The relationship between Wei Yuan’s former residence Wei Yuan and the academic style of the late Qing Dynasty
How about Wei Yuan’s former residence?
Seeing the world with wide eyes is one of the great qualities of modern China. So where is Wei Yuan's former residence?
Photos of Wei Yuan's former residence
Wei Yuan's ancestral home is Jintan, Shaoyang County, Hunan Province, which now belongs to Simenqian Town, Longhui County, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province. There is also the former residence of Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan’s former residence was built in the early Qing Dynasty. This is the legacy left by Wei Yuan's grandfather, Xiao Gong Li. Legend has it that young Gong Li built ten basically identical houses for his ten sons. Wei Yuan's father ranks fifth. Wei Yuan's former residence is one of the residences allocated by his family. Wei Yuan was born here and spent a happy childhood in this land. By 1820, Wei Yuan moved his family to Jiangsu and rarely returned home after that. During the land reform in 1951, this house was distributed to the descendants of Weiyuan's ancestor and several poor middle farmers. In 1994, the state-owned properties were taken back for renovation. Wei Yuan's former residence now covers an area of 1,710 square meters, and the living area has reached 756 square meters. This kind of former residence is a typical shingle-style residence in southwestern Hunan during the Qing Dynasty. This shows that Wei Yuan's ancestors also had certain economic strength.
Since the 1990s, superior departments have carried out three renovations on Wei Yuan’s former residence. The former residence of Wei Yuan we are visiting now has been basically renovated. But it’s not much different from the original look.
On the whole, Wei Yuan’s former residence faces west to east, with two fronts and two backs. It is located in the middle of a road-colored countryside, as if it is independent of the outside world. In front of my former residence, autumn is golden. The fragrance of rice flowers dancing in the wind makes people deeply moved. Fragrant Mountain on the left, Shiling Mountain on the right, and a golden stream of water behind the house. The entire house is built according to ancient Chinese Feng Shui designs.
To sum up, this is a brief introduction to Wei Yuan’s former residence. Wei Yuan's former residence is becoming a beautiful scenery in the new era.
Relationship with Wei Yuan’s academic style in the late Qing Dynasty
Is there any relationship between Wei Yuan and the academic style in the late Qing Dynasty? "Managing the world for practical purposes" is an important symbol of the academic style of the late Qing Dynasty. Wei Yuan proposed and advocated "managing the world for practical purposes". Therefore, Wei Yuan was the advocate and promoter of the late Qing academic style.
For example, Wei Yuan
In this year, China's academic trends are undergoing drastic changes. The backwardness of Gan's Sinological thoughts became more and more prominent, and Western influence began to appear in China. In this chaotic situation, some scholars in the late Qing Dynasty, such as Wei Yuan, began to propagate "managing the world for practical purposes", which was the thinking of the late Qing Dynasty.
Based on the thoughts and theories of the progressive thinker Wei Yuan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and then combining his thoughts with the current reality, he formed his own unique ideological and academic style in the late Qing Dynasty, that is, "judge the world and apply it".
His idea of "applying knowledge to the world" includes the following aspects:
The first is to focus on the practical principle of academic research. He believes that the purpose of applying knowledge to the world is to better solve practical social problems. Its outstanding feature is the combination of academics and politics, which provides theories and solutions to solve practical social problems. He believes that the Qianjia academic style is seriously out of touch with reality and should be abolished.
The second point of practical application is to propose some "50" and "innovative" measures to strengthen the country. According to this. Wei Yuan put forward many ideas in the "Hai Guo Tu Zhi"
The third point of practical application is the foreign policy of "learning from the foreigners and developing skills to control the foreigners". After the Opium War, China was bullied by foreign powers. Wei Yuan advocated learning from the West and using Western technology to restrain the West.
Wei Yuan’s late Qing academic style was a shining light during the decline of the late Qing Dynasty.
Relationship with Wei Yuan’s Westernization Movement
The relationship between Wei Yuan and the Westernization Movement is reflected in the following aspects
The Westernization Movement is the embodiment of Wei Yuan’s thoughts in practice. Wei Yuan proposed that China should support the construction of industrial bases and vigorously develop military industry. At the same time, it should learn advanced military science and technology from the West. It should learn from Western guns and ships and turn them into its own, and then use them to safeguard its independence and sovereignty. More than ten years later, the Westernization Movement put Wei Yuan's political views into practice. From 1865 to 1890, Westernization leaders and others successively established 21 arms manufacturing bureaus in China, including the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the Hubei Gun and Artillery Institute, the Shandong Machinery Bureau, and the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau. They also hired Westerners as designers to manufacture Various guns and ships. Not only that, they also purchased a large number of foreign ships and formed a huge Qing navy. In terms of economy, Wei Yuan advocated the development of modern civilian industry and suggested the introduction of machines into military supplies and civilian supplies. During the Westernization Movement, the Westernization Movement dispatched 40 modern enterprises such as shipping, coal, textiles, and telecommunications, promoting the emergence of a capitalist economy.
Wei Yuan’s thought had the same limitations as the Westernization Movement. We only see that the economy is not as good as that of Western powers, but we fail to see that the essence of China's backwardness is politics. Learning from the West was just to maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Due to this limitation, it ultimately led to the failure of the Westernization Movement.
The connection with Wei Yuan’s Westernization Movement made China begin to modernize.