"The labor cart and horse have not left the saddle, and the party knows that he will die. In the past 300 years, the country has been injured, and the people have been disabled 8,000 miles away. ”
When it comes to the late Qing Dynasty, most of what we think of is pedantic feudalism;
It is a policy of closing the country to the outside world;
It is even more humiliating to pay compensation for land cession.
And when it comes to reparations in various places, I have to think of an important minister of the Qing Dynasty - Li Hongzhang.
Li Hongzhang, as the minister of the humerus in the last years of the Qing Dynasty.
He made many contributions to the Qing Dynasty and also promoted the process of national salvation movements such as the Westernization Movement.
However, in 1986, Li Hongzhang set foot on New York soil for the first time.
Facing a high-rise building, he was stunned.
Why is such an important minister who has seen the world in the Qing Dynasty feel sad in the face of high-rise buildings in the United States?
Facing the bustling scene of the streets of New York.
What kind of sad words did Li Hongzhang say?
The impact of the lockdown
Friends who like history should be familiar with the term "closed to the outside world".
However, most people think that the matter of closing the country from the Qing Dynasty began.
Actually, it's not.
Why?
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty.
This is equivalent to the current college entrance examination only using the level of argumentative essay writing to judge students' knowledge accumulation over many years.
Then, the type of talent selected becomes very limited.
What's more, students who study hard only care about learning how to write official documents according to the format.
Don't look at the outside world.
Without your own thoughts, you don't have practical experience.
Gu Yanwu, a famous thinker in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, once used a short and sharp sentence to describe Baguwen:
"The harm of eight shares is equivalent to book burning."
He compared the Baguwen with Qin Shi Huang's book-burning pit Confucianism, which also illustrates the harm caused by the Baguwen from the side.
And throughout the history of Europe, it is not difficult for us to find.
For the development of Europe, the Renaissance was very important.
In fact, it is close to the time of the Ming Dynasty.
That is to say, when the Ming Dynasty worked hard to implement the eight-strand text and pay attention to paper talk.
Europe is already starting to put it into practice.
We all know that the Renaissance laid a solid foundation for the Industrial Revolution.
During this period, the living standards of the European people were improved, and great breakthroughs were made in astronomy, biology, physics, mathematics and other disciplines.
Each achievement is very great even from today's point of view.
At the same time, due to the Ming Dynasty's policy of closing the country to the outside world, these advanced ideas and scientific theories could not flow into China.
During the Qianlong period, negotiations with Britain failed because of different etiquette, and the Industrial Revolution passed by.
This inevitably led to a huge gap between the Qing Dynasty and foreign countries in the late Qing Dynasty.
The gap between the late Qing Dynasty and foreign countries at a glance
In Li Hongzhang's era, it is now called the late Qing Dynasty.
China has been closed off from the rest of the country for a long time, and is in a rather backward state.
How backward is it?
From the industrial side, for example:
After flipping through the "History of World Steel Production in the 18th ~ 19th Centuries", a conclusion can be drawn.
The gap between the two is much more than that.
In terms of taxation,
Moreover, since Kangxi ascended the throne, there has been basically no big fluctuation in this number.
In other words, the Qing Dynasty has developed for more than 100 years, and the level it is at is still the level of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and it may even be lower.
The economic development of European countries has been advancing by leaps and bounds.
Since there is such a big gap in both economy and industry.
Then militarily, the gap between the two is self-evident.
Looking at Europe and the United States, aircraft cannons have already been built.
The late Qing Dynasty was still a small Westernization movement, and it was overwhelmed.
Li Hongzhang went to the United States and could not hide his sadness
Among the many ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang can be said to have seen the most of the world.
For a humerus minister who is accustomed to seeing strong winds and waves, why is he stunned and speechless after stepping on the land of New York?
It turned out that Li Hongzhang had signed many unequal treaties for Cixi before going to the United States this time.
And he did not go to the United States this time with the purpose of simply seeing the world.
It's about having a mission.
Although the Qing Dynasty at this time has declined.
But in order to revive the Qing Dynasty and at the same time open the international market.
Li Hongzhang could only endure humiliation and bear the burden, and visited Europe and the United States, and he forced a smile throughout the whole process, just to be able to win a good impression for the Qing Dynasty in front of the heads of state.
But when he arrived in New York, the smile on Li Hongzhang's face gradually froze.
Because, only now did he really understand how big the gap between the Qing Dynasty and European and American countries was.
In the Qing Dynasty, when the common people still lived in thatched houses.
At this time, Li Hongzhang faced the high-rise buildings of New York.
At the time of the decline of the Qing Dynasty and the rise of Europe and the United States, he issued a heartfelt exclamation:
The tall buildings were 20 stories or even higher, but they looked so sturdy that they couldn't be broken even by the wind.
There is no such building in the Qing Dynasty, and it is difficult to build such a building, and even if it is built, the foundation is not stable, and it will soon collapse.
Li Hongzhang's words deeply expressed his sadness.
No matter how hard he works and how anxious he is, it is impossible for the Qing Dynasty to build high-rise buildings overnight.
He also knew very well in his heart that the Qing Dynasty was not only backward in architecture.
Even if we try to catch up from now on, it will never be possible to catch up with the footsteps of Europe and the United States.
Even if it barely catches up, it will definitely exhaust its national strength and one day it will perish.
"The morning fungus does not know the obscurity, and the cockroach does not know the spring and autumn".
The Qing Dynasty, which had been closed off from the country for many years, was like a frog at the bottom of a well, but it was finally destroyed in ignorance.
Final words
"Sitting at the bottom of the well and looking at the sky, the sky is no different from the ice disk; ”
Some people say that the rapid decline of the late Qing Dynasty was largely due to Li Hongzhang.
But in fact, the main reason is due to the isolation and ignorance of the Qing Dynasty.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty was a frog at the bottom of the well, how could it get a glimpse of the infinite changes in this world.
No matter how powerful Li Hongzhang is, too
Even if you run out of life, it is difficult to break out of the bottom of the well, and you are powerless to return to the decline of the Qing Dynasty.