A Study On The Thought Of "Military" In The Late Qing Dynasty

Ancient Chinese Military Science had the tradition of emphasizing logics and ignoring technology, which led to retarding of military technology and progress of knowledge about war. After the Opium War, the traditional concept of the military was faced with severe challenges,when people began to pay attention to arsenal development. Lin Tse-hsu, Wei Yuan claimed " learning from the barbarians to defeat them" insisting strengthening military weapon and sea defense. Under their influence,a group of military thorists were also dedicated to weapon development, adjusting their outlook of weapon and striving to achieve a breakthrough in military technology. From then on, traditional humanist scholars, such as Zengguofang, Hulinyi, faced with the threat of a strong Taiping army and the Western aggression, also had to revise their view of Arsenal. During the period of Westernization Movement, emphasis on arsenal had been further developed in the ruling and opposition parties, achieving a broad consensus, even reaching a " winning is the first" extreme proposition. However, the defeat of China in Sino-Japanese war of Jiawu, after decades of effort on the Arsenal construction, while achieving a lot, changed the situation. Thus, theorist of war began to reflect on the defeat, changing from the previous emphasis on military manufacturing to its use, combining human and weapon, giving same emphasis on both, In Late Qing China, the thought of emphasizing weapon had prominent features, such as diversity of discussion groups, deepening of understanding with distinct stage, progressive and passive and practicality. Such evolution of thought on weapon during this period,has contributed a lot to modernization of military equipment,transition of knowledge of war, spread of modern science and technology in China, deserving reflection and study.This paper from the perspective of study of weapon and war, regards that modern theorists of war had given unprecedented attention to weapon and war, leading to thriving of modern study of weapon and war, then exploring the deep-seated causes of this phenomenon,and the evolution of thought on weapon during various stages, at last outlining the features and its impact on modern China.The first chapter defines what the study of war means and its categories in history, regarding that in modern era study of weapon became independent, then outlining its development in China, coming to the conclusion of its thriving in modern times based on data. The second chapter pays attention to the reviving of War Study and its domestic and international background, stressing on the cause of emphasizing of modern theorists on weapon. The third, fourth and fifth chapters outline the evolution of understanding of weapon on chronological basis, finding that through the war of Jiawu, theorists changed from emphasis on modernization of weapon ignoring military level of soldiers to reflection,thus getting a great progress of understanding of weapon. The sixth Chapter in a broad perspective explains the features of stressing on weapon, and its impact on China’s military and science and technology.This paper through chronological difference proves the development of Weapon study in China’s history, arguing that modern thought of stressing on weapon was a reasonable response to western military aggression,though having the pragmatist character, while powering the China’s military modernization,contributing to transition of modern China’s War Study. Such process was passive,difficult, from sensitive to rational,diffused to united and stable, but in line with the law of development of things, deserving reflection and reference...