Li Hung Chang
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Chinese statesman and diplomatist; born in Ho Fei, province of Anhwei, China, Feb. 16, 1823. In 1850, when the Taiping rebels invaded Anhwei, he joined Tseng Kuo Fan's army as secretary. He was appointed judge of Chekiang province, and in 1861 governor of Kiang-Su. In conjunction with Colonel (afterward General) Gordon, in 1863, he retook Suchow, and drove the rebels entirely out of Kiang-Su. For these services he was decorated with the Yellow Jacket and Peacock's Plume, and made a hereditary noble of the third class. In 1865 he was appointed Governor-General of the Liang Kiang provinces, and in 1868 made Grand Chancellor. After the massacres at Tien-tsin in 1870 he was degraded and his titles taken away on the charge of not assisting the imperial commander of the troops; but in 1872 he was restored as Grand Chancellor and appointed Governor-General of Chihli, the metropolitan province. He was also Senior Grand Secretary, the highest distinction that can be attained by a Chinese official. When, in 1876, Margory was killed while endeavoring to explore southwestern China, Li Hung Chang was the commissioner for fixing the indemnity. He negotiated important treaties with Peru " LI HUNG CHANG and Japan. He was a friend to foreigners and to Western civilization and culture. As a member of the Board of Admiralty he originated the Chinese navy, and was the chief promoter of the Company. He was imperial Commissioner of Trade for the N. ports. The emperor intrusted to him supreme charge of the military and naval forces sent to Korea in the Chino-Japanese War, and he bore nearly the whole burden of the War Department, Marine Department, and Financial Department of the Chinese Government. During the war with Japan the disasters to the Chinese armies and navy were laid to his blame, and he was degraded and punished, but still retained his office of Prime Minister. He was sent to Japan in 1895 to negotiate the peace treaty, where he barely escaped assassination. In 1896 he made a tour of the world, traveling overland and was everywhere received as a highly distinguished guest. He played a prominent lations of China in adjusting the relations of China part art 1901. He 1900-1901 with foreign powers after the suppress- Jov. 7, 1901. ing of the uprisings of 1900-1901. He died in Peking, China, Nov. 7, 1901. enus of planta
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare career Collier's set out in 1921 still stands, but almost everything about how it is judged has moved. Li is now normally written Li Hongzhang in pinyin, and where Collier's praised him as "a friend to foreigners and to Western civilization," that was precisely the charge laid against him in China for most of the twentieth century: the man who signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 and the Boxer Protocol in 1901 was taught as a capitulator and traitor. Since the 1980s Chinese historians have largely rehabilitated him as the chief architect of the Self-Strengthening Movement, the shipping line, arsenals and navy Collier's credits him with founding. Historians also now weigh the secret 1896 Li-Lobanov agreement with Russia, which opened Manchuria to the Chinese Eastern Railway, far more heavily than Collier's brief note of his world tour suggests; the dynasty he served collapsed in 1912, eleven years after his death.
Written for this edition, 2026.