Feng Guifen

[2] Feng is known for his interest in techniques by which states had become wealthy and strong, highlighting these subjects in the essay he wrote to propose reforms for the Chinese empire.

[6] He also had an established intellectual relationship with Sun Yat-sen.[6] When Feng fled to Shanghai, he came in contact with Westerners who were defending the city.

[2] Like other intellectuals and Qing officials such as Wenxiang, Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang,[7] Feng argued for self-strengthening and industrialization by borrowing western technology and military systems,[8] while retaining core Neo-Confucian principles.

After the disasters experienced by China following Wei Yuan's death in 1857, he proposed wide-ranging reforms in a collection of works called Jiaobinlu kangyi or Essays of Protest.

[9] In his essay, On The Manufacture of Foreign Weapons, he was famously quoted as saying: "what we have to learn from the barbarians is only the one thing - solid ships and effective guns", though in reality his proposals were a little more extensive.