What was Li Hongzhang’s mother’s old residence in Shanghai like?

The author had some knowledge of Li Hongzhang and his family before visiting this old residence, but he suddenly became suspicious after seeing this nameplate: Li Hongzhang’s mother died at the age of 83 (in 1882). The villa was built in 1889, a difference of 7 years! How do you say this is the residence of Li Hongzhang's mother? Li Hongzhang was the second eldest child in his family. He was born in 1823 and died in November 1901 at the age of 78. If this set of numbers is correct, then Li Hongzhang was born when his mother was 21 years old.

The picture above is a photo of Li’s mother taken in Tianjin in 1871 (72 years old). She was 72 years old at the time. From the photos, I can see some traces of her mother's difficult life in her early years.

The south facade of Li's mother's old house originally had a corridor wall with three round holes. It has been sealed up, but the old traces can be seen. Behind the wall is a 3-meter-wide entrance porch. This was the main passage facing the southeast of the villa back then. People could enter the villa by climbing up the steps from the courtyard. But today, the southeast door is also sealed, and the original 3-meter-wide porch is divided into a room for one family. The picture below shows the entrance to the villa from the porch into the hall from the interior. After the original porch was partitioned off, the inner porch became a room of a house.

From the outside, the villa is a tower-like building with one or two floors. The ground floor area is larger, and the second floor has a slightly smaller area after shrinking. The four corners of the rooms on the east and west sides of the ground floor were cut off to form an octagonal room. The roof is a two-story double eaves with inverted corners. It is said that it was previously decorated with traditional architectural ornaments such as kissing animals, and there was also a crane (meaning longevity) on the second-story roof. But these accessories are now long gone. It is said that it was omitted during the overhaul in the late 1970s, and more than 40 years have passed.

Picture description: This is a picture taken from the southwest of the villa

The exterior wall of this brick-wood structure villa is made of concrete with pebbles. Walk into the small building and take a closer look: the interior wall It is now plastered with cement, but earlier the inner laths were plastered. The decorative wood in the building is said to be sandalwood.

But as far as the author is concerned, although the preserved floors, doors, windows, stairs and other structures and components in this building are made of high-quality materials, the detailed workmanship is still average. The picture below shows the inlaid shell-carved screen in the foyer. The most eye-catching thing in the hall is the hollow wooden hanging door cover of the inner room. There are still these log tic-tac-toe structures of about 30 centimeters on the ceiling of the main hall.

Picture description This is a photo taken while standing in the center of the villa hall, facing east. On the left is the staircase, on the right is the original entrance porch and the original architectural decorative hangers that are still preserved

The aunt on duty with a red hoop also told the author that this Li family’s house was originally occupied by his descendants. He immigrated to the United States before Shanghai was liberated. After liberation, the villa was allocated to the employees of Shanghai Radio Station. As far as the author knows, most of Li Hongzhang’s descendants are engaged in diplomacy, and immigrating to the United States may be just a rumor.

According to relevant historical data, Li Hongzhang, as the most important minister in the late Qing Dynasty, did not live in Shanghai for a long time, but his Westernization Movement left many marks in Shanghai: Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Nanyang Public School, Investment Promotion Bureau, Commercial Bank, Huasheng Textile, Shanghai Machinery Weaving Bureau, etc. As far as the author is concerned, this small courtyard and villa have been preserved to this day, thanks to the two multi-story workshops built in the small courtyard in the 1980s. Otherwise, such a small courtyard with such a low building density might have been completely destroyed. It was demolished to build a new building.

Li Hongzhang and his family have many private residences in Shanghai. In addition to the villa at No. 44 Lixi Road, they also have Lilac Garden, Zhenliu Apartment on Huashan Road, etc. In addition, there are still some Li family memorial buildings in Shanghai that have not disappeared, such as some of the physical buildings of the former Li Gong Temple that remain to this day (see picture, built in 1906, now No. 1628 Huashan Road). Behind the Li Gong Temple is the school building of Fudan Public School. This is also the predecessor of today's Fudan University. From this point of view, today's Jiaotong University (the Nanyang Public School was also on Huashan Road today) and Fudan University were close neighbors in the past.