洋务运动失败原因再审视——基于文化和制度的多维空间

Reviews on the Failure of the Westernization Movement:Based on Cultural and Institutional Hyperspace

《马关条约》签订后,中国殖民化程度进一步加深,日本却完全摆脱殖民地位,从《马关条约》后中日国际地位的变化可以得出洋务运动失败的结论。近代以来洋务运动失败原因有各种说法,这些说法大多侧重于经济和政治因素,但忽视了社会变革的文化和制度因素。就文化保守性而言,洋务派和顽固派只具有相对意义,或者说二者具有同一性,文化保守性和缺乏制度创新是洋务运动失败的根本原因。日本明治维新是一次成功的文化和制度变迁,从中日现代化比较的视角可以看出清政府统治集团没有形成变革社会的合力的主要原因,也在于统治集团的文化保守性和缺乏制度创新。洋务运动失败的经验教训说明文化革新和制度创新是增强综合国力的关键。

Colonization of China was further deepened, while Japan was fully out of colonization after the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Westernization Movement was unsuccessful from the aspect of the transformation of international status of China and Japan. However, in the modem era, there were various views on the cause of failure of Westernization Movement, which placed particular emphasis on the economic and political factors and ignored the cultural and institutional restraining factors of social transformation. In terms of cultural conservatism ,Westernization Group and the Diehards only have the comparative significance; or rather the two are identical. The basic cause of the failure of westernization movement is the egocentrism and the lack of in-stitutional innovation. The Meiji Restoration of Japan was a successful cultural and institutional change in history. From the perspective of modernization comparison between China and Japan, we may find why the Qing government has not formed social reform cohesion, which, we may conclude, was due to the cultural conservatism and the lack of institutional innovation. What we may learn today from the Westernization Movement is that we may know that the key to enhancing comprehensive national strength lies in cultural and institutional innovation.