The Traditional Gentry And A New Civilization: Xv Zhaowei During The Period Of 1890s-1920s

This paper adopts the modern local gentry Xv Zhaowei as the central figure,to investigate his school experience and local practice during the period of 1890s-1920s.As a traditional Han-Lin,he had studied in Japan and participated in Changshu education and political reform,all of that show the complex entanglement between the traditional gentry and a new civilization.The individual situation and choice of the traditional new party represented by Xv Zhaowei not only enriched the multi-level orientation of the gentry community,but also depict the contradictory,complex and changing historical truths of modern Chinese local society.The paper is divided into four parts.The first part presents the modem Changshu geography,human ecology and Xv Zhaowei and his family in the local inter:personal network,social status.In a local environment perspective,to understand the local gentry group composition and Xv Zhaowei status in the group and his characteristics.The second part describes a nearly four-year-old traditional Jinshi in the late Qing Dynasty into the foreign exchange of choice and experience,to show a traditional gentry in the eyes of the Western civilized world.The second part describes a nearly 40-year-old traditional Jinshi in the late Qing Dynasty into the foreign studying experience,to show a traditional gentry in the eyes of the Western civilized word.And this understanding for his future life has an important impact.The third part,examines the educational reform of Xv Zhaowei in Changshu during the late Qing Dynasty.When he used the new ideas,the new system to set up the school,often show the traditional ethical thinking of the imprint.In the period of the Republic of China,he was more inclined to study the national curriculum and national culture heritage.The fourth part is mainly to inspect Xv Zhaowei in the late Qing Dynasty imitation of the constitutional period of Changshu local autonomy,as well as the parliamentary era of democratic participation in politics.At the end of the Qing Dynasty to follow the Western constitutional government to carry out local autonomy reform,in the Republic of China successfully congressional government,but the early years of the party politics is not ideal.After a vicious and absurd congress,Xv Zhaowei did not have any hope for political party politics,and finally return to the village,to seek local public welfare,reading and writing for the rest of his life.From which we can find that Xv Zhaowei has experienced several changes in thinking in the modem situation.From the traditional gentry into a new gentry after accepted the new civilization,and then in the practice of local innovation and gradually return to tradition.In such a process of change,Xv Zhaowei had to seek change,straggle against the fate,struggling forward,but after all,helpless and muddle along.From Xv Zhaowei's experience,we can not only see the contradictions and complex individual life of other similar gentry groups,but also reflect the ideological changes of the modern gentry groups and the social changes in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.