When did the industrialization of China begin? What are its characteristics?

After the Opium War, especially since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, some changes have taken place in China's traditional industrial productivity, which is mainly reflected in the improvement of hand tools and the technical mode of "stone mill+steam engine", which is the intermediate technology in the transition of handicraft industry from tradition to modern technology. The transformation of traditional industrial productivity has had some positive effects: it has prepared conditions for the transition of handicraft industry to large machinery industry, promoted the rise of rural handicraft economic zone, and provided market conditions for the development of national machinery industry in some aspects, thus enriching the national machinery industry. China's modern industrialization began with the large-scale transplantation of western advanced machine technology by Westernization bureaucrats in the 1970s, and has been struggling on the road of "transplantation" industrialization ever since. Whether in the economic circles at that time or in the economic history circles now, people often associate the success or failure of transplanting or introducing advanced western machine technology with the success or failure of China's modern industrialization. Although this connection can explain the failure of China's modern industrialization to a great extent, is it the whole reason why China's early industrialization was unsuccessful? In other words, is "transplantation" the only choice for China's modern industrialization? By studying the transformation and orientation of traditional industrial productive forces in modern China, this paper tries to explain that there is a gradual road of "grafting" in addition to "transplanting" in modern China. The so-called traditional industry refers to the handicraft industry dominated by biological forces, while the machine industry dominated by non-biological forces is opposite. After the Opium War, especially since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, with the gradual increase of trading ports, the foreign capital in China increased sharply, and the national machinery industry developed initially, which made the living environment of China's traditional industries very unfavorable. Xili, which is characterized by industrialization, not only puts pressure on the survival of traditional industries-industrialization undertakes the historical mission of rejecting and replacing traditional handicrafts, such as hand-spinning, indigo production, kicking cloth, soil needles, soil candles, soil cigarettes and other industries in China, which have been seriously damaged, but the replacement of the traditional industrial economy as a whole is not achieved overnight, and the process is long. At the same time, industrialization has also formed the driving force for the development of traditional industries-creating a premise for the system reform and technological innovation of traditional handicrafts. For example, the appearance of woven yarn has lifted the "bottleneck" of the development of hand-woven industry and created conditions for the promotion of hand-woven industry. The introduction of western advanced machines and tools is objectively beneficial to the development of handicraft productivity. According to statistics, 189 1 ~ 1893, the import value of "machines and tools" in China was 1259 176 yuan, accounting for 0.5% of the total import value, and increased to 60 in 1935. Industrialized technology has also inspired craftsmen's awareness of technological innovation. With the support of the Chamber of Commerce, they actively organized industrial and commercial research groups to seek the way of handicraft industry innovation. For example, 19 15 The Tianjin Industrial and Commercial Research Institute, established in March, is an industrial research group with handicrafts as the main body. Its promoters, except Beiyang Match Company and Tianjin Pancreas Company, all use motive power. The remaining 1 1 companies are all from manual workshops of different scales, and most of the 36 member enterprises absorbed at the inaugural meeting are also from manual workshops. Therefore, with the aim of "starting a business with wisdom, connecting business conditions and thinning business groups", we hold regular meetings on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar every month to study the changes of handicraft industry. It is under this background that traditional industries developed productive forces, mainly by improving hand tools and the technical mode of "stone mill+steam engine", which played a positive role in China's modern industrialization.