Yuan Kewen (袁克文), courtesy name Leopard Cen (豹岑), was the second son of Yuan Shikai, president of the Republic of China, who was born in Seoul ,present-day Seoul, North Korea, by his third aunt, Tae Kim (a native of Korea). Yuan Kewen studied under Fang Erqian, was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, the Eight Biwen, was proficient in calligraphy and painting, was quite capable of poetry and song, and also liked to collect calligraphy, paintings, antiques and so on. Yuan Kewen worked as a law clerk at the age of eighteen, which was the only time in his life that he became an official, and his time was very short. After that, he deliberately stayed away from politics and devoted himself to his idle life, becoming one of the four princes of the Republic of China, known as "Jin Rong and Du Yuesheng in the south, and Yuan Hanyun, the leader of the Jinbei gang in the north."
Yuan Kewen can be regarded as an alternative figure in the Yuan family, and his "alternative" is first reflected in the luxury and indulgence of life, with groups of wives and concubines, and a life of unrestrained. In addition to Yuan's wife Liu Meizhen, he also married five aunts, they are: Qing Yun Lou, Xiao Taohong, Tang Zhijun, Yu Peiwen, and Ya Xian. There are even more mistresses without a name or a "spring breeze", according to insiders, there are seventy or eighty.
Secondly, it is that he has no political demands, can distinguish between right and wrong better than the rest of the Yuan family, is extremely opposed to Yuan's claim to the throne, and opposes his own family at every turn.
In 1913, on the eve of Sun Yat-sen's "second revolution", there were sometimes female revolutionaries transporting weapons to The capital, and after the case was solved, the female revolutionary party has always identified Tang Jixing as the mastermind behind the scenes. Tang Jixing was imprisoned for anti-Qing riots, and was released only after the Xinhai Revolution, when he was the head of the Tianjin branch of the Kuomintang. As a result, the yuan government's secret agents began to search for Tang throughout tianjin, but Tang Jixing did not know it. Yuan Kewen and Tang Jixing met in Tianjin Qinglou and were friends for many years. One night, Yuan Kewen was drunk and confused, and when he went out, he found that there were policemen wandering around him in a trance, but he did not pay much attention to it, insisting that Tang Jixing send him back. The next day he was told that if he hadn't been with Don last night, Don would have been arrested. At this time, Yuan Kewen learned about Tang Jixing's revolutionary party identity. Yuan, however, continued to communicate with him, advising him not to go to the brothel in Nanshi for the time being, and writing a letter to the police chief to intercede. For the next month or so, everyone was at peace. One day, Yuan Kewen, Tang Jixing and others were drinking and gambling, and Yuan's coachman came to report that there were many policemen outside the door. Yuan Kewen thought that the police must have come to arrest Tang Jixing, so he said: If you have an important matter to discuss tonight, you must go to my house. Don said he had made an appointment with a prostitute to spend the night together and asked to come back tomorrow. Yuan Kewen said that he could take the prostitute with him, and Tang agreed to come down. The military police saw Yuan Kewen and Tang Jixing getting into the carriage together and had to let them go.
Arriving at the Japanese Concession, Yuan Kewen asked Tang Jixing to leave Tianjin immediately, and ordered the servants to buy a ticket to Shanghai and send the other party to board the ship overnight to escape from danger. Someone questioned Yuan Kewen, Tang Jixing is against your father, why do you still want to rescue him? Yuan Kewen's answer is: Politics is a public affair, and friendship is a private affair. Although it is not allowed to be private, it is not possible to hinder friendship because of politics. But what Yuan Kewen did not expect was that Tang Jixing was later reported by his brother in Shanghai and escorted to Beijing for execution.
When Yuan Shikai restored the throne as emperor, Wu Butou, a famous scholar in the south, was hunted down and killed by a group of Yuan's minions in Beijing because of his letter to dissuade the imperial system, and he suffered several accidents. Yuan Kewen met Wu Butou, who was penniless at a friend's place and had to sell his precious "Falling Water Lanting Sticker" in order to escape the road fare, and after learning the details, Yuan generously agreed to personally escort Wu to Tianjin by car, and then from Tianjin to the south by boat.
But when he arrived at the station, Yuan Kewen found that he was empty, so he had to borrow five yuan from the coachman and buy a ticket to send Wu Butou to the train. After getting on the bus, Wu Butou said movingly: "The "Falling Water Lanting Ti" should be renamed "Five Yuan One Life Lan Ting Ti". Yuan Kewen, who received the "Falling Water Lanting Post", loved it and copied it day by day, and according to Wu Butou's joke, he specially titled this post "Five Yuan One Life Lan Ting Thesis". Wu Butou, who returned to Guangdong, spent his days in hiding in the village, and when Duan Qirui was in power, a beijing official invited him to go north to participate in politics, but Wu Jian resigned, saying: "I don't have a second "Falling Water Lanting Post". Besides, there is no second Hanyun Gongzi (Yuan Ergongzi) in the world. Five yuan is rare, one life is difficult, and I will never enter Beijing again. ”
In 1915, Yang Du, Sun Yujun, Yan Fu, Liu Shipei, Li Xiehe, Hu Ying and six others established the Preparatory Committee to support Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system and the implementation of a constitutional monarchy. Yuan Kewen invited his friends Fang Dishan, Zhao Erxun, He Changwei, Liang Hongzhi and others to gather together to discuss exposing the conspiracy of the Preparatory Committee and opposing the imperial plan. I don't know who told Yuan Shikai, but early the next morning, old Yuan summoned Kewen and said that someone had reported him for colluding with the chaotic party and opposing the government. After a clever explanation, Kevin asked Yuan Shikai not to pursue it. It turned out that the informant was Leung Hung-chi, who was originally a counselor of the Preparatory Committee, but had gathered with anti-Preparatory Committee members in order to obtain intelligence. After the defeat of the imperial system, he counterattacked the Preparatory Committee, and after the Japanese occupied China, he turned to the Japanese, and after the victory of the War of Resistance, he was executed by the Nationalist government.
Yuan Kewen never participated in the preparation of his family, especially his brother Yuan Keding, for "claiming the emperor", nor did he try on the clothes of the "prince". He also carved a seal of "the second son of the emperor" to laugh at himself and stamp it everywhere - as an umbrella to avoid the suspicion of his brother. Even so, he did not dare to openly oppose his father.
After Yuan Shikai's death, Yuan Kewen angrily rebuked Yuan Keding, believing that he had instigated the emperor to kill his father, and then because of the question of where his father was buried, the two brothers quarreled, and Yuan Kewen hid in Tianjin in a fit of anger, and did not even attend his father's funeral. After that, together with Yuan Shikai's secretary Bu Xiangdi (Zi Zhang 5), he joined the Qing Gang in Shanghai, and the Lingqian Filial Ancestor was collected by his brother, and together with Bu Xiangdi, he became a figure in the Xingwu Six Character Class, and opened incense halls in Shanghai, Tianjin and other places to collect disciples, known as the "Tianjin QingGang Gang Leader" during the Republic of China period.
Yuan Kewen spent money like water all his life, and he never cherished money. In 1918, Yuan Kewen went to Shanghai to play, and it is said that it cost 600,000 oceans at a time. Before Yuan Shikai died, he had entrusted Xu Shichang to him, so after Yuan Kewen returned, Xu Shichang, who was the president, would take a crutch and break his leg.
Because Yuan Kewen spent money like water, the inheritance of more than 100,000 silver dollars he received from his father was quickly used up, but he could not put down the shelf, so he had to rely on selling words and literature to survive.
Yuan Kewen's writing has its own unique features, that is, he can not use the table, hang the paper in the air, and be pulled by people at both ends, he wields everything, the pen is powerful, and the paper is not damaged, which is difficult for ordinary calligraphers to do. Writing small characters is even more wonderful, because he swallows smoke all day long, and he is lazy to get up, so he lies on his back on the bed, holding paper in one hand and pen in the other, writing out of thin air. After writing and then looking at it, the font is beautiful, and there is no disadvantage of skewing and deviating. Friends watched it and were amazed. So wherever he went, someone always came to him for words. Continuous screen, straight width, banner whole paper per foot two yuan, half paper per foot one yuan. Folding fans are six yuan per piece, too large and too small. The above are all based on the rate of the line book, the seal is double straight, the letter, the subordinate plus half, and the point is not discussed. First run the book, relatives and friends halve, grinding ink fee increased by 10%. A man named Tao Hancui wrote a "History of the Republic of China" and asked him to write the cover, and he waved it. Later, the novel was published and gave him a volume, and after he glanced at it, he was greatly remorseful, and it turned out that the book scolded his father Yuan Shikai, and he never dared to socialize easily anymore.
Zhang Zuolin, the "King of the Northeast", and Zhang Zongchang, the overseer of Shandong, both wanted to hire him as a senior senator or adviser, but both of them were rejected by him, on the grounds that "the second master does not serve!" ”
Yuan Kewen died in Tianjin in 1931 at the age of 42. The family could not afford to do the funeral for him, or he "helped" the disciples and disciples in the disciples to help him. At the time of the funeral, the people in the "gang", as well as the monks, Taoists, nuns, and lamas in Tianjin, all came to the funeral, and the inscription for them read: "The talented king has a short life, and the wise man is a ghost." ”