A modern illustration depicts a naval battle on the Yellow Sea during the Sino-Japanese War. Illustration: Xiang Chun

By Zhang Lei

A rare mainland book, reflecting on China's defeat to Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95, also known as the Jiawu War), sheds light on some thorny facts about China today.

Its authors suggest China today hardly matches neighboring Japan, which, from 1868 to 1877, following the fall of its seclusionist Shogunate rulers, saw the island transfer from an isolated, feudal society to a modern, industrialized nation-state – a period of reform China is still, 117 years later, struggling to complete itself. 

Truth from facts

The Original Defeat (Xiron Books) co-authored by Shi Yonggang, chief editor of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Weekly with editor Zhang Fan, attempts to restore historical truth to the topic of the Sino-Japanese War, a period that transformed historical patterns of Asia.

The book consists of three parts: competition between China and Meiji Japan before 1894, as both underwent transformation; the process and reasons for losing the war; and the rise of major Nationalist figures after defeat, such as Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, who would eventually attempt to form a government after the Qing Dynasty's (1644-1911) fall.

Shi said the theme of a reforming China, building up a powerful army and eager to learn from the West, is as familiar today as it was then. But after a year of war, including a shock naval defeat at the Battle of the Yalu River in 1894, came the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which forced China to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, pay a large indemnity, allow Japanese industry into four treaty ports and recognize Japan's hegemony over Korea. 

Why was China so easily defeated by Japan, a small island nation?

"I personally believe that many [of these] problems still exist today," author Shi told the Global Times. "It's most important that China abandons its tradition, starts anew and set up universal values that match modernized courts." 

 When the treaty was signed, Ito Hirobumi, the Japanese representative, asked his Chinese counterpart, Li Hongzhang, why the ongoing "Self Strengthening" reforms in China had had no effect on modernization, though they had begun 10 years before. Li replied that the system in China was too stubborn and hide-bound in tradition, and officials had been unable to carry them out.

"The book's topic is not simply the war," said Shi, referring to the naval engagements. "We've focused on the Sino-Japan relationship and the entanglements between the two countries over the years."

Cover of The Original Defeat.
 
The 'China model'

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Revolution of 1911. The roots of the Qing defeat go right back to this subject, Shi believes. "The Opium Wars didn't bring an end to the Qing Dynasty; the Jiawu War, the first huge defeat, did." 

Japan's modernized navy decimated the fragmented Qing fleet in a series of naval skirmishes that fractured the country far more deeply than either the Opium Wars or the Anglo-French invasion of 1860, historians believe. 

The book tries to explain why China's modernization process was forcibly interrupted by Japan twice and why the Japanese regarded defeating China as a way of breaking away from Asia and keeping up with Europe, asking if China should learn from Japan today. 

"As the 120th anniversary of the Jiawu War nears this year, we want to highlight what kind of attitude should the Chinese hold on the defeat and its connection with today's China." 

 The book is being published during a period of relative calm for the Sino-Japanese relationship, with China's aid to Japan and the Japanese response to their earthquake disaster earlier this year still fresh in people's minds. It has nonetheless attracted much attention and discussion.

According to Shi, most Chinese hold both hatred and misunderstanding toward Japan, while the Japanese are contemptuous of China.

"Both Japanese and Chinese respect winners. Yet the Chinese have no 'right' to hate Japan but should instead learn from [the war] first, because China may not be able to win a war over Japan today.

"We should be most cautious when the 'China model' is hailed as successful and the advantages of our system reaches its peak… [then] it's time to see the opposite side."

A sense of crisis is needed, Shi avers. "We are not that powerful just because we have a little money. Most people are overwhelmed by self-satisfaction and over-confidence in China." 

Values in biograph

China should seek the ideas and insight behind the luxuries. "It's most urgent we become international Chinese with advanced values, because we are full of forgeries." Such values lacked in 1894 – records tell, for example, of Chinese sailors' shock as the gunpowder shells they fired at Japanese ships failed to explode, their deadly cargo having been replaced with sand by corrupt factory owners in cahoots with officials. 

The Original Defeat has over 200 pictures, including 80 digital designs of naval vessels and eight Japanese hand-drawn illustrations bought from the US Library of Congress at some expense. The reason, Shi explains, is that today's generation of readers are "visual and fragmented" and books must meet their aesthetics and reading habits.

It took a team of six editors three years to complete."We write like we edit magazines, holding meetings and following subjects missed out in other books." 

A tireless publisher of bestselling illustrated lives of revolutionary figures such as Soong Meiling, Chiang Kai-shek, Teresa Teng,

San Mao, Lei Feng and Che Guavara, Shi hopes to one day rewrite the biographies of 100 important figures and events from between 1900 to 2000, because "most published books have an outdated value that can't be accepted today."

In Leifeng 1940-1962, the Maoist "Model Worker" is reincarnated as a hipster icon with a retro fur-lined hat, according to a Newsweek review.

Dubbed a "historical manual," the series is suitable for amateur readers of any age to learn history. "It is an easy read, no more than five hours," Shi said, who studied Chinese concentration spans. 

The veteran publisher said e-books will be launched in July since "our illustrated books are born for the iPad."

The English version of The Original Defeat is not yet available but the Japanese edition will be published soon. Meanwhile, a big-budget movie on the topic will hit theaters next year.

Book tag: The Original Defeat, Shi Yonggang & Zhang Fan, 247 pp, Xiron Books, 39.8 yuan ($6).