Following the First Opium War in 1840, Britain and France launched the Second Opium War in order to obtain greater colonial benefits.
It began with the occupation of Guangzhou in 1856 and ended with the burning of the Old Summer Palace in 1860.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty, as described by Wen Tianxiang, was already in a state of "broken mountains and rivers and fluttering winds", and had to be forced to sign the "Beijing Treaty" with the British and French invaders.
From October 18 to 20, 1860, 3,500 British and French troops rushed into the Old Summer Palace and set fire to it, which did not go out for three days, turning this world-famous garden into ruins, hundreds of palace maids, eunuchs, and craftsmen were burned to death, more than 10,000 rare books were burned, and millions of cultural relics were plundered!
The burning of the Old Summer Palace is the most shameless and vicious barbaric act committed by the Western colonial invaders against our Chinese civilization!
After the incident, it aroused great indignation among people of insight throughout the country in the Qing Dynasty, but as two of the four famous ministers of Zhongxing in the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang had their own opinions on this matter.
According to the "Qing History Manuscript", when Zuo Zongtang heard about this, he was "sad and indignant, and he couldn't sleep peacefully";
However, Zeng Guofan mentioned this incident in his diary in 1862, arguing that although the British and French forces burned down the Old Summer Palace, they had no intention of overthrowing the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and also helped the imperial court to exterminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so they should not be too careful, not only that, but also remember their benefits.
Why are their reactions so different?
Below, we will learn from what they have learned in their lives, their experience in entering the office, their lifelong achievements, their external attitudes and the evaluation of later generations.
Zeng Guofan, born in Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province in 1811, studied Confucian classics since childhood, and passed the children's examination, county examination, township examination, meeting examination, and palace examination.
After middle age, he began to devote himself to Cheng Zhu Lixue, and combined with Lu Wangxinxue, he is the inheritor of traditional Confucianism.
He first served as the governor of Zhili and the governor of Liangjiang, and devoted his life to the formation of the Hunan army, the extermination of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement and the conquest of the Twist army, and never fought with any foreign ** team.
So the rank has to ask, as a famous minister of Zhongxing, what does Zeng Guofan think about the Western invaders?
Is he really afraid of foreigners?
Synthesizing all kinds of documents of Zeng Guofan's life, hereSummarize his views and thoughts on the Western invaders as follows:
First of all, he deeply hated the aggression of the foreigners, and resolutely refused to use the name of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to ravage China's territory.
Second, he acknowledged the gap in military strength between the Qing court and foreign countries, and proposed to learn from the military, science and technology of foreigners.
To this end, he vigorously promoted the Westernization Movement and proposed to send international students to study abroad;
He also proposed that foreign ships could be purchased, but resolutely rejected the command and control of foreign admirals;
Finally, he stressed that under the premise that the enemy is strong and we are weak, we should adopt the method of temporary tolerance and containment towards foreigners, instead of lightly starting a war, concentrating on rectifying internal affairs, eliminating internal strife, and waiting until the national strength is strong before counterattacking.
To sum up, it can be seen that Zeng Guofan's views and thoughts seem to be stable on the surface, but in fact they are very negative;
This is very different from his strong attitude towards exterminating the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!
It is no wonder that Zeng Guofan has such an attitude towards the burning of the Old Summer PalaceAlthough he strongly opposes the assistance of foreigners, when the assistance of foreigners has become an objective fact, he can only persuade himself helplessly to think of the good;
This also led to the fact that when he dealt with the Tianjin teaching case, on the premise of maintaining the bottom-line principle, he inevitably compromised and tolerated the French minister, which eventually led to strong dissatisfaction among the court and the people, and he was infamy.
Slow action is not free", this poem comes from Zeng Guofan's "Sending Ling 11 to Changsha", the writing age is no longer available, it means: life or go or stay, do things sooner or later, it is not up to you to decide.
From this poem, we can see that under Zeng Guofan's strong appearance, there is a negative attitude towards life.
Zuo Zongtang was born in 1812 in Xiangyin County, Hunan Province.
He learned the ways of Confucius and Mencius since he was a child, and passed the government examination and the township examination, but he failed to rank three times in the general examination, which hit him hard, so he returned to his hometown to work as a farmer.
In addition to studying traditional Confucianism, he also seized various learning opportunities and read a wide range of books, covering Chinese history, geography, military, economics, water conservancy, etc.
Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared, and this sentence is really appropriate for Zuo Zongtang.
After many years of farming and the life of a rural teacher, Zuo Zongtang, who has experienced setbacks and ups and downs, has entered the age of no confusion, and became the staff of the governor of Hunan through the recommendation of his friend Hu Linyi, which opened a new chapter in his magnificent and galloping life.
He twice assisted the governor of Hunan to repel the attacks of the Taiping army, and was promoted to the rank of Sipin** with the military affairs of Xiangzan of Zeng Guofan, and in the process of conquering the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was constantly promoted because of his outstanding military achievements, and became the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.
After the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was transferred to the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and put down the rebellion of the Twisted Army and the change of the Hui people in Shaanxi and Gansu.
During his time in Shaanxi and Gansu, he strictly forbade the people to grow opium poppies, which shows his deep hatred for opium!
Zuo Zongtang is only one year younger than Zeng Guofan, belongs to the contemporaries, and on the issue of the Western colonizers' invasion of China, compared with Zeng Guofan's passive tolerance and restraint attitude, Zuo Zongtang seems to be quite determined and enterprising.
"At that time, the country was founded and the border was reopened", which came from Zuo Zongtang's 1833 "Miscellaneous Songs of Guisi Yantai" group of poems, this poem is in response to the frequent rebellions in the Northwest Frontier supported by foreign invading forces at that time, and the emotion, at this time Zuo Zongtang was only 21 years old, and he had already loomed!
Therefore, his grief and indignation over the burning of the Old Summer Palace are reasonable.
When the First Opium War broke out in 1840, British warships invaded Zhejiang and captured Dinghai.
In 1841, the British unilaterally announced the Covenant of Piercing the Nose and Grass, and Zuo Zongtang composed four poems of "Touching the World" to express his indignation;
In 1854, strict measures were taken to reduce, prevent, and restrict the Sino-French mixed army "Changjie Army" and the Chinese-British mixed army "Chang'an Army" that helped to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Not only that, Zuo Zongtang also led his troops into Xinjiang at the age of 64, which lasted 5 years, eliminated the Agubai rebel forces supported by **, and successively recovered the nine cities of northern Xinjiang, southern Xinjiang and Yili, which contributed to the transformation of Xinjiang into a province and realized the situation of long-term peace and stability in Xinjiang.
At the age of 72, he went to Fujian to fight against the French army, and actively supported Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army, which won the victory at Zhennanguan in the Sino-French War, and eventually contributed to the establishment of a province in Taiwan.
After the victory of Zhennanguan, the Qing court once again lost its power and humiliated the country and signed the "Sino-French Congress of Vietnam Terms" with France, Zuo Zongtang, who was already in his old age, was very sad and indignant after learning the news, and he was ill from then on, and died soon after.
When he was dying, he left a shocking last words: The war and peace on the border of Vietnam are related to the strength or weakness of China in the future, I led the army to the south, but I failed to crusade against the French army on a large scale and raise the prestige of our country.
According to the life deeds of Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, later generations gave them different evaluations, evaluating Zeng Guofan as a politician, strategist, physicist, writer and calligrapher;
and assessed Zuo Zongtang as a politician, military strategist, and national hero; I have to say that the eyes of the masses are bright, and the evaluation of the two is also objective and fair.
Both were famous ministers in the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang were worthy of the name of statesmen, but Zeng Guofan only focused on Confucianism and science, and was good at strategy and less tactics in military affairs.
He takes Wang Yangming as his idol, governs the army with ethics and ethics, and selects generals with both ability and political integrity, so it is reasonable to be called a strategist.
Although he has a brilliant idea of governing the army, but in military operations he is stubborn, stupid and inflexible, and it is precisely because of this that he was defeated by the Taiping army several times and almost committed suicide, thus casting his deep ditch and high base, defensive counterattack, passive military thinking.
This extended to his attitude towards the aggression of the great powers, which also led him to form a fixed concept of "first settling at home and then with the outside".
In contrast, Zuo Zongtang is well-read, and he is not only good at strategy in military affairs, but also good at tactics, so he rarely loses in his life in battles in all directions.
He compares himself to Zhuge Liang, he is really worthy of the name and not boasting, he is not like Zeng Guofan who pursues science, he disdains to be a white-faced Confucian who "has a thousand words in his pen, but has no way to do anything".
It is precisely because of this that he ridiculed Zeng Guofan's slow response, inflexible use of tactics, and inability to grasp fleeting fighters.
In the invasion of foreign powers, the emperor and empress dowager were afraid of the enemy like a tiger; In the context of the corruption of officials and the poor livelihood of ordinary people, from the southeast to the northwest,Zuo Zongtang has always adhered to a kind of "although tens of millions of people have gone to me".
Even the fearless courage of knowing that he could not do anything, as well as the dedication of doing his best and dying, defeated the enemy several times, which not only showed his demeanor as a military strategist, but also showed his patriotic feelings of not being afraid of strength and daring to take responsibility.
Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang are both from HunanHowever, because of their different knowledge and experience, the two have different thoughts and achievements.
This is how their very different reactions to the burning of the Old Summer Palace came about.
In contrast, Zeng Guofan's proposition can be called guarding the clumsy Tibetan front, Taoguang and cultivating obscurity, "mastering the skills of the master and then controlling the enemy";
And Zuo Zongtang's behavior can be called-for-tat, not giving a step, "Kou can go to me"!
We can't simply conclude from this that Zeng Guofan is not patriotic, but Zuo Zongtang is patriotic, after all, Zeng Guofan is not a traitor with the sovereignty and interests of the family.
However, who is right and who is wrong in these two completely different ideological propositions of Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang?
This has to be judged in combination with the background of the Chinese society at that time.
All thoughts and actions must conform to objective facts, and if there is no objective facts as a basis, then even the most correct thoughts and actions will lose their practicability and effectiveness.
Zeng Guofan's strategy is applicable to a developing era, in which the country is already in the process of benign development, but it has not yet reached the corresponding height and has strong national strength, so it needs to be patient for the time being, buy time for its own development, so as to make a comeback and drive out the enemy.
Obviously, the late Qing Dynasty in which Zeng Guofan lived did not have the characteristics of benign developmentAt this time, the late Qing court was turbulent, the wind and rain were drifting, the society was dark, the people's hearts were scattered, and the originally rich country, because of the plundering of foreign powers, the extravagance of imperial power, and the corruption of officials, had become impoverished, vulnerable, and had nothing.
What is the use of patience in such a situation?
So needless to say, Zuo Zongtang's external strategy is really applicable to the social background at that time, which is already full of holes, what else can't be opened? Exactly: there is no way to retreat, why retreat? If you can't bear it, why bear it anymore?
In the same way, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1950, when the United States brazenly invaded North Korea, it solicited the opinions of the Politburo members on the question of whether to send troops to support North Korea.
And Peng Shuai believes that at this time, the country is poor and white, and all kinds of waste are waiting to be revived, only the people's will is available, the army is flourishing, it is better to fight late than early, and then build after winning!
As a result, *** finally made up his mind: to fight with one punch, so as not to come with a hundred punches!
History often has its striking similarities, Zuo Zongtang's great achievements, and the great victory of the Korean War, all show that when the country is in the autumn of survival and crisis, any restraint, forbearance, and hesitation are negative and superfluous.
After all, the barefoot are not afraid of wearing shoes, after all, the brave wins when they meet on a narrow road!
As an aside, Zeng Guofan's name means the fence of the country, which is the barrier of the country, and Zuo Zongtang's name means to follow the law of the ancestors and be a person with sentiment and moderation, judging from the lives of the two, their names should be exchanged with each other.
The burning of the Old Summer Palace makes us always remember a profound truth, if you fall behind, you will be beaten!
Whether it is Zeng Guofan or Zuo Zongtang, they are all subject to the limitations of the times, so they do not have and cannot realize that China is an ancient civilization based on agriculture, and only by completely overthrowing the feudal imperial system and implementing the practice of cultivators having their own land can they awaken hundreds of millions of people and truly unite people's hearts;
No matter how powerful the guns are, they can't withstand the unity of all people.
As *** wrote in the poem: Arouse millions of workers and peasants to work together, and not to be chaotic under the red flag!
Annals of Zeng Guofan
Zuo Zongtang Yearbook".