The Research Of Guo Songtao’s Coast Defense Concept During The Transitional Period From Tongzhi To Guangxu(1874-1875)

In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi(1874),the negotiations between China and Japan led to the shaking of the court and the commonalty,and the Qing court immediately launched a proposal for coastal defense.For this discussion,the academic communit previously focus on the dispute between the two countries.After all,it is a financial dispute,they ignore the consensus and focus of the discussion.The turmoil of the tributary system has triggered the changes of diplomatic relations and social mentality.The shocks have plunged intellectuals into whirlpools.How do they recognize the changes in the environment and how can they make China change.From coastal defense itself,it was seen that there were very few social problems in China at that time,and even fewer people could understand foreign affairs,Guo Songtao is one of them.He had experienced Two Opium Wars in early years,and he was in the midst of the coastal defense crisis and thoughts.He negotiates with the west early.His old and new identity and the mainland and coastal temperament make people be curious.Why do he have different orientations with Li Hongzhang in the concept of coastal defense?It is a valuable research issue.In the two coastal defense discussions after the Opium War,in view of the weakness of the sea power consciousness and the dispersion of coastal defense arrangements,some of the scholars were awakened and began to write books to try to save the coastal defense crisis.In the Jiaxu Year(1874),because of Sino-Japan negotiation,the Qing government began to seek the transformation of the coastal defense policy.Around the six articles of coastal defense issued by the General Administration,the coastal governors expressed their opinions and debated with each other.The aftermath of the coastal defense proposal spread to the middle and lower generation,and it has been widely discussed by public opinion.The translation book of coastal defense and the western coastal defense knowledge are also shaping the concept of coastal defense of the Chinese people.This year Guo Songtao was called by emperor to go to Beijing because of the Taiwanese affairs,which makes him be hesitated.When he stays at home,he was worried about the debate in the Northern Court and must think about foreign affairs.The second time Guo Songtao went to Beijing was the first year of Guangxu(1875).This year’s Beijing was unquiet and the Beijing officials were argued about the preparations of the coastal defense.In the spring of Yihai Year,he who will take office soon petitioned the emperor the memorials of coastal defense to respond to the different views of all parties in the proposal.This memorial is also the concentrated expression of its coastal defense,including the three strategies for prevention.Liu Xihong has different comments on this memorial,but their friendship was not affected.Yixin adopted Guo songtao’s opinion and reported it to the emperor,which affected the coastal decision.After going to Fujian province,Guo began to deal with Taiwan’s aftermath,reflecting the extension of the coastal defense concept-the island view.From the perspective of coastal defense,Guo Songtao and Li Hongzhang have many concepts in common and also have many different concepts.They have a very close personal relationship,and they adopted an open-minded attitude to the western.Their different choices in the coastal defense concept have many benefits for scholar bureaucrats to understand the transformation of the coastal defense concept of the Late Qing Dynasty.It also could be examined the uniqueness of Guo’s coastal defense concept.That is,coastal defense which called "ben-mo theory".In Guo’s concept,using the government decree and education are the foundation of coastal defense and the first voice of the reform is not using western Ship cannon technology.His theory of coastal defense inherited Wei Yuan’s thought of "defense instead of offense" and "defense in order to commerce".Compared with Li Hongzhang’s "sea defense is more important than frontier defense",Guo prefers"sea defense is as important as frontier defense".They are very similar in the connection of land and water and key arrangement of the coastal defense.The basic concept of Guo Songtao’s coastal defense view is clearly visible in the conclusion,and his concept is mixing "to return to root,to create the rew.”Together,"to return to root" shows that he is seeking the roots of tradition and does not go beyond the traditional coastal defense ideology system;"to create the new" lies in his "essence and non-essence theory" beyond the mainstream discussion,it provides another way for people to learn from the western.This way was discovered by future generations after many years.In the Late Qing Dynasty,the various concepts of coastal defense gathered together into a mainstream,and Guo’s coastal defense concept was a part of this mainstream.This also reflects the difficulties of the coastal defense from the traditional to the modern in the Late Qing Dynasty and it has important significance in the construction of coastal defense today.