A Study Of The Changes Of Foreign Concepts Of The Chinese People Before The Sino-Japanese War Of 1894-1895

Before The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, upon the impact of the western forces, the foreign concepts of the Chinese people took a process of changes that absorbed and digested the foreign concepts on the basis of inheriting the tradition. Through the research on the changes of the Chinese foreign concepts in this process, this dissertation is trying to find out how the foreign concepts changed under the pressure and challenge of the external forces, what its process, situation and essence were and how it influenced the Chinese history and society.During this process, the Chinese foreign concepts took different changes in different periods. It can mainly be divided into three periods: before The Opium War, between the two Opium Wars and between The Second Opium War and The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This dissertation will give a detailed discussion of their changes in these three periods.The first part of this dissertation is of the research on the first period. This part begins with the emissary delegation of Marcartney coming to China in 1793 and the William John Lord NapierEvent in 1834. These two events were two challenges to the Chinese foreign concepts from the UK who desired to impact the Chinese notion of "the Celestial Emperor on the Earth", which signified that there would be great changes in the concepts between the two parts. However, the Qing Dynasty stubbornly held the traditional foreign concepts and policy instead of issuing any wise manipulation conforming with the contemporary tendency at such an essential moment. More importantly, through these events, she did not become aware of the great changes happening in the outside world and consequently could not take initiative before the great changes had taken place in the Sino-Western relationship.The second part of this dissertation is of the research on the second period. In this part, the author tries to argue that the essential concepts still did not change at all though the Qing government adjusted its diplomatic forms on the tremendous impact of The Opium War. Still as usual, it held the traditional foreign concepts. There was no engendering of the equality concept among countries. There was no notion of developing regular contact among countries. Even worse, it considered betraying sovereignty of the nation as condescending to the foreign situations. The contemporary wise intellectuals put forward the slogans of knowing the foreigners and learning from the foreigners. Nevertheless, their original consideration was still the traditional foreign concepts. There did not appear any modern foreign notion inthis aspect. In such a situation, China missed a considerably advantageous opportunity of development, which greatly influenced the Chinese history.The third part of this dissertation is of the research of the third period. In this period, the Chinese foreign concepts took great changes since China and the foreign countries contacted with each other more frequently and her knowledge of the outside world began to deepen. The equality concept among countries came into being in China and China began to realize the importance of establishing regular relationship with the foreign countries. At the same time, the concept of sovereignty of a nation also came into being in China. However, when it came to the different group of people, the changes of the concepts varied in degrees. The earlier reformers and the lower officials were more radical than the upper officials. Though the changes of the foreign concepts have not effectively changed China's status, they deeply went into the minds of Chinese people, which impelled the awakening of the nation and helped to engender the national concept.In conclusion, the changes of the Chinese foreign concepts were so important that they deeply influenced Chinese history and society. They influenced the situation of the diplomatic relations between China and the external world, changed the foreign concepts of the Qing Dynasty, impelled the awakening of the Chinese national concept and the engenderin...