After the defeat of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang came to Japan as a negotiator of the Qing Dynasty and exchanged it for the "Treaty of Maguan", which had lost power and humiliated the country. When the whole country learned that the treaty ceded Taiwan, Penghu, and Liaodong to Japan, the crowd was full of emotions and went around accusing and insulting Li Hongzhang's voice.
At that time, Prince Gong Yixun claimed,
"Hefei Xiangguo ji destroyed bones"
, is not an exaggeration at all. At that time, many people thought that Li Hongzhang was a traitor to the country and asked the Qing court to thank the world, including Chen Sanli, the father of the later master of traditional Chinese studies, Chen Yinke.
The biography of Li Hongzhang in the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty records:
"(Li Hongzhang) Ma Guan made a covenant to return, but the commentators have not yet been made, or persuaded to return."
Among those who persuaded Li Hongzhang to retire or resign was Yuan Shikai, whom he had single-handedly cultivated and promoted. But Li Hongzhang said:
"Yu Guoshi has a friendship that cannot be ignored, and if this matter is defeated and retreated, who cares?"
Even if they are idle and useless, they will resolutely refuse to resign and retire.
Coincidentally, during the invasion of the Eight-Power Alliance and the hunting of the two palaces, Li Hongzhang, who was then the governor of Liangguang, was appointed minister plenipotentiary and went to Beijing to negotiate with the great powers. At that time, Zhang Yuanji advised him not to take this trip to muddy waters again, and then to bear the insult of a traitor. However, Li Hongzhang still refused to retreat, decided to go north, and used his last life to sign the "Xinugu Treaty" with the great powers, and reached a reconciliation with huge indemnities.
Li Hongzhang's resolute refusal to give in, no matter how much pressure he faced from public opinion, according to his own claim, stemmed from a story he heard from Zeng Guofan when he was in the Xiang Army barracks. This educational story influenced him throughout his life.
Li Hongzhang has always regarded himself as the "door growth" of Zeng Guofan, and he also respects Zeng Guofan very much, and he must be called "my teacher" when he opens his mouth. One day, Li Hongzhang chatted with Wu Yong, the granddaughter-in-law of Zeng Guofan, and brought up the story to him, saying:
"My teacher's secret method of transmitting the mind has eighteen 'sutras', which are really the treasures of mastering the creation and keeping the world."
The first of these goes like this:
Once upon a time, there was an old man who invited distinguished guests to his house for lunch, so he asked his son to go to the market early in the morning to buy vegetables. But until noon, he did not see his son return, the old man was anxious, so he personally went to the village entrance to check, and found that just above the water pond (paddy field) not far from home, the son carrying the vegetable burden and a person carrying the goods were deadlocked with each other, and no one would let anyone.
When the old man saw this, he went forward to negotiate and said:
"Brother, I have a guest in my house, and I am waiting for this meal." Please take a step into the paddy field, and when he comes, your brother can also go over, isn't it two poops? ”
The man asked, "Why do you want me to go down to the paddy field, but he can't get down?" The old man explained that his son was short in stature, and it was easy to soak the wet melon fruit and damage the food in the water, while the person who picked the goods was taller, and the cargo burden would not get wet when he went down to the paddy field.
The man still refused to back down, saying:
"Your burden is nothing but vegetables and fruits, even if it is soaked wet, it can also be used; my burden is full of Beijing-Guangzhou noble goods, in case of water, it is worthless." This burden is different, can Ann tell me to avoid? ”
When the old man saw that he could not say anything, he stepped forward and said that he should simply go into the water himself, first help the man to carry the cargo on his head, and then hand the burden back to him after he passed empty. When the man saw that the old man really wanted to go into the water, he said, don't bother the old man so much, I will let you go into the water.
The story ends, the old man only
"If you stand up, a competition will be dissolved."
This is the first article of the opening meaning of the "Sutra of The Classics".
Zeng Guofan's granddaughter-in-law listened with relish and quickly asked: What about the next seventeen?
Li Hongzhang said: Behind? I won't talk about the rest. Think for yourself.
If Zeng Guofan really had eighteen "Tingjing" mental methods, only this one would have been passed down, and the next seventeen were all lost. The so-called Zeng Guofan's "Tingjing" that is now on the market is only a work entrusted to the name of posterity.
At that time, Zeng Guofan's granddaughter-in-law did not hear the next seventeen mental methods, and carefully considered the first one, believing that this story was meant to be expressed
"It is generally said that it is always useless to shout and discuss the affairs of the world on the outside, and it is necessary to bow down to the situation and stand up and be responsible, but there is something to be hoped for."
And Li Hongzhang's understanding of the "Tingjing" is obviously one level deeper than Wu Yong's. After receiving zeng guofan's teachings of "standing up the scriptures", he not only stepped forward into the situation, but also made no retreat.
Zeng Guofan was well versed in the way of profit and loss, so after handling the Tianjin teaching plan, in the face of public opinion pressure, he chose to return to his hometown. But Li Hongzhang did not agree with the teacher's move, thinking
"Accepted by the great office of the nation, after death",
So he himself is
"From being strong to old, I haven't given up a day."
It can be seen that Li Hongzhang's adherence to this "Ting" character is even worse than that of Zeng Guofan, who invented the "Tingjing".