A Study On The Development Of Railway Thoughts Of Late Qing Government

Based on the systematic investigation of the development of the modern way of transportation—the railway thought of late Qing government, the thesis aims to give a comprehensive and all-round description of development of the thoughts, upon which an objective and justice evaluation was placed.The railway, the transportation which is metaphorically called the artery of human body , firstly appeared in Britain in 1825 and then spread quickly to other countries then. After the Opium War(1840-1842) , the modern transportation found its way to China along with the opening of China's ancient gate. Facing the new transportation, the late Qing government, as the then ruling class, had experienced several stages in thoughts. The author of the thesis holds the opinion that the thoughts had been tracing through the following stages: repelling—hesitation—resolutely initiation.At the beginning, because of the ignorance of the railway, the people, ranging from the royal nobles to the common, were all against the new thing, and repelled it. However, the development of society and the propaganda of the public made many officials in Qing government, especially some open-minded scholars clear of the fact that building the railways not only did good to the consolidation of national defense, but also be important to the ruling of Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, this was also beneficial to better the economic development, which will increase the financial benefits of the Qing government. Thus, after a period of debates and discussion, the government hesitatively tried to set up, and finally resolutely initiate the railways.The thesis begins with the appearance and introduction of world's railways, then investigates the historical development, influential elements and effects of the railway thoughts of the Qing government. The thesis aims to make us comprehend the new thing, such as the railway, after its appearance, also never runs smooth. At first, it was also repelled, thus we could have a deeper understanding the difficulties of the railway thought of the Qing government. And all these could result in our objective and justice evaluation.Here, it should be clear that the original purpose for the government to build railways is to maintain its reign, but generally speaking, they held an active attitude towards the new thing. But, being constrained and influenced by many factors, the railways finally led to the destruction of Qing government.The thesis can be divided into four chapters: Chapter One tells the origin of railways and their spreading in China. Chapter Two begins with the repelling of Qing government to the modern transportation, and then tells that they hesitatively and tentatively tried to build, during which course three debates were held. The first railway Tang-Xu Railway also was briefly introduced in this part.Chapter Three had introduced how the Qing government borrowed the money to set up the railways, to build the railways on their own and how the railways was taken over by the nation, and the changes of their thoughts. Chapter Four is a brief remark of the development of the thought.