The six-dimensional pictures of emperors of all dynasties were exposed, and the ancestors panicked

Chapter 808: The Six Gentlemen of Wuxu

｛It was already bad enough that Chinese Americans were treated differently by the U.S., but the Qing Dynasty did not fight for living space and rights for Chinese Americans, which led to the intensification of anti-Chinese sentiment.｝
{The level of your understanding of something determines your level of understanding of it. The Qing court's reaction to the world is like a giant maggot. If you don't hit it on the head, it won't wake it up.}
{By looking at the mentality of the Han people in northern China during the Song and Yuan dynasties, we can understand the mentality of the overseas Chinese who took root in the late Qing dynasty.}
{It’s really hard to say. The first three generations might have patriotism, and the rest...it might just be business...}
……

Han Dynasty Lingdi Period
"...Liangzhou?"

Liu Hong's first reaction was that the Central Plains discriminated against the people of Liangzhou...

"It seems that the only time when the Han and the Hu people were truly treated equally was during the Zhenguan to Kaiyuan period, right?"

Faced with the emperor's questioning, the ministers were speechless.

Cao Cao whispered:
"The Former Han Dynasty also treated everyone equally, right? Marquis Zhu was also a Xiongnu."

Liu Bei glanced at him and whispered:
"Are the Xiongnu nobles and Xiongnu commoners treated the same?"

Cao Cao glanced back.

"The Han and the Xiongnu are enemies for generations. The nobles may accept this, but the common people may not."

Liu Bei looked at the old guy.

"Don't try to divert the conflict here. If some of the Xiongnu people surrender, they will become the people of the Han Dynasty."

Cao Cao snorted coldly.

"Okay, then go talk to the people who died at the hands of the Huns."

Liu Bei was furious, holding the tablet in his hand.

"Cao Mengde! You know that's not what I meant!"

The sound was so loud that all the ministers looked at him sideways.

Liu Hong stretched his neck and asked curiously:

"What's the matter? Talk about it! But don't kill me!"

The ministers looked at the emperor again.

What do you mean don't kill him?!
You shouldn't have done it!

Lu Zhi looked towards Liu Bei, glanced at the hand holding the tablet like a sword, and shouted:

"Xuan De! This is the court!"

Liu Bei's eyes lit up, and he held the tablet in both hands and apologized to Liu Hong:

"I am disrespectful, please punish me, Your Majesty."

Liu Hong waved his hand and didn't care.

Everyone looked at Cao Cao who was embarrassed.

Lu Zhi’s words were very clear.

This is the imperial court, so it’s not okay. That’s not the imperial court…

Everyone thought of another thing.

Can Cao Cao defeat Liu Bei in a one-on-one fight?

……

Tang Dynasty and Gaozong period
Li Shimin took the time to look at the sky.

He smiled at Li Zhi who was in a dilemma:
"Instead of thinking about how to solve the problem of the Hu people, you should think about how to solve the problem of the Hu nobles."

“There is no difference between the Hu people and the Han people.”

"As long as you let them know that you can keep them well fed and clothed, you will be the Khan in their hearts."

"Without the support of the people, the Hu nobles are nothing but duckweed floating on the water."

Li Shimin saw that Li Zhi was somewhat affected by the Anshi Rebellion.

But this is normal.

He now felt a burning hatred when he thought of the An-Shi Rebellion.

However, we cannot expand the scope of attack because that would lead to chaos.

Li Zhi nodded.

"My son understands."

Changsun Wuji was almost crying.

Very good!
Finally someone can persuade this child!
……

[Employing and identifying people: The Six Gentlemen of the Wuxu Period. ]

[There were countless talented people during the reign of Emperor Guangxu, but they were either Cixi's subordinates or Yixin. ]

【The only people who were promoted from Guangxu were the reformists such as those who participated in the Hundred Days' Reform.】

[On September 1898, 9, seven days after Cixi's coup, the Qing court issued an edict to kill the "Six Gentlemen".]

【Tan Sitong, Kang Guangren, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi and others were arrested by the Qing government.】

[Among them, Tan, Lin, Yang, and Liu were newly appointed military secretaries by Emperor Guangxu, Yang Shenxiu was the censor of Shandong Province, and Kang Guangren was Kang Youwei’s younger brother.]

【Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled overseas. The "Hundred Days' Reform" was aborted and became the "Hundred Days' Reform". 】

……

Great Qin.

Ying Zheng watched Kang Youwei flee and suddenly said:
"Liu Bang, what do you think would have happened if Shang Jun had managed to escape?"

"Can the Qin Law of the Great Qin continue?"

Liu Bang took a deep breath.

Good question, really good at asking...

"I think not."

Ying Zheng nodded and said softly:

"Yeah, no."

From the day Qin Law was born, it was decided that only the emperor could escape from it.

No one else can touch the dignity of Qin law.

Not even Shang Yang could do it.

"You run really fast..."

……

[Because Cixi killed Tan Sitong, Yang Rui and other "Six Gentlemen" without trial, this sentencing without trial left a wrong impression on later generations, believing that the "Six Gentlemen of Wuxu" had the same political ideas and were a group of like-minded reformists.]

【But the fact is that the Six Gentlemen had great differences in their opinions and positions on the reforms of the Wuxu Year.】

[Among the Six Gentlemen of the Reform Movement of 1898, Yang Rui and Liu Guang were not Kang Youwei's comrades. The relationship between Lin Xu and Kang Youwei was shaky. There is still a lack of evidence as to whether Yang Shenxiu knew about the shocking plan of Kang Youwei and others. Kang Guangren had some objections to Kang Youwei's way of doing things.]

【Only Tan Sitong highly agreed with Kang Youwei's political stance. What he did in the year of Wuxu was to fulfill his long-cherished wish of "seeking to be like Chen She and Yang Xuangan, to be driven out by the saints, and to die without regrets."】

[Kang Youwei, who was committed to "protecting religion and race" and secretly wanted to "protect China but not the Qing Dynasty", was exactly the "saint" in Tan Sitong's mind]

……

On the canopy.

"The time has come! The criminal kowtows to thank God for His grace!"

The executioner held the handle of the heavy butcher knife tightly in his right hand, with the blade running along his forearm and across his chest.

In front of him, six people were kneeling on the execution platform, some crying and some sighing.

The man in the middle sighed and chanted a suicide poem:
"I feel sorry for Zhang Jian when I see him staying at my house, and I feel ashamed of Du Gen when I make direct criticisms to Chen Shu."

"I threw the European sword in my hand and laughed at the sky, leaving my crime for posterity to judge."

The sexton listened, frowned, and declared loudly:

"The criminal kowtows! Thank you, Your Majesty, for your great grace!"

The six of them kowtowed together.

The poet could not help but say in a loud and angry voice:

"Your Majesty, we have failed at the last moment! Your Majesty!"

The loose braid slid down one side of the neck and hung to the ground.

Six headless bodies lay in the darkness. The crowd dispersed.

Leaving behind a shrill cry.

... {Tan Sitong has one thing that makes people admire him, that is, he is the second generation of a Qing official, his father was a provincial governor. In prison, someone recommended that he could save his life if he admitted that he was wrong to reform and acknowledged the laws of the Qing ancestors.}
{He resolutely chose to stay and die, just like Li Dazhao, hoping to use his death to shock a group of enlighteners and inspire a group of reform followers to recognize the true face of the Qing court.}
{He had plenty of time to escape. If he stayed, he would have died for the failure of China's first revolution. "Every country's reform has been achieved through bloodshed. In China, there is no bloodshed due to reform. This is the reason why the country is not prosperous. If there is, please start with Si Tong."}
{Where did the phrase “I laugh at the sky with my sword in hand, my loyalty and courage will remain in Kunlun Mountains whether I go or not” go?}

{It didn't exist originally, it was Liang Qichao's substitution.}
{“I hold my sword in my hand and laugh at the sky”, such a heroic and revolutionary poem, was written by Miao Peilin.}
{The original poem is "Sitting Alone in an Autumn Night":
With a torn scroll in hand, facing the green lamp, I sit alone, pulling aside the curtains to count the stars. Six screens are opened, the autumn is dim, and a hall is filled with the chirping of insects at night.

The cuckoo cries blood and the frost is white, the demons peek at people through the green lights, I hold my sword in my hand and laugh at the sky, I will never waste my life studying the classics again.
{Liang Qichao's words were borrowed.}
……

Cao Wei.

Cao Cao comprehended these two lines of poetry, and also tasted Tan Sitong's words and his heroic spirit of facing death with equanimity, and sighed:
"This change, 'I hold my sword in hand and laugh at the sky', seems to be more heroic than the original poem, but it goes against Tan Sitong's original intention."

Cao Pi was a talented man.

He understood what Cao Cao said.

The original meaning of Tan Sitong's sacrifice was that a gentleman should be open and honest.

It is an honest statement that leaves the general's crimes for posterity to judge.

But it was changed into the heroism and righteousness of the reformists.

Those who died for them will be reused after their death.

……

Ming Dynasty Yongle Period
Zhu Di looked at those few short sentences and sighed deeply.

"Born noble, the sword is aimed at nobility."

"This realm is beyond the reach of ordinary people."

Zhu Zhanji also felt the same way:

"Compared to the two people who escaped, Tan Sitong could have left but didn't..."

"Is this considered a wasted death?"

Empress Xu had not joined the conversation, but now she said sternly:
"No, quite the contrary."

"Given his status, his death was a way of telling the world that reform would not work and that only a violent revolution to overthrow the Qing dynasty could save China."

"He used his decaying body to sow the seeds of the Qing dynasty."

"Becoming a flag is more important than him being alive."

……

{Unfortunately, after the "Six Gentlemen" were killed by the Qing government, Kang Youwei and others decided to make full use of the political asset of "protecting the emperor", and for the purpose of propaganda, they published many memoirs and commemorative texts. These texts dressed up Yang Rui and Liu Guangdi as loyal supporters of Kang Youwei.}
{But in fact, Yang Rui did not know about Kang's party's plan to "besiege the garden and kill the empress". His position has always been to reconcile the relationship between the emperor and the empress, rather than to overthrow Cixi. Kang and Liang also made similar false descriptions about Liu Guangdi.}
{Kang and Liang's approach, together with the Qing court's hasty characterization of the "Six Gentlemen", constituted a false "echo", and also distorted the original face of the Reform in 1898.}
{This in turn seriously affected the reflection of later generations on this reform.}
{To be honest, if this group of people had succeeded in their reforms, I really don’t know what kind of history China’s modern history would have been.}
……

[The Hundred Days' Reform was an extremely complex reform. Its failure cannot be simply explained by "suppression by the diehards," nor can it be satisfied by blaming Kang Youwei for "having great ambitions but little talent."]

[It was actually a bitter fruit of the Qing government’s failed Westernization Reform over the previous thirty years.]

【In this reform, the young emperor no longer trusted the old system. 】

[The Empress Dowager and the bureaucratic group in the old system also had no intention of responding to the young emperor.]

[The “flag bearer of reform” Kang Youwei came up with the idea of ​​“protecting China rather than the Qing Dynasty” one year before the reform was launched, which led to his lack of identification with both the young emperor and the elderly empress dowager.]

【This is a reform that lacks consensus and is doomed to fail. 】

……

Qing Dynasty, Guangxu Period
Guangxu is now in a very depressed mood.

"What does the sky curtain mean..."

Cixi looked at the emperor who began to escape with an expressionless face.

Reform and change are not that easy.

The emperor is still immature.

"You'd better be honest and stop messing around."

Hearing Cixi's words, Guangxu became angry and said sarcastically:
"If I hadn't been behind the scenes, how would we have gotten to this day?"

Cixi looked at him coldly and said grimly:
"If you don't draw the curtain, it's none of your business."

Guangxu was furious and had no way to refute.

He waved his sleeves and strode away, leaving only one sentence.

"I am not even as good as Emperor Xian of Han!"

Cixi looked coldly at the emperor's departing back.

"You can't feed a white-eyed wolf..."

……

【In the year of Jiawu, there was a struggle between the emperor and the empress in the court. 】

【However, it was only five years from Emperor Guangxu's personal rule to the Jiawu Year, and all the important officials inside and outside the court at that time had long-term experience of working with Empress Dowager Cixi.】

[These important officials generally approved of the Empress Dowager's rule since 1861, but were skeptical of the young Emperor Guangxu, who lacked political experience.]

【Empress Dowager Cixi also controlled the core personnel power of the court in terms of system, and Guangxu had no way to ignore Cixi's will and appoint private persons.】

[The "Emperor's Party" had not taken shape before the Jiawu Year, and it was not until the Wuxu Year that the "Emperor's Party" was fully formed.]

[The reason was the disastrous defeat of the Qing army in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The disastrous defeat triggered the trend of reform and also damaged Cixi's political reputation.]

[As the actual controller of the Qing court's power, Cixi was considered by many to be responsible for the disastrous defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.]

[This idea is represented by scholars such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and the four military officials.]

[As Cixi's conservative image became increasingly solidified, Guangxu's open-minded image was also gradually rising.]

[When Kang Youwei tried to expand the boundaries of the imperial party's power by opening the Bureau of Institutions and the Maoqin Hall and introducing foreign advisers such as Timothy Richard and Ito Hirobumi, the struggle between the emperor and the empress inevitably escalated into a bloody conflict.]

[The "Six Gentlemen of the Wuxu Reform" were killed, Cixi announced the restoration of tutelage, and Guangxu was placed under house arrest. ]

【The relationship between the emperor and the empress was completely broken.】

[Evaluation level E·Zero points]

……

{Off topic, there are no photos of Emperor Guangxu left in the Forbidden City.}
{In 1990, the Palace Museum Publishing House published "Collection of Photos of People in the Forbidden City Collection". In 1994, the Palace Museum Publishing House published "Collection of Photos of People in the Forbidden City Collection", which included many photos of Cixi, Yihuan, Yixin, Zaifeng, Emperor Guangxu's concubines, Puyi, Wanrong, Wenxiu, eunuchs and palace maids, the Eight-Nation Alliance, and even drama characters who performed in the palace.}
{The only thing missing is a photo of Guangxu.}
{According to these two books, "It was not until the 1903th year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (1924) that Empress Dowager Cixi, who was already 11 years old, began to use a camera to take personal photos in the Forbidden City." "These photos and negatives were all preserved by the Palace Museum after Puyi moved out of the Forbidden City on November 5, ." }
……

Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period
"Wait a moment!"

Kangxi directly locked the anchor point!

Puyi moved the palace?!
"What does it mean to move the palace?"

Yinzhen said cautiously:
"Maybe the foreigners broke in and then ran away?"

Kangxi looked sullen and said nothing.

……

Qing Dynasty Yongzheng Period
Yongzheng counted the years.

"1924... it was not many years after the First Sino-Japanese War."

"You said... forget it."

Hongli looked at his father who stopped asking halfway through, and didn't know how to start again.

……

At this time, the emperors also saw this sentence in the group.

"Emperor Qianlong: Ladies and Gentlemen, our era is about to end."

For a moment, it really felt like a lifetime ago.

……

{As for the fact that there are no photos of Emperor Guangxu in the Forbidden City, the book gives an explanation: when Cixi was keen on taking photos of herself to establish her personal prestige, Emperor Guangxu, who advocated reform, had been under house arrest for a long time in Yingtai. This makes it easy for us to understand why there are so many photos of Cixi in the Forbidden City, but not a single photo of Emperor Guangxu. }
{This explanation can be corroborated in De Ling's "Two Years of Imperial Confinement in the Qing Palace."}
{De Ling was fond of photography. When she was a lady-in-waiting for Cixi, she had played around with photographic equipment in the palace. According to De Ling's recollection, she once had a chance conversation with Emperor Guangxu about a foreign painter painting an oil painting for Cixi.}
{Guangxu expressed a desire to paint an oil portrait, but he felt that this was impossible because Cixi would not agree.}
……

Cao Wei.

Liu Xie looked at the sky and said calmly:

"It seems that my ending as a deposed emperor is in the middle among all the deposed emperors."

Cao Jie didn't know how to start.

Liu Xie smiled and said:
"It is a great favor to be able to keep you alive."

Old Liu family motto:
Saving your life comes first.

I don't know if I can pass...

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(End of this chapter)