The correct "choice" is the foundation of fortune in people, power and country, and it has been made since ancient times: when the Yellow Emperor destroyed Chiyou, Emperor Yan chose to follow, so later generations had the name of "descendants of Yan and Huang"; When Ji Zhou destroyed Shang, there were three of the four divisions of the world and its allies, so when the countries were divided, there was Jiang Qi Chu. Emperor Yan and Jiang Ziya both chose the right camp, and they were able to open a national sect and leave a name in history; And do those losers have allies? There should be some, but they are on the wrong side, so they don't even deserve to be preserved in history.
As we all know, the history of China is roughly divided into 1860. Prior to this, even though the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties came into existence from scratch, the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, and the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it was nothing more than the general trend of the world that would be divided for a long time, and the "begonia leaves" in East Asia would be our entire "world"; And after the Opium War, whether the lords of the court wanted it or not, we became part of the "global village". And from this moment on, it seems that we have been bullied and "beaten backward".
We often say that history is written by the victors. There is nothing wrong with that. And whether it is the internal struggle for power or the current world strife, the "winner" has never been a single person or a unique force, but is composed of the "leader" who obtains the greatest benefits and the "followers" who earn vested interests in the cracks.
It is the choice to deign to be a subordinate of vested interests; It is still necessary to fight for the "dignity" and face of the first great power, and once it fails, it may be a historical leader who may never recover, which is the choice faced by the late Qing Dynasty at this time when it first entered the "global village".
The Opium War, the Sino-French War, the First Sino-Japanese War, and the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the late Qing Dynasty in the history books seems to have been bullied by the whole world; But in fact, Rome was not built in a day, and the Western colonizers did not brand the Manchus into "semi-feudal and semi-colonial" on the first day.
In fact, when the country had not yet been pried open, due to the blockage of communication and the long-term "historical description" and awe and longing of Westerners for the Qiang Yuan of the Tang Dynasty, coupled with the low efficiency of water transportation at that time, "opening the economic market" was always the first place in the eastern strategy of the great powers, and the war option was ranked second; And "colonization" in the literal sense is even more nonsense, and we must understand one thing: the ultimate demand of capitalism has always been very straightforward: to make money, even if it is to fight wars, it is only to make money.
But we rejected trade. To be more precise, it is "ignored": the rigid ** court adheres to the old tradition of "** big country with great land and abundant resources", and naturally chooses to maintain the "tribute system" and dignity as the "leader"; On the other hand, places that are ignorant and ignorant of "international law" either do not respond to foreign envoys' requests for trade, or simply kill them, in short, have no way to deal with them.
After several rounds of chicken-and-duck talks, war broke out.
From the perspective of modern people, there is no doubt that Westerners are aggressors and perpetrators of modern Chinese and foreign wars. All unequal treaties are also shameful and deplorable. However, we should be soberly aware that at that time when the competition for national strength had long been backward as a whole, it was inevitable that interests would be damaged, and whether or not the "national foundation" and dignity would be maintained was no longer the final word of the Qing Dynasty at that time; To put it simply, defeat is inevitable when strength does not match the status of the "dominant" that you want to pursue.
But even so, the Qing rulers still had the opportunity to choose: "actively embrace trade" or "passively open trade after being beaten". It is also "loss of power and humiliation of the country", but the gap between the discourse rights of the two sides and the historical trend in the future will be very different.
Why not take the lesser of the two? Just like Jiang Wen said in the movie, "Is it the same as shaving your own braids and shaving them by others"?
From the reluctance to trade at the beginning, to being hurt and having to trade; From understanding that Western learning should be used for use, but in the end, he is still unwilling to give up "middle school as a body", and he is wrong again and again. It's just that because he "wants face", he ended up tearing off his whole face. In this way, the Qing Dynasty began "globalization" with "half-push and half-acceptance" and "reluctance".
Even though they suffered national humiliation and economic losses at the beginning of the trade, they took the initiative to open up and were not defeated, allowing the Japanese to retain a considerable part of their autonomy, at least when they had a surplus, they could resolutely and effectively say "no" to the opium attempts of the East India Company; And they took advantage of the "west wind" that was leading at that time and began to move towards the road of rise.
Just a few decades later, Japan became a great power, and naturally completed its magnificent transformation from a "follower of interests" to a "leader of history", thus once again winning back all the dignity it had lost.
This is undoubtedly the best counter-proof of the "mistake" chosen by the late Qing Dynasty:
All world disputes are for the sake of profit, and the benefit is for the strength of the country. If the country is strong, all the dignity that has been lost will be returned; If the country is weak, it has no practical interests, let alone face and dignity.
In other words, the so-called positions, sides, justice, and dignity in international politics are all illusory, and only tangible interests are truly important. Because only the strong are worthy of dignity.
There is no ifs in history, and we cannot imagine how the Qing court will take the initiative to give up the dignity of the "first country", avoid war, and then take the initiative to integrate into the world, and how the current world pattern will change; But in terms of facts, history did give the Qing Dynasty a chance to choose, but unfortunately they seem to have made the wrong choice.
Fortunately, after a century of arduous marching, China after the New Democratic Revolution has chosen the right side in World War I, World War II and the decades after the war. This has finally ushered in the "national fortune", incarnated as the "top of the global village", and become the five permanent members of the United Nations who can stir up the world by stomping their feet.