Bottom line: lead the heart to carry virtue, help righteousness and lose loyalty.
Lifu is a typical Jianghuai residential building. Like many officials, there are two stone lions lying on both sides of the gate with four red lanterns hanging on them. When you enter the gate, you will see a wooden screen with a black word "Fu" on the red background.
Turn the screen, which means going to the lobby.
Inside the museum is the "Life Exhibition of Li Hongzhang". The exhibition shows Li Hongzhang's life of "young imperial examination, joining the army in the prime of life, frontier defense in the middle age and westernization in his later years" with a large number of precious pictures and objects, and shows a controversial legend in the late Qing Dynasty from many levels and angles.
After the hall, it is the central hall. In the middle of the hall, there is a plaque with the word "Fushoutang" written on it. There is a picture of a pine crane under the plaque, with two couplets beside it. One is "Liang Dong Huaxia Zifuliang, taking rivers and mountains to celebrate the New Year", and the other is "reading extensively, concentrating on various arts, guiding the heart to carry morality, and losing loyalty to economic righteousness". There is a mirror, an ancient clock and a vase on the stone bench at the bottom of the picture of Songhe, indicating that the house is "a mirror all its life". In the middle of the central hall, four wooden pillars just form a bay, one on the left and one on the right, each with a bay. Together with the east and west wing rooms, it forms a pattern of bright three and dark five, which has the architectural characteristics of a rich family in Jianghuai area.
Walking out of the main hall is the "Zoumalou", where Li Fu's harem lives. On both sides of the gate, green characters on a black background are engraved with green couplets, which say, "You must have a spring in your heart after all your hardships.". It is a vivid portrayal of his situation at that time. On the second floor of the Miss Building, there are antique embroidered beds, carved dressing tables and marble-faced round stools. On the first floor, it is Li Hongzhang's calligraphy exhibition. Li Hongzhang is good at typing letters and poems. After taking office, he also expressed his feelings in his calligraphy works, leaving a lot of precious ink such as plaques, couplets and letters. Li Hongzhang's calligraphy is mainly running script, which is due to the solemnity and simplicity of the Tang Dynasty and the roundness and elegance of the Song Dynasty, forming a vigorous, simple and solemn style and occupying an important position in the history of calligraphy in the Qing Dynasty.
After visiting the remaining two exhibitions, I stepped out of Li Hongzhang's former residence and stared back at the secret door of Li's house for a long time. Li Hongzhang is the most controversial figure in China's modern history. He initiated the Westernization Movement and was regarded as the first person to open a port in China. He presided over the construction of the first railway in China-Tangshan-Xugezhuang Railway, although the total length of that railway is only11km; Established China's first navy-Beiyang Navy; He was the first to introduce the telegraph to China, set up the telegraph headquarters building in Tianjin, and abolished the postal delivery system for thousands of years ... He signed more than 30 treaties on behalf of the Qing government in his life, most of which were unequal treaties, the most famous of which was the "Xin Chou Treaty" signed between 190 1 year and1countries and powers. This humiliating treaty made him a traitor forever, and his bones were dug up and hung on the back of a tractor during the Great Leap Forward until they disappeared.
In his early years, Mao Zedong used the allusions in Zhuangzi Xiaoyao to evaluate Li Hongzhang's "shallow water but big boat", and the contemporary American President Grant called him "the first of the four great men". Liang Qichao, one of the leaders of the Reform Movement of 1898, had such feelings: "I respect Li Hongzhang's talent, I cherish his knowledge, and I mourn Li Hongzhang's experience." Li Hongzhang himself laughed at himself in his later years.
History has its own comments on the merits and demerits of a thousand years.