Author: Yan Jiulin Source: Historical Material Porter
Continued: A great and lonely "Chinese poisoner"
I. "This Kyoshi also refers to a person who is a traitor"
Guo Songtao knew that the remarks in his diary would sting the fragile nerves of the Chinese people and trigger their anger. But he did not expect that the person who scolded himself the most fiercely and most lethally would be his deputy envoy, Liu Xihong.
Liu Xihong is a native of Guangdong. In 1863, Guo Songtao acted as the inspector of Guangdong and became acquainted with Liu Xihong, who was guarding the family system because of the death of his mother. Guo held regimental training in Guangdong and took over Liu Xihong to take charge of the affairs of the Provincial Regiment Training Bureau. The two began a friendship that lasted for more than a decade. In 1876, Guo Songtao was appointed by the Qing court as an envoy to Britain to apologize, and not going abroad was already a slanderous and indignant person. Liu Xihong was a limited number of people who still often traveled with Guo to and fro during this period. Later, Liu Neng accompanied Guo on an envoy to Britain, that is, there were factors recommended by Guo.
But this recommendation also became the beginning of the breakdown of the relationship between the two friends.
Guo Songtao later recalled helplessly: "However, when he was in Beijing, Fang regretted that he had sent a counselor to be contemptuous, and he was annoyed. Song Tao and Yan Ming: I was the first to send a counselor, and then I was also sent to send a deputy envoy, which is more or less a public statement. Yun Sheng did not believe it either. [1] To the effect that Liu Xihong was a foreign lang from the Wupin Punishment Department at the time, and was quite dissatisfied with the fact that he had only received the title of counselor when he accompanied Guo Songtao as an envoy, and he intended to be the deputy envoy to Britain in Sanpin. Liu thought that Guo was not interesting enough as a friend, and Guo explained to him: At the beginning, the counselor was recommended by me, and the later deputy envoy was also recommended by me. But Liu Xihong did not believe it. In fact, Guo's words are generally the truth, the qing court initially designated the deputy envoy is Xu Jusheng, Xu's birth is much higher than Liu Xihong, Liu can not compete with him for the position of deputy envoy, the position of counselor is the best ending. Later, Xu was sent elsewhere for various reasons, and the imperial court felt the need to appease Guo Songtao, so Liu Xihong had the opportunity to serve as a deputy envoy.
The rift, created by Liu Xihong's paranoia, widened rapidly after the mission arrived in Britain because of the "incident in which the state secretary was not written to the name of the deputy envoy." Liu Xihong believed that since Guo Songtao had read the National Book when he was in China, he did not point out that there was such a problem in the National Book, most of them were intended to embarrass themselves. Liu Xihong wrote to the imperial court to revoke the name of the deputy envoy and allow himself to return to China, which was to express a dissatisfaction with Guo Songtao.
Guo seemed unaware of Liu's suspicions, but soon felt Liu's dissatisfaction. On February 12, 3003, Guo and Liu talked about some unsatisfactory things in the embassy, and Liu Xihong seemed to be mistaken, thinking that Guo was secretly ridiculing himself for making trouble inside the embassy, so "the language is very grotesque, thinking that it has nothing to do with the deputy envoy, and it is quite contradictory and controversial." This extremely unpleasant exchange made Guo Songtao feel a sigh, saying that he had "no accumulation in his previous life, and all the people who mentioned it were all contrarians", but Guo also consoled himself that Liu Xihong was a "straight" person, and now he had a feeling of "complaining and depression", "no wonder it is also", do not blame him for this unfriendly reaction. [2]
Liu Xihong's "complaining depression" is directly related to the undecided status of his "deputy envoy" . All countries have only ministers and no deputy ministers, which makes Liu Xihong's identity very embarrassing, although he wrote a letter to the imperial court requesting to remove the status of deputy envoy and transfer back to China, but he has no backing in the DPRK, and he is insecure about how the imperial court will arrange himself, so he is quite anxious. The more anxious he was, the more he went back to the source of this anxiety, and the more dissatisfied he was with Guo Songtao—if his name and the position of deputy envoy were properly written in the National Book, all this anxiety would not exist.
Anxiety is anxiety. For more than a month since then, Guo and Liu have maintained a generally peaceful relationship. During this period, Liu Xihong held a banquet to celebrate Guo Songtao's sixtieth birthday. There was also a storm in which Guo Bin, the embassy attaché, "walked out of the clouds with his travels", that is, when he went out to accompany him, he accidentally walked in front of Liu Xihong, and Liu Xihong was furious and sent Guo Bin to Li Jingmen and accepted a reprimand.[4] From this storm, we can glimpse that Liu Xihong had a fragile and sensitive suspicious ghost at this time, and felt that no one in the embassy took him as a "deputy envoy" seriously.
Liu Xihong
However, only two days after the "Guo Bin Storm", Liu Xihong straightened his waist, because on this day, he received a telegram from the General Taxation Department and learned that he had been reassigned by the Qing court to a minister in Germany. [5] This day also became a watershed in the relationship between Guo and Liu. Liu began to show an attitude of confrontation with Guo on various occasions. Stimulated by Liu, Guo also became more and more cold to him, trying not to invite Liu as much as possible without inviting, and trying to avoid walking with Liu. For example, on June 11 of the third year of Guangxu, Brasi asked Guo Songtao to visit the steamship, but Guo "used Liu Yunsheng to fulfill his covenant and did not dare to accompany him".[6] However, Guo Songtao still did not seem to have insight into why Liu Xihong was like this at this time. In Guangxu's diary on July 17 of the third year, Guo has this record:
"Returning at night, talking to Shu Zhai about the reason for Yunsheng's rebellion, there will be something to do, and Shu Zhai will be able to understand it. He often hears his words of resentment, but does not hear his provocations. Those who have been convicted of the crime are said to have obtained the Shanghai Wen Bao, and they have been opened and dismantled in private, and they have not been notified to the public to open and read it. Its wild ignorance is so. After a little breath, I couldn't sleep at night. ”[7]
Liu Xihong accused Guo Songtao of Li Shuzhai, saying that he received telegrams from Shanghai and always read them himself, without informing him to read them together. Behind this resentment is Liu's delicate mentality of wanting to sit on an equal footing with Guo Songtao after learning that he has been identified as a minister in Germany. But Guo Songtao obviously could not accept such blame. In his opinion, he has been promoting Liu Xihongduo since he was acting governor of Guangdong more than ten years ago, and this time he went abroad to do the same, which can be said to be a great favor to him. Liu's rebuke can really be described as ungrateful. This is also the main reason for Guo's sullenness and insomnia that night.
On September 4, 1877, the friendship between Guo and Liu finally came to an end. On that day, Liu Xihong returned to the Legation in London from abroad, and challenged Guo on his salary and the signature of the deputy envoy, and finally "angrily scolded and went away screaming." Guo zi asked himself if there was any indictment of Liu Xihong, so he sent seven embassy counselors, interpreters, and attachés to ask liu Xihong why he was provoking. Liu's answer was:
"I don't remember anyone in my life, that is, I have committed a crime, and I have forgotten it. But I will not tolerate the people whom the Kyoshi refers to as traitors. He also listed Guo's three counts to the crowd: "First, you jia dun fort, wear a foreigner's clothes, even if you freeze to death, you should not wear it." First, see the lord of Brazil, stand up without authorization, and pay tribute to the lord of the small country. 1. Birkin Palace (Buckingham Palace) listens to music, repeatedly reads music lists, and imitates the actions of foreigners. ”[8]
Accusing his colleagues of being a "traitor" in the Legation in London can be imagined as a stimulus to Guo Songtao. Eight days later, on September 12, Guo wrote a recital requesting that the imperial court be sold to the imperial court and return to China, and also wrote three recitals to impeach Liu Xihong.
The first general statement of Liu Xihong's various problems, saying that he was a "never mindful of the painstaking efforts of the country to make plans, but thought that he was a shortcut to the fame of wealth and wealth", did not perceive the good intentions of the imperial court in setting up envoys stationed abroad, and only regarded it as a shortcut to the door of wealth and nobility, so he asked the imperial court to dismiss him from his post as minister in Germany and withdraw him from his country. [9]
The second is dedicated to impeaching Liu Xihong for privately carving a guard. Simply put, Liu ignored that the legation already had a great seal of the minister in the hands of Guo Songtao, and carved one exactly the same one himself. At that time, Liu's status as deputy envoy to the United Kingdom was not recognized because he had not sent a letter of state to the British government; his appointment as a minister to Germany had not yet been officially released. Therefore, Guo said in the recital that Liu did not obey the rules to do this kind of thing, just to satisfy his "arrogant heart". [10]
The third fold is to recommend that Li Fengbao succeed Liu Xihong as minister in Germany. [11]
Guo's impeachment had no effect. On November 13, 1877, Liu Xihong left London for Berlin to take up his post, and the two never saw each other again. On March 7, 1878, Liu Xihong impeached Guo Songtao and listed ten major crimes for Guo:
(1) that China will be India and will be annexed to Britain and Russia;
2. Arguing with Wittoma for no reason;
3. Serving the foreigners is still right;
4. Unauthorized discussion of the national flag, saying that the yellow color of the national flag is improper;
(5) The inclusion of the name of the deputy envoy shall be omitted from the word Chincha, in contempt of the decree;
(6) Show humility to foreigners in order to please them, and no longer care about the national system;
7. Worship foreigners, use umbrellas instead of fans, and travel to the forts in foreign clothes;
8. Make concubines learn foreign languages and corrupt Chinese boudoir;
9. Public affairs are not spoken of publicly, and conspiracies with foreigners;
10. Dissatisfied with the imperial court, with pity in their hearts and resentment at every turn. [12]
The Guo-Liu conflict was introduced into the country through the recitation, and soon re-triggered public criticism of Guo above the court. Among them, Zhang Peilun, an attendant of the Hanlin Academy who is known as enlightened, is the most active. At the end of 1877, he repeatedly impeached Guo, saying that Guo's diary was so erroneous that the imperial court only banned his books and did not take away his officials. The reason is that anyone who has read Guo Songtao's reporter knows that Guo Is talking nonsense, but he is "as if he is holding on to the outside world", which will only send a wrong signal to the foolish people, "those who will say that Guo Songtao will be of great use, then the people's hearts will be afraid that there will be no one to maintain, not to damage the national system", so that they think that the imperial court will greatly reuse such figures as Guo Songtao, so that the people's hearts in the world may not be able to maintain, this is not only a matter of harming the national system. The implication is that if Guo Songtao is not dismissed from his post, the country and mountains of the Great Qing dynasty will be in danger. [13]
Zhang Peilun also impeached Guo Songtao for not taking his family on an envoy. He could not accept "lady diplomacy", saying that Guo Songtao's letting his family members meet with foreigners was "flaunting the market and pleasing foreigners" and making trouble to the point of "spreading rumors from all over the world", which was really humiliating to the Great Qing Dynasty [14]. When Guo Songtao heard such pedantic remarks, he was furious and said in his diary: He took liang shi across the ocean for tens of thousands of miles, "once he was involved in Liu Xihong, and then he was involved in Zhang Peilun, he could not be honored but only humiliated", so he was bound to take Liang Shi to meet the Queen of England once before returning to China, so that she would become the first person in China's "lady diplomacy". [15]
On June 7, 1878, the imperial court publicly issued a reprimand on the conflict between Guo and Liu. Empress Dowager Cixi, who had comforted Guo that "the Emperor of Hengzhi always knows your heart", rebuked the two in a loud voice in the edict:
"If this is the act of being an envoy of China, how can it be enough to show condescension and insult to foreign countries?" It should have been immediately withdrawn and severely punished as a sign of repudiation. Since Guo Nianguo was stationed in Britain, the handling of the negotiation incident has still been properly concluded; Liu Gai was stationed in Germany to discuss various matters concerning the revision of the treaty, and his words were pertinent. The imperial court is slightly shorter and longer, and its past is wide, and it is temporarily exempted from in-depth investigation. ...... After this admonition, if you dare to still harbor a personal grudge and do not hesitate, then the law of the land is there, and you cannot repeatedly invite forgiveness! ”[16]
At this time, Guo Songtao had already made up his mind, and the edict of admonition had no effect on him. Liu Xihong was obsessed with the official scene, so he repeatedly said in his echo that he wanted to reform himself. However, Liu's recital had not yet reached the prime minister's office, and the imperial court had agreed to Guo's resignation, and Liu Xihong was also dismissed, and the minister in Britain was changed to Zeng Jize, and the minister in Germany was changed to Li Fengbao.
When the news of their simultaneous dismissal reached London, Guo Songtao was very happy, writing in his diary: "Guangdong was born to be full of enthusiasm. The Chinese envoys, so there was a little vitality, and everyone who heard about it was celebrated. ”[17]
He seems reluctant to write the name "Liu Xihong (Yunsheng)" anymore.
Second, Liu Xihong's spiritual victory method
Liu Xihong's attitude toward Guo Songtao was actually highly synchronized with the attitude of Cixi and Premier Yamen toward Guo Songtao.
In 1875, Yi Bi praised Guo Songtao in front of Shen Guifen and Bao Zheng in front of the military plane, "This man is pragmatic and thorough", and in 1876, Empress Dowager Cixi summoned Guo several times to comfort him. They are outsiders, they talk nonsense, they don't care about things." At that time, Liu Xihong and Guo Songtao had frequent exchanges, and they did not care that the public opinion of the government and the public was already indignant against Guo.
In 1877, after the "Ji Cheng Incident of the Envoy to the West", Li Hongzhang told Guo Songtao: "The deacon's diary was compiled, and at first I heard that Lan Sun was greatly upset and slandered by others. He Jun nai greeted Li and Jing and spoke in yingting. The General Administration destroyed the version in fear. [18] "Lan Sun" was Li Hongzao, the leader of the Qing Dynasty in the MIDDLE DYNASTY. Li Hongzhang's letter reveals that Premier Yamen has two different tendencies in dealing with Guo Songtao and his diary.
Among the members of the prime minister at that time, Li Hongzao and Jing Lian did not look down on Guo Songtao, and Jing Lian impeached Guo before he left for the mission; Mao Changxi was Liu Xihong's old superior, and he also "protected Liu with all his strength" [19]. However, Prince Gong was quite appreciative of Guo Songtao, and after Guo left the mission, he sent back the diary of the prime minister Yamen according to the custom, and it was also because of his support that it was officially published by the Tongwenguan.
He Jinshou's impeachment triggered a storm of public opinion, and Prince Gong could not clearly express his support for Guo, but could only leave the issue to the curtain-hanging Cixi to decide. Cixi made up her mind, and changed from supporting Guo Songtao to issuing instructions that "the corresponding banknote recording the original music, and it is known that the Gui Yamen Qin complies with the handling of keye" [20] (the He Jinshou recital that impeached Guo Songtao and demanded the destruction of his diary was copied to the Prime Minister Yamen, and you can do as required in the impeachment recital). Guo Songtao's diary could not be saved, and Liu Xihong's relationship with Guo Songtao in the Legation in London began to deteriorate. [21]
This change in Liu Xihong's attitude is obviously directly related to his attachment to the vagaries of the officialdom. This is also the reason why Liu's diary "Private Notes of Yingyuan" is very different from Guo Songtao's "Making the Western Chronicle", although what they have seen and heard is almost the same - Guo Songtao praised the British political mode of operation as far superior to the government of the three generations of ancient China; Liu Xihong said that British civilization is actually the fruit of the "Chinese Holy Religion", and there is an extra layer of spiritual victory out of thin air.
Palatial palaces, neat and clean streets, courteous citizens, speeding trains, bizarre chemical experiments... These strange and vivid modern civilizations were placed in front of Liu Xihong, and the impact on his cognitive system can be imagined. The choice before him is nothing more than two, or abandon the traditional "Yixia concept" and admit that the modern civilization he has seen is also an advanced civilization; or use a certain characteristic logic to incorporate modern civilization into the traditional "Yixia civilization system" and regain a kind of self-confidence that "the teachings of the saints are universally applicable".
Liu Xihong wisely chose the second way of dealing with it.
In His Private Notes, he admits that the British political customs he has seen have many commendable features. For example, there are no idle officials, no vagrants, no brutal and inhumane government; in the two months of london, I have not seen anyone talking and noisy when I went out many times, nor did I see a depressed person with a sad look. But then he turned sharply and said: Western customs of "taking poverty alleviation and saving difficulties as a beautiful deed" is actually a manifestation of "benevolence" advocated by Chinese saints; Westerners attach importance to "fighting righteousness and keeping promises" is actually a manifestation of "righteousness" advocated by Chinese saints. However, "since the opening of the heavens and the earth, China has had the most in the past years, and hundreds of great saints have followed them, and the production has become more sophisticated, and its reasoning is several times deeper than that of the foreign world." In contrast, the foreigners' little "benevolence" and "righteousness" are really not worth mentioning.
Further, Liu Xihong put forward a fervent expectation for foreigners: if they can continue to carry forward the way of these saints, then they can step into a higher realm at the level of civilization and create a more graceful and tidy society. In this way, all modern Western civilizations were incorporated by Liu Xihong into the name of the Confucian Sage Sect. As for why foreigners understand the way of China's sages, Liu Xihong also has an explanation:
"Before I was in the Qianlong Dynasty, I was obedient to the wilderness and admired the ocean, and because of this. Today's England knows the basis of benevolence and righteousness, and in order to become rich and strong, it has not been caused by entering China for a long time and hearing about the holy religion. ” [23]
As a result, Liu Xihong not only dissipated the impact of British civilization on his own cognitive structure, but also sent the "Chinese Holy Religion" to an invincible position: Since the British civilization was created by the British people "entering China for a long time" to study the "Chinese Holy Religion", then the stronger the British civilization, the more naturally it can prove the correctness and strength of the "Chinese Holy Religion", and the more it can prove the strength of the Great Qing Kingdom's ability to "change with summer", and the Great Qing Kingdom will always be the center of civilization under the heavens.
After this set of logic came to an end, the conclusion was that the Great Qing Dynasty did not need reform, and did not need to "learn from the long skills" - the so-called "foreign countries are rich to be rich, China is not greedy to be rich; foreign countries are strong to be strong, and China is not strong to be strong... He who thinks he is useless, the useless one who is useless! [24] The foreigners' quest for wealth and strength are the last class, and the chinese holy religion's non-greed and bad strength are the "useless and great uses" and the most advanced things. And look at my Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, "there was no train, but there was a flood of people, a lot of people, a whiplash and five Indias, and the West also paid tribute and called a vassal" [25]. Therefore, China does not need reform, only needs to return to the "ancestral system"; it does not need to learn from the West, it only needs to seriously study the "holy religion".
The problem is that no matter how much Liu Xihong talked about the "Chinese Holy Religion" in his diary, the reality is that the Qing court is not an opponent of foreigners, and the government and the public are shocked by diplomatic involvement, and often worry that the "gengshen change" may reappear. Therefore, even if the "Holy Religion" is the highest point of civilization in the world, the Qing court still needs to find a way to save the erosion and decadence of the country.
The plan provided by Liu Xihong was: The "Western study" that the bureaucrats of foreign affairs in the DPRK and China emphasize are nothing more than the study of low-level hundreds of industrialists and merchants; the fundamental reason for governing the country lies in rectifying the rule of officials and straightening out the habits of the people, and reform should also start from this aspect. Liu Xihong also added that of course, Western studies should still be talked about, but Western studies are the study of "craftsmanship", which should never be taught by readers, but can only "gather craftsmen and craftsmen and supervise them, so that they can refine manufacturing to obey the officials", that is, the government will come forward to gather craftsmen to manage them, and urge them to produce "craftsman skills" that are more powerful than foreigners. [26]
Unlike Guo Songtao's "Journey to the West", Liu Xihong's "Private Notes of Yingyuan" is a carefully screened diary compiled. Comparing the two men's selective accounts of the same incident, it is not difficult to find this point.
On February 27, 2003, a Prominent Japanese politician, Inoue Shin, came to visit and had a conversation with Guo and Liu. According to Guo Songtao's diary, the conversation mentioned the tax systems of various countries, and Inoue said that after British officials with a monthly salary of more than 300 pounds must pay taxes equally, Liu Xihong sighed: "This law is sincere and good, but it is not feasible for non-democratic countries." The West has enjoyed the country for a long time, and the monarch and the people have also ruled the country"--this is really a good system, but unfortunately, in a "non-democratic country" like the Qing Dynasty, it cannot be implemented. Guo Songtao highly agreed with Liu Xihong's view, commenting that "this theory is most permissible." [27]
Liu Xihong's diary also recorded this conversation. Among them, there is no praise for the "British tax system" in Guo Songtao's diary, but only a paragraph advocating and praising the "ancestral law". According to Liu's diary, the scene at that time was that Inoue believed that the Qing court should "follow the Western law and change its course" to develop the mining industry and enhance its national strength. Liu Xihong responded:
"All the ancestral laws have profound meanings, and those who have been able to do so for many years and cannot be without harm are all caused by those who harm the law privately." Those who are ministers can first pay attention to the meaning of the old system, pursue the strength, and know what they have in their old days, and return all that they have in their old days, that is, they can be restored. If you change your course and change your mind, it will be very disturbing, and the disaster will be chaotic, and I dare not take your country as a warning? Gold, silver, coal, iron and other minerals, the benefits are in the future, and the harm is also stored, and the covetousness of the Holy Son of Heaven is not coveted. ”[28]
The gist is that the systems left by the ancestors are all good systems with profound meaning. The reason why there are drawbacks in the circulation to the present is because some people have destroyed the system of the ancestors with their own selfish intentions. Those who are ministers should strive to restore the system of restoring the ancestors, so that they can realize the great rule of the world. Learning what Western law to change course will only create disasters, and you in Japan are a lesson that I must learn. I, the Holy Son of Heaven, will not learn from you to open any gold, silver, coal, and iron mines.
According to Liu Xihong's diary, after Inoue Listened to His Righteous Words, Only "Only" was left.
There are two Liu Xihong in the two diaries. One praised the British tax system and praised the system of "monarchy and state rule" that allowed Western countries to "enjoy the country for a long time", while the other worshipped the "ancestral legal system". Both of these Liu Xihong are true—the former represents Liu's true thoughts, and the latter represents Liu's actual castration of his own speech based on real interests, which Guo Songtao calls "the art of meeting tricks and combining tricks". True thoughts and practical castration together constitute Liu Xihong's "duplicity of heart".
The people in the prime minister's office are all old fritters in the officialdom, and they are naturally aware of Liu Xihong's intention to deliberately pander to the qingliu public opinion in order to seek power. Shen Guifen, the chancellor of the Imperial Household, once said in a letter to Li Hongzhang: "Liu Yunsheng is highly talented, and he is wise to be able to belittle foreigners and invite reputation, so this foreign affair cannot be done in the end." [30] Liu Xihong's talent is very good, but unfortunately he used this talent to demean and insult foreigners and win the reputation of public opinion for himself, which is also one of the important reasons why foreign affairs are difficult to carry out.
Liu Xihong was eventually stripped of his post as minister in Germany for four main reasons.
The first is that Liu himself exerted too much force and performed too much, which produced negative effects. When he presented his credentials to Kaiser Wilhelm I, "the etiquette was sparse and dismissive",[31] which almost caused diplomatic conflict; in Berlin, it was to the point of reluctance to exchange credentials; in Beijing, the German minister to China, Barland, repeatedly protested Against Liu Xihong's actions in Germany.
The second was that Li Hongzao and Mao Changxi, the prime ministers who supported Liu Xihong, left their posts one after another due to an incident, and although the remaining people did not like Guo Songtao, they had no intention of protecting Liu Xihong.
The third point is that Guo Songtao has repeatedly impeached Liu Xihong. Guo reminded Prime Minister Yamen that the purpose of the European and American countries in inviting the imperial court to send envoys to foreign countries was to "want China to know its politics, religion, and manufacturing, to trade with the interests of the people, to make a wide source of profits, and not to deliberately provoke China", in order to make the Great Qing know more about them, not to make enemies with the Great Qing. What Liu Xihong did after he arrived in Germany was to "fabricate language behind closed doors all day" to deceive Prime Minister Yamen, and the diary texts praised by the government and public opinion as Liu's "pertinent words", but in fact , "they all came from the work of making up behind closed doors, and there were no facts at all." If the imperial court took Liu Xihong's nonsense as the truth, and then "ruled over the countries, but did what they did, in order to comply with the imperial court system", then the result must be "summoning provocations and insults, and the damage is particularly great." Guo even warned that if people like Liu Xihong are allowed to continue to stay in the post of minister stationed abroad, "I am sincerely afraid of missing the overall situation and regretting nothing", and sooner or later there will be a diplomatic accident that is difficult to clean up. [32]
The fourth point is that Li Hongzhang repeatedly wrote to Premier Yamen, pointing out that Liu Xihong's "diary is beautiful" (although the diary is very satisfactory to the public opinion of the government and the public), it is actually a kind of "horizontal and cunning deception", and such a person is absolutely untrustworthy [33].
After Liu Xihong was transferred back to the capital, he continued to mix in the official field, and served as a young secretary of the Guanglu Temple and a senator of the General Political Envoy Department. Naturally, liu could not be satisfied with these five official positions, but his character had been exhausted in the attack on Guo Songtao, and Li Hongzhang's four-character comment to him, "horizontal and cunning", had become a fixed impression of premier Yamen on him. Therefore, even if Li Hongzao returns to the prime minister's gate, Liu will not be able to get a chance to start again.
At the end of February 1881, when Li Hongzhang's political enemy Zuo Zongtang entered the prime minister's office, Liu Xihong decided to speculate again, and in mid-March he impeached Li Hongzhang for "being a vassal of the emperor". However, the imperial court had no intention of overthrowing Li Hongzhang, and Liu Xihong finally ended up with a "reprimand for his slander and submission to the Ministry of Deliberations"[35], and was completely deposed, and died a few years later.
Zeng Jize set out from Shanghai in November 1878 to England to replace Guo Songtao. Before leaving, Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Ci'an summoned Zeng and encouraged him, "You do such things for the state, and in the future these people will have to scold you, but you will have to work hard and complain", Zeng Jize took the opportunity to intercede for Guo Songtao: "Guo Songtao is always a righteous person, but he does not know people very well, and his temperament is urgent, which is his weakness." This time is also to fight for fame, to do things for the country, and to seek the grace of the empress dowager and the emperor in the future, and to always preserve. Cixi responded, "The superiors also know that Guo Songtao is a good person. After his mission, he did a lot of things, but he was scolded by these people enough. Zeng Jize also said: "Guo Songtao was eager for China to immediately strengthen itself, and often argued with people, so he was scolded, in short, a loyal subject." Fortunately, the empress dowager and the emperor knew him, and he fought for fame, and it was worth it. Cixi replied, "We all know him, and So do We all know about Minister Wang." ”[36]
This dialogue between the monarch and the courtier was recorded in Zeng Jize's diary. Like the diaries of Guo Songtao and Liu Xihong, Zeng's diaries must also be submitted to the prime minister Yamen for archiving. Therefore, his words are not only to excuse Guo Songtao, but also to seek a guarantee for himself to retreat from the whole body.
In May 1879, Guo Songtao returned to Changsha from England. When disembarking, only two Hunan gentry "greeted them poorly", and the rest of them "arrogant and not courteous" did not show their faces. And some people posted large posters in the land of Tongqu, directly reprimanding Guo Songtao for "colluding with foreigners." [37] No one greeted or stopped the big poster because everyone knew that Guo Songtao's political life was over. Since then, Guo has lived in seclusion in his hometown to teach and devote himself to expounding his own reform ideas, and at this time, he has been able to point out to the point that "the art of concentrating on the examination of wealth and strength" without exploring "the origin of political and religious customs" is a kind of rule and forget the roots.[38]
In 1891, when Guo Songtao died, Li Hongzhang asked the National History Museum to set up a biography for him, and the Qing court replied that "Guo Songtao went on an envoy to foreign countries, and the books he wrote were quite controversial, and the books he asked were not allowed to be done" [39]. In 1900, Northern China was enveloped in boundless fanaticism, and a man named Zuo Shaozuo wrote in a note to the imperial court:
"Please kill the corpses of Guo Songtao and Ding Richang to thank the world." [40]
exegesis
[1] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 99.
[2] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 157.
[3] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 179.
[4] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 212.
[5] Liu Xihong: A Private Note of Yingyuan, Yuelu Book Society, 1981 edition, p. 124.
[6] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 246.
[7] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 266.
[8] Guo Tingyi: "The Chronology of Mr. Guo Songtao (Part 2)", Institute of Recent History, Academia Sinica ,Taipei, 1971, p. 675.
[9] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (IV), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 829.
[10] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (IV), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 831.
[11] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (IV), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 830.
[12] Zhong Shuhe, From East to West: A Collection of Narratives on The World Series, Yuelu Book Club, 2002, p. 439. See also: The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, pp. 660-661.
[13] Guo Tingyi, "The Chronology of Mr. Guo Songtao (Part 2)", Institute of Recent History, Academia Sinica ,Taipei, 1971, p. 713.
[14] Zhang Peilun, "Ordering foreign ministers not to bring their dependents with them," Guangxu 3rd November.
[15] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 705.
[16] Guo Tingyi, "The Chronology of Mr. Guo Songtao (Part 2)", Institute of Recent History, Academia Sinica ,Taipei, 1971, pp. 762-763.
[17] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 593.
[18] The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang, Letter 32, Letter IV, Anhui Education Publishing House, 2008, p. 152.
[19] The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang, Letter NO. 4, Anhui Education Publishing House, 2008, p. 233.
[20] Guangxu Xuantong Dynasty, vol. 3 (Guangxu 3rd Year), Guangxi Normal University Press, 1996, p. 141.
[21] For a detailed account of the feud between Guo and Liu, see Zhang Yuquan, "A Little Doubt in the Diplomatic History of the Late Qing Dynasty: On the Relationship between Guo Songtao and Liu Xihong," Public Administration Research, No. 1, 2005.
[22] Liu Xihong, "The Private Story of Yingyuan", Yuelu Book Society, 1981 edition, pp. 109-110.
[23] Liu Xihong: A Private Note of Yingyuan, Yuelu Book Society, 1981 edition, p. 122.
[24] Liu Xihong, "The Private Story of Yingyuan", Yuelu Book Club, 1981 edition, p. 110.
[25] Liu Xihong: "The situation in China and the West is different, and the train railway is not feasible.". See Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Historical Society: The Foreign Affairs Movement (VI), Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1961, p. 165.
[26] Liu Xihong, "The Private Notes of Yingyuan", Yuelu Book Society, 1981 edition, pp. 27-28.
[27] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 170.
[28] Liu Xihong: A Private Note of Yingyuan, Yuelu Book Society, 1981 edition, p. 105.
[29] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (10), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 695.
[30] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (XI), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 119.
[31] Zhong Shuhe, From East to West: A Collection of Narratives on The World Series, Yuelu Book Society, 2002, p. 440.
[32] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (IV), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, pp. 844-845.
[33] The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang, Letter 32, Letter IV, Anhui Education Publishing House, 2008, p. 342.
[34] The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang, Anhui Education Publishing House, 2008, p. 330.
[35] Records of Emperor Dezong, vol. 127. Reprinted from Zhong Shuhe: From East to West: A Collection of Narratives on The Journey to the World Series, Yuelu Book Society, 2002, p. 441.
[36] Zeng Jize, "The Diary of the Envoy to the West (Outer One)", Hunan People's Publishing House, 1981, pp. 6-7.
[37] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (XI), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 100.
[38] The Complete Works of Guo Songtao (XI), Yuelu Book Club, 2018 edition, p. 102.
[39] The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang 14 and Song Discussion XIV, Anhui Education Publishing House, 2008, p. 137.
[40] Chen Gongfu, A History of The Last Thirty Years of China, The Commercial Press, 1928, pp. 24-25.