Li Hung-chang (1823-1901), Chinese soldier, statesman, diplomat, and industrialist, was one of the most powerful and influential officials in China and a leader of the Self-strengthening movement.
During the latter half of the 19th century China had to contend with internal rebellions and everincreasing foreign encroachments. To cope with this twin threat, a few far-sighted Chinese leaders advocated a policy of military and economic development along Western lines which would give China the strength to suppress the rebellions, get rid of the Westerners, and preserve its superior traditional culture. This movement was known as the Self-strengthening movement.
Li Hung-chang was born on Feb. 15, 1823, in Hofei in Anhwei Province. In 1843 he passed the first of the official examinations. Shortly thereafter he set out for Peking. Because Li's father and the soldier-statesman Tseng Kuo-fan both had received their chin-shih degrees (the highest academic degree) in 1838, Li became Tseng's student in the capital, and thus began the long and close association between these two men which was to affect the course of Chinese history. In 1844 Li passed the second examination and in 1847 achieved the chin-shih degree and was made a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy—a signal honor.
Military Career
Li's budding career as a scholar-official in the capital was cut short in 1853, when he and his father were ordered to return to Anhwei to organize the local militia to fight the Taiping and Nien rebels. For the next 6 years he fought the rebels in Anhwei and received honors but was dissatisfied and frustrated in what he considered a backwash area. In 1858 he resigned his position in Anhwei and set out to join Tseng, who was the commander of his own army fighting the Taiping rebels in Kiangsi.
Between 1859 and 1862 Li served under Tseng in various military and administrative capacities. He has been described during this period as "a brash, young genius," and because of this, his relations with Tseng were often strained. Tseng's attempts to discipline and mold Li's character, however, gradually met with success, and in 1861 Tseng sent Li back to Anhwei to recruit an army which came to be known as the Huai Army. In 1862 Li led his new army to Shanghai and was concurrently made governor of Kiangsu Province.
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