Li Hongzhang: The Qing Empire’s Wallpaper Restorer

This is a historical narrative that unfolds the life of Li Hongzhang in panoramic fashion, using the metaphor of "learning to steer on a sinking ship." From the crying birth of 1823 in the Li family of Luzhou to the lonely end at Xianliang Temple in 1901, the book follows the timeline to restore the dramatic life of this late Qing statesman.

He was a young scholar chasing the imperial examinations, who entered Zeng Guofan’s school and tempered his character; he was a military commander who rose in the flames of war, formed the Huai Army, and pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army, writing blood and controversy on the southeastern battlefield; he was a leader of the Self-Strengthening Movement, founding the Jiangnan Arsenal and the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, trying to support a dynasty in crisis through "seeking wealth and strength"; and he was also a "plasterer" on the diplomatic stage, from the Sino-French New Treaty to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and then the Boxer Protocol signed shortly before his death, bearing the accusations and helplessness of being branded a "traitor."

Based on Li-family documents and historical materials, this book continues a popular, vivid narrative style. It writes not only of his strategy and sense of duty, but also does not shy away from his compromises and limitations. Interweaving personal fate with dynastic decline, it shows late Qing China’s difficult turn amid the collision of old and new and the clashes between China and the West, leaving readers with a deep reflection on this "figure of a hundred years of controversy."