In all fairness, whether it is a unanimous denial of the "New Deal" or a total denial of the Revolution of 1911, although the conclusions are diametrically opposite, there are some striking similarities in the way of thinking, that is, they are all based on the bipolar thinking of caring for one thing and favoring the other, thus ignoring the temporal and spatial relationship between historical events, oversimplifying complex history and causing readers to be at a loss.
It should be admitted that after the heavy blow and humiliation of Eight-Nation Alliance's blood loss, the "New Deal" announced by Empress Dowager Cixi on her way to xi 'an was not completely insincere, nor was it without specific measures and actual investment. Therefore, just because the purpose of the "New Deal" is to maintain the ruling order of the Qing Dynasty, it cannot be denied. Due to different historical conditions, the depth and effectiveness of the reform in the "New Deal" undoubtedly surpassed the Westernization Movement and the Reform Movement of 1898 in the19th century. It was through the "New Deal" that the signs of China's transformation from a traditional small-scale peasant society to a modern industrial and commercial society really appeared. The promulgation of economic freedom policy provides a certain institutional basis for the development of capitalist economy; Modern military system, education system and modern talent concept have also begun to precipitate; Modern legal system and judicial system have also begun to take shape. In addition to the Articles of Association of Award Companies, the Articles of Association of Pilot Trademark Registration, General Rules for Merchants, Company Law, Bankruptcy Law, Detailed Rules for Judges Examination and Law on Assembly and Association, three laws have been promulgated, namely, the Criminal and Civil Procedure Law of Qing Dynasty, the Criminal Law of Qing Dynasty and the Draft Civil Law.
However, we should also see that the "New Deal" began after the rulers delayed several reform opportunities in the19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, China was beset with crises. 19 1 1 The climax of the anti-Qing revolution came just when the rulers of the Qing Dynasty could no longer rule as usual, so it was not the wishful thinking of professional revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen, as some extremists said, but artificially created.
First of all, the Qing government suppressed the development of China's capitalist economy for a long time, and the huge compensation for people's livelihood and unequal treaties was in sharp contrast with the huge demand of the New Deal itself. The phenomenon that the "New Deal" is so small or even empty can be found everywhere. Seeing the deepening national crisis, all social strata have high hopes for the "New Deal", and there is no lack of desire to "fight to the end". However, many aspects of the "New Deal" are perfunctory or unsatisfactory, and the disparity between them can only aggravate social differentiation and turmoil. In order to get rid of the financial difficulties, the corrupt rulers took out the old trick of fishing with exhausted resources and squeezed the people for the second time. As a result, self-defense struggles against grain, donations and taxes have broken out one after another. The angry underclass not only attacked the Lika police station, but also destroyed the new school and increased the resistance of the "New Deal".
Secondly, the rulers of the Qing dynasty are declining, and it can be said that each generation is not as good as the next. Whether we can control the challenging results of the "New Deal" and maintain its political situation is also unknown. Take the new army as an example. Because it belongs to a new state machine with modern nature and is directly controlled by local governors, its independence even exceeds that of Xiang Army and Huai Army. It is unrealistic to expect it to be consistent with a decadent dynasty and go through fire and water for it. Have you noticed that when the Wuchang Uprising broke out, the Forbidden City was unable to quickly mobilize the new troops from all provinces to "help suppress", but it responded to the call of the Wuchang Uprising. Taking the educational reform as an example, the abolition of the imperial examination system certainly aggravated the decomposition of the traditional social structure, and the trinity of scholars, gentry and officials no longer existed. Young scholars, whether they hold a negative attitude towards the new school in China or cross the ocean, mostly devote themselves to saving the country with the idea of serving the country. When they witnessed the developed economy and strong national strength of the overseas world, their mentality of hating iron and not producing steel came into being. They searched up and down, compared left and right, and agreed that absolute monarchy was the general source of poverty and weakness in the motherland. They either called on the Qing government to show sincerity and implement a real constitutional monarchy, or advocated burying the autocratic Qing dynasty by violence and creating a democratic and harmonious system. How to summon those well-informed and enthusiastic young people under the banner of the shabby dragon is really an unsolvable problem. As Liang Qichao, who has always been known for his gentleness, said: "There must be the power of thunder, which can take advantage of the road; You have to be thunderous, but you can create a thousand miles. If so, finally give up the risk. "
Thirdly, if the Empress Dowager Cixi has no shortage of people who can master the skills of ministers, it would be even worse if after her death, the indecisive Regent Zai Feng and the weeping Queen Yulong will be the successors to inherit the political legacy of preparing for constitutionalism without risk. When Zai Feng and others suppressed the railway protection movement and the congressional petition movement that swept the country, foolishly and forcibly transferred the railway construction right to the big powers and threw out the "royal cabinet", they kicked many petitioners who had accumulated sincere sorrow into the revolutionary camp, and they became a veritable loner.
As for the relationship between the "New Deal" and the Revolution of 1911 in the late Qing Dynasty, although the revolutionaries and the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, the Revolution of 1911 and the "New Deal" are interrelated and interdependent, the causal relationship between them cannot be cut off. First of all, the revolutionary activities of Sun Yat-sen and others forced the Qing rulers to speed up the implementation of the "New Deal", especially to prepare for constitutionalism. The latter believes that only by implementing the "New Deal" as soon as possible can civil strife be avoided; Second, the preparatory constitutionalism urged the revolutionaries to speed up the preparations for the revolution, so that the latter planned to overthrow the Qing Dynasty before the constitution and constitutional monarchy were established, so as to prevent the revolution from becoming illegal and the Aisingiorro family from becoming the legal rulers of the "eternal series"; Third, the "New Deal" has prepared the basic forces for revolutionaries to launch-new troops and new intellectuals; Fourth, the "New Deal" prepared its own allies and collaborators for revolutionaries-the bourgeoisie and constitutional monarchists; Fifth, the public propaganda of civil rights thought and the practice of previous congressional petition movements in the preparatory constitutional period in the late Qing Dynasty provided conditions for the establishment of the Republic of China; Sixth, the emptiness of the national treasury in the late Qing Dynasty limited the economic resources available to the Nanjing Provisional Government to a certain extent, and soon faced a financial crisis. The autocratic tendency of the governor led to the warlord scuffle in the early Republic of China. Obviously, looking forward to the future of the "New Deal" in an ideal vacuum, but complaining that the Revolution of 1911 should not happen and accusing the revolutionaries of adding chaos can neither guarantee that the outcome of the preparatory constitutionalism written and implemented by the Qing rulers will satisfy you, nor answer whether Liang Qichao, Zhang Jian and a group of moderate congressional petitioners and capitalists behind them turned to revolution after repeated humiliation. The main mistake of this theory lies not only in that theorists have unrealistic illusions about the prospect of the "New Deal", but also that the arrival of the revolutionary climax is the result of the unilateral efforts of the revolutionary faction headed by Sun Yat-sen, which is similar to the fact that in the past, only Sun Yat-sen and others were recognized for their great contributions to the Revolution of 1911, while Liang Qichao and others were ignored for their historical contributions. As we all know, 19 1 1 year's anti-Manchu chorus appeared when the revolutionary objective conditions were mature and the subjective conditions were not yet mature. A few years later, Sun Yat-sen recalled the scene of that year and bluntly said, "Wuchang's success was accidental." Of course, this does not affect our overall understanding of Sun Yat-sen as a revolutionary leader.
As a substitute for the New Deal, the Revolution of 1911 not only wrote the first chapter of China's civil rights politics, but also abandoned the "Three Cardinals" and the people's ideological emancipation was unprecedented. Therefore, if we blindly criticize and deny the historical achievements of the pioneers of democratic revolution such as Sun Yat-sen, it is tantamount to imposing "authority" on the latter and unconditionally defending a decadent Aisingiorro dynasty, which is obviously biased. Because historical materialists should not only be good at defending history, but also be good at being historical prosecutors and judges, all of which are indispensable. Writing here, I can't help but think of Zhang Jian, who was biased against Sun Yat-sen, and sighed with deep affection: "There are many revolutionaries from generation to generation, but they just changed their surnames. It's not surprising. Sun Yat-sen's revolution is a reform of the state system, which is very different from the reform of one surname. Therefore, Sun Yat-sen is not only the founding father of the Republic of China, but also a great figure in the history of China and East Asia. " Liang Qichao, who strongly opposed the violent revolution, and later scholars' knowledge fully affirmed the historical position of the Revolution of 1911 many times. Nowadays, times have changed and things have changed. If the ideological realm of Zhang Jian and Liang Qichao is beyond the reach of later researchers, I'm afraid it's really necessary to review what revolutionary writer Yu Dafu said more than half a century ago: a nation with great people but no respect is a nation with strong servility.
I hope I can help you!