Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - Was the fall of the Qing Dynasty due to Cixi's dictatorship? What would have happened without Cixi's iron-fisted politics?

Was the fall of the Qing Dynasty due to Cixi's dictatorship? What would have happened without Cixi's iron-fisted politics?

The fall of the Qing Dynasty was a historical inevitability.

After 1840, China slid step by step into the abyss of disaster, and at one point was on the verge of extinction. At that time, China was like a sick person who was terminally ill. We tried everything we could to save her, sometimes to the point of desperate desperation.

The Opium War was lost, and we believed that the reason for the defeat was the backwardness of weaponry and science and technology, i.e. ? The weapon is not as good as others? Technology is not as good as others? The master of the barbarians in order to control the barbarians?

But this path has not been successful. The foreign affairs movement has been engaged in 30 years, we buy, copy Western advanced weapons and equipment is also a lot, but in the Sino-Japanese War or a defeat.

This time we can not blame the cause of the failure? Weapons are not as good as others? The technology is not as good as others? It, because our Beiyang navy warships are not worse than the warships of the Japanese fleet; our army equipped with Mauser and Krupp guns are not worse than the Japanese army equipped with YAMADA guns, YAMADA guns.

When we were engaged in the foreign affairs movement, Japan was also engaged in the Meiji Restoration. In terms of time, Japan's Meiji Restoration was a few years later than our foreign affairs movement. But Japan's Meiji Restoration was a systematic study of Western culture, education, institutions, politics, economics, military, science and technology, etc., whereas we were just buying and copying Western weaponry and technology.

So we believe that the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War was a defeat in ? The system is inferior to others? on. So we started to reform our political system.

In the spirit of learning from the strong and ? Where we fall down, we get up? spirit, we learned from Japan and modeled the Hundred Days Reform after the Japanese Meiji Restoration.

But the Hundred Days Reform failed in just over 100 days. Some people attribute the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform to Yuan Shikai's betrayal and the opposition of old forces such as Empress Dowager Cixi, which is obviously not entirely true. Empress Dowager Cixi also issued decrees in her later years to implement a new government and a cabinet system. Therefore, she was not totally against the change of law.

Today, if we look back, even without Yuan Shikai's betrayal and the opposition of the old forces such as Empress Dowager Cixi, the Hundred Days' Reform might not have succeeded. The reason is that Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei, who initiated the Hundred Days' Reform, were completely responsible for the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Copy? _? Paste? to our China, not caring whether these things are suitable for our own national conditions. At one time, they invited Ito Hirobumi, the culprit who started the Sino-Japanese War and the former Prime Minister of Japan, as an adviser, and proposed to Emperor Guangxu to appoint Ito Hirobumi as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, and even advocated the merger of China and Japan to form the ? Great Eastern State? In just over a hundred days, they promulgated dozens or hundreds of decrees and regulations every day, making it impossible for people to adapt to them, and it would be strange for such a change of law to succeed.

In fact, long before Kang Youwei and his rivals started the Hundred Days' Reform, China also tried a revolution in its system, which was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement organized by Hong Xiuquan and his rivals.

Hong Xiuquan and others Chineseized Christian teachings and created ? God-worship? , i.e., alienating God, Amen, etc., as Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother. They claimed to be the brothers of the foreigners and intended to establish a state of government and religion with the support of the foreigners.

During the Taiping Rebellion, the Second Opium War took place, in which 25,200 British and French troops entered Beijing and burned the Yuanmingyuan. Almost simultaneously, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sent Lin Fengxiang and others to lead an army on a northern expedition that at one point reached the outskirts of Tianjin. If the foreigners recognized this ? brother? s words, they could have joined forces to overthrow the Qing government. But the foreigners obviously did not recognize this? Brothers?

The foreigners did not like the fact that they had to join forces with the Qing government to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The foreigners didn't like the fact that they believed in God's Amen as much as they did? brothers? It is also very simple, because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is actively banning opium cigarettes, which is obviously not in line with the interests of the foreigners, and they also demanded equality with the foreigners, which is even more unpopular with the foreigners. In the eyes of the foreigners, it was more in their interest to leave a weak and incompetent Qing government.

Additionally, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's attempt to Chineseize Christianity and establish a secular regime was clearly incompatible with our traditional culture, and it was Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and others who held up the banner of defending Chinese culture to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and gained the support of the generals and gentry.

In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing, and we feel that we are not only ? The first time I saw this was when I was in the middle of the night. The technology is not as good as others? The system is not as good as others. We are not only inferior to others in terms of tools and technology, but also inferior to others in terms of production. People are not as good as people? The people are not as good as others. These people believe that we are backward because our culture is not good, our thinking is not good, and some even believe that our race itself is not good.

At that time, China launched a vigorous vernacular language movement, a campaign to knock down the Confucius store, and some even advocated the abolition of Chinese characters and the introduction of all foreign languages. Look at it, blaming the failure on Confucius, on the square characters, on the vernacular language, on the Tang poems and Song lyrics and Yuan operas, how ridiculous and laughable it looks now! As for those who think we? As for those who think that we are inferior to human beings, they are advocating that Chinese people are inferior to human beings. are advocating that the Chinese should try to intermarry with foreigners with a view to improving our race.

In this great and dramatic movement of salvation, the Qing government failed to take up the responsibility of saving the country, so in the end it was abandoned by the people.