Speaking of Zeng Guofan, we all know that he was a prominent figure in the late Qing Dynasty. Zeng Guofan was one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, who suppressed the Taiping Rebellion, participated in the Foreign Affairs Movement, and made significant contributions to the rule of the Qing Dynasty. However, when it comes to Zeng Jize, the son of Zeng Guofan, there may be fewer people who know. Compared with Zeng Guofan, Zeng Jize's reputation can be said to be very small. Of course, although Zeng Jize did not have the merits of Zeng Guofan, he also left a heavy mark in the diplomatic history of the Qing Dynasty. He was a prominent figure in the diplomatic history of the late Qing Dynasty and contributed his life to the diplomacy of the Qing Dynasty.
Zeng Jize, born in 1839, is the second son of Zeng Guofan. Zeng Jidi, the eldest son of Zeng Guofan, died prematurely, so Zeng Jize can also be regarded as the eldest son of Zeng Guofan. Before Zeng Guofan's death, although Zeng Jize was also granted some official positions, most of the time he was at Zeng Guofan's side. Therefore, Zeng Jize was greatly influenced by Zeng Guofan. Many people are familiar with the "Book of Zeng Guofan's Family", which has a lot of ideas for governing the family and educating children, and it can be said that in educating children, Zeng Guofan is still relatively successful. In zeng guofan's later generations, there was hardly a single loser. And Zeng Jize was even more outstanding because he had been with his father Zeng Guofan for a long time.
Zeng Jize received a traditional Confucian education from an early age and was very proficient in scripture history, poetry, and arithmetic. After all, Zeng Guofan is the representative of traditional Confucianism, and Zeng Jize is not far behind. If Zeng Jize had always received this kind of education, he would never have become a prominent figure in the diplomatic history of the Qing Dynasty, after all, traditional Confucianism and Western thought were almost in opposition at that time. Later, due to zeng guofan's foreign affairs, Zeng Jize began to learn English, and then studied Western thought, science and technology, etc. It can be said that Zeng Jize has learned chinese and Western at a young age. In the Qing Dynasty, which despised Western culture at that time, there were still relatively few figures like Zeng Jize.
When he was young, Zeng Jize had outstanding abilities and learned from Both China and the West, plus his father was Zeng Guofan, a feudal official, and it was reasonable to say that Zeng Jize would have a good future. In fact, Zeng Jize had almost no achievements before the age of 40. Except for a brief stint as a member of the Erpin Yinsheng Supplementary Household Department, he hardly held any other official position. It is not that Zeng Jize himself does not want to be an official, this has a lot to do with Zeng Guofan. In his later years, Zeng Guofan's health was not very good, so Zeng Jize always accompanied Zeng Guofan to take care of him. Zeng Guofan died in 1872, and according to tradition, Zeng Jize should keep filial piety for his father for three years. In other words, Zeng Jize could not hold an official position until 1875.
Of course, keeping filial piety does not necessarily have to be three years, there are exceptions, that is, the imperial court has an urgent matter, you have to grant you an official position, Zeng Guofan once had to keep filial piety for three years because of the death of his mother. As a result, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement grew larger and larger during the period of filial piety, so he did not defend for three years before he came out to lead his troops to fight. During Zeng Jize's filial piety, the imperial court did not rush to grant him an official position, so he had to stay at home honestly. The time for watching over filial piety is about to expire, Zeng Jize's mother has died again, and he has to keep filial piety for his mother for three years. In this way, before 1877, Zeng Jize kept filial piety for a total of five years.
In 1877, Zeng Jize Shouxiao was full, and he came to Beijing. The following year, Zeng Jize was awarded the title of Shaoqing of the Taichang Temple and transferred to the Shaoqing of dali Temple. The Qing Dynasty sent him as envoys to Britain and France to deal with the purchase of ships. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was already building its own modern navy and needed to buy warships from Europe, so it was necessary to send people to investigate first. Although the Qing Dynasty has carried out the foreign affairs movement for more than ten years, it still despises European and American countries from the heart, and still believes that the places where people live are barbarian lands. The Ministry of Etiquette, which handles diplomacy, is not willing to deal with these people at all. Zeng Jize, because he had studied English and knew more about Western culture, was willing to go to Britain and France. On this mission, Zeng Jize began his diplomatic career.
After Zeng Jize went to Europe, he actively studied the history and national conditions of European countries and better understood European countries. The reason for this is to facilitate later dealings with European countries. Not only that, Zeng Jize also established his own embassy for the Qing Dynasty according to the status of embassies in various countries. The style of the embassy building, the layout inside, everything was arranged by Zeng Jize himself. Later, the qing dynasty embassies in other places were almost all built according to Zeng Jize's design at that time. Moreover, during his mission to Europe, Zeng Jize was very frugal and did not have any corruption, which not only saved a lot of money for the Qing Dynasty, but also won the recognition of many Europeans.
After that, Zeng Jize served as a minister in France, which was the second minister of the Qing Dynasty to be stationed abroad, and the first was Guo Songtao, the minister in Britain. Both of them had a major impact on the diplomatic history of the Qing Dynasty, and Zeng Jize was on a par with Guo Songtao in the diplomatic history of the Qing Dynasty. However, Zeng Jize's contribution to diplomatic history is far more than this, and he is famous all over the world for signing the Sino-Russian Revised Treaty with Russia. This treaty greatly enhanced Zeng Jize's reputation and won unanimous praise from all over the Qing Dynasty.
Let's first look at the background of the signing of the Sino-Russian Revised Treaty, and after reading the background, we will know how powerful Zeng Jize is. During Agubai's invasion of Xinjiang, Tsarist Russia seized the opportunity to occupy the Ili region. Zuo Zongtang led his troops into Xinjiang, and although he recovered the vast area occupied by Agubai, the Russians still occupied Ili. Ili is an important gateway to Xinjiang, and once it is lost, the gates of Xinjiang are opened. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty must take back this place. Of course, the Qing Dynasty did not intend to fight with Tsarist Russia, so it sent manchu nobles to Russia for negotiations. As a result, under the intimidation of the Russians, Yan Chonghou secretly signed the Treaty of Livadia. In the Treaty of Livadia, the Russians promised to return Ili to the Qing Dynasty, but the places around Ili were not returned, and Ili became an isolated city surrounded by Russian forces. The Qing Dynasty really had no effect on wanting such an Ili.
Not only that, but the Qing Dynasty also had to give duty-free taxes to Russian goods, increase the number of treaty ports with Russia, and compensate 2.8 million taels of silver to Tsarist Russia. It can be said that this treaty is an absolute traitorous treaty. After Yan Chonghou returned to China with this treaty, everyone opposed it, Zuo Zongtang, Prince Gong, Zhang Zhidong and others all opposed this treaty, and Zuo Zongtang even wanted the Qing Dynasty to execute Chonghou. The Qing Dynasty also felt that this treaty was too traitorous, so it arrested Yan Chonghou and put him in prison. Although Yan Chonghou was arrested, the consultation with Russia still had to continue, and the Qing Dynasty still needed to send people to renegotiate with the Russians. It was in this situation that Zeng Jize was sent to Russia to renegotiate the agreement with the Russians.
In this situation, the situation is very unfavorable to Zeng Jize. In any case, the previous signature was agreed by the Qing dynasty representatives. After that, whoever comes should agree. Now that you change someone and say that you want to re-sign, you can say that the Russians definitely disagree. After Zeng Jize arrived in Russia, the Russians asked him to agree to the previously signed treaty, but Zeng Jize directly refused, demanding renegotiation. Moreover, after Zuo Zongtang learned of this incident, he marched towards Ili with a coffin, showing his determination to recover Ili. With the support of Zuo Zongtang's troops, Zeng Jize had a bargaining chip. In the end, the two sides signed the Sino-Russian Revised Treaty, in which the Ili issue was resolved.
Although the area west of the Khorgos River was ceded to Tsarist Russia in the Sino-Russian Revised Treaty, and the reparations were increased, the main body of Ili was preserved. It also abolished Tsarist privileges in many cities in the interior and regained sovereignty over many inland rivers. Compared with the Treaty of Livadia, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Revision was much more beneficial to the Qing Dynasty. This one thing alone is enough to make Zeng Jize famous in history.
In fact, no matter who goes to this negotiation, unequal treaties will be signed, and traitors are inevitable. After all, Tsarist Russia occupied Ili and was very powerful in the northwest. Moreover, the overall strength of Tsarist Russia was stronger than that of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty did not intend to engage in a large-scale war with Tsarist Russia. It was also very difficult for Zeng Jize to win such a treaty. After this treaty reached the Qing Dynasty, it was unanimously praised by everyone. Li Hongzhang said directly: "When the waiter was appointed at a time of crisis, he was able to make it difficult for him, and he was able to abolish the covenant that had been set, to bend the demands of insatiable, to turn the danger into peace, and to return to goodness." ”
After the outbreak of the Sino-French War, Zeng Jize served as a minister in France. Zeng Jize's attitude is very tough and insists on the main battle. Zeng Jize's idea is to fight twice if you can't win once, and three times if you can't win twice. Seriously, this attitude is a bit like that of diehards, who do not know anything about the situation between the two countries and blindly go to war. Because Li Hongzhang was in charge of peace, Zeng Jize was deposed from his post as minister in France. However, after the great victory at Zhennanguan, Zeng Jize's attitude immediately changed, and his attitude was consistent with Li Hongzhang's, that is, he took advantage of the fact that there was now the capital for negotiation and held peace talks with France. The reason why Zeng Jize's attitude changed so quickly was because he knew the ambitions of France in the first place. Without going to war with the French, France could not have successfully negotiated with the Qing Dynasty. The reason why the peace talks were held when it was dominant was because the national strength of the Qing Dynasty was not at all inferior to that of France. If the war continues for a long time, the Qing Dynasty will certainly not take advantage of it.
The final result of the Sino-French War was the signing of the Sino-French New Treaty between the Qing Dynasty and France, and the war ended here. During this war, Zeng Jize's attitude had an important impact on the Qing Dynasty. After all, he knew the countries of Europe better. This is another important thing that Zeng Jize did for qing diplomacy.
In 1885, Zeng Jize and the British Foreign Minister signed the "Yantai Treaty Renewal Special Article". The main purpose of this treaty was to solve the problem of the British tax rate on opium exports to the Qing Dynasty. After the First Opium War, British exports of opium to the Qing Dynasty began to be legalized. But while legalized, there's a big problem with it. In the treaty signed between the Qing Dynasty and The United Kingdom, there was no clear tax rate on opium imports. Moreover, the tax burden levied on opium in the interior of the Qing Dynasty was varied and very messy. But overall, it is very good for the UK. Because by bribing Qing officials, the British could pay a lot less tax.
The "Special Article on the Renewal of the Yantai Treaty" stipulates that every 100 catties of silver shall be paid to the customs together with a tax of 112 silver, and then there is no need to pay any tax burden on the sale to the mainland. Seriously, the treaty looked traitorous, causing a large amount of opium to enter the interior. However, this also led the Qing Dynasty to strengthen the management of British opium. Not only that, but Britain's export of opium to the Qing Dynasty required a large amount of tax burden. This treaty added millions of taels of silver to the Qing customs every year. Under the circumstances at that time, Zeng Jize and britain signed this treaty was also a helpless move. It is also considered to seek more rights and interests in the cracks.
In 1887, the Qing Dynasty Taxation Department established Gongbeiguan, which was mainly for anti-smuggling and headquartered in Macau. Because of this, the Portuguese government demanded that the Qing Dynasty cede Gongbeiguan. Under the resolute opposition of Zeng Jize, the Qing Dynasty did not cede Gongbeiguan to Portugal. Zeng Jize once again defended the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
In addition to the above, Zeng Jize also actively trained diplomats for the Qing Dynasty. Many diplomats in the late Qing Dynasty were almost all trained by Zeng Jize. Moreover, Zeng Jize also formulated the "Beiyang Naval Charter" for Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Naval Division, and also indexed the importance of railways and resolutely supported the construction of railways.
In 1890, Zeng Jize died of illness, and the Qing Dynasty posthumously awarded him the title of Prince Shaobao," with the nickname "Huimin". Throughout Zeng's life, although his political career was short, his diplomatic contribution was very large. Although he did not have the credit of his father Zeng Guofan, he left a heavy mark in the history of diplomacy and became famous in history.
Resources:
Draft History of the Qing Dynasty