Yang Du, a very heavy name.
If you really have the heart to understand modern history, then Yang Du is definitely a character you can't get around.
His life, if you have to use two words to describe, it must be legendary!
Xiucai of the Qing Dynasty;
High-caliber students who stay in the ocean;
Yuan Shikai's minions;
Supporters of Sun Yat-sen;
Li Dazhao's savior;
Zhou Enlai introduced party members who joined the party;
In a word, he experienced important changes in modern times, witnessing China's transformation from feudalism to constitutional monarchy and then to party politics.
However, after decades of ups and downs, he had many hats on his head, such as "traitor", "lackey", "feudal remnant", and "political speculator".
When New China was founded in 1949, the hat on Yang Du's head could not be taken off, and the Cihai still characterized him as a "remnant of the imperial system".
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Yang Du, the remnant of the imperial system, is not an ordinary little, but he is a remnant of the imperial system who has been in history textbooks.
It wasn't until 1975, a few months before Premier Zhou's death, that he and his secretary said, "If there is an entry for 'Yang Du' in Cihai, write about his final joining the Communist Party, he is our man." ”
Subsequently, the secretary informed the editorial department of Cihai: "Yang Du later joined the Communist Party and was introduced and directly led by Premier Zhou. ”
Since then, Yang Du, a strange man of the Republic of China, has taken off the hat of "imperial remnant", and people have finally defined his identity as a member of the Communist Party of China, a progressive person, and a patriot.
Ancient saints can learn the Fa with ease; the emperor of ordinary life is only ashamed to inherit the master
This sentence is Yang Du's elegy to his mentor Wang Minyun, but it is also a portrayal of Yang Du himself, a sentence of "shame to the teacher" Dao broke all the sufferings of Yang Du in the first half of his life.
Remember that it was 1895, and the twenty-year-old Yang Du single-mindedly supported the society, followed Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others to write to the Guangxu Emperor, creating the famous "book on the bus" incident.
Looking at them from the perspective of the present, some people may think that they are stupid, after all, the world has undergone earth-shaking changes at that time, the Western industrial revolution has been nearly a hundred years old, and Chinese are still holding the sages.
But if you stand in the perspective of that time, you will find that Yang Du is a very sad figure, witnessing the collapse of the "mansion" and the loss of faith.
It should be known that Yang Ducheng was born in 1875, and his education from childhood was "Eight Strands of Literature", and he worshipped the emperor as a god.
Participating in the imperial examination several times and learning the "Art of Emperors" with Wang Minyun, all of this was to better assist the emperor.
But in 1902, Yang Du was hit by Western education. During this period of studying in Japan, Yang Du understood that the emperor was not the only one.
At this time, Sun Yat-sen found him excitedly and wanted Yang Du to join the League.
The main point is that this is 1904, and the Chinese League is still in the planning stage.
If Yang Du promised Sun Yat-sen, he would not say that he would definitely become the second person in the League, at least it was a senior-level task.
But in the face of Sun Yat-sen's solicitation, Yang Du hesitated.
Why? Because Sun Yat-sen's ideas and his ideas conflict with each other.
Sun Yat-sen insisted on national revolution and democratic republicanism, but Yang Du still had a heart for the emperor.
Around it was that he absorbed progressive ideas in Japan, and he did not completely eliminate the "imperial science" in his mind.
Constitutional monarchy, this system has successful cases in the United Kingdom and Japan, why can't it be copied to China?
At this time, Yang Du was selfish.
He has been arguing in Japan for a long time, has studied the constitutionalism of various countries very deeply, and is very familiar with the shortcomings of the constitutional monarchy.
But he couldn't help it, if he really "revolutionized" the emperor, wouldn't what he had learned in previous years become a falling flower?
China needs to make progress, but it can't be done in one step, at least He Yangdu doesn't want China to be in place.
Therefore, Yang Du rejected Sun Yat-sen and said: "My lord has established a constitutional monarchy, I am willing to help me; Mr. Call for a national revolution, Mr. Cheng, du should abandon his ideas, in order to help Mr. Strive for state affairs, Si in today, do not hinder each other. ”
At this time, Yang Du still insisted on constitutional monarchy and still wanted to show the "imperial science" taught by his mentor.
In order to achieve this goal, Yang Du published a 140,000-word giant treatise "Golden Iron Doctrine" and vigorously promoted "constitutional monarchy" after returning to China.
Gold is the economy, iron is the military. Yang Du conceived of a political system of monarchy, parliament, and responsible cabinet, and was an economic militarism in which industry and commerce and military statehood were established.
Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong jointly sponsored Yang Du, believing that "[Yang Du] is proficient in the Constitution and can only be of great use."
Under the sponsorship of the two of them and under the pressure of public opinion, the Qing government used Yang Du and began to engage in "constitutional monarchy" and "imperial cabinet", and made Yang Du the director of the statistical bureau.
At this time, Yang Du had no intention of assisting the Qing government anymore, but shifted his attention to Yuan Shikai's body.
We don't know whether it is Yuan Shikai's great charm or whether Yang Du is grateful for Yuan Shikai's kindness, in short, Yang Du identified Yuan Shikai.
He believed that Yuan Shikai was an unborn Ming Emperor, that he was Lü Wang of Zhou and Zhang Liang of Han, and was determined to assist Yuan Shikai to ascend to the throne.
How big is this determination? Big enough to be willing to destroy the Nine Tribes for Yuan Shikai.
At that time, the regent Zaifeng believed that Yuan Shikai had a negative intention and was worried that he would endanger the rule of the imperial court, so he secretly murdered Yuan Shikai.
However, it was Yang Du who was responsible for drafting the emperor's edict, and Yang Du was willing to exterminate the Nine Tribes for Yuan Shikai and refused to draft the edict.
From this point, we can see how much Yang Du attaches importance to Yuan Shikai and how much he attaches importance to constitutional monarchy.
Because for Yang Du, Yuan Shikai was his last straw, and only Yuan Shikai had the ability to let him perform the "imperial science" he had learned.
Whether driven by interests or grateful to Yang Du, after Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of the victory of the Xinhai Revolution, he practiced Yang Du's political concept, that is, the Hongxian imperial system.
The Hongxian monarchy was controversial from the beginning, and many people in the world tended to be democratic and republican, opposing "constitutional monarchy".
At this time, Yang Du did not conform to the general trend of the world, but chose to maintain the "constitutional monarchy".
In fact, it is not difficult to understand that he has struggled for most of his life for the "constitutional monarchy", and how he is willing to work in vain.
If you just stick to the idea in your heart, the problem is that Yang Du is too "obsessed" and even moved out of the "Theory of Constitutionalism and National Salvation": If China does not abolish the republic and establish a monarch, then there is no hope for a strong country, no hope for a rich country, no hope for a constitution, and it will eventually end up destroying the country.
Yuan Shikai greatly praised his lofty remarks and regarded them as the most reasonable and famous words.
However, the hometown people's evaluation of Yang Du has taken a sharp turn, openly attacking Yang Du as a traitorous lackey, and even his best friend Liang Qichao has called him a lowly and shameless.
Whether it is the evaluation of the hometown people or the evaluation of Liang Qichao, we can see that a large part of the society at that time thought that the Hongxian imperial system was wrong.
Later history also proves that the Hongxian imperial system is wrong, yuan shikai died in the 5th year of the Republic of China, and he shouted yang du before his death.
Obviously, Yuan Shikai began to reflect on his mistakes in his later years, believing that constitutional monarchy was not in line with the national conditions, but At this time, Yang Du had no intention of repenting.
He waved: "The republic mistook China, And China did not mistake the republic; if it is returned after a thousand years, we will evaluate this prison again."
Ming Gong bears Hong Xian, Hong Xian does not live up to Ming Gong; Nine original can be done, three repetitions. ”
But what he did not expect was that after the death of Bo Le (Yuan Shikai), Enshi (Wang Minyun) died without illness, and the five years of the Republic of China became the saddest year in Yang Du's life.
He wrote in the Elegy: "Ancient saints can pass through the world with leisure; the study of emperors in ordinary life is only ashamed of the teacher." ”
A sentence of "ashamed of the teacher" has become a portrayal of the first half of his life, busy for most of his life, "constitutional monarchy" is still swept to the garbage heap of history like garbage, and he is also wanted by Li Yuanhong.
Watching the collapse of the "building", Yang Du's faith was severely damaged, so he stumbled into the empty door and accompanied by the Green Lantern Ancient Buddha.
When he was at the Buddhist Gate, Yang Du began to reflect on himself, he was reflecting on whether he had fallen into a misunderstanding, whether he had gone astray because he insisted on a constitutional monarchy.
I think yes, this has been confirmed, and Yang Du has become more and more extreme in the process of "constitutional monarchy".
He insisted on going all the way to the black, and he put all his hopes on Yuan Shikai, ignoring the progress of democracy and republicanism.
It was precisely because he was reflected that he began to abandon the "constitutional monarchy", the most obvious embodiment of which was that when Zhang Xun was restored, the Qing court invited Yang Du to enter Beijing again, but he resolutely refused.
And said, "What is painful, the divine monarchical constitutionalism, after this sacrifice, there will never be another day." Sad and desperate, there is no way to save the country. Since then, he has been sent into the mountains and does not want to hear about the world again. ”
If there is no accident, Yang Du may consider himself a "monk" in the second half of his life and be a mountain man who does not care about the world.
But by accident, Sun Yat-sen encountered a crisis.
At that time, Chen Jiongming broke with Sun Yat-sen, and Wu Peifu seized the opportunity to vigorously assist Chen Jiongming in an attempt to disintegrate the Kuomintang.
At the critical moment, Sun Yat-sen remembered Yang Du and remembered the Yang Du who said, "If the Chinese nation is dead, unless the people of Hunan are dead."
Although he insisted on "constitutional monarchy", both Sun Yat-sen and Cai Yi respected him very much, because Yang Du was indeed a person who was dedicated to the country.
When the country faced a crisis, Yang Du stood up and wrote "Hunan Youth Song".
And in this song, "If the Chinese country is dead, unless the Hunan people die" is deafening, and the whole article is magnificent and passionate.
Sun Yat-sen also remembered that Yang Du once said, "Mr. Cheng, Du should abandon his ideas in order to help Mr. Yang", so he specially wrote to Yang Du and entrusted Yang Du to come out of the mountain to help him.
Yang Du's influence at that time was very large, he directly found Xia Shoutian, the secretary of Wu Peifu's old boss Cao Kun, and lobbied Cao Kun through the secretary, stopping Wu Peifu from aiding Chen and helping Sun Yat-sen through a major crisis.
At this time, Sun Yat-sen was very excited, because Yang Du was a trustworthy person, and at the same time a usable talent.
Just like Cai Yi's will: Yang Du of the Xiang Dynasty, who advocated the "Theory of Saving the Country by the Constitution of the Emperor", attached to Yuan to carry out his aspirations, was really bitter, compared with those who climbed the honor, it was not the same as the Japanese. I hope that the government will cherish the talents of the country and invite leniency.
Therefore, Sun Yat-sen invited Yang Du to join the Kuomintang and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility.
At that time, there were also some gossip that Yang Du was a speculator and a wall head grass.
Because Yang Du himself was a member of the Qing government, and then Yang Du supported Yuan Shikai, isn't this the two ends of the first rat?
And after the failure of the constitutional monarchy, Yang Du quickly turned to a democratic republic, which is not what the wall grass is?
In order to curb gossip, Sun Yat-sen sent a telegram to the whole party: Yang Du returned this time, Zhi Jian Jinshi, fortunately do not see doubts in the past.
Later, Yang Du played a great role, and he planned the Northern Expedition of the Nationalist government from Zhang Zongchang in Shandong.
At that time, Yang Du's political influence was very large, and Zhang Zongchang obeyed him and played a great contribution to the Northern Expedition.
However, at this time, Yang Du's political position changed again, and he began to gradually move closer to communism.
Especially after the "April 12 counter-revolutionary coup", Yang Du was greatly disappointed in the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek.
Moreover, his confidant Sun Yat-sen had died, and there was no need for him to remain in the Kuomintang to keep his promise. What he said at that time was to help Sun Yat-sen achieve things, not to help Chiang Kai-shek dictatorship.
When the White Terror spread to the north, Li Dazhao, Cheng Shemei and other Communist Party members were arrested one after another, and at critical moments, Yang Du repeatedly tried to rescue these Communists.
Unfortunately, Sun Yat-sen and Cai Yi, two people who recognized him, died, and he was a man in the Kuomintang who spoke softly and did not persuade Chiang Kai-shek.
After witnessing the tragedy, Yang Du left the Kuomintang and left this degenerate party.
It was also at this time that the Communist Party walked into Yang Du's side.
In 1929, Chen Geng came to visit. Yang Du, Chen Geng and Wang Shaoxian had a long secret conversation on the second floor, and as for the content of the conversation, no one knew, not even Yang Du's daughter.
However, it is certain that Yang Du began to move closer to the Communist Party under the development of Chen Geng and officially joined the Party at the invitation of Zhou Enlai.
However, because Yang Du's identity is too special, he did not directly disclose it, but has always secretly joined the party and was directly led by Zhou Enlai.
Seeing this, I had to shoot the case and screamed, Yang Du is really a big strange person in the Republic of China.
From the Qing government to Yuan Shikai's staff, from constitutional monarchy to democratic republic, from the Kuomintang to the Communist Party, successively engaged in diametrically opposed political factions.
Of course, it is inevitable that people ridicule Yang Du for speculation, but Yang Du has responded to this matter.
In the early days of joining the party, some people ridiculed Yang Du as a "political speculator", but Yang Du said dismissively: "Fang Jin is white terror, how can Yun speculate?" ”
This sentence translates very bluntly, now that the Communist Party is like this, I joined the Communist Party as a kind of speculation.
I have always moved closer to the strong, I am not an elder in the Kuomintang, I came to do the revolution with you, I have revolutionized myself, this is also called speculation?
Yeah, it's really not called speculation. If he joined the party in 1949, it can be regarded as speculation, but Yang Du is different, he joined the party in 1929.
In 1929, when the White Terror spread throughout the country, the weak Communist Party was severely cracked down by the Kuomintang, and anyone who was in the Communist Party could be shot.
At this time, many people were far away from the Communist Party, and even some Communists had betrayed the Party and sought glory, but Yang Du was able to join the Communist Party at a sensitive period, which was really not simple.
After that, Yang Du was on the one hand Du Yuesheng's protégé, writing a family shrine for Du Yuesheng; on the other hand, Yang Du was doing things for the Communist Party and sending information.
Yang Du was very dependent on opium in his later years, and Du Yuesheng specially prepared the best smoking utensils for him in order to satisfy Yang Du's opium addiction.
The harm of opium to the body is self-evident, and Yang Du's body was hollowed out by opium, and he eventually died in the Shanghai Concession.
After his death, Zhou Enlai and Pan Hannian, two big men, came to mourn.
At this point, we can see that Yang Du's contribution to the Communist Party can make the two big men personally mourn, which is really not simple.
However, because he secretly joined the party, little is known about his membership in the Ccp, and the current reliable information is 1949.
At that time, the democrat Zhang Shizhao came to Xibaipo and secretly met with Mao Zedong.
Zhang Shizhao and Mao Zedong were both from Hunan, and when the two of them discussed what other celebrities there were in Hunan, Zhang Shizhao said: "It should be Yang Du who can say it." ”
However, at this time, Zhang Shizhao did not know that Yang Du was a communist, so Yang Du was a democrat.
After hearing this, Chairman Mao said decisively: "Yang Du is our man." ”
Chairman Mao's remarks surprised Zhang Shizhao, because this news had never appeared and few people knew about it.
Mao Zedong saw Zhang Shizhao's puzzled look, so he said: "Yang Du is a communist party member, secretly joining the party in Shanghai. ”
Zhang Shizhao knew that this news was already 18 years after Yang Du's death, and because he had secretly joined the party, he could not disclose this news to the public.
This also led to Yang Du's hat of "feudal remnants" not being taken off, and even going to history textbooks as negative teaching materials to criticize.
In the special period, Yang Du, as a "feudal remnant", was severely attacked by public opinion, and articles and remarks scolding Yang Du appeared in an endless stream, and the descendants of the Yang family were also greatly impacted.
Yang Du's daughter Yang Yunhui paid a special visit to Zhang Shizhao and wanted to ask for help.
At this time, Zhang Shizhao clearly told her: "Your father is not a feudal remnant, but has joined the Communist Party... Chairman Mao personally told me about this matter, but it has not been made public outside the Party. ”
Later, Zhang Shizhao reacted to this situation to Premier Zhou, and Yang Yunhui wrote a letter saying that Premier Zhou had called the relevant units in Shanghai and that they would no longer harass you. After that, sure enough, no one came back to attack the Yang family.
Premier Zhou was able to take time out of his busy schedule to deal with this matter, which shows that he still remembers Yang Du's contribution.
And in 1975, Premier Zhou decided to restore Yang Du's reputation, and he asked his secretary to inform the editorial board of Cihai: Yang Du is our person.
This news shocked the editorial department of "Cihai", and Yang Du, who had been scolded for decades, was actually a communist party member, which was really a long time.
In the end, all the hats on Yang Du's head were thrown away, and the hats of "Communist Party Members" and "Patriots" were added.
Of course, the hat of a "patriot" is completely in line with him, and his life is the epitome of the survival of the Chinese nation.
Subject to the Qing government's isolation from the country, China and the world were disconnected, and the ideological and political system was completely unsuitable for the present.
But there were many political systems at that time, which way should China choose? Is it "constitutional monarchy" or "party politics"? Is it "capitalism" or "communism"? Is it the Kuomintang or the Communist Party?
We all want to pursue a perfect, perfect, reasonable, and humane system, but which system meets this requirement?
I don't know, at least people at the time didn't know, because any kind of system needs to be proved by social practice.
In order to prove that it is the best system, China has fought for nearly 100 years, and the length of time, the intensity of the war, and the pain of the cost are extremely rare.
During this period, Yang Du began to constantly think about which system was more appropriate, and gradually changed.
When he believed that constitutional monarchy was better than feudalism, he was not obsessed with imperial studies, but insisted on taking the path of constitutional monarchy.
When he believed that a democratic republic was better than a feudal system, he did not accept Zhang Xun's invitation, but insisted on following Sun Yat-sen.
When he believed that the Communists were better than the Kuomintang, he did not stay in the Kuomintang as a senator, but joined the Communist Party during the White Terror.
After stumbling throughout his life, he finally found a home and found the Communist Party that was most suitable for China's national conditions.
The emperor's true nature has now become a thing of the past; the Kuang people save the country and inherit their own descendants.
This is Yang Du's summary of himself, he said it is quite good, Kuangmin to save the country does have a descendant.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party, New China developed very rapidly, and today we are the second largest in the world.
If Yang Duquan had known that he would have seen China standing tall in the forest of the world under the leadership of the Communist Party, I think he would also be very pleased.