Jonathan D. Spence. The Search for Modern China. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1990.
229
In this context, the emperor Guangxu, who undoubtly had a wider view of the options facin China than any of his predecessors...
decided to assert his own independence as ruler, and to act on the country's behalf. Between June and September 1898 he issued an extraordinary series of edicts, earning for this period the name of the "Hundred Days' Reforms." Although most of the edicts dealt with proposals that had already been raised by self-strengthening reformers and by the jinshi protestors of 1895, there had never befire been such a coherent body of reform ideas presented on imperial initiative and backed by imperial prestige.
Guanxu called for changes in four main areas of Qing life and government. To reform China's examination system, he orders the abolition of the highly stylized format knows as the "eith legged essay," which had structured the exams for centuries. he also urged hat fine calligraphy and knowledge of poetry no longer be major criteria in grading degree candidates; instead he ordered the use of more questions related to practical governmental problems.
Also in the area of education, he ordered the upgrading of the Peking college and the addition to it of a medical school, the conversion of the old academied to modern schools offering both Chinese and Western learning, and the opening of the vocational istitues for the study of mining, industry, and railways.
In the broader area of ecnomic development, the emperor ordered local officials to coordinate reforms in commerce, industry, and agriculture, and to increase the production of teas and silk for export. new bureaus in Peking were established to supervise such growth, along with mines and railways, and the Ministry of Revenue was to design an overall annual budget for the country as a whole.
Guangxu also addressed the strengthening of the armed forces. Much of the oney that had been needed by the navy had gone into the rebuilding of the empress dowager's summer palace, which included construction of a marble "boat" for her lake-viewing pleasure. now a fleet of theirty- four modernn warships was to be assembled, by purchase or ay local construction. Army drill was to be standardized along Western lines. Training and dscipline of local militias were improves,.
Finally, he tries to strengthen the bureaucracy by streamlining it and simplifying its procedures. He sought to abloish the more obvious sinecure appointments an dto move some of the displace officials to positions in the new economic planning bureaus.
230
Many senior officers, viewing Guangxu's reform program with a jaundiced eye, saw it as detrimental t the long-term good of China and destructive of China's true inner values. Guangxu seems to have mistakenly thought that his aunt Cixi would support his vision of a new China and would help him override the opposition. In fact she was disturbed by some of the proposed changes that threatened to weaken the Qing ruling house, and was worried that the faction supporting Guanxu seemes dangerously subordinate to pressure and influences from both the British and the French.
ALthough the evidence is contradictory, it seems that a number of the reformers feared there might be a coup against the eperor, and accordingly approached some leading generals in an attempt to win their support. this led to a backlash when news of the scheming was reported to the empress dowager, who, on September 19. 1898, suddenly returned to the Forbidden City. Two days late,, she issued an edict claiming that the emperor had asked her to resume power. She put Guanxu under palace detention and arrested six of his reputedly radicaL ADVISERS. Before they could even be tried on the vague conspiracy charges, her order that they be executed was carried out, to the dismay of the reform party and of many foreigners in China. kang YuWei had left Peking on assignment just before the coup, but his younger brother was among the victims. Now, with a price on his head, Kang YuWei was carried to safety in Jong Kong... and from there made his way to Canada. Liang Quchao also fled China and began a life of exile. His and Kang's dreans for a coherent program of reform, to be coordinated by the emperor in the name of a new China, had ended in disaster.
Frank H.H. King. A Conscise Economic History of Modern China. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1969.
76
The immediate impact of 1898 on China was contradictory. While on the one hand the defeat facilitated further, but still limited, government-sponsored economic projects; on the other hand, it temporarily discredited officials like Li -Hung CChhang
It fostered the 100 days reform of 1898
CHina, Japan and the Powers
306
China's defeat by Japan in 1894 and 1895 was the first event which impressed on any considerable number of the CHinese scholar-gentry the urgency of westernization. Defeat by Japan was particularly galling for the CHinese had long been accustomed to looking down on the japanese as a people whoo owed whatever civilization the possessed to the Middle Kingdom.
However, the fact that Japan could master Western techniques and use them agaisnt CHina with such effect gave zealous Chinese a sort of hope.
308
With the major powers asking for railroad and mining concessions, boundary rectifications, leasehold, nonalienation agreements, and the right to make loans, the breakup of CHina seemes imminent.
What could save China from dismemberment? Army reform, or a broader program of westernization such as Japan had underone? Who would initaiate it an carry it out? Answers to these question came in June, 1898, when the emperor himself came forward to lead what was subsequently known as the "Hundred Days Reform"
309
The emperor. though now fully of man's estate, was not completely free of the unfluence of his :Augus Aunty".
The Emores Dowager was well aware of the emperor's desire for independence and continued to manuever members of her coteri into key positions in which they could thwart and restrict any dangerous self-assertion by the emperor. Example...
311
The reforms which the emperor decreed under the guidance of the reform party covered a tremendous range.
An imperial university was created
'The Chinese Progress', a newspaper which Liang had been editing in Shanghai, became an official organ of the government.
A Bureau of Agriculktue, Arts and COmmercce was created, to encourahe scientific methos of farming and the use of labor saving machinery.
The emperor and his advisors were aware of their danger and resolve dto put the EMpress Dowager out of the way before she could dispose them.
312
As Kang Yu-wei later saud if he attitude of the emperor in 1898 "...he saw his country about to sink in the earth, about to be buried in ruins, about to burst like an egg, about to be divided up, about to mortify, abou to be torn in shreds, about to become like India or Anam, or Burmah- a dependent of another Power!"
HJaoan by promy and consious westernixation had escaped this faith; China must hasten to do likewise or be taken captive. hence the valiant effort of the yound emperor and his advisers to do what they thought neccesary to save China in the aces of oppisition.
Plans to reform by the Empress Dowager herself and the Manchus
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Peasants, Rebels & Outcastes
Mikiso Hane. Peasants, Rebels & Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan. New York: Patheon Books, 1982.
The Tokugawa background 4
For more than two centuries befor Commodore Matther C. Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay in 1853, demanding that Japan establish diplomatic relations with the United States, Japan had been virtually sealed off from the outside world, excpet for a small "opening" at nagasaki, where the Dutch, Chinese, and Koreans were allowed to come and trade under tight restrictions. During this period, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu), which had been established in 1603.
the founders of the Tokugawa shogunate divided the society they ruled into four main classes: the warriors (samurai), the peasants, the artisans, and the merchants. At the bottom of society were the outcastes, who may have numbered close to half a million or so by the end of the Tokugawa era. In addition these strict strata there were the priests, and, at the very top, court aristocrats and, of course, the daimyo.
In theory, class divisions were fixed;
9
In 1868, the old order was overturned, and japan entered a new era with the establishment of the Meiji government. The new leaders launched Japan pn a path of "modernization," to make Japan rich and powerful.
Although the downfall of the Bakufu was largely the result of internal developments, it was the advent of indluence from the Qestern powers, with their insistence that japan abandon its seclusionist policy and open itself up to the international commerce, that contributed most profoundly to the difficulties confronting the Tokugawa government. the bakufu complied with the Western powers' demands, and this then became its opponents' rallying pint as they jpined forces agaisnt the tokugawa government in the nae of "reverence for the emperor and exclusion of the barbarians." Once in power, however, the Bakufu's opponents dropped their isolationist position and set Japan once and for all on the course of Westernization. Although the methods favoured by both the propenents of expelling Westerners and the advocated of opening he nation to external contacts were different, their objectives were the same. Well aware of Western encroachments on China, India, and other Asian nations, the political leaders of both groups strove to preserve Japan's independence.
10
the propenents of Westernization, or modernization in Japan were primarily interested in Western schience, technology, and weapons, not the West's moral or political ideals. This line of thinking, followed by the architects of Meiji Japan, was well expressed by a late Tokugawa Confucian scholar, Sakuma Zozan (1811-1864), who states, "In teachings concerning morality and benevolence and righteousness, filial piety and brotherly love, loyalty and faithfulness, we must follow the example and precepts of the Chinese sages. In astronomy, geography, gunnery, commerce, medicine, machinery, and construction, we must rely mainly on the West.
11
The new order that was established by the Meiji government failed to improve significantly the condition of the people at the lower levels of the social order. In fact, for many it meant greater hardship and suffering. In particular, the peasantry (already expected to procide the resources and manpower to build the wealth and power of the nation) was asked to sacrifice its lives, material resources, labor, and individual interests for the sake of the nation-state and, of course, for the benefit of the small elute at the top of the social pyramid. Still treated like sesame seeds, theu were not allowed to share fully the fruits of modernizationl little of the new "welath" trickled down to the masses, and the powerful elite enjoyed as much wealth and influence as the had the major Tokugawa daimyo.
the meiji Restoration, in 1868, affcted all levels of Japanese socaety in a dramatic fashion. the peasants, who constituted about 80 percent of the population, felt the impact of the transition fro Tokugawa rule as powerfully as other segments of the society. Little wnder, since the new order involved the replacement of the bakufu-Han system with the centralized authority of the new government, the official abolition of feudal class dvisions, the termination of the feudal land-tenure system, the adoption of a new land-tax arrangement, recognition of private land ownership, the intitiation of major measures to industrialize the nation, the establishment of an army and navy modeled after Western armed forces, and the adoption of a universal education system.
14
the changes that affected the lives of the peasants more directly were the abolition of the feudal class system and the elimination of many social restrictions. During 1869-1871, feudal domains were eliminated as the former feudal lords relinquished their authority to the imperial government. In the process, the class divisions of samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants were abloished and the populace was reclassified as kazoku ("peers"), shizoku ( "gentry"), and beimin ("commoners"_- not for legal purposes, it was said, but for purposes of identification in the family registers kept in the village and town offices. Legal barriers against interclass marriages were removes and people were granted the freedom to pursue any vocation and live in any district they wished. The common people wee now permitted- in fact, required- to adopt family names, a priviledge denied then under the old regime. Restrcitions fomerly imposed on their dress, hairstyles, and mode of travel (travel on horseback had ben forbiden) were abandones, and they were no longer required to frobel in the dirt in the presence of samurai.
Needless to say, the removal of legal distinctions and restrictions did not mean that common people were now accorded complete equality with the upper classes, aprticularly in the social realm.The patricians expected that them t continue to be humble an dto re respectful of speech.
the commoners in turn found it difficult to overcome the sense of inferiority that had for centuries been instilled in them at the oint of the sword. Fukuzawa Yukichi, a propagator of Western ideas and knowledge, claimed that he was dismayed when he discovered that the new order had not changed the common people's thinking and behavior. Soon after the restoration, he encountered a farmer coming on a horseback as he and his children were passing along the seashore on a holiday. the man immediately jumped off his horse upon seeing them. He then bowed as if in great dear and began to apologize in his voluble way. The man would only get back on his horse after Yukichi forced him to.
17
the givernment recognized the private ownership of land.
Peasants…
17
The heavy cost of the Meiji government’s determined program of modernization was to be borne primarily by the agrarian sector.
They taxed the land very heavily.
The land tax, coupled with the fluctuation in the price of rice, caused small and medium-sized farm owners to fall increasingly into debt, with many ultimately losing their land.
The Tokugawa background 4
For more than two centuries befor Commodore Matther C. Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay in 1853, demanding that Japan establish diplomatic relations with the United States, Japan had been virtually sealed off from the outside world, excpet for a small "opening" at nagasaki, where the Dutch, Chinese, and Koreans were allowed to come and trade under tight restrictions. During this period, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu), which had been established in 1603.
the founders of the Tokugawa shogunate divided the society they ruled into four main classes: the warriors (samurai), the peasants, the artisans, and the merchants. At the bottom of society were the outcastes, who may have numbered close to half a million or so by the end of the Tokugawa era. In addition these strict strata there were the priests, and, at the very top, court aristocrats and, of course, the daimyo.
In theory, class divisions were fixed;
9
In 1868, the old order was overturned, and japan entered a new era with the establishment of the Meiji government. The new leaders launched Japan pn a path of "modernization," to make Japan rich and powerful.
Although the downfall of the Bakufu was largely the result of internal developments, it was the advent of indluence from the Qestern powers, with their insistence that japan abandon its seclusionist policy and open itself up to the international commerce, that contributed most profoundly to the difficulties confronting the Tokugawa government. the bakufu complied with the Western powers' demands, and this then became its opponents' rallying pint as they jpined forces agaisnt the tokugawa government in the nae of "reverence for the emperor and exclusion of the barbarians." Once in power, however, the Bakufu's opponents dropped their isolationist position and set Japan once and for all on the course of Westernization. Although the methods favoured by both the propenents of expelling Westerners and the advocated of opening he nation to external contacts were different, their objectives were the same. Well aware of Western encroachments on China, India, and other Asian nations, the political leaders of both groups strove to preserve Japan's independence.
10
the propenents of Westernization, or modernization in Japan were primarily interested in Western schience, technology, and weapons, not the West's moral or political ideals. This line of thinking, followed by the architects of Meiji Japan, was well expressed by a late Tokugawa Confucian scholar, Sakuma Zozan (1811-1864), who states, "In teachings concerning morality and benevolence and righteousness, filial piety and brotherly love, loyalty and faithfulness, we must follow the example and precepts of the Chinese sages. In astronomy, geography, gunnery, commerce, medicine, machinery, and construction, we must rely mainly on the West.
11
The new order that was established by the Meiji government failed to improve significantly the condition of the people at the lower levels of the social order. In fact, for many it meant greater hardship and suffering. In particular, the peasantry (already expected to procide the resources and manpower to build the wealth and power of the nation) was asked to sacrifice its lives, material resources, labor, and individual interests for the sake of the nation-state and, of course, for the benefit of the small elute at the top of the social pyramid. Still treated like sesame seeds, theu were not allowed to share fully the fruits of modernizationl little of the new "welath" trickled down to the masses, and the powerful elite enjoyed as much wealth and influence as the had the major Tokugawa daimyo.
the meiji Restoration, in 1868, affcted all levels of Japanese socaety in a dramatic fashion. the peasants, who constituted about 80 percent of the population, felt the impact of the transition fro Tokugawa rule as powerfully as other segments of the society. Little wnder, since the new order involved the replacement of the bakufu-Han system with the centralized authority of the new government, the official abolition of feudal class dvisions, the termination of the feudal land-tenure system, the adoption of a new land-tax arrangement, recognition of private land ownership, the intitiation of major measures to industrialize the nation, the establishment of an army and navy modeled after Western armed forces, and the adoption of a universal education system.
14
the changes that affected the lives of the peasants more directly were the abolition of the feudal class system and the elimination of many social restrictions. During 1869-1871, feudal domains were eliminated as the former feudal lords relinquished their authority to the imperial government. In the process, the class divisions of samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants were abloished and the populace was reclassified as kazoku ("peers"), shizoku ( "gentry"), and beimin ("commoners"_- not for legal purposes, it was said, but for purposes of identification in the family registers kept in the village and town offices. Legal barriers against interclass marriages were removes and people were granted the freedom to pursue any vocation and live in any district they wished. The common people wee now permitted- in fact, required- to adopt family names, a priviledge denied then under the old regime. Restrcitions fomerly imposed on their dress, hairstyles, and mode of travel (travel on horseback had ben forbiden) were abandones, and they were no longer required to frobel in the dirt in the presence of samurai.
Needless to say, the removal of legal distinctions and restrictions did not mean that common people were now accorded complete equality with the upper classes, aprticularly in the social realm.The patricians expected that them t continue to be humble an dto re respectful of speech.
the commoners in turn found it difficult to overcome the sense of inferiority that had for centuries been instilled in them at the oint of the sword. Fukuzawa Yukichi, a propagator of Western ideas and knowledge, claimed that he was dismayed when he discovered that the new order had not changed the common people's thinking and behavior. Soon after the restoration, he encountered a farmer coming on a horseback as he and his children were passing along the seashore on a holiday. the man immediately jumped off his horse upon seeing them. He then bowed as if in great dear and began to apologize in his voluble way. The man would only get back on his horse after Yukichi forced him to.
17
the givernment recognized the private ownership of land.
Peasants…
17
The heavy cost of the Meiji government’s determined program of modernization was to be borne primarily by the agrarian sector.
They taxed the land very heavily.
The land tax, coupled with the fluctuation in the price of rice, caused small and medium-sized farm owners to fall increasingly into debt, with many ultimately losing their land.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Unmasking Japan today
3
One of the few areas in which Japan remained independent of Western influence during this time was with regard to the institution of the family. Despite the modernization of lifesty;es and many other speheres of Japanese society, ie (the traditional family system), which had previously existed among the upper class, was codified and enforced throughout Japan regardless of social status.
Many practices unworthy of imitation were discarded. What is most characteristic about Japan's effort to learn from the West is its spirit of independence in incorporating only those elements that would be advantageous to it. Japan succeded in keeping its ethos and cultural-spiritual traditions intact while assimilating Western knowledge and technology.
Changes in the Japanese Family System
15
the basis of the contemporary Japanese family rests upon the fuedal conecpt of ie, which may be translated as "stem family." More specifically, ie is defined as "a vertically composite form of nuclear families, one from each generation" or a "series of first sons, their wives and minor children."
This feudal family structure came into existence during the Edo era among the upper strata of Japanese society, that is, aristocrats, the shogunate and samurai warriors. Under the ie system, the continuation of the family line from one generation to another depended upon the existence of male offspring in the family.
During this period, there was no ie system among th lower classes of Japanese society- peasants, artisans, merchants or eta (the class of untouchables). Although all except eta had names, these were not family names but names given to indicate their occupations. In this conext, the family was a functional unit defined by its economic activities. All of these classes engaged in economic production, and family members included not only blood relatives but also tenants and servants.
16
Even though the the Meiji Restoration in 1868 ended the fuedal era in Japan, it was only after enforcement of the Civil Code in 1898 that the class system was officialy abolished, and the Japanese people were united as one under the emperor. In cosequence, the ie systen came to characterize bothe upper-and lower-class families, with each family directyly subordinate to the emperor. Thus, the Meiji restoration strengthened the hierarchical nature of the traditional Japanese family ratther than modernizing it.
The Changing Status of Women
93
Despite Japan's high levels of economic, industrial and technological development, the status of women in Japanese society is not yet on par with that of women in Western industrial nations. One of the primary reasons for their continued inferiority can be found in the way that Japan's modernization process had occured; radical changes in women's legal rights were imposed from above... (i.e., by the American occupatoon forces), while traditional mores regarding women's place in society have been slow in changing. Therefore, despite the many laws that given women the legal right to equality at home, at work, and in politics, the reality is somewhat different.
In ancient and medieval times, women enjoyed same status as men.
94
The gradual subordination of Japanese women occurred over the centuries and is most directly related to the establishment of the traditional family systems., which is based on patriarchal authority.
Wives began to join their husbands' faimilies, granting property to a daughter would who would eventually leave the family meant handing over part of the family estate to another family.
After the Meiji restoration, when the ie system was enforced legally throughout Japan, the male head of household assumed full legal authority for all family members. The 1898 Civil Code favoured the husband in marriage, property rights, and other aspects of family laws. Adultery constitued legal grounds for divorce only if committed by the wife, and fathers retained custody of the children in all cases of divorce. In the event of her husband's death, the wife came under the authority of the eldest sonm thus following Confucian dictum that a women should in youth obey her father, in maturity obey her husband, and in old age her son. Some have argued that it as this Confucian philosophy and the long feudal experience of Japan that combined to restrict the freedom of women and force them into complete subodination to men.
3
One of the few areas in which Japan remained independent of Western influence during this time was with regard to the institution of the family. Despite the modernization of lifesty;es and many other speheres of Japanese society, ie (the traditional family system), which had previously existed among the upper class, was codified and enforced throughout Japan regardless of social status.
Many practices unworthy of imitation were discarded. What is most characteristic about Japan's effort to learn from the West is its spirit of independence in incorporating only those elements that would be advantageous to it. Japan succeded in keeping its ethos and cultural-spiritual traditions intact while assimilating Western knowledge and technology.
Changes in the Japanese Family System
15
the basis of the contemporary Japanese family rests upon the fuedal conecpt of ie, which may be translated as "stem family." More specifically, ie is defined as "a vertically composite form of nuclear families, one from each generation" or a "series of first sons, their wives and minor children."
This feudal family structure came into existence during the Edo era among the upper strata of Japanese society, that is, aristocrats, the shogunate and samurai warriors. Under the ie system, the continuation of the family line from one generation to another depended upon the existence of male offspring in the family.
During this period, there was no ie system among th lower classes of Japanese society- peasants, artisans, merchants or eta (the class of untouchables). Although all except eta had names, these were not family names but names given to indicate their occupations. In this conext, the family was a functional unit defined by its economic activities. All of these classes engaged in economic production, and family members included not only blood relatives but also tenants and servants.
16
Even though the the Meiji Restoration in 1868 ended the fuedal era in Japan, it was only after enforcement of the Civil Code in 1898 that the class system was officialy abolished, and the Japanese people were united as one under the emperor. In cosequence, the ie systen came to characterize bothe upper-and lower-class families, with each family directyly subordinate to the emperor. Thus, the Meiji restoration strengthened the hierarchical nature of the traditional Japanese family ratther than modernizing it.
The Changing Status of Women
93
Despite Japan's high levels of economic, industrial and technological development, the status of women in Japanese society is not yet on par with that of women in Western industrial nations. One of the primary reasons for their continued inferiority can be found in the way that Japan's modernization process had occured; radical changes in women's legal rights were imposed from above... (i.e., by the American occupatoon forces), while traditional mores regarding women's place in society have been slow in changing. Therefore, despite the many laws that given women the legal right to equality at home, at work, and in politics, the reality is somewhat different.
In ancient and medieval times, women enjoyed same status as men.
94
The gradual subordination of Japanese women occurred over the centuries and is most directly related to the establishment of the traditional family systems., which is based on patriarchal authority.
Wives began to join their husbands' faimilies, granting property to a daughter would who would eventually leave the family meant handing over part of the family estate to another family.
After the Meiji restoration, when the ie system was enforced legally throughout Japan, the male head of household assumed full legal authority for all family members. The 1898 Civil Code favoured the husband in marriage, property rights, and other aspects of family laws. Adultery constitued legal grounds for divorce only if committed by the wife, and fathers retained custody of the children in all cases of divorce. In the event of her husband's death, the wife came under the authority of the eldest sonm thus following Confucian dictum that a women should in youth obey her father, in maturity obey her husband, and in old age her son. Some have argued that it as this Confucian philosophy and the long feudal experience of Japan that combined to restrict the freedom of women and force them into complete subodination to men.
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