Experience And Thinking Of An Official's Child In The Late Qing Dynasty

Sun Baoxuan was born in an official's family in 1874. He experienced a series of historical events, such as the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Boxer Movement before his 30 years. The thesis focuses on- his experience and thinking during 1893 to 1902. By analyzing and interpreting his diary and person-related material, the writer depicted track of his life in 10 years. Below is the main idea of the thesis.Sun's family was originally a traditional agriculture family, while trying hard on the imperial civil examination. After 4 generations' dedicating to the examination, Sun Baoxuan's father Sun Yijing made a success, which caused that Sun's family shifted from a traditional agriculture family to an official's family gradually. Sun Baoxuan continued his family's tradition and tried to make a progress on the imperial examination. His quiet and leisure life was disturbed by outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Sun sent a letter to persuade prince Gong not to war with other 13 Zhejiang officials in Beijing. However, he was fiercely criticized at an atmosphere of insisting war, and then he had to move to Shanghai. When he arrived, Sun Baoxuan made acquaintance with a couple of people with reform thoughts. Sun Baoxuan headed for Tianjin and sent a letter to Li Hongzhang in July 1895. He proposed "establishment of newspaper office and school" and advocated Li to hold up the flag of reform, but refused by Li. After he came back, Sun Baoxuan and several friends created a political salon called "Shenjiang Yaji". Later it was replaced by the party held in the office of Shi Wu Newspaper. In the Reform Movement of 1898, he insisted that the chief task of reform is establishment of congress. After the failure of the Reform Movement, he resumed "Shengjiang Yaji". He attended "Gengzi Congress" and named to be administrative secretary in 1900. On March 24 1901, he joined "Zhangyuan Assembly" and delivered an address firstly. He was reportedly the host of the assembly according to Zhong Wai Daily. The Daily corrected the mistake with his request after few days. Later Sun Baoxuan argued with Zhang Taiyan about the viewpoint of anti-Manchu, which led to break off their relations nearly. In 1902 Sun Baoxuan returned to Beijing, with the purpose of acting as a link between the officialdom and his elder brother who had been appointed the Chinese Ambassador to France.