ZTE Four Jie
In the history of the Qing Dynasty, the Xianfeng era was the most critical moment since the opening of the Great Qing Dynasty.
During the Xianfeng Period, there was the outbreak of the Second Opium War, and there was also the Taiping Rebellion that also affected the entire territory of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing government had no choice but to carry out a series of reforms in the Tongzhi era after the Xianfeng Emperor: these reforms included the reuse of Han bureaucrats and the famous "foreign affairs movement".
Under the impetus of re-reform, the Qing Dynasty had a modernized industry, and also smoothly quelled the rebellions such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and for a time, the Qing Empire had a thriving scene, and historically, this phenomenon was called "Tongzhi Zhongxing." ”
Among the "Tongzhi Zhongxing", the most famous Han ministers are the "Four Masters of Zhongxing": that is, the four famous ministers of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, and Zuo Zongtang.
Some netizens once wondered: "Among the four masters of ZTE", who has the highest official position?
Personally, I think:
Official
In terms of official positions, the "Four Masters of Zhongxing" have all served as governors, and Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang have also served as governors directly under them. Although the rank of the viceroy directly subordinate to the viceroy is the same as that of other viceroys, because the jingshi is within the scope of direct subordination, the status of the directly subordinate viceroy is slightly higher than that of other viceroys, so relatively speaking, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, in terms of directly subordinate viceroy, are slightly better than Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang.
In addition, the "Zhongxing Four Masters" also held the position of "University Scholar", of which Li Hongzhang served as "Scholar of Wenhuadian University", Zeng Guofan served as "Scholar of Wuyingdian University", and Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang had a slightly lower status, serving as "Scholar of Tirenge University" and "Scholar of Dongge University" respectively. Among them, from the point of view of the position of "university scholar", Li Hongzhang's status is slightly higher than that of Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan's position is slightly higher than that of Zhang Zhidong, and Zhang Zhidong is slightly higher than Zuo Zongtang.
Knighthood aspect
In ancient China, to measure a person's status, in addition to official positions, there are also knighthood factors - the so-called "addition of officials into knighthood", that is, refers to knighthood.
As a dynasty dominated by ethnic minorities, when the Qing Dynasty awarded the title of Han minister, it often measured what title should be awarded through the military merits of the Han minister.
In terms of knighthood, in the "Four Masters of Zhongxing", Zhang Zhidong was not awarded a knighthood by the Qing government, while Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zuo Zongtang were all knighted because of their outstanding military achievements for the Qing Dynasty.
At first, when the Xianfeng Emperor was alive, he promised that those who could destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could be crowned king. When Zeng Guofan's army attacked Tianjing, the Xianfeng Emperor had already died for many years, and empress dowager Cixi, who was in power, feared that Zeng Guofan would become Cao Cao and Liu Yu of the Qing Dynasty, so in order to suppress Zeng Guofan, she did not grant Zeng Guofan the title of Prince of Yiyong, but granted Zeng Guofan the title of Marquis of Yiyong.
When Zuo Zongtang was alive, he also participated in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In addition, Zuo Zongtang's exploits, from the perspective of later generations, are not inferior to Zeng Guofan: Zuo Zongtang once led the pacification of the northwestern rebellion, advocated the defense of Cyprus, and reclaimed Xinjiang; in addition, in the development of the modern national defense industry, Zuo Zongtang also made great achievements. However, from the perspective of the Qing government, Zuo Zongtang's merits were indeed great, but compared with the merit of leading the destruction of the number one enemy of the Great Qing Kingdom, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zuo Zongtang was still slightly inferior, so Zuo Zongtang's title was the second class Marquis of Kejing - although he was also a marquis, but after all, he was second class.
When Li Hongzhang was alive, he was made a first-class Su Yi Bo by the Qing government, which was one rank lower than the Marquis.
Therefore, in terms of titles, Zeng Guofan was the first, Zuo Zongtang was the second, and Li Hongzhang was the third.