He and Zeng Guofan lead the Westernization Movement, which is a sign of his progress. He also has the deeds of defending China diplomatically. For example, after Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, he went to negotiate alone, and finally calmed down the incident and did not cede territory; When the Sino-Japanese War was in an unfavorable situation, he took the initiative to reach a settlement at the least cost, which was all conducive to his defense of the country.
However, later generations also criticized Li Hongzhang's wrong decision. If you pay too much attention to avoiding war and coastal defense, you are willing to sacrifice the whole of Xinjiang to give up Xinjiang's defense;
4. The special terms of the Sino-Japanese Tianjin Conference signed in1885 gave Japan the right to send troops into North Korea;
5. 1894- 1895 The command error with Japan in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1895 led to the annihilation of warships in Ahava; After the victory of the Sino-French War, the unequal treaties were signed instead.
Although these unfavorable treaties and practices are restricted by various objective conditions, he still has to bear heavy responsibility for the illegal acts of these events. In addition, he killed too many people in the early campaign to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This also involves the overall evaluation of Xiang Army and Huai Army. The Westernization Movement and his series of measures did not change the continuous decline of China, and his contribution was not significant.
Extended data
Cultural achievements
Calligraphy attainments
While commenting on Li Hongzhang's merits and demerits, people gradually noticed his calligraphy art. Through his large amount of pen and ink, we saw his extraordinary calligraphy skill. However, few people mentioned that he was a man with high cultural accomplishment and a calligrapher with deep attainments in the late Qing Dynasty.
Li Hongzhang's fan is on an irregular fan, with orderly layout and harmonious characters. Beauty jumps like a lively pearl, and the lines are measured, sparse but not chaotic. It is refreshing and pleasing to the eye, and it can be called a masterpiece of calligraphy, which shows Li Hongzhang's profound calligraphy attainments.
Collection achievement
Li Hongzhang likes to collect books after politics. Living in Shanghai Lilac Garden, there is a "look at the clouds"
Caotang Library. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), when suppressing the uprising of Shanghai Knife Association, he often went to the library of Yu Songnian, a famous bibliophile, and gave him many rare books. After his death, his books were inherited by Li Jingmai, and his precious edition was sold by the owner of "Hanwenyuan" bookstore in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period. The rest of the books were donated by Sun Yu 1940 to the library of Aurora University, totaling 18000 volumes.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia: Li Hongzhang