On June 6, 1916, Yuan Shikai abandoned the imperial system less than three months ago, and with reluctance and despair, he came to the end of his life. However, before he died, he even shouted "Yang Du mistook me!" ”。
Who is the "Yang Du" in Yuan Shikai's mouth? Why did Yuan Shikai resent him so much before he died?
Although Yang Du is not a tyrant like Yuan Shikai, he is a great stranger in the Republic of China, and it can also be said to be a strange flower.
Yang Du's early experience, in fact, is not special, he experienced a not very happy childhood, although there is a general uncle, but the days under the fence are not comfortable after all.
From his earlier experience, it can be seen that he actually wants to change his fate through the imperial examination, but the road of creating people is not smooth. At that time, Kang Youwei and others happened to organize a bus in Beijing to write a book, and Yang Du may not know what it meant, but he also actively echoed it, and also met Liang Qichao and other people who were the heroes of the time.
When he was 21 years old, he met a generation of famous Confucian Wang Minyun, who took a fancy to him and accepted him as a disciple.
Who is Wang Minyun? He was not an ordinary person, he was once a gentle tutor, but his talent was not allowed to be overspring because he was on the wrong team. Not taking a small life already belongs to the Emperor's grace.
However, he received many students by relying on the Four Directions Lecture, and Yang Du was one of them. Because of the changes in the situation, Yang Du also began to be interested in new learning.
Because studying in Japan was a trend at that time, Yang Du also went to Japan to study at his own expense, not knowing what he had learned, but it is certain that he knew a lot of influential figures in the later Republic of China period. Among them are Huang Xing and Wang Jingwei.
At that time, the international students in Japan each advocated their own ideas, and Yang Du advocated constitutionalism, constantly promoting constitutional monarchy, advocating the establishment of political parties, and convening a diet.
During the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Du was very popular, and under the recommendation of Yuan Shikai, Yang Du did a lot of things for the Qing government to establish a constitution, and at that time, most of the documents on "constitution" were written by Yang Du. Because the rule of law was to be pursued, the Qing court called on the princes and ministers to study the law, and Yang Du was also appointed as a lecturer to popularize legal knowledge for them.
At that time, Yuan Shikai and Yang Du had a very close relationship, and Yang Du may have seen that Yuan Shikai was very unusual, so he insisted on being Yuan Shikai's staff.
During the North-South peace talks, he was one of the mediators of the North and was responsible for the Peace Talks between the North and the South. In Yang Du's heart, he had already regarded himself as an emperor, and Yuan Shikai was the emperor.
Therefore, he vigorously advocated Yuan Shikai as emperor. He even often fooled Yuan Shikai, telling him that if he did not abolish the republic and establish a monarch, there would be no hope for a rich country.
His attitude actually coincided with Yuan Shikai's, so at Yuan's behest, Yang Du and others formed the Preparatory Committee, which had only one task, that is, to advocate Yuan Shikai's title of emperor and create momentum for him to be called emperor.
As a result, Yuan Shikai's brain was hot and he became emperor. However, unexpectedly, it was scolded by the world, and many people began to crusade against Yuan Shikai. In desperation, Yuan Shikai could only give up, but soon he became angry and depressed.
And Yang Du, after this trouble, was disheartened, and fled into the empty door, not asking about mundane things. However, his political views were also changing, from constitutional to republican, and even joined the Chinese Nationalist Party at one point. It was also in this process that he also came into contact with Marxism and met Li Dazhao. In Yang's later years, he also joined the Communist Party of China.
In the eyes of many people, Yang Du has a university question, but he has put his time and energy into the political arena, which is not the material for being an official, but he has a mind to plunge into it and cannot extricate himself.