A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were seven examinations for foreign students. The first one was rushed, because the imperial examination had just been abolished, and the Qing court had not made up its mind on how to select talents.

Soon, the Faculty submitted a list of international students, asking Yan Fu and Li Yu to write questions according to the majors they filled in the form.

In addition, the department also sent Tang Baoe, a student representative who returned from Japan with relatively good grades, to assist.

Tang Baoe was one of the first batch of students sent by the Qing government to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War, and he entered Waseda University.

Tang Baoe has quite a family background. As the richest city in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Shanghai was born with many aristocratic families, and the Tang family is one of them.

Tang Baoe's ancestor was related to Tang Tingshu, one of the four major compradors in Shanghai, and was Tang Shaoyi's distant nephew.

As for Tang Baoe himself, he later became a barrister in Tianjin.

Tang Baoe must also want to be an official, so he was very active. He diligently found Li Yu and Yan Fu and asked what he needed to do.

In his eyes, Li Yu and Yan Fu were the chief examiners.

After seeing him for the first time, Yan Fu said, "Your Excellency may need to make some extra preparations."

Tang Baoe immediately asked: "Master Yan, please tell me, I will keep it in my heart."

Yan Fu took out a document from the academic department and said: "It is the order of the imperial court that all those who take the exam must have uncut hair."

This is a very embarrassing condition, because most of the international students currently have their hair cut.

Tang Baoe said in surprise: "But we have already cut it, and it won't grow out for a while, so we can't pull out the seedlings and encourage them to grow."

Li Yu also cut his hair, and said, "You can go to Liulichang to buy one and hang it."

Tang Baoe was overjoyed: "It's still the master's thinking that is active."

Yan Fu added: "There are two other regulations, both drafted by the Empress Dowager. One is that those who cannot kowtow will not be accepted; the other is that those who wear glasses will not be recruited."

It seems that Cixi already knows to some extent that most of the overseas students have been exposed to Western thinking and do not have the etiquette of kneeling, but Cixi must still have this old-fashioned way in her mind.

However, kneeling down is not a big problem, because although international students are advanced in thinking, they are not stupid. If they can be officials, kowtow is nothing.

As for glasses, there are not many intellectuals who don’t wear them. Tang Baoe himself wears a pair of black-rimmed glasses, and he said helplessly: “Master Yan, Master Emperor, you know that learning is very troublesome, especially books written by foreigners. It’s so small, there are not many people who don’t wear glasses.”

Yan Fu said: "I have no choice, but the Empress Dowager doesn't like myopia, and feels that it hinders the view of the court. But you can use portable glasses that don't need to be worn all the time."

Tang Baoe said: "Master Xie reminded me, I will inform all candidates as soon as possible."

Then Li Yu and Yan Fu began to study the list. Many of the people on it had names and surnames in the Republic of China, but what really surprised Li Yu were two of them: Lu Zongyu and Cao Rulin.

Well, in later generations, two of the three people who entered the history textbooks because they signed Article 21 suddenly appeared.

And look at the notes, both of them graduated from Waseda University.

There is no way to intervene in the later affairs, all are military and political affairs, and even without Lu Zongyu and Cao Rulin, Yuan Shikai will send other people to sign the treaty at that time.

Li Yu and Yan Fu quickly drew up professional questions and foreign language questions.

Although Gu Hongming will certainly draw up Chinese test questions, but the regulation is to choose one of foreign language and Chinese questions, and all candidates will choose foreign language without hesitation.

Because they have long been ignorant of the imperial examinations, and they can't handle those things at all; and they can use this to show that they have good foreign language skills, and they may have the opportunity to enter the very popular Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It is a pity that very few of these people study engineering.In fact, according to the requirements of the Republic of China for talents, engineering is the most lacking, followed by science, economics, medicine, etc.

Because the ratio of university students in the Republic of China was really abnormal, liberal arts students accounted for more than 90% of the total number of students, and there were very few other subjects.

It was not until the 40s that the proportion of non-liberal arts students rose to about 30%.

It was barely acceptable in peaceful times, but the ancients all said that they wanted to learn from each other's strengths. At this time, what China lacked the most were non-arts students.

During the war, it was true that "a scholar who is useless is a scholar", not a sarcasm.

Among the majors other than liberal arts, the most valuable to backward China should be engineering, even more valuable than science.

After all, the strength of Europe depends on the industrial revolution, and industry corresponds to engineering.

As for other sciences, medicine, law, business, etc., they will naturally keep up with the strength of the industry.

It's just that during the period of the Republic of China, it was impossible to follow this path due to various reasons.

Li Yu now pays special attention to engineering students as if he saw a treasure boy. For example, one of them is Zhang Kaixu, who is studying mechanical engineering at Tokyo Imperial University.

Yan Fu also understands this truth. He has engaged in business, but Yan Fu is not mainly engaged in education, and he is helpless.

The two are more entangled in drafting the questions now because they don't know their level.Most of these people only provided diplomas and no transcripts or the like as supporting evidence.

The two contacted some teachers from the Beijing Normal University and Beiyang University, and drafted test questions by major, and finally considered the difficulty more conservatively.

The exam went quickly, and it turned out that Tang Baoe and another named Jin Bangping had the best results.

Cao Rulin and Zhang Kaixu are in the second class; Lu Zongyu and others are in the third class.

Yan Fu sent this report card, and Cixi soon organized the palace examination in person, and pulled Guangxu out according to the rules.

However, when the students who returned from studying in Japan saw the palace examination questions, they were completely dumbfounded, which was completely different from what Li Yu and Yan Fu had come out of before.

There are two questions in the palace examination: one is "The King of Chu Zhuang's Daily Training of the People of the Country to Showcase the Army", and the other is "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Edicted Mao Cai to be a general and a person who will make the country extinct".

It is completely the policy theory of the previous imperial examinations, and has nothing to do with the new style of learning.

I don't know if it's under the horse, Cao Rulin and others are completely confused, don't know how to write, so they can only bite the bullet and write.

The next day when Li Yu learned about the exam questions, he thought it was really funny. This kind of talent selection criteria was clearly to select talents from among slaves, or to select slaves from talents.

The results of the palace examination did not mess up the rankings again because of the names. Tang Baoe and Jin Bangping became Jinshi; Cao Rulin was from the same Jinshi.The remaining third class is from Juren.

With this kind of name, there is the possibility of becoming an official in the future.

So the dozen or so students who had returned from studying in Japan were very happy, and together they paid for a banquet for Li Yu and Yan Fu in Dongxing Building.

The students knew in their hearts that only Yuan Shikai from Beiyang and Zhang Zhidong from Hubei were really using new students in the imperial court.

But Zhang Zhidong doesn't get oil and salt, while Beiyang is quite valuable for climbing because of its luxuriant branches and leaves.

Tang Baoe took out the Japanese sake brought back from Japan, and said, "Thank you, Master Yan and Master Di, for your support. We respect the two adults with this glass of wine."

Yan Fu said: "In the future, you should serve the country with all your heart and use what you have learned."

The foreign students said again and again: "I will keep it in mind."

After finishing the polite words, everyone drank a few more glasses, and the atmosphere gradually became active.

Cao Rulin said: "If the constitution is successfully established in the future, our future will be limitless."

Lu Zongyu said: "In a month or two, the five ministers will go abroad again. After returning to China, I think the constitution will be established soon."

Cao Rulin said, "I've been waiting impatiently, so hurry up and go."

At present, most people support changing the status quo, and because of Liang Qichao's extremely strong combat effectiveness, the voice of the constitutionalists is even louder.

If it can really implement the Japanese method, in fact, the Qing court may still be able to survive for a while.

Because after the constitution is established, the royal family does not have much power, and the Han people can stand up again through the constitution.

But the problem is that the Qing court was very aware of what it had done when it entered the customs, and was very worried about the revenge of the Han people, so the constitutional action was very slow.

Since all the people present were students studying in Japan, Japan was soon discussed from a constitutional point of view, and then the Russo-Japanese War that had just ended.

Japan's victory was also the biggest motivation for the Qing government to send five ministers abroad to investigate constitutionalism.

The war shocked the students studying in Japan even more.

Tang Baoe said: "In the war between Japan and Russia, not a small country can defeat a big country, but a real constitution can defeat autocracy!"

Others quickly echoed, and Cao Rulin said: "I also saw Mr. Liang Qichao's editorial, 'This battle is a testing ground for the pros and cons of an autocratic country and a free country. It stimulates stubborn eyes, and it has not begun without force'." Even Mr. Liang said so, the establishment of a constitution must be the general trend, and in the future Mr. Liang and Mr. Kang will surely return to China as the sages who established the constitution."

Li Yu smiled faintly and took a sip of tea.

His movements were captured by Cao Rulin, who asked, "What do you think, Master Emperor?"

Li Yu put down his teacup: "Everything has two sides, and the world pattern has more than two sides, eight sides and ten sides, so it is not simply right or wrong or good or bad. We don't need to be happy for the Japanese. The Portsmouth Agreement contained information about us, but the Japanese notified our Ministry of Foreign Affairs after signing it, what do you think they have good intentions for us?"

Cao Rulin said: "We declared our neutrality as early as the beginning of the war. It is only natural that we are not invited in the contract. It is nothing to worry about giving up a little bit of rights."

This kid thinks so now, no wonder Yuan Shikai will send him to sign 21 articles in the future, and play well "lose the car to protect the handsome".

Li Yu said: "Now China is at the center of the competition among countries in the world, and is coveted by the great powers as a battlefield for commercial and military warfare. People are trying to kill us, so we must be vigilant."

At present, there are still some people who see this clearly, such as Lu Xun who is still in Japan.However, the vast majority of people are immersed in the phantom of the victory of the yellow race over the white race and the success of Japan's constitutional constitution.

On the contrary, Japan itself was so excited because it didn't get a penny in compensation that the cabinet fell.

Lu Zongyu was surprised and said, "Emperor Master is not in the slightest happy mood?"

"What should I be happy about?" Li Yu asked back.

"This……"

Lu Zongyu and Cao Rulin didn't know what to say for a while.

Li Yu didn't want to involve the topic of constitutional and revolutionary disputes, otherwise his situation would become more or less dangerous.

It is better to do your own scientific and educational work well, Daqing himself will soon play himself to death.

The Qing Dynasty is indeed very annoying. Maybe only some girls who like to watch Qing palace dramas have fantasies about the Qing Dynasty (it can’t even be understood as a good impression, it’s not the same), but speaking of it, there is at least one thing that the Qing Dynasty does well: yes Contributions to the modern map of China.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty was only about 1300 million square kilometers, and it reached about [-] million at the peak of the Qing Dynasty. Of course, the great powers took away a lot later.

But because of this, I have to say another contribution of the Qing Dynasty: its rapid demise.This made it impossible for the great powers to continue to gain more benefits through the backward and corrupt Qing government.

After the period of the Republic of China, due to the adoption of legal demands in line with international practice and the recognition of itself as the successor of the Qing court, while taking over all the unequal treaties and indemnities of the Qing Dynasty, it also accepted all the territories.A few more good diplomats have emerged. Under the circumstances of poverty and weakness, they have used diplomatic means to keep the entire territory from falling apart. They really deserve a lot of credit.

Yan Fu said: "The emperor master can always watch a few more moves, like a chess master."

Li Yu laughed and said, "We can play two games of chess some other day."

Li Yu slowly diverted the topic away and chatted with them about the influence of Japanese culture on Chinese culture, which was actually to help them build up their cultural confidence.

Zhang Kaixu, an engineering student, has been talking less, and Li Yu took the initiative to ask: "Have you thought about how to develop in the future?"

Zhang Kaixu has been back to China for two or three years, and instead of being an official, he helped open the mine, so he replied, "I haven't thought about it yet."

Li Yu asked again: "How did you learn the professional courses when you were studying in Japan?"

Zhang Kaixu said: "I am very interested in mechanics, and I also went to Japan's Mitsubishi factory for an internship. However, after returning to China, I saw that most of the machinery manufacturing bureaus in various places made weapons, which was very different from what I learned."

"Have you ever been to Mitsubishi's factory?" Li Yu continued to ask, "Do you have any idea to enter my factory and do some business?"

Zhang Kaixu didn't immediately agree, but just replied: "I will think about it carefully."

At present, graduates majoring in machinery can be involved mainly in major machinery bureaus and mining factories.

The Machine Manufacturing Bureau, such as the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, is basically making guns. Many people studying abroad at this time to study machinery are aiming at learning how to build guns and even warships.

Unexpectedly, foreign schools do not teach it.

The reason is the same as 100 years later, it is technological blockade.

Later, although it was slightly relaxed, I could only learn the manufacturing process of elementary pistols and bolt-action single-shot rifles. As for machine guns, airplanes, tanks, and cannons, I didn't even think about it.

After that, during the period of the Republic of China, the country desperately wanted to increase foreign exchange, but also to buy foreign goods.

Arms are a big business, and what foreigners hope most is that China and all the colonies are in a situation that is barely maintained, relatively stable, but not developed, so that they can dump their products.

The Britons understood this truth as early as after the Opium War. Everyone knows about a typical conspiracy, but it is still difficult to break after a hundred years.