Hearing Lin Yizhe say such words, Wei Tuma's heart was shocked, but his face remained calm. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Why do you say that?" Wittoma smiled and asked.

"Your greatest contribution to the UK is to open up channels for the UK to understand China." Lin Yizhe said, "The contribution of the Pinyin method you created to the cultural exchanges between the two countries, and the benefits that you can bring to the UK in the future, are far greater than the rights and interests you have demanded from China this time." ”

"Oh? Do you think so? Wittoma said in amazement.

"You must know that many countries and nations have wars with each other, and many times the reason why wars break out is because they do not know each other well enough and lack communication channels." "The same is true for Britain and China, and if the two sides had understood enough, war could have been avoided." Now, the Pinyin method you have created is a powerful tool for greater understanding between Britain and China, and although it has not yet fully manifested its role, I am confident that it will become a symbol of the great friendship between Britain and China in the near future. And your name will be forever engraved in the history books because of it. ”

Lin Yizhe's high evaluation of "Weituma Pinyin" is not groundless.

When he was working at Shanghai Customs, he was responsible for the training of Chinese language for customs officers from the United Kingdom. In 1859, he wrote Xunjin Lu, and in 1867, he wrote the Chinese textbook Linguistic Self-Collection, and successfully developed a method of writing Chinese character place names in the Latin alphabet, called "Wei Tuma Pinyin", which became the transliteration standard for the foreign translation of Chinese place names, personal names and the names of things. It took 8 years for Wittoma to formulate the orthography, and after several iterations and drafts, it was finally completed. His book The Collected Languages is a huge collection of textbooks for Westerners to learn Chinese, descriptions of spoken Beijing dialect, and research on Chinese grammar. In addition to its pioneering significance in the history of Beijing dialect and Putonghua and even in the history of Chinese and Chinese linguistics, its important value lies in the fact that it is a pioneering work of "teaching Chinese as a foreign language" that focuses on the teaching of modern spoken Chinese and uses the Latin alphabet phonetics, and has made an indelible contribution to the cultural exchanges between China and the United Kingdom.

Lin Yizhe knew that, in fact, until the 50s of the 20th century, before China developed the "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme", for so many years, almost no one "invented" a new alphabet pinyin scheme. This set of phonetic alphabets created by Weituma can last for more than 100 years, in addition to being the first of the trend, it does have its own unique advantages and advantages.

Wei Tuma listened to Lin Yizhe's high evaluation of the "Wei Tuma Pinyin" he founded, and his heart was moved, and most of the original hostility towards Lin Yizhe dissipated.

After all, not every British and Chinese will understand the value of "Weituma Pinyin"!

And Lin Yizhe's remarks just now about the need to enhance understanding between the two countries also made him admire!

"In my opinion, during your tenure, your contribution to China has been much greater than your contribution to the UK." Without waiting for Wei Tuma to sigh, Lin Yizhe said another shocking sentence.

"My contribution to China?" Wei Tuma was stunned, he looked at Lin Yizhe with an incredulous gaze, "What do you mean?" ”

"You have forgotten what you have done for China, but I have not forgotten for a single day." Lin Yizhe replied with a smile, "Don't you remember what advice you made to the Chinese government back then?" ”

Wei Tuma listened to Lin Yizhe's words and immediately woke up.

Lin Yizhe is talking about the proposal he wrote to the Qing Dynasty government in 1866 called "New Discussion Strategy"!

Lin Yizhe couldn't help but smile slightly when he saw Wei Tuma thinking about it.

"The suggestion you wrote may have been forgotten by many Chinese, but I have not forgotten it, and I have been making unremitting efforts to follow this advice."

"So you always remember it." Reflecting on that history, Wittoma sighed, "I see why you've achieved so much. ”

On that occasion, it was the first time that Western figures in China systematically put forward proposals for reforming China's domestic and foreign affairs, and the most famous and influential of them were the "Outsider Observation" (written on September 18, Tongzhi 4) by the Englishman Hurd, who served as the chief tax officer, and the "New Discussion Strategy" by the acting British minister to China, Wittoma.

After these two documents were submitted to the Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen in February of the fifth year of Tongzhi (1866), they were sent to the governors of various localities for careful planning, which caused an uproar.

After seeing these two documents, the governor of Huguang at that time denounced them as "harboring evil intentions"; Liu Kunyi, governor of Jiangxi, held that "you must not ask for what they wanted"; Ruilin, governor of Liangguang, and Jiang Yili, governor of Guangdong, said: "The way to self-improvement is not to be sought from outside" and "there is no need to change the law." Even Zuo Zongtang, who was the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang at the time, thought that it was enough to only learn Western shipbuilding, and that the foreigners' rifles were not as good as the shotguns in Guangdong. These people are not known for their stubbornness among the feudal officials of the Qing Dynasty, and they are still so disgusted, let alone others?

As a traverser, Lin Yizhe knew that even more than a hundred years later, in his era, many historians in Chinese mainland still believed that the "negative value" of the suggestions of Wei Tuma and others was the main thing, and that they were simply "demanding that the Qing government abide by unequal treaties and organize a cause conducive to the expansion of aggression by the great powers." ”

So, what exactly did they say?

In fact, what Hurd and Wittoma said was all to the point of China at that time!

The central message of these two Recommendations is threefold:

First, China has fallen into a very dangerous situation due to whitewashing and corruption.

First of all, it was the extremely corrupt officialdom in China at that time. Hurd said in "The Theory of Outsider Spatorship" that "there are few dutiful people and many private workers." The Beijing officials are "those who are just-in-fame and just, who suffer a lot from jurisdiction, and have no time to pay attention to internal duties; The members of the ministry are appointed to exercise power, and those who are honest and honest will be refuted. The reason for the financial difficulties lies in the fact that "there are many people under the government who take from the people, but few who lose from the state." ”

Secondly, it is the backwardness and incompetence of the Chinese army. Hurd pointed out that the Chinese army "usually draws bows and lifts stones, only talks about the frame style, is lazy, and has to keep birds for recreation." ”

Thirdly, China's education system has long been outdated, and scholars have not been able to use what they have learned. ”

The consequences of extreme corruption are enormous. "All kinds of wrongs, so that the most docile people in all nations have turned away from obedience and chaos everywhere."

In his New Discussions, he said that if China does not rush to change, there will be a danger of its demise and partition: "When the fruit of China is covered and eventually decayed,...... If one country intervenes, all countries follow it, and in the future, will the whole world of China still be unified and autonomous, or will it inevitably belong to all states? This goes without saying. ”

Second, China has mishandled its foreign affairs.

In the past 30 years, China has regarded itself as a country of courtesy and righteousness, and cannot get along with foreign countries and foreigners on an equal footing, resulting in many disputes and several disharmony. Hurd said in "The Theory of Outsider Spectators" that in China, "officials treat foreigners like dogs at first...... It seems that all kinds of emotions are shallow and want to be light, and weak and want to subdue people. ”

Third, China must reform.

If China wants to reform, it must replace the traditional cyclical retro theory with the evolutionary theory of competitive progress. Wei Tuma has a very incisive discussion on this, and he wrote in the "New Discussion Strategy": "The troubles of China are like the four seasons in a year, and their rise and fall are all the same...... Especially some people: Yao Shun is the most. …… The Covenant of Evolution of the Quecha, the countries of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States, in contrast to 500 years ago, are in a much stronger situation than they were a thousand years ago; Compared with 500 years ago, the present is stronger than 500 years ago. Remembering also that since ancient times, no country in the four seas, no country, has ever been more courageous than its neighbors, and has not been annexed by its neighbors. At the same time, he pointed out that the Chinese should see that whether reform is related to China's life and death: "There is no difficulty in making a change in national politics, and it is not difficult to be the first of all nations." If it is not transferred, it will be a war for the nations within a few years. Moreover, he believes that China should take the initiative to reform, otherwise it will hinder China's sovereignty: "When it is set up or replaced, it can be said that it is independent to use foreign people to make China's wealth and ignore China's wealth!" ”

Fourth, China's basic path for safeguarding national independence is to learn from the West, use the law to strengthen itself, and live in harmony with foreign countries. In their words: "The key to China's independence is to use the advantages of the law to eliminate the disadvantages, so as to restore peace in the future." On the other hand, it is advisable to seek more harmony with foreign countries. If it is not possible to send a representative minister to be stationed abroad, it is advisable to try to avoid suspicion. In addition to sending envoys as soon as possible, the key to living in harmony is to "act according to the agreement," that is, to abide by the treaty. In addition, Hurd and Wittoma also made many specific suggestions on how to learn from the West and various matters of change.

Most of what Wittoma says in The New Discussion is a proverb that is to the point. At the time, China's military and government institutions were already corrupt; China faces great dangers; To get out of the predicament and maintain national independence, the only way is to learn from the West and reform the law!

However, these two proposals, which can be said to have a life-saving effect on China, have been resolutely resisted by China's Shilin without exception! In addition to the traditional notion of "Yixia Zhifen", they also questioned the intentions of those who made the proposals, and their views on China's repeated humiliation were different from those of foreigners.

The first is the reason for the "disharmony" between China and foreign countries. In the view of Westerners such as Hedwetum, it was mainly due to China's arrogance and unwillingness to open its doors and get along with foreigners on an equal footing, which led to China's invasion by the West. The Chinese scholars, on the other hand, stressed that this was a consequence of Western aggression. In fact, these two reasons are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. The medieval ignorance of the Qing ruling group in foreign relations was an important reason for the Western invasion. There were one-sided views on the analysis of Sino-foreign relations by Wei Toma and others, but if we did not seek full blame, his "new discussion strategy" was still a useful advice at the time.

As for "doing things according to the agreement", the Chinese scholars insisted that it was a mistake to live in harmony with the Western powers, and that it would only encourage the arrogance of the Western powers. In fact, however, as long as we understand that China was at a disadvantage at that time and that the task facing it was to strive for a peaceful and stable environment and to realize the transformation from poverty and ignorance to prosperity, strength, and civilization, it is not difficult to understand that the principle of abiding by treaties and giving priority to peace in foreign relations is first and foremost beneficial to China.

Chinese scholars also suspected the motives of Wittoma and others. They believe that both Wittomar and Hurd are British, and Witoma is also a British diplomat, so can the proposals they plan not think about the interests of their own country first? "If you are not of my race, your heart will be different", the narrow-mindedness under the patriarchal **** system makes it reasonable for Chinese scholars to be skeptical and vigilant about their suggestions.

What Chinese scholars and doctors don't know or don't want to understand is that there were actually many overlapping interests between Western countries and China's social progress at that time. The capitalist powers of the West want to expand the world market, and if the countries of the East become too corrupt politically and militarily, and if the society is in turmoil, the trade between the two sides will fail. Economically, if a country does not have the necessary infrastructure to adapt to the development of the world market, such as transportation, communication and raw materials, energy production, etc., trade between the two sides cannot be sustainable.

As a modern person with common sense of 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, the greater the mutual trade between countries!

At that time, Wittoma did not shy away from saying that the suggestions he put forward in the "New Discussion Strategy" were also beneficial to the West: "If the new law is taken from the former paragraph, the business bureau will benefit greatly." Second, it is easy for the mainland to be peaceful from now on, and foreign nationals come and go to trade and often live in it, which is easy to be preserved, and all countries can have no worries; Here's where they like it most. But in general, "while foreign countries have benefited, China has benefited a lot." These words are realistic. For example, wouldn't China benefit a lot from eliminating the corruption they accuse? For another example, what they suggested was to help the West and not to China, whether they proposed factories for railways, telegraphs, hardware, and coal, the manufacture of wheeled motors, weaving equipment, and the reform of finance and postal services? (Later historians were undoubtedly biased in their view of Wittoma's suggestion as "a cause conducive to the expansion of the aggression of the great powers.") Unfortunately, these views will remain the "mainstream" in later generations. ）

Since China had not yet established a mass communication in the modern sense of the word, the proposal of Hurd and Wei Tuma was sent by the Qing court to the courtiers and local ministers for discussion, which can be said to be a powerful shock to these ministers, and the transmission of these suggestions and recitals also made China's troubled people pay more attention to foreign affairs. Just this year, that is, the first year of Guangxu, the "Wanguo Gazette" republished these two proposals, further expanding their influence. Therefore, it can be said that "Outsider Observation" and "New Discussion Strategy" have played a positive role in promoting the formation of the trend of Westernization.

As far as some specific contents are concerned, the actual activities of the later Westernization Movement have never exceeded the scope of their proposals, and some opponents have later become active promoters. Even the debate between supporters and opponents of the Westernization movement revolved around the specific projects involved in the proposal, whether to hold railways, steamships, and so on. The higher-level issues raised by people of insight -- such as the question of the fundamentals and political system of the West -- were not the subject of heated debate during the Westernization Movement. The latter may be regarded as heresy, and the "misfortune with words" is suppressed by the diehards using their power; Or it can be ignored as an overseas anecdote. Hurd: There are clearly some major flaws in their proposal. The main reason is that there are no proposals for major institutional reforms. For example, it is only proposed to set up some specialized schools, but they do not dare to touch the abolition of the imperial examination and gradually establish a modern education system. The corruption of officialdom was exposed, but the establishment of modern state institutions was not proposed. This is due to limited knowledge and strategic considerations. They are the capable officials cultivated by modern Western civilization, not thinkers who can perceive the process of social change. Therefore, after them, there are some Chinese and Western people who have put forward some opinions that are far superior to theirs. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that their opinions were timely advice, which was relatively easier to understand by the people of the time and more conducive to the formation of Western-style thought.

It is precisely because of this view that Lin Yizhe will give such a high evaluation of Wei Tuma's "New Discussion Strategy" at this moment!

"What I've achieved is actually within your advice." Lin Yizhe looked at Wei Tuma and said, "I hope that in my lifetime, I can turn all your suggestions into reality." ”

"If you can do it, then I have no regrets about leaving China now." Wei Tuma said, holding out his hand to Lin Yizhe, "Thank you for telling me this, Lin. ”

Hearing that Wei Tuma actually changed his name to Lin Yizhe, the faces of several embassy staff members around Wei Tuoma showed surprise.

"The most regrettable thing about me in China is that I didn't get to know you earlier, Lin." Wei Tuma shook 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'll see the day, Mr. Wittoma, I promise." Lin Yizhe replied with a smile.

At this time, the servant loaded all the furniture and belongings of Wittoma, and Mrs. Wittoma and the children also got into the carriage, Wittoma turned his head to look, let go of his hand, raised the top hat on his head and bowed slightly to Lin Yizhe, Lin Yizhe clasped his fists with both hands, bowed down, and returned a salute.

"Goodbye, Lin." Wittoma said.

"Goodbye and have a nice trip." Lin Yizhe said.

Wei Tuma turned around and got into the carriage, waved his hand at Lin Yizhe, the coachman raised his whip, and the carriage set off slowly, followed by the carriage carrying things.

"Don't! Wittoma! Lin Yizhe looked at the carriage of Wei Tuoma that was gradually moving away, and said secretly in his heart.