In 1898, Paul Goldman, a reporter from the Frankfurt Times in Germany, came to China, and he recorded all aspects of the social landscape of the city in the late Qing Dynasty treaty port, and also left the silhouette of the times of Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Rong Lu, Tan Zhonglin, Cai Jun, Wang Cunshan and other figures today, opening a pair of "exotic eyes" for understanding "modern China".
More than a hundred years after the trip to China, the text left by Paul Goldman was rediscovered, translated, and published under the title Summer of 1898: A German Journalist's Observations on China.
Summer day of 1898 : A German Journalist's Observations on China
Paul Goldman's trip to China began on April 10, 1898. On March 6, 1898, the Qing government signed the Jiao'ao Lend-Lease Treaty with Germany. On April 10, German journalist Paul Goldmann was assigned by the Frankfurter Zeitung to conduct an interview with China from the Port of Geniana, Italy. Goldman's German Prussia crossed the Mediterranean Sea via Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aden, and sailed as far as Singapore. Then, he landed in Hong Kong, through Guangzhou, Shanghai, and all the way to the hinterland of China for a detailed investigation. On the way, he interviewed Wang Cunshan, then secretary of the Governor of Guangdong and director of the Lijin Bureau, and Cai Jun of Shanghai Daotai. From Shanghai, take a boat down the Yangtze River and stop at Zhenjiang, Hankou, Wuchang and other places.
In Hankou, Goldman visited the commercial institutions and monasteries established in Chinese mainland in Europe. In Wuchang, he inspected the new type of army trained by German instructors hired by Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang. In Qingdao, Weihai, Yantai and other places in Jiaozhou Bay, he made in-depth visits to the Jiaozhou area that had just been incorporated into the German concession.
Goldman met many modern Chinese historical figures during his visit. In Yantai, he met Chen Jitong, a former Qing government diplomat in Europe. This is an important figure in modern history who has vigorously promoted Chinese culture in Europe. In Tianjin, he interviewed Rong Lu, the Qing government's army chief and governor directly under him. In Beijing, he visited Li Hongzhang, who had just left the wilderness. The meeting with Li Hongzhang took place on October 22, 1898.
Li
Goldman used a lot of ink to lay out the scene of his meeting with this "big man":
"Li Hongzhang was waiting for us at his son's residence. The house is made of wood, and like a typical Chinese building, the room is only one floor above the ground. The house was newly built, and the bright green exterior paint contrasted strongly with the dirty gray houses nearby. From the wide frontage and open space in front of the house, it can be seen that there must be rich people living here. The knight of the consulate first went to hand over our Chinese letter of visit, and when he came back to tell us that the visit had been approved, we got out of the carriage. Walking through the gate, through the clean garden paved with large rectangular stone slabs, stepping on the stone slab staircase, Mr. Li Hongzhang was already standing at the door to greet us. ”
The door was almost as tall as his, making him look a little taller than he actually was. The appearance of an old man who is high up in the sky is solemn and respectful. He wore simple household attire, a reddish-brown brocade robe, a blue silk tunic with unbuttoned buttons and some wear near the neckline. His tanned face had not changed much, as he had been known in Europe. He had a pair of glasses hanging from his nose, not the kind of weird style (exaggerated, bizarre, unusual) used by ordinary Chinese literati, but European-style glasses with thin gold frames. Behind the lenses is a pair of shrewd, small, flexible eyes, sometimes with a fierce glare. He speaks so loudly that it doesn't sound uncomfortable, but rather because his elderly voices are a bit mushy (the French call this slurred speech). He tried to be as quiet as possible, at least at first. ”
Beijing 1898 "Photographs of Scenic Scenes Inside and Outside Beijing"
Li Hongzhang's appearance and conversation left a deep impression on the German journalist, Goldman wrote: "After that, his words became slightly more, but he still controlled the content of the words and had a cunning look." Sometimes he would burst into a brief laugh as he spoke, and the yellow teeth in his mouth were clearly visible, which were strong, slender canine teeth. When he laughed like this, a look of mockery flashed on his face, but then he returned to seriousness and dullness. The old gentleman's head was covered with no hair left, and under the scalp was a round skull with strong bones. ”
After describing in detail Li Hongzhang's cane, the space where everyone is located, and the people around him, Goldman finally wrote about his conversation with Li Hongzhang, and also recorded how Li Hongzhang responded to many criticisms of himself:
I repeat: "All of this is because there is no one in Europe who can be trusted to sit in the Chinese government." For China's credit, Mr. Li Hongzhang is the best spokesperson. I can't understand that I won't let you continue to serve. Among the officials who lead China, you are almost equivalent to the name of Chinese credit, and now it has no effect. ”
Li Hongzhang listened to these words of praise without blinking, and seemed to be able to detect that these words touched him. He pondered for a moment, then said, "Foreigners understand and admire me according to their past achievements, but if Chinese don't think so, what can I do?" ”
"I don't think so!" I say.
"This is not false. Prime Minister Bismarck once experienced such a thing: he won the trust of all civilized countries, but there was no way to make his emperor trust him! Li Hongzhang said.
"Then why did you lose the trust of your emperor?"
"People slammed me for being too partial to foreigners. They called me a traitor. ”
When Li Hongzhang said this, his face trembled with resentment. When he said the three words "traitor", a burst of laughter broke out.
……
Ma Zhongwen, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, commented on the book: "A German journalist's observation of the officialdom and society at the end of the Qing Dynasty always has some prejudices of Westerners, but from another point of view, his observations and analysis are also unique, often Chinese where they are easy to ignore and turn a blind eye to." It should be admitted that Paul Goldman's travels and interviews show some primitive forms of Chinese society around 1898 that the Chinese people did not expect. ”
In addition to "biographies" such as "Visiting Li Hongzhang", Goldman also recorded in detail the customs of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hankou, Wuchang, Jiaozhou, Tianjin, Beijing and other cities in the late Qing Dynasty. In the book, Goldman highly affirms the diligence, bravery, and wisdom of the Chinese people he came into contact with. He predicted at the time that Shanghai would become a great city in the East with decades of efforts.
Goldman wrote about the city in every way, about Beijing, twenty-five thousand words, starting with the train, writing about the imperial city, writing about the fields, graves, the landscape of the plains, about the people living in the city, and very specially— the presence of imperial power in the city at all times: "The other carriages of the train are stuffed with Chinese, and some people wear ornate robes embroidered with square patterns on their chests." All of them wore black winter hats with upright brims on their heads. Because a few weeks ago the Emperor issued an edict to change into winter clothes, so the entire empire, whatever the climate, from the far north to the tropical south, from the day the emperor liked, began to enter winter. Once the holy shang in Beijing found that the clean north wind was blowing through the tip of his noble nose, then his four hundred million subjects would also feel cold and need to hide in warm robes. Residents in the south, such as in the Guangdong area, even if they were still in summer, had to change into winter clothes because the emperor felt cold. When the summer begins, it will be determined in the same way, by the emperor's edict. ”
In the book, Goldman also revealed the inside story of the capital competition of the European powers in the initial Process of China's railway planning, as well as the situation that China's economy and the European economy are integrated and the European economy and the conflict of interests between the great powers. Through interactions with officials at different levels of the Qing government, he documented the different ideas of officials in the late Qing Dynasty for reform and cooperation with the West, as well as the different reactions of the people to such ideas.
Paul Goldman, as a German journalist, is friendly to China, and his narratives are often full of emotion, as in the following account of hawkers making a living in Beijing: "Sometimes, there are merchants squatting in front of the gate of their houses and shouting for hours, even if everyone knows that others are there, there is no need to shout like this." Want to wait for him to shout hoarse? That was in vain, Chinese throat would not become hoarse. If he thought it was his duty to shout, he would hold out until the end of his life, or until suddenly a boulder fell over his head, and if it wasn't hard enough, he would even continue to shout beside the stone. This kind of whispering merchant sounds like a painful lament. When the sky above Beijing becomes gloomy and people look toward the walls of Manchuria, which are isolated from the outside world, but also from wealth and beauty, it is sad to hear the lament inspired by such unsettling pain, and repeatedly appear through the alleys. ”