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HIST 270 · Chapter 18 · Self-Strengthening Workshop · Teaching Page

Feng Guifen

Scholar, refugee, essayist: the man who asked why China was large and yet weak

馮桂芬  1809–1874

Painted portrait of Feng Guifen, an elderly scholar with a thin beard and a shaved head, seated in a plain gray robe
Feng Guifen, a later portrait painted by Yang Pengqiu for a twentieth-century collection of portraits of Qing scholars. Public domain.

Your job today: you are the class expert on Feng Guifen. Nobody else in the room has read this page.

  1. Read (about 10 minutes): his story, the project or event he is tied to, and two short excerpts from his essays. Underline the one sentence you would most like to read aloud.
  2. Prepare (about 5 minutes): fill in boxes 1–5 at the bottom of this page. Short notes are fine.
  3. Teach (about 4 minutes): tell the class who he was and what happened, read your sentence aloud, explain why it matters, and ask your question.
  4. Exit ticket: answer question 6, then export your work and upload it to Canvas.

Open in another tab: the shared scene-setter, “Beijing, After the Fire” · jump to your teaching boxes

Who He Was

Feng Guifen was never a high official. He is remembered above all for his ideas. He was a scholar from Suzhou, one of the richest and most cultured cities in China, and in 1840 he placed second in the whole empire in the palace examination. He knew the classics better than almost anyone alive. That is exactly why his criticism stung.

In 1860 the Taiping took Suzhou, and Feng fled with thousands of other refugees to Shanghai. There, behind the foreigners' lines, he watched British and French troops defend the city with guns and discipline the Qing armies did not have. It shook him. In 1861 he wrote a set of essays, Protests from the Jiaobin Studio, asking why the empire had failed, and what to do.

The essays were not printed in full in his lifetime. Late in 1861 Feng's letter helped persuade Zeng Guofan to send Li Hongzhang to rescue Shanghai, and Feng became one of Li's advisers. In 1863 Li opened a school for Western languages and science in Shanghai on Feng's suggestion. In 1898, long after Feng's death, the emperor ordered a thousand copies of his essays printed for officials to comment on.

His Project: An Argument for Learning from the West

Feng's essays asked the question that defined the movement: “Why are Western nations small and yet strong? Why are we large and yet weak?” Your textbook summarizes what he proposed (Ebrey, pp. 322–323):

Much of this happened, though not all of it, and not always because of Feng: Li's language school in Shanghai (1863), the Jiangnan Arsenal and its translation bureau (1865), the Fuzhou Navy Yard (1866), and in Beijing a department of astronomy and mathematics with Western teachers (1867). The elections did not happen.

Feng's formula, Chinese principles as the foundation (ti) and Western techniques for use (yong), became the core idea of Self-Strengthening. The slogan later associated with it, “Chinese learning as the essence, Western learning for practical use,” was popularized by Zhang Zhidong in 1898.

Old photograph of a waterfront with sailing ships and junks on a river and Western-style buildings along the shore
The Bund, Shanghai's waterfront, where Feng took refuge, photographed by John Thomson in 1869. Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0.

Sources: Ebrey, pp. 322–323, quoting Feng from de Bary and Lufrano, Sources of Chinese Tradition, pp. 236–237; Hummel, “Fêng Kuei-fên”; the Ch. 18, Lecture 3 background essay, “Large and Yet Weak” (Zhang Zhidong).

The Reading

Both documents come from Feng's 1861 essays, in two different English translations. In Document A he explains why China lost. In Document B he explains what China should learn, and how to learn it without losing itself. Watch for the last sentence: it became the motto of a whole generation.

Document A · from "On the Manufacture of Foreign Weapons," 1861

. . . we are shamefully humiliated by those four nations in the recent treaties—not because our climate, soil, or resources are inferior to theirs, but because our people are really inferior . . . Why are they small and yet strong? Why are we large and yet weak? We must try to discover some means to become their equal, and that also depends upon human effort. . . . What we then have to learn from the barbarians is only the one thing, solid ships and effective guns.

Ssu-yü Teng and John K. Fairbank, eds., China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 53, as quoted in Daniel Palm, conference paper, Association of Chinese and American Scholars, 2012. Short classroom excerpt of a copyrighted translation.

Document B · from "On the Adoption of Western Learning," 1861

. . . Today the world is 90,000 li around. There is no place boats and vehicles do not travel or human power does not reach. . . . According to Westerners' maps, there are at least one hundred countries in the world. Of the books of these hundred countries, only those from Italy from the time of the end of the Ming and from present-day England, numbering in all several tens, have been translated. . . .

Books on mathematics, mechanics, optics, light, chemistry, and others all contain the ultimate principles of understanding things. Most of this information is unavailable to people in China. . . .

I have heard that with their new methods the Westerners have found that the movements of the earth conform closely to those of the heavens. This can be of assistance in fixing the calendar. . . . I have heard that the Westerners' method of clearing sand from harbors is very effective. . . . This can be of assistance to keep the water flowing. Also, for agricultural and sericultural tools, and things required for the various crafts, they mostly use mechanical wheels, which require little energy but accomplish much. These can assist the people to earn their living. Other things beneficial to the national economy and the livelihood of the people should also be used. . . .

There are many intelligent people in China. Surely there are some who, having learned from the barbarians, can surpass them. . . .

The principles of government are derived from learning. In discussing good government, [the famous historian] Sima Qian [Ssu-ma Ch'ien] said, "Take the later kings as models," because they were closer to his own time, and customs, having changed, were more alike, so that their ideas were easy to implement because they were plain and simple. In my humble opinion, at the present time it is also appropriate to say "Learn from the various nations," for they are similar to us and hence their ways are easy to implement. What could be better than to take Chinese ethical principles of human relations and Confucian teachings as the foundation (ti) and supplement them with the techniques (yong) of wealth and power of the various nations?

J. Mason Gentzler, Changing China: Readings in the History of China from the Opium War to the Present (New York: Praeger, 1977), pp. 70–71, as reproduced in Columbia University, Asia for Educators, "Excerpts from 'On the Adoption of Western Learning' by Feng Guifen." © 1977 Praeger; classroom excerpt.

Words to Know

Four nationsBritain, France, Russia and the United States, which all signed treaties with China in 1858–1860. LiAbout a third of a mile. "90,000 li around" means the whole globe. Italy, end of the MingJesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci translated Western books into Chinese around 1600. SericulturalHaving to do with raising silkworms. Later kingsRecent rulers, as opposed to the ancient sage-kings. Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BCE) said to learn from what is close at hand. Ti and yong"Substance" (the foundation) and "use" (the tools). Feng's formula: Chinese values as the foundation, Western techniques as the tools.

Questions to Think About as You Read

  1. Whom does Feng blame for China's defeat: Heaven, the land, or the people? Why is that a hopeful answer, not just a harsh one?
  2. Document A says China needs “only the one thing,” ships and guns. Document B lists much more. Which is the real Feng?
  3. His last sentence says China can borrow Western tools without changing its foundation. Is that possible? What would a critic like Woren say?

Your Work Today

Prepare to Teach Feng Guifen

Your draft saves in this browser as you type, on this device only. When you finish, click Export to .txt and upload the file to Canvas. If the download does not work, click Copy all and paste into the Canvas text box.

Exit Ticket

Answer this after everyone has taught. There is no single right answer; just give your reason.