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Why did a book banned in China become the secret book of Japanese power?

In 1840, the Opium War opened China’s door.

Thirteen years later, in 1853, neighboring Japan was also forced to “found a country.”

After that, Japan relied on the Meiji Restoration to rise rapidly, and China actually played a driving role in it.

What’s going on?

On July 8, 1853, four giant black foreign ships suddenly appeared on the waters of Edo Bay, Japan, which had been closed for a long time.

This is a fleet of four warships led by Commodore Perry, Commander of the U.S. East India Fleet. The mission of this trip is to deliver a letter from the President of the United States requesting the founding of Japan to the Japanese government.

Perry was instructed that if Japan finally refused, he could use force to force Japan to establish a country.

This was an epoch-making event in Japanese history. As a result, Japan was forced to found a country, then reform, and stride into a “modern country.”

During Japan’s founding and reform process, it was China that played a window and intermediary role in the two-way interaction between the West and Japan, and Japan’s understanding of the West.

This window and intermediary role played an important role in promoting Japan’s founding and restoration.

1. The Opium War awakened Japan

After all, the year 1853 when the Perry fleet appeared in the sea of Japan was not the year 1837 when the “Morrison” was bombarded by Japan. In the past 16 years, a major event that shocked Japan occurred, namely China’s Opium War.

Japan was shocked when it heard that China, which was much more powerful and advanced than it, and had always been the object of admiration and learning, was actually defeated by the small island nation of Britain in the Opium War and was forced to open its door.

The Opium War broke out

Insightful people in both the government and the public in Japan tried every means to obtain information about China’s Opium War through various channels.

Although Japan has been closed to the country for a long time, it has always focused on overseas intelligence collection, stipulating that Chinese and Dutch businessmen in Nagasaki Port must report overseas news to the highest local official in Nagasaki. This kind of report is called “wind story telling”.

News of China’s Opium War first reached Japan through legends. In Japan, opium is called “opium”, and the stories about opium are called “opium stories”.

These legendaries are official secret documents, handed over to the shogunate by the Nagasaki magistrate, and can only be read by senior shogunate officials.

However, the content of opium-style storytelling is still spread to the people through various channels.

The Japanese government and opposition parties were eager to understand the situation of China’s Opium War and collect relevant intelligence as much as possible.

Humen destroys cigarettes

One of Japan’s direct institutional responses to China’s Opium War was the relaxation of the Foreign Ship Expulsion Order in 1841, which stipulated that local officials could provide fuel, fresh water, and food if foreign ships requested it.

In 1842, Japan officially abolished the “Expulsion Order of Foreign Ships”.

2. A book banned in china

The most profound and shocking influence on Japan was the “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” compiled by Wei Yuan under the entrustment of Lin Zexu.

At the end of 1839, Lin Zexu organized the translation of the “Encyclopedia of World Geography” published in London in 1836 by the Englishman Murray, which was translated into “Records of the Four Continents”.

This book introduces new knowledge about several continents in the world, and plays an important enlightenment role in modern China’s “going global”.

At the same time, in order to defeat the enemy, Lin Zexu also organized and compiled information about modern Western ships and artillery, which meant imitating them “from the barbarians”.

As a high-ranking official, Lin Zexu was well versed in the national conditions and knew that this book would be severely criticized if published, so he did not publish “Four Continents”.

However, this book was still circulated and criticized.

But Lin Zexu already felt that China would face a brand new enemy. It must understand this enemy, understand the world, and “learn from foreigners to learn skills” in order to finally defeat it.

China’s view of the world “Pictures of the Sea”

In the summer and autumn of 1841, Lin Zexu, who had been dismissed from his post and sent to guard Ili in Xinjiang, passed by Zhenjiang, stayed in the same room with his friend Wei Yuan, and talked freely on the couch.

Lin Zexu handed Wei Yuan the relevant foreign information compiled by “Four Continents Chronicles” and asked him to compile it into a book.

Wei Yuan lived up to the great trust and compiled it into “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” shortly after the conclusion of the “Treaty of Nanjing” and published it in 1842.

“Hai Guo Tu Zhi” provides a detailed introduction to the history, politics, geography, economy, religion, education and other aspects of the five continents and many countries in the world.

Wei Yuan said at the beginning of his preface: “Why was this book written? It was written to use barbarians to attack barbarians, to use barbarians to compensate barbarians, and to learn from barbarians to improve their skills.”

To attack barbarians with barbarians, one must understand each barbarian, that is, understand the world, in order to exploit the contradictions between barbarians and let them attack each other;

To pay barbarians to barbarians is to use the contradictions between barbarians to maintain peace. An important point is that China should conduct business with barbarians so that the barbarians concerned can restrain each other for their own interests and achieve the purpose of cessation of troops and truce; Skills refer to learning and imitating the advanced weapons of the barbarians.

Lin Zexu inspects Macau

When two countries are at war, if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be defeated. If the enemy’s weapons are stronger than your own, you must do everything you can to learn and imitate them. This is common sense, but in China at that time, this was an unfeasible sin.

Lin Zexu came under tremendous pressure when he proposed “learning from the barbarians”. When Wei Yuan proposed “learning from the barbarians to develop skills”, he received even more fierce criticism and the public sentiment became fierce. Soon, the book was banned.

3. Banned books were introduced to Japan, and their fate was very different

In 1851, “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” was introduced to Japan in very small quantities, only a few copies.

Because when introducing European and American countries, it is necessary to mention that some countries believe in Catholicism and Christianity. Although the relevant content is very small, the book was banned due to the strict prohibition of religion by the shogunate.

In 1854, Japan was forced to found a country. Japan, which was ignorant of the world, urgently needed to understand the world. This book became the best choice. The ban was immediately lifted, and the shogunate required officials at all levels to read it.

This book shocked Japan so much that by 1856 there were 23 editions.

Japan’s isolation during the Edo period

In the face of aggression by Western powers, there is also a fierce debate in Japan whether to “close the country and repel the barbarians” or “open the country and repel the barbarians.”

“Hai Guo Tu Zhi” introduced the general trend of the world and the view of “learning from the barbarians and developing skills to control the barbarians” made “founding the country and expelling the barbarians” the dominant opinion.

The so-called “founding a country to repel the barbarians” is a replica of “learning from the barbarians and developing skills to control the barbarians”.

Sakuma Xiangshan was one of the representatives of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and fought against the foreigners. As early as when he read Wei Yuan’s “Shengwu Ji”, he wrote excitedly: “Wow! Yu and Wei, they were born in different places and do not know each other’s names. They feel the time and speak, but they are together. Years old. And what he sees is that there are coincident ones, which is strange. He can really be called an overseas comrade.”

After the ban on “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” was lifted, he read it carefully and wrote a lot of reading notes.

He opened the “Xiangshan Academy”, and “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” was designated as a key reading, and trained a group of patriots such as Yoshida Shoin who founded the country and fought against the foreigners.

The birthplace of the Meiji Restoration: Matsushita Village Private School

Yoshida Shoin later presided over the “Matsushita Village Private School”, and “Haiguo Tuzhi” was also a designated key reading.

In just two years when Yoshida Shoin presided over the Matsushita Village Private School, it produced influential figures of the Meiji Restoration, including Takasugi Shinsaku, Kusaka Genzui, Kido Takayoshi, Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, Inoue Kaoru, and Maehara Issei. et al.

4. Forbidden books are still useful after the reform

After the Meiji Restoration, the new government invited Yokoi Konan to serve as a “participator” and participate in the center of power.

Among the leaders of the new government, because he was the oldest and had practical experience in reform, most of his suggestions were adopted and he greatly contributed to the reform of the Meiji government.

But initially, he agreed and advocated “closing the country and repelling the foreigners”. It was after carefully reading “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” that he became a resolute founding theorist.

He not only advocated using and imitating Western weapons, but also advocated learning from their political systems.

Since Japan was opened by the United States, the “American Chapter” in “Hai Guo Tu Zhi” attracted special attention from Japanese thinkers.

Hashimoto Sanai was a famous strategist at the end of the Tokugawa period. After the ban on “Haiguo Tu Shi” was lifted, he read it carefully and recommended it to others, especially the American and British parts.

Thanks to the introduction of the United States and Britain in the book, his thoughts surpass those of other founding anti-foreigners in that he not only advocated imitating Western weapons, but also emphasized that the United States, Britain and other European and American countries were founded on commerce and emphasized the importance of commerce and trade. sex.

Japanese samurai during the Meiji Restoration

He also introduced and analyzed the relationship between export and import in foreign trade, and proposed that not only exports are beneficial to the country, but imports are also beneficial to the country.

It is particularly valuable and even beyond the times to propose that transactions with foreigners are not limited to the transaction of goods, but “the transaction of wisdom is more important.”

“Wisdom trading” is the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Moreover, he also proposed for the first time that officials should be selected and influenced by the “election method”.

In the more than ten years from the lifting of the ban in 1854 to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, “Haiguo Tuzhi” played a huge enlightenment role in Japan.

“Hai Guo Tu Zhi” was originally intended to open the eyes of the Chinese people and enable them to “open their eyes to see the world” as a primary enlightenment book. However, it was rejected by China at that time. It inadvertently enlightened the Japanese and played a catalytic role in the Meiji Restoration. .

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarked on the path of becoming rich and powerful, and in turn invaded China again and again.

The unformed “Chinese knowledge” accidentally became “Japanese experience”, which was the tragedy of the Qing government.

History
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