Weak countries are easily deceived, which is a diplomatic phenomenon that has been outdated for thousands of years, and the most direct and strongest feeling about this is naturally those diplomats.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing court was corrupt and decadent, and the foreign powers regarded the Qing Dynasty as "fat and fruitful fish meat", and bombarded the border ports with strong ships and cannons, not to mention, and also forcibly signed a series of "treaties" with the Qing court that lost power and humiliated the country.
At that time, the Diplomats of the Qing Dynasty were wrapped up in "persecution" and "entanglement" almost all day long, and even if they were indignant and dissatisfied in their hearts, it was difficult to express their chests and straighten their waists at the negotiating table, they were powerless to defend the sovereignty of the country, and in most cases they could only sign and frame on behalf of the Qing court on those documents that ceded territorial rights and interests.
In the Republic of China period, the diplomatic department of the Republic of China government began to integrate with foreign countries in an all-round way, and a large number of Chinese diplomats who received special education and training should be born from time to time, and Lu Zhengxiang, the leader of China's first generation of professional diplomats, was one of them.
At that time, this diplomat, who had signed the "Twenty-One Articles" unequal treaty between China and Japan on behalf of the Government of the Republic of China, experienced the pain of being insulted by the Chinese people as a "traitor."
But in fact, Lu Zhengxiang was a meritorious man to China, and he made every effort to try to save the great powers from the unfavorable situation toward China, although in the end they all failed because of the "weakness of the country".
However, all his life he has been working hard for the integrity and return of China's territory and sovereignty, and Lu Zhengxiang, who dared to confront and mediate with the great powers, has always been an iron bone in his heart, and can be called a diplomatic hero of the motherland and the people.
Outstanding diplomatic translators who first entered the "Canton dialect museum" and then entered the "Tongwen museum"
During the Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty, there was a young man named Lu Yunfeng, who had been engaged in business for generations in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, and because of the influence of the Opium War, Lu Yunfeng, who believed in Christianity, took his wife and children to Shanghai to settle down in order to seek refuge.
Burdened by the sluggish economy at the time, Lu Yunfeng was forced to work in the church for his livelihood, and although he later became a full-time pastor, the work that worked all day for the purpose of missionary purposes could only barely support his family, and the Lu family had been relatively poor since moving to Shanghai.
On June 12, 1871, Lu Yunfeng's wife Wu Shi gave birth to a baby boy, Lu Yunfeng loved the child so much that after much thought, he finally gave his son a name with Ruiyi: Lu Zhengxiang.
Because of the family's poor situation, Wu Shi did not get good care and maintenance after childbirth, she gradually became unwell after childbirth, at first due to lack of nutritional supplements and caused by puffiness, and then suffered from wind and cold and wet evil and serious illness, and began to be bedridden after 2 years.
When Lu Zhengxiang was 8 years old, his mother, who had suffered on the sickbed for several years, finally passed away, and from then on, Xiao Zhengxiang began to rely on his father for his life.
Lu Yunfeng, who believes in Christianity, makes a living by spreading Protestant Christian teachings, and he has witnessed the drastic changes in Chinese society in the past few years, and his heart is full of dissatisfaction and indignation against the decadent rule of the Qing court.
Under his father's instruction, Lu Zhengxiang began to study Western studies, and his enlightenment book was the New Testament Gospel that his father often held in his hand.
In 1884, at the age of 13, Lu Zhengxiang was sent by his father to the Cantonese Dialect Hall, a new shanghai government-run school sponsored by the Qing court prime minister Yamen.
At that time, because the Qing court had been repeatedly frustrated in diplomacy, some enlightened courtiers proposed to open a government-run school specializing in cultivating talents in foreign languages and Western studies and foreign affairs and government affairs.
Therefore, in 1862, the Qing court opened the "TongwenGuan" in Beijing to teach Western foreign languages, and the following year, shanghai opened the "Cantonese Dialect Museum", which was aimed at cultivating a group of diplomatic talents who could deal with the great powers on behalf of the Qing court.
Lu Yunfeng, who has always believed that learning Western practical knowledge is a good way out, soon found out that if he wants to enter the Canton dialect hall to study, he must first pass a unified examination, the content of the exam is a traditional ancient classic, for the sake of his son's future, the Lu family father and son soon threw themselves into the enthusiasm of learning ancient Chinese.
The clever Lu Zhengxiang quickly memorized the knowledge content of the Four Books and Five Classics and the Classics of Traditional Chinese Studies, and at the age of 13, he passed the entrance test of the Cantonese Dialect Hall extremely smoothly and became the youngest student in the Cantonese Dialect Pavilion.
After entering the Cantonese Dialect Museum, each student had to choose a "Yiwen" for specialization, and his father, Lu Yunfeng, was originally looking forward to his son's graduation to enter the Shanghai Post Office, so Lu Zhengxiang chose French as the language of major.
The intelligent and studious Lu Zhengxiang never dared to live up to his father's high expectations, he studied hard and excelled, and after graduation, he was directly guaranteed to be sent to the Tongwenguan in Beijing to continue his studies.
One year after entering the Tongwen Museum, Lu Zhengxiang, who had performed well in all aspects, was valued by Qing court officials and sent him abroad for some training - concurrently serving as the fourth secretary and translator of the Qing government embassy in Russia. In order to be able to shoulder heavy responsibilities and learn practical application skills, Lu Zhengxiang not only became a talent proficient in Russian, but also took the initiative to study Western history, public law and other disciplines.
In view of Lu Zhengxiang's outstanding performance during his tenure at the Russian legation, Xu Jingcheng, minister in Russia, reported to the Qing court and left Lu Zhengxiang around to cultivate and improve his points, hoping that he could be trained to become an excellent diplomat in the future.
Since 1892, Lu Zhengxiang has been working in the Russian legation for 14 years. In 1906, the steady and knowledgeable Lu Zhengxiang was promoted by the Qing government to the position of minister in the Netherlands, and was also the first plenipotentiary minister since China opened an embassy in the Netherlands.
After the end of the Xinhai Revolution, when Tang Shaoyi, premier of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China in Nanjing, set up the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was the first to think of Lu Zhengxiang, a minister stationed abroad who had rich experience in performing his duties and a good reputation.
In the spring of 1912, Lu Zhengxiang was personally appointed by Yuan Shikai as the "first foreign minister" and promised Lu Zhengxiang specific administrative privileges that were not subject to external interference.
Helpless diplomats who have personally experienced, witnessed and lamented that "weak countries have no diplomacy"
Lu Zhengxiang, who was full of ambition, followed the western diplomat selection system, changed the situation of lay officials handling foreign affairs, and truly put China's diplomacy on the formal road of modernization and won praise and praise from the international media.
However, with the increasingly vicious international situation at that time, Lu Zhengxiang, a diplomat of a weak country, became the biggest victim of political turmoil because of his kindness and benevolence.
In 1915, he was humiliated and humiliated, and under the strong pressure of Yuan Shikai, he had to sign and abdicate the "Twenty-one Articles" between China and Japan, and was misunderstood by the Chinese people because of this, and aroused a lot of people's indignation and resentment.
At that time, the country was ruled by Yuan Shikai, the world situation was turbulent and complicated, and Lu Zhengxiang, who was then the chief foreign minister, did not understand the smooth and smooth changes, so he had no choice but to attend the negotiations with Japan.
Although he did his best at the negotiating table to win the least loss for China through mediation, he knew that China's weakness was weak and the people were in dire straits.
Whether he signed or not, Yuan Shikai would eventually sacrifice the interests of the people and the country, so he finally signed the "Twenty-first Treaty" with a straight face.
After signing the "Twenty-first Treaty" between China and Japan, Lu Zhengxiang, who was deeply tormented in his heart, said to his family for the first time after several days of self-blame behind closed doors: I signed it, which is equivalent to signing his own death case.
No matter how grievances and helplessness tormented Lu Zhengxiang, who was pure in heart day by day, in short, he became the bearer of the "Twenty-first Treaty" in history.
In that objective environment of weak and weak country, the diplomatic work faced by Chinese diplomats was both humiliating and bad.
No matter which power's representative delegation negotiated with the diplomats in Lu Zhengxiang's team, it was basically imposing and arrogant.
According to Lu Zhengxiang in his later years, China's diplomacy at that time was completely "man-made knife tricks, I am fish meat", and at that time, China could only be slaughtered in a low voice for the vast majority of the time.
In 1919, Lu Zhengxiang led the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, and at that huge international negotiating table, Lu Zhengxiang and the members of the mission had to resist the pressure of the Beiyang government, preferring to resign rather than sign the Versailles Treaty and betray the country.
After this war, China became the only country on the side of the victorious country that did not sign and lose power, and also let the rest of the world see the backbone and indomitable spirit of the Chinese, and greatly encouraged the will and determination of the Chinese people to promote the rise of the eastern powers.
He loved his wife very much, not only was he not a traitor, but he was also loyal and affectionate to the country from beginning to end
In 1895, Lu Zhengxiang, then an interpreter at the Embassy in Russia, was invited to attend the Tsar's court meeting. Because Lu Zhengxiang was well versed in etiquette and personable, he soon attracted the attention of handsome men and nobles from all over the world at the ball, among them, a famous Lady Lady from Belgium, Peide Bofei, paid special attention to Lu Zhengxiang, and Peide was still a single woman to be married.
Although Peide is more than ten years older than Lu Zhengxiang, foreign women have always been enthusiastic and bold, and after Peide saw Lu Zhengxiang, he fell in love with him at first sight and took the initiative to come forward to talk with this polite Chinese diplomat.
Later, after several conversations and getting along, Lu Zhengxiang found that this foreign woman was cheerful, frank, intelligent and courageous, so he developed a lot of "different feelings" for Peide.
After falling in love with Peide, Lu Zhengxiang was full of spring breeze and full of emotions all day, so many colleagues in the embassy in Russia thought that Lu Zhengxiang had a crush.
When colleagues learned that the object of Lu Zhengxiang's relationship was a Belgian woman Peide, they were not only very surprised, but also urged Lu Zhengxiang to take care of his profession and identity, and not to have a marriage relationship with a foreigner woman.
However, in the face of various obstacles and differences in reality, Lu Zhengxiang still decided to bravely speak out for love: I Lu Zhengxiang is marrying a Miss Yang as a wife, not the embassy marrying Miss Yang as a wife, which is not a deviant, let alone anecdotal.
In 1899, Lu Zhengxiang withstood the pressure and married Peide. After marriage, Peide always helped her husband in private and paid attention to the trivial details of official affairs, but for the convenience of diplomacy, Peide never went in and out of diplomatic occasions with Lu Zhengxiang.
Lu Zhengxiang is very grateful for his wife's dedication and understanding, although the couple has always been childless, but they have always lived in harmony and envy others.
In 1915, after Lu Zhengxiang was forced to sign the "Twenty-One Articles" between China and Japan, he was always depressed and anxious and deeply guilty.
Watching her husband sullen all day, Peder comforted: Pray more to God, God knows the truth of the matter, and the Lord will forgive you!
Later, under the enlightenment of his virtuous wife Peide, Lu Zhengxiang ran to the church from time to time to confess to God what he had done.
Moreover, the enlightened and wise Peide always supported her husband to fight for China's rights and interests and recover losses for China, so Lu Zhengxiang has also been safeguarding China's rights and interests in foreign affairs since then.
But unfortunately, it is difficult to resist foreign humiliation only by relying on the voice and hard work of diplomats, and Lu Zhengxiang's mediation and efforts to turn the tide have not been able to win a relatively fair ending for China.
Since 1920, Peide's health has been in a state of flux, the doctors proposed that Peide to the pleasant climate of Europe to recuperate, his wife Lu Zhengxiang immediately resigned from the post of foreign minister, willing to reduce salary and demotion, as a Swiss diplomatic ambassador, accompanied by his wife Peide in Switzerland to recuperate.
In 1926, Peder died of a serious illness. After burying his wife, Lu Zhengxiang retired to Bruges, Belgium, and became a church monk, spending the rest of his life in Bruges.
According to Lu Zhengxiang, Bruges is the place where Peide lived as a girl, the final refuge of his and his wife's souls.
In 1945, Lu Zhengxiang said with emotion in an invited interview: Weak countries have no justice, and weak countries have no diplomacy.
It seems that the diplomatic setback of half a lifetime has become an indelible wound in Lu Zhengxiang's heart. In the winter of 1949, when Lu Zhengxiang was dying, when his superior, Bishop Nanwen, came to comfort him, he heard Lu Zhengxiang chanting the word "China" in his mouth.
Bishop Nanwen asked: China occupies half of your life? Lu Zhengxiang shook his head, raised his arm with difficulty, and stretched out 3 fingers, and Dean Nanwen sighed: It turns out that China occupies three-quarters of your life!
This time, Lu Zhengxiang smiled slightly, and then he left the world and went to heaven to follow his beloved wife.
It has been said that half of men are women. Admittedly, his beloved wife Peide did occupy half of his life for Lu Zhengxiang, or even more.
However, for Lu Zhengxiang, a diplomatic ambassador who is loyal to the country and is committed to patriotism, in his eternally sincere red heart, the motherland should occupy three-quarters of it, even if Lu Zhengxiang was in a foreign country in his later years, he never forgot the grace and patriotism of the motherland, which is really a model of figure worthy of my generation forever!