Speaking of the late Qing Dynasty, everyone may think of the accumulation of poverty and weakness, of the skinny bones of the common people, and of the wreaking havoc of the great powers on the land of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, not only our generation thought so, but also the Qing Dynasty people at that time. At that time, people felt that they were inferior, and even felt that being born in the Qing Dynasty was a mistake. Fighting wars cannot win over others, nor can it win over others by engaging in science and technology, and even the image of people is dwarfed.
It was also during the Qing Dynasty that Chinese first developed the idea that "foreigners are higher than Chinese". Because the strength of the body often determines whether it is war or not, at least in the minds of the people at that time. And the fact that the Great Qing dynasty will be defeated in every battle does not show that Chinese are inferior in size? However, this is not necessarily the case. Today we will take a look at a few old photos of Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896: wearing a yellow coat, 1 meter 83 tall, stunning the streets of New York.
Li Hongzhang was born in 1823, when the Qing Dynasty was already sunset. He is the second oldest in the family, so the locals also call him "Mr. Li Er". Although Li Hongzhang later played a less glorious image in history, we also have to say that Li Hongzhang was a proper "prodigy" when he was a child. At the age of 21, he passed the examination, and when he was 20 years old, he was already famous in the world, and his poems were praised by the people of the time:
"Whoever has written history for ten thousand years wants to be crowned marquis for three thousand miles"
After passing the examination, Li Hongzhang once studied with Zeng Guofan, and such a teacher-student relationship also gave him the opportunity to truly reach the peak of power in the Qing Dynasty in the future. Zeng Guofan, who later suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for a while, did not expect that his students would finally go to that step, much farther than him. Li Hongzhang is different from Zeng Guofan, who fought for the future by "winning the battle", while Li Hongzhang fought for the future by "losing the battle".
Almost every defeat in the back has Li Hongzhang's figure, such as the Sino-Japanese War, and the person who finally signed the treaty of traitorous glory was Li Hongzhang. This also makes most of us think that Li Hongzhang is a short and obscene person, so as to fit his identity. Especially in the Qing Dynasty, which was still poor and weak, his figure should be even more thin and short. So, is Li Hongzhang really like this?
The answer is, it's completely wrong. Li Hongzhang is tall. Although in many of Li Hongzhang's personal photos, we can't see Li Hongzhang's tall appearance, but if we compare, we will find that Li Hongzhang's height is very high. In particular, a photo of Li Hongzhang going to New York in the United States reflects Li Hongzhang's appearance of "standing out from the crowd" among a group of white people.
In 1986, British newspapers published these pictures of Li Hongzhang. We can not see very clearly that Li Hongzhang is actually the tallest of the group. His posture still looks relatively gentle and elegant, not like a stubborn image of a traitor seeking glory, wearing a yellow coat but some grace and luxury. His clothes seemed to be a little different from those around him, because he was wearing a yellow coat that clearly rewarded him.
This also reflects the importance he attaches to this trip to the United States. 1896 was not a very good year for Li Hongzhang. Because not long ago, the Qing government represented by Li Hongzhang had just signed the "Maguan Treaty", compensated a large amount of silver, and at the same time lost face in the international arena. Will Japan take any further action? Will other countries also send troops? Li Hongzhang had no score in mind, so he came to the United States to pull "allies."
It is rumored that Li Hongzhang's net height is 183 centimeters! This height, coupled with the height of the sole, is enough to have a height of 190 centimeters. In fact, the photo does show that Li Hongzhang's height is extraordinary. Even with him hunched over and an umbrella, one could still see that he was much taller than many white people around him, and this was still the photo he got in his old age, and when he was younger, he would only be taller.
Therefore, physically, the Chinese at that time were not necessarily the "sick man of East Asia", in fact, there were many such photos, and some old photos at that time showed that the average height of Chinese civilians was higher than that of some foreigners, even if these civilians were still hungry. Then, why did the Qing Dynasty, who were not physically inferior, always fail to win the troops of foreign powers in war? I'm afraid this is not entirely physical.
For example, Li Hongzhang, in fact, people also have a talent for war, he also participated in the war to conquer many local rebel forces, but why did he later preside over the large-scale battles that he failed? For example, in the Battle of Jiawu, in fact, the Qing Dynasty had a firepower advantage, but the old lady of Cixi wanted to hold a birthday party, and directly took the money to buy ammunition to the birthday party, and in the end the Beiyang Fleet could only sit and wait to be beaten, and it was not unjustly lost at all.
From the example of Li Hongzhang, we can also see that the height of Chinese is not shorter than that of foreigners. As long as the food supply was adequate, our height could quickly surpass that of foreigners.