Before the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang went to Japan and the negotiations ended. The Japanese not only want to show off their strength in front of the world, but also want to defile the Great Qing Dynasty culturally. The Japanese side suddenly raised an irrelevant question: "We have the upper couplet in Japan, but we can't get the lower couplet, so we have to ask the person who originated Chinese characters." The Japanese displayed a couplet written on white silk, which read: "Riding a strange horse, pulling a long bow, playing pipa and pipa, eight heavenly kings, living side by side on their heads and fighting alone!"

The Japanese Union means: I am stronger than Japanese soldiers and horses, riding a strange swift horse and stretching a long bow. The style of writing is not simple. There are eight "big kings" alone, and they are all very talented. Showing others by virtue, Chen Wugong is strong, and the Japanese can crush China by going it alone. Li Hongzhang does not show weakness. He first asked the Japanese side to prepare inkstones for grinding ink, then spread white silk, and then wrote couplets with a stroke of a pen:

He said, "Japanese Committee, attacking dragon clothes, charm (Mei), spirit (Wang), spirit (Liang), four little devils, kneel beside them and grab them with both hands!" Many reporters cheered when they saw it. The second couplet means: the Japanese are pirates who have come to steal the dragon clothes of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Kings have become four imps, the harp and pipa have become ghosts, their heads have become knees side by side, and single-handedly fighting has become grasping. Since then, people have called the Japanese aggressors "devils" instead of "Japanese pirates".

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Calling foreigners devils;

First, the Qing emperor received foreign envoys and asked foreigners to kneel down, but foreigners were unwilling. The contradictions between the two sides are completely different. Then a minister of the Qing dynasty told the emperor: "Fan Yi with red hair is not only different from his beard and hair, but also has a different body structure. His knees are straight and can't bend, and he walks around like a zombie. Hearing this, the emperor turned out to be like this! Therefore, foreigners are called devils, and this word has been passed down to this day.

2. 1840 After the Opium War, foreigners invaded China frequently, especially 1860, when the British and French allied forces set fire to Yuanmingyuan, 1900, when Eight-Nation Alliance went to Beijing. These invaders raped, plundered and committed many evils, just like the ghosts in the story, they were inhuman, and they were called devils with blue eyes, yellow hair and red beard!

Ancient people thought that overseas countries were ghost countries. There is a story in Jane Yizhi written by Hong Mai in the Song Dynasty: Yang Erlang, a businessman of the Southern Song Dynasty, was killed at sea and drifted to an island. After landing, "men and women are naked and get together." Ghost mother, the leader of the ghost, said that since I'm here, I'll stay here and let a ghost girl marry him and live with him. Yang Erlang lived in a ghost country for two years, eating and drinking like a dead man. Although I don't have a baby, ghost couples are also very harmonious. Since overseas is a ghost country, foreigners naturally become devils.

Baidu encyclopedia-Japanese devils

Baidu encyclopedia-devil