The Opinion Of Shenbao During The Modernization Between 1895 And 1898

Newspaper keeps the real condition of time and history. They wrote down the subject and the opinion of the past. There are more and more researches based on the newspaper information these years. The old newspaper is recognized as a big treasure of historical materials. Reading old newspaper can help us to broaden the scale of historical researches. Shenbao had not only the longest history but also the most popular among the old newspaper in Shanghai. Undoubtedly, its opinion was representative.The articles in Shenbao were countless and variety. This thesis chose articles that focused on the politic reform, the economic problems, the military affairs, and the education area from 1895 to 1898.In the education area, Shenbao advocated to abolish stereotyped writing and select officials by the test on their abilitis to deal with the social reality. So it supported to open schools in western style, and found JINSHI Giant School like a sample. According to the JINSHI Giant School, the government should establish new schools all over the world, and found a new education system across variety levels. Meanwhile, Shenbao payed a big attention to the women education. Educated women would have ability to take part in the social production and gain the equal right with men.Although Shenbao had a large confidence with its own opinion, it expressed worry about the reform. Because the editors of Shenbao were all educated in the old system and they used to keep a hope to be high officials by the imperial examination, they knew the exactly stubborn of the old system.For the economic problems, Shenbao emphasized on the trade. Manufacturing is the base of trade, and mineral products is the base of railway, and the railway is an important fact of trade. They three had a tight relationship. Actually the modern newspaper in Shanghai was firstly printed for the overseas trade. The earliest newspaper always published the schedules of those foreign merchant ships and the prices of there products. Whatever business, Shenbao advocated developing them by establishing stock companies. These opinions maybe had something with the Britain capital of Shenbao. So it opposed the Qing government controlling in trade.About military afire, Shenbao recommended reducing the olds and the weaks in the army. In addition, the army should check the exact number ofthe soldiers in order to prevent cheating pay and provision. Besides, the army should be practiced in a western way, and the military schools were needed urgently. All these opinions were good uses of the western modern military theories.As to the political issue, Shenbao did not give any key suggestions, which was really a pity. Because of the strict control from Qing government and the conservative chief editor, the discussion about the parliamentary was skin-deep.Last but not the least, the preface of this thesis described the present situation of the old newspaper research. And the ending part of this thesis expounded the developing of the public discussing space in the late Qing Dynasty.