Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang (February 15, 1823 - November 7, 1901) was born in Hefei, Anhui Province. He was named Jianfu, Zifu and Shaoquan (Shaoquan). In his later years, he was named yisou. He was born in Hefei, Anhui Province. He was a politician, diplomat and military general in the late Qing Dynasty. He was one of the main leaders of the Westernization Movement. Most people in the world call it "Li Zhongtang". Because of his two deeds, it is also called "Mr. Li Er" among the people.

Li Hongzhang was a Jinshi in the 27th year of Daoguang (1847). In his early years, with Zeng Guofan, a professional teacher, he suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement and the Nien uprising, and was ordered to form the Huai army. Because of his military achievements, he was promoted to governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang trade. He accumulated to the Bachelor of Wenhua hall and was granted the first rank of Su Yibo. During this period, he began to handle foreign affairs and founded Beiyang Navy. After the defeat of Sino Japanese War of 1894, he signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan as a special envoy. Later, he was appointed governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. After the outbreak of the war of aggression against China in the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1900), the Eight Allied forces took part in the "southeast mutual protection" and went north to negotiate. The next year, they signed the Treaty of Xin Chou on behalf of the Qing government with Yizhe, Prince Qing. He soon died in Beijing at the age of 79. After his death, he was given the title of "Wenzhong", a first-class Suyi Marquis of Jin Dynasty. His works are included in the complete works of Li Wenzhong.

Li Hongzhang, together with Zeng Guofan, Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang, are known as the "four famous ministers of ZTE". Japanese Prime Minister ITO Bowen regards them as "the only one in the Qing Empire who can stand to compete with the world powers", and Empress Dowager Cixi regards them as "the one to rebuild xuanhuang". But because he signed a series of unequal treaties on behalf of the Qing government, coupled with personal corruption, decision-making mistakes and other issues, he was also criticized.

(photo source: Li Hongzhang in New York in 1896)

Life of the characters

Early experience

Li Hongzhang was born on the 5th of the first month of the third year of Daoguang (February 15, 1823) in MODIAN Township, Dongxiang, Hefei County, Anhui Province (now Yaohai District, Hefei City, Anhui Province). He is the son of Li Wen'an, the student of the county school, and his wife Li. It is famous for its bronze. Because he is the second of eight brothers and sisters, he is also known as "Mr. Li Er".

At the age of six, Li Hongzhang entered Dihua library to study. As a young and intelligent man, he successively took Li Fangxian and Xu Ziling, a famous scholar in Hefei, as his teachers, studied Classics and history, and laid a solid foundation of knowledge.

Li Hongzhang was a scholar in the 20th year of Daoguang (1840). Daoguang 23 years (1843), in Luzhou Fuxue was selected as Yougong. Li Wen'an, who was then a Beijing official, wanted his son to become a dragon. He sent a letter urging Hong Zhang to enter Beijing to prepare for the local examination in shuntianfu next year. Li Hongzhang followed his father's orders to go north, and wrote 10 poems to express his mind, including the sentence "who has written history in the past ten thousand years, who has been a marquis for three thousand li.". He expressed his ambition in poetry, and had the ambition of "making friends with famous people in the world, and visiting people of virtue in the capital". After entering Beijing, Li Hongzhang, under the guidance of his father who was a doctor of the Ministry of criminal justice at that time, visited many Anhui officials, such as LV Xianji, Wang Maoyin and Zhao Wan, who were respected and appreciated by them. At the same time, due to the smooth development of the Imperial examination, he was able to make extensive friends and broaden his horizons. At that time, many of the two subjects, Jiachen (Juren) and Dingwei (Jinshi), who were on the same list with him, were later appointed as privy Minister Jiang Ji Zhang has always maintained a close and special relationship with them in the same year. In the 24th year of Daoguang (1844), Li Hongzhang was elected to the shuntianfu rural examination. In the same year, he married the Zhou family.

In 1845, Li Hongzhang entered Beijing for the examination. Pan Shien, who was born in Huizhou and was the chief examiner of Suzhou family, and Weng Xincun, a famous official (Li Hongzhang's real estate teacher, sun qiangming's teacher), had some enlightenment on the formation of Li Hongzhang's world outlook when he was the editor of Hanlin Academy. The southern Jiangsu gentry, led by pan and Weng, also gave great support to Li Hongzhang's rapid rise of Huai army in Jiangsu . In 1845-1846, when Li Hongzhang failed in the first national examination, he joined Zeng Guofan, a great Confucianist in Hunan Province, to study the theory of statecraft, which laid a solid foundation for his career and thought.

At that time, Zeng Guofan suffered from lung disease and lived in Baoguo temple in the south of the city. He talked with Liu Chuanying, a Confucian classics scholar, about classics and Taoism. In addition to the three traditional academic standards of righteousness, rhetoric and textual research proposed by Yao Nai of Tongcheng school, he added "economy", that is, the theory of managing the world and applying it. Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan not only "worked day and night to pursue the study of righteousness and reason", but also were ordered to compile and revise the miscellaneous notes of the classics and history schools according to the new academic purpose. Therefore, Zeng Guofan repeatedly called it "can be widely used", and called him "the four gentlemen of Dingwei" together with Guo Songtao, Chen Nai and Shuai yuanduo, who were also the Jinshi scholars. In the future, when the Taiping Army started, they went back to their hometown to do regiment training. Zeng Guofan wrote a letter to Li Hongzhang about his experience in compiling and training the Xiang army, which showed his expectation.

In the 27th year of Daoguang (1847), Li Hongzhang was a Jinshi and ranked the 13th in the second place (the 36th in the second place in the imperial examination). After the imperial examination, he was changed to a Shuji in the Imperial Academy. At the same time, under Zeng Guofan's door, he emphasized the study of statecraft. In April of 1850, the imperial court "introduced Ding Weike's scattered staff" and granted Li Hongzhang the title of editor of Hanlin academy and the title of editor of Wuying hall.

Hunan Military Staff

Since the thirtieth year of Daoguang (1850), the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement broke out and developed eastward rapidly. In the first month of the third year of Xianfeng (1853), the Taiping army from the east of Shunjiang River in Wuhan occupied Anqing and killed the governor Jiang Wenqing. Li Hongzhang encouraged LV Xianji, the left Minister of the Ministry of industry, to play on the piano and write the memorial for him all night. Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty ordered LV Xianji to be the Minister of Anhui regiment training to deal with the prevention and suppression of regiment training. Lu Xianji said to Li Hongzhang, "if you blame me, I will be ordered to go; if I also blame you, I will go with you." So he went back to China with his servant LV Xianji to do League training. In May, Li Hongzhang led his troops to guard the Yuxikou of Hezhou and fought the Taiping army for the first time. The next year (1854), Li Wen'an was also recommended by Wang Maoyin and returned to his hometown to run a league training. Li's father and son's regiment training "can be used neatly". Li Hongzhang, along with Zhou Tianjue, Li jiaduan, LV Xianji, Fuji and other officials of the Qing Dynasty, fought with the Taiping Army and Nian Army in central Anhui.

Li Hongzhang led the army as a scholar, which not only had the record of "taking wave fighting as his ability", but also had the bad reputation of "the Imperial Academy turned into a green forest". After several years of League training, he gradually understood the way to be a general, not to win or lose at one time, not to show his courage.

In February of the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), Li Hongzhang was awarded the title of magistrate for his efforts in restoring Hanshan County, Anhui Province. In October, because he led the regiment to recover the merit of Luzhou, "he was ordered to hand it over to the military aircraft department for registration and use by the Taoist government.". In September of the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), together with Fuji, governor of Anhui Province, he conquered Chaoxian County, Hezhou county and other places successively. In October, he Xugong was awarded and was appointed as an inspector. However, Gonggao is easy to be envied. For a while, slander is everywhere, and Li Hongzhang can hardly stand on his own in the countryside. In the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857), Fuji wrote a memorial to Li Hongzhang and Ding you to keep the system for his father, thus ending his five-year League training activities. The following year (1858), the Taiping army fell into Luzhou again. Li Hongzhang fled with his family and moved to Nanchang, where he lived with his brother Li Hanzhang.

In February of the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859), Li Hongzhang was sent to the military camp in Anhui Province, under the command of yixinge, the vice capital of Mongolia in Zhenghong banner. In December, he went to Jianchang, Jiangxi Province, where he joined Zeng Guofan's shogunate and was responsible for drafting documents. At this time, just as the Hunan army lost the battle of Sanhe, it was in urgent need of talents. Therefore, Zeng Guofan was very active in recruiting Li Hongzhang to the camp. Under the guidance of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang's thought, character and even living habits changed. Zeng Guofan was "cowardly" by nature, while Li's style was clear and decisive; Zeng Guofan often hesitated when he had a big plan, and he often got Li's several words to decide.

Forming Huai Army

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In the autumn of the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), there were serious differences between Zeng Guofan and Li Yuandu because Zeng Guofan decided to move troops to Qimen and impeach Li Yuandu. Li Hongzhang thinks that Qimen is located in the mountains, which is a "Jedi" taboo by military strategists. Li Yuandu follows Zeng's family to be a "scholar's speech" rather than a general. He once knew his shortcomings well, but he led the army to defend Huizhou. He was defeated and criticized severely. Li Hongzhang was unwilling to draft a draft and "lead a scene of people to fight", and finally left the camp indignantly. This shows that Li's strategy and personnel vision at this time have been above Zeng. Later, after the persuasion of Hu Linyi, Chen Nai, Guo Songtao and other friends and the repeated invitation of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang returned to the Xiang army camp on June 7 of the next year.

In the same year, after the Taiping army broke the Jiangnan camp, the Qing government lost its last main force in the whole lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Under the fierce attack of the Taiping army, the gentry and landlords in Jiangnan fled to Shanghai one after another. In order to avoid being destroyed, the Shanghai gentry compradors, on the one hand, prepared the "Chinese and foreign security bureau" and relied on Western mercenaries to protect Shanghai; on the other hand, they sent Qian Dingming and other representatives to Anqing to invite Zeng Guofan to send reinforcements. Zeng Guofan initially intended to send Zeng Guoquan to lead the East aid, but Zeng Guoquan was determined to capture Tianjing and establish the first military achievement, but he did not want to go there. After that, Zeng Guofan sent a letter to ask Chen Shijie, the general of Hunan army, to go out of the mountain, but failed. Finally, he transferred to Li Hongzhang, who gladly accepted the order and began the recruitment and formation of the Huai army.

In the summer of the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), the leader of Xixiang League training learned that Zeng Guofan was appointed governor of Liangjiang. When Li Hongzhang, a native of Anhui Province, presided over the confidential events on the screen, he recommended Zhang Shusheng, a former aide of Li Wen'an, to present a report to Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan, explaining the situation of Anhui Province and expressing his determination to work. After reading it, he was greatly appreciated and personally commented that "independent Jiangbei, true ancestors are born.". Because of the foundation of Luzhou regiment training and Li Hongzhang's various local relations, the formation and recruitment of the Huai army was relatively smooth.

Li Hongzhang first passed through Zhang Shusheng

Chinese PinYin : Li Hong Zhang