Qing Dynasty bureaucrats
When it comes to the late Qing dynasty school, the general impression is that they flaunt the qing stream, pretend to be clean, and have their eyes higher than the top, which directly aggravates China's backwardness. The leader of the Qing school is Li Hongzao, who was born on the right path and has a very high culture, but he lacks political practice and cannot see the general trend of the world, believing that the current crisis is a betrayal of the ancestors, and the only way to solve the crisis is retro. This scholarly view has exacerbated the crisis in China, and Li Hongzao's experience is a microcosm of the history of the Qing school.
Qing Dynasty official
<h1>I. Introduction of Li Hongzao</h1>
Li Hongzao, a native of Baoding, Hebei Province, was born in 1820 and studied Confucianism since childhood, and was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics. In 1852, he served as a scholar in many places; in 1861, he was elected by the Xianfeng Emperor as the teacher of Zaichun, the eldest son of the Xianfeng Emperor. Being chosen as Zaichun's teacher was a turning point in Li Hongzao's fate, because Zaichun was the later Tongzhi Emperor. ZaiChun ascended the throne at an early age, and the empress dowagers of the two palaces were the generation of women who made practical decisions but were not easy to show their faces, so they had to promote a large number of tongzhi emperor's cronies. As an imperial teacher, Li Hongzao was naturally the first object of care, and as a result, in the year when the Tongzhi Emperor ascended the throne (1862), Li Hongzao, a teacher of yijie, was promoted to a cabinet scholar and a left attendant of the Household Department. In 1865, Li Hongzao was promoted to the position of Metropolitan Imperial History of the Imperial Household.
The Tongzhi Emperor and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces
Li Hongzao has always been a scholar of the shuzhai type, and he was also a scholar in the local area, never directly managed the people, had no political experience, and was forcibly promoted to one of the administrators of the empire by a scholar, which has to be said to be an arrangement of fate. Because of the lack of political experience in which scholars directly become politicians, Li Hongzao does not understand the principles of governing a big country, nor can he see the "unprecedented changes in thousands of years" in which the Qing Dynasty is located. His political experience is entirely derived from the Confucian Four Books and Five Classics, believing that being upright and honest is a good official, and that foreigners and barbarians must be eliminated, but he does not understand the means and storms in the political arena, as well as the international environment in which the Qing Dynasty lived. This lack of experience in governing the country is the reason why Li Hongzao tends to be a clear stream.
Li Hongzao is not related to Li Hongzhang
<h1>Second, the emergence of the Qing school</h1>
In the 1860s, the Qing Dynasty successfully pacified the "hair twist" and other confidants, and the development of the foreign affairs movement increased the national strength, and the Qing nobles were temporarily at ease in the praise of "Great Qing Zhongxing", which was manifested in the fact that from 1868 to 1871, the Tongzhi Emperor and Cixi repeatedly proposed to rebuild the Yuanmingyuan. But the physical and armpit troubles they have forgotten have been fermenting, manifested in the fact that Tsarist Russia spied on Xinjiang; Britain invaded Tibet; the United States coveted Taiwan; Japan annexed Ryukyu and invaded Korea; and France provoked Vietnam and coveted Yunnan. In the 1960s and 1970s, China was an eventful autumn, with the outbreak of the Two-Year-Old Ding PengQi Famine, which spanned nine provinces. Under this internal and external troubles, a large number of Confucian scholars and doctors have risen, and they have run to save the situation, which is the origin of the emergence of the Qing school.
Clear genre
The Metropolitan Inspection Yuan, first seen in the Ming Dynasty and inherited by the Qing Dynasty, is actually the historical Yushitai, which is specially responsible for supervising hundreds of officials, advising the current government, and correcting mistakes. The Hanlin Academy began in the Tang Dynasty, nominally as a propaganda department that raised a group of literati to embellish the imperial dynasty with words to flaunt its merits, but it also had the authority of Chen Shiyi. Originally, under the traditional autocratic society, the power of supervision was subordinate to the imperial power, and the Hanlin Academy was all scholars, and it was impossible to expect these people to support the shortcomings of the times, so most of their powers were in the form. Until the Cixi era, Cixi posed as an "enlightened despotism" and "inquired about the sword" (not ashamed to ask) and encouraged his subordinates to write and say things. Yu Shi and Han Lin, who had been suppressed for a hundred years, heard that the empress dowager now encouraged us to criticize the current politics, so these people really believed. Cixi's encouragement directly contributed to the emergence of the Qing school. Cixi's calculation was to use them to restrain the Westerners and balance the increasingly powerful Western bureaucrats.
Empress
Li Hongzao, who twice served as the governor of the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau in 1865 and 1871, was the governor of the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan, so Cixi's "enlightened despotism" greatly encouraged Li. Moreover, after 1867, Li Hongzao also joined the Military Aircraft Department to participate in military aircraft. A serious contradiction arose between Li Hongzao, who was in the military aircraft department, and Shen Guifen, who was also a military aircraft. There are many contradictions between the two people, first of all, Shen Guifen's ancestral home is Jiangsu, Li Hongzao is Hebei, and the blackness of the north and south regions between the two is the root cause; second, the political views are different, Li uses Confucianism as the basis of "the hammer and the baht must be compared", right is right, wrong is wrong, Shen has long been in the political field, there is no scholar's opinion, advocating going with the flow, such as the destruction of the Ryukyu in Japan, Li advocates fighting Japan to save the country, and Shen advocates that it is impossible to fight. The controversy between Li Shen and Shen also became another reason for Li to form the Qing school.
<h1>Third, the leader of the Qing school</h1>
There is no specific time for the formation of the Qing school, and it is generally believed that in the 1870s, Li Hongzao, who was also the minister of military aircraft and the chief of the Metropolitan Inspection, actively quoted Yushi and Hanlin as henchmen in order to fight Shen Guifen. In 1875, Li's younger brothers, at Li's behest, were full of vigor and stirred up words, using the drought in Beijing as an excuse to use the story of the natural disasters in the Han Dynasty, and Tianzi deposed the prime minister as a story, and attacked Shen Guifen, and Shen Guifen was dismissed. Li and his younger brothers not only attacked Shen Guifen but also talked about state affairs and criticized current politics, because they put on a face of carrying a coffin to die and asking for the people's lives, so they were supported by the scholars at that time, and the momentum was quite huge, and the world called it the "Qing School".
The starving people under the Ding Pengqi famine
After the Qing faction defeated Shen Guifen, he began to participate in politics. Its specific manifestations are
1. Disaster relief and relief
When the Ding Pengqi famine occurred, Tongzhi and Cixi wanted to repair the Yuanmingyuan. The Qing school, represented by Li Hongzao, resolutely opposed the cultivation of gardens. Opposing the rebuilding of the Yuanmingyuan and saving money for disaster relief was the climax of the development of the Qing school. While opposing Cixi's cultivation of the garden, the Qing faction wantonly impeached local bureaucrats for failing to provide disaster relief, forcing local bureaucrats to seriously provide disaster relief.
2. Attach importance to education
Li Hongzao and his younger brothers were both from the Imperial Examination and were deeply accomplished in traditional culture. They knew that in order to save the people, they had to have talents, so the Qing school attached great importance to education. Several of Li Hongzao's capable generals are known for their proficiency in education, such as Zhang Peilun and Zhang Zhidong.
Zhang Zhidong was originally Qingliu and later defected to foreign affairs
3. Supporting the current situation, its performance is impeachment
Because since the Qianlong Dynasty, the corruption in the official field of the Qing Dynasty has not been eliminated, and it is like one of the serious diseases of the late Qing Dynasty. Li Hongzao and others are known for their death advice, Li's younger brother Zhang Peilun is known for impeachment, and Li's other younger brother, Deng Chengxiu, is also dedicated to impeachment.
4. Speak up
In 1880, there was the "Noon Gate Case", the eunuch who was ordered by Cixi to leave the palace violated the regulations and forced the noon gate out of the palace, the noon gate defender refused to open the door due to his duties, the eunuch was pampered and proud, and as a result, the two sides clashed, Cixi favored the eunuch and wanted to kill the noon gate defender. As soon as this remark came out, the Qing faction was indignant and supported the noon gate defenders, and as a result, the noon gate defenders were changed to be lightly dismissed.
5. Independent externality
Li Hongzao's attitude toward the outside world undoubtedly represents the views of the Qing school. In 1878, Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang, the Qing Dynasty sent Yan Chonghou to Russia to clean up the aftermath, Chonghou actually signed an unequal treaty of land reparations, the news spread back to China, the whole country was angry, Li Hongzao was even more frequently impeached, that is, under the pressure of Li Hongzao and others, the Qing Dynasty sent Zeng Jize to Russia to "ask for food", and Chonghou was sent to prison for questioning.
The Sino-French War was the climax of foreign affairs dominated by the Qing school, and at the beginning the Qing Dynasty ignored the Destruction of Vietnam by France. Li Hongzao proposed: If you do not save Vietnam, Then Yunnan and Guangdong will be in danger. Moreover, Li Hongzao also analyzed the reasons for China's inevitable victory, first of all, France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, its strength had long been depleted, and the Qing Dynasty could win over Germany to contain France; secondly, China fought at home and operated foreign affairs for many years, and its military strength had increased; Liu Yongfu (who had originally wanted to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Han Dynasty, join the Qing army and resist the invaders for the sake of national righteousness) and others were willing to serve and prove that the people's will was available. Therefore, Li Hongzao and the Qing school resolutely advocated war with the outside world.
National hero Liu Yongfu
<h1>Wen Shijun said</h1>
In the "Biography of Guo Songtao", li Hongzao and other Qing schools were once evaluated as "adding chaos", which was too radical and unfair. The Qing school, represented by Li Hongzao, upholds the spirit of traditional Confucianism in governing the country and the family and the world, and on the basis of benevolence, righteousness, and wisdom, and its patriotic enthusiasm for saving the country and trying to survive is worthy of recognition. Li Hongzao and other Qing schools are definitely not bad people, but the irony of history is that Cixi has taken advantage of the integrity of Li Hongzao and others to turn them into a weight to consolidate their own power, so that they can restrain the foreign affairs faction, resulting in party strife, and good people may not be able to do good things. Perhaps it was precisely because Li Hongzao's virtue was worthy of integrity that in 1897, with the support of Cixi, Guangxu gave the deceased Li Hongzao the title of Wenzheng.
<h1>bibliography</h1>
Wang Kaixi: Political History of the Late Qing Dynasty, Oriental Publishing House, 2016.
Li Zongtong: The Annals of Li Hongzao, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2014.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Purple Orange)
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