湖南绅士与戊戌维新运动

湖南绅士曾经以守旧闻名于世,但在甲午战争中国惨败的强烈刺激之下,他们反躬自省,抛弃了过去沉重的历史包袱,主动向西方学习,发出了＂救中国从湖南始＂的时代强音,出现了官绅一体,共谋维新的崭新局面,使湖南一变而为全国最富朝气的省份。但是由于绅士内部变革观念的差异,在变＂器＂与变＂政＂方面出现了严重分歧,因此,在湖南维新运动走向高潮的关键时期,洋务派绅士和温和派绅士却退出了维新阵营,他们反戈一击,向激进维新派绅士发动了猛烈的攻击,使轰轰烈烈的湖南维新运动迅速走向衰败。

Squires of Hunan and the 1898 Movement

The squires in Hunan were originally renowned as being conservative.However,under the immense impetus of China＇s defeat in Sino-Japanese War,they introspected themselves and turned over a new leaf by initiating the movement of ＂save China from the era of Hunan＂.This switch of learning from the western countries helped the advent of pooling the efforts of both officials and squires into the reform,which enabled Hunan to sparkle with flame of vitality.However,wide discrepancies occurred when coming to the choice of ＂facilities renovation＂ or ＂politics alteration＂ due to the interior arguments among squires.Therefore,the westernizers and the moderates withdrew from the reform movement of Hunan when the climax was at the corner.They steered their spearhead towards the radicals,undermining the reform movement of Hunan in a devastating manner till the decline of the latter.