news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

On August 8, 1906 (June 19 of the lunar calendar), late at night, Beijing was silent. Suddenly, the door of an apartment was violently kicked open, and several big men rushed into the room and caught a man on the bed. Then they quickly tied him up and took him to a car outside the house, and soon disappeared into the vast night. The brief noise did not disturb the sleep of the people around, and people continued to enjoy the peaceful night.

Unknown to the sleeping people, the Beijing police had just cracked a major case.

The people who rushed into the apartment were Beijing policemen. The person arrested was Liang Tiejun. The next day, a man named Fan Luxiang was also arrested. The two were first detained in the Beijing Governor's Office for trial. Three days later, due to the seriousness of the case, they were taken to Tianjin and tried by Yuan Shikai himself. At about 10 am on September 1, Liang Tiejun and Fan Luxiang were ordered to be executed by Yuan Shikai, and it was announced to the public that they "died of acute illness."

After Liang Tiejun was arrested, Tang Xuan, then a doctor in the Ministry of Justice, wrote in his diary: "The prisoner (Liang Tiejun) confessed that he came to Beijing to assassinate Kang Nanhai."

What was the relationship between Liang Tiejun and Kang Youwei? Who did he want to assassinate? Why did Yuan Shikai rush to execute them?

There are many mysteries behind it, which are complicated and confusing.

01. Who is Liang Tiejun?

Liang Tiejun was born in 1857 in Foshan, Guangdong. When he was young, he liked stories about knights-errant, practiced martial arts, and was good at fencing. After he became an adult, he ran a salt business in Wuzhou, Guangxi for a long time, and his family was quite wealthy. In their youth, Liang Tiejun and Kang Youwei were both disciples of the famous Confucian scholar Zhu Jiujiang (from Nanhai, Guangdong, named Qi, nicknamed Zixiang, and known as Mr. Jiujiang in the world), and they were brothers in the same school. Liang Tiejun was one year older than Kang Youwei. Liang Tiejun and Kang Youwei had very different personalities. Kang Youwei was keen on politics, while Liang Tiejun was keen on martial arts and knights-errant, and was good at doing business. However, after he became an adult, Liang Tiejun was greatly impressed by Kang Youwei's doctrine, so he decided to follow Kang Youwei. From today's perspective, Liang Tiejun's support for Kang Youwei had reached the point of "no cure". He took out all the money in his family to support Kang Youwei, almost to the point of bankruptcy. Most of the funding for Kang Youwei's important activities in the late Qing Dynasty, such as petitioning the emperor, establishing academic societies, and the Wuxu coup, came from Liang Tiejun's sponsorship.

After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei fled overseas, and Liang Tiejun abandoned his family and children and willingly followed Kang Youwei in his escape. Because he knew martial arts, he also served as Kang Youwei's bodyguard.

In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out and the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing. When the news spread overseas, Kang Youwei was overjoyed, thinking that the royalist party led by him had an opportunity to take advantage of it. So he raised funds on a large scale and prepared to start an uprising. In the same year, Kang Youwei sent Liang Tiejun back to Beijing from Singapore, one to inquire about the news, and the other to find the remains of Kang Guangren. Kang Guangren was Kang Youwei's younger brother, who was killed in the Reform Movement of 1898 and was one of the Six Gentlemen of 1898. After being killed, the whereabouts of his remains have been unknown.

After arriving in Beijing, Liang Tiejun found an old servant of the Kang family, and with his help, he found Kang Guangren's remains and brought them back to Nanhai County, Guangdong.

Liang Tiejun enjoyed Kang Youwei's trust, but by this time Liang Tiejun had already lost all his wealth and became an exiled "political prisoner". Apart from Kang Youwei's trust, he seemed to have nothing else.

02. The murder of Empress Dowager Cixi

The actions of the Royalist Party did not achieve good results, so Kang Youwei decided to assassinate Empress Dowager Cixi, and the assassin was Liang Tiejun. To assassinate, there must be funds. Liang Tiejun, who was carrying out the mission, told Kang Youwei that the assassination could not be accomplished overnight. After settling in Beijing, he needed to do preparatory work such as exploring the terrain, buying confidants, and finding opportunities before he could take action. It would take at least half a year, and the cost required in this half year would be at least 10,000 silver dollars. But Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others could not raise this 10,000 silver dollars for a while. Liang Qichao called the Hong Kong office of the Royalist Party and asked them to raise funds, but he did not receive a response. In desperation, Liang Qichao had to take out all the remaining funds of the "New People's Journal" as the assassination funds. Liang Tiejun, who got the funds, conspired with Liang Qichao and his assistants, and then Liang Tiejun took Chen Mo'an, Liang Zigang, Luo Pushi and others to Beijing. It was already 1904. Before leaving, Liang Qichao said: "With such an arrangement and such talented people, there is indeed a way to succeed. If it fails, it will be God's will that China will be destroyed."

In order to conceal their tracks, Liang Tiejun and his companions used the pseudonym Wu Daoming and started businesses in Beijing: Liang Tiejun opened the "Jichang" photo studio and the "Guangming" Japanese car company in Dengshikou, while Liang Zigang opened the Zigang Garden. They used these shops to frequently communicate with the police, the press, and the eunuchs in the palace, conduct public relations, gather intelligence, and actively prepare for the assassination.

Let’s take a look at their progress:

First, make a bomb. In order to use a more powerful bomb to kill Cixi in one fell swoop, Liang Tiejun arranged for Luo Pushi to go to Japan to search for a powerful bomb. However, after Luo Pushi returned from Japan, he was arrested and killed in Guangdong in July 1905 due to a leak of information when he passed through Guangdong.

Second, he made friends with eunuchs and spied on the health and whereabouts of Cixi and Guangxu. Liang Tiejun used the photo studio of "Jichang" to make friends with many eunuchs who came to take photos. Through bribery and spying, they mastered the daily life and health of Cixi and Guangxu. In mid-1906, Liang Tiejun reported Guangxu's health in detail in a letter to Kang Youwei. He wrote: "The emperor's pulse is deep and stringy on the left cunguan, and deep and slippery on the right cunguan. The liver yin is not solid..." He said that Cixi "also fell ill on May 18th and 9th, and took medicines such as costus root and amomum, and has recovered completely."

Third, explore the terrain. Liang Tiejun made friends with a eunuch who was in charge of the emperor's clothes in the palace at the photo studio. The two had a very close relationship. The eunuch took him to the Summer Palace to take pictures. He walked around the Summer Palace, took a lot of photos, and almost knew the terrain of the Summer Palace.

From these three points, it can be seen that the activities of Liang Tiejun and others in Beijing have extremely strong penetration. If the situation continues to develop in this way, the assassination of Cixi is likely to succeed.

However, there is always a loophole. Because of their close relationship with eunuchs, Liang Tiejun and others' whereabouts attracted the attention of the Beijing Governor's Office Detective Team. After a period of tracking and observation, they mastered the secrets of Liang Tiejun and others. After Liang Tiejun was arrested, the police found a lot of evidence in his residence and photo studio. When the charge of conspiracy to assassinate was confirmed, Liang Tiejun was secretly taken to Tianjin and tried by Yuan Shikai himself. Thus, the scene at the beginning of the article happened.

03. Why was Yuan Shikai in such a hurry to kill people to silence them?

After the trial, Liang Tiejun confessed the fact that he had planned to assassinate Cixi, and pointed out that Kang Youwei was the mastermind behind the plot. Yuan Shikai had secret contacts with the reformists, and Liang Tiejun, as Kang Youwei's confidant, naturally knew the relationship well. Yuan Shikai was afraid that Liang Tiejun would reveal his private relationship with the reformists and affect his political future, so he quickly ordered him to be executed.

At this time, the Qing government was implementing the preparatory constitutional reform. On the day Liang Tiejun and Fan Luxiang were killed, the Qing government officially issued the preparatory constitutional edict. Empress Dowager Cixi did not want to spread the matter and affect the reform being implemented, so she agreed to quickly execute the two.

According to Zhang Shizhao's article "The Whole Story of Wu Daoming's Case" (Wu Daoming was Liang Tiejun's pseudonym in Beijing), Liang Tiejun died in a very tragic way. At that time, Yuan Shikai ordered "Wu and Fan to be executed" and the time was set at one hour. The execution officer was named Lu, who admired Liang Tiejun's character and told him the truth. After hearing this, Liang Tiejun remained silent for a long time, and then "asked for poison." The execution officer then sent someone to the nearby "Shengchuntang" pharmacy, "purchased three coins of red alum, returned and ground it into powder, and Liang Tiejun drank it all in one gulp, but unexpectedly his stomach could not accept it and he vomited it immediately." The execution officer added another five coins, and Liang Tiejun drank it again. Immediately, he felt unbearable pain and rolled on the ground, "not long after, he bled from all seven orifices and died." The law enforcement officer sent someone to "bury him in a thin coffin in the mess outside the southern gate of Machang", and announced to the outside world that he died of an acute illness.

04. Kang Youwei’s reaction

Liang Tiejun was executed secretly without much publicity. In order to promote the preliminary constitutional monarchy, the Qing government did not suppress Kang Youwei too much.

Kang Youwei's attitude when he learned that Liang Tiejun had been murdered was interesting. Liang Tiejun was Kang Youwei's close friend, and he had spent all his money to support Kang Youwei's political career. However, when he learned that Liang Tiejun had been murdered, he wrote in his diary that he was "heartbroken", but then he said that "it would not hinder the future of our party" and "it is a blessing in disguise that it does not affect the whole region". If his attitude was to take the overall situation into consideration, then his attitude towards Liang Tiejun's son was chilling. One year after Liang Tiejun's death, Liang Tiejun's son went to England and wanted to discuss Liang Tiejun's aftermath with Kang Youwei, but Kang Youwei did not meet him. He was worried that the meeting would attract the "attention" of the Qing court. In this regard, Zhang Shizhao said with emotion: "Friendship between life and death is not as good as the market."