For the post-85 generation, Weng Tonggong is a mysterious figure.
Because after 85 years of middle school, the history class will say that Weng Tonggong recommended to the Guangxu Emperor Kang Youwei, the operator of the Pengshu Reform Law, from this expression, Weng Tonggong is a progressive figure, but in recent years, many books on the theme of the late Qing Dynasty have revealed such a reality: Weng Tonggong maliciously withheld the funds of the Beiyang Marine Division in order to suppress Li Hongzhang, and this behavior became one of the reasons for the failure of the Sino-Japanese War.
Personally, I believe that this question should be explored in depth:
Loyal and patriotic in the imperial era
In the imperial era, it is difficult to unify the loyalty and patriotism of the family and the world.
Because in the imperial era, the imperial court was only the private property of the Son of Heaven, so if the protection of the interests of the people of the world is regarded as patriotic, then loyalty to the monarch and patriotism cannot be equated.
Contemporaries mention the Five Dynasties Later Jin Emperor Shi Jingyao, believing that Shi Jingyao's shamelessness lies in ceding the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to the Khitans, which caused later dynasties to suffer greatly. But in fact, for Shi Jingyao, the greatest humiliation was not to cut a few pieces of land to outsiders, but to submit to the Khitan Emperor Yelü Deguang. However, remembering that he could become an emperor after all, it was really nothing to be a son of the Khitan people.
Similarly, the greatest value for intellectuals of the feudal era, such as Weng Tonggong, was loyalty to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. As for whether this loyalty is worthy of the world, this is not what Weng Tonggong considers.
In fact, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, many of the Qing Dynasty's widows and widows expressed their willingness to serve the Xuantong Emperor until their deaths, and even many of the widows and widows still served the puppet Manchu court during Puyi's tenure as the puppet Manchu emperor, in the final analysis, it was because of the poison of this idea.
There was not the slightest regret for the Guangxu Emperor in weng Tonggong's life, so from this point of view, Weng Tonggong was a loyal subject of the Guangxu Emperor and a loyal subject of the Great Qing Dynasty.
Clear streams mislead the country
However, Weng Tonggong's loyalty to the Guangxu Emperor and to the Great Qing Dynasty does not mean that Weng Tonggong is worthy of the people of the world.
In his life, due to the limitations of his insight and vision, Weng Tonggong was unaware of the interests of the people of the world, and even for Weng Tonggong, his primary task was to prevent any force within the Qing court that could threaten the status of the imperial court, and Li Hongzhang was the first candidate for Weng Tonggong to contain. Therefore, during the period of gaining power, Weng Tonggong did his best to suppress Li Hongzhang and the Beiyang Marine Division behind Li Hongzhang.
However, when the Guangxu Emperor planned to change the law, Weng Tonggong, knowing that he would offend Empress Dowager Cixi, actively campaigned for the Guangxu Emperor to change the law--if Weng Tonggong was treacherous, then Weng Tonggong would never be foolish enough to offend Empress Dowager Cixi.
Therefore, it can be concluded that Weng Tonggong is a pedantic scholar-doctor, a typical representative of the qingliu and misleading country -- a pedantic scholar-doctor, whose loyal spirit is good, and whose articles can also be remarkable, and the generation alone has no positive effect on national construction.