At 4 p.m. on September 28, 1898, the Caishikou Execution Ground outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing was crowded with people, and people were braving the scorching sun to see the liveliness. At that time, people did not have mobile phones, and they could not pay attention to the flood, the epidemic or Wu Yifan as they do now, and people at that time really had no entertainment except farming, working, and listening to plays. For them, perhaps the most interesting and exciting thing is to go to the market to see the killing.
Why did the imperial court choose Caishikou as a place of execution? Because this is a downtown area with many people, the execution of criminals here can play the greatest deterrent effect. For some reason, the melon-eating masses were very fond of watching that extremely cruel scene, and they felt very relieved to see the heads of criminals fall to the ground.
Today, 6 people were suddenly kidnapped, and the supervisor was the famous military minister of the DPRK, Gang Yi, who attracted people from near and far, and everyone stretched their necks and looked at them happily.
What the melon-eating masses could never have imagined were the figures who were being held on the execution ground to be tortured, namely Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Liu Guangdi, and Kang Guangren, who were later known as the "Six Gentlemen of Pengshu." Why did they suffer this? They had the opportunity to escape, but why did they choose to go to the disaster without hesitation? Is their death worth it?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 mountain rain is coming</h1>
In 1895, the Qing Dynasty lost the Sino-Japanese War, and the whole country set off a climax of patriotic salvation. In the face of a serious national crisis, the Guangxu Emperor felt that he could not be the "king of the subjugated country" and was determined to change the law and strive to become stronger. On June 11, 1898, the Guangxu Emperor promulgated the "Dingguo is the Edict", reusing Kang Liang and others and beginning to implement the New Deal. Although the Guangxu Emperor was very thoughtful, he did not hold real power; the reformists had empty ambitions, but many of their policies were unrealistic and too hasty. The change of law eventually touched the interests of the stubborn conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi.
On June 16, Empress Dowager Cixi forced the Guangxu Emperor to issue three edicts in succession, controlling the appointment and dismissal of personnel and the military and political power in the Beijing-Tianjin region, laying the groundwork for a coup d'état.
Guangxu Emperor
After the reform of the law began, the conservative faction in the Qing government could not tolerate the development of the law change movement. Some people wrote to Empress Dowager Cixi, demanding that Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao be killed; Yi Xi and Li Lianying knelt down and asked the empress dowager to "bow the curtain to listen to the government"; Yang Chongyi, the imperial historian Yang Chongyi, went to Tianjin many times to conspire with Ronglu; and even rumors inside and outside the court would abolish Guangxu and establish a separate emperor.
On July 30, the Guangxu Emperor issued a secret edict to Yang Rui, in which he said: "The throne cannot be guaranteed, let alone others." The Guangxu Emperor was already aware of the changes that would happen, and he showed an anxious mood and asked the reformists to discuss countermeasures. On September 4, the Guangxu Emperor dismissed a group of old bureaucrats. On September 5, Guangxu summoned Tan Sitong and ordered Tan Sitong to walk with Liu Guangdi, Yang Rui, and Lin Xu on the military plane Zhang Jing with the rank of Four Pin Qing. It seems that the Guangxu Emperor is also preparing for the final apportionment.
On September 18, Yushi Yang Chongyi wrote to Cixi and asked the empress dowager to discipline the government. The entire imperial court was already full of mountains and rain.
The Guangxu Emperor could only rely on the restorationists, but for the reformists, it was okay to talk about it, and it was too tender to really play politics. It may be that they are in a hurry to go to the doctor, and they pin their hopes on the adulterous male Yuan Shikai.
On September 18, Tan Sitong visited Yuan Shikai at Fahua Temple, saying that the emperor hoped that Yuan Shikai could raise an army to serve the king, first killing RongLu and then besieging the Summer Palace where Cixi lived. Yuan Shikai said falsely, "Killing Rong Lu is a dog's ear!" "It was so easy to deceive Tan Sitong." After Tan Si left, Yuan Shikai sold the Restoration Sect in the blink of an eye and reported to Rong Lu.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 coup d'état</h1>
In the early morning of September 21, 1898, Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly rushed back to the Forbidden City from the Summer Palace and went straight into the palace of the Guangxu Emperor, and the Guangxu Emperor quickly knelt down to admit his mistake, and the old lady angrily rebuked: "Raising Ru for more than 20 years, is it to listen to the words of the villains and conspire against me?" Guangxu sighed and said, "Erchen doesn't dare!" "Yuck! The old lady spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm on Guangxu's head. The old lady was angry again: "Sometimes there is no self today, but tomorrow there is Ruhu?" ”
The whole process was crisp and profitable: the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai, and then Cixi issued an edict on the training of the government, once again to the end of the "training of the government" and the "Penghu Reform Law" coup d'état. After that, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the hunt and killing of the reformists led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.
Kang Youwei
Kang Youwei, on the will of Guangxu before Cixi launched the coup, went to Shanghai and fled to Hong Kong with the help of the British embassy, and finally to Japan; Liang Qichao also fled to Japan with the help of the Japanese embassy. Both leaders greased the soles of their feet and slipped away.
At the most critical moment, Liang Qichao persuaded Tan Sitong to flee with him, but Tan Sitong refused; many of Tan Sitong's Japanese friends also bitterly persuaded him to cross east to Japan to avoid empress dowager Cixi's arrest, but Tan Sitong was not moved; and Tan Sitong's close friend, King Wu of the Great Dao, also urged him to go far away, but was also rejected. Tan Sitong resolutely chose to die heroically with 5 other people, why is this?
Tan
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03</h1>
One of the reasons may be that Tan Sitong felt that it was precisely because he misused people and credulously trusted Yuan Shikai, resulting in a complete defeat, and felt that he had failed to live up to the knowledge of the Guangxu Emperor. For three days from the 22nd to the 24th, Tan Sitong even planned to rescue the Guangxu Emperor, but unfortunately did not succeed in the end.
Another reason can be seen in what Tan Sitong said to Liang Qichao. On September 24, Liang Qichao urged Tan Sitong to go with him, and Tan Sitong solemnly said to Liang Qichao: "All countries that change the law are made of bloodshed, and today China has not heard of anyone who bleeds because of the change of law, and the reason why this country is not prosperous." Yes, please start with the same heir! "He means very clearly, he wants to use his own enthusiasm to awaken the foolish countrymen, he wants to be the whistleblower of the times."
Liang Qichao
The next day, Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Liu Guangdi, and Kang Guangren were arrested.
Yang Rui was then serving as a military machine Zhang Jing, who was awarded the title of Sipinqing by the Guangxu Emperor, and was arrested during the coup d'état of Wushu and was eventually killed; Lin Xu, like Yang Rui, on the eve of the coup d'état, brought the Secret Edict of the Guangxu Emperor to Kang Youwei to discuss ways to rescue the Guangxu Emperor, and was only 24 years old when he was killed; Yang Shenxiu was only 39 years old when he was killed when he wrote a new policy article on the reform of the law, advocating the abolition of the Eight Shares, changing the policy theory, and repeatedly playing the impeachment of the old ministers who obstructed the change of the law; Liu Guangdi was awarded the title of Sipinqing and the military machine Zhang Jing for participating in the change of the law Kang Guangren is Kang Youwei's younger brother, who advocates the abandonment of the eight shares, and the substitute brother has suffered, and in prison, he "laughs freely and sings out of the golden stone".
In prison, Tan Sitong wrote a poem "Inscription Wall in Prison": Look at the door to stop Thinking Zhang Jian, endure death and wait for Dugan. I smiled at the sky with my horizontal knife and went to leave the liver and gallbladder for two kunluns!
Look, how heroic and generous this "desperate poem" is! Saving the country and saving the people is Tan Si's belief in the same life, and he always has a firm belief in his heart: "There is no bloodless change, then let my blood awaken the people."
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the attitude of the people in 04</h1>
The six gentlemen of Wushu were full of liver and gallbladder, and they wanted to awaken the people's sense of resistance with blood, but when they were beheaded, how did the people of the Great Qing Dynasty view them?
At that time, there were more than 10,000 spectators, and just when the six gentlemen were escorted to the execution ground, there were onlookers who threw cabbage gangs at them! Some people say, "God has eyes, Empress Dowager Lafayette has eyes, and we can no longer let those fatherless and lawless chaotic parties fool around", many ordinary people scold them as anti-thieves, and more ordinary people laugh around!
When the time for the execution was approaching, Tan Sitong calmly said to the prison officer Gang Yi, "I have a word to say to you. But Fortitude ignored it. Tan Sitong looked up at the sky, and finally at his compatriots---- the expressionless indifferent spectators, and then led the neck to be killed. The heads of the six gentlemen fell to the ground one by one, the spectators felt very enjoyable, some people threw rewards at the executioners, and some people shouted: Kill well!
Tan Sitong shouted loudly before his execution: "I have the heart to kill thieves, and I am powerless to return to heaven." Die where you want, hurry up, hurry up"! It is said that he was cut more than twenty times during the execution before he lost his breath, and his condition was very tragic. His body was taken away and buried for several days by the violent corpse, leaving the world with an incomparably tragic and magnificent memory.
Why is this the case < h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >05? </h1>
For the sake of their ideals, the six gentlemen of Wushu did not hesitate to throw their heads and spill their blood, but at the last moment of their lives, they must have been very disappointed in the face of such a stupid and unteachable citizen. People can't help but ask, why did the people of the Great Qing Dynasty do this?
China's feudal autocratic system reached its peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Ming Dynasty's East Factory, West Factory, and JinyiWei, and the Qing Dynasty's Yangzhou Eight Days, Jiading Three Massacres, shaved hair and changed clothes, all used obscenity to force the common people to submit. The Qing Dynasty more than once raised the "prison of words", the "Qingfeng Case" and the "Ming History Case" are proof of this, and in the past few hundred years, there have been countless people who have caught the wind and caught shadows and been convicted of crimes for words. It has severely imprisoned people's minds, strengthened totalitarian rule, and formed a cultural terror that is unique in the history of the world.
Under the oppressive rule of the Manchu Qing nobility, the common people were a group of slaves who would only keep promises, and they didn't know anything else. The people only have a clan consciousness, no national consciousness, and the people's patience and stoicism are incomparable, but they are insensitive. They are obedient to oppression, but when they encounter things, they do not care about themselves and hang high. Such a group is actually no different from the walking dead.
In 1840, the sound of a cannon in the Opium War made the Chinese people begin to open their eyes to the world, and the fresh air of the outside world more or less penetrated a little. Later, the Qing government implemented the foreign affairs movement and tried to strengthen itself, but the foreign affairs movement only attached importance to technology, did not attach importance to ideas, and belonged to walking on one leg, and ultimately failed.
By the Guangxu period, the illiteracy rate of the Qing Dynasty was still as high as 99.3%, that is, for every 100 people, only one literate person could be found at most. As for Kang Youwei's Penghu Reform Law, the common people did not understand what it was, they had lost the ability to think independently, and their thinking had been bound by the Qing court for hundreds of years. In this case, the revolutionary feats of the six gentlemen of Wushu were not understood by the common people at all, and it is no wonder that they will watch the hilarity together.
Opium war
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > 06 Lu Xun's view</h1>
Regarding the insensitive and ignorant performance of the common people when the six gentlemen of Wushu went to the disaster, Mr. Lu Xun wrote out the mood of Tan Sitong's colleagues at that time in eight words: mourning their misfortune and angering them. For the inferiority of the people, Mr. Lu Xun also deeply resents it, and similar situations appear again and again in many of his works, and we will repeat the film again.
Mr. Lu Xun wrote in "Mr. Fujino": In the Russo-Japanese War, there were Chinese sandwiched inside to be a detective for the Russians, they were captured by the Japanese army, they were about to be shot, and they were also surrounded by a group of Chinese, and they all shouted "Long live!" They all clapped and cheered. After returning to China, I saw those who idly watched the shooting of prisoners, and they did not cheer like drunks!
Mr. Lu Xun wrote in "Medicine": Everyone thinks that using blood to dip steamed buns to eat can cure tuberculosis. So people go buy hot steamed buns, which are stained with blood from the guillotine!
Ignorant people don't care who died on the guillotine! For them, it was like executing a damned criminal, and it was very difficult for their death to awaken such a group of people!
It is precisely for this reason that Mr. Lu Xun chose to abandon medical practice to wake up the sleeping people. In his view, healing their bodies was far less important than healing their spirits.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >07 causation</h1>
In that era when national consciousness was not yet awakened, anything absurd could happen. A few years after the six gentlemen of Wushu went to the disaster, in 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded. It should be said that the Eight-Nation Alliance burned and plundered and did all the bad things, but unexpectedly, in the face of the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, the attitude of the people of the Qing Dynasty was extremely indifferent.
While the Eight-Nation Alliance was fighting the Qing defenders, many ordinary people in the distance saw the war as a hilarity, and they moved benches on the distant mountains and laughed as if it had nothing to do with them. It sounds impossible, but it is true, when the city of Beijing was being attacked by the coalition forces, the people also helped the coalition forces to build bamboo ladders, and some of the city gates and ordinary people guided the coalition forces to enter. Presumably, if this scene is watched by foreigners, they will feel incredible, what kind of a country this should be! Death is imminent, and there is still an attitude of not caring about oneself.
This also responds to the saying: "The country does not know that there is a people, the people do not know that there is a country, the country treats the people like pigs and dogs, and the people treat the country like a hater." "It's like a circular retribution, a few years later, the Qing Dynasty collapsed."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >08 ending</h1>
The year is gone! The Six Gentlemen of Wushu are like shooting stars across the dark night sky, leaving behind an unusually dazzling trajectory, guiding and inspiring countless benevolent people to go forward and succeed. Today, we are strong and have already stood at the top of the world's nations, and we should remember the efforts of countless martyrs. For the six gentlemen of Wushu, posterity once wrote a joint memorial: "Zhuangyi, the restoration wants to kill the thief and does not return to heaven, and eventually becomes the hatred of the country; hurry up!" Bloody Kunlun to show the liver and gallbladder, long awake our people. "It's all over the place! Looking back, righteous soldiers, the soul has returned...
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