Li Hongzhang signed a bunch of traitorous treaties. Why can’t future generations have the heart to scold him?

There are some great figures in history, but they are destined to receive mixed praise and praise, and their bodies are covered in coffins and debates continue. Li Hongzhang is such a person.

For quite a long time, this was a name that attracted criticism. When talking about this important military minister in the late Qing Dynasty, many people subconsciously think of four words: losing power and humiliating the country!

Although Li Hongzhang was not the first in the Qing Dynasty to lose power and humiliate the country, he was recognized as the one who had experienced this the most.

Just talking about the number of unequal treaties signed, he ranked first in the seventy years of the late Qing Dynasty. He personally signed a series of unequal treaties such as the "Yantai Treaty", the "Sino-French New Treaty", the "Shimonoseki Treaty", the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" and the "Xinchou Treaty". The Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, which did not pass through his hands but was said to have cut the most territory, was also brokered by him.

One thing that particularly arouses the hatred of future generations is that the last unequal treaty he signed before his death, the "Xinchou Treaty", not only caused China to lose seven years of its capital and profits in the next forty years. Billions of silver. About half of it was paid to Japan, its mortal enemy. The purpose of this money is expressed by a Chinese scholar who participated in the compilation of "Cambridge History of China": Every piece of silver marked with the Boxer Indemnity (Xinchou Treaty) is stained with the blood of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians.

"Treaty of Shimonoseki"

"Treaty of Xinchou"

Based on these achievements alone, in five thousand years, no Chinese bureaucrat can be as good as In this way, he not only sells his country so hard, but also sells so generously.

Such a "high-end and elegant" performance has also created his long-term unbearable public image. According to the qualitative theory in the textbook compiled by the Department of Basic Education of the National Education Commission, Li Hongzhang is "in the bloody storm." The middle section is rising steadily." In various patriotic films in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was a standard villain who often stole the show. Even in traditional cross talk and drum books that are popular among the masses, they are often included to make fun of them. A certain crosstalk master said with emotion: The only high-ranking officials in the Qing Dynasty who enjoyed this treatment were He|.

This influential figure on the international political stage in the late Qing Dynasty had enough of being reviled and even turned into a joke.

However, in the eyes of another group of Chinese people, the name Li Hongzhang means a mythical existence. In particular, a group of political and economic elites in modern times expressed their sincere admiration for the Westernization Movement that Li Hongzhang personally participated in and led. And every one of his achievements is of standard hard power. Even the Beiyang Navy, which was tragically destroyed in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the family business that he devoted his whole life to, was once the sixth most powerful force in the world. It can be called the forerunner of China's modern navy. Even in the dark years when the Sino-Japanese War was defeated, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was concluded, and the disgraced Li Hongzhang was forced to go abroad for inspection. His visit to New York became a big news sensation in the United States that same year. According to the comment of "***": Never before has a foreigner been able to receive such grand courtesy in the United States.

These once-splendid moments in his life, as time goes by, have long been stripped of the dust of history, and shine with dazzling splendor in the depths of the long river of time. And it is more and more admired by modern people. Therefore, in the past thirty years, positive comments about Li Hongzhang have quietly increased day by day. There were even various supreme praises. He is regarded as a banner figure for China to get rid of ignorance and move towards modern civilization. He is also known as the "Four Famous Ministers of ZTE" together with Zeng Guofan, Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang.

But whether it is extreme disparagement or high praise, it is inevitable to slide to the extreme of deviation. How should we evaluate Li Hongzhang? Perhaps one of his own words is more relevant: I have been doing things for a lifetime, including military training and the navy. They are all paper tigers. How can I really let it go? But it's just a gloss, it's just superficial, and if it's not exposed, it can be done for a while.

Speaking from this role alone, compared with the turbulent reality of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, the self-proclaimed "pastor", was really conscientious in a matter-of-fact way. Let us take an overview of Li Hongzhang's life and rationally analyze the merits and demerits of the late Qing cabinet minister Li Hongzhang.

His first papering job was the famous suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Not long after the Taiping Rebellion broke out, Li Hongzhang led the army into suppressing and pacifying the Taiping Rebellion.

According to many history books, this incident was the suppression of a people's uprising. But if you take a closer look, there are really too many things to blame about this vigorous Taiping Rebellion. According to the common saying of historical data, it is limitations.

What are the limitations of the Taiping Rebellion? Not to mention the rapid corruption and arrogance of the leadership. Not to mention its land-acre system is completely unrealistic and utopian. All kinds of arbitrary taxes and extortion were imposed in the occupied areas, and the sufferings suffered by the people were not much lighter than those during the Qing Dynasty. Their destruction of traditional Chinese civilization was even more heinous. Wherever the army passed, all the books and documents of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism were burned, and Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, was severely damaged. Zeng Guofan, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty, said: If the Confucian saints were aware of their atrocities, they would cry bitterly in Jiuquan when they saw their atrocities.

All saints will be like this, let alone thousands of scholars who started their careers by reading the books of sages. If we look at that period of history objectively, we will know that at that time there were too many grassroots but passionate scholars who abandoned their homes and careers to join this battle, regardless of fame, fortune and rewards, just to defend the sages and sages. Many people fought without regrets and sacrificed their lives in blood. Their ideals and pursuits cannot easily be labeled as "suppressing uprisings".

Li Hongzhang at that time was one of these people. He followed his mentor Zeng Guofan, trained troops and fought in the army, and went through many years of life and death fighting. At the beginning, he made an appointment with many fellow disciples, Paoze, to complete this project, then resigned and returned to his hometown to live in Linquan. However, from then on, he embarked on this different life path intertwined with glory and humiliation.

In the bloody battle with the Taiping Army, Li Hongzhang's official position rose steadily, but his horizons broadened for the first time. His foreign partner, Gordon, a young British military genius, built an invincible new iron army with only 5,000 Chinese soldiers armed with foreign guns and artillery, and strictly relied on British military training.

According to the praise of the British and American consuls in Shanghai, the combat effectiveness of this "Chinese army" is completely comparable to that of the first-class British and American troops. For Chinese officials such as Li Hongzhang who were accustomed to the Chinese army's successive defeats in the Opium War, this was undoubtedly an unforgettable tragedy.