Those who have studied history know that the Penghu Reform Law is a top-down bourgeois reform movement, and the reformists represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao intend to set off a reform covering the whole country through the Guangxu Emperor. However, the change of law harmed the interests of the conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi, and was strongly resisted and opposed. In the end, the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned by Cixi, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled abroad, and Tan Si and the "Six Gentlemen of Pengshu" were killed at the Caishikou Execution Ground, leaving behind the ancient song of "I smile from the horizontal knife to the sky, to leave the liver and gallbladder for two Kunlun".
However, this sentence was not said by Tan Sitong, but by Liang Qichao, who was not at the scene, and what Tan Sitong actually said was: Throwing a European knife in his hand and smiling in the sky, leaving the public guilt for posterity. This sentence reflects Tan Sitong's conceit, he is not unable to escape by force, but he just admits defeat and admits defeat, does not want to be greedy for life and afraid of death, and does not want to hurt the innocent. Therefore, although tandem with a knife in his hand and smiling in the sky is Tan Sitong's weakness on the surface, in fact, it is disdainful.
In 1865, Tan Sitong was born in Xuanwu City, Beijing, in the southern mian hutong di, his father Tan Jixun was then the governor of Hubei, a high-powered position. However, Tan Sitong was a collection of contradictions, although he was a eunuch, he hated the imperial examination; his personality was agitated and fast, but he was determined to learn Zen; even if he practiced pure filial piety, he caused his father to depose and return to his hometown. In addition, he advocated "breaking through the snare of the monarchy", but was eventually arrested in the process of rescuing Guangxu. All these contradictions make Tan Sitong more attractive.
Tan Sitong's stubbornness is innate, and he once recounted such an incident in the "Anecdotes of Lady Xu of xianfei": When he was 7 years old, his mother Xu Wuyuan wanted to return to his hometown for a year, leaving him alone to live in Beijing, and when he left, he was "admonished without thinking", and Tan Sitong agreed. When he was parting, Tan Sitong "greeted the car, his eyes were full of tears, and he did not give orders"; a year later, when Xu Wuyuan returned again, Tan Sitong had several serious illnesses because he missed his mother, and he looked yellow and thin. Xu Wuyuan asked him if it was caused by missing him, but Tan Sitong "insisted on admitting it" and did not admit it. Unexpectedly, Xu Wuyuan smiled, and she said happily to others: "This son is stubborn and can stand on his own, and I have no worries about dying!" ”
In order to encourage Tan Sitong to stand on his own, Xu Wuyuan actually treated him with this "extreme insecurity", and I really don't know whether it was harsh or cruel. However, because of this, Tan Sitong has cultivated a proud bone, and no matter when, he always has a kind of coldness of standing alone in danger. After the failure of the change, Tan Sitong refused the kindness of his friends to persuade him to leave, but insisted on bloody sacrifice, believing that only in this way could he awaken the courage of the Chinese people.
On September 24, 1898, Tan Sitong was arrested at the Liuyang Guild Hall, and Empress Dowager Cixi, in order to warn the world, actually let the executioner execute with a blunt knife, and the people who did not know the truth thought he was a rebel and threw him with rotten eggs and vegetables. When he arrived at the vegetable market execution ground, his wife kept crying below: "We don't have children yet!" Tan Sitong said to her: "No is good, if the child is born but cannot see the light of this world, it is better not to come." ”
After the wife listened, she stopped crying and shouting in an instant, she knew her husband's meaning and did not want to block him again. On that day, Tan Sitong, in front of thousands of people, used his life to deduce what is called indomitable, awakened the bloodiness of countless people, and his death was not meaningless, but became a milestone in China's modern history.