STUDY OF MODERNIZATION IN CHINA & JAPAN
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of the army hindered the growth of nationalistic sentiment among Chinese soldiers. Locally raised, armed, and trained, most Chinese troops had little sense of national identification.44 The great majority of Chinese soldiers remained illiterate and uninformed.
Not surprisingly, the Chinese military contributed little bureaucratic talent to the civil sector. In fact, the Manchus actively discouraged this tendency. With few notable exceptions (e.g., Liu Ming-ch'uan), the Ch'ing government avoided the appointment of military men to high posts in the bureaucracy. Throughout the nineteenth century, the virtually unchanged civil service examination system remained the accepted channel of bureaucratic mobility. Only after the Sino-Japanese War did this begin to change.45
The Ch'ing military did nothing to promote social change. Indeed, it tended to reflect the least modern aspects of Chinese society. Even in the new-style armies of Li Hung-chang and others, personal ties of blood, friendship, or local affinity often counted for more than expertise, thus helping to militate against the introduction of new ideas and influences.46
There is no evidence to suggest that the Chinese military contributed significantly to urbanization or to the cultural transformation of Chinese soldiers. Although some troops received exposure to limited Western influences through contact with foreign instructors or temporary residence in treaty port areas, the lifestyle of most Chinese soldiers changed imperceptively. Manchu troops remained isolated in Banner garrisons, and Chinese troops continued to wear Chinese uniforms and the Manchu-imposed queue. Ch'ing military forces ate Chinese food, lived in Chinese housing, and often even reverted to Chinese-style weapons.47 The existence of widespread corruption and opium smoking, coupled with the lack of modern medical and other facilities, neither improved the living conditions of the average Chinese soldier nor altered his expectations.48
The disastrous effects of the Sino-Japanese War on China are too well-known to require elaboration.49 Ironically, however, Japan contributed substantially to China's military modernization and political transformation in the post-war era, providing large numbers of advisers and instructors, as well as a variety of educational opportunities for Chinese students in Japan.50 Mutatis mutandis, we may say that Japan in late nineteenth century China