A Study On The Cognition And Practice Of The Modernization Of National Defense Of Enlightened Scholars And Officials During The Xianfeng And Tongzhi Dynasties

Since modern times,the western powers,relying on the powerful military strength formed after the industrial revolution,have challenged the traditional armed forces of the late Qing Dynasty and posed unprecedented threats to China.Therefore,during the first Opium War,the enlightened scholar-bureaucrats issued the voice of "dividing the barbarians with skills to control the barbarians",and the change of Gengshen shocked the enlightened scholar-bureaucrats deeply.They realized that they had to "divide the barbarians" to strengthen themselves and that they needed to make certain changes in the military preparations of the late Qing Dynasty in order to get rid of the threat.Because of the brilliant military research in ancient China and the great martial arts of the Qing Dynasty before the founding of the state and the Opium War,especially in the late period of suppressing the Taiping Army,the army has undergone the transformation of "using Western firearms with Hunan-Huaihe discipline" and achieved good practical results in the battlefield of Southeast China,which has resulted in the enlightened scholars still maintaining confidence in traditional military thoughts.Although enlightened scholar-bureaucrats formed the consensus of "Shiyi",they were attacked by traditional public opinion and hindered by the Qing Dynasty in the process of joining China and the West.At the same time,the deep self-confidence of "heaven's empire" was still continuing,which led to the difficulties in their understanding of modern national defense construction.Therefore,there were obvious limitations in their cognition,which ultimately led to the enlightened scholar-bureaucrats in modern times.The cognition of national defense construction is between tradition and modern times,showing the coexistence of "duality" in cognition.At the beginning of the modernization of national defense advocated by enlightened scholar-bureaucrats,because of the coexistence of "duality" in cognition,on the one hand,it promoted the development of modern national defense construction,and achieved certain results.It not only promoted the rise of modernnational defense military industry construction,but also made breakthroughs in modern coastal defense construction from three aspects: ship manufacturing,personnel training and military construction concept.At the same time,the army also made breakthroughs in modern military construction.The device and its application have been transformed accordingly.On the other hand,it failed to promote the establishment of modern national defense system.In fact,it not only led to the "dependence" of modern national defense industry construction on the enlightened scholar-bureaucrats themselves,but also made the modern coastal defense construction develop in a "decentralized" way,and even made the modern army construction "lost" in the military regulations of the Hunan Military Department.It can be seen that the modern national defense construction under the enlightened scholar-bureaucrat's "dual" cognition has its own historical significance.It not only promoted the overall strength of national defense in the late Qing Dynasty,but also promoted the transformation of the modernization of Chinese society.Especially,the national defense spirit of enlightened scholar-bureaucrat's "self-improvement" and "resistance to insults" inspired the people of insight at that time and thereafter.However,the transformation of modern national defense construction actively promoted by enlightened scholar-bureaucrats is not thorough and has obvious limitations of the times.It is not only lack of broad vision in cognition,but also lack of overall grasp in practice.At the same time,it falls into the predicament of "melting the old into the new" in the transformation mode.