The author‟s key person of the military modernization of China is Li Hong Zhang. The author thinks that his international skills and contacts have important effects in China. Thus, the author gives the priority to Li Hong Zhang. .His Confucian values and efforts make him the main person of this study
Li Hong Zhang was born in the village of Qunzhi in Modian Township. This place is 14 kilometers northeast of downtown Hefei, Anhui. In Chinese modern history Li Hong Zhang is seen one of the first pioneers of modernization period. From very early in his life, he showed very remarkable and successful ability and he achieved to become a shengyuan in the imperial examination system. Li became Zeng‟s student in Peking and thus began the long and close association between these two men which was to affect the course of Chinese history262.
In 1847, he obtained the highest level in the Imperial examination system (Jinshi degree). Two years later he gained admittance into the Hanlin Academy. After a short period the central provinces of the empire were invaded by the Taiping rebels, and in defense of his native district he raised a regiment of militia. His service to the
262Quoted from the web data base of: Encyclopedia of World Biography, on Li Hong Zhang http://www.bookrags.com/biography/li-hung-chang/
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imperial cause attracted the attention of Zeng Guo Fan, the generalissimo in command.
In 1859, Li Hong Zhang was transferred to the Fujian province and in this place where he was given the rank of attendant of circuit. At Zeng‟s request, he fought against to dangerous and strong rebels. He found his cause supported by the
“Ever Victorious Army,” which, having been raised by an American named Frederick Townsend Ward, was placed under the command of Charles George Gordon. With this support Li Hong Zhang has gained many victories leading to the surrender of Suzhou. For these successful exploits, he was made governor of Jiangsu; afterwards Li Hong Zhang was decorated with an imperial yellow jacket, and was enfeoffed as an earl263.
An incident connected with the surrender of Suzhou soured Li‟s relationship with Gordon. By an arrangement with Gordon, the rebel princes yielded Nanjing on condition that their lives should be spared. In spite of the agreement, Li ordered their instant execution. This breach of faith so infuriated Gordon that he seized a rifle, intending to shoot the falsifier of his word, and would have done so had Li not fled.
On the suppression of the rebellion (1864), Li took up his duties as governor, but was not long allowed to remain in civil life. On the outbreak of the Nian Rebellion in Henan and Shandong (1866)264, he was ordered again to take to the field, and after some misadventures, he succeeded in suppressing the movement. A year later, he was appointed viceroy of Huguang, where he remained until 1870, when the Tianjin Massacre necessitated his transfer to the scene of the outrage. He was appointed to the
263 Samuel Chu. C, Kwang Ching Liu, Li Hung Chang and China’s Early Modernization, London: An East Gate Book, 1988, pp. 10–45.
264 Liu, Kwang-ching. The Confucian as Patriot and Pragmatist: Li Hung-Chan’s Formative Years, 1823-1866, Harvard: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 30, 1970, pp. 5-45.
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viceroyalty of the metropolitan province of Zhili, and justified his appointment by the energy with which he suppressed all attempts to keep alive the anti-foreign sentiment among the people. For his services, he was made imperial tutor and member of the grand council of the empire, and was decorated with many-eyed peacock feathers265.
To his duties as viceroy were added those of the superintendent of trade, and from that time until his death, with a few intervals of retirement. In his political career Li Hong Zhang created the foreign policy of China. He concluded the Chefoo Convention with Sir Thomas Wade (1876), and thus ended the difficulty caused by the murder of Mr. Margary in Yunnan; he arranged treaties with Peru and Japan, and he directed the Chinese policy in Korea .
On the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, Li Hong Zhang introduced a large armed force into the capital and effected a coup d'etat which placed the Guang Xu Emperor on the throne under the tutelage of the two dowager empresses.
In 1886, on the conclusion of the Sino-French War, he arranged a treaty with France. Li was impressed with the necessity of strengthening the empire, and while viceroy of Zhili he raised a large well-drilled and well-armed force, and spent vast sums both in fortifying Port Arthur and the Taku forts and in increasing the navy. For years, he had watched the successful reforms effected in Japan and had a well-founded dread of coming into conflict with that nation.266
Because of his important role in Chinese diplomacy in Korea and of his strong political relations in Manchuria, Li Hong Zhang has found himself leading Chinese forces during the very disastrous Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). In fact, it was mostly the armies that he established and controlled that did the fighting, whereas
265 Cited from: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Li_Hongzhang
266 Little, Alicia Helen Neva, Li Hung- Chang His Life and Times, London: Elibron Classics, 2004.
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other Chinese troops led by his rivals and political enemies did not come to their aid.
Corruption rife in the army further disadvantaged China.267
For instance, one official used ammunition funds for personal use. As a result, shells ran out for the some of the battleships during battle forcing one navy commander, Deng Shi Chang, to resort to ramming the enemy ships. The defeat of his modernized troops and a small naval force at the hands of the Japanese undermined his political standing, as well as the wider cause of the Self-Strengthening Movement.
Li paid a personal price for China‟s defeat, while signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki (馬關條約) ending the war: a Japanese assassin fired at him and wounded him in the face, below the left eye. As compensation, the treaty was softened.
In 1896, he has traveled around in Europe and the United States of America, where he advocated reform of the American immigration policies that had greatly restricted Chinese immigration after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (renewed in 1892. He also witnessed the 1896 Royal Naval Fleet Review at Spithead.) It was during his visit to Britain in 1896 that Queen Victoria made him a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.
Li Hong Zhang played a major role in ending the Boxer Rebellion. In 1901, he was the principal Chinese negotiator with the foreign powers who had captured Beijing, and, on September 7, 1901, he signed the treaty (Boxer Protocol) ending the Boxer crisis, obtaining the departure of the foreign armies at the price of huge indemnities for China. Exhausted, he died two months later cause liver Inflammation increase spitting blood at Shenlian Temple in Beijing. Guangxu created him the title
267 Liu, Kwang-ching. The Confucian as Patriot and Pragmatist: Li Hung-Chang‟s Formative Years, 1823-1866. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 30, 1970, pp. 5-45.
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Marquis Suyi of the First Class (一等肅毅後). After his death, this Peerage was inherited by his grandson Li Guo Jie268.