China Idiom Ito Bowen Dialogue Li Hongzhang What I did in China may not be better than what you did.

If there were no "Shi Mao Rebellion", Li Hongzhang would be a local second-class official at best, and he would never be promoted to the position of a court official. He, Zeng Guofan, Zuo He and the "official of ZTE" were all promoted through improper channels and should have a certain level and vitality. But even such a figure has become a helpless animal in the center of officialdom. It can be seen that it is the empty living space and officialdom environment that determine the quality of an official.

Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan are first-class officials at home, but once they go abroad, they lose their sense of superiority. At best, they are elites in interest groups and will not become elites in faith groups. So it is not helpful to save the dying Qing government.

When Li Hongzhang visited Russia from 65438 to 0896, Russian Finance Minister Witt had the impression that Li was "highly civilized from the perspective of Chinese civilization", but "from the perspective of us Europeans, he was uneducated and uncivilized."

After contact with Li Hongzhang, the Russians think that China's quality is very low, Li Hongzhang is the upper class of China, and the Russians think that Li Hongzhang represents China. In China, officials with this quality are regarded as "outstanding" and "excellent". It can be seen that the "talents" of the Qing government were rubbish in front of the world.

Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai were "excellent" officials in the Qing government. Compared with officials in developed countries, neither the West nor the East is at the same level.

Li Hongzhang belongs to Ito Bowen. They are the prime ministers of China and Japan. Before the Sino-Japanese War, the two were equal, but in treaty of shimonoseki, the latter only said "yes" to the former. In order to get less money, Li Hongzhang even told Ito Bowen that he was willing to live a "godson" life and begged for it.

Once you have an opponent, suddenly one side becomes the natural enemy of the other. What is the reason?

The way of this country and the philosophy of the prime minister determine that there are conquerors in everything.

1895 Before the treaty of shimonoseki was signed, Li Hongzhang, Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Qing Government, had an evocative conversation with Bowen Ito, Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan.

Tengren Yi sneered at Li Hongzhang: I think the positive side is too strong to go to war. Now he has really done it. What is the result? I once gave an advice to adults, hoping that your country would reform its internal affairs as soon as possible, otherwise our country would definitely fall behind. Ten years have passed, have my words come true?

Li Hongzhang sighed and said, "I want to reform the internal affairs, but our country is too big. The ruling party and the opposition party are different, unlike you. What will happen if we move from one place to another?

Ito thought for a moment and said, if you were me, you would do better in Japan than me. If I were you, I might not do better than you in China.

This dialogue can excuse Li Hongzhang's "unjust case". -The failure of the Sino-Japanese War was not Li Hongzhang's crime. This is a problem caused by "the country is too big, and the ruling party and the opposition party are not equal", which individuals seem unable to solve.

However, is this really the case?

Li Hongzhang and Ito Bowen were the main leaders of the Westernization Movement in China and the Meiji Restoration in Japan respectively. Li Hongzhang's Westernization Movement began at 186 1, which was eight years earlier than the official Meiji Restoration in 1869, but as a result, Japan fell behind. The leader of Westernization Movement bowed to the leader of Meiji Restoration and signed the most humiliating treaty of shimonoseki in Qing Dynasty.

Why is there such an ending? Li Hongzhang complained that China's conservative thoughts and forces in the ruling and opposition parties hindered and destroyed the modernization movement, which is undoubtedly an important reason. But what kind of progressive force is Li Hongzhang?

We can't take the slanderers of the enemy as "facts". Liang Qichao made a proper evaluation of Li Hongzhang. He doesn't know the people, the world and the origin of politics. He built a tower on the beach, but he only knows how to repair the broken house, but he can't transform it.

When the world situation was destroyed, as a "prime minister" of a big country, he devoted himself to being a paper worker in a shabby house. This kind of "outstanding person", as Qi Chao said, is an outstanding person among ordinary people, and the so-called "outstanding person among ordinary people" is only a mediocre person after all.

Li Hongzhang's Westernization Movement, as a "general program of political reform", only studied technology, not political system. At best, this is just a semi-finished project of "broken house". Will inevitably be overwhelmed by the world trend. Japan launched the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, which gave the "mediocre reform" the loudest slap in the face and declared the complete bankruptcy of the Westernization Movement.

"The country is too big, and the people are not happy." Is this why a country can't make progress openly? This is just an excuse for mediocre officials to do nothing.

Look at Ito Bowen before Meiji Restoration. How rampant the shogunate army is against reform. They defeated the reformist Saigō Takamori and committed suicide. Japanese reformists are always worried about their own lives, and their difficulties are several times that of the Westernization Movement. However, after Saigō Takamori's death, Ito Bowen resolutely joined Fan Jun in Changzhou, continued to follow the reform camp of Kubo Yanjun, opposed the Tokugawa era, and advocated "pioneering and enterprising". Finally won the final victory.

Ito used his life to promote political reform. Therefore, Japan is proud of its rapid rise in Asia. Is the thoroughness of Ito's reform comparable to that of Li Hongzhang?

Throughout the history of treaty of shimonoseki, we have to admit that Li Hongzhang's knowledge and courage in reform are lower than Ito Bowen's. With Li Hongzhang's courage, even in Japan, how can he compare with Ito Bowen? Who will sacrifice his life to promote radical reform?

In front of the winner, we must point out the shortcomings of the loser. Losers who like the derogatory terms of winners can only be left to the next cycle of failure except self-deception and self-justification!

The difference between Li Hongzhang and Ito Bowen is certainly related to their internal and external environment, but the most fundamental thing is the huge difference between different "species" determined by their thoughts.

One is a feudal bureaucrat, the other is a modern politician, the other is the old landlord class and the other is the new bourgeoisie. If there is such a gap, do all natural enemies exist?

Ito Bowen has undergone a qualitative change from an enlightened "vassal" to a new "bourgeois politician". It can be explained that he initiated and completed all the progressive facilities in Japan during the Japanese occupation period. He is the main representative of Meiji government advocating Europeanization policy.

As early as the Meiji Restoration, he had a "new culture thought", and Takagi Kimura praised him for "wanting to create a new civilization in Japan". 1872, during his stay in the United States with special envoy Iwakura, he said in the long article "Special Envoy Must Read": "China's current diplomatic and political customs are not enough to improve our country. European countries are superior to eastern countries in political system, customs, education, commerce and production. Therefore, blowing the wind of the Ming Dynasty to our country will make our people quickly progress to the field of equality. "

In the discovery and cultivation of talents, Ito especially revealed a completely different new Bole thought from Li Hongzhang: 1879, he proposed to establish a modern bourgeois education system, opposed the Confucian retro trend of thought of "benevolence, loyalty and filial piety as the foundation, and wisdom is the last", and advocated putting "wisdom" before the so-called "virtue".

In 1980s, Ito supported the "Europeanization policy" put forward by Foreign Minister Noue Kaoru, vigorously advocated "civilization and civilization", and opened up a "Europeanization era" in Japan, trying to make Japan "leave Asia and enter Europe" in foreign relations and culture. He "likes westernization" and even led the minister to hold a fancy dress ball to dress himself up as a merchant of Venice. Although this incident caused an uproar in the city and was once circulated as a joke, it can be seen that he went forward bravely and spared no effort to publicize "civilization" and change social customs.

At that time, the competition in the world was not in the country, but in the people, which was the basic national way of a modern country. However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the national highway was only a passive change, lacking both modern national concepts and modern national concepts. Officials trained in this national way, even westernization, are at best feudal bureaucrats with a little capitalist consciousness, which is no different from bourgeois reformists.

Although Ito Bowen also has a certain feudal consciousness, his "imperial constitutionalism" is far from modern democratic governments in Europe and America, but it has promoted the qualitative change of Japan and the birth of a modern bourgeois country. Li Hongzhang, a paper maker in the late Qing Dynasty, devoted himself to "never saying a word and never leaving his family", which was only a continuation of the feudal dynasty in the Middle Ages.

Different species have different courage. The limitation of his thought made Li Hongzhang continue to do absurd things.

Li Hongzhang's philosophy of existence and diplomatic behavior often remind me of a short story.

Someone sold his mother, and the buyer said, "This is my mother, please be kind to her."

Wow! I have lost my sense of honor and want to finish this part, but?

As a mother-seller, Li Hongzhang has lost his sense of honor and wants to do anything. What kind of excellent person is he?

Under the feudal bureaucracy, the prime minister's philosophy can only be the philosophy of dogs, except the philosophy of standing still. Owners are always right, which is their values and truth. At that time, the supreme ruler of the late Qing Dynasty was Cixi. Zhang Hong from Li Can argued with her about a national event? She told him to fight. She made him betray his country. Because he knows that only this master can guarantee his official position.

What the dying old empire needed most at that time was not a paper worker, but a politician who fundamentally changed the destiny of the country. The needs of declining dynasties, countries and rulers are not on the same track.

Empress Dowager Cixi, the headstrong supreme ruler, needs a "transactional slave", that is, a "big orderly". She doesn't expect anyone to decide the country for her.

The appearance of Li Hongzhang only met the needs of Empress Dowager Cixi, not the needs of the country.

Li Hongzhang, who knows the mind of Empress Dowager Cixi best, is a first-class "big shot". Li Hongzhang has always advocated foreign peace and avoided war, which is different from his hawkish colleagues and stubborn "conservative" resolute ministers. Their survival and fighting are first-class, which is most worthy of the queen mother's heart. The queen mother needs him to deal with friends, endure the humiliation of the country and bear strong pressure.

This is the period when Qing officials were enslaved the most. They called themselves "slaves" before the emperor. The court values my slaves. What a slave does is serve his master. No matter what kind of national interests and national justice can be ignored. Just like Li Hongzhang, governor of Zhili, signed one unequal treaty after another and lost one indemnity after another. You think he is "sharing worries for the country", but in fact he is just "sharing worries for the queen mother". He is a slave of "the only leader of Lafayette", and his promotion path is not essentially different from that of the great eunuch Li.

The longing and demand for happiness determines the mediocrity of your favorite horse. If Empress Dowager Cixi's "eldest brother" is indecisive or has no future, then she may need a real person to create a world for her. But in fact, Empress Dowager Cixi's "eldest brother" is neither a promising person nor an indecisive person, but a stubborn old woman who "would rather be a friend than a slave", so what she naturally needs most is slaves, and then talents. It's strange to be a slave in front of talent.

No matter how dedicated he is, he can't be a "big prime minister".

A truly excellent prime minister is generally not so obedient, but more overbearing. This is what Li is most worried about, and it is also another big boundary between mediocrity and talent. Li Hongzhang can give up all his dignity in order to be an official. He served Empress Dowager Cixi, acted according to his master's wishes, shared his worries for his master, but did not dare to cross the line.

Fu Na has been desperately pursuing "being an official" all his life. He values being an official more than anything else. In his view, political belief is nothing. He will never risk "strengthening political reform" with his satisfactory power. Doing things is either being an official or protecting an official or doing bad things. This is Li Hongzhang's "officialdom philosophy".

The biggest difference between bureaucrats and politicians is that the former is an official and the latter is an official. The former has no spiritual pursuit, while the latter has firm political beliefs.

Apart from the objective political situation, Ito became Lee's natural enemy. The most fundamental difference is the distance between bourgeois politicians and feudal bureaucrats. The confrontation between Li Hongzhang and Ito Bowen is a contest between a mature feudal bureaucrat and an outstanding modern bourgeois politician. This is a game between wolves and coyotes. Under the normal rules of the game, it is an inevitable result that coyotes defeat sheepfold wolves.