The Three Reformation In The Late Qing Dynasty And Historical Enlightenment

In just 60 years, the government of late Qing Dynasty frequently conducted new deals and political reforms, including three national-scale ones: Westernization Movement in late 1960s, 1898 Reform of the late nineteenth century, and the late Qing Dynasty's New Deal at the beginning of the twentieth century. Westernization Groups advocated to employ western instruments, to be rich and strong, to pursue pacification, to be independent so that we can resist foreign aggression. The ideological views proposed by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao as well as the omni-bearing political reform of late Qing Dynasty's New Deal all claimed to advocate reform, richen the country and strengthen the army and rescue the country, which devoted to solving the serious social problems and saving the whole Chinese nation. However, all these reforms ended with failure. This paper takes primary analysis and studies in the history facts of the three reforms, acknowledging that although there are some deficiencies, they played a positive role in modern and contemporary history of China and have a reference meaning to current social development.This paper is divided into three parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. In the introduction part, the author looks back on the academic researches of the three reforms of late Qing Dynasty, and proposes the purposes and basis of the paper. The body part consists of five chapters. The first chapter is about the first history reform—Westernization Movement, analyzing its background, acts and evaluations. The second chapter focuses on the second reform—1898 Reform, analyzing its reasons, contents and influences. And the third chapter examines the third reform—late Qing Dynasty's New Deal, analyzing and commenting on its initiative, practice and history impacts. The fourth chapter generalizes the history inspiration of these three reforms in the late Qing Dynasty, aiming at gaining some experience for the present reform and opening. Basing on the analysis in this thesis, the conclusion part hold that the national crisis, social crisis and the fast developing social trend of thoughts are obvious contracts of the old, rusted and ill-functioned government machine of Qing Dynasty, it is impossible for the government to continue any reform and have some success,so that it must be replaced by bourgeoisie revolution of higher level.In the 21st century, facing with a more complicated national and international situation, China is carrying on deepening the reforms of all aspects. Facing the present reform, we ought to learn the experience and lessons from the failure of the three reforms during the late Qing Dynasty and correctly handle the relationship of reform, development and stability.