"To deceive the world and slander the people, it is impossible for non-saints."
This is the evaluation of Kang Youwei by an authoritative qing dynasty advisor.
As a prominent figure in the late Qing Dynasty, Kang Youwei really made many "earth-shattering events", but there are many controversies in ancient and modern China and abroad about Kang Youwei's evaluation of this thinker.
Some people think that he is a saint who "dares to say what others dare not say, dare to be what others dare not do"; others think that he is a complete and utter liar who covets vanity and has different appearances.
No matter what, it can't change that he is a famous and shocking figure at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and even this storm is still stirred by him personally.
In March 1927, Kang Youwei ended his "dashing" life in Qingdao.
Although Kang Youwei is deceased, the cause of his death has become a mystery, and people are wondering why he bled to death after drinking a cup of orange juice?
True and false saints
As an official for three generations, Kang Youwei's grandfather, father, and uncle were all high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty, and Kang Youwei was naturally given high hopes by his family.
Since childhood, Kang Youwei was taught enlightenment by famous teachers from his family, and he also lived up to the expectations of the public, and at the age of five, he could recite classics such as "University" and "Zhongyong", and was regarded as a "prodigy".
Everyone thought that he would definitely be a young man and have great achievements, but this "prodigy" did not become a young man as everyone expected, and he was only able to enter the army at the age of thirty-seven.
Of course, this can only be regarded as a small episode in Kang Youwei's life, in fact, before he was a jinshi, he was already very famous.
Whether it is his "Examination of the New Study of Apocryphal Scriptures" or "Examination of Confucius's Reformation", they are all sensational and are praised as "divine works", but when people carefully read them, they find that many of the ideas and views in these two "masterpieces of the world" are not his originals, but "borrow" from the works of many predecessors.
For Kang Youwei, "Writing on the Bus" is the most proud highlight of his life.
However, according to the investigation that followed, the joint petition of the eighteen provincial people was not that the Inspectorate did not accept it, but that Kang Youwei did not send it to the Hands of the Inspectorate at all.
After this truth was published, the views of later generations on Kang Youwei changed again.
There are many places that make people criticize Kang Youwei, such as when the six gentlemen of Peng Shu generously sacrificed their lives for righteousness, Kang Youwei had already packed up his fines and fled with his family; for example, he used the "edict of the belt" to deceive the world and steal his name, and he wantonly amassed wealth to enrich himself; and for example, he proposed the "Sino-Japanese union", which intended to use Japanese officials to completely empty government agencies.
All these things have left the "saint" on the altar.
Although Kang Youwei's reputation in his later period was average, until his later years, he still claimed to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty.
Even after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, his life was still unpretentious, buying villas and enjoying life until he died in his mansion.
A glass of orange juice takes away the saints
In 1924, Kang Youwei spent 1,000 silver yuan to buy a villa in Qingdao.
The location of this villa is good, not only can you enjoy the view of the characters, but also the transportation is convenient.
In addition, the space in the villa is very large, and the lighting is also very good, not to mention that many plants can be planted in the courtyard of the villa.
However, this villa has a bad legend.
Legend has it that the first owners of this villa died of death, so they put a different veil on this villa.
Originally, people loved and feared this "murderous house", loved it because it was very suitable for people to live, and feared him because it was not good at legend. Therefore, this villa was really vacant for a while, until the arrival of Kang Youwei.
When Kang Youwei visited this villa, he was very satisfied with the villa, claiming that his achievement in feng shui was extremely high, although there were some problems in the feng shui of this villa, but as long as he renovated it, adjusted the feng shui here, and calmed down this villa, there was still no problem.
Although he bought a villa in Qingdao, Kang Youwei lived in Shanghai most of the time, until 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek led his troops to march into Shanghai, and Kang Youwei had to rush from Shanghai to Qingdao.
After returning to Qingdao, Kang Youwei socialized a lot, and had to attend various banquets every three to five minutes.
On March 29, 1927, Kang Youwei drank a cup of orange juice when he attended a banquet with his fellow villagers, and after drinking it, he immediately felt that his stomach pain was unbearable and rushed home.
At first, the family thought that he had eaten something dirty, and one of them would get better after a while.
However, in the evening, Kang Youwei's abdominal pain worsened and was accompanied by symptoms of vomiting. His family rushed to find a Japanese doctor for him, and Kang Youwei was diagnosed with food poisoning.
After a series of treatments, Kang Youwei's condition improved and his mental state recovered a lot, but just when everyone thought that he was not in serious trouble.
On March 31, Kang Youwei suddenly bled and died in his arms.
No one could have imagined that this "saint" who had endured the storm would be taken away with a glass of juice.
At this time, although Kang Youwei had passed away, the cause of his death had become a mystery, how could a glass of juice with a good end be put to death?
The cause of death is a mystery
Regarding the cause of Kang Youwei's death, people have made the following four speculations based on various possibilities.
Guess 1. The killer sent by the Cixi sect before his death.
It is said that Cixi spent a lot of 100,000 taels of silver to send four killers to assassinate Kang Youwei, so people speculate that it is likely that one of the killers found Kang Youwei's position and put the poison in his cup of orange juice that day.
Guess two, he was poisoned and killed by the Japanese.
According to insiders, Kang Youwei has always supported Puyi in his confrontation with the Japanese emperor in his later years, so the Japanese emperor has a grudge against Kang Youwei and waits for the opportunity to poison him again.
Speculation 3: Poisoned by Kuomintang agents.
According to the confession materials provided by Kang Youwei's granddaughter, Kang Youwei was poisoned and killed by Kuomintang agents in food, but this information has not been found so far.
Guess four, food poisoning leads to death.
Kang Youwei's daughter Kang Tonghuan said that her father was very painful and bleeding before his death, most likely because the food he ate was not clean, which led to food poisoning and died, not necessarily as in the previous few speculations, he was assassinated.
No matter how Kang Youwei finally did not see the day of the restoration of the "Qing Dynasty", and the image of the "saint" that he himself had been vigorously defending completely collapsed with the revelation of the truth of one event after another.