tongzhi restoration and self-strengthening movement (1861-1894);

What was the context for the restoration?

- succeeded by his infant son, who reigned as the Tongzhi emperor until his death in 1875

- ousted the officials held responsible for the recent disasters and replaced them with Prince Gong, the emperor's uncle, and Wenxiang, a senior Manchu official

What does a restoration imply?

- temporary reversal of the dynasty's decline, was claimed to have taken place.

- task of restoration encompassed the defeat of the rebellions, the recovery of dynastic authority, and the repair of the damage Qing

When did it take place?

- took shape in the wake of the Qing's defeat in the Opium Wars and their eventual victory in the Taiping Rebellion.

What did the restoration entail?

- Wei Yuan, a scholar and adviser to Lin Zexu, expressed concern about the superiority of the West in terms of military technology and outlined a plan for maritime defence.

- noted the traditional strategy of `using barbarians to control barbarians', but also recommended 'building ships, making weapons, and learning the superior techniques of the barbarians'.

- adoption of Western knowledge, the manufacture of Western weapons, and the establishment of translation offices and institutions where students would study Chinese classics and also Western languages and mathematics.

- attempt to arrest the dynastic decline of the Qing dynasty of China by restoring the traditional order.

- the harsh realities of the Opium War, the unequal treaties, and the mid-century mass uprisings of the Taiping Rebellion caused Qing courtiers and officials to recognize the need to strengthen China.

- the Tongzhi Restoration was named for the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861-1875), and was engineered by the young emperor's mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908).

restoration, however, which applied "practical knowledge" while reaffirming the old mentality, was not a genuine program of modernization.

- academics are divided as to whether the Tongzhi Restoration arrested the dynastic decline, or merely delayed its inevitable occurrence.

What was the ethos of the restoration?

If we let Chinese ethics and famous [Confucian] teachings serve as an original foundation, and let them be supplemented by the methods used by the various nations for the attainment of prosperity and strength, would it not be the best of all procedures?

"'Chinese learning as the base, Western studies for use'"—zigang

Who were the exponents of self strengthening?

- most prominent exponents of self-strengthening were the three senior provincial officials, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang

- played a leading role in the defeat of the rebellions.

- received some support from Prince Gong and from the Zongli Yamen, the `office for general management', which had been established in March 1861 to handle relations with the Western powers and yangwu or `foreign matters'.

- their activities did not amount to a national policy and yangwu remained peripheral to the mainstream of intellectual activity in China until the 1890s.

What did the first set of reform entail?

- 1862

- establishment of foreign-language schools in Beijing. Shanghai, Guangzhou and Fuzho

- number of arsenals were set up which pioneered the introduction of Western technology.

- Zeng Guofan set up an arsenal there to manufacture weapons to use against the rebels and he also made the first, albeit unsuccessful, attempt at building a steamship.

- anufacture of weapons and ships to standards comparable with those of the West was a tall order, and to accelerate the process attempts were made to buy in foreign technology.

- Buying in foreign technology was not only expensive, but also entailed a risk of dependency.

What was the wealth and power stage of the movement?

- 1872

- Li Hongzhang argued that the self-strengthening programme should be widened to include industrial ventures and transport facilities to support them

- marked by the establishment of profit-oriented ventures such as the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company

- importance of establishing heavy industry in China

What was the role of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company?

- founded by Li Hongzhang to compete with foreign shipping which was taking over China's coastal and riverine commerce

- officials were appointed to the management, but merchants supplied the capital and operated the company.

- typically the enterprise was granted a monopoly to ensure its profitability.

- had a monopoly for the sea transport of tribute rice from the Yangzi delta to Tianjin.

- first the company operated quite effectively under the management of Tang Tingshu

- , after the dismissal of Tang Tingshu, Sheng Xuanhuai was appointed director-general.

- came from a family of officials and who had come to prominence as Li Hongzhang's deputy in economic matters

- concentrated on protecting his and the company's financial interests, and under his direction the opportunity to establish a genuine modern company was lost.

What was the role of the Kaiping coal mines?

- Kaiping coal mines at Tangshan, 60 miles northeast of Tianjin.

- project, which was managed by Tang Tingshu, employed British engineers and introduced the latest Western technology, including gas lighting.

- began production in 1881 and its output soon began to offset the cost, in foreign exchange, of imported coal.

- from the outset the mine encountered difficulties as mining was believed to harm the fengshui, the spirits of wind and water, and miners were regarded as a subversive group.

- problem of transporting coal from the pithead to Tianjin had not been solved, because a request for permission to construct a railway had been withdrawn in anticipation of a refusal by the court.

- the event, a tramway was constructed, and a locomotive christened the `Rocket of China' was built surreptitiously—first railway.

What was the role of the mill?

- in 1880, of the Imperial Telegraph Administration, which created a national network of telegraph lines.

- largest industrial enterprise, another venture initiated by Li Hongzhang, was the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill, which was given a ten-year monopoly of the use of foreign textile machinery. In 1892 the mill produced 4 million yards of cloth, but the following year it was destroyed by fire.

- the mill was not insured and the loss was very heavy.

- the enterprise had demonstrated that it was profitable to invest in modern machinery to produce textiles.

What is the consensus on the movement?

- inadequate policy which initiated some rather unsuccessful ventures.

- comparison is sometimes made with the Japanese government's role in pioneering successful enterprises, which the government later sold and which became the nucleus of the zaibatsu industrial empires.

- evidence of China's failure is detected in the short term in the exposure of China's military weakness in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5, and in the long term in the delay before China eventually established a modern industrial base.

Why did it fail?

- strength of China's cultural tradition and the incompatibility of Confucianism with the priorities of a modern state (Woren replied, 'Your slave has learned that the way to establish a nation is to lay emphasis on propriety and righteousness, not on power and plotting.')

- Chinese obscurantism

- role played by central government

- 'official-supervision merchant-management' system

- inhibited by Western imperialism

How did obscurantism lead to its failure?

- railway which was built to connect Shanghai and Wusong.

- constructed by a British consortium in 1876, was later bought by Chinese officials and destroyed; however, derided as irrational and superstitious,

- it has been shown that they destroyed the railway because it had been built on Chinese soil by Westerners who had not obtained official permission, and because a fatality on the line had aroused local peasants and threatened disorder.

How did the government lead to its failure?

- castigated as obstructive, and the Empress Dowager has been accused of being preoccupied with her own selfish interests.

- has frequently been alleged that she misappropriated funds allocated for the purchase of naval ships and used them to refurbish the Summer Palace

- most of the expenditure on the palace came after the disastrous naval defeat of 1894,

- that debacle was occasioned principally by the inadequate training of the sailors and the faulty tactics of the fleet.

- argument that the Chinese government was indifferent towards, or even hostile to, industrial and commercial undertakings have also been challenged

- in recent years arguments have been put forward which suggest that government economic activity, though falling far short of management of the economy, was more constructive and more extensive than has hitherto been recognized.

How did official supervision management system lead to its failure?

- encouraged regionalism; that it relied too heavily on raising capital from Chinese merchants in the treaty ports

- merchants who looked for quick profits and whose capital was always inadequate

- that it continued bureaucratic practices and failed to introduce modern management techniques

- it ensured that the enterprises were vulnerable to official exactions

- that it gave the enterprises an unfair advantage over private activity by the provision of monopoly privileges.

How did Western imperialism lead to its failure?

- military threat from the West forced China to concentrate, in the first instance, on the establishment of modern military industries.

- defeat in war weakened the authority of central government and burdened it with indemnities, so curtailing investment.

How did inefficient business lead to its failure?

- China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company had a monopoly for the sea transport of tribute rice from the Yangzi delta to Tianji

after the dismissal of Tang Tingshu, Sheng Xuanhuai was appointed director-general.

- Sheng, who came from a family of officials and who had come to prominence as Li Hongzhang's deputy in economic matters, concentrated on protecting his and the company's financial interests

under his direction the opportunity to establish a genuine modern company was lost.

- buying in foreign technology was not only expensive, but also entailed a risk of dependency

steamships were very costly to build, especially after economic crisis; rifles were often less accurate then their Western counterparts; and shipyard was inefficient

- By 1874 the shipyard had launched 15 ships, but these were costly to produce and technically obsolescent.

- Shanghai Cotton mill produced 4 million yards of cloth, but the following year it was destroyed by fire.

How did internal sabotage lead to its failure?

- Qing court has been castigated as obstructive, and the Empress Dowager has been accused of being preoccupied with her own selfish interests

misappropriated funds allocated for the purchase of naval ships

- used them to refurbish the Summer Palace and to build the famous marble barge still to be seen there

most of the expenditure on the palace came after the disastrous naval defeat of 1894,

- that debacle was occasioned principally by the inadequate training of the sailors and the faulty tactics of the fleet

- argument that the Chinese government was indifferent towards, or even hostile to, industrial and commercial undertakings has also been challenged

- government economic activity, though falling far short of management of the economy, was more constructive and more extensive than has hitherto been recognized.

- 'official-supervision merchant-management' system itself played a part in China's failure to transform the economy in the last four decades of the Qing dynasty