Li Hongzhang Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Li Hongzhang came from Anhui Province, received the highest academic degree in 1847, and joined the government. When the army of the Taiping rebels reached Anhui in 1853, Li and his father returned home and organized a militia, serving well under various local officials. In 1858 he joined his patron and teacher Zeng Guofan (Tseng Kuo-fan), the most successful civilian of the Qing (Ch’ing) government, in fighting the Taiping Rebellion. In 1860 Zeng sent Li to his home province to organize a large militia called the Huai Army (Huai being another name for Anhui). In 1862 this army was ordered to Shanghai where Li found an ad hoc force trained and led by Westerners defending the city against the rebels. This unit, known as the Ever-Victorious Army, was later led byan Englishman named Charles Gordon, called Chinese Gordon due to his involvement in China.

Between 1862 and 1864 Li’s Huai Army, stiffened by the Ever-Victorious Army, cleared Jiangsu (Kiangsu) Province of the rebels. In coordination with the Hunan or Xiang (Hsiang) Army of his mentor Zeng, the Zhejiang (Chekiang) Army of Zho Zongtang (Tso Tsung-t’ang) and other units finished off the Taiping Rebellion that had devastated southern and central China for over a decade. Zeng was next appointed to deal with the Nian (Nien) Rebellion that still raged along the Huai River valley, but age and other factors made him ineffective, and it was Li, as imperial commissioner, who finished them off in 1868.

Li served as governor or governor-general of many provinces between the 1860s and the 1890s, when he and like-minded colleagues forged policies that rebuilt and revitalized a ruined economy, fostered Western learning, and adopted new techniques to strengthen China. These decades became known as the era of the Tongzhi Restoration (after the name of the emperor) and the measures were called the Self-Strengthening Movement. Although they gave the Qing dynasty a new lease on life, they proved inadequate in the end because they were piecemeal due to the lack of central government direction under the evil and corrupt dowager empress Cixi (Tz’u-hsi).

Li also served concurrently in many other positions, notably as diplomat dealing with Western nations. He was repeatedly called on to deal with disputes involving Christian missionaries and their activities and on international trade issues. These responsibilities made him acutely aware of China’s weakness and vulnerability and, therefore, its need to modernize. He also realized the need to make concessions in dealing with European powers and Japan. Such policies made him unpopular with the conservatives, who, oblivious of international affairs, advocated tough and unsustainable stands. Cixi’s ignorant and vacillating policies got China involved in repeated disasters, namely the Sino-French War, Sino-Japanese War, and the Boxer Rebellion. Each time Li had the no-win task of damage control to salvage what he could. Li Hongzhang’s half-century of public service made him the last survivor among the leaders of late Qing China.

Bibliography:

Feuerwerker, Albert, et al., eds. Approaches to Modern Chinese History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967;
Hummel, A., ed. Eminent Chinese of Ch’ing Period. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1944;
Spector, Stanley. Li Hung-Chang and the Huai Army: A Study in Nineteenth Century Chinese Regionalism. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1964.

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