In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, because the rulers implemented a policy of closing the country to the outside world with the idea of heaven and heaven, China began to lag behind the world trend, and at a time when all countries in the world were carrying out industrial revolutions, China was still stuck in an agrarian society.
After that, because the British had been in a disadvantageous position in trade with China, in order to obtain more benefits, the British began to dump opium on China, and eventually the Opium War broke out, and the Qing government embarked on the road of exploitation.
After that, other imperialist countries began to rush to attack China, wanting to get a piece of the pie in China, and China gradually fell into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, becoming a market for raw materials and commodities dumped by the great powers for profits.
At this critical juncture, a group of people of insight ran around shouting to save the danger, including the six gentlemen of Wushu who promoted the reform of Wushu in 1898. In April 1895, after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the news that Japan forced the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Maguan reached Beijing.
The candidates who were preparing to take part in the scientific expedition at that time were very angry when they heard the news, so under the organization of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao and others, more than 1,300 people who were participating in the scientific expedition in Beijing at that time jointly wrote a letter to the emperor, proposing the idea of rationalizing the situation and trying to be strong at the moment of national crisis, which was later called "the book on the bus".
At that time, the forces of the diehards in the imperial court were very strong, and under their obstruction, the letters of the sons did not reach the hands of the Guangxu Emperor. Later, after meeting the emperor, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao talked about the advantages of changing the law and trying to be strong, and finally the Guangxu Emperor agreed with their opinion and implemented the change, which was later known as the "Pengshu Change". Unfortunately, due to the strength of the diehards, the change lasted only a hundred days before being snuffed out by Empress Dowager Cixi.
After the matter was revealed, the supporters of the change of law were exterminated, and Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled to Japan to survive, but six people were killed, which is the famous "Six Gentlemen of Penghu".
They promoted the reform of the law and sacrificed their lives for the rejuvenation of the country. After the failure of the reform, they rushed to the execution ground under the suppression of the opposition, but at this time the surrounding people were cheering. Why the people were not sorry and angry in the face of the death of the revolutionaries, but very happy, was really incomprehensible, and Later Mr. Lu Xun said this reason.
The process of pentagram transformation
Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao organized the petition, in which they put forward a series of propositions such as refusing to sign treaties, changing the law and striving to become stronger, introducing advanced Western ideas, learning advanced Western science and technology, and building a Western-style army. However, the Guangxu Emperor did not see this letter.
The failure of the letter did not dispel the idea that Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao had changed the fa and tried to be strong, they used Confucius thought to create momentum for their own propaganda, they founded the newspaper society to expand their influence, absorbed more people of insight to join them to expand the scale, and created an atmosphere of changing the law and trying to be strong in society.
Finally, in the winter of two years later, Kang Youwei and others entered the palace at the summons of the Guangxu Emperor. Kang Youwei told the Guangxu Emperor about their ideas, and eventually the Guangxu Emperor was persuaded by them, after a confrontation with the diehards. In June 1898, under the auspices of the Reformists, the reform began.
Because of the situation of the Qing Dynasty at that time and the very dangerous situation, in order to maximize the influence of the reform as soon as possible to obtain the results of the change of law, the change of the law progressed very quickly, but the reform of the reform faction was strongly opposed by the conservative and diehard faction, the penghu reform failed, and the reform faction was driven out by them.
On September 28, the 100-day reform of the Penghu Reform Law failed. The six main members of the Penghu Reform Law were ordered to be beheaded. In fact, Tan Sitong had the opportunity to flee to Japan to survive, but he believed that if he could awaken the insensitive people, if his own death could awaken the people to support the change of law and make the country rich and strong, then the great sacrifice he had made for the change of law was meaningful.
Empress Dowager Cixi set the disposal site at Caishikou because there were many people here, and Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to use them to kill chickens and monkeys to make an example. At that time, there were many people watching the execution, and these people all came to see the liveliness.
The people looked at the death of the Reformers with joy and joy, and their hearts were insensitive, and their deaths had no effect. In fact, it is not difficult to understand that the people have long lost their ideological instincts under the ideological imprisonment and oppression of the Qing government, and they can only live insensitively in the face of the exploitation of the rulers at that time. As for changing the law and trying to be strong, that is something that meat eaters should consider, and it has nothing to do with them.
Mr. Lu Xun's evaluation
In one of Mr. Lu Xun's works, "Medicine", he praised the revolutionary Xia Yu and satirized the ruling class and the common people, who did not see the sacrifice of the revolutionaries, but only saw the blood steamed buns of the people after their deaths.
Mr. Lu Xun viewed the numb attitude of the common people in this way: Those who walk in the forefront of society always have to be excluded and killed by the ignorant, Chinese has always been like this. The reformists saw the backwardness of the country and saw that the original yangyang power was gradually declining under the suppression of the Western powers, so they could not help it.
They wrote to the emperor to change the law and try to become stronger, and wanted to contribute to their country. However, I did not expect that the conservative diehards only cared about their own interests, did not see the future of the country, and the people felt that political life was too far away, they were ignorant people, pioneers who excluded and killed society.
In fact, the people's insensitive foreshadowing had been laid as early as the beginning of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, in order to strengthen the centralization of power and block the mouth of the people, it vigorously engaged in "literal prison" and strictly controlled the thinking and culture of the common people in order to consolidate the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, when the Wushu Reform occurred, the ruler said that what they said was what they were thieves, and they were, and the common people had lost the ability to think independently, and their thoughts had been bound by the Qing court.
Another reason is that the reformists' idea of changing the law is too far away from the lives of ordinary people, and in their eyes, such a change of law is nothing more than a change of dynasty, and their difficult life will not change, and may even become more tragic because of the war, so they are insensitive.
On the contrary, if they can control their psychology well, then the change of law is also very simple, for example, in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the ruler just drew a pie of average land and countless peasant servants joined them.
If the Penghu Reform Law can also deeply understand the needs of ordinary people and infiltrate the ideas of the Change of Law into the wishes of the people, then the Penghu Reform Law will be more grounded and will also be supported by more people, and perhaps it will not end up failing after only a hundred days. Ten thousand steps back, even if they still fail, I am afraid that the people will cry for them, and their sacrifice can also awaken the people.