A Brief Modern Chinese History. Haipeng Zhang

1899 \ 228 4,061 1901 \ 173 296 alternate officers 3,469 1,734 alternate inspectors

Japan installed not only rigid laws put also sought to control the Taiwanese people’s thoughts. For the people, there was no distinction between the government and the police.73

It is generally believed that the Treaty of Shimonoseki marked China’s degeneration into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. Before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Western powers could not tell who would emerge the winner. China’s extremely poor performance in the war demonstrated its weakness and its proud status in Asia was gone forever. The rising Japanese empire overshadowed all others in Asia; however, it presented difficulties for the colonialists’ partition of China. A spokesperson of the Western colonialists said China was merely the “sick man of the Far East,”74 and on his deathbed, even openly discussing how to carve up China and grab its riches.75 The competition between the imperial powers for China lay at the core of Far Eastern internal relations and largely meant that China would not get the chance to rise again.

1 See: Chapter 71 of Chouban yiwu shimo: Xianfeng chao 筹办夷务始末 (咸丰朝) (The management of foreign affairs in its entirety: The Reign of Emperor Xianfeng), 18; Chapter 4 of Xianfeng chao chouban yiwu shimo buyi 咸丰朝筹办夷务始末补遗 (A supplement to Chouban yiwu shimo: Xianfeng chao), Part One, p. 680.

2 See: Chapter 71 of Chouban yiwu shimo: Xianfeng chao, p. 28.

3 See: Liu Danian, Zhongguo jindaishigao, p. 117.

4 See: Vol. 7 of Zeng Guofan quanji, pp. 84–85.

5 Zhao Erxun 赵 尔 巽 et al., Qing shi gao 清 史 稿 [A draft history of Qing] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1977), vol. 38, pp. 11686–11687.

6 See: Vol. 3 of Taiping Tianguo shiliao congbian jianji 太平天国史料丛编简辑 [Selected primary sources in relation to Taiping Tianguo] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1962), p. 411.

7 See: Vol. 3 of Zeng Guofan quanji, p. 186.

8 See: Gu Tinglong 顾 廷 龙 and Dai Yi 戴 逸 eds., Li Hongzhang quanji [Complete works of Li Hongzhang] (Hefei: Anhui Educational Publishing House, 2007), vol. 29, p. 218.

9 See: Chapter 25 of Chouban yiwu shibo: Tongzhi Chao (The management of foreign affairs in its entirety: The Reign of Emperor Tongzhi), pp. 1–2.

10 See: Vol. 10 of Qing Guangxu chao Zhong Ri jiaoshe shiliao 清光绪朝中日交涉史料 [Primary sources in relation to the Sino-Japanese relations in the reign of Emperor Guangxu] (Beijing: The Palace Museum, 1932), p. 2.

11 Wang Tao 王韬, Taoyuan wenlu waibian 弢园文录外编 [Supplement to Collected Works of Wang Tao] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1959), p. 22, p. 23.

12 See: Zhongguo shixue hui, Wuxu bianfa 戊戌变法 [Hundred Days’ Reform] (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1957), vol. 1, p. 40.

13 See: Ma Jianzhong 马建忠, Shike zhai jiyan 适可斋记言 [Writings in the Appropriateness Pavilion] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1960), p. 9.

14 See: Feng Guifen 冯桂芬 and Ma Jianzhong, Cai xixue yi—Feng Guifen Ma Jianzhong ji 采西学议——冯桂芬马建忠集 [On learning from the West: Selected writings of Feng Guifen and Ma Jianzhong] (Shenyang: Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1994), p. 47.

15 See: Zhongguo shixue hui, Yangwu yundong 洋 务 运 动 [The Self-Strengthening Movement] (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1961), vol. 1, p. 504.

16 Xue Fucheng 薛福成, Xu Fucheng xuanji 薛福成选集 [Selected writings of Xue Fucheng] (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1987), p. 22.

17 See: Cai xixue yi—Feng Guifen Ma Jianzhong ji, p. 84.

18 Ibid., p. 125, p. 134.

19 Ma Jianzhong, Shike zhai jiyan, p. 77, p. 79.

20 See: Zhao Jing 赵婧 and Yi Menghong 易梦虹, eds., Zhongguo jindai jingji six-iang ziliao xuanji 中国近代经济思想资料选辑 [Economic thoughts in the modern China: A selection] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1982), vol. 2, p. 84.

21 See: Wang Tao, Taoyuan wenlu waibian, p. 301, p. 22.

22 Ma Jianzhong, Shike zhai jiyan, p. 31.

23 See: Xinjiang tuzhi 新疆图志 (An illustrated annals of Xinjiang), Chapter 54, the 2nd part of Jiaoshe 交涉 (Foreign relations), p. 2.

24 Zhang Haipeng and Li Guoqiang 李国强, “Lun Maguan tiaoyue yu Diaoyudao wenti 论《马关条约》与钓鱼岛问题” (The Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Diaoyudao Issue), Renmin ribao 人民日报 (The People’s Daily), 8 May, 2013, p. 9.

25 See: Zhang Zhiyong 张志勇, Hede yu wan Qing Zhong Ying guanxi 赫德与晚清中英关系 [Rober Hart and Sino-Britain relations in the late Qing] (Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 2012), p. 76.

26 Ibid., p.