Li Xiande

Li Xiande

American military diplomat, born in 1830 in Ronne, France, later naturalized in the new world for marrying an American girl. He commanded the 51st regiment of New York during the civil war and retired as a brigadier general. In 1866, he served as US Consul in Xiamen. He became a Taiwan general because of dealing with the Luofa incident. In 1873, he sent troops to Taiwan to seek theoretical evidence for Japan. In 1890, he was recommended by the Japanese as the foreign affairs assistant and interior affairs assistant of the DPRK. He died in Seoul in 1899.

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Charles William Legendre (1830-1899) was translated into Chinese as Li Xiande and Li gengde. Born in France, after graduating from Paris University, he met Clara Victoria, daughter of a famous American lawyer. After they got married in Brussels, Legendre moved to the United States with his wife and became an American citizen. After the outbreak of the American Civil War, he joined the 51st infantry regiment in New York. He was seriously injured in 1862 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel after his recovery. He commanded a regiment in the 9th army and participated in the battle of Vicksburg under Grant. Later, he was wounded again in the battle of the wilderness. When he was wounded in the hospital, he also experienced the last surprise attack of the Confederate army. When he retired after the war, he was a brigadier general.

In October 1866, he became the US Consul in Xiamen. In February 1867, the rover, an American merchant ship, sank on the rocks of hongtouyu (now Lanyu) off the eastern coast of Taiwan. Its survivors were killed by the indigenous people of Langqiao (south of xialinbian, Fengshan County in the Qing Dynasty, today's Hengchun area), which triggered negotiations between the United States and the Qing government, as well as the "Luofa incident" in which the U.S. army went to attack the indigenous tribes on its own. During this period, Li Xiande was ordered to visit Taiwan. However, because Lang Qiao was located outside the Tu Niu line, which belongs to the "Sheng fan" territory, Taiwan officials were unwilling to intervene. Li Xiande's negotiations with the authorities were fruitless. On October 10, 1869, he entered Lang Qiao to negotiate with Zhuo Qi Du, the leader of the 18 societies, and agreed that the aborigines would no longer harm the western shipwreckers. Because of this experience and being able to speak Taiwanese, Li Xiande was regarded as a "Taiwan Fan Jie" expert.

In 1872, Li Xiande resigned as consul of Xiamen and crossed Yokohama, Japan on his way back to the United States. Under the introduction of the U.S. envoy, he met with the Japanese Minister of foreign affairs. At that time, Japan attempted to expand overseas, and because a large number of gentry (old Samurai) lost their jobs after the Meiji Restoration, which caused huge social problems, Japan actively sought to transfer internal affairs by foreign war. Fifty four vagrants from the ancient island of Ryukyu palace were killed by the aborigines in Langqiao in 1871. Japan plans to send troops to Taiwan under the pretext of protecting its people and questioning its descendants. I'm very grateful to this helper. Japan promised to give him the corresponding rank of general of the army, and let him become the governor of Taiwan if he occupied Taiwan.

Li Xian's experience in dealing with Luo Mei pointed out that China's politics and religion were not as good as "Fandi", and Japan could use "Fandi has no owner" as the main purpose of sending troops to Taiwan. Li Xiande provided maps and photos of Taiwan and said that it would be easy to occupy Taiwan with only 2000 troops. In November of that year, the Ministry of foreign affairs appointed Li Xiande as a consultant. Li Xiande also made a detailed plan for Japan to send troops and colonize.

In the 13th year of tongzhi (1874, the seventh year of Meiji in Japan), the Japanese government established the Taiwan Tibetan Affairs Bureau, appointed Xixiang congdao as the governor of the Affairs Bureau, and led 3600 troops to attack the aboriginal tribes dominated by Mudan society in Langqiao area of Taiwan. It was the incident of Mudan society, which was called "Taiwan sent troops".

When Japan was about to move, a strange scene appeared: the US official officially said that it would not encourage Japan to invade Taiwan, but Li Xiande and several other retired US diplomats tried their best to encourage them to preach the importance of sending troops to Taiwan. After Japan sent troops, Li Xian had to act as an assistant officer with the army, making plans, and introducing American soldiers to participate. In the Peony Society incident, Li Xiande formulated diplomatic strategies for Japan to deceive the international audience, and helped Japan hire foreign soldiers, rent ships and buy arms. The purpose is that after the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, the Americans can monopolize the trade interests, and even have the actual colonial power.

The Chinese side learned that Li Xiande played a key role in the incident and wanted to cut corners. Li Hongzhang pointed out in his letter "on Japan's plan to attack Taiwan" in the premier's Yamen that Japan relies on the Americans to urge the United States to withdraw its personnel and ships, which can force Japan to strike. So the Qing government protested to the United States. On September 12, when Li Xiande went to Xiamen to negotiate with the Qing government, he was arrested by American sailors. In November of the same year, the Japanese army withdrew from Taiwan, and the US side then released Li Xian on the ground that he did not lead the troops. So he went to Beijing and served as counsellor of this Council and ambassador okubolito on that day. After returning to Tokyo, he served as diplomatic adviser to the Japanese government. In 1890, recommended by the Japanese government, he became the assistant of the Korean foreign Yamen. In the same year, he became the assistant of the inner Yamen. He died in Seoul in 1899. He is the author of the report on Xiamen and Formosa.

Li Xiande and Japan's first invasion of Taiwan

In 1874, Japan used the Ryukyu shipwreck incident as an excuse to send troops to "levy Taiwan", which opened the prelude of Japan's invasion of China in modern times. This incident is closely related to the American Li Xiande. Li Xian was employed by the Japanese government as a "quasi second-class official". He put forward dozens of memoranda and opinions to the Japanese government, instigated the Japanese government to accept the idea that Taiwan should be a land without owners, and helped the vice Island minister to use cunning tactics to deceive him into sending troops to Taiwan. He also hired ship employees to help Japan send troops to "levy Taiwan". Therefore, Li Xiande actively participated in the planning and implementation of Japan's invasion of Taiwan, which played a great role.

Japan's first invasion of Taiwan was a major event in Taiwan's history, which opened the first chapter of Sino Japanese relations in modern times. This incident is closely related to American Li Xiande. Scholars who have studied the history of Sino Japanese relations and Taiwan history have paid attention to this incident in the past, but they are often vague. Whether from the perspective of the history of Sino Japanese relations or the history of Taiwan, this is an issue worthy of further discussion.

Japan's articles on Li Xiande are mainly introductory, such as Yoshino's "General Li Xiande, the benefactor of Japan's diplomacy", Li Xiande's chronicle by novelist Li Jianchun, and Li Xiande's trip to Taiwan compiled by Zhengnan of our ministry and Kurihara Chun. The earliest research articles should be "Li Xiande" and "Li Xiande's diplomatic opinions - the Far East policy of Britain and Russia and Japanese diplomacy", etc. Li Xiande is a very short article, which mainly points out that Li's greatest contribution is in the Taiwan incident. At the same time, it holds that after the Taiwan incident, Li's many opinions, such as "Japan's policy of prosperity and strength", "Japan's past, present and future", "the punishment of the rank and salary of the Chinese people", "the opinion of exploiting the land of xiayidi" and so on, put forward by him played a role as a diplomatic adviser. As far as the relationship between Li Xiande and the invasion of Taiwan is concerned, the only one we can see is the article "the activity of general Legendre in 1874 when Japan invaded Taiwan". This paper deals with Li Xiande and the beginning of the battle of invading Taiwan, but only focuses on the narration of the event. From the standpoint of the Japanese, this paper holds that there is no doubt in international law that Li Xiande's theory of Taiwan Fandi belongs to. Because of Li's planning and running, the Qing court recognized Japan's military action as a righteous act. As far as the Japanese are concerned, they have to express their gratitude for Li's efforts. On the Taiwan side, works on modern history of Taiwan, which are related to this stage, generally refer to the relationship between Li Xiande and Japan's "conquering Taiwan". The more detailed discussion is Huang Jiamo's America and Taiwan and Fujii zhijinzhi's the origin of modern Sino Japanese relations. As far as the monographic research papers are concerned, there are only two pieces of Li Xiande C.W. Legendre and Taiwan by Wu Rui and Li Xiande and Japanese invasion of Taiwan by Lin Juncheng. Wu Rui's articles were published earlier. Although her perspective was from the standpoint of Taiwanese, she only stayed in the narrative, and did not surpass Chuang Si Wan Taro's articles in terms of historical materials. Lin Juncheng's article mainly discusses the origin of the Ryukyu issue, and does not use new historical materials, nor does it detail the process of Li Xiande's instigating the Japanese government to send troops, deceiving the Japanese government to send troops by trickery, and Li's employing ship employees to assist in sending troops. There is no special article on Li Xiande in mainland China. In some works on the history of Sino Japanese relations and Taiwan history, such as the seventy year history of Japan's invasion of China and the outline of Taiwan history, Li Xiande's relationship with Japan's invasion of Taiwan is simply mentioned. This paper attempts to find out the real relationship between China and the United States in the process of Li Xiankang's occupation of Taiwan, and the relationship between China and the United States.

notes

1. All the dates in the text are solar calendar.

2. As for the place name of "Lang (Wang Qiao)", the word "Wang Qiao" is no longer used in modern Chinese, and there is no built-in Font in the computer, so "Lang Qiao" or "Lang Qiao" is often used instead on the Internet. However, the memorials and official documents at that time were all written as "Lang (Wang Qiao)", and "Wang Qiao" was the original word, which was not suitable to be written in other words.

Chinese PinYin : Li Xian De