A Study Of Qian Wenxuan's Patriotism

Qian Wenxuan was born in Guangde, Anhui, as the 32nd descendant of the kingof Wuyue, a state of the Five Dynasties. For the most of his lifetime, he served as thesupervisor of Chinese students studying in England and in the meantime as the Chinesedelegate to several international conferences. He visited quite a lot of Europeancountries, such as Germany, France, Switzerland and Holland.When he was young, he held the ideal for Chinese to become a rich and powerfulcountry, and advocate learning the advanced science and technology from the west.During his years in London as the supervisor, he continuously paid close attention to thedevelopment of science and technology in the west countries and made many invaluablesuggestions to the Qing government for technological application and innovation. Heinitiated the Chinese aviation industry by proposing to the Qing government for thedevelopment of planes and training the first Chinese aviator. When doing his duty inAmerica, he visited and learned from American experts in salt and conductedinvestigations in salt fields. Later, he was the editor of two volumes and the author oftwo monographs on the production and utilization of salt. Besides, his talents andinfluence as a diplomat also won great respect and reputation for his country and hispeople.After returning to his motherland, he held several different posts successively inYunnan, Guizhou, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan, Fujian, and other provinces. His dih'gence inwork, his conscience for duty, his concern for the people's interests, and his strenuouseffort to help alleviate their sufferings brought him not only considerable officialachievements but high praise. Even after his retirement, he was still active in publicwelfare, providing his service for several organizations until the age of 66, when hebegan editing his million-word collected works.This thesis includes four chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the family influence andthe social background, domestic and abroad, for the development of Qian Wenxuan'spatriotic thoughts. In Chapter 2, the author discusses the manifestations and realizations of Qian's love of and devotion to his country: his initiation of the Chinese aviationindustry, his promotion of Chinese farm products to the world market, his reform ofthe Chinese methods for salt production, his effort in public welfare, etc. Chapter 3further explores the main characteristics of Qian Wenxuan's patriotism. By concluding,the author shows in Chapter 4 how Qian's patriotic thoughts and deeds might berevealing to us: the revival of the Chinese nation requires endeavor and devotion fromnumerous people with lofty ideals. Qian's patriotic thoughts and deeds not only set himas an excellent example for the bureaucrats of his time, but bear great relevance to ourtime of social construction. Such patriotism is not to be outdated by time.