You don't know the Six Gentlemen of Penghu: Yang Rui

Author: Feng Xuanyi

The Six Gentlemen of Wu shu: the upper row is from left: Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Lin Xu, and the lower row is from left: Liu Guangdi, Yang Shenxiu, Kang Guangren

Guangxu twenty-four years, The year of Wu Shu, 1898 AD. On September 28 of that year, the Qing court issued an edict that the sixth person, Kang Guangren, Yang Shenxiu, Tan Sitong, Lin Xu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guang, should be beheaded. The reason for the execution was that they were all "Kang Party" and "the plot was heavier". History called the "Six Gentlemen of Wushu", and the Qing court executed them, marking the complete failure of the Wushu reform law.

One of the more special of the "Six Gentlemen" is Yang Rui. Not only because he is a "Zhang Zhidong man", but also because Yang Rui's life would not be involved in this political storm if he followed his own plan. He became the "Six Gentlemen of Pengshu" left by Qingshi only because of Zhang Zhidong's weight and promotion of him. It was Zhang Zhidong who discovered Yang Rui's talent, and it was Zhang Zhidong who pushed Yang Rui onto the guillotine.

Yang Rui, zi shu yao, was born in 1857 in Mianzhu, Sichuan. Yang Rui's fate had changed since the moment he met Zhang Zhidong. Zhang Zhidong, a late Qing dynasty courtier who wrote the "Persuasion Chapter", discovered Yang Rui's natural nature and admired him very much during his tenure as a scholar in Sichuan, and summoned him as a disciple. Later, when Zhang Zhidong served as the governor of Liangguang, he naturally hired Yang Rui as a staff member. Yang Rui's fate took its first turn here. However, Yang Rui was a filial son, and at this time his old mother was more than seventy years old, and he did not want to leave his old mother to follow Governor Zhang to a position in distant Guangzhou, and he politely refused on the grounds that his old mother was old. But Zhang Zhidong had an iron heart to summon him into the palace. In order to dispel Yang Rui's worries, Zhang Zhidong personally called the Sichuan envoy and transferred Yang Rui's brother Yang Cong to serve in a place closer to his hometown in order to serve his elderly mother. This shows the importance that Zhang Zhidong placed on this protégé.

Yang Rui entered the shogunate of Zhang Zhidong from then on.

In the shogunate of Governor Zhang, Yang Rui was mainly responsible for handling the paperwork and helping Zhang Zhidong draft the recital. During Yang Rui's stay in the palace, most of the music and important documents sent by Zhang Zhidong to the imperial court were from Yang Rui's hand.

In March 1895, due to the needs of his work, Zhang Zhidong sent Yang Rui to Beijing to collect important political intelligence. Yang Rui became Zhang Zhidong's "sitting capital". The so-called "sitting in Beijing" refers to the subordinates of local officials stationed in Beijing to help collect intelligence. It is equivalent to the "personnel of the Beijing Office" of each province. In an era of underdeveloped information, this is a very important position. At that time, during the Maguan Peace Conference, various intelligence in the capital was extremely important to the local officials. Since then, Yang Rui has been stationed in Beijing for a long time as Zhang Zhidong's "sitting capital", and Zhang Zhidong has given him one hundred and two silver per month, and the treatment is very generous.

Fast forward to 1898. Zhang Zhidong's fate took a second turn and decided his life and death.

This year, the reform method led by Kang Youwei Liang Qichao is being vigorously rolled out. Zhang Zhidong needed the intelligence of the capital even more, especially in the appointment and dismissal of personnel and the game of forces between various parties. Therefore, Zhang Zhidong relied more heavily on Yang Rui. However, it was also during this period that Yang Rui's family changed, and Yang Rui's brother Yang Cong died of illness in July of that year. Yang Rui, who has always been filial and obedient, is eager to return to his hometown in Sichuan to mourn.

However, the situation was in a critical period, and Zhang Zhidong would not let Yang Rui go. To go or to stay, presumably Yang Rui is well thought out. But what he didn't expect was that the result was so different between going and staying.

After several persuasions from Zhang, Yang Rui reluctantly agreed to remain in Beijing.

Fate is uncertain, and people simply cannot predict what their tomorrow will be. Yang Rui's life is like a roller coaster with only one peak. The first 40 years went all the way up. Because of his own outstanding talent, and Zhang Zhidong's appreciation and promotion, Yang Rui's road is not difficult. However, as soon as August 1898 passed, Yang Rui's fate was like a roller coaster rushing to the top of the crest of the wave, which took a sharp turn and finally rushed into the abyss of death.

At the same time that Zhang Zhidong persuaded Yang Rui to continue to stay in the capital, Chen Baozhen, the governor of Hunan, recommended talents to the imperial court. Chen Baozhen and Zhang Zhidong are friends, and several of Chen's recommended lists are Zhang Zhidong's close associates, including Yang Rui. The list was reported to the Guangxu Emperor. On September 1, the Guangxu Emperor summoned Yang Rui. A few days later, Yang Rui, Together with Liu Guangdi, Lin Xu, and Tan Si, was appointed as a military aircraft Zhang Jing and participated in the New Deal. At that time, it was called "the four secretaries of military aircraft". In the face of the Holy Will, Yang Rui was mixed with joy and sorrow, happy that he had been promoted to an official and entered the political core circle, and worried that he could not return to his hometown to mourn.

The voice of the appointed will was still in his ears, and the butcher's knife that killed his head was already hanging above Yang Rui's head.

On September 21, Empress Dowager Cixi staged a coup d'état, and the Guangxu Emperor lost power. Empress Dowager Cixi wantonly purged dissidents. The appointment of the "Four Secretaries of the Military Aircraft" was entirely the personal opinion of the Guangxu Emperor, and the opinion of Empress Dowager Cixi was not consulted. This violated Cixi's great taboo and was purged first. On the morning of the 23rd, Yang Rui was arrested in the bed of the ropesmith's hutong apartment.

Zhang Zhidong learned the news of Yang Rui's arrest on the 24th. When he received the report, he was very shocked, like five thunderbolts. In Zhang Zhidong's view, Yang Rui has followed him for many years, he knows him very well, it cannot be the "Kang Party" at all, there is no deviant words and deeds, and he believes that Yang Rui's arrest must be a misunderstanding. He immediately sent a telegram to Rong Lu, Yu Lu, Wang Wenshao and other senior officials, asking them to rescue Yang Rui. Through the efforts of all parties, the chief inquisitor Prince Qing Yili had the intention of excusing Yang Rui.

Zhang Zhidong thought that everything would be as he thought, and after the rescue of the big members of all sides, Yang Rui would be safely released and the official would be reinstated. But, this time he was wrong.

I don't know what Yang Rui in prison thinks at this time. Maybe he will also think of the teacher Zhang Zhidong! He would also believe that Zhang Zhidong had the ability to rescue him safely.

However, none of them expected that Cixi would be so resolute and so desperate.

On September 28, Cixi, fearing that foreigners would interfere in the coup, hastily issued a holy edict without trial, saying that "the sixth offender, Kang Guangren, Yang Shenxiu, Tan Sitong, Lin Xu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guang, whose (Kang Party)'s circumstances were more serious, were all beheaded immediately."

Zhang Zhidong, who received the news, was deeply saddened. Not only because he lost a talent, but also because Yang Ruinai died because of him. Farther away, if he had not summoned Yang Rui to the shogunate, Yang Rui might not have been the end of the future. Closer to say, if it were not for Zhang Zhidong's persuasion, Yang Rui would have returned to his hometown in Sichuan long ago, and he could have avoided the appointment of "Military Aircraft Zhang Jing" and also avoided the disaster of killing himself.

Yang Rui's life was only 41 years. Perhaps God is fair, the death of him and Tan Si and the like is the most tragic scene in modern Chinese history, and the "Six Gentlemen of Wushu" will be remembered forever by future generations.