Recently, I watched The Republic and found that many netizens have different views on this drama, and the biggest disagreement is the debate about whether Li Hongzhang is a capable person or an incompetent person. According to the previous understanding, Li Hongzhang should be a weak person, because he cannot lead China to become strong, and he has also failed to live up to Mr. Sun's expectations of him. But in the drama Towards Republic, Li Hongzhang is very capable, and his failure is due to the constraints of the people in the DPRK and China. So the question is, can Li Hongzhang do it in the real historical records?
Let's first look at the depiction in film and television works, towards the republic is not an ordinary film and television work, it is based on a large amount of history, and then truly restore the characteristics of historical characters. Therefore, in the process of moving towards republicanism, Li Hongzhang's helplessness is reproduced, as well as the knowledge of the changing times, and the conflict between new knowledge and old knowledge. At that time, Li Hongzhang said that the Japanese were strong, but the Guangxu Emperor ignored him. Later, if Li Hongzhang wanted to advocate war with the Japanese, he must focus on defense and not unilaterally venture forward. Coupled with the lack of shells in Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Marine Division at that time, there was only a deficit of 600,000 taels, and as a result, the imperial court never issued them.
As a result later, everyone knows that Hubu Shangshu Weng and Gong Gong have always instigated Li Hongzhang to go to war, but Li Hongzhang has no money, so he has a later failure. Every bit of the film and television works allows us to see that Li Hongzhang is a person who is very capable and has the vision to see the world, but he is bound by this feudal system and cannot do too many things.
So the question is, how is it recorded in the historical data? Because the historical materials of the late Qing Dynasty are too numerous and too complex, Li Hongzhang is also somewhat vague. But we can still draw a reliable conclusion that in film and television works, Li Hongzhang is right to be restrained, because this is the trade-off technique of the imperial court. But Li Hongzhang was held back and could not exert his ambitions at all, and this sentence was not true. Because according to historical records, when Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang were discussing future national defense issues, although Empress Dowager Cixi supported Zuo Zongtang, she gave all the money to Li Hongzhang, which led to the miracle of a few small wooden planks on Kunming Lake becoming the Beiyang Marine Division.
Moreover, in the following days, Li Hongzhang can be said to have been favored a lot by Empress Dowager Cixi, and his Beiyang Marine Division asked for money and people, but none of them were absent. When the Beiyang Admiralty was built, Li Hongzhang became the most honorable person in the Qing Empire, and his power was so great that Empress Dowager Cixi had to warn him by attacking prince Alcohol.
Therefore, in theory, Li Hongzhang is not as tied as he is in film and television works, and then he is punished by people to vomit blood. But in the end, Li Hongzhang did not do anything better than his teacher.
Therefore, I personally feel that Li Hongzhang is a capable person, but he still can't break through the shackles in that period when everything is ready, which also proves that he is not a real super master. In the era of many strong people, Li Hongzhang is ultimately inferior to those who created the era, not because he is incompetent, but because the times are too complicated.