Wei Yuan

Wei Yuan

Wei Yuan (April 23, 1794 - March 26, 1857), named Yuanda, was born in front of Si men (formerly Jintan, Shaoyang County), longhui County, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province. The Enlightenment thinkers, politicians and writers in Qing Dynasty. Daoguang two years (1822) Ju Ren, Daoguang 25 years (1845) began to become Jinshi. In his later years, he abandoned his official position and went to seclusion. He devoted himself to Buddhism and inherited his legal name. He was the representative of the first batch of intellectuals who "opened their eyes to see the world" in modern China.

Wei Yuan thought that the purpose of the theory should be "to serve the world", put forward the idea of "the more the ancient changes, the more convenient the people" and advocated learning from the advanced western science and technology. He also put forward the idea of "learning from foreigners and improving skills to control foreigners", which opened a new trend of understanding the world and learning from the West. This is an important sign of the transformation of Chinese thought from traditional to modern.

Life of the characters

Wei Yuan was born on March 24, 1794 (April 23, 1794) in Jintan, Shaoyang County, Hunan Province. At the age of seven, Wei Yuan studied Confucian classics and history from Liu Zhigang and Wei Fubang. He often studied hard into the night. When he was nine years old, he went to the county town for a boy's test. The examiner pointed to the teacup with the picture of "Tai Chi" and asked him to "contain Tai Chi in the cup". Wei Yuan touched the two wheat cakes in his arms and said to him, "heaven and earth are pregnant in the abdomen." in 1810, he was selected as a scholar by Gengwu branch. In 1811, Xinwei tried to make up for the meal. In the 18th year of Jiaqing, guiyouke selected tribute. In 1820, the whole family moved to Yangzhou new town, Jiangsu Province. In the second year of Daoguang (1822), the Chinese style of renwuke ranked second. In 1825, he was employed by he Changling, the governor of Jiangsu Province, to compile 120 volumes of the compilation of the classics of the imperial dynasty, and to assist Tao Shu, the governor of Jiangsu Province, in water transport and water conservancy. He wrote the chapters of "raising water", "raising water" and "on Huguang water conservancy". In the ninth year of Daoguang's reign (1829), Gong Zizhen and Liu Fenglu failed in the examination of the Ministry of rites. Fang Kao lamented Liu Fenglu's work "two lives", and Gong became as famous as Wei. Wei donated books to the cabinet. The cabinet has a rich collection of books. They are official books in the secret cabinet of the Museum of Expo history and private works of literati and bureaucrats. He witnessed the uprising of the Yao people in Jianghua and deeply felt the corruption of the Qing government; the Opium War broke out in the 20th year of Daoguang, and the foreign invasion crisis made him more indignant and further stimulated his patriotic enthusiasm. In the 12th year of Daoguang (1832), Wei Yuan came to Nanjing, the prime minister. He was located at the edge of Wulong pool at the foot of Qingliang mountain in the west of the city. He bought land to build three entrance thatched cottages on the east side of longpanli, which is known as "Poetry lane". At first, Wei Yuan named his love house "Huzi thatched cottage" and then changed it to "Xiaojuan a". And in the shallow water beside the pool, there is a "Wanzai Pavilion". Wei Yuan lived here for many years in the latter half of his life, and his famous book "Atlas of the sea" was written here. In the meantime, he had close contacts with Lin Zexu, then governor of Jiangsu Province. In 1841, Wei Yuan entered the Yuqian shogunate, the governor of Liangjiang, to directly participate in the anti British war, and personally interrogated the prisoners on the front line. Later, he saw that the Qing government was uncertain about peace and war, and the capitulators were fatuous and lost their country. in 1842, Daoguang completed Shengwu Ji, describing the military history and system from the early Qing Dynasty to Daoguang. In this paper, the author puts forward that "the country is not poor because of the insufficient use of wealth, and the country is not poor because of the lack of competition among talents; the country is not win if it can't make use of overseas resources, and the country is not win if it can't make use of domestic resources.". Therefore, the former king did not need to use money, but only needed talents; he did not worry about his ambition to the four barbarians, but worried about his ambition to the four regions. In the view of talents, the state is rich if there are no officials without talents, and the state is powerful if there are no abolishment orders. On the first day of the 24th year of Daoguang (1844), Wei Yuan took part in the ceremony examination again. He won the imperial examination and used it as a prefect. He distributed it to Jiangsu Province and served as a prefect of Dongtai and Xinghua. During this period, salt administration was reformed and dikes were built to control water. On the basis of the western historical and geographical data Si Zhou Zhi compiled by Lin Zexu, he compiled 50 volumes of Hai Guo Tu Zhi by referring to the historical records of the past dynasties, Dao Zhi since Ming Dynasty and Yi Tu Yi language at that time. After revision and supplement, it became a 100 volume edition in the second year of Xianfeng (1852). It covers world geography, history, political system, economy, religion, calendar, culture and products. In the first year of Xianfeng (1851), Wei Yuan was granted the title of governor of Gaoyou Prefecture. In his spare time, he finished the new edition of Yuan history in the third year of Xianfeng (1853). Later, he was dismissed as "delaying post" and "playing military plane". He was over sixty years old and suffered a lot, so he resigned. In his later years, he devoted himself to Buddhism, inherited the name of Dharma, and compiled four Sutras of pure land. On March 1, 1857 (March 26, 1857), he died in the monk's house in Hangzhou Dongyuan. He was 63 years old and buried in fangjiayu, Nanping mountain, Hangzhou.

Ideological achievements

Innovation and strength

Wei Yuan is a progressive thinker, historian and patriotic scholar who firmly opposes foreign aggression. He actively asked the Qing government to carry out reform, stressing: "there are countless laws in the world that have not harmed for hundreds of years, that are infinitely unchangeable, that are all good laws that can eliminate the disadvantages, and that are all simple but flexible." He focused on the reform of the economic field. Before and after the Opium War, he put forward some plans and measures to reform the water conservancy, water transport and salt administration. He demanded that the malpractices be eliminated in order to benefit the "national economy and people's livelihood". He believed that "the more the ancient times are changed, the more convenient the people are.". These propositions not only had progressive significance at that time, but also played a positive role in promoting the later bourgeois reform movement.

Against invasion of China

Wei Yuan firmly opposed the invasion of China by western capitalism, and put forward the ideas and methods of anti aggression. He had a certain understanding of the power of the masses, which was consistent with Lin Zexu's view that "the people's will can be used", and put forward the idea that "the righteous people can be used". He was inspired by the people's struggle against Britain in Sanyuanli and Taiwan. After the Sanyuanli people attacked the British Invaders, he enthusiastically eulogized the Sanyuanli people's anti British struggle and angrily denounced the capitulationists' shameful actions in breaking through the siege of the invading army. He wrote in the book of the atlas of the sea: "the Sanyuanli war is based on the struggle of the people of Sanyuanli Just a few righteous soldiers, encircling foreign chieftains, beheading foreign divisions, annihilating foreign soldiers, and escaping by opening the net. Who is to say that our army is inferior to foreign soldiers in land war? " He also said that "when Guangdong was beheaded, the people who donated the ships were all righteous people" and "when the two birds and the foreign ships were in Taiwan, the people who attacked the foreign ships in Nan'ao were also righteous people". He advocated using and relying on the people as the main force to resist foreign aggression, which is in sharp contrast to the reactionary policy of capitulationists that "defending the people is better than defending the aggressors". In order to resist effectively, he opposed "wave warfare" and advocated "defending as war". Summing up the experience and lessons of the Opium War, he put forward "the second strategy of self-defense: first, it's better to guard Haikou than to guard foreign countries; second, it's better to guard inland rivers than to guard Haikou; third, it's better to train local soldiers than to transfer foreign soldiers; third, it's better to train water bravery than to transfer Navy division". He advocated the strategy of luring the enemy in-depth, "setting traps for tigers and setting traps for fish" to annihilate the invaders. This kind of local people, who believed that they were familiar with the situation, gave full play to their strong points and the initiative of resisting the enemy to organize the anti aggression armed forces and adopted flexible strategies and tactics, which was in line with the objective reality that the enemy was strong and the enemy was weak and the enemy was few.

Set up industry

Wei Yuan, like Lin Zexu, was the most insightful person who "opened his eyes to see the world" during the Opium War. He not only resolutely resisted aggression, but also attached importance to understanding and learning western science and technology as an important way to deal with aggression. He carried out Lin Zexu's thought and practice of understanding and learning from the west well in the atlas of the sea. He put forward the correct slogan of "learning from the foreigners and improving skills to control the foreigners". He thought that "those who are good at learning from the four foreigners can control the four foreigners; those who are not good at learning from the foreigners can control the four foreigners". He raised learning from the western "long skills" to a major event related to the national security and made it prosperous in the society at that time In view of the ignorance of the feudal die hards at that time that they regarded the western advanced technology as "marvelous and obscene", he pointed out that "useful things, that is, marvelous but not obscene", must be studied seriously, instead of blindly arrogant. Therefore, he put forward a set of specific plans, including not only the government run military industry, but also the improvement of the army In addition, it puts forward the idea of setting up civil industry and allowing businessmen and civilians to set up industry freely. It includes, for example, "Tianchi, Qianli mirror, dragon tail car, Phoenix saw, water saw, fire wheel boat, zilaihuo, self rotating pestle and Qianjin scale. All those who are beneficial to civil use can be made here." it advocates that in the future, "coastal businessmen and people will voluntarily set up factories and bureaus to use or sell Shipbuilding Equipment, and listen to them.". He also proposed that "the library of translation should be established to translate foreign books" and that "the military test should be conducted in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and a division of Navy should be set up. Those who can build Western warships, fireboats, flying guns and rockets, and mine weapons should be the first in the division" to reward scientific inventions. In his opinion, by doing so, we can "make the best of Western technology and make the best of China's technology", gradually change China's backward situation, so as to achieve the goal of "controlling foreigners". He is full of national pride and full of confidence in the wisdom and ability of the Chinese nation. He believes that "China's wisdom is omnipresent", that "China's talents are not insufficient" and "materials are not insufficient". China has rich mineral resources and has its own favorable conditions. He believed that the Chinese people have the ability to master the new western production technology and can gradually "do not have to rely on foreign countries". He pointed out that as long as efforts are made, it is inevitable that "the people of the East China Sea will be seen only when the atmosphere and wisdom are rising day by day", and China will certainly become rich and strong, catching up with and surpassing the western capitalist countries.

Advocating democracy

Wei Yuan not only advocated learning the advanced production technology of the west, but also highly respected and admired the democracy of capitalist countries

Chinese PinYin : Wei Yuan