Viceroy of Liangguang in the context of "Second Opium War"

Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi (Chinese: 李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; February 15, 1823 – November 7, 1901) was a Chinese statesman, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important positions in the Qing imperial court, including the Viceroy of Zhili, Huguang and Liangguang.

Although he was best known in the West for his generally pro-modern stance and importance as a negotiator, Li antagonised the British with his support of Russia as a foil against Japanese expansionism in Manchuria and fell from favour with the Chinese after their defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. His image in China remains controversial, with criticism on one hand for political and military defeats and praise on the other for his success against the Taiping Rebellion, his diplomatic skills defending Chinese interests in the era of unequal treaties, and his role pioneering China's industrial and military modernisation. He was presented the Royal Victorian Order by Queen Victoria. The French newspaper Le Siècle described him as "the yellow Bismarck".

The Canton System (1757–1842; Chinese: 一口通商; pinyin: Yīkǒu tōngshāng; Jyutping: jat1 hau2 tung1 soeng1, lit. "Single [port] trading relations") served as a means for Qing China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of Canton (now Guangzhou). The protectionist policy arose in 1757 as a response to a perceived political and commercial threat from abroad on the part of successive Chinese emperors.

From the late seventeenth century onwards, Chinese merchants, known as Hongs (Chinese: 行; pinyin: háng), managed all trade in the port. Operating from the Thirteen Factories located on the banks of the Pearl River outside Canton, in 1760, by order of the Qing Qianlong Emperor, they became officially sanctioned as a monopoly known as the Cohong. Thereafter Chinese merchants dealing with foreign trade (Chinese: 洋行; pinyin: yángháng; Jyutping: joeng4 hong2; lit. "ocean traders", i.e. "overseas traders" or "foreign traders") acted through the Cohong under the supervision of the Guangdong Customs Supervisor (Chinese: 粵海關部監督; pinyin: Yuèhǎi guānbù jiàn dù; Jyutping: jyut6 hoi2 gwaan1 bou6 gaam1 duk1), informally known as the "Hoppo", and the Governor-general of Guangzhou and Guangxi.

The Mutual Defense Pact of the Southeastern Provinces (traditional Chinese: 東南互保; simplified Chinese: 东南互保; pinyin: Dōngnán Hùbǎo) was an agreement reached in the summer of 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion by Qing dynasty governors of the provinces in southern, eastern and central China when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded northern China. The governors, including Li Hongzhang (governor-general of Guangdong, Guangxi), Xu Yingkui (governor-general of Fujian, Zhejiang), Liu Kunyi (governor-general of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi), Zhang Zhidong (governor-general of Hubei, Hunan) and Yuan Shikai (provincial governor of Shandong), refused to carry out the imperial decree promulgated by the Qing imperial court to declare war on 11 foreign states, with the aim of preserving peace in their own provinces.

Some other Han-majority provincial authorities, such as the governor-general of Sichuan and the provincial governor of Shaanxi, did not formally join the mutual protection agreement but similarly disobeyed the imperial edict. Thus, for the first time, the vast majority of Han regional authorities refused to aid the Qing court. For much of the conflict, the main forces fighting for the Qing court (alongside the Boxers) were the Manchu Hushenying, the Manchu Peking Field Force and three of five divisions of the Qing court's most modernized Wuwei Corps (including its Manchu division and Muslim Gansu division), but Yuan Shikai commanded the other two divisions into Shandong and actively used them to suppress the Boxers, in open defiance of the Qing court. In Manchuria, large groups of Han bandits named Honghuzi ("Red Beards") also actively fought alongside Manchu banners, mostly as a response to the separate Russian invasion that had widespread atrocities against Manchus and Daurs like the Blagoveshchensk massacre and Sixty-Four Villages East of the River massacre.

Liangguang (traditional Chinese: 兩廣; simplified Chinese: 两广; pinyin: Liǎngguǎng; Cantonese Yale: Léuhng Gwóng; lit. 'the Two Expanses'; Postal romanization: Liangkwang) is a Chinese term for the province of Guangdong and the former province and present autonomous region of Guangxi, collectively. It particularly refers to the viceroyalty of Liangguang under the Qing dynasty, when the territory was considered to include Hainan and the colonies of British Hong Kong, the French Kouang-Tchéou-Wan and Portuguese Macau. The Viceroyalty of Liangguang existed from 1735 to 1911.

Zhang Zhidong (Chinese: 張之洞) (2 September 1837 – 4 October 1909) was a Chinese politician who lived during the late Qing dynasty. Along with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong was one of the four most famous officials of the late Qing dynasty. Known for advocating controlled reform and modernization of Chinese troops, he served as the governor of Shanxi Province and viceroy of Huguang, Liangguang and Liangjiang, and also as a member of the Grand Council. He took a leading role in the abolition of the Imperial examination system in 1905. The Red Guards destroyed his tomb in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution. His remains were rediscovered in 2007 and reburied.

Fuk'anggan (Manchu:ᡶᡠᠺᠠᠩᡤᠠᠨ, Möllendorff: Fuk'anggan; Chinese: 福康安; pinyin: Fúkāng'ān; 1748–1796), courtesy name Yaolin (瑶林; 瑤林; Yáolín), was a Qing dynasty general from the Fuca clan of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner.

Fuk'anggan's father, Fuheng, brother of the Empress Xiaoxianchun, served as a grand minister of state during the middle years of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Fuk'anggan held various offices throughout Qianlong's reign, including Governor-General, Viceroy of Liangjiang and Viceroy of Liangguang.

Yishan (Manchu: I Šan; 13 June 1790 – 30 June 1878), courtesy name Jingxuan, was a Manchu lesser noble and official of the Qing dynasty. He is best known for his failure to defend Guangzhou (Canton) from British forces during the First Opium War, and for signing the treaties of Kulja and Aigun with the Russian Empire in 1851 and 1858 respectively.

Yishan was born in Beijing or Mukden (modern-day Shenyang), Qing Dynasty, on 13 June 1790. Being a distant relative of the Qing Dynasty Royal Family, he entered the Qing bureaucracy without taking the Imperial examination at the age of 20, in 1810. In 1821, after the Daoguang Emperor inherited the throne from the Jiaqing Emperor, Yishan was promoted to the emperor's bodyguard. He served in several more positions in the following decade. Yishan governed Ili from 1838 to 1840, and from 1845 to 1854. He was chosen to be a military general in 1839 for the First Opium War, and was promoted to Imperial Commissioner and Viceroy of Liangguang in 1841. Mismanagement in Guangzhou and Humen lead to his defence failures, and he was forced to sign a convention and surrender to the British. He was sentenced to death (later became imprisonment) in late 1841, but was released in 1842. In 1843, he once again became the Daoguang Emperor's bodyguard. After finishing his Ili governance term in 1854, he governed Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Jilin as Viceroy of the Three Eastern Provinces from 1855 to 1860, signing the Treaty of Aigun with the Russian Empire regarding the Qing's northeastern borders in 1858. He participated in the Second Opium War as a general from 1857 to 1860. Yishan died on 30 June, 1878.