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Text Chapter 483 Farewell, Wetoma

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    Hearing Lin Yizhe say such words, Weitoma was shocked, but his face remained calm.  "Why do you say that?" Witoma smiled and asked.  "Your greatest contribution to the UK is to open up a channel for the UK to understand China." Lin Yizhe said, "The pinyin method you created has contributed far more to the cultural exchanges between the two countries and the benefits it can bring to the UK in the future.  Regarding the rights you are asking for from China this time, "Oh? You actually think so?" Witoma said in surprise.  "You have to know that wars break out between many countries and nations. Many times, it is because they do not understand each other well and lack communication channels." Lin Yizhe said, "The same is true for Britain and China. If both sides have  With enough understanding, the war could have been avoided. And now, the Pinyin method you created is a powerful tool for improving understanding between Britain and China. Although its role has not yet been fully demonstrated, I believe that in the near future,  It will definitely become a symbol of the great friendship between Britain and China. And because of it, your name will be engraved in the history books forever." Lin Yizhe's high evaluation of "Waitoma Pinyin" is not groundless.  When Wittoma worked at Shanghai Customs, he was responsible for Chinese language training for customs personnel from the UK.  He successively wrote "Xunjin Lu" in 1859 and the Chinese textbook "Language Ziyiji" in 1867. He successfully developed the method of writing Chinese place names in Latin letters, called "Waitoma Pinyin", which became the most popular Chinese place names,  Transliteration standards for the foreign translation of names of people and things.  It took Wade eight years to develop the orthography.  After many iterations, the draft was revised several times.  Finished at the end.  The Collection of Languages ??he wrote is a huge work that includes textbooks for Westerners to learn Chinese, descriptions of spoken Beijing dialect and research on Chinese grammar.  Its important value is not only its pioneering significance in the history of Beijing dialect and Mandarin and even the history of Chinese linguistics, but also lies in the fact that it is the first "Teaching Material for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language" that focuses on the teaching of modern spoken Chinese and uses Latin alphabet notation.  Cultural exchanges between Britain and China have made indelible contributions.  Lin Yizhe knows that, in fact, until China developed the "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme" in the 1950s, almost no one "invented" new alphabet pinyin schemes for so many years.  This set of phonetic notations was created by Wade.  It has been able to last for more than 100 years. In addition to being the pioneer of the trend, it does have its own unique strengths and advantages.  After hearing Lin Yizhe¡¯s high praise for the ¡°Watoma Pinyin¡± he founded, Wetoma was deeply moved, and most of his original hostility towards Lin Yizhe dissipated.  After all, not every British and Chinese person will understand the value of "Wytoma Pinyin"!  And what Lin Yizhe just said was about the need to enhance understanding between the two countries.  He was also in awe!  "In my opinion, during your tenure, your contribution to China was far greater than your contribution to the United Kingdom." Before Waitoma could sigh, Lin Yizhe said another earth-shattering statement.  "My contribution to China?" Weitoma was stunned. He looked at Lin Yizhe with disbelief.  "What do you mean?" "You actually forgot what you did for China, but I haven't forgotten it for a day." Lin Yizhe replied with a smile, "Don't you remember what suggestions you made to the Chinese government?" Wei Wei  After hearing Lin Yizhe's words, Tuoma woke up immediately.  Lin Yizhe said.  It was the proposal he wrote to the Qing government in 1866 called "New Discussion Guide"!  Lin Yizhe couldn't help but smile again when he saw Weitoma thinking about it.  "The suggestion you wrote. Maybe many Chinese people have forgotten it, but I have not forgotten it, and I have been working tirelessly to follow the suggestion." "It turns out that you have always remembered it." Weituma recalled it.  That period of history, I sighed, "I understand why you have achieved so many achievements." That time was the first time that Western people in China systematically put forward suggestions for reforming China's domestic and foreign affairs. Among them, the most famous and influential one was  They are the "On the Outside View" (written on September 18, the fourth year of Tongzhi) by the Englishman Hurd, who served as the General Taxation Department, and the "New Discussion" by William Wytoma, the acting British Minister to China.  After these two documents were submitted to the Prime Minister¡¯s National Affairs Office in February of the fifth year of Tongzhi (1866), they were handed over to the governors of various regions for careful planning, which caused an uproar.  After seeing these two documents, the then Huguang Governor¡¯s official document denounced them as ¡°containing evil intentions.¡± Liu Kunyi, the governor of Jiangxi, believed that ¡°you must not accept their request.¡±  Ruilin, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Jiang Yili, the governor of Guangdong, said: "The way to self-improvement is not to seek external help" and "there is no need to change the method."  Even Zuo Zongtang, who was the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang at the time, believed that it was enough to just learn from Western shipbuilding.Rifles were not as good as Guangdong's shotguns, and "there were many ingenious weapons, including telegraphs, but they were all beautiful but not practical."  These people were not known for their stubbornness among the frontier officials of the Qing Dynasty, but they were so disgusting, let alone others?  As a time traveler, Lin Yizhe knows that even in his era more than a hundred years later, many historians in mainland China still believe that the "negative value" of the suggestions of Waitoma and others is the main one, and they are just "asking for a clear  The government abides by unequal treaties and pursues causes that are conducive to the expansion of aggression by the great powers. "So, what did they say?  In fact, everything Hurd and Wade said hit home to China¡¯s vital needs at that time!  There are three central meanings expressed in these two proposals: First, due to whitewashing and corruption, China has fallen into a very dangerous situation.  First of all, China¡¯s officialdom was extremely corrupt at that time.  Hurd said in "On the Outsiders": "There are few people who perform their duties and many people who are selfish" among the ministers and workers in other provinces.  For officials in the capital, "Those who have a fair reputation suffer from the fact that they have too many jurisdictions and have no time to pay attention to their internal duties; the ministers let the officials exercise their power and decide whether to use the money or not. Those who make the external officials honest will be refuted."  The reason for the financial difficulties is that "low officials gain more from the people, while those above the government lose less to the country." Secondly.  It is the backwardness and incompetence of the Chinese military.  Hurd pointed out that the Chinese army "normally draws bows and lifts stones. They only talk about postures and are lazy, and they can only raise birds for fun." Thirdly, China's education system has long been outdated, and what scholars have learned is not used. "Poetry and prose are not unproficient.  , To make him an official, he often fails to answer questions that people should know. "Extreme corruption has many negative consequences.  "All kinds of wrongs have caused the most docile people in all countries to rebel and rebel everywhere." In "New Discussions", Wade said that if China does not rush to change, there will be a hidden danger of national subjugation and partition.  : "When China finally declines, one country intervenes. All countries follow suit. In the future, will China still be able to be unified and independent, or will it inevitably be divided into various countries? This goes without saying." Second, China's handling of  Improper foreign affairs.  In the past 30 years of dealing with foreign relations, China has regarded itself as a country of heavenly etiquette and justice.  The inability to get along with foreigners and foreigners on an equal footing led to many disputes and several discords.  Hart said in "On the Outsiders": In China, "Officials in China regard foreigners as barbarians at first and treat them like dogs All these emotions are caused by their shallow intelligence and desire to underestimate others. They are weak and desire to overwhelm others."  ¡± Third, China must reform.  ??And China wants reform.  The traditional Chinese weird theory of cyclical retrogression must be replaced by the theory of evolution of competitive advancement.  Wytoma has a very insightful discussion on this. He wrote in "New Discussion": "China's troubles are like the four seasons in a year. Examining their rise and fall, they are all the same Especially someone said  : The time of Yao and Shun was the most Based on the covenant of evolution, the situation of Britain, France, Russia and the United States compared with that of five hundred years ago was much better than that of thousands of years ago; compared with that of five hundred years ago, the situation today is much better.  If you compare, you are stronger now than you were five hundred years ago. Also, since ancient times, no country in the four seas has ever tried to compete with its neighbors, and it is unheard of not to be invaded by its neighbors." At the same time, he pointed out.  The Chinese people should realize that reform or not is related to the life and death of China: "As long as there is a transfer of state affairs, it will be easy to be the leader of all nations. If there is no transfer, within a few years, there will be a battle for all nations." And he believes that China should take the initiative  Change, otherwise it will hinder China's sovereignty: "If we use foreigners to use foreigners to use China's wealth and leave China alone, it will still be called independence!" Fourth, China maintains national independence.  The basic path is to learn from the West, learn from the West to strengthen ourselves, and live in harmony with foreign countries.  In their words: "The key to China's independence is to use the law to promote advantages and eliminate disadvantages in order to restore peace in the mainland. As for the second, we should try to seek peace with foreign countries. If we cannot send ministers to station abroad, we should also try to make them  Avoid doubts and see lightly.¡± The key to living in harmony, in addition to sending envoys as soon as possible, is to ¡°act according to the agreement¡±, that is, to abide by the treaty.  In addition, Hurd and Waitoma also put forward many specific suggestions on how to learn from the West and various changes in response to changes.  Most of what Wade said in "New Discussions" are admonitions that hit the current situation.  At that time, the Chinese military and government institutions were already corrupt; China was facing huge dangers; the only way to get out of the predicament and maintain national independence was to learn from the West and implement reforms!  However, these two proposals, which can be said to be life-saving for China, have been firmly resisted by Chinese scholars without exception!  The reason why they are like this is not only the traditional concept of "defense between Yi and Xia", but also doubts about the intentions of those who made suggestions, and their view of China's repeated humiliation is different from that of foreigners.  The first is the reason for the "disharmony" between China and foreign countries.  In the eyes of foreigners such as Hedwig Thomas, it was mainly due to China's arrogance and unwillingness to open its doors and get along with foreigners on an equal footing that China suffered from WesternParty's invasion.  The Chinese scholar-bureaucrats emphasized that this was the consequence of Western aggression.  In fact, these two reasons coexist and complement each other, rather than being mutually exclusive.  The medieval ignorance of the Qing ruling group in its foreign relations was an important reason for the Western invasion.  The analysis of Sino-foreign relations by Witoma and others had a one-sided view. However, if one does not seek perfection and blame, his "New Discussion Guide" was still useful advice at the time.  As for "dealing with the agreement," Chinese scholar-officials insist that it is wrong to live in harmony with the Western powers and will only embolden the arrogance of the Western powers.  But in fact, as long as we understand that China was at a disadvantage at that time and the task it faced was to strive for a peaceful and stable environment and realize the transformation from poverty, weakness and ignorance to prosperity, strength and civilization, it is not difficult to understand that in its foreign relations, it should abide by treaties and regard peace as the basis.  The main policy is first and foremost beneficial to China.  China¡¯s scholar-officials also doubted the motives of Witoma and others.  They believed that both Wade and Hurd were British.  Wytoma was also a British diplomat, and they planned the proposal.  Can you not think about the interests of your own country first?  "Those who are not of my race must have different minds." The narrow-minded mentality under the patriarchal autocratic system makes it reasonable for Chinese scholar-officials to be skeptical and wary of their suggestions.  What the Chinese literati did not know or were unwilling to understand was that at that time, Western countries and China actually had many overlapping interests in social progress.  Western capitalist powers want to expand the world market. If Eastern countries become too politically and militarily decadent and have social unrest, trade between the two sides will fail.  And economically.  If a country does not have the necessary infrastructure to adapt to the development of the world market, such as transportation, communications, raw materials, energy production and other facilities, the trade between the two sides cannot develop sustainably.  As a modern person with common sense in economics, Lin Yizhe knows that except for a small number of production projects with direct conflicts of interest, usually the more developed the commodity economy is, the greater the volume of trade between countries!  Wade-German made no bones about it at the time, saying that the suggestions he put forward in "New Discussions" were also beneficial to the West.  "Firstly, if the new law in the preceding paragraph is adopted, the commercial bureau will benefit greatly from it. Secondly, the mainland will be easy to maintain peace from now on. Foreign people will trade and trade frequently, and it will be easy to be preserved, and all countries will have no worries. The most gratifying thing is that  This." But in general.  "Although foreign countries have benefited from it, China has benefited especially." These words are in line with reality.  For example, wouldn¡¯t China benefit a lot from eliminating the corruption they accuse?  Another example is their suggestions for railway, telegraph, hardware, and coal factories.  Manufacturing wheel-wheel motors, weaving equipment, reforming finance and postal services, etc., are there any things that are beneficial to the West but not beneficial to China?  (Historians of later generations regard Waitoma's suggestion as "conducive to the expansion of aggression by the great powers." This is undoubtedly biased. Unfortunately, this view is still the "mainstream" in later generations.) Because China at that time had not yet established a  In the modern sense of mass communication, the suggestions of Hart and Wade were distributed by the Qing court to courtiers and local ministers for discussion. It can be said to be a powerful shock to these ministers, and the circulation of these suggestions and memorials also made China  People who are worried about their country pay more attention to Westernization.  Just this year, the first year of Guangxu, the "Global Gazette of All Nations" republished these two recommendations, further expanding its influence.  Therefore, it can be said that "On the Outside View" and "New Discussion" played a positive role in promoting the formation of Westernization Thought.  Looking at some specific contents, the actual activities of the subsequent Westernization Movement never exceeded the scope of their suggestions, and some opponents later became active promoters.  Even the debates between supporters and opponents of the Westernization Movement mainly revolved around the specific projects involved in the proposals-whether to organize railways, wheeled vehicles, etc.  Higher-level issues raised by people of insight, such as the origin and political system of the West, have not become topics of intense debate during the Westernization Movement.  The latter is either regarded as heresy, and the die-hards use their power to suppress it; or it is ignored as an overseas legend.  Hurd's proposal clearly has some major flaws.  The main reason is that no major system reforms have been proposed.  For example, it is only recommended to open some specialized schools, but it does not dare to abolish the imperial examination and gradually establish a modern education system.  It exposed official corruption but did not propose the establishment of modern state institutions.  This is due to limited knowledge and strategic considerations.  They are capable officials cultivated by modern Western civilization, rather than thinkers who can discern the process of social change.  Therefore, after them, some Chinese and Western people put forward some insights that were far superior to theirs.  Despite this, it cannot be denied that their opinions were timely advice, which were relatively easier to understand for people at the time and were more conducive to the formation of Westernization thought.  It is precisely because of this view that Lin Yizhe gave such a high evaluation to Waitoma's "New Discussion" at this moment!  "The achievements I have made are actually within your suggestions." Lin Yizhe looked at Weitoma and said, "I hope that all your suggestions can be turned into reality in my lifetime."&nbsp"If you can really do it, then I will have no regrets about leaving China now." Weituma said, extending his hand to Lin Yizhe, "Thank you for telling me this, Lin." Hearing Weituoma  Ma unexpectedly changed her title to Lin Yizhe, and several embassy staff around Weituma showed surprise on their faces.  "The biggest regret I have in China is that I didn't get to know you earlier, Lin." Witoma held Lin Yizhe's hand vigorously, stared into Lin Yizhe's eyes, and said in an extremely sincere tone, "I wish you can  Fulfill your wish and give this ancient country a new look. "You will see this day, Mr. Witoma," Lin Yizhe replied with a smile.  At this time, the servants had loaded all of Witoma's furniture and belongings, and Mrs. Witoma and the children also got on the carriage. Witoma turned his head and looked at it, let go of his hand, raised the top hat on his head and gave Lin Yizhe a slight smile.  Bow, Lin Yizhe clasped his fists with both hands, bowed and bowed in return.  "Goodbye, Lin." Witoma said.  "Goodbye and good luck on your journey." Lin Yizhe said.  Weitoma turned around and got on the carriage, waved to Lin Yizhe, the driver raised his whip, and the carriage started slowly, followed closely by the carriage carrying things.  "Farewell! Wade!" Lin Yizhe said secretly in his heart as he looked at Wade's carriage gradually disappearing.
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