Evolution Of Theories Of Person And Weapon In Late Qing Dynasty

The principles of war and the theory system of "person and weaponry" in Chinese tradition military culture, established by Sun-Tzu on the Art of War about two thousands years ago, were looked as authority, so as to nobody after Sun-Tzu was able to surpass it. But the break of Opium War in 1840, made a stern challenge to the thought of "look up spirit, look down matter", so the evolution of thought of "person and weapon" started in the face of the west advanced weaponry. In order to improve the military power of Chinese army, Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan had to broughht forward some new viewpoints, which were called "Eight-Word Principle" and "Study to the West, Beat the West". In the process of Suppreing the Taiping Rebellion, Zeng Guofan, the creator and the leader of Xiang army, made some adjustment between the person and the weapon. In the Westernization Movement, the status of weaponry had been improved obviously, the viewpoints of "weapon first" supported by Li Hongzhang gained the leadership in this period, but The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 overthrow it, Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, no longer cut the person apart form the weapon, they made lots of efforts to unit the person and the weapon by Military system reform. As a result, the evolution of person and the weapon in Late Qing Dynasty had been completed.