The age of Li Hongzhang's eight-character couplet

Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the enemy has been called "the enemy". On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court sent Li Hongzhang to Japan. At the press conference, the Japanese side wrote couplets: riding a strange horse, Zhang Longgong, playing the piano and pipa, and eight kings, shoulder to shoulder and fighting alone! I am a Japanese soldier bigger than Ma Zhuang, with a long bow, and my writing style is not simple. There are eight "big kings" alone, and they are all very talented. Japanese "going it alone" can draw China.

Li Hongzhang immediately wrote a pair of couplets: Commissioner of the Japanese invaders, the dragon suit, the ghost and the four little kids, kneeling beside them, hand in hand! Many reporters cheered when they saw it. The second couplet means: the enemy came to steal the dragon clothes of the Qing Dynasty, pipa became a demon, eight kings became four little demons, and their heads became knees side by side, fighting hand in hand alone. Since then, people have called the Japanese aggressors "devils" instead of "Japanese pirates".