Introduction The Beginnings of China's Modernization

Abstract

When did China's modernization begin? The answer to this question depends, of course, on how modernization is defined. Different social sciences (e.g., political science and economics) have defined modernization in different ways. An important series of books on China's modernization as seen in different provinces or groups of provinces has defined modernization as the process leading toward greater social equality, political democratization, and economic liberalization.¹ Such an optimistic and all-embracing definition of modernization is difficult to reject. Scholarship need not be an exercise in universal value judgments, however. In comparative history, it may perhaps be argued that what is essential to modernization is the process of transition from commerce to industry—in other words, industrialization. This essay begins by treating the historically specific concepts of "statecraft" (ching-shih) and "self-strengthening" (tzu-ch'iang) in the history of nineteenth-century China. It then proceeds to a consideration of major enterprises of nineteenth-century China that introduced steamdriven machines. I believe that a historical survey in this sequence is helpful to understanding modern Chinese history.