On May 18, 1916, Chen Qimei, the first governor of the Shanghai Army after the Xinhai Revolution, was assassinated in Shanghai at the age of 38.
In the League and the Kuomintang camp before and after the Xinhai Revolution, Chen Qimei was an extremely strong figure, from joining the League in 1906 to being stabbed to death in 1916, his political career was less than ten years, but he was relied on by Sun Yat-sen as a confidant, and the limelight overshadowed many revolutionary elders such as Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren. Influenced and promoted by Chen Qimei, many of his protégés, such as chiang kai-shek, nephews Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu, later became hot figures in the history of the Republic of China. What kind of person is Chen Qimei?
Stills of "The Great Cause of Party Building" Chen Qimei (left)
The assistant accountant becomes a green gang boss
Chen Qimei's origin is not prominent. In 1878, Chen Qimei was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, to a merchant family, lost his father at an early age, and apprenticed to a pawnshop in Shimen Town as a teenager, where he worked for twelve years. In the spring of 1903, Chen Qimei came to Shanghai to work as an assistant accountant with Kangtai Silk Stack.
The reason why Chen Qimei came to Shanghai to develop has a lot to do with his younger brother Chen Qicai. Chen Qicai was two years younger than Chen Qimei, and unlike his brother, Chen Qicai went to Japan to study after taking the examination in his hometown, returned to China after graduating from the Japanese non-commissioned officer school to serve as the commander of the New Army in Shanghai, and soon became the superintendent of the Hunan Wubei Academy. The success of his younger brother was a great stimulus for Chen Qimei, who was not willing to remain obscure all his life, so he followed Chen Qicai to Shanghai. At that time, there was a Leader of the Green Gang named Fan Gaotou in Shanghai Beach, and his men injured a Britishman because of the uneven fighting, and the British Consulate demanded that the Chinese government deal with it strictly, and Chen Qicai, who was in charge of the case, argued on the basis of reason to make the case a fair settlement. Fan Gaotou was very grateful to Chen Qicai, so he and his brother Chen Qimei became brothers, and Chen Qimei became the big man of the "big" generation of the Qing Gang.
Chen Qimei
Studying in Japan shows talent
In the summer of 1906, Chen Qimei went to Japan to study under the financial support of Chen Qicai and his cousin Yang Xinzhi, and after arriving in Japan, he entered the third class of the Tokyo Police Superintendent School to study law. At that time, the Qing court announced that it was necessary to complete the police reform within a few years, so the official paid to send people to Japan to study the police, but there was no police school in Japan at that time, so the Chinese minister in Japan negotiated with the Japanese side and asked the Japanese authorities to run the Tokyo Police Superintendent School, which graduated in two years. In the second year of admission, Chen Qimei found that the actual situation was not at all consistent with the propaganda at the time of admission, and was completely fooling Chinese students, so Chen Qimei joined hands with Chinese students to issue leaflets on the grounds that "they only know their own profits and disregard students' studies" and proposed to run another Dongbin school, with the same subjects as the police supervision school, but the teachers tried their best to hire first-class professors from famous universities. Later, the sign of Dongbin School was erected, but where to get good teachers, as a result, Chen Qimei and other students transferred from the Police Supervision School to Dongbin had to graduate early and return to China. This student wave can be described as a preview of Chen Qimei's future revolutionary activities, from which it can also be seen that his unusual organizational ability and leadership ability, it is also during this time period that Chen Qimei joined the League and became acquainted with Sun Yat-sen, laying the groundwork for his later development.
In 1908, Chen Qimei returned to Shanghai to engage in anti-Qing activities. At that time, the leader of the Green Gang, Jin Rong, was working in the Patrol House of the French Concession, and his influence was very large, and Chen Qimei used his identity as a Green Gang to establish a relationship with Jin Rong. According to the "Shanghai Tongzhi", "Chen Qimei and other revolutionaries secretly contacted gang figures in order to gain a firm foothold in the concession, reduce trouble, and expand the ranks. With the assistance of Jin Jinrong and others, Chen Qimei, Huang Gao, and others were able to establish the Tianbao Inn, a secret liaison organ of the Revolutionary Party, in the concession. ”
Stills from "The Great Cause of the Founding of the Nation"
Use brothels as a cover to plot a revolution
Chen Qimei's ability to move was very strong, he made friends as a tycoon of the Green Gang, recruited cronies, set up secret organs in brothels and restaurants, and planned revolutionary causes in the midst of flowers and wine, according to a reporter named Gengsheng recalled: "The Qing court treated the revolutionary party with extreme severity, and all revolutionary work was done in extreme secrecy. Ying Gong (Chen Qimei character Yingshi, hence the name "Ying Gong") presided over the revolutionary movements in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces... On the surface, they sing and drink heavily, spending days and nights drinking to avoid the eyes and ears of the Manchu Qing. Those who do not know think that drunken dreams and death are like ears, and who knows that the great events of the revolution are brewing here! ”
Chen Qimei also ran the "China Bulletin" and the "Minsheng CongBao" successively, assisting Yu Youren in founding the famous "Minli Bao" and creating momentum for the revolution in public opinion. At the same time, he also recruited Yu Haqing, Wang Yiting, and others from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to join the League, and through them befriended Li Pingshu, Zhu Baosan, and other social celebrities, and promoted them to sponsor the revolution, thus mastering the arming of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Group, and enabling the League to have a relatively solid social foundation in Shanghai. In 1911, Song Jiaoren, Tan Renfeng and others established the Central General Association of the League in Shanghai, because Chen Qimei had great influence and wide contacts, so he appointed him as the minister of the Ministry of Affairs and presided over the daily work, and Chen Qimei gradually entered the core leadership of the League.
Chen Qimei (front row, first from right) poses with Sun Yat-sen and others
At that time, the League was in the most difficult period, with repeated setbacks in various localities and internal differences of opinion, and the GuangfuHui set up its own portal. Under these circumstances, Chen Qimei was in full swing in Shanghai, the old base of the Guangfuhui, and the spirit of the entire Alliance was invigorated, and Chen Qimei, a rising star, also attracted the attention of Sun Yat-sen.
Text | Wang Kai This article is reprinted with permission from the public account Wenshi ejia (WeChat: wenshiyijia2016) and has been abridged.