Were Confucian values responsible for China’s failure to modernize?
Yes, I believe that Confucian values were responsible for China’s failure to modernize. Confucian values were so deeply rooted in the Chinese systems that taking part in modernization proved to be difficult for people to accept let alone be a part of Confucian values instilled traditionalistic notions in the Chinese people such as virtue, proper behaviour, obedience, and more. It was China’s unrelenting choice to stay with these values and refuse to be a part of modernization as she believed it was a threat to the Dynasty. China thought of itself as the centre of the universe, the Middle Kingdom. She believed herself to be apart from the West and refused to collaborate with the “barbarian West”. In the reading, John King …show more content…
His efforts granted him the title of being the first leading modernizer of his day. He first predicted China’s troubled future when he noticed that the Anglo-French military base situated in Shanghai, had “troops far better armed and trained than his Chinese forces” (Fairbank, 304). This realization prompted him to begin modernizing his own army with Western weapons. However, he did not hold enough power to implement his reforms widely across China. Moreover, to prove his loyalty to the Dynasty he would have to bestow the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi with expensive presents and behave in an obsequious manner. An example of this is when Chang’s “North China navy, racing against Japan’s naval buildup, had to divert its funds, to build Tz’u hsi’s new summer palace” (Fairbank, 305). From the efforts and failures of Li Hung-Chang, who did everything in his power to modernize China, it is clearly discernable that the China’s failure to modernize was the reason of it’s indoctrinate confucian values which made it impossible from any Chinese person to accept and take part in modernization. The ostensible imperial
Yes, I believe that Confucian values were responsible for China’s failure to modernize. Confucian values were so deeply rooted in the Chinese systems that taking part in modernization proved to be difficult for people to accept let alone be a part of Confucian values instilled traditionalistic notions in the Chinese people such as virtue, proper behaviour, obedience, and more. It was China’s unrelenting choice to stay with these values and refuse to be a part of modernization as she believed it was a threat to the Dynasty. China thought of itself as the centre of the universe, the Middle Kingdom. She believed herself to be apart from the West and refused to collaborate with the “barbarian West”. In the reading, John King …show more content…
His efforts granted him the title of being the first leading modernizer of his day. He first predicted China’s troubled future when he noticed that the Anglo-French military base situated in Shanghai, had “troops far better armed and trained than his Chinese forces” (Fairbank, 304). This realization prompted him to begin modernizing his own army with Western weapons. However, he did not hold enough power to implement his reforms widely across China. Moreover, to prove his loyalty to the Dynasty he would have to bestow the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi with expensive presents and behave in an obsequious manner. An example of this is when Chang’s “North China navy, racing against Japan’s naval buildup, had to divert its funds, to build Tz’u hsi’s new summer palace” (Fairbank, 305). From the efforts and failures of Li Hung-Chang, who did everything in his power to modernize China, it is clearly discernable that the China’s failure to modernize was the reason of it’s indoctrinate confucian values which made it impossible from any Chinese person to accept and take part in modernization. The ostensible imperial