were of science and technology books; however, they also translated politics, economy, and history books. In addition, this studio published a quarterly devoted to world affairs. These books and journals introduced the Chinese to the world. They built schools which recruited young students aged 15 to 20. When admitted, students joined a four-year program, where they were taught sciences and foreign languages. Historically, these schools produced the first generation of Chinese engineers and technicians.
The Shanghai Arsenal had several counterparts which could be found in Jinling (Nanjing), Fuzhou, Tianjin, Hubei, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Shandong, Sichuan, and Jilin. There were 21 large and medium-sized modern weapon manufacturers nationwide. The Fuzhou Arsenal was second only to the Shanghai Arsenal. It was founded by Zuo Zongtang 左宗棠 (1812–1885) and comprised fourteen branches as well as a shipbuilding school. This arsenal employed roughly 2,000 workers. French experts played a leading role in its initial stages and were later all replaced by Chinese specialists. In 1869, the Fuzhou Arsenal built the first military carrier and, by the late 1890s, more than thirty ships had been manufactured. Some of them were powered by a 2,400-horsepower engine. This arsenal served as the base for China’s four fleets of warships.
The leading SSM proponents realized that wealth was indispensable to strength. In other words, they were determined to broaden the sources of income for the country. Beginning in the 1870s, these highly influential motivators started to invest in civil industries. The startups included the Shanghai Merchants Steam Navigation Company (上海轮船招商局), the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill (上海机器织布局)、the Kaiping-based China Engineering and Mining Company (开平煤矿), the Tianjin-based Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration (天津电报总局), Mohe Gold Mining Company (漠河金矿 in Heilongjiang) and the Wuhan-based Hanyang Steel Mill (汉阳铁厂), to name only the most famous. Unlike weapon manufacturers, over all of which the Qing empire had a monopoly, these civil corporations were jointly managed by both government and private business. Such joint management was conducive to the economic development of early modernizing China, when few people dared to invest their money in modern industry. By the 1890s, there were more than 40 modern civil corporations in China and it was from these enterprises, most of which were supervised by the government and run by businessmen, that early Chinese capitalism began.
Seeing Qing’s worry when faced with powerful foreign navies, governors and generals recommended that the imperial court make a greater effort to build a modern Chinese navy. In the 1860s, Yixin entrusted Horatio N. Lay with the task of purchasing foreign battleships. Lay, who then controlled Qing’s Customs Service, spent more than one million taels of silver on eight British warships. However, Lay demanded that China’s naval commander be British and the only direct liaison between the Chinese emperor and the navy. Qing’s government dismissed Lay and gave these battleships up. In doing so, Qing lost a huge amount of money.
In 1874, Japan invaded Taiwan. High ministers and generals intensively discussed China’s coastal defense. Li Hongzhang suggested that coastal defense be given top priority and the imperial court decided to build the Fleet of the Northern Ocean (hereinafter referred to as the Northern Fleet). Li Hongzhang was appointed to supervise the building of China’s first modern fleet. In the following decade, he built and bought warships to create his dream fleet. The fleet was completed in 1888 and was comprised of two superior ironclads, seven cruisers, six gunboats, six torpedo boats, three training ships, and one carrier. Two bases were also built in Lüshun (in Liaoning) and Weihai (in Shandong). The commanding officers of the fleet were usually trained overseas and were renowned for strict discipline, tough training, and high standards. Around the same time, modern naval troops were created in Guangdong, Fujian, and Shanghai. At this stage, the Chinese navy had, in total, more than 130 battleships. Even the Japanese navy paled in comparison.
At this time, SSM was desperately seeking young and talented people. Thus, in the early 1860s, new, Western-style schools were founded as part of the Self-Strengthening mission in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Students in these schools were taught foreign languages, sciences, engineering, and international law; the schools encouraged practical education. The shipbuilding institute attached to the Fuzhou Arsenal is an example. According to their employment contract, the foreign experts working there were required to organize training sessions for the Chinese workers and students apart from building ships. A similar program was put in place in SSM’s mining and telegraph companies. Additionally, military schools devoted to weapons, medicine, and drill were set up after the creation of the new fleets. In 1885, Li Hongzhang founded a military academy in Tianjin (天津武备学堂) and this became China’s first army school. Wanting to rapidly master modern Western science and technology, SSM leaders sent many young students to study abroad. According to statistics, 120 went to the United States and 85 went to European countries such as Britain and Germany. These young people later played a great role in the modernization of China. Zhan Tianyou, for example, built the well-known modern Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway. A number of students specialized in telecommunications and helped free China from its dependence on foreign experts. The majority of the commanding officers in the navy studied in the West. Some of these, like Liu Buchan, Lin Yongsheng, and Lin Tai, for example, died bravely for their country, while others became leading officers in the Chinese navy. Yan Fu 严复, a brilliant officer who had studied in England’s Royal Naval College, became a translator and translated many well-known English books in the social sciences, which played a significant role in promoting the Enlightenment in early modernizing China. In addition, quite a few foreign-educated students later became active Chinese diplomats.
It could be said that China’s move into the modern world was the result of invasion by the colonial powers. Because of Western colonialism, history did not leave China with many opportunities to peacefully undergo the changes that would lead to modernity. It was at gunpoint that the top echelons of the Qing dynasty had to abandon the old order and move toward modern life. However, divisions persisted regarding whether China should modernize or not. Some officials were reform-minded while others remained ultraconservative and loyal to the old regime. The leading SSM motivators, which included Yixin, Wenxiang, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, among others, were intellectually open-minded and enlightened. Their crusade for modernity aimed to rebuild a lethargic Chinese nation, as well as lay the foundation for future endeavors. In this sense, they should be recognized as the pioneers of Chinese modernization and for playing a significant role in Chinese history in breaking through the almost indestructible, thousand-year-old conventional ways of thinking.
Class conflicts began to ease after the failure of the Taiping Rebellion and as the colonial powers slowed down their activities in China. As a result, the Qing empire enjoyed two decades of peace and stability. At this time, some of the ruling elites started to rethink the development gap between China and the West and began to create new opportunities for socio-economic growth. It was in this same period that Japan also saw great changes and rapid economic and military development. In Qing's empire, some of the SSM motivators, took much more moderate measures to modernize this 200-year-old dynasty. While promoting their programs, they did not try to bring about fundamental changes to the existing social order and ideological system. Despite this, the (ultra-)conservatives were hostile to these reform-minded officials. A prominent imperial adviser, for example, firmly believed that traditional Confucian virtues such as loyalty, propriety, and righteousness were essential to fighting the invaders. The SSM motivators’ endeavors to modernize the dynasty were in the conservatives’ eyes entirely unorthodox, meaningless, and useless. The conservatives particularly objected to having conventional Chinese education, based on Confucianism, be replaced by a modern education that was centered around Western knowledge. The SSM proponents continued to defend their beliefs.
Cixi, who was by nature conservative, allowed the SSM motivators to implement their programs while allowing the ultraconservative critics of SSM to go unchecked. It is clear that the Empress Dowager instructed these two rivals to work against each other. In this way, not only would the two political factions not challenge Cixi, but she would place them both under her control. However, SSM could not be promoted throughout China, only in the provinces supervised by
