Zeng Guofan and the Westernization Movement

Mostly because of his learning, boldness, awareness of the nation' s crisis as a person of ideals and integrity, and his position, power, prestige as a high and meritorious official, Zeng Guofan became the pioneer of advocating the Westernization Movement in the special historic condition of the Chinese mode times. The Movement he was carrying out included constructing plants for manufacturing, initiating war- industrial enterprises, training qualified personnel, sending students to learn abroad for the first time, communicating with foreign countries and so on. His idea that Confucianism is the foundation and Westernization is subsidy turned to be the origin of the view that Foreign science and technology should be introduced and applied by China later, and as a result, it exerted a tremendous influence to the development of the Chinese modern history. It is worth criticizing and summarizing the motivation, contributions and blunders, and the guiding ideology of Zeng Guofan to pursue the Westernization Movement.