Please comment on two biographies of 1000 words.

-Read Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang was born in the darkest and most turbulent era of the Qing Dynasty. Every time he "appeared", when the country was in danger, the Great Qing Dynasty asked him to undertake all the "most embarrassing" things. Therefore, when the people of China curse and denounce him, they really can't "criticize themselves" and really can't "give up the people's responsibility".

Two months after Li Hongzhang's death, Liang Qichao wrote his masterpiece Biography of Li Hongzhang, saying: Zhang Hong must be a figure in the history of China for thousands of years, there is no doubt about it. There is no doubt that Li Hongzhang must be a figure in the world history of19th century. Liang Qichao said that he "respected Li Hongzhang's talent", "cherished Li Hongzhang's knowledge" and "mourned Li Hongzhang's experience".

Write a couplet:

The benefits are too great, people are gone, and it' s a long time, and the dragons and snakes are safe?

Looking back on the mountains and rivers, only the sunset is good, and the sorrow is greater than the death of the heart. Where is Liaoshen going?

Yan Fu's elegy is:

Make good use of it at that time, and the result is more than that;

If there is no self-presentation in the evening festival, what about the scholar's theory?

Yuan Shikai's elegiac couplet is:

Knowing that fleas are old, they will also be middle-aged. They will bow to Fenyang all their lives and dare to face obstacles.

At the last moment, the Sri Lankan people don't do it, and the eternal name matches Zhuge, and they have been away from the Prime Minister's ancestral hall for a long time.

Ceng Guoquan's grandson Zeng Guangquan's elegiac couplet is:

To be a teacher first and then to be tired of the public, all countries lose their sincerity and go to great lengths to achieve this goal;

I travel to Europe to study, and the film is self-effective, so it is difficult to pay for it.

Chen's elegiac couplet is:

The emperor's life, is loyal to Wen Zhong, future generations to decide;

Born for the country, it is difficult to get out of the world.

The elegiac couplet of Qing Prince Yi Kuang is:

Holding hands with Kun, that is, this life is glorious and sad, and the public is in print;

I feel even more sad when riding a dustpan.

The Japanese's evaluation of Li Hongzhang is: learn from the west, understand foreign civilizations, strive to emulate self-improvement, have a great vision and have a quick wrist.

The evaluation of Americans is: as a scholar, he is outstanding; As a soldier, he made valuable contributions to the country in important battles; As far as politics is concerned, he has provided recognized excellent facilities for the people of the oldest and most populous country on earth; As a diplomat, his achievements made him one of the best in diplomatic history.

In a word, Li Hongzhang is a transitional figure in the transitional period. He dyed the T-shaped with the blood of peasant rebels, which not only pushed China into a semi-colonial society, but also promoted the difficult start of China's modernization. Li Hongzhang was a loyal minister of the decadent Qing Dynasty and a benefactor of the feudal society.

Li Hongzhang died on September 27th, the 27th year of Guangxu, that is, 190 1 year1month 17. In a few days, it will be the centenary of his death. Maybe this is a day that is destined not to be mentioned. Although his contemporaries, predecessors such as Zeng Guofan, colleagues such as Zuo and Zhang Zhidong, and descendants such as Sheng Xuanhuai and Zhang Qian are being re-recognized and evaluated, people are more willing to remain silent in front of Li Hongzhang. Since I stumbled across this day, I have tried to write it several times and put it down several times. The change of a hundred years has not made it easier to evaluate Li Hongzhang.

When it comes to Li Hongzhang, people often associate him with some humiliating events in the history of China, such as the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the signing of the treaty of shimonoseki, the Treaty of Xin and Chou, and so on. As the person directly responsible for these events, Li Hongzhang inevitably became the object of criticism, and then became a symbol of a country's backwardness and a typical representative of "capitulationists" and "traitors". But if we examine the truth of history and ask, "Why does Li Hongzhang always appear on this occasion, but not others?" You will find that the answer to the question is just the opposite. Li Hongzhang did not actually take the traitorous route. He hoped to achieve China's goal of "self-improvement" through the Westernization Movement, but at that time, China did not have the conditions of "self-improvement" at all, which was also the fundamental reason for his final failure and ruin.

Let's take a closer look at these events in the last years of his life. 1894, in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the Japanese army easily wiped out the only naval fleet "Beiyang Navy" in China at that time, and the whole country was in an uproar, accusing Li Hongzhang of command mistakes. However, it is indisputable that without Li Hongzhang's painstaking efforts, Beiyang Navy did not exist at all. It is his suggestion to build a new navy. He did everything possible to ensure the supply of funds for the navy. He sent naval officers abroad for training. Every armored ship purchased by the fleet from abroad, he personally went to the dock for inspection. But it was such a fleet that he spent countless efforts to build, but it was easily defeated in the end. Li Hongzhang's operational command error may be one reason, but does it not include other inevitable factors? Can the Sino-Japanese War be won if there is a new commander? The outcome of this war was actually doomed before the war. Furthermore, if it weren't for Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Navy, China's defeat might have happened many years ago. As for why Li Hongzhang signed the treaty of shimonoseki and the Treaty of Humiliating Ugliness, the reason is even simpler: the Qing government found that there were no other officials in China who knew diplomatic negotiations except him. After the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Li Hongzhang, as a representative of the Qing government, went to Tokyo for armistice negotiations, and finally signed the treaty of shimonoseki, agreeing to cede Taiwan Province Province to Japan. This is unforgivable, but "Enemy at the Gates, it is hard to hide his words" (in Liang Qichao's words), such a result would be hard to avoid if it were someone else. With the signing of the Xin Chou Treaty, Li Hongzhang became more passive. At that time, Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing, and the Qing government fled to the west. When he fled for his life, he remembered Li Hongzhang, who had been stepping down for nearly five years at the age of 80, and ordered him to go to Beijing to preside over the negotiations with the Group of Eight and clean up the mess in Beijing. Everyone knows that this appointment is extremely dangerous and has no benefit to individuals, but Li Hongzhang decided to go north in order to serve the country (Qing Dynasty) and died in Beijing after several months of negotiations.

It can be seen that a large part of Li Hongzhang's notoriety is "self-inflicted". If he had not actively promoted "self-improvement" measures, these incidents might not have been borne by him. He not only took personal responsibility, but also shared the notoriety for the decadent Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, Li Hongzhang was chosen by history as the main individual to bear the failure of China in the19th century, not because of his incompetence and traitorous behavior, but precisely because he wanted to change the destiny of the country, so he had to bear the resulting responsibility.

Defending Li Hongzhang's actions is not the main purpose of this paper, and there are many papers and monographs in this field. I was just thinking that he has been dead for a hundred years. If we had not fully evaluated his "self-improvement" measures before his death, we should be able to objectively evaluate their great influence on China in the 20th century. We can't just see the results and forget the beginning.

In the first year of Guangxu, Li Hongzhang once said in a memorial his views on the situation in China at that time:

Today, the southeast coast is more than 10 thousand miles long, and countries are free to trade and preach. Elk gather in the capitals and hinterland of each province. In the name of reconciliation, it hides the plan of annexation and incites countries, but it has not changed for thousands of years. Ships and telegrams are fast, military equipment and machinery are exquisite, and the working force is hundreds of times. And an enemy not seen in a thousand years. The ride of foreign invasion has changed so much, but I still want to make it a prescription. For example, doctors treat diseases, don't ask what's wrong, and throw them into the ancient prescription, but they really don't see its effect. ..... If it weren't for the imperial court's efforts to open up the atmosphere, break the habit of restraint and contracture, and seek practical help to win, the world would be in danger and there would be nothing to rely on in the future, and those who are more talented than today, with the size of China, are not only worrying, but also shameful.

Judging from this paper, Li Hongzhang's understanding of the national crisis is very clear, and he has realized that there is not much time left for China. He also pointed out that the way out for China lies in change. Although he didn't say it explicitly, in fact, his "prescription" was to learn from the west and carry out an unprecedented "modernization" movement in China. Practically speaking, China's "modernization" began with Li Hongzhang.

He established the first modern navy in China history; In order to cooperate with the navy, he also established a series of military enterprises, which laid the earliest foundation of China industry; In order to make the ships produced by the arsenal find buyers, he founded the "official supervision and commercial office" ship investment promotion bureau, which is one of the earliest national capital enterprises in China history; Arsenal needed all kinds of minerals and energy, so he started the earliest modern mining enterprise and smelting industry in China. The first railway and the first telegraph line in China were laid under his leadership; He proposed to send personnel to study abroad, including young children studying in the United States, who later created a large number of talents; He set up foreign research bureaus in various provinces, a museum of foreign languages and linguistics in Shanghai and a medical museum in Tianjin. At the same time, he recruited foreigners to hold various posts in China so that they could serve China, but their leadership remained in the hands of China people.

Regarding what he did, Liang Qichao said, "I have never seen westerners in China." . American President Grant traveled around the world after retirement, calling Li Hongzhang the greatest of the "Four Great Men" he had ever seen (the other three were German Chancellor Bismarck, British Prime Minister disraeli and French Prime Minister Gambetta).

However, these measures did not produce significant results before his death. On the contrary, Li Hongzhang was attacked by North Korean "Qingyi faction" officials because of the huge cost. Once defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, it is inevitable that Li Hongzhang will step down. However, we can now see that these measures have far-reaching significance and have fundamentally affected China society. Perhaps Li Hongzhang didn't think that the direction of "learning from the West" adopted by China's modernization in the 20th century was actually initiated by him.

Among Li Hongzhang's self-improvement measures, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and China Merchants Bureau are the two modern enterprises mentioned most. There have been many papers about them, and what I want to point out here is their different development models. Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau takes China as the leader and employs foreign technicians. As a civilian service enterprise, China Merchants Group is a pure China enterprise, and its articles of association specifically stipulate that it will not accept foreign investment. In contrast, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is more influenced by foreign countries because it imitates the production of western ship weapons, while China Merchants Group is more advanced in organizational structure because it adopts joint-stock system. Although Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was not very successful in its early years for various reasons, its model of making foreign things serve China and even some specific ways of organizing production were adopted by later national industries. The management of China Shipping Merchants Bureau is much more successful. It broke the history that China shipping was monopolized by foreign shipping companies. Established in just ten years, it has become the largest shipping company in China, gained a firm foothold in the fierce market competition and made good profits. This has brought immeasurable inspiration and enlightenment to the development of China's national industry.

From the details and parts, these measures taken by Li Hongzhang are advanced and represent the future development direction of China. But as far as their goal of "self-improvement" in China is concerned, it was impossible at that time. Because the core of Li Hongzhang's thought is still to serve the Qing Dynasty, he still wants to retain the feudal rule and the existing political structure, which means that the "modernization" he advocates is essentially defensive modernization and cannot be realized. Liang Qichao said that Li Hongzhang "only knows westernization, but not state affairs", which is the most backward aspect of his thought and the root of his personal tragic life. The fame and honor behind Li Hongzhang are closely related to this. In a sense, Li Hongzhang is a rare Sisyphean tragic figure in the history of China.

After Li Hongzhang's death, Yan Fuyou had a pair of elegiac couplets and wrote:

Make full use of your life, and your success will not stop there;

If you can't see yourself in the evening, what about the scholar's theory?

From the perspective of elegiac couplet, Yan Fu has both affirmation and criticism of Li Hongzhang. But he probably wouldn't have thought that Li Hongzhang's reputation would drop to a pitiful level in the next few years. Fortunately, one hundred years have passed and the history of China has entered a new century. Knowing its crimes, Gong Li, who wants to sleep underground for a hundred years, can rest. I want to plead for him. It was his misfortune to be born in that era. He is also concerned about the country, and everything is based on the overall situation. People should have the heart to return to heaven in many ways, and have no power to return to heaven. It's not the corruption of Hong Zhang, but the corruption now. I wonder if you have seen Taiwan Province Province 1895, which was recently broadcasted by CCTV. Do you know if there is any change in the history of photos on TV? If there were no Li Hongzhang, you should also know that he was in a difficult situation at that time. Every step he takes, so the blame is on him. Both of them are excellent people, but they are different in personality, resume, environment and things involved. They must not be compared with three-year-old children, because they are illiterate who don't understand history. Alas! Until now, there are still many China people like Weng Tonghe. People who lead an honest and clean life are unbearable and know nothing about the actual things. They are just nationalistic and cynical youths! If Shao Quanlin bears the burden of history alone, how can there be fairness and justice! He is also a mortal, and selfishness is the normal state of ordinary people. If he doesn't benefit himself first, how can he benefit the public later? He who reads people's greatness is the pillar of the country. I think he is patriotic and outstanding. Li Hongzhang, a hero who will always be admired by China people, is not a person to evaluate. He should be tried by the people of China. China people always like to kill a person with a stick! Li Hongzhang is the originator of comprador in modern times. He is a loyal minister of the Qing dynasty and a thief of the country, and he will never be able to reverse his conviction in history! Loyalty and patriotism! Even if there is patriotism, Naifu will be powerless, and it is understandable to define it as a peace faction and a capitulator. I think Li Hongzhang is a great man! Alas! Until now, there are still many China people like Weng Tonghe. People who lead an honest and clean life are unbearable and know nothing about the actual things. They are just nationalistic and cynical youths! If Shao Quanlin bears the burden of history alone, how can there be fairness and justice! He is also a mortal, and selfishness is the normal state of ordinary people. If he doesn't benefit himself first, how can he benefit the public later? He who reads people's greatness is the pillar of the country. I think he is a patriotic and outstanding hero and will be respected by the people of China forever. Li Hongzhang is not a person to evaluate. He should be tried by the people of China. China people always like to kill a person with a stick! Traitor, you can never reverse your conviction! Look at the left and contemporaries and you will know! Li Hongzhang is the originator of comprador in modern times. He is a loyal minister of the Qing dynasty and a thief of the country, and he will never be able to reverse his conviction in history! Loyalty and patriotism! Even if there is patriotism, Naifu is powerless, which can be defined as reconciliation and capitulation. I think Li Hongzhang is a great man, and the left quarter is higher than others. For one thing, he doesn't know how to compare, and for another, he can't compare. Both of them are excellent people, but they are different in personality, resume, environment and things involved. They must not be compared with three-year-old children, because they are illiterate who don't understand history.