Senior Brother's Comments on "Towards the Republic" | Lecture 14 Sun Yat-sen's Quest for Invention (2)

Kang Youwei said, I have made four propositions to save the country, which are the four strategies. They are the first, to issue an edict to boost the morale of the world, and the emperor will issue an edict to boost the morale of the world; second, to move the capital is the foundation of the world. Very important, starting from Song Dynasty , Northern Song Dynasty 's capital was in Kaifeng , so it has been invaded, Ming Dynasty 's capital Qing Dynasty 's capital is set at Beiping or called Beijing. The emperor guards the gate of the country, the king dies, and the morality is very good, but from a strategic point of view, it is very poor, because there is no place to stand up, training troops to strengthen the world, that is, everything still has to take advantage of the situation, so in the end, although the country is big, it must be fought. Death, soldiers are very important, reform has become the ambition of the world.

​​Among these four, the last three are especially reforms. Any person or country will be in crisis after hundreds of years. Therefore, reform is an eternal theme. In the words of our university, it is called "Gou Rixin, Every day is new, and every day is new.” Everyone has to constantly emphasize themselves. What many Chinese people don't understand is the first sentence, "I have issued an edict to drum up the spirit of the world." The Master said, "What are the four most important words in doing anything? Justifiably right." This is what we call high-level management, and execution depends on your position.

​​So Kang Youwei was looking for Weng Tong and the nearest way, but he was rejected. He took the farthest way. At that time, the officials of the Inspectorate came out to accept Kang Youwei's letter, and they also took the initiative to ask, have you written two books mainly about reform? One of these two books is called "Russian Reform" and the other is called "Japanese Reform Examination". Pay attention to two details. The first detail is that these two books are carried by him as his student Liang Qichao , so Kang Youwei's two books, Russia Peter's Reformation, talk about how Russia reformed, and then the Japanese reform test said. It is Japan Meiji Restoration . On the other hand, what was Weng Tonghe's opinion on Wanyanshu after the book was published? Weng Tonghe and and Li Hongzhang and have been fighting for decades. To be honest, he won to the end. In fact, he won't be happy until the end.

​​China is often bad money drives out good money , that is basically good people will be killed by bad people, but after all, they have been fighting with Li Hongzhang for decades, so Weng Tonghe's pattern is not as big as Li Hongzhang's. Very old-fashioned, at least Li Hongzhang died, then his vision is very old-fashioned. When he saw Wanyanshu, his words were very important and worthy of our careful consideration. He said, "There is not much right or wrong about Wanyanshu," but he knew very well about Guangxu , and he said that he was afraid that Guangxu would be too radical. Most of the ambition is patience. The more patient people are, the better they can achieve great things. Therefore, the first Weng Tonghe, as two generations of emperors, has a certain understanding of his student Guangxu and the world's major events. In his words, the ten thousand words Don't give the book directly to Guangxu, for fear that Guangxu is too young and frivolous, and will want to move when he sees it. Weng Tonghe knows Guangxu too well, so Guangxu is really eager for quick success and quick success in the reform of the 1950s, but he did not realize Weng Tonghe's hope. He learned from Russia and learned from Japan.

​​The next day in the courtroom, when Weng Tonghe faced Guangxu, he saw that there were two voices in the world. The first voice said that Li Hongzhang should be killed, and Li Hongzhang must die. But we have an old friend who showed up in the first episode, Morrison, the headline reporter for The Times. Morrison instead said that no matter what you do, the treaty cannot be voided. This is us Chinese. The lowest is called ethics or the lowest culture is called loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and trust. No matter what, we must not lose faith. According to the West's democracy and freedom, the bottom line of anything is what is the bottom line of the West? Spirit of Contract. That is, no matter what you do, you have to recognize the contract. If you don't even recognize the contract, you are not even responsible for your own choices. To be honest, there is no integrity in this world. So the highest requirement in the West is our lowest requirement in the East. What Morrison is saying is that no matter what, at least when Li Hongzhang was in Maguan, that is to say, Cixi and Guangxu were telegraphed, and neither of you objected. Since there is no objection, you must not break the contract at this time. .

​​look backLook at Guangxu. After Guangxu heard it, he knew that there was no way to change it, so he said to bring Yuxi and bring the treaty. As a young man, Guangxu slapped the seal with shame. After the seal was stamped, he was very angry and ashamed, and smashed his hands with the jade seal to blood. We can understand the pain of Guangxu, but in any case, rich emotions are not good politicians, because we often say that reason is the greatest emotion. Guangxu's feelings are very rich, but what is even more frightening is that we have seen the failure of Guangxu in the future, because we often say that to see how a person succeeds, the first thing is to see how a person faces failure. If a person faces failure, he will summarize and review and change himself. The original method, or even completely starting over, such a person is very scary. This person will definitely succeed, he will constantly adjust, and step by step toward success, but when a person faces failure, he will only regret, accuse, humiliate, Tears, anger, and even self-mutilation like Guangxu, to be honest, he still hasn't learned or accepted it.

​​So Guangxu went to the Taimiao to see his ancestors, from Nurhaci to Huang Taizu to Kangxi to Yongzheng to Qianlong, all the way, he saw the flowers without saying a word, when Guangxu went to see the statue of Kangxi, he I feel that the entire Kangxi statue is in tears, this is what we said, when a person is really at the lowest point, you don't go to those places you are very familiar with, you will only let yourself go back, this time Guangxu can't accept this. kind of pain. Everyone in the world says that Li Hongzhang can be killed, so how will Li Hongzhang be treated? And how will Guangxu face it? What can we learn from it? Everyone, let us look forward to the next lecture with questions.