A COMPARATIVE
STUDY ON THE 1898 REFORM OF
CHINA AND THE MEIJI RESTORATION
XIAO Lang(肖朗), TIAN Zheng-ping(田正平)
(Dept.of Education, Xixi Campus of Zhejiang University,Hangzhou, 310028,China)
Abstract: The authors studied and compared
the 1898 Reform of China and the Meiji Restoration in an attempt to determine and show the
different characteristics and influence, mainly from three aspects:(1) goal and historical
background of the reforms,(2)introduction and features of the Western democratic thought
into China and Japan,(3) establishment and guiding ideology of the modern educational
system.
Key words: 1898 Reform of China, Meiji Restoration, Western democratic thought, modern
educational system, comparative study
Document code: A CLC number: K256.5;K313.4
INTRODUCTION
In 1998, many magazines including
Historical Research (Beijing), Open Times (Guangzhou) and Twenty-First Century (Hongkong)
published articles in special columns to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the
reform of 1898. However, people seem to have forgotten that 1998 is also the 130th
anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, which greatly influenced the reform of 1898 in
China. So, as to our knowledge, there is no report of comparative study on the two
important reforms in the modern history of China and Japan, we wish to remedy the
regrettable defect.
As is well known, the Meiji Restoration and later reforms changed Japan rapidly from
a feudal country to a modern state. Kang Youwei,who led Chinas reform movement in
1898,observed in his First Petition to the Throne in October 1888, that since Japan had
become powerful within a few years of the Meiji Restoration, China, with her much greater
resources, should also be able to become a strong country quickly if she would but
undertake reforms(Kang,1981). In the wake of Chinas defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of
1895, Kang Youwei intensified his efforts to persuade the government to institute reforms
and never failed to extol the achievements of the Meiji Restoration. His plans for
reform,which he proposed to model after the Meiji example, included (1) the establishment
of a constitutional monarchy, (2) the creation of a parliament, and (3) the formation of a
modern system of education. It is true that the Meiji leaders did achieve great success in
these three areas. Kang Youwei, emphasizing on these three points mainly, attempted to
construct a modern state like Meiji Japan.
In this way, the early Meiji experience greatly influenced the reform of 1898 in
China. We believe,however, that the differences between the two reforms are far more
numerous than the similarities. Our purpose, therefore, is to focus on the basic
differences in the ideas and democratic thoughts of the two reforms and examine their
historical backgrounds.
GOALS AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS OF THE REFORMS
The spirit of the Meiji Restoration is expressed
best by the words "revering the Emperor"(sonnō). Revering the Emperor was originally
joined with the idea of expelling the Western barbarians (jōi). According to the ideas of
some experts, the later Mito school first used the words sonno, jōi(Moroyama, 1969). But
revering the Emperor soon came to mean the same thing as "overthrowing the Bakufu"
(tobaku).When the tobaku idea first reared its head in the 1860s, it frustrated plans
for closer cooperation between the Court and the Bakufu which the Emperor and the shōgun
had worked out, and presented an opportunity for the two most Anti-Bakufu Han, Chōshu and
Satsuma, to seize the leadership of all the han. On the other hand, both Chōshu and
Satsuma realized, after the British bombarded Kagoshima in 1863 and the combined naval
expedition of Britain, France, America and Holland destroyed the shore batteries at
Shimonoseki in 1864, that they could no longer oppose the Western powers by military
means. These domestic and international developments transformed the Meiji Restorations
sonnō,jōi into sonnō,tobaku.
In fact, Japan and China had rather different political structures. Chinas
feudal order never had the kind of complex political structure that the Tokugawa system
had with the Emperor, the Bakufu and the Daimyō domains;rather,Chinas centralized
political system placed the Emperor at the center as the highest feudal authority.All high
officials were appointed directly by the Emperor and had to obey his orders absolutely. In
China,therefore,there was no Bakufu which had to be overthrown;thus the Emperor could not
gain new recognition and respect by destroying an unpopular government.
In Japan, the sonnō,tobaku idea was to destroy the Tokugawa bakufus feudal
system and establish a modern central government with the Emperor at the center. After the
Meiji Government was formed, a group of Chōshu and Satsuma Samurai took the reins of
government into their own hands. Possessing a more progressive spirit than the old bakufu
officials and impressed by the modern Western civilization, they devoted all their efforts
to introduce Western political, economic and educational systems into Japan.
Japans jōi ideas, however, gave birth to no more than the movement to introduce
Western industry into China. After the Opium War of 1840, Wei Yuan, a leading Chinese
thinker who wrote An Illustrated Handbook of Maritime Countries advocated his own jōi
strategy of "using barbarians to control the barbarians"(Wei,1999) (by studying and
using Western science and technology against the Western nations). After suffering defeats
at the hands of the Franco-British forces in the Second Opium War (1857-1860), China set
up the Zongli Yamen(Board of Foreign Affairs) in Beijing in 1861 to improve relations with
the Western nations and to introduce modern science and technology. This was the high
point of the industrialization movement. But Chinas Westernization was concerned almost
exclusively with Western science and technology and brought about virtually no change in
Chinas traditional feudalistic political structure.
Japan won an overwhelming victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. But one might
say that, rather than beating China with military power, Japan defeated her with modern
systems. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, shocked by that defeat,criticized the
industrialization movement; they believed that unless the government undertook thorough
reforms, as Japan had done after the Meiji Restoration, it would be virtually impossible
to rescue China from its deepening crisis(Kang, 1981; Liang, 1936). The reforms of 1898
followed swiftly. But although following the Meiji model, the reformers could not
reproduce the social conditions and historical background that existed in Japan at the
time of the Meiji Restoration. As we said, the Meiji Restoration was a set of changes that
occurred under the slogan of "revering the Emperor and overthrowing the Bakufu". These
changes overturned the feudal Bakufu and created the new Meiji Government. The reforms of
1898 in China,on the other hand, were carried out by a group of progressive intellectuals
without real power who persuaded the Guang Xu Emperor to proclaim these superficial
reforms while leaving the traditional system undisturbed. The reforms were not only out of
touch with reality but the entire plan,contained in 67 government ordinances issued during
the "hundred days" (June 11 - September 21), was blocked by conservative bureaucrats
and amounted to little more than scraps of paper. In addition, the real power in the
government, Dowager Empress Ci Xi, would never permit radical reforms which posed a threat
to the political position and special privileges of the Manzhou nobles. It was thus no
easy task to advance the reform movement in the face of the powerful reactionary forces.
In short, any reform was absolutely impossible to introduce without first overthrowing the
traditional feudal system. If the Restoration had preserved the complex feudal system of
Tokugawa in Japan, it is doubtful whether the Meiji leaders could have had any real chance
of success.
INTRODUCTION AND FEATURES OF THE WESTERN
DEMOCRATIC THOUGHT
Constitutional monarchy is one expression of
democratic ideas. The ultimate goal of Kang Youweisconstitutional reforms of 1898 was
to establish a political monarchy like Japans. In 1898 he presented to the Guang Xu
Emperor a copy of his book On the Meiji Political Reforms(Kang, 1976). Kangsaccount was
based mainly on information he acquired from an English missionary, Timothy Richard, an
American missionary, J.Young Allen, and from Huang ZunxiansA Japanese History(Huang,
1968). These were Chinasnotions of constiutional monarchy to be modelled after Japans.
In 1868 the Meiji Government issued the Five-Article Charter Oath in which the
concepts of constitutional and parliamentary government were first hinted at by an article
which says that "all matters shall be decided by open discussion".In the years that
followed,many Japanese scholars were actively concerned with modern Western thought and
were striving to introduce it as rapidly as possible. John Stuart Mills On Liberty was
translated by Nakamura Masanao in 1871. The ideas of Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau,
Herbert Spencer, Adam Smith and others were also introduced into Japan. These modern
English and French doctrines, entering Japan in a disorderly fashion, formed the
intellectual background of the movement for liberty as well as peoples rights in the
early Meiji period. The ideas of Mill and Spencer found favor with the gradualist
advocates of democratic thought, while Rousseau appealed more to the intellectuals of a
radical persuasion.The ideological debate between these two groups discussed whether an
English-style constitutional monarchy should be introduced into Japan, or whether the
French republican system of democracy was more appropriate. However, this question was
never raised during Chinas reforms of 1898.
Although Japans early Meiji intellectuals had received a Confucian education,
they realized the impracticality of Confucianism, and made every effort to adopt the
modern civilization of the West as the best way to modernize Japanese society. Kato
Hiroyuki, who introduced Western constitutional thought to Japan, pointed out that Meng Zis
Jun Qing Min Gui Lun (the theory that the ruler serves the people) was by no means
democratic because Meng Zi considered the country and the people as the private
possessions of the ruler(Kato, 1967). Fukuzawa Yukichi, who was influenced by Mill and
Spencer, denounced Confucianism as an abstract theory of morality which had no connection
with mans daily life and which not only contributed nothing to the advancement of
humanity but actually was a hinderance to it(Fukuzawa, 1962). Despite Nakae Chōmins
deep respect for Confucianism, his democratic ideas were founded on Rousseaus liberty
and equality(Kuwabara, 1966). Fukuzawa and Nakae played major roles in advancing the
movement for liberty and peoples rights in the early Meiji period. The democratic
thought of modern Japan was thus developed by many who offered positive ideas.
Kang Youwei and others in China tried to copy Japans constitutional monarchy,
but they could not match the Japanese understanding of modern Western democratic ideas.
Although the ideas of Darwin, Huxley and Spencer, as interpreted by Yan Fu, had a major
impact on Chinas reformers after 1898, these Western ideas were not the principal
intellectual force of the 1898 reform movement. Kang Youwei merely used Huxleys and
Spencers concept of historical evolution to reinterpret Confucius in his On Confucius
as Reformer(Kang, 1958). In this book he advocated the thesis of a political system in
historical progression from absolutism to constitutional monarchy, and from constitutional
monarchy to democratic republicanism. His principal objective was to root out the
retrogressive Confucian view of history, which Chinese intellectuals had accepted, that
political systems had degenerated from the Xia to the Shang, and from the Shang to the
Zhou dynasty. This reveals the progressiveness of Kang Youweis ideas.But ideas that
were rooted in Confucianism, as his were, could not escape the fact that, conceptually,
they were pre-modern.
By the time of the 1898 reform, Kangs "thought of the great harmony" had
already been established, and was composed of a confusing mixture of ideas from
Confucianism, Lao Zis philosophy, Buddhism, and Christianity. It can hardly be called
scientific and democratic thought, but was in fact, a kind of utopianism(Kang, 1956). To
make clear Kangs ideas on constitutional monarchy, Liang Qichao, Kangs disciple,
published an article in 1896 called Textual Research on Ancient Parliament based on Meng
Zi(Liang, 1936). Liang pointed out that Meng Zis Zhu Dai Fu (great officials of state
in ancient times) was equivalent to the upper house of parliament in Western countries,
and his Guo Ren(people) was like the lower house. In other words, the ideas of modern
parliamentary government were contained in Confucianism.
Tan Sitong, who was more progressive than Kang and Liang, advocated radical
democratic ideas in his The Theory On Goodness (in Chinese).His ideas closely resembled
those of Rousseau, but he was actually in no way influenced by Rousseau. Tans ideas
were constructed from the theories of Huang Zongxi and Wei Yuan,to which he added a
knowledge of Western natural science(Yang, 1957). But Confucianism remained the real basis
of his thought.
Confucianism, which supported Chinas feudal order, was encouraged and protected
in Japan during the Tokugawa period. After the Bakufu collapsed, however, most Japanese
intellectuals rejected Confucianism and positively sought out the modern thought of the
West.In contrast, Chinese intellectuals, while attempting to carry out the reforms that
Japan had implemented earlier, did not reject traditional Confucianism, or criticize it.
Their not doing anything other than use Western democratic thoughts to suggest new, and
often strained, interpretations of Confucianism was one cause for the failure of the 1898
reform.
ESTABLISHMENT AND GUIDING IDEOLOGY OF THE MODERN
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Japan established the modern educational system
after a series of reforms starting from the Meiji Restoration. In China, although the
reform of 1898 failed, the proposals of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to reform the
educational system were eventually adopted by the Qing government at the beginning of the
20th century, which resulted in the establishment of the modern educational system.
Nevertheless, after comparing and examining the establishing process and guiding
ideologies of the two systems, it is easy to find great differences between them.
Firstly, the two countries were acquainted with the Western modern education at very
different levels. As is well known, the Japanese government sent a large number of
students like Ito Hirobumi, Nisi Amane, Tsuda Shinichiro、 Mori Arinori as early as
the Tokugawa period to study in Western countries, where they acquired professional
knowledge and got well acquainted with their education systems. After returning to Japan,
most of them held important posts in the Meiji government and directly participated in a
lot of work to establish the Japanese modern education system. Fukuzawa Yukichi paid three
visits to Western countries as a member of the Bakufa delegation. When he returned, he
wrote some books like On the Situation in Western Countries and On the World Geography
which extensively introduced Western modern education into Japan(Fukuzawa,1962). In 1871
after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government sent another delegation, led by
Iwagura Tomomi, to study the education system in Western countries. The study lasted a
year and eight months . On arriving in Washington, the delegation was warmly received by
Mori Arinori, the envoy to America who during his stay there, sought advice from American
political and educational circles on how to establish modern education in Japan. Later, he
compiled thirteen letters he received into the book Education in Japan, which played an
important role when the Meiji government initially formulated the school educational
system(Mori, 1973). Tanaka Fujimaro, a delegation member, headed the Monbusyo (State
Culture and Education Ministry of Japan) after his return to Japan, and wrote A Report on
Findings on Western Modern Education recounting comprehensively modern education in
America, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Holland and some other countries. It also had a
deep impact on the Japanese educational reform in the 1870s(Tanaka, 1974).
On the other hand, before the reform of 1898, the Chinese people had very limited
knowledge of modern education in Western countries. Rong Hong, the first student returned
in 1857 from America in modern Chinese history, later introduced to the leaders of the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and high-ranking officials of the Qing government the modern
education in America(Rong, 1968). Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang adopted Rong Hongs
proposal and obtained the permission of the Qing government that, from 1872 on 120 young
children would be sent to study in America, which became the beginning, in modern Chinese
history,of sending students to study abroad. But these students were repatriated before
they could finish their studies and were not put in important positions. After that, some
local bureaucrats also sent some students to European countries to study military
mechanical technology. But the number was so small that the information about the Western
modern education could not be introduced by them into China. In fact, before 1898, the
Chinese people were already well acquainted with the modern education in Japan, because
the Qing government sent a group of diplomatic officials to work in Japan in 1873 after
the two countries established diplomatic relations. Some famous intellectuals were also
invited by Japanese cultural and academic circles to visit Japan. Thus, they recorded and
compiled what they had seen and heard in Japan into books as important sources of
information for the Chinese to know about Japan. One of these books, Huang Zunxians A
Japanese History, gave a detailed account of the establishment of modern education in
Japan after the Meiji Restoration. It indicated how well the Chinese people were aquainted
with Japan(Huang, 1968).
Secondly, it was just because China and Japan had different acquaintance with
Western modern education that led to the different means of introducing. After the Meiji
Restoration, Japan undertook an omnibus reform on its traditional feudal education and
introduced Western education in various ways. For instance, in the 1870s , Japan
followed the French model of educational system, but as for the educational ideologies,
the content of courses and the courses offered, they followed the British and American
models. The Japanese also translated and introduced a great number of textbooks from
Britain and America. In contrast , the Qing governments educational reforms, with the
1898 reform as the beginning, followed Japans model as much as Japan followed the
Western model. Thus, the educational reform indirectly introduced the Western modern
education by following Japans model. Just as an old Chinese saying goes "learning
after the superior gets the mediocre, learning after the mediocre only inferior". The
indirect means of learning from the West made the Chinese modern educational system lag
far behind that of Western countries ,even Japan.
Finally, great differences existed between the guiding ideologies of the modern
education in China and Japan. In the 1870s, with G.Guizots Histoire de la
Civilisation on Europe depuis la chute de Empire Romain Jusqualla Revolution Francaise
(Europes Civilization History) and T.Buckles History of Civilization in England
translated into Japanese, the trend of thought of "civilization" appeared in Japan.
Influenced by this trend of thought, Fukuzawa Yukichi wrote On Japans Education and On
the Basic Theories of Civilization, both of which became best sellers in contemporary
Japan. In these two books, he accepted G.Guizots and T.Buckles concept of historical
civilization which described human historys transition from "uncivilized age" to
"civilized age". In his opinion, the developed countries in the West had entered the
"civilized age"; Japan, China and other less developed Asian countries should absorb
Western culture and education to enable these countries to enter the "civilized age".
According to this viewpoint, Fukazawa Yukichi sharply denounced Confucianism, pointing out
that it was an obstacle to hinder humanity from advancing to the "civilized age"(Fukuzawa,
1962; 1958; 1959). In sharp contrast to this, some Chinese bureaucrats and intellectuals
advocated absorption of the Western advanced science and technology, but rejected the
Western concept of valuable "liberty","equality" and "democracy" at the core
of their culture and traditions. The attitude could be concluded as an idea Zhong Ti Xi
Yong Lun (the theory of maintaining the Chinese morality and making use of the Western
science and technology). In 1898, Zhang Zhidong who wrote On Chinas Education,
theorized and systematized the idea(Zhang, 1990). With the influence of this idea, the
confused mixture of the moral education based on Confucianism, and the mental education
focusing on imparting Western science and technology, was considered as an ideal model for
the Chinese modern education system.
CONCLUSION
With the previous detailed analysis, the following
conclusions can be made. Firstly, the idea of "revering the Emperor and expelling the
barbarians" that was put forward during the Bakufu period developed into"revering the
Emperor and overthrowing the Bakufu" during the Meiji Restoration, when the reform goal
was fundamentally to overthrow the feudal system of Bakufu. In order to achieve this aim,
the radical Samurai(the feudal warriors) resorted to force. However, in China,neither Yang
Wu Yun Dong(the industrialization movement) nor the reform of 1898 put forward the idea of
overthrowing the feudal society of the Qing Dynasty. The real power of the government was
still in the hands of those feudal conservative bureaucrats. Secondly, as to the guiding
ideology, during the Meiji Restoration, the democratic thoughts of Jean Jacques Rousseau
and John Stuart Mill were widely disseminated in Japan, and influenced Fukuzawa Yukichi,
Kato Hioyuki and Nakae Chōmin who strongly criticized Confucianism. In contrast, by 1898,
no Western democratic thoughts were propagated in China, except for evolutionism.
Moreover, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong advocated "thought of the great
harmony" and Jun Qing Min Gui Lun, mainly through the Confucian concepts and thoughts
instead of Western democratic ones. Thirdly, around the Meiji Restoration, Japan sent
quite a number of students to study in Western nations, and later also sent many
high-ranking officials to examine the education in the West. Influenced by the thought of
"civilization", they established Japans modern educational system, following
French, American, British and German models. In China, however, only a few students, with
Rong Hong, Ma Jianzhong and Yan Fu included, had returned by 1898. Little did the Chinese
know about Western modern education. Therefore, Chinas modern education, established at
the beginning of the 20th century, was modelled after Japans and took Zhong Ti Xi Yong
Lun as the guiding ideology. Mainly for these reasons, Japans modernization reform
starting from the Meiji Restoration resulted in quick development. As a result, Japan soon
became a main power in the world. The reform in the Qing Dynasty, on the other hand,
brought about little development in China and eventually led her to deteriorate into a
semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
肖朗(XIAO Lang)(Dept.of Education, Xixi
Campus of Zhejiang University,Hangzhou, 310028,China)
田正平(TIAN Zheng-ping)(Dept.of Education, Xixi Campus of Zhejiang
University,Hangzhou, 310028,China)
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Received Feb. 1, 1999; revision accepted
June 30, 1999 |