The Relation Between Overseas Students From Japanese Military School And Modernization Of Chinese Military Thoughts (1894-1924)

Before the Opium War, military thought still remained in the Medieval state, with the Chinese traditional military thought occuping the dominant place. Great military thoughts once appeared in the long feudal society. Many outstanding ancient books on the art of war like The Art of War summarized lots of basic laws of war in feudal age, the thought thus revealed was the result of competition for supremacy among great nations or dynastic wars under the condition of small peasant economy. It has followed a stereotype without new flow of injection for 2000 years.While the military thought of western countries took on a completely different look in the 19th century,. The system of western bourgeois military thought gradually formed. Napoleon, Clausewitz, Mahan and so on were famous representatives of that time. The western military thought not only revealed the basic rules of war but established a set of new military principle and tactical system.From the Opium War to the eve of the Westernization Movement, the modernization of Chinese military thought was in its infancy. The Opium War breaked the stagnation and confinement of Chinese military thought for thousands of years. The advanced people in landlord class and "Westernization" group, taking Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan as their representatives, proposed series of military ideas against aggression through reflection, such as "surpassing barbarians by learning from them" and the "traditional Chinese values embedded with Western management and technology". These ideas provided an opportunity for the bud of modern military thought of China.Before the Meiji Restoration, the Western military thought had begun to spread in Japan. China's crushing defeat in the Opium War gave the Japanese government awareness of the enormous power by solid ships and effective guns of the Western invaders. It followed therefore the fact that the Western military thought poured into Japan. Japan's Meiji Restoration opened the way for Japanese bourgeois military thought. During that period, the German Clausewitz's On War, Mahan's Sea Power and so on exerted a profound influence on the modernization of the Japanese military thought. Japan armed with modern military thought once kept in the advanced position in the wars of expansion, such as the Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War and so on.The crushing defeat of Qing troops in the Sino-Japanese War exposed a sharp contradiction between advanced military equipment and backward military system, and showed serious weakness in training, education and military qualities of officers and soldiers. Many far-sighted persons went to Japan to study military affairs. The group of overseas students from Japanese military school therefore took shape, among which Cai E and JiangBaili as its representatives advocated setting up a new military system instead of the old one and following the example of Japanese's studying western essence and enhancing national and military strength. The army forming thought of oversea students from Japanese military school had a decisive effect on the modernization of Chinese military thought. In1924, the foundation of the Whampoa Military Academy marked the final establishment of the Chinese bourgeois military thought.