A Study Of The Guiyang Court Case Again

Guiyang court case was one of the widely effective court case in the modern Chinese history.Traditional view is that,Guiyang court case was the product of the Western invasion to China,and the ant-invasion acts of China;during the process of dealing with Guiyang court case e,French relied on its powerful national strength and made unreasonable demands, and the Qing government continued to go on the route of compromise and surrender,betraying the national interests.After carefully inspecting the relevant historical data,and combined with the spread of Catholicism in Guizhou Province,as well as the Guizhou's circumstances at that time, and the Qing government's actions focusing on the Guiyang court case,it is not difficult to draw a different conclusion with the traditional view: Guiyang court case was the result of Guizhou's officials and local gentlemen who were dissatisfied with the impact of the Catholic Church's dissemination to their own political and cultural authority,along with attempting to transfer the sharp internal contradiction of Guizhou massive peasant uprising,and it was the result of blind xenophobia;during the negotiation process of the Guiyang court case,the Qing government sized up the situation,through appropriate compromise,and finally got a proper solution and avoided war. While the French missionaries entered Guizhou,they set up schools and developed charities,and these were big challenge to the Guizhou's officials and local gentlemen who possessed the cultural and right resources.In the period of Xianfeng and Tongzhi emperors' rule, Guizhou's class conflicts and ethnic tensions were very acute.The flames of battle were rising all over the province,and the peasant uprising continued,local authority did not have the power to suppress.Then,in order to divert people's attention,the local authority targeted Catholic followers and missionaries of Guizhou,launched blind xenophobia and made Guiyang court case.After the breaking out of court case,French requested to punish murderers and compensated silver according to the established treaty between Chins and French.The Qing government was also ready to "manage and punish" the Guizhou's officers and local gentlemen who "disregarded for human life" and "harmed the foreign people",but thought of the handling of court case which "concerned in the national prestige,if obeying to the foreigners' demands,and punishing the troop leader of China at once,it would be enough to bring their arrogance".Therefore,the Qing government once adopted the attitude of evasiveness and deferment to the case's negotiation.Under the circumstance of bounded by a treaty at the established treaty and national power on the decline,the Qing government difficultly changed its traditional diplomatic into modern diplomatic,and promised to punish the officials of Guizhou,to compensate of silver and protect the missionaries who were preaching in Guizhou.The Qing government ended the Guiyang court case with wise compromise,and avoided war to win a relatively stable international environment for the developing of the Westernization Movement.