INTRODUCTION

By 1860s Manchus made the first conscious effort to reform, launched by

government to bring about modernization for which china was to heavily borrow
from the west as w was technologically superior . mvt also known as foreign
affairs mvt.sino centrism left behind. To remain at the helm of affairs manchus
brought in change.lin tse hsu 1 one to advocate technique of west to fight the west.
few far sighted scholars sensed the advent of a new era, and the foremost among
them was Wei Yuan. He compiled a large work in 1844, titled ‘Haikuotuchich’, the
main objective of which was to learn the techniques of the barbarians to control
them. It was FengQuei-fen who took the lead in promoting the concept of what
came to be known later as self-strengthening

Ssm based on ancient Chinese saying – restore to peace and friendship when
temporarily required , use war and defense as actual policy.

The Self-Strengthening Movement is summarized in the U.S. Government’s

Country Study of China as the effort to graft Western technology onto Chinese
institutions.

By the 1860s, the Qing Dynasty in China was facing collapse. The impact of
Western imperialism and internal rebellions had brought China to the brink of
destruction. China tried to restore its power by embarking on a series of reforms.
This period has become known as the ‘Tongzhi Restoration’.It was led by a group
of reforming officials within the Qing Dynasty. The Tongzhi Restoration
ultimately failed to stop the decline of the Qing Dynasty, unlike the Meiji
Restoration in Japan but did give the Qing another 50 years of rule until the
Revolution. The chief promoter of self-strengthening in the capital was Prince
Kung, who was the half-brother of the Xianfeng emperor Prince Kung assumed the
responsibilities of a prince-regent from 1861-65 and presided over the reforms
which came to be known as the Tongzi restoration named after the new emperor.
Most of the reforms were inspired by Kung’s experiences of dealing with the
foreigners while his half-brother was on the throne and he had come to the
conclusion that if China kept its treaty obligations and treated the foreigners with
good will and an open mind, peace would reign and the prince planned tomake use
of the subsequent period of peace as an opportunity to militarily strengthen China.
Thus, peace through diplomacy became the immediate objective of the government
while self-strengthening loomed as the ultimate goal They sought to apply
‘practical knowledge’ from the West whilst reaffirming the old Confucian system
of government.

Qing officials argued that in order to strengthen itself against the West, China had
to adopt Western military technology BUT NOT social or political ideas

4 main architects

1 tseng kuo fam (tkf)

2 li kung chang(lkc)

3 chang chi tang(cct)

4 tso tse tang(ttt)

Acc to cct-1 ss to include Chinese learning as fundamental principal n western

learning for practical application.

2 opening of pvt enterprise to be placed under official supervision

They crushed taiping and had huge armies

PHASES

According to the changing emphasis and the shifting

philosophy, the Self-strengthening Movement can be divided into three
periods.

FIRST PHASE
186 I - 1872

Add tsungli yamen can take from sv page 8

Office of inspector general
Foreign lang school

The movement Stressed the adoption of internal peace n defense industry, Western
firearms, machines, scientific knowledge, and the training of technical and
diplomatic personnel through the establishment of translation Bureaus, new
schools, and the dispatch of students abroad. Diplomatic Innovations were
introduced to insure good relations with Western powers so that China could
discover their shipbuilding and armament secrets. Motivating force was the desire
to learn the superior techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians. The
embattled leaders of this period were Prince Kung and Wen-hsiang in the capital,
and Tseng, Tso, and Li in the provinces, and their main accomplishments were as
follows:
 1861 Establishment of the Tsungli Yamen at Peking and the
Superintendencies of Trade at Tientsin and Shanghai at the suggestion of
Prince Kung.
 1862 Establishment of the T'ung-wen kuan (Interpreters College) at
Peking at the suggestion of Prince Kung .
 . Creation of three gun factories at Shanghai by Li Hung-chang,
who also assigned his men to learn the use of cannon with explosive
shells from British officers and the use of rifles from German
officers. .
 1863 Establishment of a foreign-language school CKuang-fang-yen kuan)
at Shanghai by Li.
 The arrival of the Lay-Osborn flotilla.
 Dispatch of Yung-wing to the Unit~d States to purchase machines
by Tseng.
 1864 Creation of a small gun factory at Soochow by Li.
 Establishment of a foreign-language school (T'ung-wen kuan) at
Canton.
 1865' Establishment of the Kiangnan Arsenal at Shanghai by Tseng and
Li, with a translation bureau attached.
 1866 Establishment of the Foochow Dockyard at Ma-wei, outside Foochow,
by Tso Tsung-t'ang, with machines purchased from France.
 Attached was a naval school in two divisions: one specializing in
French and shipbuilding, and the other in English and navigation.
 Dispatch of the Pin-ch'un exploratory mission to Europe.
 1867 Establishment of the Nanking Arsenal by Li.
 Creation of the Tientsin Machine Factory by Ch'ung-hou.
 1868 Dispatch of Anson Burlingame as China's roving ambassador to
the West, to assist the Manchu and Chinese co-envoys.
 1870 Expansion of the Tientsin Machine Factory into four plants by Li.
 1871 Planning for a Western-style fort at Taku.
  1872 Dispatch of thirty teenage students to the United States to study
at Hartford, Connecticut on recommendation of Tseng and Li. A
total of 120 boys were sent in four installments, 1872-8 I.
 Officers sent by Li to study in Germany.
 Request by Li to open coal and iron mines.

The pre-eminent feature of this period of Self-strengthening was the emphasis on

development of military industries. All of them were government undertakings.
They engaged in modem production but retained the old-style managerial and
administrative procedures and relied on foreigners for operation and materials eg .
The Nanking Arsenal, the Foochow Dockyard put under the direction of foreigners.
However, because of poor leadership and bureaucratic corruption, the ships and
guns produced were nowhere comparable in quality to their Western counterparts.
These military industries formed the power bases of the: provincial leaders
sponsoring them, and consequently smacked of a strong regional and "feudal"
flavor. There was little concerted effort or coordination between the various
regional groups.
First phase saw increase in foreign activity but arsenals were given prime
importance as 22% of the funds were consumed by it

SECOND PERIOD
1872-1885

Li Hung-chang emerged as the leading proponent of modem industries and

enterprises, Tseng having died in 1872 and Tso being involved in the Northwest
with the suppression of the Moslem Rebellion. Prince Kung had lost much of his
influence Wen-hsiang had died in 1876. Over 90 percent of the modernization
projects were launched under his aegis.

There was increasing recognition that wealth was the basis of power-one had to be
rich in order to be strong. Accumulation through profit making enterprise was
stressed upon . Wealth generation and power accumulation came to be known as
fun chiang.

Modem defense cost far more than traditional defense; moreover, it had to be
supported by better communication systems, industries, and enterprises. Li Hung-
chang announced in
September 1876: "China's chronic weakness stems from poverty." Therefore, in the
second period, 1872 to 1885, while defense industries remained a chief occupation,
greater attention was directed to the development of profit-oriented enterprises
such as shipping, railways, mining, and the telegraph.
In addition to the government-sponsored and military industries, there now
appeared another type of enterprise
1. modeled in organization after the traditional salt administration: government-
supervised merchant undertakings .Foremost among them were the China
Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, the K'ai-p'ing Coal Mines, the Shanghai
Cotton Cloth Mill, and the Imperial Telegraph Administration. Capital for these
undertakings came from private sources, although the government as patron might
initially supply some funds or advance loans to be repaid later. But "profit and loss
are entirely the responsibility of the merchants and do not involve the
government," as Li Hung-chang decreed. These government-supervised merchant
enterprises were a hybrid operation which smacked of strong official overtones and
the usual bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption, and nepotism. Being profit-oriented,
they discouraged private competition and tended to monopolize business through
government favor or intervention. They also relied on foreign personnel for
support: the "China Merchant" employed foreign marine superintendents, ship
captains, and engineers.

 Inauguration of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company

as a "government-supervised merchant undertaking," supported
by Li.
 Plans to construct iron-clad ships.
 Dispatch of students from the Foochow Dockyard to study in
France.
 Dispatch of seven officers to German y by Li .
 . Sending of thirty students and apprentices from the Foochow
 Dockyard to Britain and France. .
 Diplomatic mission to Britain and France, followed by those to
other countries in the next years. .
 Creation of the Bureau for the K'ai-p'ing Coal J\ttines at Tientsin
by Li. .
 Establishment of a machine factory in Szechwan by Ting Pao-chen.
 Establishment of a textile factory-in Kansu by Tso.
 Establishment of the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill by Li.
 Inauguration of a telegraph line between Taku and Tientsin.
 1880 Establishment of a naval academy at Tientsin by Li.
 Request for permission to build railways by Li.
 Adoption of a plan for a modem navy, and beginning of ·purchasing
foreign warships.
 1881 Inauguration of the Imperial Telegraph Administration.
  Opening of the first telegraph line from Shanghai to Tientsin.
 Creation of a railway of twenty Ii (six miles) north of Tientsin.
 Dispatch of ten naval students abroad to study.
 1882 Beginning of construction of a harbor and a shipyard at Port Arthur,
by Li.
1884 Sending of thirteen naval students and four apprentices by Li to
Study shipbuilding in Britain, France, and Germany, and nine students
to Britain to learn navigation.

This period saw rise in the proletariat class, this phase saw the emergence of
bourgeoisie. However, its members mostly comprised of gentry and compradors
and thus had negative undertones and stalled the growth of progress.

THE THIRD PERIOD

From 1885 to 1895, while emphasis on the military and naval build-up continued,
as witnessed by the organization of the Board of Admiralty in 188, and the formal
establishment of the Peiyang Heet in 1888, the idea of enriching the nation through
light industry gained increasing favor; as a result textile and cotton-weaving
gathered momentum.
Li continued to dominate the scene, but he now faced rising competition from
Governor-general Chang Chih-tung at Wuhan, and Governor-general Liu K'un-i at
Nanking. Meanwhile, Prince Chiln, father of the emperor and head of the newly
established Board of Admiralty, emerged as a powerful figure in the capital, with
Prince Kung's descent into political eclip$e after the French war, 1884-8

two new types of industrial and mercantile enterprise

  joint government and merchant enterprises
 private enterprises.
failed to prosper because of traditional official discrimination against, and
jealousy of, merchants. Among the largeri'joint government and merchant
undertakings" were the Kweichow Ironworks established in 1891 and the Hupeh
Textile Company in 1394. In bOth cases the officials welcomed private capital but
resented private control. The struggle for domination of the Hupeh Textile
Company was so acute that the merchant capital was ultimately forced out, leaving
the company entirely a government operation, private enterprises,
they were very weak, representing but a small fraction of the total industrial
effort and investment

kwei chow add

LIMITATIONS

The scope of activity was limited to firearms, ships, machines, communications,

mining, and light industries. No attempts were ·made to assimilate

,Western institutions, philosophy, arts, and culture. The Self-strengthening
efforts barely scratched the surface of modernization, without achieving a
breakthrough in industrialization. The basic weakness was exposed in the
French war of 1884-85, when China, after twenty years of. preparations,
was unable to defend its tributary state, Annam. The failure of the movement
was confirmed beyond doubt by ~he defeat in the Japanese war ten
years later. Marxist historians stress the intrinsic contradiction in grafting
modem capitalism and industry onto the agrarian Confucian social base.
Perhaps the following points shed light on the lackluster performance of
Self-strengthening.
LACK OF COORDINATION: The central power of the Ch'ing 'dynasty had
, declined after the Taiping Revolution, so much so that apart from a Hash
of vigor during the T'ung-chih period (1862-74), there was hardly any
direction in the government. The major brunt of modernization was borne
by provincial authorities without central direction, planning" and coordination.
Although Li Hung-chang after 1870. provincial promoters of Self strengthening
rivaled rather than cooperated with each other and regarded
their achievements as the foundation of personal power. during the French war of
1884 the Peiyang and Nanyang fleets refused
to go to the rescue of the Fukien fleet under enemy attack, and
during the Japanese war of 1894-95 the Nanyang fleet maintained neutrality"
while the Peiyang fleet alone fought the Japanese navy. The results
of both wars were, of course, disastrous.
LIMITED VISION. The advocates of Self-strengthening promoted modem
projects primarily to enable their country to resist foreign aggression,
to suppress domestic unrest, and to fortify their own positions of power.
They never dreamed of remaking China into a modem state. Consequently, their
endeavors resulted in no
more than a handful of isolated modem enclaves scattered over an otherwise
traditional country, in which the old institutions remained dominant. lack of
popular participation restricted the scope of
modernization. The leadership in Self-strengthening operated from the
top down, with little grass-roots support. by traditions, the Chinese officials were
unable to shake off the
age-old disdain for merchants, and continued to discourage private enterprise
and competition. They also failed to instill private initiative in the
government industries or the government-supervised merchant undertakings,
which continuously suffered from the usual bureaucratic inefficiency,
nepotism, and corruption.

SHORTAGE OF CAPITAL. China was a poor country with a limited supply

of capital. When the government raised taxes to support the new undertakings, it
weakened the people's all too limited resources for investment. Moreover, capital
formation was difficult in these
enterprises, since the profits, roughly 8 to 10 percent a year, were distributed
to shareholders as dividends rather than reinvested for growth.

FOREIGN IMPERIALISM. The generation of Self-strengthening coincided

with a period of intensified foreign imperialism s evident in the Japanese
invasion 1374 n 1879 aggression in Korea and the war of
1894-95. , British 1875, Russian 1871-81, France 1884-85. These cataclysmic
events not only divided the attention of the
government and the modernizers, but also incurred vast military expenses
and indemnities which Siphoned away considerable sums that could otherwise
have been applied to Self-strengthening.

TECHNICAL BACKWARDNESS AND MORAL DEGRADATION Western

machines
and industrial management were alien to the traditional Chinese mentality. the
foreign advisers and teachers themselves were
quite inexpert. The guns and ships turned out by the Self-strengthening
projects were vastly inferior, necessitating continuous purchases from
abroad. Moreover, men of talent and integrity usually steered clear of foreign
matters and enterprises; only the lesser characters were willing to associate
with the modernization projects, resulting in frequent cases of corruption
and irregularity. Even Li Hung-chang himself was corrupt

SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INERTIA. The great majority of the scholar

official,
l class regarded foreign affairs and Western-style enterprises as "dirty" and
"vulgar," beneath their dignity. So powerful was this conservatism
that even the court could not ignore it.

Cases of conservative opposition to modernization abound. In 1874 the

British-built short railroad from Shanghai to Woosung was ripped off its
bed by mobs because the locomotive ran over a spectator. Two years later
the governor-general was pressured by the local gentry to buy this foreign
railway and have it totally wrecked. In 1876 when Kuo Sung-tao went to
Britain as a minister, the literati cruelly satirized him for leaving the land
of the sages to serve the foreign devils. Kuo's diary, which praised the
Western civilization as having a history of two thousand years, was condemned
by the conservatives as heresy, and they forced the government
to destroy its printing block. These few instances suffice to lay bare the
unfavorable social and political atmosphere within which the advocates
of Westernization had to operate. Lack of a strong central government to
coordinate the modernization movement meant that provincial officials were
response ble for China’s development; gained increasing political clout

POSITIVE

the Self-strengthening Movement marked the beginning of industrialization and

sowed the seeds of modem capitalism in China
most of the arsenals, dockyards, machine factories, schools, 'and modem
enterprises were located
in the treaty ports and cities along the coast or on the river, where foreign help was
most readily available. They contributed to the development of great metropolises
such as Shanghai, Nanking, Tientsin, Foochow, Canton, and Hankow.
Farming population drawn to these areas to become industrial workers or laborers,
swelling the size of these cities and gradually giving rise to a new working class.
The new industries and enterprises brought into being new professional men such
as engineers, managers, and entrepreneurs,while those who had studied abroad
returned home to become
leaders in the army, navy, schools, and diplomatic service. They contributed
to the rise of the new managerial and entrepreneurial class in China.

HISTORIOGRAPHY

Hushin –“myth of regeneration”. Called leader sof ssm foreign collaborators who
sold off china.

the major question surrounding the self-strengthening movement that emerges

from the existing historiography is whether it was a failure or not, with most of the
historians agreeing with the former Li Chien Nung, Samuel Chu, and Benjamin
Elman are of the view that holds responsible, factors such as conservative
opposition, disunited reform policies, and institutional corruption for both the
failure of the Self-Strengthening Movement and the demise of the Qing.According
to Chu, for instance, “China suffered from a lack of unified leadership working
toward reform and modernization..[whereas] the vast majority of the ruling
official-gentry class was conservative in outlook and regarded innovations as
possible threats to the basis upon which its privileged position in Chinese
societywas founded.” As an extension to the argument they believe that because of
the disorderly and factional structure of the Qing court and administration, as well
as the corrupt officials, it was difficult to channel the resources for bother form and
military efforts against foreign aggressors. Further, Elman states, “lack of
leadership, vested interests, (and) lack of funding contributed to the inadequacies
of the late Qing state. Basically, Li, Chu, and Elman believe that a lack of firm
leadership in both reform activities and normal functions of state which were the
most characteristic features of this period of Chinese history, were to a large extent
responsible for the failure of the movement.
Other scholars such as Michael Gasster (1972) and Kwang-Ching Liu, argues that
the failure of the Self-strengthening Movement was due to the intrinsic flaws in the
philosophy of the movement. They do not ignore the flaws of the Qing polity, or
the lack of consistency in the reform movement as factors, but they see the reforms
as a defense mechanism, as a method for preserving the Chinese world order
against the new encroaching imperialism of the West. They question the very
foundation and the motivation of the movement criticizing it for not bringing about
any real reforms but just a desperate attempt to preserve what was
“Chinese.”Gasster notes ,“All that they did [Western education, technology,
diplomacy, etc.], however, they considered means of defense. Each step had to be
justified on the grounds that it would help to keep the foreigners out; at the same
time, each experiment had to be guaranteed not to impinge on the essentials of
Chinese life.” Yet, the reforms, if too radical, would never have gained any
momentum from the Qing establishment.
However, another scholar, Luke S. K. Kwong, who has looked at the movement
from a different perspective altogether, refuses to call the movement a failure.
Kwong believes that since the Movement was considered a military movement,
later generations have seen the reforms as a failure due to the military losses near
the end of the Dynasty. However, if the reforms were seen merely as an adaptive
strategy to reform the nation, it can be argued that ideas and technologies from the
West were imported and spread throughout China through trade, the various
academies set up by the reformists, and by the students sent abroad to study
western academic subjects. Thus, a flawed interpretation of the movements by
academics created the illusion of the failure of the Self-Strengthening Movement.

Historian Mary Wright "That the Qing managed to survive both domestic and
international attacks is due largely to the policy and leadership changes known as
the Qing Restoration” Hsu The reforms during the SSM merely served to
Strengthen the existing order rather than replace it

PALAK DHINGRA

3 YR