In recent years, there has been a storm of reversal on the Internet, and some figures in history have been interpreted from another angle, such as Li Hongzhang, and now some people say that Li Hongzhang is a capable ruler of the world, but unfortunately he was dragged down by Cixi, who wholeheartedly continued his life for the Great Qing, and finally left 100 million silver for the country one bullet after another.
If you like to surf the Internet, you may remember that some time ago, a group of people on the short video platform shouted at Zhang Zhidong to see Lord Li, which really made people cry and laugh. The person who washed Li Hongzhang's white felt the same way.
The extremely wealthy Lee family
Objectively speaking, Li Hongzhang made some contributions to the qing court's maintenance of rule, but what about the outside world?
In the face of Agubai, who had the support of Britain and Russia, Li Hongzhang said that "Xinjiang is no longer recovered, and there is no harm in the vitality of the limbs", if it were not for Zuo Zongtang standing up and fighting against "my frontier, the size cannot be let people", then it is really difficult to say what decision Cixi would make.
In the face of the French, Zhennanguan Dajie obviously defeated france, but Li Hongzhang vigorously advocated the signing of the "Sino-French Tianjin Treaty", which was completely under the advantage of sending "gifts", and afterwards Zuo Zongtang learned and scolded that "for China, ten French generals are not as bad as one Li Hongzhang."
Li Hongzhang created a Huai army, and in the face of the Japanese, he only knew how to run; he set up foreign affairs, and he also made a lot of kickbacks from it.
There is a saying to describe Li Hongzhang - "The prime minister Hefei is thin in the world", which is wonderful.
At that time, the world basically had no money, but the Li Hongzhang family was very rich, and three years after Li Hongzhang's death, his direct descendants carried out a property division and wrote the "Family Separation Contract", which alone had 60,000 mu of fields in Anhui, and other antique calligraphy and paintings, real estate pawnshops, and enterprise shares were too widely distributed, which were difficult to calculate and did not record.
For more money, you can refer to the records of three late Qing celebrities, Rong Hong, who is known as the "father of Chinese students", estimated Li Hongzhang's inheritance in the "Memoirs of Rong Hong", saying that "(Li Hongzhang) had a private property of 40 million two at the time of his death" and left his descendants."
Liang Qichao said in the "Biography of Li Hongzhang": "About millions of gold industries, italy, China Merchants Bureau, Telegraph Bureau, Kaiping Coal Mine, China Commerce and Commerce Bank, its shares are quite a lot. Or the silver number of pawnshops in Nanjing and Shanghai, most of them belong to their pipe industry clouds. ”
The famous scholar Fei Xingjian said in the "Biography of Modern Celebrities" that after Li Hongzhang's death, "the family wealth exceeded 10 million, and his brothers and sons had more than 10 million silver and private wealth." ”
On the whole, there must be tens of millions of silver.
Not only Li Hongzhang's direct family, the entire family is extremely rich, so how many celebrities have emerged from the descendants of the Li family who grew up under such a family?
The second generation of decline
Generally speaking, as long as the first generation is very powerful, the second generation will often find a goal that can be surpassed, thus appearing more ordinary, and the Li Hongzhang family is also like this.
Li Hongzhang had four wives and concubines, and gave birth to five sons and three daughters, but the eldest son Li Jingyu died early, and in 1862, Li Hongzhang was over 40 years old or had no children, and Li Zhaoqing, the sixth house, passed On Li Jingfang to him.
After Li Jingfang became the eldest son of Li Hongzhang, he studied very hard, and served as a counselor in the United States, a minister in Japan, and a mission to Britain. After the Xinhai Revolution, he became yugong, and he could still see the situation clearly, and the later Restoration of Zhang Xun and the puppet state of Manchukuo did not participate. In his later years, he lived by the savings he had accumulated, but he was not a good place.
The second son, Li Jingshu, the eldest son of Li Hongzhang, was loved by his family since childhood, and Zeng Guofan also praised "this public auxiliary instrument". However, when he grew up, he was not outstanding in the official arena, but was famous for filial piety.
When his mother died, he "wept bitterly every time he thought of his mother's grace, and every time he cried, he would breathe, so that he often fainted, and his body was greatly damaged." Later, Li Hongzhang died, and Li Jingshu was even more sad and could not extricate himself, originally wanted to be martyred for his father, but was dissuaded by his family, but the next year he died of excessive grief.
The third son, Li Jingyuan, and the fifth son, Li Jingjin, both died prematurely.
The fourth son, Li Jingmai, is good at financial management, and has served as an envoy in Jiangsu, Henan, Zhejiang and other places, and the family's belongings are difficult to count, and he loves to collect antiques, and the ancient books he collects are second to none in the Republic of China. After the Xinhai Revolution, he also became a Yugong, but Zhang Xun restored him and came out to do activities, thus ruining his reputation.
The eldest daughter, Li Jingxuan, nicknamed Li Jurong, married the left vice-governor Yushi Zhang Peilun and married her husband and godson, and her life was uneventful.
The other two women were unable to keep their names.
In the final analysis, the second generation of the Li family is not outstanding.
Generations of celebrities have emerged
The Qing Dynasty is gone, and the signboard of "Descendants of Li Hongzhang" will not only not increase the benefits in the third generation, but will have a lot of trouble, so from this generation onwards, it will be self-sufficient, and the younger generations will still be quite competitive.
For example, Li Jingshu's son, Li Guojie, served as a member of the Senate and the Senate of the Anfu Diet during the Republic of China.
However, Li Hongzhang's most famous descendants are not surnamed Li, but surnamed Zhang. Zhang Ailing, a famous female scholar in modern times, is the granddaughter of Li Jule and Zhang Peilun, that is, the great-grandchild of Li Hongzhang.
In addition to Li Hongzhang's direct lineage, the entire Li family also produced an academician and three billionaires.
The highest status and greatest achievement was Li Daozeng, who was the fifth grandson of Li Hongzhang's younger brother Li Hezhang. Born in Shanghai, he was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University with excellent results at the age of 17, and later found his own interest and transferred to the Department of Architecture, where he studied under the famous architect Liang Sicheng, who has been teaching at Tsinghua university since his studies and was the first dean of Tsinghua's School of Architecture.
Academically, Li Daozeng adhered to inheritance and innovation, integrated Chinese and Western architectural styles, conducted in-depth theoretical research, and in 1999, was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
To say that the rich also belong to the six houses of the Li family, Li Zhaoqing's four generations of grandchildren have produced three billionaires: Li Jiachang, Li Jiajing, and Li Jiashu, the three of them are very low-key, but very rich, known as "the three aircraft carriers of the Li family".
The two brothers Li Jiachang and Li Jiajing left their parents for Hong Kong at a very young age, when there were only more than ten US dollars, all of which were studied by themselves, and after more than ten years of hard work, they became famous industrialists in Hong Kong.
Industries throughout the country and abroad, involving light and heavy industries, even Africa has their own companies, its famous enterprises are: global steel factory, global enamel factory, Ximao steel factory, etc., from the two words of universal can see the ambition and pattern of the two brothers.
It is worth mentioning that after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Jiachang also returned from Hong Kong to Shanghai to join the army, and only after the war was retired to Hong Kong to fight with his brother in the mall, and finally succeeded.
Li Jiashu is also very legendary, once studied in Shanghai, and then went to Hong Kong and then to Singapore alone, before leaving, he only brought a gold ring given by his mother, and he broke out of a trade route. He is a well-known rich man in Singapore, in banking, textiles and mining.
And he also set up a special root-seeking website for the Lee family in Singapore, so that more Descendants of the Lee Family can recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors.
We often say that "the rich are not more than three generations", to the Li Hongzhang family here there is no response, the spirit of the ancestors is there, but mainly rely on the efforts of the descendants themselves!