<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > introduction:</h1>
When Tan Sitong is mentioned, it is inevitable to think of the last words of the mighty mountains and rivers:
There is a heart to kill a thief, and there is no power to return to heaven; to die as soon as he wants, and to die quickly
Die where you want, hurry up!
Behind this sentence is the interpretation of the revolutionary spirit of a revolutionary who has never moved forward, and this sentence is in line with Tan Sitong's last words: All countries change the law from shedding blood, and today China has not heard of anyone who bleeds because of the change of the law, and the reason why this country is not prosperous. Yes, please start with the heir.
There is no doubt that the soul of the restoration and reform of the law is full of people, and the open-minded sadness that the country lives and dies for profit, and avoids it because of misfortune and happiness.
In the end, his end was the same as his words.
Under the butcher's knife at the mouth of the vegetable market, the six gentlemen of Wushu were generous and righteous in the midst of countless indifferent people's onlookers, and the Hundred Days Restoration also ended without a disease under the brilliant butcher's knife!
(Statue of Tan Si Tong)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" > one:</h1>
Countless people in later generations are discussing why the vigorous Hundred Days Restoration will eventually fail.
Discussion comes and goes, and the answer to the word is.
The old-fashioned faction was too powerful, Yuan Shikai was on the verge of defecting, the Guangxu Emperor was too weak, and Empress Dowager Cixi was more shrewd in her strategizing.
But is this the truth? I don't see it!
The truth is that this group of people has no ideals but no strength, is willing to dedicate themselves to the ideal, and behind the tragedy is fate.
Youth may be the original sin, but how can immaturity make things happen?
What is the proof of all this? Look at Kang Youwei, who escaped from the battle, and you will understand.
As the initiator of the book on the bus and the main promoter of the Hundred Days Restoration, Kang Youwei listened to Empress Dowager Cixi do it, that is, running faster than a rabbit, slipping a cigarette and going to rent, and finally fled to Japan.
Subsequently, relying on the capital promoted by the Hundred Days Restoration, he swindled all over the world, and finally became a reformer.
Compared with Kang Youwei's character, Tan Sitong, who had the opportunity to escape, is undoubtedly a truly noble man.
(The Six Gentlemen of Penghu)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" > two</h1>
But even a man of high standards like Tan Sitong once made unrealistic, even absurd, proposals for immediate political gain. That is, he proposed to the Guangxu Emperor that Xinjiang be sold to Tsarist Russia and Tibet should be sold to Britain.
Behind this proposal, in addition to political immaturity and thoughtfulness, there are also empty talk under unrealistic fantasies.
Tan Si's suggestion to Guangxu reads as follows:
Try to prepare for the present moment, and the land that has been cut does not need to be discussed. Yidang sold Xinjiang to Russia and Tibet to England to pay off the arrears of 20,000 yuan. With the strength of tens of thousands of miles in the two realms, my strength can not be defended in the end, and it is a burden for me, and the sale is not only worth twenty thousand, but it can still be used for changing the law, and ask Britain and Russia to protect China for ten years.
Looking at this proposal, it can be seen that Tan Sitong's proposal has three starting points!
The first was for money, and the money obtained through the sale of territory was enough to pay 230 million taels of silver to Japan after the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Maguan.
The second is to obtain the funds needed for the restoration of the law.
The second is that in order to obtain the protection of the West, according to Tan Sitong, as long as the territory is sold to Britain and Russia, the commitment of Britain and Russia to protect the Great Qing State can be obtained.
These three starting points, two revolve around money, one is the reparations to Japan, one is the funds needed for the restoration and reform of the law, and the other is the illusion and the so-called protection of the great powers.
(The Sino-Japanese War awakens a country)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="71" > three</h1>
So is this advice reliable? The answer is: it seems to be a little reasonable, but in fact, it is not practical at all, and it is unreliable left and right!
The root cause is also very simple, the Qing Dynasty at that time was in a situation of crisis.
The fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War, as well as the reparations of up to 230 million taels, plunged the Qing Dynasty, which had experienced Tongguang Zhongxing, into a financial crisis. The three-year reparations in installments of eight times were actually repaid at the time of the Hundred Days Restoration, and the money was borrowed through the banking groups of various countries, with customs duties and various privileges as collateral.
Even if the silver swallowed up could not be exchanged for territory, it could not be exchanged for it, because Tsarist Russia and Britain already had such ambitions.
Britain has been spying on Tibet for a long time, Tsarist Russia has the ambition to spy on Xinjiang in the prosperous Kangqian era of the Qing Dynasty, and the Agubai rebellion during the Tongzhi period also has the shadow of Tsarist Russia behind it.
In other words, even if an agreement is really reached, whether the money is given or not, it is another matter, according to the virtues of the Western powers, this matter is bound to be very unreliable, and even if it is given, there will be various bondage clauses.
For example, priority is given to repaying loans from banking groups in various countries, using various privileges as security, installment payments, and so on. What can really fall into the pockets of the Qing Dynasty is estimated to be not much real gold and silver.
For the sake of money, this suggestion is undoubtedly a salary to fight the fire, which will only make the security situation of the Qing Dynasty worse and worse.
What if this comes true?
If Xinjiang is gone, Tibet is gone, it is equivalent to Greater China losing its tail, and will this really curb the ambitions of Russia and Britain?
Of course not, they will gain inches and rise to greater ambitions.
The so-called protection decade is nothing more than wishful thinking after false words.
This is definitely an idea of rushing to the doctor and blindly coming up with ideas, and if it is to come true, the consequences are unimaginable.
(The former Left Lee Controversy)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="89" > four</h1>
Such an idea actually appeared more than once in the last years of the Qing Dynasty!
As early as the Tongzhi period, there was a dispute between coastal defense and Cypriot defense, and one of the protagonists of the struggle, Li Hongzhang, advocated abandoning Xinjiang and focusing on coastal defense.
Li Hongzhang proposed that in the front, the follow-up Tan Sitong had some basis for learning from the same.
Why? It is related to the concept of the core area of Huaxia in the minds of readers.
The core area of the Central Plains Dynasty always changed between the rise and fall of dynastic strength.
When the dynasty expanded, the strong Han opened the Western Regions Capital Protectorate, and the territory of the Tang Dynasty was as far as Central Asia and the world was mighty!
However, in the period of dynastic contraction, most of them stuck to the Yellow River Basin of the Yangtze River and the Great Wall, radiating influence to the surrounding areas.
The marginal areas, in the eyes of countless traditional confucians, are barren places, needed when strong, and better to give up when weak.
Li Hongzhang has such a concept, and Tan Sitong also has it.
Are they patriotic? In fact, they are all patriotic, that is, the limitations of thinking have imprisoned their thinking and long-term concepts, so that they cannot see the general trend of history. This general trend is that after the change of international rules, and the ancient dynastic era, the concept of territory is completely different. Territory is the foundation of a country, laid by ancestors, guarded, and operated by the country and mountains, and must not give up any land.
Fortunately, Li Hongzhang was facing Zuo Zongtang, a tough old man!
He almost single-handedly contributed to the reconquest of Xinjiang, and Zuo Gong, who carried the coffin out on the expedition, was undoubtedly a politician with a clear vision.
(Zuo Gong Qiangu)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="98" > epilogue:</h1>
The reason why Tan Sitong's opinion was not adopted was also very simple: although the restoration faction gathered a large number of heroes, there were few mature politicians, and they were not strong enough to do everything that the conservative faction headed by Empress Dowager Cixi regarded as if a child had lived in the family.
There is no intention here to refute the revolutionary martyrs, but their shortcomings are also the same, and there are many problems.
The unclear political situation is one, the general trend is the second, empty talk is the third, and strong and hard is the fourth.
In addition to the tragedy, the limitations of the pattern are also doomed to the final failure.
When remembering the ancestors, it should be reflection and remembrance synchronously, only this is the label of progress.