What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Qiu Jin like
In July 1907, two criminal cases shocked China!
On the 6th, in Hefei, Anhui Province, Inspector Enming was invited by Xu Xilin to attend the opening ceremony of the newly opened Patrol Police Academy, but this subordinate he had pulled up with one hand assassinated him. At the same time, Qiu Jin, who was in Zhejiang, was also brewing an armed anti-Qing movement, but soon Qiu Jin's identity was discovered by the Qing government that was tracking down Xu Xilin's "party". On the 13th, Qiu Jin was arrested and executed by Zhejiang Inspector Zhang Zengshuo on the 15th.
A big discussion about whether Qiu Jin should be executed instantly exploded.
Qiu Jin led his students to fight against the Qing army
I. Normal criminal punishments provoke public outrage
The last decade of the Qing Dynasty was a time of rapid awakening of Chinese nationalism and people's wisdom, and with the development of new forms of communication, the people could understand and participate in many events that could not be participated in before through newspapers and periodicals, and the growth of civil power posed a huge constraint on many behaviors of the Qing government. If according to China's consistent laws for thousands of years, the execution of "anti-thief" Qiu Jin is a very normal thing, and the people have no way of knowing or caring about this kind of thing.
But in the last decade of the Qing Dynasty, everything was different, and Qiu Jin's death was not only a struggle between the government and the revolutionary party, but also a discussion about whether the government had the right to execute people without trial. The Chinese people can never accept it!
Qiu Jin
Interestingly, at this time, the Qing government had announced the reform of the official system, and the imperial court intended to imitate the Western "judicial independence" system and bring the local judicial adjudication power to the central government, which was naturally opposed by the local governors who had become more and more powerful since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zhejiang Governor Zhang Zengshuo was not a "new" person by standards, his thinking was more traditional, and he was even more dismissive of the judicial adjudication power and judicial reform of the imperial court to take over the localities, and he also believed that the original penal measures should not be abolished in the case of the prevalence of the revolutionary party, and the "rebellious" behavior of the revolutionary party must be suppressed with heavy punishment.
Without the progress of modernization, Zhang Zengshuo's daring to arrest "anti-thieves" and quickly execute them may have been greatly praised by the imperial court and promoted to the rank of Jialu, but everything is no longer the original, and Zhang Zengshuo pushed himself to the cusp of public opinion.
The original barbaric punishment
Second, why did the people fight back against Zhang Zeng
Since it is a criticism of the government, the people must put forward tit-for-tat reasons. At that time, the media "fired cannons" at the government on two key points: first, what the nature of Qiu Jin's case was like, and second, whether there was a problem with the trial procedures of Zhejiang Inspector Zhang Zengshuo.
As far as the first point is concerned, public opinion is completely inconsistent with Zhang Zengshuo's characterization of Qiu Jin's case, qiu Jin had not yet launched armed anti-Qing activities when she was arrested, and although she could be arrested for her involvement with Xu Xilin, does the government have any definite evidence that Qiu Jin is a revolutionary? If not, it is an unjust case.
Moreover, at this time, through the fermentation of public opinion, Qiu Jin has been shaped into a new era female image with modern consciousness, who dares to love and dare to hate, she not only rushed to Japan to study alone, but also took over the Chase Academy after returning to China and engaged in new-style education.
Chase Academy
The second point is even more fatal, you must know that ten years ago, on the issue of the Six Gentlemen of Wushu, the Qing government did the work of quickly executing "prisoners" without approval. Ten years have passed, and they are all ready to establish a constitution, but the local officials have not made any progress, or they still execute Qiu Jin 2 days after he arrested him. Doesn't this just confirm that The West says that China is a "barbaric" country?
Moreover, there was no exact confession from Qiu Jin's trial to confirm that Qiu Jin was going to launch an uprising, which made the Qing government extremely passive in the face of media questioning. For this reason, Zhang Zengshuo also defended himself, but his statement was nothing more than that Qiu Jin was related to Xu Xilin, and that the Datong Academy was a place for revolutionary party activities. In the absence of concrete evidence and the loss of opportunity, the people no longer care about how Zhang Zengxi defends himself, and severe punishment of local officials is where public opinion demands.
Qiu Jin in film and television dramas
Third, the government has gradually lost its right to speak
In view of the enormous pressure of public opinion, Guifu, the prefect of Shaoxing, was not allowed to print the causes and consequences of Qiu Jin's case into leaflets and distribute them widely in the city, including Zhang Zengshuo's telegrams, Qiu Jin's confessions, guns and weapons seized in the Chase Academy, and some seemingly "reactionary" poems by Qiu Jin. Although the government has come up with so-called conclusive evidence, it is already too late, because people have accepted that Qiu Jin is a patriotic woman of the new era, and they will not believe what the government says, and they believe that the contents of the leaflets are also forged by the government for sophistry.
At this time, the Zhejiang and Shaoxing authorities were very passive, limited to the "preparatory constitution" edict issued by the imperial court, and with the Qiu Jin case in front, Zhang Zengxi did not dare to seal the media anymore, let alone block the people's leisurely mouth. The occurrence of the Qiu Jin case contributed to further changes in the Qing government, especially in terms of judicial reform, zhang Zengshuo's barbaric approach of so-called "law-rectification on the spot" was contrary to the so-called "civilized" law enforcement concept advocated by the West, and how to revise the Great Qing Criminal Law was once again put on the agenda, although the Great Qing Criminal Law was not formulated until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, but a large number of judicial reform experiences provided experience for the progress of the laws of the Republic of China.
Until the demise of the Great Qing Dynasty, the reform of the Great Qing Penal Law was not completed
As for Zhang Zengshuo, he was in a dilemma. On September 5, 1907, under the coordination of many parties, Zhang Zengshuo was transferred to the governor of Jiangsu, but the Jiangsu people strongly opposed it and did not welcome it, and Zhang Zengshuo also knew that he could not rush to Jiangsu to take office, so he never set off. In October, Zhang Zengshuo again received instructions to be transferred to the governor of Shanxi, but he was already disheartened, and after applying twice for the Qing government to open vacancies, he officially left the Qing officialdom.
Inspector Zhang Zengshuo's grievances were very obvious, and he thought that he could be commended for suppressing "anti-thieves," but he did not expect to encounter the biggest storm of public opinion since he became an official. It is conceivable that Zhang Zengshuo, standing on the cusp of the storm, truly felt the changes in the times in the ten years at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the traditional barbaric judiciary was no longer accepted by people, and the preparation of the constitution and civilized justice were what public opinion expected, and this change was like a huge storm, and it was not the Qing government that came forward to ensure that he could suppress it. The lonely figure of him saying goodbye to the officialdom can be seen as an old era really gone.