LI HONGZHANG DOCUMENTARY - CENTURY OF HUMILIATION - YELLOW BISMARCK

During the downfall of imperial China, a period infamously known as the century of humiliation, a politician loyal to the dynasty yet in favour of modernisation would go through the toughest times of the Chinese 19th century. As you will see, it would be a frustrating but fascinating life for this scholar named Li Hongzhang. In 1823, in the eve of the events that would be known to the Chinese as the century of humiliation, Li Hongzhang was born near Hefei in Anhui province in a family of scholar officials. In 1843, Li Hongzhang took the local imperial examination in Lu Prefecture, obtaining the rank of Gongsheng, which allowed him to sit the provincial or even national examinations directly, proving his talents as a scholar. His father, an official working in Beijing, encouraged him to come to the area to take the prestigious Beijing zone examinations. The next year, Li Hongzhang was successful in the tests, ranking a Juren, literally recommended person. In order to prepare for the next level, the young student took classes under Zheng Guofan, a second grade official who would later become a prominent statesman. In 1847, using the teachings of his mentor, Li Hongzhang showed excellence at the metropolitan examinations, obtaining a Jinshi degree, somewhat equivalent of a PhD, at the age of 24. He then entered the prestigious Hanlin Academy, where in the following years he continued his education under Zheng Guofan. In the middle of the 19th century, China underwent an incredible event. A desperate young man from the south, who had failed four consecutive times at the imperial examinations, found refuge in Christianity, a religion that had been openly proselytised in Canton or Guangzhou since the First Opium War. The young man, Hong Xiaochuan, became so obsessed with the religion that he founded his own sect derived from Christianity, the God Worshipping Society. This organisation grew stronger and more radical and in 1851, Hong Xiaochuan and his men launched the Taiping Rebellion in Guangxi. In two years, the rebels captured much territory, setting their capital in Nanjing. To deal with the situation, the Qing authorities dispatched an official to raise militias in Anhui province, where the Taiping rebels were making significant progress. The official, knowing that Li Hongzheng was from the area, decided to bring the young man with him to assist and advise him. Due to losing more territory to the rebels in 1853, the official committed suicide to avoid imperial punishment and shame. After a short service under the new governor of Anhui province, who died in 1854 after having lost even more territory, Li Hongzheng then started serving under the official Fu Ji, who gave him troops to attack the rebels. Although his father died in 1855, Li Hongzheng was prevented from returning home to mourn and had to stay and fight. Within a year, the young ambitious scholar recaptured two whole counties of Anhui province, gaining the honour to wear a peacock feather in his hat, a privilege reserved to high-ranking officials. He however disliked Fu Ji's administration. In late 1858, Li Hongzheng came to serve under Zeng Guofan, his mentor. In his office, he would draft official documents. Reportedly, the 30-year-old man lived nonchalantly, waking up late every day and generally disregarding rules and regulations. This behaviour one day led his mentor Zeng Guofan to scold him, explaining that in his office, commitment to duty was the only important issue. This changed Li Hongzheng's perception of work and he corrected his lifestyle. The city of Anqing was retaken by Zeng Guofan's imperial forces in 1861, after which he wrote a report to praise Li Hongzheng as a talent. He then sent him to Hefei to raise a militia of his own. In Hefei, the young officer recruited 25,000 men, including surrendered Taiping soldiers, enough to create five battalions. Zeng Guofan then dispatched him and his men to Shanghai to create another front with the Taiping rebels. The shortest route would be through sailing on the Yangtze, a river that was riddled with Taiping rebels. To avoid being attacked, 180,000 yuans were spent on renting British steamships that the Taiping would not attack. Li Hongzheng and his men could sail safely down the Yangtze. They arrived in Shanghai in 1862, where the new force trained for three months to become the Huai Army. In the following months, the Taiping rebels would besiege Shanghai. Li Hongzheng was promoted as governor of Jiangsu, the province in which Shanghai was included. Now well established, the official and his Huai Army began the attack. Unlike many of his counterparts, Li Hongzheng understood that the time of traditional weapons was at an end. In the months that followed, he trained his men with modern firearms and artillery. In only two years, the Huai Army grew to an impressive 60,000-man strong force. The Taiping rebels were now losing territory. Against them was Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army, Li Hongzheng's Huai Army, and British advisor Charles George Gordon's ever-victorious army, as well as France and Britain, that had joined the conflict after the Taipings attacked Shanghai. By late 1864, the Taiping rebels had been suppressed. In recognition for his work, the imperial authorities granted Li Hongzheng many honorific titles, and the yellow jacket, or huang ma gua, the most precious honor, as yellow was a forbidden color reserved for the emperor. An incident, however, happened after he and Charles George Gordon recaptured the town of Nanjing. Charles had negotiated with the rebels that they surrender, and an exchange would have their lives spared. When the rebel leaders handed over the town, Li Hongzheng, however, ordered their execution anyway. Disgusted by what Gordon saw as a most dishonorable action, the British general was reportedly outraged and picked up a nearby rifle. Infuriated, he threatened to shoot Li, who rapidly fled the scene. By now, Li Hongzheng had more than proved his worth in the eyes of the imperial authorities, gaining a noble rank and the right to wear a double-eyed peacock feather in his hat. Peace did not last long, however, as Zheng Guofan was unable to repress the Nian rebellion in 1866 in Henan and Shandong. Li Hongzheng was dispatched once more, and was eventually able to crush the rebels in 1868. After having been appointed as viceroy of Huguang in 1867, Li Hongzheng was sent to deal with a new situation. Since the end of the Second Opium War, Christian missionaries were allowed to preach everywhere in China. Anti-Christian sentiment developed as well, and in the 1860s, nationalist Chinese attacked and killed Christians, mainly French Catholic priests and nuns. This sparked diplomatic tensions, and Li Hongzheng had to talk to bishops, and then met with the French ambassador to China, Count Julien de Rochefort. Before both parties could reach a satisfactory conclusion, Li Hongzheng was ordered to prepare to leave for Guizhou province, where the Miao people were rebelling. Before leaving, he was however reassigned, this time to deal with the Muslim Dongan revolt in the north. Upon reaching Xi'an in 1870, he was reassigned once more, this time to deal with an anti-Christian massacre in Tianjin. These rapid changes showed that the Qing dynasty was completely disorganized at the period. In Tianjin, the massacre affected mainly French priests and nuns, as well as other foreigners and local converts. Rumors had it that the French were dispatching war vessels, and the Chinese authorities were panicking. After negotiations, the situation was settled, but foreign presence in Tianjin was reinforced. From this point, Li Hongzheng was appointed as minister of Beiyang and viceroy of Zhili. He would also act as a diplomat for the years to come. His first formal experience came in 1871, when he signed the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty with the rising Empire of Japan, that was starting to industrialize at an alarming rate. In the same nationalist and anti-foreign sentiment, a British diplomat and explorer, Augustus Marguerite, was assassinated. This murder spiked a diplomatic crisis between China and Britain. Li Hongzheng was sent to negotiate with Sir Thomas Wade, sinologist and precursor to the Wade-Joles romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. This affair concluded with the signing of the Yantai Treaty, that granted British citizens extraterritorial privileges in China, and forced the opening of several ports. In 1882, due to an internal struggle in Korea, controlled by the Joseon Dynasty, that was a vassal state to the Qing Empire, Li Hongzheng, responsible for relations with the country, dispatched thousands from his Huai army into the Korean peninsula. In 1884, the Japanese supported a pro-Japanese coup against the King of Korea, but the Chinese troops of the Huai army, led by a rising general, Yuan Shikai, prevented it. Due to this event, tensions arose between Japan and China. In order to defuse the situation, Li Hongzheng and Ito signed the 1885 Tianjin Convention, that guaranteed a status quo over Korea. Much like with his army, Li Hongzheng was openly supportive of westernization and modernization for the whole country, realizing that China was ultimately no match to the western powers and to modernizing Japan. As viceroy of Zhili, he ordered and supervised the development of infrastructure, such as railroads and telegraph lines in the country. He also sponsored the foundation of modern schools and academies to operate western technologies. Strong conservatism in the court however led to the abortion of many of his projects. In February 1885, Li Hongzheng would found the very first modern Chinese military academy in Tianjin that employed German advisors. The viceroy also developed coastal defences and encouraged investment into the Beiyang fleet, one of China's four fleets which was under his control, as he understood that the Japanese who were growing increasingly imperialist were becoming a serious threat. But before any military action against Japan could happen, China would have to face yet another western advance on the Chinese sphere. France, that had been expanding its colonial territory in Indochina by establishing the protectorate of Annan, now coveted control over Tonkin, an area traditionally on the Chinese protectorate. In 1883, a skirmish between Chinese soldiers and French troops broke out. China could not resist and gradually started losing territory to the French until the Qing authorities realized negotiations had to take place. Talks were organized in Tianjin between Li Hongzheng and Captain François-Ernest Fournier. They were concluded with the 1884 Tianjin Accord that forced Chinese withdrawal from Tonkin, defined borders and re-established trade. Nonetheless, the French officer on the field did not respect the deal and continued fighting. As a recent pro-colonial change of government in France took place that encouraged him, conflict escalated into a full-scale Sino-French war. The conflict was devastating for the Qing forces, who increasingly lost territory and thousands of men. Wishing to preserve his Beiyang fleet, Li Hongzheng refused to send ships down south and China suffered a major defeat on the sea. Nonetheless, the Chinese fought better than usual on land, albeit at the cost of huge casualties. Overall, the Qing empire was defeated and lost all control over Tonkin that the French could comfortably occupy. Once more, Li Hongzheng was sent to negotiate a peace treaty, although his radical political opponents opposed the decision. New talks were held in Tianjin between him and French minister Jules Patenautre, concluding with the 1885 Treaty of Tianjin. China was forced to relinquish any The end of the 19th century would gradually mark the end for the Qing dynasty. In 1894, after Korea requested help to deal with a peasant rebellion, the Chinese dispatched a couple thousand soldiers. The Japanese then claimed this violated the status co-established by the Tianjin Convention signed ten years earlier and sent its own troops in turn. After failure in negotiations between China and Japan, the Japanese marched on Seoul, kidnapped the King of Korea and established a pro-Japanese government. Inevitably, hostilities erupted two days later. The First Sino-Japanese War had begun. Since Li Hongzheng had ties with politics in Korea and Manchuria, he was chosen to direct the Qing forces in the conflict. The Chinese soldiers on the Korean peninsula were heavily outnumbered and as political rivals refused to help Li Hongzheng's forces and since corrupt officers diverted ammunition funds, the Qing forces on land were defeated in a few weeks. The Beiyang fleet that Li Hongzheng had done his best to develop also ran out of ammunition on many occasions and did not fare any better. Inevitably, after weeks of fighting, it was almost entirely sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Chinese were unable to score a single victory on either land or sea against the fully modernized and expertly led Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Li Hongzheng was held largely responsible for the failure, although he had always advised against the war with Japan and was disgraced. He was stripped of the three-eyed peacock feather he had received the previous year. The Qing authorities then tried sending a diplomat to negotiate a peace treaty with Japan, but the Japanese refused to receive him for talks. After a second diplomat was also sent back, the Qing had no choice but to restore the famous Li Hongzheng who was sent to Shimonoseki. During the period of negotiations with Japan, a young Japanese man tried to assassinate Li Hongzheng and shot him in the left cheek. The Japanese, although adamant on their conditions of a peace treaty, officially apologized and granted a ceasefire. On the 17th of April 1895, Li Hongzheng's nephew signed on his behalf the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ending the war. The conflict had been very costly for the Qing Empire in both resources and prestige. Li Hongzheng had to give up his position as Viceroy of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang and was appointed to a non-political position in Beijing. In the years that followed, Li Hongzheng would be touring in the West. In 1896, for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russians insisted that Li Hongzheng be the delegate to represent China as he had had many talks with Russian officials before. The dignitary therefore traveled to St. Petersburg and attended the ceremony. In Russia, he was forced into signing the Sino-Russian secret treaty that covertly granted Russia rights in Manchuria. From Russia, Li Hongzheng decided to go around the world back as infrastructure between Russia and China was not developed. He passed through Germany where he and his retinue paid a visit to Kaiser Wilhelm II and Otto von Bismarck. Li Hongzheng then went to the Netherlands, Belgium and France where he met French President Félix Faure. After reaching Britain, where he had an audience with Queen Victoria, he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order by the monarch on the 5th of August. He had now visited the main states of Europe and took a ship for a transatlantic journey. He arrived in the United States and was rapidly received by American President Cleveland in Washington DC. Finally, after an ultimate visit to Vancouver, Li Hongzheng sailed back home. Upon the journey back, his ship stopped off in Japan to resupply but he refused to disembark on land. Back in China, he was appointed as Viceroy of Liangguang in 1899. There, Li Hongzheng swore to eradicate a rampant problem, gambling. But before he could accomplish much, another rebellion would interrupt his work. Revolted by the Manchu authorities and perceived invasion of foreign influence, bands of Han Chinese peasants rose up in arms in the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers besieged the Foreign Legations Quarter in Beijing, drawing eight western nations to ally against them. Initially against the Boxers, the Qing authorities, now controlled by Empress Dowager Cixi, allied themselves to the rebels. The Imperial Decree of Declaration of War against the Foreign Powers was issued to officials throughout the country. In the southeast, rational governors understood the madness of entering war against the Eighth Nation Alliance. Leading them was Li Hongzheng, who immediately telegraphed back, saying, This is a false decree. The provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi won't obey. A coalition of governors, including Yuan Shikai in Shandong, banded together into the mutual protection of southeast China. The governors and viceroys in this organization refused to go to war against the foreign powers. This was the first major event where Han officials refused to obey the Qing Imperial Court. Li Hongzheng further encouraged the western powers to engage in the conflict, aiming to destabilize his political rivals in Beijing. For this, he received a good image in the west. As the Eighth Nation Alliance crushed Boxers and Qing forces alike, Li Hongzheng was rapidly recalled to negotiate with the west. He stopped in Shanghai for preliminary talks, and then moved up to Beijing. Li Hongzheng tried to make the terms as cheap as possible for his nation, but the Eighth Nation Alliance was decided to make a point. After months of negotiations, the Boxer Protocol was signed by each nation's delegate on the 7th of September 1901. The Qing dynasty was ruined. Drained from these intense negotiations, Li Hongzheng retired to his private residence in Beijing, where he died of liver problems two months later. Li Hongzheng was a man of patience and composure, who regularly bore blame for bad turnouts in events against which he often advised. Although trying his best to reform and modernize the Qing dynasty, the stubbornness and conservatism of the court inevitably led to its decline, as the Xinhai Revolution would begin ten years later, ending imperial rule in China forever. you