The short story of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao

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Kang Youwei was lost when he was a child, but was found one day later. His mother did not hold her head and cry, but firmly said, "My son is a man, and men should strengthen themselves."

When Liang Qichao was nine years old, his grandfather Liang Weiqing took him on a wooden boat by water. Going to Guangzhou via Jiangmen to take the exam, this was the first time Liang Qichao left his hometown.

At that time, the ship was full of scholars preparing to take the exam. Everyone was sitting together discussing knowledge and showing off their talents. One day while having lunch on the boat, we happened to have white rice and steamed salted fish. One of the candidates suggested reciting a poem or writing a poem about salted fish. In fact, it is a very difficult topic to use salted fish into poems, because although salted fish is a famous dish on the Cantonese table, it cannot be popular among the people in Cantonese. As the saying goes: "Entering an abalone restaurant will not last long." "Smell the stench", but it still refers to stench, and it is opposite to "entering Zhilan's room". As soon as the topic came up, the candidates on the boat were all stumped. Everyone was scratching their heads and scratching their heads. think.

Liang Qichao paused for a moment and then recited in front of everyone: "After Taigong went fishing, Jiao Ge started lifting salt." After hearing this, everyone present was stunned for a moment, and then everyone clapped and applauded, unanimously praising his poem for being very relevant, elegant in style, rich in poetic flavor, and using allusions appropriately, unconventional, and a great poet. A very rare and good sentence.

When someone later discussed Liang Qichao, they joked like this: "The Guangdong salted fish will have to turn over from now on and become a class of elegant and elegant people." This may be from Liang Qichao's salted fish poem Got.

The story of Liang Qichao outsmarting Shou Wen (Shi Qixia)

When Liang Qichao was eleven years old, he went to the provincial capital to take an exam and was selected as a scholar in one fell swoop. After the exam, Ye Dazhuo, the third-grade official who served as the chief examiner and the academic envoy of Guangdong, learned that such a child prodigy had come out of Guangdong. He read Liang Qichao's test paper carefully and admired it so much that he specially summoned Liang Qichao and several younger students. The scholars conducted interviews and talked with them about Confucian classics, Tang poetry and Song lyrics, and the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties.

The new talents who were interviewed all entered and then quickly exited. Liang Qichao was the only one who knew everything at a young age and answered questions fluently. Ye Dazhuo felt very happy and admired Liang Qichao greatly. Seeing this, the clever Liang Qichao immediately knelt on the ground and begged: Teacher, my grandfather is seventy years old this year. His birthday is November 21 of the lunar calendar. The disciple will soon return to his hometown to visit his old man. Well, if I can get the longevity words written by my husband when I wish my grandfather a birthday, it will definitely extend my grandfather’s life, and it can also comfort my uncle and father’s filial piety, and it will be more glorious in our clan interactions. "Ye Dazhuo faced this childish child and heard him speak some adult sentences. He was greatly surprised and deeply moved by his filial piety. So he accepted Liang Qichao's request and happily wrote a book for Mr. Liang. The husband wrote a birthday essay.

After returning home, Liang Weiqing read it and found it extraordinary. Guangdong Academic Affairs was a third-rank official in the court, and he actually wrote a birthday essay for himself. He was really overjoyed. When the wedding came, they immediately celebrated Liang Qichao's success as a scholar, and Liang Weiqing's birthdays from senior officials.

The story of two examiners competing for their son-in-law (Shi Qixia)

In the fifteenth year of Guangxu's reign, he was only 2 years old. 17-year-old Liang Qichao took the Guangdong Provincial Examination and successfully passed the Juren Examination, ranking eighth. He also had the best score among the new membership candidates and was also the youngest among the candidates in the province.

In this provincial examination, Liang Qichao's essays were written with great eloquence, majestic momentum, quick thinking, and talent, which naturally attracted the special attention of the two examiners, Li Duanfen, who was from Guizhou. He was from Guizhu Province (now merged into Guiyang); the deputy examiner was Wang Renkan from Fujian Province. Both of them admired Liang Qichao's knowledge and talent.

Li Duanfen thought to himself that he had been the examiner of the provincial examination for many years, but he had never met a student with outstanding talents and learning like Liang Qichao. He felt that he should meet Liang Qichao and try his true talents. At the same time, Li Duanfen also thought that he There was also a young cousin who was about to get married, so she might as well take this opportunity to arrange a marriage, so she made up her mind to ask the deputy examiner Wang Renkan to act as a matchmaker.

While Li Duanfen was thinking about this, the deputy examiner Wang Renkan also admired Liang Qichao's intelligence and wanted to betroth his daughter who had not yet left the court to the young prince. Therefore, when Li Duanfen asked him to be a matchmaker, he was stunned. But because Li Duanfen proposed it first, although he had unspeakable regrets in his heart that made him speechless for a long time, he had no choice but to agree in the end.

Later, Li Duanfen took the opportunity of interviewing the candidates to directly put forward his ideas to Liang Qichao. Liang Qichao was in front of the examiner. For a moment, he couldn't refuse, and he had no intention of rejecting the marriage. He deeply thanked the examiner for his kindness and cultivation, and immediately wrote a letter to tell his parents. When Liang Qichao's father found out about this, he felt it was inappropriate because his family had been working and studying for generations, while the Li family had been officials for generations and it was difficult to reach high places. It was not right for them to be from a well-connected family, so he politely declined. Li Duanfen wrote frankly to Liang Qichao's father, saying: "I also know that Qi Chao comes from a poor family, but he has a bright future and will rise to great heights soon. My family is looking for talents, not wealth and poverty, and I also know My cousin understands justice well, so I dare to officiate this marriage for her, so you don’t have to refuse.”

In this way, the marriage was settled. Later, Miss Li played an important role in Liang Qichao's life and became a good story.

○ Liang Qichao became a disciple (Liu Yongzhong)

After Liang Qichao passed the examination, he was not satisfied with his achievements, so he continued to study hard and continued to study at Xuehaitang in Guangzhou. In Xuehaitang, there is a classmate named Chen Qianqiu, who is from Xiqiao Township, Nanhai County. He is very close to Liang Qichao, and he is also a top student in the school. One day, he came back from outside and said to Liang Qichao very excitedly: "Brother Liang, I heard that Mr. Kang Youwei of Nanhai wrote to the emperor to request reform, but he did not get the emperor's consent. Now he happened to come back from the capital, and I was going to see him. He His knowledge is beyond what you and I can imagine. It would be great if we could find a good teacher now."

Chen Qianqiu was still puzzled when he saw Liang Qichao, so he introduced him to him. In 1888, Kang Youwei took part in the Shuntian Provincial Examination in Beijing. He wrote a 5,000-word "Letter to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty" and proposed to Emperor Guangxu: "Strong neighbors are forcing the outside world, and treacherous people are accumulating If there is internal chaos, how can it be supported? "? He also warned the emperor that if he still sticks to the old ways and does not change his methods to become stronger, foreign powers will inevitably penetrate further into the country, and uprisings like the Taiping Rebellion will happen again. Originally, Kang had already passed the provincial examination, but Xu Tong, the die-hard minister, thought, "If a frivolous person like Kang Youwei passes the examination, he will definitely bring chaos to the court in the future." So he took it away. His test paper made Kang Youwei unfortunately fail. However, this petition caused a sensation in the entire Beijing officialdom and had a great social impact, and Kang Youwei also gained a certain reputation. Chen Qianqiu also said that Kang Youwei also had many objections and strange opinions, which he had never heard of. This news greatly shocked Liang Qichao, who was extremely curious about knowledge. He urgently begged Chen Qianqiu and said: "Brother Chen, I also want to meet this Mr. Kang. Please take me to meet him quickly." Chen Qianqiu readily agreed. .

After meeting Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao formally worshiped Kang Youwei as his teacher. Chen Qianqiu and Liang Qichao also jointly requested Kang Youwei to open a school for themselves, so Kang Youwei established the "Wanmu Thatched Cottage" in Changxingli, Guangdong. Liang Qichao ended his studies at Xuehaitang.

Kang Youwei passed the imperial examination in 1893, four years later than Liang Qichao. When Liang Qichao became Kang Youwei's disciple in 1890 and Wanmu Thatched Cottage was founded in 1891, Kang Youwei still failed to pass the imperial examination. .

It can be seen that Liang Qichao worshiped Kang Youwei as his teacher, which was rare in history. But this also shows that Kang Youwei is indeed knowledgeable, which is very unusual. Not only is he rich in knowledge, but he also has novel ideas. Otherwise, how would Liang Qichao, who had already won the imperial examination, be willing to become his disciple? At the same time, it also shows that Liang Qichao is indeed open-minded and eager to learn. Regardless of whether Kang Youwei is just a scholar, as long as he has real talent and practical knowledge and can be his teacher, he is still willing to worship him as his teacher.

○ Liang Qichao went to the world of public opinion (Liu Yongzhong)

Liang Qichao is known as the proud man of modern Chinese public opinion. His pen is more powerful than a hundred thousand soldiers. He compiled the "Global Gazette of All Nations" " is the starting point for him to enter the world of public opinion. Here I will tell you the story of the first newspaper edited by Liang Qichao.

In June 1895, Kang Youwei founded the "Global Gazette of All Nations" in Beijing. Since they did not know how to read it at the time, and they did not dare to hope that anyone would buy it, the newspaper was only used as a free newspaper. They also agreed with the person who delivered the Beijing newspaper that the newspaper "Gongmenzhao" should be sent to the official residence without charge, and the person who delivered the newspaper would be given a certain amount of remuneration. At the beginning, each issue was printed with 1,000 copies, and each issue cost two taels of silver for paper and ink. All these expenses were raised by Kang Youwei. The editors of this newspaper were Liang Qichao and Mai Menghua. In addition to reprinting memorials from the Qing government and articles from newspapers run by foreigners in China, the newspaper also reported important domestic and foreign news. It also published an article mainly written by Liang Qichao. The "current reviews" written are like today's editorials or short commentaries. What the officials read in the "Global Gazette" was content they had never heard of. Their understanding and discussion gradually changed, which had a great impact inside and outside the court. After running this newspaper for more than a month, it was able to print 3,000 copies. It can be said to be a newspaper with brilliant performance in modern China.

○ Liang Qichao’s Fun Education (Lin Meixiao)

Liang Qichao believed in Funism throughout his life. If someone asked him, what is the foundation of your outlook on life? He would answer: "Take fun as the basis. In my life, I have always done what I have done with gusto and with great interest. Words such as pessimism and world-weariness can be found in the dictionary I use. Not at all. What I do often fails, but I not only feel interesting from success, but also feel interesting from failure." Once, Liang Qichao was invited to give an academic report at Nanjing Southeast University. At that time, he gave a lecture titled "The Educator's Own Field" to the students, further elaborating on the special benefits of the education profession. In his lecture, he said at the beginning: Confucius confessed many times that he had nothing special about him except that he was "tireless in learning and tireless in teaching." His disciples praised: "It's really difficult for us to do this." Liang Qichao analyzed, "Why can't you do it? Because it is not difficult to learn, but it is not easy to be tireless; it is not difficult to teach, but it is difficult not to be tired. Boredom is the first sin in life, and it is also The first pain in life. Boredom is a psychological phenomenon of wanting to withdraw from activities. In other words, the unwillingness to work not only reduces the efficiency of work, but also causes endless harm, so it is called Sin. On the other hand, no matter who you are, you must work to maintain your life. No matter how unwilling you are, you still have to work, but you are not willing to do it, so you do it every day with a frown and a crying face. That hard work that you are unwilling to do is locking yourself up in the eighteenth level of hell! So boredom is the first pain in life." Liang Qichao's speech aroused widespread interest among the students, and the applause could not stop for a long time in the auditorium. .

The next day, he gave a lecture titled "The Interest of Learning" to these students. He added at the beginning: "I am a person who advocates the doctrine of interest. If we chemically separate the thing 'Liang Qichao' and extract out the element called 'interest' contained in it, I am afraid that only the remaining There is a zero." This opening sentence about fun immediately attracted the students' interest in listening to the lecture.

Liang Qichao went on to say: Mortals must always live in fun, so that life can be valuable. If you endure it for decades with a sad face, then your life will become a desert, what is the use of it.

I think everything in the world is interesting, but I just feel that twenty-four hours a day cannot be expanded to forty-eight hours, which is not enough for me to enjoy. What am I busy with? What's busy is my fun. "I think this is the most reasonable life in life." Liang Qichao's classic explanation of interest has aroused widespread concern among students. This interesting learning method is also of great enlightenment to us modern people.

○ Kang and Liang wrote three letters (Xianghong)

In ancient times, all candidates who came to Beijing to participate in the joint examination were sent by the provinces, and there was a custom of taking public vehicles to Beijing. Therefore, those who come to Beijing to take part in the examination are also called "buses".

Before Kang Youwei founded Wanmu Thatched Cottage and Zhongju, he wrote to Emperor Guangxu as a common man, requesting reforms to save the country and prevent Japan from further invading China. This was unprecedented in the Qing Dynasty. People all over the country admired his daring and outspoken behavior. Therefore, Kang Youwei's reputation grew greatly, especially among the scholars in Guangdong who supported him. After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, even Emperor Guangxu's teacher Weng Tong believed that Kang Youwei had foresight and valued him very much. This was Kang Youwei's first time writing.

1894 was the year of Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894. Japan’s invasion of China and Korea was called the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894. China lost the war. On April 17, 1895, Li Hongzhang, the plenipotentiary minister of the Qing government who negotiated peace, and Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito signed an armistice treaty in Shimonoseki, Japan, called the "Treaty of Shimonoseki". When the news came that this treaty, which would be humiliating and humiliating the country, was about to be signed, it immediately aroused The strong opposition from the people across the country, of course, also aroused strong opposition from the provincial governors who participated in the joint examination in Beijing.

When the Treaty of Shimonoseki was about to be signed, Kang Youwei advocated mobilizing the governors of all provinces to jointly submit a letter to the emperor, refusing to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki. After Liang Qichao spent several days and nights calling for help, Juren in Hunan responded first, followed by Juren in Fujian, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and Juren in Hebei, Shandong, and Henan followed suit. As a result, all the candidates from eighteen provinces who came to Beijing to take part in the joint examination were encouraged. Kang Youwei was so inspired that he immediately spent a day and two nights writing a 14,000-word "Letter to the Emperor", which is what we call a "Letter on the Bus" in history, impassionedly proposing the rejection of peace, More than 1,300 people signed the article on the three proposals of moving the capital and reforming the law. Later, the Juren gathered at Songjun'an to discuss and approve the contents of the petition. Hundreds of Juren attended the meeting. Hundreds of scholars gathered in the capital, which was an unprecedented initiative. Haha, it can be said that this was the forerunner of the later student movement in China.

When the Lord Peace Party saw this situation, they immediately felt that the situation was not good, so they sent people to the provincial guild halls to intimidate the candidates and ask them to withdraw their signatures. After the coercion, some timid candidates So they did so, but in the end there were still 603 people who refused to give in and continued to keep their signatures.

Due to the regulations of the imperial court at that time: letters from the emperor could not be received directly and had to go through the Metropolitan Procuratorate before being conveyed to the Emperor. When the letter was sent to the Metropolitan Procuratorate on April 10th, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was 》The letters were exchanged in Yantai on the eighth day of the lunar month in advance. Officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate refused to accept the "public letter" on their behalf, claiming that the contract had been signed and could not be undone. This is Kang Youwei's second petition. After their petition failed, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao turned their reform ideas to private propaganda. In order to improve the public's understanding of the current situation, they wrote the pamphlet "Secretary on the Bus" in Shanghai. Since Kang Youwei was running around and contacting all parties at that time, he did not have time to write. He only provided opinions, and Liang Qichao was responsible for the actual writing work. Liang Qichao spent several days and nights of hard work to write this little book.

Kang Youwei submitted a third petition based on the content of "Secretary on the Bus". This time the petition was of course forwarded by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but it eventually reached the hands of Emperor Guangxu smoothly. After reading it, Guangxu and Prince Gong Yijin admired it very much and ordered four copies to be copied, one to the Empress Dowager Cixi, one to the Military Aircraft Department for forwarding to the provinces, one to be kept in the Qianqing Palace, and one in the Qinzheng Palace for display. read. Weng Tonghe, the teacher of Emperor Guangxu, even visited Kang Youwei in person. At this point, the petition campaign finally achieved good results.

○ Liang Qichao's wonderful confrontation with Zhang Zhidong (Xianghong)

It is said that Liang Qichao went to Wuhan to give lectures and paid a courtesy visit to Zhang Zhidong, who was the governor of Huguang at the time.

At that time, Zhang Zhidong really looked down on Liang Qichao and always wanted to embarrass him, so he arrogantly wrote a couplet: Sishuijiang is first, Sishixia is second, I live in Jiangxia, who is Who is first and second? This first couplet is very clever. Rivers, lakes, seas and rivers are ranked first. Spring, summer, autumn, winter and mid-summer are ranked second. Jiangxia refers to Wuhan. Who is first or second? It clearly means that I am the boss. .

But Liang Qichao deserves to be a great Confucian of his generation. After some thought, he came up with a couplet: The three Confucian religions are in front, and the three talented people are in the back. I am a Confucian, how dare I go in front, how dare I go in behind! It's really absolute, very neat, neither humble nor arrogant. The Three Religions refer to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and the Three Religions refer to heaven, earth and man. I am neither in front of you nor behind you, so I am on an equal footing with you. Zhang Zhidong saw it and thought, "It's awesome. I've convinced you." From then on, he changed his view on Liang Qichao and even treated Liang Qichao as a guest of honor.

○ The Story of Xiongzi Pagoda (Fragrant Red)

It is said that one day during the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Shenzong saw something rising in the mountains surrounded by rivers in his sleep In the purple smoke, a beautiful phoenix sang and danced gracefully. This dream repeated for three days. He felt it was very strange, so he called a dream interpreter to interpret his dream.

The dream master counted with his fingers for a long time and said: "Your Majesty, this is an ominous sign. The purple smoke represents the royal aura, and the phoenix symbolizes power and dignity. The phoenix soars in the purple smoke, which is a sign that a new baby will be born. Soon there will be a new true dragon emperor or empress." Ming Shenzong was shocked and asked for a solution. The dream master said that the only way was to find the place in the dream and cast a spell to suppress this new emperor. Qi can ensure the stability of the country. Ming Shenzong quickly summoned a painter to draw the place in his dream and spread it to various places to search for it. Three months later, I finally found the same place as Ming Shenzong's dream in Guangzhou Prefecture (Xinhui belonged to Guangzhou Prefecture at the time). 100 years before Ming Shenzong came to power, there was a man named Chen Baisha in Guangzhou. He was the only thinker and philosopher in Guangdong in two thousand years to enter the Confucius Temple. The place in Ming Shenzong's dream happened to be Chen Baisha's hometown. Moreover, the name of the mountain in the dream is Fengshan. Xinhui is a place with outstanding people, so the birth of an emperor is not an accident.

Ming Shenzong followed the method of the dream master and built a pagoda on Fengshan Mountain to suppress the phoenix that was about to take off. The pagoda was built in the shape of a writing style, so that Xinhui could only produce literati, loyal to the court. Potency.

Sure enough, more than 400 years later, Liang Qichao was born at the foot of Fengshan Mountain. He learned both Chinese and Western knowledge and was known as an "encyclopedia" genius scholar. He left more than 14 million words of writings, which is the most outstanding scholar since ancient times. It has the largest number of words among the works handed down by the writer, and Liang Qichao's children and grandchildren are all literati. Liang Sicheng, Liang Sicheng, and Liang Sili were successively elected as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, giving birth to a unique family legend.