Crisis And Change Of The Late Qing Dynasty

In the late Qing Dynasty, China was facing internal revolt and foreign invasion, the imperial powers invaded our country, and the Taiping Movement swept the country, which resulted in political unrest and conflict of social class escalating. Hong Xiuquan was trying to break the Confucian moral order through propaganda Christianity, in this case, On the one hand, the intelligentsia headed by Zeng Guofan defend traditional Confucian moral principles, on the other hand, they fell into a deep introspection. At the same time, western culture introduced widely that made intelligentsia from being forced to receive western culture to actively learn it, and try to "Learn the skills to self-reliance".In summary, this paper mainly discusses academic process of this period from three aspects, namely, new study of Confucian classics recur, decline of Sinology, Neo-Confucianism revitalization. The recovery new study of Confucian classics reflected the intelligentsia tried to remedy the lack of Sinology and Neo-Confucianism, and reform the current situation. Qianjia Sinology from flourishing to decline, reflected the demand that we should pay attention to social reality, ethics and morality in current situation. The Revival of Neo-Confucianism is precise the same period that sinologist delved into lots of old books and papers, turned a deaf ear to current society, reflecting a desire for contribute to the country and society, and it is the most important academic phenomenon that inherited the thought of the late Ming Dynasty, trying to rescue the world through an internal academic. The introduction of western culture widely arised Respectfulness Group and Westernization Group, they showed very different attitude to western culture. Respectfulness Group detested western culture, denounced Westernization Group action and thought it changed China through western, they thought the late Qing Dynasty crisis must be find salvation according to the Confucian classics, and focus on ritual indoctrination and heritage holy mission sense. Westernization Group advocated Western culture, especially learning advanced Western technology, hoping to achieve the purpose of self-strongness, however, when Westernization Group debated with Respectfulness Group, gradually have clue to deviate from traditional, which had a profound impact on the Reformists and the Revolutionaries. The relationship between Sinology and Neo-Confucianism has become an academic specialty of this period, from eradication to integration, reflecting the shift of intellectuals from exegetical to argumentation elucidation of moral principle, this is also an urgent need for this era.Confucianism of Westernization movement opened the prelude from traditional to modern, and once again flourished Neo-Confucianism which made it closer to modern Western philosophy. Confucianism has experienced confrontation with Westerner culture, and the cognition to western culture from "the western culture originated from China" to " making western things serve for China", which reflected both western culture impact and restructure of Confucianism, in the process, China is gradually reaching out to the world. In summary, Confucianism of this period released modern factors and open the way to modernization of China.