In September 1898, during the Reformation, Ito Hirobumi, who had recently resigned, visited China and stopped by to visit Li Hongzhang, an old rival he had always admired.
While paying tribute, it is not forgetting to satirize the "United Russia System Day" policy pursued by Li Hongzhang when he was on a mission to Europe two years ago.
Li Hongzhang had mixed feelings about this descendant who was 18 years younger than himself, after all, the Sino-Japanese War and the "Maguan Treaty" left him with great shame and humiliation, and Li Hongzhang even vowed to never perform his duties for life.
This was the last meeting between the two.
▲ Li Hongzhang and Ito Hirobumi.
Three years later, Li Hongzhang died of a serious illness after signing the humiliating Treaty of Xinugu on behalf of the Qing government. Eight years later, Ito Hirobumi was assassinated while visiting abroad.
Li Hongzhang and Ito Hirobumi, one was a prominent minister of the late Qing Dynasty who presided over the Foreign Affairs Movement, and the other was the first prime minister of Japan who promoted the Meiji Restoration, the two knew each other for twenty years, and fought several times in their diplomatic careers, but the fates of their respective countries were very different.
With the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and the rise of the Japanese Empire, the Western Affairs Movement and the Meiji Restoration, which also began in the 1860s, ushered in a very different ending.
<h1>1</h1>
When it comes to the late Qing Dynasty, many people naturally have a series of familiar names in their minds, such as the imperial family relatives headed by Prince Gong Yixuan in the central government, and the Han officials represented by Zeng, Zuo, Li, and Zhang in the local area.
In particular, Li Hongzhang, who has long served as the governor of Directly Subordinate and the Minister of Beiyang, is almost a unique existence in the Foreign Affairs Movement, creating a number of "China First" records, and the title is longer than the Dragon Mother in "Game of Thrones".
The largest arms factory in the late Qing Dynasty, the Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau, the beiyang marine division with the strongest strength in the late Qing Navy, as well as the Jinling Machine Manufacturing Bureau, the Kaiping Mining Bureau, the Shanghai Machine Weaving Layout and the China Telegraph General Bureau, were all from Li Hongzhang's hand.
At first, China did not have its own shipping industry, and could only allow foreign ships to be arrogant.
In 1872, Li Hongzhang bent together to build the first steamship shipping enterprise in modern China, the Steamship Merchants Bureau, with branches throughout China and Southeast Asia.
In Chinese waters, for the first time, Chinese merchant ships flying the flag of China Merchants appear side by side with foreign ships. The signboard of China Merchants is still there, and it is still one of the world's top 500 enterprises.
▲The former site of the Steamship Merchants Bureau.
Li Hongzhang worked diligently for the foreign affairs movement and was a model worker.
However, the Westerners took over the banner of Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's "Master Yi Long Technique to Control Yi", but they still could not save the Qing Dynasty.
Ma Jianzhong, an aide to Li Hongzhang, has already reminded him that the reason why the West is rich and strong is not because of the strong guns and guns, but because of the advanced system and culture.
The implication is that China must abandon "Sinocentrism" and learn from Western institutions and cultures.
However, Li Hongzhang did not find the problem with the foreign affairs movement.
<h1>2</h1>
Middle schools are the body, Western learning is used, ignoring the fundamental problems of the political system, just blindly building guns and guns, running industries, but demolishing the eastern wall to supplement the western wall.
The national industrial and commercial enterprises founded in the Western affairs movement adopted the system of "official supervision and commercial office", which was initially suitable for their development, but in the later period, "officials" formed a shackle on "businessmen", which seriously hindered the development of enterprises.
On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, the railways of the Qing Dynasty and the official supervision and commerce office were only 425 kilometers, and the total mileage of Japanese railways was 8 times that of China; Japan's private-based shipping industry had a total load of 160,000 tons, and the routes reached all parts of Asia.
Even so, the Qing government still did not allow the modern enterprise system to exist in China.
▲ Qing Dynasty officials deliberating at the Prime Minister's Gate.
Another example is the premier of the Qing government's only foreign-related organization, Yamen, who nominally conducted foreign trade and negotiations, but in fact had to look at the faces of Cixi and foreigners everywhere.
British Minister Wittoma recalled that every time he visited, as soon as he finished speaking, the various officials looked at each other and could not speak for half a day. If a superior leader says a word at this time, the others will definitely respond in groups, no matter what he says.
Wittoma said that once he went to the prime minister's office to run errands, no one took care of it for half a day, so he had to say that the weather was very good today.
The officials of the Prime Minister's office were stunned at first, and then finally someone came out and said that the weather was indeed good today. Then everyone perfunctorily said that the weather was really good.
The prime minister was up and down, lifeless, and procrastinating.
Zhang Yuanji, who later opened the Commercial Press, worked for the prime minister Yamen. Once, he found a telegram from the Russian Tsar to Guangxu in a pile of documents.
Such an important document has been left there for two days, and if no one has found it, it may be lost in a few days.
Only when Li Hongzhang was concurrently the prime minister of Yamen, the foreigners respected him more, and only by talking with Li Hongzhang could he accomplish things.
As early as when leading the Huai Army to engage the Taiping Army, Li Hongzhang had dealt with foreigners and had considerable experience.
▲Li Hongzhang.
Li Hongzhang has always bowed down to foreigners, but he signed the most treaties on behalf of the Qing government, even if he was old and semi-retired, Cixi still had to invite him out, and Li Hongzhang felt bitter.
<h1>3</h1>
When Prime Minister Yamen was still being polite to foreigners, eating and drinking, the Japanese next door were already using knives and guns with people.
In 1853, the U.S. government appointed Commodore Perry as commander of the East India Fleet, drove the fleet into Edo Bay, threatened to trade by force, and knocked on the door of Japan's closed country.
Perry's fleet consisted of black modern ironclad warships, which the Japanese had never seen before, and who did not know where sacred, called it "black ship", which was the "black ship to sail" event.
After the Black Ship Incident, the Tokugawa shogunate opened the treaty port and signed the Kanagawa Treaty, which stipulated the opening of two ports, and the United States enjoyed one-sided most-favored-nation treatment in Japan.
Later, the shogunate recognized the extraterritorial jurisdiction of foreigners in other treaties, lost its tariff autonomy, and was bullied by foreigners like the Qing government.
▲The Black Boat Incident.
The Treaty of Kanagawa was originally an unequal treaty, but because the black ship came to sail, it became the fuse of the Meiji Restoration, and was considered by Japanese historians to be the starting point of national modernization, and in many later records, the Japanese often expressed their gratitude for the black ship incident rather than regarded it as a national shame.
The port where the black ship docked, now named Perry Park, reads "Japan and the United States concluded a treaty of friendship in Kanagawa." Thinking like this, Japanese fans should not be scolded when they chase stars and say "You are my Kanagawa Treaty".
However, the restorationists in Japan at that time did not think so.
After 1858, samurai with the aim of exclusivity fought several armed struggles against foreigners operating in treaty ports. Later, the Restorationists simply did not even want the shogun system that had been used for nearly seven hundred years, and everything was torn down and restarted.
The Shogi movement evolved into the Fall of the Curtain Movement, in which the Fallen Curtain Faction overthrew the decadent rule of the Tokugawa shogunate under the banner of "honoring" the Emperor and established a new government headed by the Emperor.
<h1>4</h1>
Revolution is always accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice.
In 1859, the white terror of the shogunate spread to choshu domain (present-day Honyamaguchi Prefecture). Yoshida Shoin, an advanced thinker who had spread the idea of restoration at Matsushita Mura-juku and put forward the idea of "founding the country", was put in a cage and escorted to Edo to be executed.
In prison, Yoshida Shoin left a tragic last word, "The flesh body is exposed to Musashino, and the white bones are still singing Yamato's soul", after which the heroic righteousness.
Earlier, in the humble house of Matsushita Village, Yoshida Shoin and his protégés read hard with lights and discussed state affairs. Among the 80 students who studied at Matsushita Mura-juku were radical reformers such as Takayoshi Kido (Katsura Kogoro), Takasugi Shinsaku, Itō Hirobumi, and Yamagata Aritomo.
At the time of Yoshida's murder, Ito Hirobumi was only 18 years old and was studying English in Nagasaki and planned to study abroad.
At the time of the upsurge of the revolutionary wave, Ito Hirobumi resolutely threw himself into it, following the central figure of the fallen curtain movement, Kido Takayoshi, as his retinue, and joining the team of the fallen curtain.
Later, he traveled to Edo with Kido Takayoshi, and the first thing he did was to borrow money to bury his revolutionary mentor, Yoshida Shoin.
▲ Hirobumi Ito during the fall of the curtain.
After Yoshida Shoin, more and more reformers paid with their lives for the construction of a new government.
Another disciple of Yoshida Shoin, Takasugi Shinsaku, emulated the European army during the Fall of the Curtain Campaign and formed Japan's first modern new-style army, the "Strange Soldier Team", and finally suffered from tuberculosis due to long-term fatigue and coughed up blood, and died in 1867 on the eve of the establishment of the Meiji government.
In the same year, Sakamoto Ryoma, who traveled back and forth between the various clans, single-handedly contributed to the fall of the Satsuma and Choshu clans and the Tokugawa shogunate's "great political restoration", was also assassinated by the assassins of the shogunate.
During the Curtain Fall Movement, Ito Hirobumi witnessed the loss of countless lives, both enemies and comrades.
And the Qing Dynasty did not wait until more than thirty years later for Tan Sitong to utter the words: "All countries that change the law are made up of bloodshed, and there are no people in China who bleed because of the change of the law, and the reason why this country is not prosperous." Yes, please start with the same heir! ”
In 1868, after several years of civil war, the Meiji government was established. The 16-year-old Meiji Emperor, under the arrangement of the Fallen Curtain Sect, led the civil and military officials to read out the "Five Oaths" drafted by the RestorationIsts:
First, at the Guangxing Conference, all opportunities are decided on public opinion; second, the upper and lower levels of the heart, and the great development of the economy; third, the secretary of state and the warriors are in the same heart, so that the common people must make each of them fulfill their own aspirations and the people's hearts are tireless; fourth, the old bad habits are established on the basis of justice in heaven and earth; fifth, seek knowledge in the world, and greatly revitalize the emperor's foundation.
The Five Oaths were the basic program of the Meiji government's reforms, and also proclaimed the essential difference between the Meiji Restoration and the Western affairs movement, which was a major change in the face of Japan.
<h1>5</h1>
After the establishment of the Meiji government, the Japanese could not wait to speed up the pace of learning from the West.
In 1871, a Japanese mission, with Iwakura as Minister Plenipotentiary and Okubo Ritsu, Kido Takayoshi, and Ito Hirobumi as deputy envoys, began a one-year and ten-month round-the-world mission to visit more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Britain, France, and Germany.
The fleet slowly sailed out of Yokohama, and the blue waves on the sea were endless, full of unknowns, just like the fate of Japan.
After witnessing the advanced civilizations of European and American countries, the Japanese mission suddenly had a broad vision and underwent an earth-shaking change in thinking.
When Takayoshi Kido traveled to various countries, his first impression was that the systems of East Asian countries such as China and Japan were outdated.
He believed that "the prevailing political customs of the Oriental countries are not sufficient to make our country perfect." The politics, systems, customs, education, livelihood, and preservation of property in Europe and the United States have all overtaken the Orient," and the "enlightened wind" should be moved to Japan.
In order to promote the rapid development of Japan, Kido Takayoshi called for "breaking the bad habits of a hundred years, the feudal autocracy and restraint of the government, and the freedom of the counties and counties", gradually giving the people to participate in the political power, and calling on the whole country to work hard to innovate.
▲Part of the Iwakura Mission.
During his visit to Germany, Ito Hirobumi became a loyal fan of Bismarck, the "iron-blooded prime minister", actively studied prussia's emperor-centered state system, and made a lot of investigations for the establishment of a modern imperial state with Prussia as the first.
Ito Hirobumi was beardless when he was young, and after visiting Germany, he began to grow a beard like Bismarck, somewhat imitating the meaning of an idol.
In September of the following year, during the autumn breeze and white clouds, the Iwakura Mission returned home from a round-the-world visit, bringing back to Japan valuable lessons learned from the Western powers, which caused a sensation in the Meiji government.
Carefully educated by the restoration officials, Emperor Meiji not only supported political reforms, but also led by example, taking the lead in learning the Western way of life, eating Western food, and wearing suits. During his 45-year reign, he made as many as 96 trips to Japan, traveling almost all over Japan, and bringing the meiji Restoration to various places.
Emperor Meiji learned that the Japanese were short because they could not keep up with nutrition, so he took the lead in drinking milk and eating beef, encouraging the people to follow suit.
The citizens of Tokyo heard that the emperor drank milk in a large bowl and ate meat in large pieces, and the wind of eating meat was very popular for a while. Tokyo's beef hot pot restaurant business is booming, and some people go to restaurants to eat beef, pair it with beer, and shout a few words of blunt English in pursuit of fashion, and there are often similar plots in Japanese dramas that reflect the Meiji Restoration.
According to statistics, in the early years of the Meiji era, Tokyo slaughtered an average of one cow per day, and by the fifth year of the Meiji period, the daily slaughter of cattle had increased to 20, and if the average person ate half a catty, it could supply 5,000 people.
In contrast, Empress Dowager Cixi may be more concerned about whether her birthday party can be held more solemnly.
<h1>6</h1>
More than a thousand years ago, Prince Shengde wrote at the beginning of a letter that read, "The Heavenly Son of the Kingdom of Sunrise to the Heavenly Son of the Land of Sunset", with a bit of self-confidence in the state letter to greet the Sui Dynasty on the other side, and sent emissaries to learn from the ancient Eastern Empire with an open mind.
As Japan accelerated its modernization, its former empire remained asleep.
In 1876, Guo Songtao took office and set off for Britain as a minister in Britain, becoming the first person to open Chinese diplomacy.
The foreign affairs movement has been running well, and China's national door has been open for 30 years. Guo Songtao went abroad to learn from the experience of foreign affairs at home, and he himself was outstanding in ability, and he was also one of the most competent envoys stationed abroad in the late Qing Dynasty, which saved many interests for the Qing Dynasty and won the trust of Britain, France and other countries.
However, as soon as Guo Songtao left the country, his hometown of Hunan immediately exploded, and the Three Xiang scholars denounced him as a traitor and hyped up his evil deeds of "traitorous country."
Guo Songtao's "Journey to the West", which recorded what he had seen in the west, was transmitted back to China, and it was regarded by conservative forces as evidence of his act as a traitor, so he used it to attack, and the book was banned before it was published.
▲Guo Songtao.
When the "angry youth" at home insulted him wantonly, Guo Songtao, who was far away in Britain, found that in 1877, Japan had sent more than 200 students to Britain, including many important government officials, including Inoue Xin, who later became the minister of finance (finance minister).
Once, Guo Songtao went to a drink at the invitation of the Japanese minister in Britain, and met Inoue unexpectedly, and the two of them went through a long conversation, only to feel that they hated each other late.
Through the conversation, Guo Songtao learned that Inoue and other Japanese officials were studying in London, usually studying Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" and Mueller's "Political Economy". Chinese readers are still reading Confucian classics and writing eight strands of text, and Guo Songtao can't help but sigh: "Chinese is more than a thousand miles apart, I am ashamed!" Shame on you! ”
At the same time, The Three Xiang Scholars also regarded Guo Songtao's mission to foreign countries as a "ghost" (serving foreign devils), claiming to be ashamed to be with this person, and wrote a couplet to slander him:
Out of its kind, out of its own place, it is not tolerated in the world of Yao Shun; if you can't do anything, you can do things to ghosts, why go to the country of your parents.
Up and down the government and the public, only Li Hongzhang supported Guo Songtao, saying: "Those who know heroes in the world at that time, who are similar to foreign affairs and know the form of government, are the most important in The Immortals (Guo Songtao). ”
After Guo Songtao returned to China, he was idle at home, continued to face the sneers of conservative forces against him, and finally died of depression.
Like Guo Songtao, there is also the translator Yan Fu who has been discriminated against for foreign affairs.
Yan Fu went to England and France to study as one of the first batch of ship political students, and after returning to China, he served as a teacher at the Tianjin Admiralty School, and later served as the general office of the school. But in the eyes of the world, Yan Fu has no scientific name, and no matter how big the official is, he is also a big soldier.
Yan Fu had a clan uncle who passed the examination and often poked Yan Fu's sore spots, making him unable to lift his head in front of his fellow villagers.
Yan Fu was not exempt from the customs, so he had to spend money to donate a prisoner, and later tried to take the imperial examination several times, and participated in the Fujian Township Examination and the ShuntianXiang Examination, but unfortunately there was no result.
In the political environment at that time, even Yan Fu, who was proficient in Western studies, had to spend a lot of time and energy on the imperial examination.
▲Yan Fu.
The world is drunk, and I am alone, which is the tragedy of Guo Songtao and Yan Fu, and it is also the tragedy of the times, and even Li Hongzhang, who supports Guo Songtao and Yan Fu, has not been able to wake up in time.
In 1876, the Japanese minister to China, Mori Youli, went to Beijing to take up his post, passing through Tianjin, and specially visited Li Hongzhang, then the governor of the direct subordination and minister of trade and commerce in Beiyang. In the eyes of the meiji government officials at the time, this leading figure in the western affairs movement had always been highly popular.
When Li Hongzhang learned that Japan was also implementing reforms in recent years, he specifically asked Mori about his views on Chinese and Western culture when he met with Mori.
Without thinking, Sen Youli did not give any face, saying: "We think that Western learning is very useful, but your country's learning is only three points useful, and the other seven points are too old to be of any use." ”
After Li Hongzhang listened, he did not think so, and even became a little angry.
Li Hongzhang did not know that at this time, it was only 18 years before the Sino-Japanese War.
<h1>7</h1>
After a series of reforms by the Meiji government to "enrich the country and strengthen the army, colonize and prosper, and civilize and civilize," militarist ideologies in Japan became very popular.
Fukuzawa Yukichi, who has always advocated invading China, even said bluntly in the "Theory of Detachment":
Our country must not hesitate to wait for the progress of its neighbors and jointly rejuvenate East Asia, but it is better to break away from its ranks and advance and retreat with the civilized countries of the West. The treatment of Indochina and Korea need not be slightly apprehensive because they are neighbors, but can only be treated in the same way that Westerners treat such countries.
Emperor Meiji, who was deeply influenced by these radical ideas, stood up again, this time not to eat beef, but to cheer for the war.
When Japanese political parties were questioned by the public because their military expenditure exceeded their financial capacity, Emperor Meiji issued an edict: "The matter of national armaments will be postponed for one day, or it will be hated for a hundred years." ”
The Meiji government said that in the future, 300,000 yen of court expenses will be saved every year, plus one-tenth of the monthly salary of civil and military officials, all of which will be used for armaments, for shipbuilding, buying ships, and purchasing guns.
In the decade before the Sino-Japanese War, Japan accelerated its military expansion, with a total strength of 230,000 troops, and at the same time introduced the British naval system, trained the fleet, and built 55 large and small ships.
At the same time, the Qing Dynasty also built four large fleets, claiming to be the largest naval power in Asia. Among them, when the Beiyang Marine Division was formed, the total tonnage of 7 new warships alone had reached more than 20,000 tons, while at that time, Japan had only 5 ironclad ships.
▲Officers and men of the Beiyang Marine Division.
Some scholars have found that after 1890, the Beiyang Marine Division received no less appropriation than before, but it never purchased warships, in addition to the cost of building the Summer Palace for Cixi, there were also a large number of military losses due to corruption within the Beiyang Marine Division.
The reserve soldiers of the Beiyang Marine Division, initially numbered 250 people, later expanded to several thousand, but they never participated in training, not even seen warships, purely went in to mix days and eat empty pay. Among the Beiyang Marine Division, there are even people who participate in smuggling by means of warships.
<h1>8</h1>
Before the Sino-Japanese War, China and Japan fought fiercely over Korea.
Japan invaded Taiwan, annexed Ryukyu, extended its power into the Korean Peninsula, and officially wrenched the wrist with the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing government also tried its best to negotiate with Japan to retain the last vassal state, Korea.
On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, China and Japan began to compete with Korea.
In 1885, Li Hongzhang and Ito Hirobumi met in Tianjin over the Korean dispute, the first meeting between the two.
At that time, Li Hongzhang had been preparing for foreign affairs for more than 20 years and had achieved a series of results. Not long ago, Feng Zicai also used new breech guns to arm the French army in Zhennanguan, resulting in the resignation of the French Ruffiere cabinet.
Some people believe that the great Qing Dynasty is in full swing, which can be described as "flashing the dragon flag in the sky, and there has been no such victory since Daoxian".
Therefore, Li Hongzhang was still a little arrogant when negotiating with Japan, claiming that if he "breaks up therefore, I will only be prepared to fight." After negotiations, the two sides took a step back and postponed the Sino-Japanese war for nine years.
However, Ito Hirobumi was not intimidated by Li Hongzhang's threats, and he, who had always known the Qing Dynasty, had long seen that the foreign affairs movement was bluffing. After he returned home, he said contemptuously:
Although at this time the outside world seemed to be reorganized in the water and land armies, in my opinion, it was all empty words... As everyone knows, after a year or two, it will follow the rules, just as the Westerners describe China as saying, "sleep again"!
Li Hongzhang should not have imagined how awkward the scene would be when he saw Ito Hirobumi again.
In 1895, after the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang could only go to Japan as a peacemaker to negotiate with Ito Hirobumi, in exchange for the humiliation of the Treaty of Maguan.
During the negotiations, the two sides talked about the Taiwan issue, and Ito Hirobumi put forward a harsh demand that the Qing Dynasty be delivered within a month.
Li Hongzhang said, why should your country be in a hurry? Taiwan is already in the mouth.
Ito Hirobumi said coldly, not yet swallowed, hungry.
This was a victory in the Meiji Restoration, as well as a defeat for the Western affairs movement.
A reform divorced from politics could not be a life-saving medicine for the Qing Dynasty.
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Yi Wencheng et al.: Biography of Japanese Historical Figures (Modern and Contemporary), Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, 1987
Zhang Ming: "Self-Improvement of Foreign Affairs", Chongqing Publishing House, 2016
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Ma Yong, "The War of Two People:Li Hongzhang, Ito Hirobumi and the Sino-Japanese War," Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Daily, 2014-07-22
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