Ask a question about Li Hongzhang, what is your opinion of Li Hongzhang?

The activities of the landlord class, represented by Li Hongzhang and others, were mainly there"Shiyi's long skills are self-improving"of the Westernization movement, in addition they also advocated"It is used in the West in the Chinese body".In fact, they wanted to use foreign advanced science and technology to maintain China's feudal rule. In the early stage of the Westernization Movement, the main focus was on the military industry.

For example, the establishment of the Anqing Arsenal and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. After the 70s, in order to supplement the military industry, civilian industries began to be established, such as Kaiping Coal Mine and Shanghai Steamship China Merchants Bureau. In addition, in terms of education, they also founded modern education, sent international students (Zhan Tianyou was sent during this period) and established new schools.

The modern navy (Beiyang) was also created. Nanyang. Fujian Navy).

Implications for China:

Limitations: The fundamental purpose is to maintain feudal rule, and the purpose of self-improvement and prosperity has not been achieved.

Positive: The beginning of modern Chinese dialect.

1.China's earliest military and civilian industries were established.

2.The introduction of advanced Western technology has objectively induced the emergence of national industry.

3.The establishment of civilian industry played a certain role in resisting the expansion of foreign capitalism.

4.The beginning of the modernization of China's economic and military education.

The answer is relatively simple, I hope it will be helpful to you.

In the 60s and 90s of the 19th century, the Westernization movement began with "mastering and improving one's skills". Although the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War declared it bankrupt and did not make China truly rich and strong, it objectively introduced advanced technology and was the beginning of China's modernization.

Li Hongzhang is not in a thousand ways, after all, he was a successful person in that era, he ran foreign affairs, created industry, at that time was a kind of progress, there is a paragraph said Su Jin in Jiangsu, I am from Jiangsu.

It is said that when the cloth is coarse, it will fade when it is washed, and the Suzhou embroidery is famous throughout the country, but it takes a lot of effort and time, and the Chinese people have stopped producing.

Look at the foreign cloth, machine processing, no matter how you wash it, it will not fade, and it is all time-saving and labor-saving machine processing, and there is no need for workers at all, which is in line with Marx's average principle.

Let's ask the Chinese people, if it were you, you chose homespun cloth, wouldn't what you are wearing now be the foreign cloth made by the Chinese?

Therefore, Li Hongzhang's reform was just a small practice, an attempt, or he did not go to the revolution like Sun Yat-sen, after all, it was just an itch in the boots, and it could not make the Qing Dynasty fundamentally rich and strong, and all new things such as running banks, railways, and scientific research were denied by those old and young people, and they had to ask for instructions on everything, and nothing could be done. This is what I feel sorry for Li Hongzhang.

Li Hongzhang tried his best to safeguard China's interests and strive for strength, but he could not change the reality of China's backwardness. He argued for the signing of unequal treaties, but the country was weak and had to accept humiliating demands.

He, Zeng Guofan and others led the Westernization Movement, which was a manifestation of his progress. He also defended China diplomatically, such as going to negotiate alone after the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Beijing, and finally settled the incident without ceding land.

When the First Sino-Japanese War was in an unfavorable situation, he took the initiative to reach a settlement at the lowest cost, which was a favorable aspect of his defense of the country.

However, later generations also criticized Li Hongzhang for the wrong decisions he made, such as signing various unequal treaties with Western countries.

Although these unfavorable treaties and practices were subject to various objective conditions, he still had to bear a heavy responsibility for the misguided behavior of these incidents, which also involved the overall evaluation of the Hunan and Huai armies.

Li Hongzhang signed more than 30 treaties in his lifetime.

Li Hongzhang established the Huai Army, and Zeng.

Left to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. and the left to extinguish the Twist Army.

Westernization Movement, the establishment of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau (planned by Zeng Guofan, Zeng, Zuo, Zhang, and Li all served as supervisors, and Li served as the longest). The manufacture of gunboats with guns is expensive, low in production and of extremely poor quality. The money to build one ship can buy two of better quality.

However, the quality of books translated and introduced to the West by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is better than that of other translations of the same era.

In the First Sino-Japanese War, Ye Zhichao was used in land warfare (greedy for life and afraid of death, and then defeated in the battle of Pyongyang and fled to Anzhou, which was despised by North Korea, and Anzhou was extremely terrainous, so he abandoned Anzhou and abandoned Dingzhou and fled back to China). Ding Ruchang for naval warfare (Liu Buyun believed that he lacked naval experience, so he refused to accept his management. In the end, he ran out of ammunition and food, and committed suicide and martyrdom).

Both belonged to Li's Huaijun faction.

Diplomatic treaties and unequal treaties should not be entirely the responsibility of Li Hongzhang, but unequal treaties will never give Li Hongzhang extra points. Li Hongzhang's diplomatic ability should be a thing that exists, and there is an 8 point on a 100-point scale, but it is too much to be blown up at present.

Others: After Li Hongzhang's death, his family had about 40 million**, 2.57 million acres of land; In order to deal with Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang once made Youlian owe Hu Xueyan money, causing Hu Xueyan to eventually go bankrupt; From the beginning to the end of the Sino-French War, Li Hongzhang bore some responsibility; Bismarck looked down on Li Hongzhang.

Throughout Li Hongzhang's life, he had a long-term vision, knew how to learn from the West, carried out the Westernization movement, and pioneered many facilities and enterprises; Have a sense of distress and independence, know how to be self-sufficient, and reject foreign monopoly; He attaches great importance to education, strives to develop talent training, and sends international students; He attached great importance to coastal defense and devoted half of his life to the formation of China's first navy; He cared about the people's welfare, as early as when he encircled and suppressed the Taiping Army, he paid attention to the development of the post-war regional economy, paid attention to tax reductions and exemptions, and he also tried his best to fight for the interests of overseas Chinese workers. These are the credits of him, he is a respectable old man.

However, the blind compromise in Sino-Japanese diplomacy led to Japan's invasion of China, and the low-level and fatal mistake made by Japan in the signing of the Sino-Russian secret treaty made him fall heavily from the altar. (Here it is said that the responsibility for the defeat in the Sino-Japanese naval battle and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki is not to blame him).

In short, Li Hongzhang is a controversial person, and later generations have mixed evaluations of him. Putting aside his merits and demerits, Li Hongzhang in my eyes is at least a person with a conscience, an ambitious person, and a person who loves his country. It can only be said that he belongs to history, and he is a product of history.