On Charity Thought In The Late Qing Dynasty From SHENBAO, 1872-1911

By the late Qing dynasty, great changes took place in charity thought in terms of social function of the charity, the way of upbringing, the almsman and the organization. This dissertation analyzes the editorials and reports on charity thought in SHENBAO from 1872 to 1911, recounts the forty years history of philanthropic thought and researches into its development trends.Firstly, the thesis introduces SHENBAO and the editorials and reports on charity thought in it, and clarifies its advantages in philanthropic thought study. Secondly, the paper analyzes those editorials and reports, and expatiates on charity thought in the late Qing period from the poor and the disadvantaged. For the former, the people required transforming clothes and food salvation, and establishing some new philanthropies that attached importance to education as well as support; in regard to the pauper's instruction, the people not only demanded recruiting more students and changing teaching content, but also proposed innovating teaching tenet, teaching methods and so on. As to free medical treatment for the poor, the discussants propounded that the traditional medical aid should be reformed according to western medical aid system, and suggested that the crazy and the leprous patients could also obtain medical relief. For the latter, the debaters advised developing Qingjietang and Xulihui to help the poor widows, appealed to the charity to rescue the woman involved in a lawsuit, and advocated saving the prostitutes. As for the abandoned or drowning babies, they brought up to improve the way of fostering the babies and establish Baoyinghui, Quanyinghui and the kindergarten.Finally, the treatise summarizes the development trends of philanthropic thought atthat time and analyzes the reasons. The people realized the philanthropy was the way to solve poverty problem, preserve the social order and rebuild society more than the tool of performing benefaction and moral domestication. Moreover, no longer contented with simple almsgiving, they requested teaching the almsman technical skill. What's more, they suggested widening the scope of the almsman and building the new charities. The development trends were related to social conditions of modern China and the introduction of western charity and charity thought.