Cover news reporter Zhong Wei
In June of the seventh year of Guangxu (1881), Cixi finally made a long-brewed decision: Zhang Zhidong was promoted to four levels overnight, from a Hanlin Academy attendant from Sipin to a cabinet bachelor and a ceremonial attendant from Erpin. In the same year, Zhang Zhidong was appointed as the Governor of Shanxi.
It was in this year that Zhang Zhidong and Timothy Lee met in Shanxi. Timothy Lee, Zi Bodhisattva, English missionary. Belongs to the British Baptist Church. In 1869, he left England and came to China to preach in Yantai, Qingzhou and other places in Shandong. This person is very skillful, he befriended the Qing court magnates through the upper line, participated in the political reform of the upper echelons of the late Qing Dynasty, and was one of the few figures who had an impact on the political and social process of modern China.
Timothy Lee's family is in Shanxi, China
Seven
Verbally abusive with Li Hongzhang
After Zhang Zhidong was appointed inspector of Shanxi, he found that Shanxi officials were corrupt, the people's lives were difficult, and the opium was seriously poisoned. Zhang Zhidong wrote to a friend: "Shanxi's officialdom is extremely chaotic, it is extremely ugly to see and hear, there is a shortage of talents in the two categories of copywriting and martial cases, and there are many things that officials do in civil and military emergencies. It is not a place of pure and inactive. "Jin affliction is not in the disaster but in the smoke." There are four townspeople with ten people and six people, ten people in the city, and almost ten people and ten people in the three kinds of servants. Everyone withered, and every family rose up. Tangtang Jinyang, a scene of yin and fiasco, like a ghost country, what is the theory of cheering up, following this endlessly, the country will not be destroyed, how. ”
Zhang Zhidong paid attention to rectifying the administration of officials, and as soon as he took office, he diligently examined the officials, perked up the reform of malpractice, impeached and dismissed county officials who were corrupt and indulgent in harming the people, rewarded good officials, strictly prohibited opium, promoted talents, organized and trained the army, and inspected warehouses. Shanxi's iron transport and sales in Fengtian, Shanghai and other places, land transportation costs are very high, he changed from Tianjin to the sea, shipping to reduce freight, and in the place of origin to prepare for the establishment of smelting bureau. He founded Ling De Tang, which was also modeled on the rules of Ruan Yuan's Jingshe and Xuehai Hall, and hired Wang Xuan as the main lecturer, and Yang Rui as the Xiang School and Supervisor. Although these measures brought about partial improvements, Zhang Zhidong realized that the weak Qing Dynasty needed to "set up foreign affairs" to strengthen itself.
Wu Xiao's "Study on the Relationship between Timothy Lee and Zhang Zhidong" introduced that one day, Zhang Zhidong found A proposal from Timothy Lee to zeng Guoquan, the former governor of Shanxi, in the old archives of Yamen in Taiyuan Province. Among them, there are various proposals such as building railways, establishing industries, developing mineral deposits, and opening factories. However, Zeng Guoquan believed that Timothy Lee's actions were "stealing the heart of Chinese" and did not accept it, and Zhang Zhidong admired Timothy Lee's proposals. When Timothy Lee was preaching in Shanxi, he published pamphlets such as "The Essentials of Saving Time", and held exhibitions and operation performances of instruments, lathes, sewing machines, and bicycles. Zhang Zhidong met with Timothy Lee and invited him to be an advisor, but was rejected by the scheming Timothy Lee, who believed that preaching around was more conducive to the spread of ideas.
Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Lee are in China
In his conversation with Timothy Lee, Zhang Zhidong was influenced by Western studies and gradually "westernized", from a staunch Qing-style official to an important official of the Western-style faction.
However, just as he was preparing to build a foreign affairs bureau in Shanxi, the Sino-French War broke out. In the Guangxu Decade (1884), France was rampant in Vietnam, and the frontier was in a hurry. Zhang Zhidong shangshu suggested that the battle be defended, and asked yan to supervise the battles of Dian and Gui, and urgently repair the defense of Jinguang. In April, the Qing court summoned Zhang Zhidong and Feng Yong to Jinjing. Zhang Zhidong's resistance to the law was a lot of planning.
According to the Complete Works of Zhang Wenxianghua, after Zhang Zhidong arrived in Guangzhou, he strengthened his defenses, took care of the coast, and strictly defended them. In June, when the French invading army occupied Keelung, Taiwan, Zhang Zhidong asked Tang Jingsong, the chief of the ministry, to meet Liu Yongfu and attack the French army. He said: "The only way to aid Taiwan is to rush beyond the border, please strive for the more and more to invigorate the overall situation." He also said that the enemy should take the war as the best strategy, and the more he tried to use Liu as the real help. The Qing court adopted Zhang Zhidong's suggestion and added Liu Yongfu as the name of the viceroy. Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to fight bravely and successfully, and repeatedly created the French army. However, due to the poor coordination of the troops led by Xu Yanxu, the envoy of Guangxi, and Tang Yan, the envoy of Yunnan, in the War of Resistance Against France, they lost the battle, and Tang Yan's army fled, leaving the Black Flag Army outnumbered and defeated. Tang and Xu were dismissed from their posts and investigated, and Zhang Zhidong was submitted to the Ministry for investigation because he improperly recommended Xu Yanxu.
In the first month of the eleventh year of Guangxu (1885), the French army invaded and occupied nanguan (now friendship pass), an important town on the border between China and Vietnam, and the situation was critical. Zhang Zhidong asked Feng Zicai, the former governor of Guangxi, and Wang Xiaoqi, the chief soldier, to assist Gui and stationed him in Nanguan. The 70-year-old veteran general Feng Zicai led the army, struggled to resist to the death, defeated the French army, and turned the entire war situation. As a result, the French Joffrey cabinet collapsed. However, the Qing court was determined to take advantage of the victory and seek peace, and ordered the armies on the front line to stop the battle and withdraw their troops. When the soldiers at the front heard the news, "they all strangled their wrists and were indignant." Zhang Zhidong successively postponed the withdrawal of troops, and was reprimanded by Li Hongzhang.
Portrait of Li Hongzhang
Zhang Zhidong is fourteen years younger than Li Hongzhang, and he is a junior, because he has the support of Cixi and does not "buy it". In the twelfth year of Guangxu (1886), Zhang Zhidong founded Guangya Bookstore and Guangya Academy in Guangzhou. In Zhaoqing, he hired Liang Dingfen to preside over Duanxi Academy, and later Liang Dingfen led teachers and students to Guangya Academy. Zhang Zhidong also hired Zhu Yixin to give a lecture at Guangya Academy. At that time, Liang Dingfen was convicted of impeaching Li Hongzhang for his mastership, and Zhu Yixin was demoted for impeaching the eunuch Li Lianying. Zhang Zhidong resisted the criticism and continued to hire them.
The contradiction between Zhang Zhidong and Li Hongzhang did not stop there, after the Sino-French War, the heyday of Qingliu was gone forever, Zhang Zhidong jumped out of the Qing school and turned to study foreign affairs, becoming a "foreign affairs palace army" after Li Hongzhang and others. Li Hongzhang once ridiculed: "It is difficult for the world to do things and then know them." In the past, there were many officials who were talking about things, who were high-minded in the face of trouble, who were highly regarded, and who were famous, but later they were released from their foreign posts and were responsible for real affairs. There are those who try their best to attack me, and bow down to me and ask me for advice. ”
By the time of the Gengzi Incident, Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were insulted by each other because of their political disagreements. Li advocated the united Russia, Zhang advocated the united japan, Li Li held the signing of the Xinugu Treaty, and Zhang opposed the signing of the treaty. Li Shang said, "Don't listen to Zhang Zhidong's opinions." Someone passed this into Zhang Zhidong's ear, and Zhang Da angrily said, "I am a scholar, and he is an old adulterer." ”
To this end, Cixi had to issue an edict to reconcile the two.
Eight
Hanyang Iron Works Martin Steel
"Middle school is the body, Western learning is used" is the guiding ideology of the Western school, and it is also the slogan of Zhang Zhidong, which is embodied in the two things of building railways and building factories. "The railway is the first important end for self-improvement, and if the railway is not successful, it is even more indifferent to the other end." "The West is rich and strong, and Yugen is here."
Xu Tongxin's "Annals of Zhang Wenxiang" records that in the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), Zhang Zhidong played the imperial court and proposed to build a Luhan Railway from Lugou Bridge to Hankou to connect the north and south. He believes that the benefits of the railway are the greatest, followed by the use of local goods and people's livelihood, followed by conscription and transfer of salaries. He proposed that the Luhan Railway is "the hub of the trunk road, the foundation of the branch road, and the essence of China's great profits". The imperial court approved the performance, and the northern section was planned to be presided over by the viceroy directly under the direct subordination, the southern section was presided over by the viceroy of Huguang, and the north and south sections were built.
In August of the same year, Zhang Zhidong was appointed governor of Huguang, and his first priority was to prepare for the construction of the Hanyang Iron Works. Zhang Zhidong, who runs an enterprise, has also made some jokes; he telegraphed Xue Fucheng, the minister in Britain, to purchase a steelmaking mill furnace, and the owner of the British Thysett factory replied: "If you want to run a steel mill, you must first test all the iron, stone, coal, and coke factories, and then know what the texture of coal and iron is, what kind of steel can be smelted, that is, what kind of furnace, the difference is a millimeter, the error is thousands of miles, and you must not dare to engage in it." Zhang Zhidong boasted about Haikou: "With the size of China, why not have it, do we have to find coal and iron first and then buy a furnace?" But according to the British users to buy a penny is ear-catching. "The British factory owner had to obey.
As a result, the furnace was located in Hanyang, with iron used daye and coal used in Ma'anshan. Ma'anshan's coal and ash mines are equally heavy and cannot be coking, so they had to buy thousands of tons of coke from Germany. From the sixteenth to the twenty-second year of Guangxu (1890-1896), it cost 5.6 million taels of silver and had not yet been refined into steel. Later, it was changed to coal from Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and the steel made was too brittle and easy to crack. Zhang Zhidong only knew that the furnace he purchased was in an acidic configuration, could not remove phosphorus, and the steel contained too much phosphorus, which was easy to crack. So he borrowed 3 million yuan from Japan to change the original furnace to a basic configuration of the furnace to produce high-quality Martin steel.
Panoramic view of Hanyang Arsenal
Hanyang Iron Works is a steel joint enterprise, guangxu nineteen years (1893) built, including steel mills, iron mills, iron foundries large and small factories 10, 2 furnaces, 3000 workers, coal mining workers 1000. This was the first large-scale steel industry produced by capitalist machines in modern China, and it was also the largest steel mill in Asia, and the construction of steel mills in Japan was several years later.
Zhang Zhidong also did the Hubei weaving layout. Guangxu eighteen years (1892) in Wuchang driving, 30,000 spindles, 1,000 cloth machines, 2,000 workers. The weaving layout is profitable. However, Zhang Zhidong will make up for the losses of the iron factory and the gun factory by the profit of the weaving layout, so that the weaving layout has always been under the oppression of usury and cannot be developed. Zhang Zhidong saw that cotton yarn was widely sold, so he decided to open two spinning mills. He called Xue Fucheng, the minister in Britain, to order the machines from the British businessmen. Guangxu twenty-three years (1897) built the North Factory, more than 50,000 spindles, for the Hubei Spinning Bureau. The South Factory has not been built, the machine is parked at the Shanghai wharf to let the wind and rain blow, and later Zhang Xiao led him to run the Nantong Dasheng Spinning Factory. The Hubei Spinning Bureau, the Weaving Layout, the Silk Reeling Bureau, and the Hemp Making Bureau were subleased to the Yingchang Company organized by Guangdong capitalists in the 28th year of Guangxu (1902).
Zhang Zhidong's "Western learning for use" is also reflected in education and strengthening the army, and in the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894), he transferred to the governor of Liangjiang, and he founded and rectified many colleges and schools in Hubei and Jiangsu. In Hubei, there are two lakes academies and jingxin academies, and there are also agricultural affairs schools, craft schools, armed self-improvement schools, business schools, etc.; in Jiangsu, there are Chucai schools, railway schools, army schools, and water teacher schools.
Zhang Zhidong also paid attention to the training of the army, during the term of office of the Viceroy of Liangjiang, he had trained the Jiangnan Self-Strengthening Army, with a number of 10,000, in Xuzhou, and all the officers were Germans, using Western methods to train. In the twenty-second year of Guangxu (1896), he returned to the post of Governor of Huguang and handed over the Self-Strengthening Army to Liu Kunyi, the Governor of Liangjiang.
Nine
Communication with the Reformists
After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Zhidong wrote "Appealing for Repairing and Preparing The Reserves before Folding", hoping that the imperial court would sum up the lessons of failure and change the law and try to govern. Therefore, Kang Youwei, the leader of the restoration faction, called Zhang Zhidong "the hope of the world" in the "Book on the Bus", and had great hope and reverence for this feudal official.
According to the Complete Works of Tan Si tong, in November of the twenty-first year of Guangxu (1895), Kang Youwei went south to Nanjing to visit Zhang Zhidong and was warmly welcomed and received by Zhang Zhidong. Kang Youwei prepared to set up a strong society in Shanghai, with Zhang Zhidong as the president, and drafted the "Preface to the Shanghai Strong Society" on behalf of Zhang Zhidong. Zhang Zhidong agreed at that time. Later, when the Shanghai Qiang Society was established, he was asked to be listed, and Zhang Fudian said: "The group of talents gathers, do not bother me, please remove the name, the donation fee must be sent." As an external patron, he donated 500 taels and allocated 1,000 taels of public funds in approval.
Hanyang Iron Works Commemorative Plaque (According to Chutian Metropolis Daily)
Among the members of the Shanghai Qiang Society are Wang Kangnian, Feng Yong, Huang Tifang, Tu Renshou, and Huang Shaoji, all of whom are quite closely related to Zhang Zhidong. Later, however, he saw that Empress Dowager Cixi had taken action to force the Guangxu Emperor to close the Qiangxue Society in Beijing and the Chronicles of China and Foreign Classics, so he stopped donating money on the pretext that Kang Youwei was talking about modern literature and scriptures and advocating confucius reform and that his ordinary academic themes were incompatible. From the 22nd to the 23rd year of Guangxu (1896-1897), the Reform School founded the "Shi ji bao" in Shanghai, with Liang Qichao as the chief writer and Wang Kangnian as the manager. In the name of the governor, Zhang Zhidong asked all the prefectures and counties in Hubei Province to buy and read the "Shi Ji Bao", donate thousands of yuan, and give the newspaper financial support. Later, the Times published an article about China's fight for civil rights, much to Zhang's displeasure. He instructed Tu Renshou to write the "Book of Discerning Han" and criticize Yan Fu's article "Breaking Han" and publish it in the "Times Daily".
The differences between Zhang Zhidong and the Reformers did not stop there. The "Annals of Zhang Wenxiang" records that after Chen Baozhen served as the governor of Hunan, Hunan set off a restoration movement. His new policies in Hunan, including setting up factories and reforming education, were approved by Zhang Zhidong. Under the influence of Zhang Zhidong, Chen Baozhen also ordered students in colleges in various prefectures and counties in the province to read the "Times". Hunan established the Southern Society, founded the Xiang Journal and the Xiang Bao, and Zhang Zhidong used political power to sell the Xiang Journal in various prefectures and counties in Hubei. From the tenth volume onwards, the Xiang Journal published articles on Confucius's reform and advocacy of civil rights ideas, which greatly displeased Zhang Zhidong. In March of the 24th year of Guangxu, Zhang Zhidong telegraphed Chen Baozhen and said that the Xiang Journal was paradoxical and the bureau was suspended. He also warned Chen Baozhen that this matter "has a bearing on the hearts of academics and the people, spreads far and near, will be chaotic, and it will be appropriate to save the right." Put pressure on the Hunan Restoration Movement.
In Liang Qichao's "Drinking Ice Room Collection", it is easier to see zhang Zhidong's role in the restoration. During the Penghu Reform Movement, Zhang Zhidong had more connections with the Restoration Faction. Zhang Zhidong once asked Chen Baozhen to recommend Yang Rui and Liu Guangdi. Yang Rui was a disciple and aide of Zhang Zhidong, and initially held the position of copywriter, responsible for handling paperwork. At the end of March of the twenty-first year of Guangxu (1895), Yang Rui was sent to Beijing by Zhang Zhidong. According to the saying at the time, he became Zhang Zhidong's "sitting capital". "Sitting in Beijing" means that local officials are stationed in Beijing, but they are not public, and their main task is to collect political intelligence. Later, Yang Rui and Liu Guangdi served as military aircraft Zhang Jing with the rank of fourth pinqing and participated in important politics.
In April of the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898), Zhang Zhidong was transferred to Jinjing, but due to the burning of bungalows in Shashi, Hubei Province, he turned back halfway. In August, on the eve of Empress Dowager Cixi's coup d'état, Chen Baozhen asked the Guangxu Emperor to quickly transfer Zhang Zhidong to Beijing to "sponsor the New Deal", but this did not succeed. Soon, Empress Dowager Cixi launched a coup d'état and killed the "Six Gentlemen", but the Wushu coup failed. Zhang Zhidong's emergency power to save his protégé Yang Rui did not succeed.
The Six Gentlemen of WuShu
【Main References】
"Zhang Zhidong" (Tang Haoming)
The Origin of Sichuan University: The Chronicle of Sichuan Zunjing Academy (Lei Wenjing)
Zhang Wenxiang Gong Annals (Xu Tongxin)
The Complete Works of Tan Si Tong (Tan Si Tong)
"Ice Drinking Room Collection" (Liang Qichao)
Compilation of Old Testament Chapters between China and Foreign Countries (Wang Tieya/ed.)
Guangxu Chaodong Hualu (Volume II)
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