On General Nie Shicheng In The Late Qing Dynasty

In the battle resisting foreign aggressions of the Chinese nation, such names as Lin Zexu , Guan Tianpei , Deng Shichang and Ding Ruchang have been embedded in the mind of Chinese. However, the name of Nie Shicheng has been neglected. Merits and demerits of his are drowned in the large quantity of historical documents as a confusing issue. Basing on historical facts, this thesis discusses Nie Shicheng objectively by analyzing his actions and thoughts.This thesis is made up of six parts.In the first part, the fact that Nie Shicheng becomes famous when suppressing the peasant uprising is discussed. Nie Shicheng initially takes imperial examination aiming at becoming an official member and renounces the pen for the sword by accident. He participated in the suppression of the peasant uprising after joining the army and became a governor-general because of his bravery. Putting down the peasant uprising has been Nie Shi Cheng's lifetime satin. Being thrown in a condition with sharp class contradictions, Nie Shicheng's"mistakes"should be examined correctly.Part II focuses on Nie Shicheng's bravery and wisdom when resisting the imperialist invasion. During the latter half part of the 19th century, the weak China becomes the plunder object of the imperialistic countries, they successively launches China-France War and China-Japan War of 1894-1895. When resisting foreign invasions, Nie Shicheng leads the subordinate troops to fight the enemy bravely. At the same time, he sums up the battle experiences and hits the enemy heavily. On the approaching of lots of enemies, the brave and wise Nie Shicheng sets a solid defense line called by Li Hongzhang as"a Great Wall".Part III concentrates on Nie Shicheng's arranging the resolute new army under orders from the royal government. Basing on"the old order of Huai Army"and consulting Germany army's organizational system, Nie Shicheng divides his army into 32 battalions and sets general headquarter and Wu Jun as two subordinate parts. In the field of training, he also takes Germany army as model. Furthermore, he composes the training, battle method, battle thoughts and fighting in coordination into a book. With the efforts of Nie Shicheng's, the Wu Yi New Army arranged and trained by him becomes a crack force in the Bei Yang Army and achieved great effects in actual combats.Part IV presents Nie Shicheng's frontier thoughts. In his lifetime, his Dong You Ji Cheng costing eight months and a travel of 23,000 li is beyond reproach. This book contains four volumes in total, recording historical evolution and local customs etc., and puts forward distinctive views on such frontier conditions as military geography, stationed troop defense and post road. All these reveal Nie Shicheng's frontier thoughts characterized with strengthening frontier defense and developing frontier. Resulting from Nie Shicheng's on-the-spot investigation, therefore, this book has great historical value on research into the northeast border defense and regional history.Part V turns to Nie Shicheng's heroic death for the motherland when resisting Eight Allied Powers. After China-Japan War of 1894-1895, the imperialism countries raise the violent upsurge of dividing up China. To resist the nation crisis, the anti-aggression Boxer breaks. Nie Shicheng kills the Boxers and later cooperates with them to resist foreign invasions under orders, and dies for the motherland because of being hopelessly outnumbered.Part VI is the conclusion part. Nie Shicheng's life is a legend one, and his tragic life is determined by the epoch of his. As the product of the time, this tragedy is caused by the time, the society and the individual. As a member of the ruling class in the feudalist society, nurtured by feudalistic ideas, Nie Shicheng's thoughts and activity are both bonded by it. Therefore, in the conflicts of the royal government's doubt, the peasant uprising's hatred and others'confusion, Nie Shicheng chooses a road of fighting the enemy bravely and being killed in the battle.