Shen Xun (1872—1903)
The late Qing government was no longer an era in which the supreme ruler could be lawless. Cixi executed a journalist in a fit of anger, but in the end it led to a series of follow-up effects that were difficult to deal with...
In the summer of 1903, according to Ta Kung Pao, Prince Su arrested three "suspects" at Hufang Bridge. As for "the reason for being taken and who took it", the "Ta Kung Pao" is not very clear, and can only "visit the Ming and then publish it." ”
This seemingly ordinary arrest eventually caused an uproar.
Among those arrested was a journalist named Shen Xuan, who was later executed by Cixi with a cane. Shen Xuan's death caused great repercussions and became a famous case in late Qing China, linked to press freedom.
Why was Shen Xun sentenced to death? The most popular saying goes like this:
In 1903, Tsarist Russia refused to fulfill the Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces signed in 1902, was unwilling to withdraw troops from the northeast in stages, and also put forward seven new demands. At that time, Cixi, who had just emerged from the shadow of the eight-nation coalition army entering Beijing and fleeing westward, did not dare to resist, hoping to conclude a secret treaty with Tsarist Russia to deal with this issue.
Shen Xun worked for a Japanese newspaper, and before the signing of the secret contract, he obtained the relevant content through secret channels, and sent the draft of the secret contract to the Tianjin "News" newspaper (and Zhang Shizhao's recollection mentioned that it was first published in a Japanese newspaper) and published it in advance. This incident caused an uproar in the world, and the Sino-Russian signing plan became a failure, which also made the Qing government very angry.
As a result, Shen Xun is also known as "the first person to dedicate his life to journalism" and "the first journalist in modern times to die in the line of duty".
Cruel caning
For the media, if you report some bloody and cruel things, it is often impossible to "like a straight book", because too cruel scenes may cause some people's "discomfort".
However, through the report of "Ta Kung Pao", we can still feel the blood:
"After more than two hundred beatings, the flesh and blood flew apart, and they were not dead. As a last resort, he tied his neck tightly with a rope and strangled him to death. ”
"When the rod dies... The bones were like powder, and they didn't make a sound. When the fight was over, the doji thought he was killed. Unexpectedly, Shen Shen said under the steps: Why don't you die, quickly twist me with a rope..."
At that time, it was close to Cixi's birthday, and it was not suitable to formally execute the prisoner, but Cixi had to let Shen Xuan die, so the relevant prison personnel "set up a cane at the behest of Empress Dowager Cixi."
What's more, there were no "professionals" who executed the cane at that time, so Shen Xuan's suffering was great. In order to please the Empress Dowager, the Criminal Department specially made a large wooden board to greet Shen Xuan, causing Shen Xuan to "flesh and blood" and torture for several hours before swallowing.
A member of the "Imperial Party" named Wang Zhao (the "Imperial Party" in favor of Guangxu and the "Later Party" in supporting Cixi) was also in prison. The following year, he was transferred to the prison where Shen Xun had stayed. Later, he recalled the situation in that cell as follows: "The pink wall had black and purple halos, four or five feet high, and Shen blood was splattered. ”
Wang Zhao also recalled that after the cane killed Shen Xuan, he also explained to the Criminal Department to cover up the cause of death in the name of illness, but Shen Xuan's body was strong, and he died after only one night in prison, of course, he could not cover up.
Soon, reports of Shen Xuan's case were overwhelming, and the impact was not something that Cixi could have predicted. The focus of public criticism is Cixi's direct execution without trial, as well as the heavy sentences for speech crimes.
Morrison was angry
When the news of Shen Xun's death with a cane came out, there was an Englishman who was very angry, that is, Mo Lixun. His assessment of the incident was indignant, saying that the "incredible stupidity of the murderous old woman Empress Dowager Cixi" caused Shen Kewei (i.e. Shen Xuan) to be beaten to death with sticks, causing great horror among the Manchus. ”
He believes that the wave of opposition brought about by Shen Xuan's killing was not expected even by the late Qing government. Even in the later "Su Bao" case and other incidents, the late Qing government had to restrain and began to concoct a decent press law.
Morrison was a correspondent for The Times in China at the time. At that time, The Times' reputation was so great that Lincoln had to lament, "I don't know of anything other than the Mississippi River that has the power of The Times." ”
When The Times began to develop foreign reporting, its correspondents abroad often had the title of "second largest envoy." Morrison is such a "second envoy".
Mo Lixun left a large number of his photographs taken in China, which were later edited by the publishing house into a large album "Modern China through Morrisun's Eyes".
In "Modern China in the Eyes of Mo Lixun", Shen Xuan's photographs are included. Observant people will notice that the handwritten words "Shen Kewei, Cane Death, Friday, July 31, 1903" on the back are completely different from the handwriting on the back of other photographs - the handwriting behind this photo is unusually neat, not at all like the dragon and phoenix dance in other photos. I believe that Mo Lixun also hopes to express his deep sorrow to his peers and friends with this solemn attitude.
In fact, in addition to being a journalist, Mo Lixun is also very concerned about the Sino-Russian issue.
Morrison believed that Britain's interests in China could not be damaged by Russia's excessive aggression. In November 1900, after the eight-nation coalition entered Beijing, Russia forced the Qing government to sign the "Provisional Charter of Mukden and Earth", according to which the Qing government must withdraw from Mukden, that is, the three northeastern provinces will become "Yellow Russia".
On January 3, 1901, Mo Lixun, who had received information from Li Hongzhang, immediately wrote an article disclosing it, causing an uproar in public opinion. The late Qing government gained favorable public support and eventually refused to sign the treaty.
Perhaps because of the same experience, Mo Lixun had deeper sympathy for Shen Xun and deeper anger at his killing.
Then, in 1903, Morrison used the pages of The Times to launch a campaign to contain Russia, encouraging Japan and Russia to go to war. When Russia and Japan launched the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, some media even claimed that it was a "Murray war."
Stirring public opinion
After Shen Xuan's tragedy was made public by newspapers such as Ta Kung Pao, it also caused a nationwide upsurge.
According to a report in Ta Kung Pao, when Cixi met with the wives of ministers from various countries and talked about Shen Xuan's case, "the Empress Dowager also had considerable remorse" and said that when pursuing various criminals in the future, "we must not be good and leave the hearts of the people."
When Cixi expressed "remorse" to curry favor with foreign ministers, she did not know that her cruel caning had provided the best agitation material for the anti-Qing and packed revolutionaries. Even though she stressed that "the government has been very peaceful in recent days, there is absolutely no unjustified action", the opposition has already risen.
"Hubei Student Circle" published a note when reporting Shen Xun's case: "Shen Xuan's death, I don't know what to do and swollen, my liver does not know what to crack. The dog and sheep pariah tribe dare to slaughter our Han people Nair, and those of us who have a little compatriot concept in China can not rub their fists to take revenge! ”
In Shanghai, hundreds of people attended the memorial meeting for Shen Xuan, and the "Sacrifice to Shen Cao Wen" read at the meeting has become a full line of texts, calling on people to "plow the Qing court and revenge the ninth life."
What Cixi didn't know was that in late Qing China, there was not only a government, but also a large number of newspapers. In an era of independent newspapers, it was already difficult for the government to manipulate public opinion and implement a "policy of ignorance of the people."
When the "Ta Kung Pao" was founded in 1902, it declared that it was necessary to "use the heart of the great duke, issue compromise arguments, offer what can be substituted for it, and promote the right and suppress evil." Compared with the performance of Ta Kung Pao in the "Shen Xun case", it has indeed achieved the "heart of the Grand Duke" and "promoting the right and suppressing evil" - the "Ta Kung Pao" published seven articles in a row, tracking this incident, gaining more space for public opinion and setting a model for the media.
The media propaganda made many people at that time understand that there is another right in the world called the right to speech. Therefore, a newspaper commented at the time: "Shen Xuan's death shocked people's hearts more than the war between Russia and Japan." This time, the case of "conviction for speech" continues to amplify under the interactive influence of the media and the public.
"Su Bao" case "blessed"
Almost at the same time as Shen Xuan's arrest, the "Su Bao" published in the Shanghai Concession also seriously offended the late Qing government, but the outcome was very different.
"Su Bao" was written by Zhang Shizhao, and Zhang Taiyan and other revolutionaries were the authors, and always advocated the overthrow of the imperial system and the realization of the republic. In addition to promoting Zou Rong's "Revolutionary Army", Zhang Taiyan's article also caused an even greater disaster, in the article "The Relationship between Kang Youwei and Jueluojun", Zhang Taiyan called the Guangxu Emperor "Zai Yan clown" and accused him and Empress Dowager Cixi of being "Han public feud".
Such a blatant "provocation" made the Qing government unbearable. The Qing government asked the Shanghai Concession Bureau to close down the Su Bao and arrest the Su Bao, but the concession refused. Later, the Qing government repeatedly made representations and went to the public hall in the name of the "Chinese government" to sue Su Bao. Under pressure from the Qing government, the concession arrested Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong, and later closed the Su Bao.
The Qing government's wishful calculation was as follows: "Arrest Shanghai on one day, send Suzhou on the second day, solve Nanjing on the third day, and Jingshi on the fourth day." Dare to call the emperor a "clown", it must be a capital crime.
However, because the trial of the "Su Bao" case took place after Shen Xuan's case, the outcome was very different. As soon as the news of the Qing government's preparations for a heavy sentence came out, criticism from the outside world poured in:
"No government today imposes the death penalty on defamators and revolutionary speeches without trial as the Chinese government."
"The Chinese government is not a civilized government, and it is notorious for corruption."
"Our extraterritoriality is an acknowledgement of the fact that China's legal and judicial system is still barbaric, which is also extremely important in the Su report."
At that time, the situation was rather special: just a few years after the Boxer Rebellion, foreigners were still angry with the Qing government, and the news that Shen Xun was brutally executed without trial was widely reported by the English version of Zilinxi Bao, which made foreigners in the concession even more dissatisfied.
When the Qing government thought of imposing capital punishment on important people in the concession, some extreme remarks even appeared in the media in the concession, and the "Zilinxi Pao" brazenly said: The Chinese government is a barbaric government known to everyone, and it can no longer talk about sovereignty over such a government, and it is always correct to deal with such a government, which is conducive to the reform and progress of this country.
According to the "Shanghai Concession Authority Charter" signed between Shanghai Dao and the consuls in Shanghai, the Qing government, as the plaintiff, should sue Su Bao in the concession and be tried by the concession court, and Zhang Taiyan and others could not be extradited to places outside the concession.
In the end, the Qing government could only give in. The verdict was held in the Concession's Trial Hall, and the litigant was the Qing government. After several struggles, they were sentenced to life imprisonment at the first trial, and later had to be commuted to three years for Zhang Taiyan and two years for Zou Rong.
It can be said that Shen Xun used his sacrifice to exchange for a more tolerant space for speech later.
But some people also explain that the reason why Shen Xun was executed was largely because Su reported the arrest and interrogation, which made the Qing government lose face, and in order to regain its own face and vent the accumulated dissatisfaction in his heart, the Qing government spilled its full anger on Shen Xun's body - Shen Xun was implicated in the "Su Bao" case.
In any case, the subsequent concession became a relatively free press area in the late Qing Dynasty, and Shanghai's speech and publishing circles were concentrated in the concession. The Qing government completely drove speech into the concession that it could not control, and indirectly created more trouble for itself.
The Press Law is on the way
A series of cases related to freedom of expression, such as the Shen Xun case, the Su Bao case, and the Dajiang Bao case, made the Qing government reflect on its rigid policy of public opinion clamping down.
In 1906, Zaize and five other ministers, who had been ordered to go abroad to investigate constitutionalism, returned to China one after another, and in a compromise to the Qing government, they proposed "the law of assembly, speech, and publication."
During his foreign visits, Jaesawa and other ministers had realized the freedom of speech in the constitutional monarchy and praised it. However, their reasoning for advocating the introduction of a press law in China is: "Instead of being unlimited, how can we use the charter and the salty tracks." ”
That is to say, because China's news reports at that time were already difficult to control, especially the concession media, which made the Qing government beyond its reach, it was better to take the initiative to legislate and relax some of the space for speech, and at the same time, better control.
When proposing the establishment of a press law, some officials used the following reason: "The Beijing Foreign Newspaper Hall is opened by foreign businessmen, that is, the newspapers run by Chinese businessmen, and often have outsiders preside over them." If the law is compiled and the law is not scheduled to be implemented, and all the museums follow it as one, I sincerely fear that the disagreement will be handled in the future and it will be more obstructed."
Beginning in 1906, news-related laws such as the "Great Qing Printing Law" and "The Great Qing News Law" were promulgated one after another. A country either does not have a press law, and if it does, it must stipulate the conditions for the establishment of the media, the approval process, and the methods of supervision. Of course, many governments simply do not enact press laws in order to avoid these problems.
When proposing the press law, the Qing government took a conservative stance: the establishment of publications was registered rather than recorded, and even a security deposit was paid; At the same time, instead of post-event punishment, prior inspection is taken; There are also crimes such as slandering the palace and arguing about the government of the dynasty, and newspapers can easily violate these crimes...
It is certainly not difficult to understand that such a press law has been criticized. But regardless, the path to press legislation has already begun.
Prior to the introduction of the press law, the Qing government completely denied citizens the right to speech, assembly, and publication. In actual judgments, the criminal laws in the Great Qing Statutes are often used, and crimes such as "thieves" and "demon books and rumors" are used to persecute non-governmental publications and newspaper operators. These crimes are very serious, "their evil is extreme, and their sins are great", they belong to one of the "ten evils", and according to the regulations, "whoever fabricates evil books and deceives, and spreads them to deceive the people, shall be killed." "Those who raid houses in various provinces, listen to incidents in Beijing, fabricate words, record reports everywhere, are dismissed from their posts, have 100 military and civilian staffs, and flow 3,000 li."
By the time the press law appeared, the Qing government had slowly begun to recognize citizens' rights to assembly, association, and expression.
Shen Xun was not convicted for his words?
When Shen Xun is mentioned, people will say that he is "the first person to dedicate his life to journalism" and "the first journalist in modern times to die in the line of duty". In fact, he did make great sacrifices and contributions to press freedom in China.
However, some researchers have analyzed that the reason why Shen Xun was executed was not because he exposed the content of the Sino-Russian Secret Pact, but for another reason.
Professor Peng Pingyi of Central South University once analyzed:
Shen Xuan's leaked Sino-Russian Secret Treaty ("Seven Requirements") was not actually something the Qing government was willing to sign, because it was "almost immediately rejected" as soon as it came out. The Qing government also replied explicitly to the Russian government: "Until the withdrawal of Manchuria is completed, no terms will be discussed." ”
The real situation is that in order to achieve the goal of "destroying and destroying", the Qing government let Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries contain Russia, and it itself intended to disclose the content of the treaty to Western countries.
Hu Weide, the Qing minister to Russia, suggested in his telegram to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Stealing seven Russian interests is a secret, and if the matter is tight, I am afraid that we cannot fail to secretly inform the United States, Japan, and other countries to secretly contain them." ”
If we look through the "Manuscripts of the History of the Xinhai Revolution" by the famous historians Jin Chongji and Hu Shuowu, as well as the "History of the Republic of China" edited by Li Xin, we can find that when they mentioned the "Shen Xun case," they did not mention the disclosure of the "Sino-Russian Secret Pact."
The problem was that the Qing government intended to leak the content of the treaty, first in foreign newspapers, but many people thought that it was the first to be published in China and were deeply interested in the first to expose it. When everyone was looking for who revealed, Shen Xun was arrested, and two unrelated things came together.
So, since Shen Xun could not have been convicted for revealing the content of the treaty, why would he be sentenced to death? The main reason is that Shen Xun participated in the "Self-Reliance Army" uprising after the failure of the Pengshu Reform Law. As the main leader of the Independence Army, he had long been on the wanted list of the Qing government, and the "restoration of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty" proposed by the Independent Army, as well as the remarks condemning Cixi for "coming to power against the future", made Cixi very uncomfortable.
In addition, Shen Xun often expressed his dissatisfaction with Empress Dowager Xi when he was in contact with his friends Qingkuan, Wu Shizhao, and others, and according to some revolutionary propaganda materials, he even planned to assassinate Cixi through Li Lianying. Later, Shen Xun was arrested because of Qingkuan and Wu Shizhao's informant. If these two people want to invite credit, they may add oil and vinegar.
Once participated in the Self-Reliance Army and had the idea of murdering the Empress Dowager, plus Cixi "deflated" in the "Su Bao" case, Shen Xun had to die.
Although Shen Xun did not die of being convicted for speech, the revolutionary propagandists at that time linked Shen Xun with the Sino-Russian Secret Pact according to their own needs, and set up a hero of freedom of speech. In the Su Pao case, in order to safeguard "extraterritoriality", Western countries also used this case as an excuse, making Shen Xuan's case a major case of modern speech in China.
Interestingly, although Shen Xun was not convicted for speech, it did not prevent him from making great contributions to freedom of speech and promoting the development of press freedom.