methods and training ideas with China’s military reality andrealized the localization and characteristic construction of military education. The bourgeoisiewith Sun Zhongshan as the representative learned the importance of developing militaryeducation and building a revolutionary army in their pursuit of success of the bourgeoisrevolution. They actively learned from the experiences of Russian October Revolution, tookinto consideration China’s social reality and proposed the educational aims of saving thecountry and the people. The formation of the System of Party Representatives and of theSystem of Political Department made come true the modern military concept that the partycommanded the gun and that military education must be combined with political education.The Huangpu spirit of patriotism, solidarity and sacrifice reflected the perfect combination of China’s traditional military culture and western culture. The imitation, absorption andtransformation of western military systems showed the positive attitudes of awakenedChinese military educators to western military culture.We could find through research that the development of China’s military educationmodernization underwent a process changing from passive to initiative attitudes and from theunplanned to planned situation, reflecting some modern characteristics such asdemocratization, secularization, institutionalization, scientism and pragmaticality. In thecourse of its development, its influences transcended the military field and penetrated into allaspects of society. It led the modernized development of China’s early industry and education,exerted a profound impact on the military, politics and economics of modern China andpromoted the development of modern nationalism. While fully evaluating the achievementsof the modernized development of military education, we should also be aware of itsdrawbacks, limitations and thought-provoking lessons such as the imbalance of regionaldevelopment, the imbalance of military services, the tendency of private education,factionalism, etc. The course of military education development in the late Qing Dynasty andthe early Republic of China revealed to us that national management was a prerequisite forachieving military education modernization, that the modernization of political system was itsfoundation, that national unity and social stability were its safeguard and that the innovativeconcept of military education was the linchpin to train military talents.