A Study On Diplomatic Documents In The Westernization Movement

The Self-strengthening Movement which lasted for more than thirty years was a new self-improvement policy of the Qing Government under combined effects of domestic strife and foreign aggression. Under the vigorous promotion of Westernization Group, military industry, civilian enterprises and education cause etc had achieved a series of new development, which objectively promoted the development process of Chinese modernization. Meanwhile, thoughts and practices of the Westernization Group had also important impacts on diplomatic system and philosophy of the Qing Government, so that westernization and diplomacy of this period showed unprecedented new forms and situations.The special diplomatic situation in the period of Self-strengthening Movement had a profound influence on forms and evolution of foreign document forms, so that such documents had distinctive particularity. The development of diplomatic document forms had a series of updates and transformation, and some new forms with characteristics of the times and connection with western countries gradually had a predominant position. Language styles of diplomatic documents showed distinctive characteristics of the times and class stand, and special diplomatic writing styles deeply reflected political thoughts and negotiation strategies of the Westernization Group. Management and operation of diplomatic documents entered a new era, independent foreign affairs handling agencies became main undertakers of the operation of official documents, and a number of emerging handling systems and operating rules were established. Thoughts and practices of the Westernization Group had also direct impacts on themes and thoughts of diplomatic documents, so that diplomatic documents of this period of time showed lots of explicit and implicit features of "westernization" and reflected dominant ideas of the Westernization Group in terms of internal governance and diplomatic negotiation.The special forms of diplomatic documents in the period of Self-strengthening Movement were true reflection of political conception and diplomatic practices of the Westernization Group in the Late Qing Dynasty. Although the Self-strengthening Movement ended in failure, its influence on diplomatic documents during its development promoted important changes in Chinese diplomatic documents to a certain degree.