In the late Qing Dynasty, the international situation suddenly changed, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty was even more precarious. Faced with the dilemma of internal and external troubles, the Qing government had to vigorously reuse Han ministers. Against the background of the chaotic world and being entrusted with heavy responsibilities, a large number of Hanchen talents and celebrities have emerged, the most well-known of which are Zeng (Zeng Guofan), Zuo (Zuo Zongtang), Hu (Hu Linyi), and Li (Li Hongzhang).
Although these four old people are also "famous ministers of Zhongxing", for the Qing Dynasty and even for today's China, the achievements they have made have their own advantages, but several of them are not the same in the word-of-mouth evaluation of posterity.
I think there are three main reasons for this:
1. The concept of xiucai and bing is different
Li Hongzhang won the Jinshi at the age of 24, while Zuo Zongtang was only a lifter until his death, and from the perspective of academic qualifications, Li Hongzhang was slightly superior. But throughout the ages, it has never been a great thing to read well.
However, this has indeed become the difference between the two, Li Hongzhang is Xiucai as an official, left and right Fengyuan; Zuo Zongtang is a shiren who joins the army and wins thousands of miles. Li Hongzhang was an official, and Zuo Zongtang was the material for fighting. In fact, from this point of view, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang are not superior or inferior, but they are good at different fields. But the following story will clearly see the difference between the two, and will also understand why Li Hongzhang is not optimistic.
Zuo Zongtang is a violent temper, the kind that ignites the fire, but this kind of violent temper is not objectionable, because the country and the people need this kind of violent temper. Once, the British consulate set up a sign on the lease in Shanghai that read, "Chinese and dogs are not allowed to enter." Zuo Zongtang knew, didn't talk much nonsense, and directly led people over to smash the sign, beat people up, and arrested the person in charge. Sitting in the middle of the eight-wheeled caravan, Zuo Zongtang was majestic, wearing a yellow horse coat, wearing a jeweled top, three eyes, and holding a goose fan, which really frightened foreigners. This is the bloodiness of a soldier, this must be replaced by Li Hongzhang to deal with this matter, doing things is certainly not so reckless!
Here, I want to make a not very appropriate analogy, do you like the grumpy Li Yunlong, or the good-tempered Zhao Gang? I think most people will choose Li Yunlong!
Of course, Li Hongzhang's show talent is really absurd, which is why he has always been criticized by people. In 1885, he signed the Sino-French Treaty of Vietnam with France in Tianjin, which was an out-and-out treaty of loss of power and humiliation signed by the Chinese army after the victory of the Chinese army in the war with France. Winning the war and being bullied is an unprecedented curiosity in the history of world diplomacy. In this regard, Zuo Zongtang led the opposition, saying that "as far as China is concerned, ten French generals are not as bad as one Li Hongzhang", and he also said: "Li Hongzhang mistakenly exhausted his life and will be cursed for eternity." As Zuo Zongtang said, this treaty is a disgrace that Li Hongzhang cannot wash away.
To sum up, this show talent is far inferior to this soldier.
2. The concept of being an official is different
On the road of becoming an official, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang started from the same point, and both followed Zeng Guofan as an aide, making military achievements in the war to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and thus making steady progress. However, the political direction of the two was diametrically opposed: Li Hongzhang was an official of himself and the imperial court, while Zuo Zongtang was an official of the people and Huaxia.
After Li Hongzhang's career took off, in addition to eating and drinking spicy, his subordinates were also in the clouds. The officials who followed Zuo Zongtang had no intention of fighting but were ostracized, and most of them did not have a good ending, and the patriotic businessman Hu Xueyan was such a fate.
During the Sino-French War, Li Hongzhang was busy fighting Zuo Zongtang, because in his opinion this was the weakest time for Zuo Zongtang, and in line with the principle of "taking advantage of your illness, he wanted your life", he successfully defeated Zuo Zongtang and finally became a unique force in the DPRK. This is what Li Hongzhang did as an official.
Zuo Zongtang became an official not only for simple fame and fortune, but for a more ambitious pursuit. In 1849, the national hero Lin Zexu once had a conversation with Zuo Zongtang, who was still a civilian at the time. During the dialogue, Lin Zexu saw that this was a young man with ideals and ambitions, so he compiled what he saw and heard in Ili, Xinjiang, and entrusted it to Zuo Zongtang. Later, in 1875, Lin Gong had long been an ancient, Russia invaded Ili, Zuo Zongtang carried the coffin out of the expropriation to restore Xinjiang, preserving China's border territory, which is also the reason why Zuo Zongtang was called a "national hero". This is what Zuo Zongtang did as an official, and the two were compared and judged from above.
In the official arena, the biggest difference between Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang was that Li Hongzhang believed that the enemies of the Qing Dynasty were at sea, so it was necessary to invest heavily in coastal defense, while Zuo Zongtang believed that the threat was on land, believing that the Qing Dynasty had limited energy and needed to invest a lot of money in the frontier guards. Is coastal defense important or is xinjiang defense important? This is a political, military, and historical issue, and I have only neglected to study it, and I really don't know much about it. But what I know is that Zuo Zongtang attached great importance to xinjiang defense, so he had recovered Xinjiang and defended the territory of the motherland in his early years, while Li Hongzhang claimed to invest in coastal defense and vigorously build the Beiyang Fleet, resulting in the total annihilation of the Beiyang Fleet in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Naval Battle in 1894.
As the saying goes, there is no gap without contrast. In recent years, there have always been some remarks on the Internet that whitewash Li Hongzhang, and here, I would like to say that compared with what Zuo Gong did, Li Hongzhang is really too much worse.
3. The wealth left behind
Li Hongzhang the wealth he left us is... Well, he didn't leave us with wealth. But he left a real wealth for his descendants, and Rong Rong, the father of chinese students, said: "I estimate that when Li Hongzhang died, he left about 40 million taels of silver to his descendants. ”
And then there's the wealth in the chart:
In the office of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man, there is one of the words zuo gong hanging:
These eight sentences are really useful to understand, and they are encouraged by the king.
Finally, I think it is strange that Li Hongzhang was born as a literati, and must have been a literary talent, and he was an official for a lifetime, but he did not only say a few words to posterity, but left only gold and silver wealth; while Zuo Zongtang was a reckless man who led soldiers to fight, but he had eight famous sayings passed down through the ages. Therefore, it is concluded that some officials are busy saving the country, while other officials are only busy becoming officials.
To sum up: some people die and will live forever; some people die, but they can only leave a stink for thousands of years!
This all depends on what the people at that time did, and they can't complain about history, and they can't complain about future generations!