A Comparison Between The Leadership Groups In Tung-Chih Resurgence And Meji Restoration (1862-1875)

In1960s and1970s there were two major reform movements in China and Japan-the Tung-Chih Resurgence and Meiji Restoration.There are many similaritiesthroughout the national circumstances and background of these two majorreforms,however, the final outcomes of these two events are quitedifferent——Tung-Chih Resurgence hadn’t rescued China from the crisis of thesemi-feudal society, It just delayed the demise of the Qing feudal empire; but MeijiRestoration changed the path of development in Japan,it had been the key for Japanfrom weak to strong.Therefore,based on the purpose of back to basics and theprinciple of learning from history,the comparison between these two reforms whichoccurred in roughly the same period and determined the Sino-Japanese historicaldestiny are extraordinarily generally significant.The purpose of this study is to reveal the inexorable law of the very differentoutcome of these two reforms through comparing Tung-Chih Resurgence and MeijiRestoration reforms’ leadership groups.It hopes to provide some useful methods andideas for today’s Chinese change of trans-century as well as the world reform trendsfrom the view of people exerting subjective initiative.This article has some theoretical significance. Many scholars have conductedin-depth exploration and research on reasons for the success of Meiji Restoration andthe failure of Tung-Chih Resurgence,and made a lot of thought-provokinginsights.But the analysis and comparison of the differences between two countries’leadership have not yet come out. I reveal the human factor, especially the leaders’strength factor plays a huge role in the reform, that provides a new sight in theacademic circles who have not ever pay attention to subjective factors’ influence inthe process of reforms.Learning from history, Considering the past and you will know the present,which makes the paper also has far-reaching practical significance.ContemporaryChina is undergoing rapid development period of change following the reform andopening up, Learning from the reform of their own and neighboring countries onehundred and fifty years ago, and identifying regularities from the outcome of thesetwo reforms, will make a profound impact on how to promote the current reformdeeply and how to grasp the direction of modern reform.In today’s world, globalization has become a trend,peace and development arethe themes of the times, whether developed or developing countries, carrying outreforms of advancing with the times are imperative. This article is to explore thesuccess of the reform from the leadership group, that is, from a human perspective,ithas a certain reference value for world’s leaders to grasp what kind of direction and follow what kind of guiding ideology.Through researching the leadership group in1861-1875Tung-Chih Resurgenceand Meiji Restoration.this article find that the leader of Chinese restoration areScribes class, while the leader of Japanese restoration are mainly samurai class.The leadership groups of the Sino-Japanese are in essence two completelydifferent groups. They have a great deal of difference in the guiding ideology andworking style.The scribes leadership of Tung-Chih Resurgence pursued with traditionalChinese literary style and behavior patterns, and regarded Confucianism as theguiding ideology and action guide. Objectively, they can not fully play their owninitiative because of their powerful central rulers. From a subjective point of view,they suffered from the feudal hierarchy, which Neo-Confucianism preached,anddared not to go beyond the perimeter, they also adhered to the influence of theconservative cultural ideas of Confucianism "Mean",dared not to change the statesystem fundamentally.While Japan’s Meiji Restoration samurai leadership group mixed the ChineseConfucianism with the Western civil rights thought’s spirit of Bushido as aguide.Objectively, the Japanese samurai leadership group have got the trust and thesupport of Emperor Meiji who has enterprising spirit.From the subjective point ofview, the samurai leadership group have the accurate judgment and decisiveimplementation capacity, but also full of the spirit of sacrifice.So it can see that in a way, the impact of the leadership group on the nationalvalue and the power is far better than the country’s institutional form.I hope toprovide a new way of thinking about the Comparative Study of Sino-JapaneseModern reforms through this article’s comparison.