Social Reformative Thoughts of the Westernization Group

During the period of the Westernization Movement, relevant figures discussed issues pertaining to how to promote the development of the new economy, transform existing national regimes, and construct social ethics. However, the discussion on the Westernization bureaucracy differed from that of the Westernization ideologues. Although the bureaucracy saw serious conflicts between existing national regimes and new production methods, they appealed to learn from the West and carried out political reform. In general, they held the position of the ancient regime in considering the problem, and while they were progressing with the development of the times, their way of thinking was behind the times. After the 1901 Treaty was signed, the severe national crisis extended Westernization officials’ thoughts beyond the boundary set in Zhang Zhidong’s work Exhortation to Learning, namely of no civil rights and no parliament. This indicates the maturation of the comprehensive study of the new Western capitalist policy. In contrast, the Westernization ideologues purported a radical reformation program that highlighted “enriching the people and paying attention to commerce” and “vigorously developing commercial affairs.” Earlier, they had proposed the reformation of the political system, established parliament, broke through the space capacity of the “Westernized Chinese style,” exceeded the acceptable range of the farming community established earlier in the political reform bureaucracy, and advocated its establishment, which constituted a form of transition to reformist thoughts.