The Chinese People's Perception Of Germany And Its Influence In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China

During the period of late Qing and early republican china,China had frequent exchanges with those western powers in areas of politics,economics,military,culture,etc.Germany is not an exception.The Federal Republic of Germany was united in 1871,and Germany was officially born.After that,China and Germany had kept close relationship.Because of that,Chinese people were concerned much about Germany.Chinese would analyze and comment on Germany's country image,important political events related to Germany or Germany's advanced culture.This is Chinese people's knowledge about Germany.People who paid close attention to Germany not only include leading politicians like Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong,diplomatic envoys like Zhang Deyi and Liu Xihong,intellectual elites like Liang Qichao and Zhang Taiyan,and political elites like Sun Zhongshan and Song Jiaoren,but also many obscure intellectuals,journalists,magazine editors etc.They also wrote articles about their views or comments about Germany for the discussion of the intellectual circle and for the reference of the government.Of course,the reason why Chinese people made comments on Germany is that they tried to learn experience from Germany.Therefore,many influences arose based on Chinese people's knowledge about Germany,which include influences on the ideological level and the material level.There are many studies on the influence on the material level already,and therefore,this paper will focus on the influence on the ideological level.This paper takes Chinese people's knowledge about Germany and the ideological influence arose based on such knowledge during 1870-1920 as its study object.This period also starts from the Franco-Prussian War and ends at the end of World War I.This paper is composed of three chapters,and its main contents are as follows:The first chapter is "From Franco-Prussian War to Germany Occupying Jiaozhou".Having seen Germany's excellent performance in the Franco-Prussian War,many Chinese people thought that the reason why Germany could beat the capitalist power France is that it had good armament.Therefore,China should actively introduce German armament.This kind of view was in support of the Westernization Group that had relatively advanced thoughts at that time.Of course,compared to the contemporaries,the intellectual from the early reform faction Wang Tao had more comprehensive and deeper view about Germany.He saw the excellent political and military systems behind Germany's strong military power.Besides Wang Tao,ideologists from the early reform faction Zheng Guanying,famous diplomatist Zhang Deyi and scholars of Shun Pao also held their own view about the war.In the 1800's,China and Germany had kept a good relationship.Chinese people considered Germany as their good friend and teacher.Learning from Germany is the mainstream in Chinese people's knowledge about Germany during this period.China's envoys in Germany Liu Xihong and Li Fengbao advocated learning from Germany in the military area.Diplomatist Zhang Deyi gave detail introduction to all aspects of Germany in his work Wushuqi.The early reform fraction which is represented by Zheng Guanying and Xue Fu hoped China learn from Germany in all aspects,including Germany's constitutional monarchy.After Germany occupying Jiaozhou Bay,China's attitude towards Germany took a sharp downward turn.The intellectual circle strongly condemned Germany,but intellectuals did not have enough power,and therefore dared not advocate declaring war to Germany.What's more,the intellectual circle realized that Germany had kept on plotting for a long time to occupy Jiaozhou.Germany's clergymen being killed is just an excuse.Germany occupying Jiaozhou became the precedent for western powers dividing China into several spheres of influence,and led to the torrent of western powers carving up China.Therefore,China had to reform itself to avoid perishing.The second chapter is "Influence of Germany on China's Intellectual Circle at the End of 19 th Century and the Beginning of 20 th Century".This is an active period for China's intellectual circle.Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao from the constitutional party as well as Sun Zhongshan from the revolutionary group stepped onto the historical stage one after another.They learned from foreign experience and offered advice for China's future development.Kang Youwei had always had favorable impression on Germany.After his journey to Germany in 1904,Kang Youwei had even better impression on Germany.He thought Germany's constitutional monarchy was more suitable for China compared to France's democratic republicanism.Therefore,Kang Youwei insisted on learning from Germany's constitutional monarchy.When exiled to Japan after the Hundred Days Reform Failure,Liang Qichao once had favorable impression on democracy and republicanism.However,after he had read Germany ideologists Bluntschli and Bornhak's analysis of democracy republican system,he changed his views,and began to oppose democracy and republicanism and advocate enlightened despotism.Based on Bismarck's Blood-and-Iron policy,and taking China's reality into consideration,Yang Du put forwards the unique Gold-iron Theory.Besides that,in the forming process of "nationalism" discourse,German factors had played an nonnegligible role.First,Germany's mono-ethnic way of establishing the country was acknowledged by China's intellectual circle.Later,German ideologist Bluntschli's theory once again inspired Liang Qichao,and made him come up with the big-nationality chauvinism,which had promoted the building of Modern Chinese's nationalism discourse.The third chapter is "the Knowledge of the Intellectual Circle about Germany during European War and its Influence ".After the European War broke out,China's intellectual circle analyzed the cause of why Germany started the war,and they thought that the reason has its ideological root.To be more specific,it is due to Germanism,militarism and evolutionism.It also has its economic root,that is to meet the need of capitalist development.What's more,it has its realistic root.Germany's sharpening conflicts with other countries made the war become inevitable.At the beginning of the European War,based on Germany's advantages on the battlefield,the intellectual circle acknowledged Germany's power and analyzed the reason of Germany's success.The conclusion is that it is due to its militarism.There are relatively more intellectuals who agreed with it,with a few rationalists.When analyzing Germany's militarism,the intellectual circle also reflected on China's related problems.Besides that,the intellectual circle also predicted the future trend of the war.Most intellectuals made relatively objective analysis.They did not think Germany will win the final success just because it had advantages at the beginning stage of the war.In the middle and later stage of the European War,the intellectual circle analyzed and made comments on Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare,and discussed the issue of whether China should declare war to Germany.After the European War,the intellectual circle cheered Germany's defeat.They thought that right finally triumphed over might.They also reflected upon Germany's militarism and power politics.The previous favorable impression on militarism was gone,replaced by denouncement and condemnation towards it.What's more,the intellectual circle also made prediction about Germany's future direction after the war.Some people thought that Germany would thoroughly reform itself,while some others believed Germany would stage a comeback.After the study of the paper,we can find that in late Qing and early republican china,Chinese people were concerned much about Germany.There are many wise thoughts and comments about Germany,which reflects the wisdom of our predecessors.Based on the knowledge about Germany,many important influences emerged,which had accelerated China's modernization process.What's more,the foothold of Chinese people's concerns about and reflection on German issues is still China itself.Any analysis and evaluation about Germany was made with the attempt of making China stronger.Therefore,saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival is indeed the theme of China's modern history.It has always been the starting point when Chinese people thinking about problems and also the core task of the intellectual circle.