Gao Xu.
The recent US election is nothing less than a drama with ups and downs, which makes the melon-eating audience across the ocean shout wonderfully. As early as almost 100 years ago, the Republic of China also had an election wave that swept the whole country, and the process of paradox and consequences were more serious than that, which was the Cao Kun bribery election case, also known as the "Pig Boy Parliamentarian" case.
In the political arena of the Republic of China, the forces of the League-Kuomintang department undoubtedly occupy considerable weight. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, nanshe was a peripheral organization of the league, so after entering the Republic of China, many members of the society also continued to engage in politics, as one of the leaders of the Nanshe, Gao Xu can be described as typical. Gao Xu (1877-1925), zi tianmei, trumpet sword gong, Shanghai Jinshan people. In his early years, he was inclined to the Restoration, and then turned to revolution, and in 1903 he founded the monthly magazine "Juemin" in his hometown; in 1904 he studied in Japan and entered the Accelerated Course of Hosei University; in 1905, he joined the First League; in 1906, he founded the Jianxing Public School in Shanghai to train revolutionary youth, and at the same time served as the director of the Jiangsu Branch of the League. In 1909, the Nanshe was founded, and although Gao Xu did not participate in the inaugural meeting for some reason, he was still regarded as one of the founders of the Nanshe. In 1912, Gao Xu was elected to the House of Representatives, and in the subsequent patriotic movement and the law protection movement, Gao Xu also always adhered to the revolutionary position and never wavered. However, such a veteran revolutionary was involved in the 1923 Cao Kun bribery election case, so that he was discredited.
However, with the passage of time, researchers have found that this farce in the political history of the Republic of China is actually not simple. Case: In the presidential election on October 5, 1923, two days before (that is, October 3), Shao Ruipeng, a member of the Nanshe Society and a member of parliament, brought ironclad evidence (cheque) to the Beijing Police Department to inform Cao Kun of buying parliamentarians at a price of 5,000 yuan per vote, and at the same time electrifying the whole country. After investigation, on the 15th, the "Secretariat Office of the Shanghai National Assembly" announced the "List of Voters for Bribery in Beijing", and on the 20th, shanghai 'Republic of China Daily' published the "List of Parliamentarians Involved in Bribery", which is commonly known as the "List of Pig boy parliamentarians". So how exactly is this list determined? The basis is nothing more than "participation in elections". The logic of the presumption is that Cao Kun bribed the election with huge sums of money; a certain parliamentarian participated in the vote in Beijing; and Cao Kun was elected with a high vote - so the congressman is a "pig boy". It is not difficult to see that this presumption is flawed.
At that time, there were 590 people who actually participated in the voting (555 people in the "Piglet List"), Cao Kun got 480 votes, and 27 people received a total of 98 votes, of which Sun Yat-sen got 33 votes, and some people voted for Sun Meiyao, the main criminal of the Lincheng carjacking case, in addition to a few invalid votes, such as voting for "five thousand yuan". (Han Yuchen: "Political Activities of the Political Society", see Selected Literary and Historical Materials, Vol. 48) Obviously, under the procedure of secret ballot, as long as Cao Kun is not unanimously elected, he cannot be identified as a "pig boy" just on the basis of his person's attendance at the election. But on the other hand, even if Gao Xu and other KMT MPs are not bribed, it is difficult to prove their innocence. Because don't say secret ballot, even if it is a secret ballot, Cao Kun will not come out to testify on his behalf, but on the contrary, he is happy to see suspicion and infighting among the KMT MPs. Sure enough, as soon as the "Piglet List" came out, the whole country was in an uproar, and various localities issued calls to punish the "Piglet Parliamentarians" of their own nationality, and everyone in the government and the opposition shouted and beat them, and there was absolutely no room for the "Piglets" parliamentarians to speak out.
For Gao Xu, there was also a more direct humiliation from the Nanshe. On October 13, Liu Yazi immediately called Gao Xu and announced that he had broken off relations with him: "Shocked to be sold, please cut the mat from now on." Twenty years of old friends, weeping without tears, but what to do! ("Liu Yazi to Gao Xudian", see "Republic of China Daily", October 14, 1923) Note that at this time, the "Piglet List" has not yet been introduced, and Liu's so-called high "sold" is nothing more than because Gao Xu did not leave Beijing. On the 29th, Chen Quyi, Liu Yazi, and others issued a notice announcing that they would not recognize the social membership of Gao Xu and 19 other "piglet parliamentarians." However, in this list of 19 people, Chen Zuji and Li Anlu, who were not listed in the "Piglet List", but zhou Jue and Fu Yousheng, who were not listed in the "Piglet List", were mistakenly included. What is even more ridiculous is that Fu Yousheng is not a member of the Nanshe Society at all, and he was also expelled from the Nanshe Society. It should be known that Liu Yazi has long served as the director of the Nanshe Society, and the Nanshe Friends' Entry Letter and the "Nanshe Surname Record" have all been checked, and it can be seen that such a oolong has happened, which shows its haste and absurdity.
You may wish to examine the 19 members of the Nanshe Society in the "PigLet List": Gao Xu, Jing Yaoyue, Ma Xiaojin, Ye Xiasheng, Rao Fusheng, Chen Jiading, Xi Shou, Luo Jihan, Cai Tuling, Di Louhai, Jing Dingcheng, Zhao Shiyu, Li Anlu, Chen Jiushao (all of whom are all members of the Alliance), Wang Youlan and Yu Junsheng (the two are suspected to be members of the Alliance), Peng Changfu, Chen Zuji, and Yi Zongkui. This list has two points worth noting: First, at least 14 people are members of the League, of which Gao Xu and Zhao Shiyu are still the backbone of the former head of the League's branch. If so many veteran revolutionaries can be bought off by a mere 5,000 yuan, then the Alliance will really be a foot in the world. Second, many of them are legal and political professionals, such as Gao Xu, Ye Xiasheng, and Yi Zongkui, who all studied at Hosei University in Japan; Chen Jiading and Jing Yaoyue studied law at Waseda University, and the latter participated in the formulation of the Provisional Law of the Republic of China; and Ma Xiaojin was also a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee. In fact, the moderate or rational faction among the revolutionaries of the Early Nationalist Party, who were quite professionals studying law and politics (Song Jiaoren also studied at Hosei University in Japan), had a common feature of hoping to achieve their goals through normal parliamentary struggles. This ideological tendency may be ridiculed as childish, but it can indeed be described as a clear current at that time. As far as Gao Xu is concerned, it is likely that this mentality is also there. In fact, as early as before the bribery election, Gao Xu had a "Letter to the Jinshan Education Association", which was slightly cloudy: "The coup was abrupt and exciting, it was right and wrong, and Cao Kun wanted to bribe the president with money, which was extremely evil and heinous." Fortunately, the right to vote is practiced by me, and the iron fist of Asahi is still there... As for the preservation and loss of personality, to stay in Beijing and go to Shanghai to determine it, it is not necessary to explore the original! (Declaration, November 6, 1923) This official letter is Gao Xu's handwriting published by the Kingsoft Education Association after the bribery election, in order to "punch in the face" and draw a line. However, not to mention that Gao Shixiang is a member of the Jinshan Wang clan and has family wealth, whether he will betray himself because of a mere five thousand yuan, it can be clearly seen from the letter alone that Gao Xu is pinning his hopes on the parliamentary struggle, and it is indeed simplified to judge whether he has been bribed by "staying in Beijing and staying in Shanghai".
Gao Xu's reply letter contained in the Declaration.
In fact, there are also speculators among the parliamentarians who have left Beijing. At that time, in order to encourage the parliamentarians to leave Beijing, the anti-Cao faction also provided them with travel expenses and monthly expenses, "So the world called the Beijing side a bribe to elect an election, and the Shanghai side to bribe the cloud." (See Liu Yifen: "The Political History of the Republic of China: Bribery and Non-Election", Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 1998) "As of September 15, 503 people have received travel expenses in Tianjin and 385 people have collected fees in Shanghai. (See Liu Chuxiang: "Ji Luo, Parliamentarians Leave Beijing in the Yanhai Coup," Taidong Book Bureau, 1924) "The southbound parliamentarians can receive 500 yuan per person, which has gradually increased to 1,000 yuan to 2,000 yuan." Among the members of parliament, there are pure elements who sincerely respond to Mr. Nakayama's call and will not return to the north after going south, and there are also those who have received money and still return to the north, and there are those who re-take it in the name of others and have actually entered the private pocket with excuses for friends. (Chen Jiushao: "The Twelve Years of The Deputies' Personal Experiences", see "Hunan Literature and History Materials Selected Edition" Revised Compilation No. 4) "There are indeed people among the deputies who participated in the voting and were not polluted." Zhongyin was not paid for his report, and Yu knew that Xu Fulin (a member of the Political Science Society) in Guangdong had indeed not accepted bribes and voted. There are also two sides that take money and travel between Tianjin and Shanghai to show decency, and there are many who eventually sell themselves to the Cao Party. (Han Yuchen: "Political Activities of the Political Society") In short, some people see profit and forget righteousness, some people cherish feathers, some people go their own way, and I am afraid that there are innocent and humiliated.
Although Gao Xu and Liu Yazi are both the initiators of the Southern Society, their seniority, prestige, and talent are all above Liu, and Gao is also the introducer of Liu to join the Alliance. Later, because Ofagi's campaign to take charge of nanshe alone (see the humble text "The Road of Liu Yazi's Main Alliance to Nanshe", see Wenshi Tiandi, No. 7, 2010), the two fell out of harmony. Now that this opportunity is available, it is not surprising that Yanagi is eager to occupy the moral high ground and draw a clear line with Gao Xu. However, as another initiator of the Nanshe Society, Chen Wentai has always been a heavy-hearted old man, and he has been friends with Gao Xu for many years, and he even lost trust in his old friend and made this act of affection and revenge, which may make Gao Xu even more chilled. Therefore, after the bribery storm, Gao Xu could not return to his hometown to live, nor did he make any excuses, and he ended up depressed in his spare years, which could not but be lamented.
In fact, even if it is not from the perspective of "bribery and not election", the move of the Kuomintang MPs to leave Beijing is debatable. Because the fewer KMT MPs who voted, the easier it was for Cao Kun to get the results he wanted, and that was exactly what happened. The reason why the Kmt mPs called for the south was nothing more than to make the election aborted because of the lack of a quorum, which shows that the majority of the KMT has no intention of cooperating at all. In fact, if the KMT MPs all participate in the vote and are not bought, it will be difficult for Cao Kun to get more than three-quarters of the required majority. In other words, it would have been entirely possible for the NDP to achieve its objectives through normal peaceful means. Unfortunately, history cannot assume that bribery was followed by a civil war in which lives were destroyed.
The art of politics lies in compromise, that is, to find as much as possible a certain balance acceptable to all parties. In China's history, party strife is almost always about putting the other side to death, which forces the other side to resist desperately, and the final result is often that both sides lose and hurt each other. Needless to say, many so-called revolutionaries in the early days of the People's Republic of China were very immature politically, often judging right from wrong by simple love and hatred, insisting that "the Tao is different and not conspiring against each other," and even as for "I will oppose what you support, I will support what you oppose." There is more than enough struggle and destruction, there is insufficient cooperation and construction, and they act with more courage and courage, and they resort to force when they disagree; this radical practice actually caused and aggravated the situation in which the warlords in the Republic of China period were divided. And the tragedy of Gao Xu may also be the tragedy of a small number of rationalists drowning in the torrent of radicalism.
Wang Mengchuan