For Li Hongzhang, the destroyer thinks that he is a typical representative of capitulationists and traitors; People who praise him think that he is a leader in China's modern diplomatic history because of his broad vision and profound knowledge. Then, Li Hongzhang can't be scolded. 190 1 year, Li Hongzhang died of humiliation. This prominent figure in the late Qing Dynasty was criticized before and after. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, people still have different views on him. Destroyers always associate Li Hongzhang with some humiliating events in China's modern history, such as 1894- 1895' s defeat in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the signing of treaty of shimonoseki and the Treaty of Mourning Ugliness, and so on. Being directly responsible for these events, he inevitably became the object of criticism, and then became a symbol of a country's backwardness and a typical representative of capitulationists and traitors. According to his reputation, Li Hongzhang was a patriot in modern China, the main pioneer of modernization in the late Qing Dynasty, and the cohesion center of a generation of advanced intellectuals. So, is Li Hongzhang a patriot or a traitor? Is it good or bad? In my opinion, Li Hongzhang can neither simply judge nor measure what he did in those years with the eyes of modern people, let alone scold things. Two prerequisites for evaluating Li Hongzhang To understand and evaluate Li Hongzhang, we must understand the following two prerequisites: First, Li Hongzhang's own background. /kloc-China is in an unprecedented period of great change in the second half of the 9th century. And such a process, that is, when China was passively backward and beaten, the western capitalist powers used opium and foreign guns to cannon warships and forced China to implement the so-called open door policy. It is in this great change that people from all walks of life and various identities in China put forward various opinions and plans, trying to find an ideal way to strengthen the country and enrich the people. At that time, after two Opium Wars and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in China, a new ruling class reformist Westernization School appeared at the top of the Qing ruling group. They took over the banner of traditional Confucian practice, advocated and flaunted middle school as the body and western learning as the use, in an attempt to save the tide of feudal end-times. Therefore, such reformists can also be called the school of mending the sky under feudal rule, because although they introduced western science and technology, they only stayed at the level of object innovation and could not touch the fundamental ills of feudal social system. As the leaders of the Westernization School mastered a considerable part of power from the central government to the local government, the Westernization School became the mainstream of many reformers in the early stage of reform in China19th century for a long time. Within the Westernization School, it is divided into many groups, such as the Central Yi Group and the Group. Zeng Guofan and Zuo, two local Hunan clique, and Zhang Zhidong's later clique, among which Huai clique headed by Li Hongzhang is the strongest and most effective in establishing westernization. Li Hongzhang can be said to be an iconic figure accompanying the trend of westernization movement in modern times. Because of his power and position, he was intertwined with Cixi and Hurd of his time, forming a key historical figure who influenced the political situation in the late Qing Dynasty, including all decisions at home and abroad. The second is what Li Hongzhang did. Since 1862 became the governor of Jiangsu Province, Li Hongzhang has been engaged in the social and political arena in the late Qing Dynasty for forty years, which is unmatched by any contemporary politician for its long time, wide range of fields and many things. He has served as Governor of Jiangsu, Acting Governor of Liangjiang and Governor of Huguang. From 1870, he was governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang for 25 years, and he was an important figure in the high-level decision-making of the Qing government. Militarily, Li Hongzhang was the founder of Huai Army and Beiyang Navy, which initiated the modernization of China Army. He established the first modern navy and a series of military enterprises in the history of China, laying the earliest foundation for China's industry. In the economic field, Li Hongzhang independently established the first three of the four early military enterprises: Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Machinery Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Bureau and Fuzhou Shipping Bureau. Later, he also established China Shipping Merchants, Tianjin Telegraph Bureau and Shanghai Woven Layout, and took the lead in advocating the construction of railways in China. It can be said that he founded the most in westernization activities and achieved the greatest results. Among Li Hongzhang's self-improvement measures, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and China Merchants Bureau are the two modern enterprises mentioned most. 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. Its model of making foreign things serve China, and even some specific production organization methods, were adopted by later national industries. From the details and parts, the measures taken by Li Hongzhang are ahead of schedule 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 keep the feudal rule and the existing political structure, which means that the modernization he advocated is essentially defensive and impossible to realize. Liang Qichao said that Li Hongzhang only knew westernization but not state affairs, which was the most backward aspect of his thought and the root of his personal tragic life. In the diplomatic field, since the 1970s, he has handled many foreign negotiations on behalf of the Qing government: Tianjin religious plan, the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, the Sino-French New Testament, treaty of shimonoseki, the Sino-Russian secret treaty, and the Sino-Russian shame treaty. He signed most foreign treaties. So that in the eyes of foreigners at that time, Li Hongzhang represented the Qing government, and even saw Li Hongzhang instead of the Qing emperor. In fact, in a sense, Li Hongzhang is a microcosm of China's modern history. Without understanding Li Hongzhang, it is impossible to deeply understand China in the second half of the19th century and to deeply study the modern history of China. It is not known whether Li Hongzhang left such a poem before his death: autumn wind sword tears lonely minister, sunset flag general altar. The dusty atmosphere overseas is still lingering, so it is not appropriate to wait and see. After Li Hongzhang's death, someone used his power for a while to slander heaven to describe him. Liang Qichao's comments on him in Li Hongzhang's Biography are: respecting and cherishing Li Zhixue and mourning Li's experience. Although he has been dead for more than a hundred years, he has been ups and downs for a hundred years and can't decide whether to cover the coffin. The most controversial comments on him focus on two aspects: first, suppressing the peasant uprising in the civil war and dyeing his headdress with blood. This is, of course, a stain that no feudal ruler like Li Hongzhang in history can erase. It is worth discussing that this part of the landlord class politicians and bureaucrats, who flourished in the bonfire of civil war, faced with the increasingly urgent situation of being surrounded by powerful enemies and invaded by foreign enemies, started the westernization movement of self-reliance and adaptability from the perspective of military modernization, which is the result of the trend of the times. Borrowing Engels' words, the oppressor of the revolution became its executor. Second, how to treat Li Hongzhang's westernization traitorous activities can be divided into two categories: economic construction and diplomatic activities. With the progress of research at home and abroad in recent years, the academic circles have basically affirmed his efforts and achievements in the modernization of Westernization. However, there are different opinions on diplomatic activities, especially on signing a series of unequal treaties on behalf of the Qing government. Among them, the biggest doubt is whether he accepted bribes from Russia when he signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty and negotiated the Middle East Railway. Not long ago, Mr. Ma, a scholar who has been studying Zhang for a long time, wrote "Query on Li Hongzhang and Zhang's Bribery in the Negotiation of Lvda University" and clarified that Li could not take bribes. This matter needs further verification. Another example is the signing of Maguan, and 40 million people shed tears. Where is China at the end of the world? Li Hongzhang was branded a traitor from then on. However, the current research shows that Li Hongzhang telegraphed to the highest authorities in China for instructions, regardless of major issues. The so-called right to cede land has long been granted. As for the amount of compensation, according to the research of Mr. Qi, an authority on the history of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, since our secret code was deciphered by the Japanese side as early as before the war, the bottom line of 22,000 compensation has already been mastered by the Japanese side, and it is useless for Li Hongzhang to argue at the negotiating table. This is just hard evidence that technology is not as good as people and backwardness is bound to be beaten. I think the evaluation of the word "the whole world" is very vivid. Because Li Hongzhang has mastered a considerable amount of power, and China is a weak country, so-called weak countries have no diplomacy. Anyway, he racked his brains in diplomacy and could not escape the fate of the great powers. Of course, Li Hongzhang himself also has insurmountable shortcomings in how to build the guiding ideology and employment measures. He talked about nepotism and cronyism, and did not dare to surpass the feudal system. In the final analysis, because he is only a loyal minister of the feudal dynasty after all. But in any case, Li Hongzhang was always a key figure in the center of various contradictions and eddies between the ruling and opposition parties in his time. The importance of what he did and its influence on the development of modern society are obvious.