Wei Yuan's Borderland History And Geography Studies Of

WEI Yuan was a famous patriotic thinker and historian in China during the 19th century. Moreover, he was a champion of pragmatism and the fact that he investigated into the history and the course of change and development at the border areas embodies his inclination. In fact, WEI Yuan played an important role in the academic circle concerning investigating into this subject during the late Qing Dynasty because of his ingenious exploration in this respect. However, a whole and objective assessment has not been made of WEI Yuan's accomplishment in this respect in contemporary historical circle, so the article aims at doing something for it. The article include as follows:The first part concentrates on WEI Yuan's textual research the course of change and development at the border areas. WEI Yuan's research involves textual criticism and pragmatism and it is a combination of the two characters.The second part treats WEI Yuan's knowledge of the inter-ethnical relations at the border areas. WEI Yuan aimed at strengthening the foundation of the masses at these areas and had inclination towards what is so called "unification of multi-ethnic" and his many brilliant expositions on how to deal with the inter-ethnical relations at these areas are of great value even today.The third part expounds WEI Yuan's thought on developing the border areas. WEI Yuan's survey is valuable because it had transcended the traditional compass of this subject bycombining how to defend the border areas and how to develop these areas, by extension, how to defend and develop these areas with how to resolve the problems which the whole country was confronted at that time.The fouth part treats WEI Yuan's thought on coastal defense. In order to defend the coast, WEI Yuan studied history of the country, drew lessons from the neighboring countries and used the experiences of the Occident. Finally, WEI Yuan found a methodology for coastal defense and put forward a clarion call "Leaning From the Advanced Technology of the Occident To Defeat Themselves", which had had a profound influence on posterity.