Li Hongzhang's foreign affairs succeeded or failed

"Biography of Li Hongzhang" Author: Liang Qichao Translation: Fog Man Barricade River

The Western Affairs Movement, also known as the Self-Improvement Movement, its guiding ideology is "Division and Yi Control". The simple understanding is to learn the long skills of the West to resist Western aggression. However, when it came to Li Hongzhang, his understanding and implementation of these four words were somewhat narrow, and he did not think of learning from the advanced political, economic, and cultural systems of the West, but only thought of enriching the army with foreign guns and cannons in form and developing transportation with railway ships, which is also the place where he has always been criticized.

Li Hongzhang was scolded by readers all over the world for his foreign affairs, but he was also touted by utilitarians all over the world because of foreign affairs. If he says that he does not understand foreign affairs, I am afraid that China's foreign affairs are not comparable to his; if he really understands foreign affairs, then why have other countries prospered in foreign affairs, but our country has weakened in foreign affairs?

In Liang Qichao's view, Li Hongzhang only understands foreign affairs, but he does not understand state affairs, thinking that what foreigners do is foreign affairs. So what did Li Hongzhang do? There are two main aspects.

The first is the military aspect, such as ship purchase, equipment purchase, shipbuilding, weapon building, gun fort construction, repair of docks, etc.; the second is commercial, such as opening railways, merchants bureaus, weaving layout, telegraph bureaus, Kaiping coal mines, Mohe gold mines, etc. In addition, he opened a number of academies and sent students to study abroad, but only to serve the military, or to train translators to facilitate negotiations with foreigners.

Li Hongzhang's foreign affairs movement can be said to have influenced hundreds of years. The parent company of the world's top 500 China Merchants Bank is the steamship China Merchants Bureau founded by Li Hongzhang in the Western affairs period. Before the emergence of the steamship investment bureau, Chinese shipping was still the domain of foreigners. In this context, Li Hongzhang established the Steamship Merchants Bureau. It is the first civilian enterprise in China, and it is also the first modern enterprise run by the government and the commercial office in China, or it is an enterprise that has continued to this day. On February 1, 1951, China Merchants was reorganized into the Chinese Min Steamship Corporation, after which the company established a subsidiary, China Merchants Bank. Counting up, this fortune-500 company is also stained with Li Hongzhang's light.

Of course, Li Hongzhang, who has established a meritorious reputation for good warfare, has devoted himself even more to the affairs of the navy and the army. Because he fought with Western armies for a long time, Li Hongzhang personally saw the power of their weapons and armed the officers and soldiers with these weapons. After quelling the rebellion, he believed that the strength of the officers and soldiers was more than enough to quell civil strife and resist aggression. Therefore, he has always regarded the strengthening of the army as a top priority. A strong military is a strong country.

The Beiyang Marine Division, which he single-handedly founded, has a total of 25 main warships, 50 auxiliary warships, 30 transport ships, and more than 4,000 officers and men, which is the strongest and largest of the four modern navies established by the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, he also strengthened the formation of the army, and the newly trained army of the direct subordinate and Huai army had a total of forty-nine battalions and about 25,000 people. The zhili mentioned here is the old name of Hebei Province, which means the heartland at the foot of the Son of Heaven. Li Hongzhang has worked these two land and sea armies, and naturally he has a lot of confidence.

In the eighth year of Guangxu, france was looking for trouble in Guangxi, and the imperial court discussed preparing to deploy around the capital, and Li Hongzhang wrote to him: "The subject has spent more than ten years training troops and buying new weapons, although the shortage of funds cannot realize all the ideas, but it is still no problem to face the enemy in the front, and the emperor does not have to worry about being afraid." ”

It was only unexpected that the Sino-Japanese War had just broken out, and the huge battleships were either sunk or damaged, or captured by the enemy. The Huai Army and the newly trained Army were also repeatedly defeated, sweeping away his former good reputation. The remaining wrecked ships passed through the Battle of Tanggu in Tianjin with the Eight-Nation Alliance and were also reduced to ashes. The capital he has accumulated in the thirty years of his position as viceroy and minister of Beiyang, the talents he has cultivated, and the layout of his planning have also become a passing cloud. Until the time of Li Hongzhang's death, Tianjin, the base camp he devoted himself to running, was still not recovered in the hands of foreigners, which was also sad and lamentable.

The failure of Li Hongzhang's foreign affairs movement actually has traces to follow, after all, he has received too much resistance. For example, the conservatives of the Qing government believed that building railways and applying steam locomotives was "strange and clever", and the railway would not only break through natural obstacles, damage houses, but also destroy feng shui, so it has been very resistant to the construction of railways.

During the Guangxu period, in order to transport coal from the Tangshan Kaiping Coal Mine to Tianjin, Li Hongzhang asked for the construction of a railway from Tangshan to Beitang, with a total length of 85 kilometers. However, the Qing government, with the smoke from the steam locomotive that would hurt crops and the vibration would offend the tombs of the former emperors, resolutely shortened the railway, and only agreed to build a 12-kilometer railway from Tangshan to Xu Gezhuang. A canal was dug between Xu Gezhuang and Lutai to connect the Ji Canal to reach the mouth of the Beitang Sea, and on this 12-kilometer railway, in order to avoid the locomotives from shaking the tomb, mules and horses dragged the vehicles.

However, when analyzing the reasons for the failure of the foreign affairs movement, Liang Qichao said that Li Hongzhang's failure was not only someone pulling his hind legs, but he also had a certain responsibility. An important reason is that he uses old subordinates, remembers the old subordinates, shares the same wealth, lets them recommend each other, occupies many important positions, and entrusts them with heavy responsibilities, but regardless of whether they are suitable or not, whether they are competent or not, so as to miss the overall situation. For example, As a military fortress, Lushun is said by Westerners to defend it with a few hundred soldiers, and as long as there is enough food, it will not be able to break through it for three years. Li Hongzhang appointed his close associate Zhao Huaiye to defend Dalian, the only way to enter Lushun. When the Japanese attacked, Zhao Huaiye refused to aid the lips-and-teeth Jinzhou. Later, when he heard that Jinzhou had lost his hand, he abandoned Dalian and fled without a fight, causing Lushun to fall into danger and eventually being breached. Another reason is that Li Hongzhang only knows how to train troops, but he does not know how the soldiers came from, he only knows how to raise military salaries, but he does not know how the military salaries come from, and he has done a lot of trivial things, resulting in nothing.

However, commerce has not achieved great success, mainly because it is dragged down by the method of the official supervision and commercial office. At that time, whenever a new commercial project was to be developed, it was necessary to ask for approval and send ministers to supervise and handle it, and in the end, either it was handled by capable officials who exceeded their authority, or they were used by treacherous and corrupt officials for personal gain, which became an obstacle to commercial development. If the state can formulate commercial laws, open up markets, and protect the rights of businessmen, it will not waste capital, do not waste manpower, and increase state revenue.

In the end, Liang Qichao concluded that Li Hongzhang did not understand state affairs. Because Li Hongzhang did not understand the relationship between the state and the government, did not distinguish the scope of power of the government and the people, and did not clarify the responsibilities that the minister should fulfill, he caused a waste of resources, cold businessmen, and poor operation. Moreover, he did not understand the real reasons for the prosperity and strength of Western countries, blindly confident, and felt that our Chinese customs, traditions, and political systems were better than those of foreign countries, and that only guns, cannons, ships, railways, and machines were not as good as foreign countries.

He did not realize that today's international competition does not depend on the state but on the people, and that the reform momentum that Western countries can eliminate factions, eliminate old habits, and become rich and strong through the New Deal comes from the grassroots rather than from above. This kind of motivation needs to have one or two pioneers who can provide the motivation, do some guidance and guidance work, cultivate a reform atmosphere, and then use the strength of the grassroots to widely implement it, so as to achieve success. Japan's Meiji Restoration is a classic success story.

The Meiji Restoration and the Western Affairs Movement were basically in the same period, and although both transplanted Western scientific and technological civilizations into their own countries in order to achieve military "strength" and economic "wealth", there were fundamental differences. Japan's restoration was formulated as a basic national policy, and systematic reforms were carried out in all fields such as political economy, academic culture, and technical education, and were directly related to the masses of the people, resulting in a fierce class struggle between the ruling class of the government and the people. The "restoration" developed through the interaction and mutual penetration of the two classes. In contrast, the foreign affairs movement is only a military and economic technological innovation, does not touch the political system and economic structure itself, and has little direct relationship with the people, but is limited to the internal struggle of the rulers, and the natural results are very limited.

However, Liang Qichao criticized the limitations of Li Hongzhang's understanding, but also expressed understanding and sympathy for Li Hongzhang's situation at that time.

Li Hongzhang mentioned in his recital on preparing for the establishment of coastal defense because of the Taiwan incident: Now is a major change that has never been seen in three thousand years, and it is impossible to achieve stability in the status quo, and it is necessary to find a way to stabilize the country and resist aggression; if we do not change the law and renew the law, the country cannot become rich and strong; the boundaries of factions are not eliminated, the traditional habits are not abolished, and many things cannot be smoothly carried out; if we continue to keep to the old ways, there will be an even greater shortage of talents who can make meritorious contributions in the future.

As a representative of the Western-style faction, Li Hongzhang keenly felt the predicament he was currently facing, and painfully expressed his pain that he wanted to reform but was unable to do so, which made Liang Qichao feel empathy. As reformers who hope to inject fresh vitality into the country and bring rapid upgrading and development through restoration, this is a problem they have to face. However, although Li Hongzhang was aware of this, he did not impress the emperor with his prestige and status, commanded all officials to participate in the foreign affairs movement, and did not go all out to create public opinion and call for the people of the whole country to take active action together. Therefore, Liang Qichao said that Li Hongzhang is a hero created by the times, not a hero who creates the times.

The western affairs movement ultimately failed, but it also brought some positive influence to feudal and conservative China. The foreign affairs movement promoted the development of the country's productive forces, promoted the emergence of Chinese national capitalism, resisted the economic import of foreign capitalism to a certain extent, and promoted the modernization of China's education and national defense.

Since then, Li Hongzhang's history of spring breeze has come to an end, and his frustrated years have come in a hurry.