As one of the three great men of the nineteenth century alongside Bismarck and Grant, Li Hongzhang can be described as a caller in the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty. For the turbulent Qing Dynasty, he called himself a self-deprecating "Framer of the Great Qing Dynasty".
In the third year of Daoguang (1823), in Hefei, Anhui, Li Hongzhang fell to the ground. The young man was intelligent and liked to read poetry, which also made him integrate confucian ideals into his life long ago, hoping to be able to "write history for ten thousand years, and three thousand miles away want to be crowned." Relying on the opportunity of zhongju and participating in the examination, he worshiped under the teacher Zeng Guofan, and got to know Weng Xincun, Pan Shien and others, which also laid a solid foundation for his rapid rise.
Just when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by Hong Xiuquan swept through the south, the Qing government was finally powerless to suppress it. In the end, Li Hongzhang organized the Huai Army. Moreover, compared with Zeng Guofan, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was suppressed, in order to avoid the end of Zeng Guofan's Xiang army being dismissed, he insisted on the leadership of the Li family for the Huai army he led, which also became the political capital of his game with Empress Dowager Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty. As a result, he had high positions such as the Viceroy of His Direct Subordination and the University of Mandarin. When he was in power, he also had merits, such as the establishment of a foreign affairs movement and the strengthening of the country and the rejuvenation of the army.
However, in contrast to the many "washing the land" claims on the Internet now, it is a big fallacy to believe that Li Hongzhang was forced to sign the "Treaty of Vietnam" and the "Treaty of Maguan", and even more so, some people say that "young people do not know Li Hongzhang, and old people know the truth of the middle hall". We do not deny that he was forced to do so by these treaties. But he is not a pure subject, he has the general nature of the officials of the late Qing Dynasty - he is eager for success and short-term profits, and he is the representative of the officials in the late Qing Dynasty, and they are the biggest beneficiaries. The folk saying "Hefei is thin in the world" refers to him, for his own selfish betrayal of national interests, and it is also he who accepts bribes from the Russians.
Despite his position of real power in the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty, he himself gained great prestige at home and abroad, and even Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi commented that "he was the only person in the Qing Empire who could compete with the world powers."
But in fact, what can change China is definitely not the framer, let alone the generation of Yuan Shikai after him, but the people. This change can be seen in his visit to the United States in 1896.
In 1896, Li Hongzhang visited the United States. In the United States at that time, this big figure who stirred up the situation in the Qing Dynasty was also warmly welcomed by President Whitney, including US President Whitney. The New York Times even wrote in the newspaper: "Li Hongzhang never missed a Sunday newspaper." ”
During his time in the United States, Li Hongzhang visited many locations in the United States, and also gave an interview to reporters at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on September 2, in which Li Hongzhang was not humble and unobtrusive, not only blunt about the discriminatory treatment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States, but also defended the qing Dynasty women's lack of education, which also showed his excellent diplomatic style. But more interesting than these solemn interviews are his remarks at the hotel.
At that time, Li Hongzhang, who represented the Qing court, was warmly welcomed and had to stay at the Hilton Hotel. But when he saw the tall buildings that were more than 20 stories high, he already had a question in his mind, could this resist the fierce wind?
And when he was still thinking about how to get to the upper floor, the reception staff introduced him to a small square space, and Li Hongzhang naturally did not know that this was an elevator. At this time in the United States, the elevator driven by the electric motor has also begun to be promoted, but in the Qing Dynasty is naturally unheard of, Li Hongzhang also thought it was a residence, he said: "This room is too small, even the chair can not be put down", and after the American translation, he understood that this is an elevator, a device that lifts people up and down to reach the purpose of the floor. Thinking about it now, we may think that this is rare and strange, but at that time, it was indeed a manifestation of the gap between China and the United States.
Fortunately, as the old Chinese saying goes, things are man-made. After returning to China, Li Hongzhang also presided over a series of projects to promote modernization, such as the construction of railways, steel plants, etc., and after a hundred years of humiliation, after the founding of New China, this kind of "joke" that made people cry and laugh finally turned the page.