In The history of China, there have been many people who are afraid of their wives, leaving countless historical allusions, but in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, there was a master of Traditional Chinese Studies, who was outstanding in learning but ruined his life because of the influence of his wife, and this master of Traditional Chinese Studies was Liu Shipei.
Liu Shipei, also known as Liu Guanghan, can be said to be a prolific master of sinology, and has authored many works such as "The Development of Sinology", "Academic History of the Late Qing Dynasty", "Five Volumes of Zuo An Anthology", "On Zuo Notes", "Miscellaneous Essays", "History of Medieval Literature", "Chronicle of the Chinese Nation" and many other works. What impresses Liu Shipei more impressively is not actually these works, but the opposition to new cultural leaders such as Chen Duxiu during the Peking University period.
During the reign of the Beiyang government, with the intensification of contradictions at home and abroad, under the leadership of many professors at Peking University, China set off a huge new cultural movement, which greatly emancipated the mind and laid the foundation for the future May Fourth Movement. However, in this new cultural movement, there were still a small number of Peking University professors who opposed Western thought as the mainstream and advocated the revival of China's traditional culture, which was the old school at that time. In order to counter the New Culture Movement, they also edited a journal called "Guogu" at that time, and the editor-in-chief was Liu Shipei.
Liu Shipei
In fact, compared with other people during the New Culture Movement, Liu Shipei can be regarded as a revolutionary ancestor, he was born in a family of scholars, he was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood, and he was only eighteen years old. However, in the face of the peril of the country at that time, Liu Shipei's mind was not on being an official, but on how to make the country strong. In 1903, after getting acquainted with Zhang Taiyan and others, Liu Shipei was influenced by them and also began to carry out revolutionary work. In the same year, Liu Shipei and others assassinated Wang Zhichun, the former inspector of Guangxi, in Shanghai, causing a huge sensation. Although Wang Zhichun had already been stripped of his post for the people at that time, he had repeatedly betrayed his national interests to the Western powers during his previous tenure as the governor of Anhui, so Liu Shipei, Zhang Shizhao, Wan Fuhua and others were determined to kill him and eliminate harm for the people.
Unfortunately, this assassination was not successful, although the plan was thorough, but there was a problem in the assassination process, the firearm was originally an old firearm borrowed by Liu Shipei from his friend Zhang Ji, and when Wan Fuhua opened fire, he found that the firing needle was broken. As a result, Wan Fuhua was arrested, and Huang Xing, Zhang Ji and others were implicated in prison, and Liu Shipei did not run away and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Fortunately, at that time, all parties tried to rescue them, and Liu Shipei and others were quickly released. The following year, Liu Shipei, Zhang Taiyan and others established the Guangfu Association in Shanghai to continue the anti-Qing struggle. It was also at this time that Liu Shipei got to know his wife He Zhen, and he never expected how seriously he would be affected by He Zhen in the future.
As the number of assassinations of the Guangfuhui increased, and the blows of the Qing government became more and more intense, Liu Shipei and his wife had to spend their days in the east, following Sun Yat-sen, Zhang Taiyan and others who were already in Tokyo at that time to carry out revolutionary activities. Because Zhang Taiyan and Liu Shipei were originally friends, they lived with Liu Shipei and others. Unexpectedly, there was an accident in this stay, and it turned out that There was he Zhen's cousin Wang Gongquan who was accompanied by Liu Shipei and others at that time. Liu Shipei devoted himself to studying and did not find anything unusual between his wife and Wang Gongquan, but Zhang Taiyan was delicate and observed that there was quite an ambiguity between He Zhen and Wang Gongquan.
Out of concern for his friend, Zhang Taiyan privately found Liu Shipei and then told him what he had observed, asking him to pay more attention. Unexpectedly, Liu Shipei trusted his wife very much, but instead thought that Zhang Taiyan was framing, so he directly fought with Zhang Taiyan without saying a word. In this way, Zhang Taiyan and Liu Shipei directly fell out and immediately moved out alone. The two turned their faces and only bitterly suffered another person, that is, the literary master Su Manshu. Although Su Manshu was quite talented, he had been a monk very early, and his family was very poor, because his mother was Japanese, he thought of going to Japan to be a province, so he followed Liu Shipei and others to Tokyo, and several people lived together. After Zhang Taiyan moved out, Liu Shipei became angry with Su Manshu and directly drove him out.
Although Liu Shipei did not believe Zhang Taiyan's words, He Zhen remembered Zhang Taiyan and was bent on cleaning him up. Although He Zhen longed for revolution in his early years, he zhen was born in a family of eunuchs and gradually could not adapt to the difficult environment in Tokyo. Coupled with the failure of Liu Shipei and his wife to start a journal in Tokyo at that time, they decided to return to China. Everyone thought that Zhang Taiyan and Liu Shipei's affairs had just passed, but they didn't expect that the fierce material would soon explode.
Zhang Taiyan
At that time, just in time for Tao Chengzhang, Zhang Taiyan and others to hope that Sun Yat-sen would cede the position of leader of the Alliance to Huang Xing, the two sides quarreled and often engaged in scolding battles in the newspapers. As one of Sun Yat-sen's supporters, Wu Zhihui, who was in France at the time, soon began to attack Zhang Taiyan, and released two fierce materials, one was that Zhang Taiyan had written to Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, and the other was that Zhang Taiyan had received money from the military minister Tie Liang. In his view, these two points mean that Zhang Taiyan is suspected of betraying the revolution and surrendering to the Qing court. In order to enhance his persuasiveness, Wu Zhihui also specially noted that these were all exposed by He Zhen's letter to him, and attached the original text of the letter to the newspaper.
The reason why He Zhen wrote to Wu Zhihui was because Zhang Taiyan was bent on believing that Wu Zhihui was the culprit in betraying Zou Rong, and the two had accused each other many times in the newspaper, so they wanted to add a slap. In fact, these two points do not explain anything, and it is common to write to qing ministers, such as Sun Yat-sen once wrote to Li Hongzhang, and Cai Yi once wrote to Zhao Erxun, which cannot be explained that they betrayed the revolution. As for the matter of collecting iron and good money, it was actually more similar to extortion, because at that time, the Guangfu would assassinate too fiercely, and many Qing court officials were killed and afraid, preferring to break the wealth and avoid disaster. Zhang Taiyan himself admitted to receiving Tie Liang's money, but it was used as revolutionary funds. In fact, it was not only Tie Liang who was blackmailed at that time, but also Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang. As for why He Zhen did not mention Duan Fang, soon the revolutionaries knew.
In 1909, Zhang Gong, vice president of the Longhua Society, was suddenly arrested, and it was not liu Shipei and his wife who reported the whistleblower. At this time, the members of the league shouted "deceived", and it turned out that it was not Zhang Taiyan who betrayed the revolution, but Liu Shipei and He Zhen. It turned out that the people sent by Zhang Taiyan to contact Duan Fang before were Liu Shipei and his wife, and at that time Duan Fang already had an impression of Liu Shipei. Later, under the influence of He Zhen, Liu Shipei could not withstand the test, and even secretly defected to Duanfang, and secretly took the initiative to help Duanfang eliminate the revolutionary party. The enraged revolutionaries soon took revenge, and Wang Jin, who had the "Nie Zheng of the Present", sent out to get rid of Liu Shipei and others. Liu Shipei and others were literati, and if they had the slightest strength to fight back, Wang Gongquan was killed on the spot. However, Liu Shipei knew the opportunity, knelt down on the spot and pleaded, and said that he would do his best to rescue Zhang Gong, which made Wang Jinfa let him go. After this incident, Liu Shipei did not dare to stay under Duan Fang's hands and directly hid in Sichuan as a lecturer at the National Academy.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Liu Shipei finally began to be unlucky, Duan Fang led the army to suppress the Road Protection Movement on the way to be killed by the mutiny of the new army, Liu Shipei once did Duan Fang's subordinates was also exposed. Soon Liu Shipei was in a cell and was even almost executed. At the critical moment, it was still his old friend Zhang Taiyan who came out of the horse and wrote a letter to Li Yuanhong and others to intercede, which allowed Liu Shipei to get out of prison. Later, with the help of Zhang Taiyan, Cai Yuanpei and others, Liu Shipei was introduced to Peking University as a professor.
Unexpectedly, soon Liu Shipei did the wrong thing under He Zhen's tutelage. At that time, just in time for Yuan Shikai to restore the imperial system, he asked his confidant Yang Du to pull a vote to form a preparatory committee to prepare for the title of emperor. Liu Shipei was also quickly pulled into the Preparatory Committee, and also published a "Theory of the State of the Union" advocating that the imperial system was more suitable for China. Unfortunately, what Liu Shipei did not expect was that Yuan Shikai soon fell, and The Hongxian Emperor only claimed to be emperor for 83 days before stepping down. What was even more tragic was that Yuan Shikai fell ill and died after abolishing the imperial system under heavy pressure, and only suffered from the gang advocating the imperial system. The first thing Li Yuanhong did after taking office was to eliminate the culprits for the defending army, and the culprits naturally fell on the heads of the gang advocating the imperial system.
Liu Shipei also knew that he was one of the "Six Gentlemen of the Preparatory Society", which could be regarded as the culprit, and this time he certainly could not escape, which frightened him to move from his home outside xihua gate to the French hospital overnight, hoping to avoid a disaster. In fact, Liu Shipei was worried, although the six gentlemen of the Preparatory Security Association were the culprits, in fact, only Yang Du and Sun Yujun were wanted, and the other four were all saved and did not make the list. It was none other than Li Hongzhang's nephew Li Jingxi who saved Liu Shipei. Li Jingxi was a major member of the party at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and although the scenery was no longer beautiful after the Republic of China, he still had a great influence, and even Yuan Shikai deliberately named him one of the "Four Friends of Song mountain" to show respect. Li Jingxi protected Liu Shipei not because he had any friendship, but because he and another "six gentlemen" Yan Fu were very talented, and it would be a pity to kill them, so he came forward to save them.
Unable to hold Yuan Shikai's thigh, Liu Shipei had to return to Peking University to teach again. However, because he had previously supported the imperial system, his reputation was really bad, and even many students resisted taking his classes. In the end, even Cai Yuanpei had to stand up and tell the students that Liu Shipei was indeed talented, and that everyone could learn his knowledge of Traditional Chinese culture, and as for people, they did not have to learn. In fact, this is also Liu Shipei's last effort to enter politics. In 1919, shortly after the May Fourth Movement, Liu Shipei died of illness in Beijing at the age of 36. Before his death, Liu Shipei himself looked back on his life, regretted that he had been involved in politics, and thought that he was more suitable to be a scholar. Unfortunately, this awakening came too late.
Liu Shipei is also very famous for being afraid of his wife. As for how far Liu Shipei was afraid of his wife, it was simply appalling. Liu Shipei's good friend Zhang Ji once had a memory, when he also lived in Beijing. One night, someone suddenly came to knock on the door, and when Zhang Ji opened the door, he saw Liu Shipei rushing in, gasping for breath while running, not knowing what big was wrong, and for a while Zhang Ji was a little inexplicable. Before Zhang Ji could ask, there was a sudden knock at the door. Liu Shipei was shocked when he heard it: "This must be my wife chasing after me, what should I do?" Hurry up and find me a place to hide. Zhang Ji knew that Liu Shipei had originally offended He Zhen before he rushed to his home for refuge.
Liu Shipei did not wait for Zhang Ji to answer, and began to look for a place to hide. Seeing that the knocking on the door was getting more and more urgent, Liu Shipei did not have time to look for it again, so he went directly under the bed and hid. Zhang Ji saw that Liu Shipei was hiding well before he hurried out to open the door, but he did not expect that it was not He Zhen who came, but another friend of theirs. Zhang Ji suddenly felt ridiculous, and quickly returned to the house to tell Liu Shipei to let him come out quickly. Unexpectedly, Liu Shipei thought that Zhang Ji was deceiving him and refused to come out. In desperation, Zhang Ji had to call another friend and drag Liu Shipei out from under the bed together. After coming out, Liu Shipei found that He Zhen was really not there, but his heart still couldn't stop being afraid, even his hands and feet kept shaking, and even Zhang Ji and others felt embarrassed when they saw it.
In fact, the reason why Liu Shipei went astray was largely related to his wife He Zhen, and he Zhen was the first to defect to Duanfang. Even many of his friends who gradually became estranged from Liu Shipei in the future believed that Liu Shipei had actually been mistaken by He Zhen all his life. Liu Shipei was not unaware of what He Zhen had done, but he was really too afraid of his wife, and he had no strength to resist at all. It is a pity that a generation of Guoxue masters have fallen into such a situation because of their wives, which is really sighing.