On Guo Songtao’s Westernization Thought

After the Opium War, China appeared "no change in the situation for thousands of years."Western powers by virtue of its strength blew open the door to China, causing China to the world trend being involved. In a collision course with the Western powers, many people of insight to realize that strength is the decisive factor in the settlement of disputes, China must put down the shelf,"the heavenly country"freed from the false arrogance arrogant attitude, the re-valuation of their own. With Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan "open their eyes and look far into the world","Learning from foreigners to competing foreigners" claims made and dissemination of ideas, the late Qing Dynasty and gradually formed a new study of Western thought, Guo Songtao is this stream of thought advocates and participants.As an enlightenment thinker in modern history of China, Guo Songtao was a person not to be neglected in the Westernization Group of late Qing Dynasty. Though he had never directly conducted foreign affairs industry, he was familiar with it. His though was keen, advanced, and he had developed a school of his own. He was a man that mastered the best in foreign affairs at that age. As a minister stationed abroad, Guo Songtao proposed some diplomatic styles and principles, such as "treat others with due respect","harmony is precious","seize up the situation" and so on, which possessed high reference value to diplomatic activities and job of the time.This thesis is divided into three parts:introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The main body is divided into five parts, and the structure is as follows:Section one:historical background of the generation of Guo Songtao’s westernization thought. This section illustrates the historical background when Guo Songtao lived, so as to expose the reason of his westernization thought.Section two:theoretical origin of Guo Songtao’s westernization thought. This section mainly concludes and settles the origin of Guo Songtao’s westernization thought.Section three:core content of Guo Songtao’s westernization thought. This section mainly expounds his "theory of non-essentials and fundamentals" and diplomatic thinking.Section four:historical significance of Guo Songtao’s westernization thought. This section mainly evaluates and summarizes Guo Songtao’s westernization thought. Section five:contemporary enlightenment of Guo Songtao’s westernization thought:this section is a conclusion based on the previous sections, so as to propose some reference suggestions to China’s contemporary political institution reforms.