Kevin Yuan
In traditional Chinese culture, the father's power will eventually be inherited by his son, so when competing for power, fame and fortune, the interests of father and son are often the same.
On February 12, 1915, Yuan Shikai had been plotting to restore the imperial system for a long time, and at this moment he accepted the worship of hundreds of officials at Juren hall and officially ascended the throne as emperor.
Although Yuan Shikai's act of restoring the imperial system was very absurd to ordinary people, the results of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's democratic revolution were destroyed, so there was continuous protest from all walks of life.
However, many of Yuan Shikai's family, especially his sons, strongly approve of his father's act of claiming the title of emperor, after all, father and son are a community of interests, and the father has become the son of heaven, and he is also the prince.
Newspaper headlines
Yuan Shikai's eldest son, Yuan Keding, ran before and after his father called the emperor, he also spent money to buy the front pages of many newspapers, publishing the argument that the people all wanted Yuan Shikai to be called emperor.
However, among the sons of the Yuan family, there was such an exception, on the day yuan shikai was proclaimed emperor, he did not attend the ceremony or congratulate his father on his title of emperor.
He sat leisurely in front of the makeup mirror backstage of the Xinmin Theater, humming a little tune while applying grease powder to his face.
The servant next to him hurriedly urged him, saying, "Gongzi, Old Master Yuan has ascended the throne today, and if he doesn't see you, he will be unhappy." ”
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Kewen said unhurriedly: "My father when he was the emperor had so many people patting his ass, is there still a lack of me?" He was his emperor, and the second grandfather sang my play. ”
This man who likes to call himself the second grandfather turned out to be the second son of the famous Yuan Shikai family, who loved beautiful women all his life and did not love the powerful, and was not the second grandfather.
This flow and freedom reminds people of Jia Baoyu in "Dream of the Red Chamber", and it just so happens that Jia Baoyu is also called "Second Master Bao".
Yuan Kewen has been sharp and intelligent since childhood, his birth mother is Korean, he was born in Seoul, North Korea.
Yuan Shikai ascended the throne
At the age of six, he can read through the four books and five classics, at the age of ten he can write a good article, at the age of thirteen he can speak a fluent foreign language, and at the age of 18 he has served as a foreign minister in the law department.
He read a lot, both Chinese and foreign history, and he also secretly read the progressive books circulated in the Republic of China at that time, and he had his own thoughts and opinions.
He knows very well that today, the old looks are replaced by a new look, and many countries have abandoned the feudal monarchy and started a new democratic system.
This is the trend of the times, and the trend of history is often that if it goes along with it, it will be born, and if it goes against it, it will die.
He was keenly aware that his father Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system would not achieve good results, but he certainly could not say this directly, otherwise it would anger his father.
His father's personality is domineering and authoritarian, and he can't listen to the opinions of others in the things he decides, so Yuan Kewen does not dare to speak directly to his father.
He can only behave very negatively, even if Yuan Shikai actually likes this son, thinks he is intelligent and sensitive, and even consciously cultivates him to be his successor.
However, Yuan Kewen did not want to enjoy the monstrous wealth of being a prince, nor did he want to be a prince to inherit the throne in the future, and he insisted on shirking the position given to him by his father.
He went to Pear Garden to learn to sing, painted with fat powder every day, wore costumes, and immersed himself in his spiritual world on the stage, and he was very happy in it.
However, not long before Yuan Shikai officially became emperor, when he was wandering around the Summer Palace, he looked at this former royal garden, which has become a park that can be played by men, women and children, and he has some feelings for a while.
However, when he thought that his father Yuan Shikai was about to restore the imperial system, he even decided to restore the feudal hierarchy of the old society together, restore the kneeling and praying, and so on.
Yuan Kewen couldn't help but sigh as soon as he thought of this, and he improvised a poem: "The colt gap stays for a moment, and the sting urges dreams to change three times." There is a lot of wind and rain in the high places, and mo to the top floor of the Qiong Building. ”
Although this poem was only an improvisational work by Yuan Kewen, it was listened to by people around him.
And passed this poem to Yuan Shikai, who knew the meaning of the poem, became angry, and scolded Yuan Kewen.
Let him stop thinking about it, and Yuan Kewen, even if he was scolded and put under house arrest, did not care.
He hummed opera in the room, leaned on poetry books, and brewed a cup of tea, as if all the disturbances in the world had nothing to do with him.
But although he did not want to join the dispute, there were always people who regarded him as a competitor, and this person was his eldest brother Yuan Keding.
Yuan Keding has always served his father before and after the saddle, and strongly supports his father's title of emperor, that is, he hopes that after his father becomes emperor, he can become a prince and inherit his father's power and status in the future.
But he sadly found that no matter how hard he tried, no matter how loyal to his father, in his father's heart, his favorite was still Yuan Kewen.
This made him very jealous, and the person who brought the improvised poem by Yuan Kewen to his father was also arranged by Yuan Keding.
Later, in order to eradicate Yuan Kewen, he even set up a Hongmen banquet, planning to poison Yuan Kewen in the dish and poison Yuan Kewen.
Yuan Keding
But in the end, yuan Kewen noticed that when he thought of his brother actually eradicating himself for the position of prince, he couldn't help but think of Cao Zhi's poem: "Originally born from the same root, he was too anxious to fry each other." ”
In the face of monstrous power and the incomparable desire for power, family affection has become so fragile that siblings will kill each other, which inevitably makes Yuan Kewen chill.
However, Cao Zhi had no way to escape, but he was different, he still had a place to go, although Yuan Shikai was proclaimed emperor in Beijing at that time, and the warlord forces controlled most of the north.
But the vast South, especially economic centers like Shanghai, is still under the control of complex forces.
There are foreigners' concessions, patrol houses, police stations, gangsters and other parties wrestling with each other, and the Yuan family's forces are difficult to cover here for a while.
Yuan Kewen went all the way south to Shanghai, and joined the Qinggang, which was at its peak at that time, and the internal hierarchy of the Qinggang was strict, paying attention to generations and seniority, and there were four generations of "Great Understanding".
The fourth son of the Republic of China
"Big" is the highest grade, and there are very few people with this generation within the Qinggang, but Yuan Kewen, who has just joined the Qinggang and is still very young, has become a "big" generation.
It turned out that he had found Zhang Shanting, a veteran figure of the Qing gang, who had heard of Yuan Kewen before, and after learning that he did not want to be a prince and joined the Qing gang, he did not feel that he was very appreciative.
Zhang Shanting then let Yuan Kewen worship under his door, so that Yuan Kewen naturally had the highest rank of the Qinggang.
However, at first, when Yuan Kewen first joined the Green Gang, many brothers at the bottom disobeyed him, and they looked at Yuan Kewen as a weak scholar with no power to tie the chicken, and he actually sat on a high position.
And so many of his brothers, which is not nine deaths, fighting with their lives, in order to have a place in the Green Gang.
Yuan Kewen wears a costume
But soon, Yuan Kewen's style of handling things and his flexible and agile approach gradually made his brothers realize that force was not the only way to deal with things, let alone the most advantageous way.
Although Yuan Kewen has been pampered since he was a child and has done things all by heart, after all, he has also been trained around Yuan Shikai, and he has a set of treats with people and things.
He asked people to talk about business, often not mentioning business treaties in a flat and straightforward way, but taking customers to the beach to eat, drink and have fun.
He knew which restaurant in Shanghai was the most authentic, which tavern had the most mellow wine, and which corner kunqu opera sang the most beautifully.
And which nightclub girl is the most moving, the customer is coaxed by him to play all over Shanghai, he never takes the initiative to mention the business content, and finally the customer himself offers to sign a contract and reach a cooperation.
Yuan Kewen and siblings
Yuan Kewen treats customers attentively, and is also kind and friendly and humane to people who are inferior to him.
At that time, the gang did not obey his brother, he was always kind to treat, who had an urgent matter at home, wanted to borrow some money, he did not say a word and gave a stack of banknotes, and said that it was not enough to ask him again.
The people in the Green Gang all said: "The second master has the most friendship, and he treats everyone well, so I haven't seen him and anyone rushed to see him." ”
In the face of danger, Yuan Kewen also has a demeanor of not being chaotic, calm and self-assured, and unmoving.
At that time, there were often fights between gangs over a small matter, and gangs tacitly agreed that martial arts was the only way to maintain the dignity of the gang, even if it would cause so many senseless sacrifices.
With female friends
Once, a theater that Yuan Kewen often went to was suddenly embarrassed by other gangs.
A leader with a team of people and horses claimed to wash the theater in blood, the theater owner found Yuan Kewen for help, and when the green gang brothers heard about it, they asked Yuan Kewen if he would immediately gather people and horses to face them.
Yuan Kewen shook his head, and he instructed his brothers not to move, dress themselves neatly, and wear a top hat.
Coming to the imposing group of men and horses, he bowed to them once, then raised his fists in his hands and said, "Can you give me a face and let go of this innocent theater?" ”
When the leader saw that Second Master Yuan was speaking so politely and politely, he immediately felt a little embarrassed.
He quickly told his brothers to retreat, hugged his fist to Second Master Yuan, and said, "On the beach, there is no one who does not give you second master face." ”
A crisis was thus resolved by him invisibly, and the Qinggang brothers admired him for his imperishable temperament, and they all felt that they had underestimated the character in front of them before.
Yuan Kewen had just made a name for himself in Shanghai, when he received the news of the death of his father Yuan Shikai, who originally claimed that the emperor had caused dissatisfaction among many parties, and within a few days he had hastily stepped down in the midst of a tidal wave of protests, and soon fell ill and died.
As soon as Yuan Shikai died, more than a dozen of his sons began to compete for their father's inheritance and divide the remnants of their father's power.
But Yuan Kewen, who was far away in Shanghai, did not want to return to Beijing to participate in the inheritance battle, except for his father's death.
However, the inheritance that ultimately belonged to him was still remitted to his account, a total of 100,000 yuan, which was already a lot of money at that time.
It was enough for him to spend the rest of his life richly, not to mention that he still had a position in the Green Gang.
According to his current configuration, as long as he works a little harder in the future, he is expected to be promoted in the Green Gang, and soon he will have fame and fortune.
But what is puzzling is that less than a few years after Yuan Shikai's death, Yuan Kewen had spent all his money and began to sell calligraphy and paintings on the street in order to make a living.
Yuan Kewen's calligraphy
It turned out that yuan Kewen had been under the shadow of his father since he was a child, and he only knew the use of money, but he did not even have a general concept of the amount of money.
For example, he tipping people, sometimes directly giving a hundred such sky-high tips, but he himself did not care.
In addition, his life is indeed more luxurious, he loves life, pays attention to the quality of life, eats and wears, and undoubtedly pursues elegance.
Also love to collect, he often goes in and out of antique calligraphy and painting shops, and the boss is an old friendship, antique calligraphy and painting is a big car when bought, and never bargains.
What he loves most is beauty, just as Jia Baoyu grew up in an environment full of women, and Yuan Kewen also grew up in a pile of women.
His father had a wife with nine concubines, the youngest of whom was younger than Yuan Kewen.
And Yuan Kewen undoubtedly inherits the nature of his father's love for beauty, he has a wife and a five-room aunt.
The original wife Liu Mei is really a serious woman, and the rest of the aunts and wives are the top cards of each Qinglou, and Yuan Kewen likes to marry into the house.
Yuan Kewen and his wife
The cost of the six wives and concubines was not small, but Yuan Kewen had more lovers without a name, and according to the recollections of later insiders, Yuan Kewen's lovers were estimated to be seventy or eighty.
He likes to linger in the brothels of the Qinglou and the hangover dance hall, and he says that he looks at beautiful women like the stars in the sky.
He likes beauty, and is extremely generous to beauty, not to mention the basic cost of buying clothes and jewelry, even if there are prostitutes who do not want to continue to work in the Qinglou, and want to redeem themselves to come to him, he will also agree.
But to help a prostitute redeem herself, as little as a few hundred yuan, as much as a few thousand, so that he spends money faster than the flowing water, and even the thickest family foundation cannot withstand his tossing.
On the other hand, although he has just shown his ability to talk about business in the Green Gang, he is not willing to continue to do it.
He would rather be a stubborn lord with a name, he said: "What does it mean to always drink with men at the wine table, it is better to go to the land of fireworks to embrace beautiful people and chant poetry."
Playing life and having fun in time is his life creed, but surprisingly, he enjoys prosperity and can withstand poverty.
When he was rich, he ate, drank and had fun, when he was poor, he went to the street to sell calligraphy and paintings, and accompanied his wives and concubines to drink a few glasses of sake at night, and he also felt that he was at ease.
He is not without a way to make money, relying on the reputation of the second son of the Yuan family and the contacts accumulated in the Qing gang, Zhang Zuolin once invited him to be a consultant, and the children of the Qing gang also offered to send him money, but he refused one by one.
The Japanese also came to him to give him a position, and he directly asked them not to get in the way.
He doesn't love business or politics, he just wants to plunge headlong into the art world he has created.
Yuan Ke calligraphy
The calligraphy and paintings he sold on the street were all from his own handwriting, and his calligraphy was vigorous and elegant, just like him, Yuan Shikai also gave his calligraphy as a gift to his friends when he was alive.
He can sell for thousands of yuan with a few words, so with his own talent, he can still afford to support the whole family. He was always compassionate and soft in his heart, not just thinking about his little family.
In 1922, he learned of a disaster in Chaoshan in Guangdong Province, killing and injuring more than 100,000 people, displacing countless people, and the government did nothing.
At that time, he decided to donate all the money he had saved from selling words, and also donated his treasured calligraphy and paintings, and pulled the opera composers he knew to hold charity performances, and donated all the money he had collected to the disaster area.
In an instant, his wallet was empty again, and for the sake of his family's livelihood, he went back and forth, writing and painting at home and selling it on the street.
However, after accumulating some money, he began to go to the Qinglou to squander.
Yuan Kewen's calligraphy works
The attitude towards life is like this, come with pleasure, return home with pleasure, ten thousand years is too long, only to fight for the day.
In his concept of life, his obsession with art, his love for beauty, his adherence to dignity and the bottom line, and his responsibility for righteousness and love are the first, while other vulgar considerations and calculations are completely absent from his heart.
He indulged his desires all his life, lived as dazzling as a flame, as brilliant as fireworks, and was bound to exhaust his life in advance because of excessive light and heat.
He died shortly after the age of 42 from an indulgent life and excessive tobacco and alcohol.
After his death, the Qinggang disciples came to help him with the funeral, and found that his family only had 20 yuan, and he could not afford to buy even a coffin.
In the end, the disciples of the Green Gang put together some money and gave him a funeral, which was not luxurious, but the scene was very large.
The people who came to see him off lined up more than ten meters long, and the most shocking thing was that a thousand prostitutes were walking in a row.
They wore white flowers on their heads, dressed in mourning clothes, and wept as they walked, and their mournful and moving cries seemed to form a piece of music, specifically designed to bid farewell to this amorous Second Master Yuan.
Second Master Yuan was not the only guest of these prostitutes, nor was he the guest who gave them the most money, but he must be the guest who treated them with the most sincerity.
Other guests visit the Qinglou to seek venting, and do not regard prostitutes as equal people, while Yuan Erye, he treats these prostitutes equally.
Prostitutes in the Republic of China
Although his love is very widespread, it is undeniable that every love is so innocent.
Some people are born amorous, although it is difficult for him to be specific to each woman.
But he did give these women sincerity and love, which also made countless women mourn for him and remember him for a long time.