Modern Science And The Hundred Days Reform

The Wuxu Reform is not only a bourgeois political reform but also a newculture enlightenment movement. In the former stand, it failed;in the latersense, it had strong and long-standing impact on Chinese history. "Science",one of the themes of the movement, is an important topic well worth exploration.How did "science" affect their view of the world and their methods to solveproblems? How did they now understand the importance of developing China'sscience and technology? How did they take science as a guide to reform Chinesesociety? All these problems need a systematic study in all aspects.The thesis attempts to take the relationship between Weixin School and modernscience as the research subject. Equipped with Marxism and the methods employedin some woks on scientific history, the author attempts to systematicallyunderstand the origins and development of the Wuxu Reform through the comparisonof different views of science which different political schools and figures held.The thesis will focus mainly on the following points:The Preface describes the academic contributions and practical significancethat will be achieved in the present research. Specifically, the thesis willpoint out what main problems in the past studies and propose the way to solvethese problems.Chapter One, Yangwu Movement and Modern Science, is composed of two parts.In the first part, the author describes the Yangwu figures' preliminaryunderstanding of the study of western science and their motivations ofintroducing western science and technology into China. In the second part, theauthor will present the main reasons and motives that the Yangwu movement iscentered on the army construction and the learning of western engineeringtechnology. The author will make a detailed analysis of the causes of failureof this movement and then comment on its characteristics and impact.Chapter Two is The Origins of the Weixin School's Scientific Thoughts. Inthis chapter, the author will first introduce the different ways they adoptedin learning western modern science and which subjects effect them a lot, andthen describe how they took science as a weapon, fighting against the old ideas.Chapter Three is addressed on the Scientific Thoughts of the Weixin School.The author will first give a general idea of the attitude of the Weixin Schooltoward science and then describe the theoretical stance and the measurementsthey adopted in developing China's science and technology.Chapter Four deals with the Scientific Thoughts of the Weixin School andthe Social Reform. The author makes an analysis of the effects that the WeixinSchool had on the Chinese society in terms of politics, economics and culture.Finally, the author with conclude first with the summary of the historiccontributions they made and significance they had in developing China's scienceand technology and then with the analysis of the limitations of the WeixinSchool's scientific thoughts and the shortcomings of the scientific movementthey initiated.