Is Chen Zhaotang, the magistrate of Chaozhou, right or wrong? Does Chen Zhaotang evaluate Chen Zhaotang's son?

Nationality: China.

Ethnic group: Han nationality

Place of birth: Guiyang, Hunan

Date of birth: 1859

Date of death: 19 1 1 year.

Chen Zhaotang (1859—1911) was born in Guiyang, Hunan, and his father Chen Shijie was an important aide to Zeng Guofan. Chen Zhaotang tired his official position to Chaozhou magistrate, and at the same time his evil life ended in Chaozhou. During his tenure, he killed and enslaved the people, killing people like hemp, and people's grievances boiled. In the third year of Xuantong (19 1 1), Wuchang Uprising caused a sensation in the whole country, Chaozhou recovered, and Chen Zhaotang was also captured by the revolutionary army. 165438+1On October 22nd, Chen Zhaotang, who was full of evil, was shot and killed by the revolutionary army under the watchwall in front of the headquarters. Chen Zhaotang wrote his last words before his execution: "Don't die in the king, don't die in the country, die in cause and effect." Chen Zhaotang's subjugation to the law is undoubtedly the best proof in the late Qing Dynasty, and it is also the cause of Chen Zhaotang's self-cultivation in his life.

Character experience

Chen Zhaotang, whose real name is Shu Gan, is from Guiyang, Hunan. Father Chen Shijie, Governor of Shandong Province. Xuantong three years, Zhao Tang official to Huizhou prefecture magistrate. In September, party member rose to Wuchang, and Governor Zhang left Hong Kong. The People's Army then settled in the provincial capital and formed an army. Zhao in Chaozhen committed suicide, and the unified defense forces disturbed him. The defenders, Taoist priests and county magistrates all fled. The soldiers were afraid, but they insisted on guarding Zhaotang to take care of the defense forces. The deployment is uncertain. On the 28th, the People's Party corrected the masses, attacked government agencies, set fire to the house door, and carried Zhaotang out from left to right. The people's army offered a reward for the purchase, resulting in the death of one hundred thousand loans. Zhao Tang said: "If you die, you will die. How can there be huge sums of money to help you rebel? " Public outrage, column tying, 13 guns are necessary.

In the eyes of most people, Chen Zhaotang is an out-and-out villain, as described in Current Affairs Illustrated. What is curious, however, is that Chen Zhaotang's official travel experience throughout his life has left him with a reputation of cruelty and bloodthirsty wherever he goes, which is hated by the people. What made him a killer? What kind of Chen Zhaotang is behind his disregard for human life? In order to clearly understand such a wicked man, I tried to show a sinful Chen Zhaotang through a large number of local documents for future generations to know.

Anecdotal allusions

After the famous family, donations were included in the miscellaneous road.

The Chen family in Sizhouzhai, Guiyang is one of the most prominent families in the area. Chen Shijie, the father of Chen Zhaotang, was a famous minister of ZTE in Qing Dynasty, who made great contributions to westernization, coastal defense, river engineering and education in Qing Dynasty. Based on his own experience, Chen Shijie paid special attention to family education and entrusted his son's studies to Wang Kaiyun, a great scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. Under the careful guidance of Chen, Chen's children have made great achievements. Among them, Chen Zhaokui and Chen Er people were edited by the Hanlin Academy, and they were called "second brothers and second academicians". Although Chen Zhaokui was born in a noble family, he studied with Wang Kaiyun for 30 years with a long history, and worked as a prosecutor in the General Prosecutor's Office of the Ministry of Justice. Among the glory of brothers, only Chen Zhaotang, who was born as a tribute, was somewhat eclipsed. In the third year of Xuantong (19 1 1), the disgraceful fact that Chen Zhaotang was shot dead by the revolutionary army in Chaozhou magistrate made future generations consciously or unconsciously avoid the name Chen Zhaotang when studying Chen Shijie's family background.

The most detailed historical biography of Chen Zhaotang can be found in the Genealogy of Chen Xu in Sizhouzhai, Guiyang (printed in the 6th year of the Republic of China) and A Brief Introduction to Chen Zhaotang, a Taoist priest in Chaoshan, Guangdong, which is thousands of words long and describes Chen Zhaotang's life in detail. As we all know, most genealogies have the disadvantage of reporting good news instead of worrying, but some accounts without political color are enough to make people believe.

Chen Zhaotang is "small-minded, long and capable of writing, open and magnificent, impassioned". He studied in Tianzang Rock, Yuelu Academy in Changsha, Chengnan Academy and Sizhou Quzi Temple, and traveled all over the world, learning tirelessly, hence the name "contemporary". However, although he is "famous for his craftsmanship", he still can't knock on the door of the imperial examination and "cherish it on matters". In the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), Chen Zhaotang gave up the imperial examination road and entered the right path, but donated five tongzhi titles and chose Xingwen County in Sichuan as the magistrate. However, the beginning of Chen Zhaotang's career was full of twists and turns. Before he went to his post, he went to the official position with his mother's funeral, and then he left his job because of his poor service to Sichuan Jingfan Ticket Salt Bureau and his father's funeral. According to legend, he died in Hengzhou, and it took Chen Zhaotang only 65,438+02 days to cross the difficult Shu Road and reach Hengzhou. Bon voyage is called "pure filial piety".

Severe punishment for chaos, killing 300 people at the age of 30

In the twenty-first year of Guangxu (1895), Chen Zhaotang was finally able to let go of his hands and feet and fight for his career. First, the ticket was issued in Yunyang County, Sichuan Province. The following year, Dayi county sent Weiyuan county, "suspected prison sentence, the case is not left behind, the month has passed." He also donated money to establish Jingwei Academy, and hired famous people Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, When I was transferred back to Dayi from Weiyuan, "my father climbed the iron to stay in trouble, and he walked more than 50 miles, crying and touching his chest." Dayi county is known as "difficult to treat, robbery is common" and "theft is rampant, and people should be on guard". As soon as Chen Zhaotang got off the bus, he vigorously rectified the public security problem, formulated corresponding laws and regulations, and set up a group training to defend the place. "If you are not profitable for one year, you will be awed." In Dayi, Chen Zhaotang showed his special talent in fighting bandits. In the city, Zhang Laoguang, the boss of the gang, committed huge crimes many times, but all the magistrates failed to get a reward. Chen Zhaotang regarded him as the first person to make other gangs fear power and turn over a new leaf.

For the people of Dayi, Chen Zhaotang's greatest achievement is not to fight bandits, but to build Yunping Academy, and to donate money and send people to Hubei Official Bookstore to buy books such as a subset of classics and history, so as to broaden students' knowledge and enjoy various students' poems at school in their spare time, which is a story in the local area. Chen Zhaotang wrote a couplet in the auditorium on the day of the completion of Yunping Academy: "I am infatuated with Jia Taifu's patriotic sorrow, roaring around the sea, and I cry helplessly;" This place is the former site of Fan Wenzhong's poems, a classic prophet, which can resist the loss of Huai Xi Gu. " Showed his patriotic and helpless feelings.

In the 25th year of Guangxu (1899), Liu Xinyuan, the magistrate of Chengdu Prefecture, took a fancy to Chen Zhaotang, who was good at fighting bandits, and transferred him to Chongqing Prefecture, where bandits were "tough and abnormal, died after years" and "stole for thousands of years". How does Chen Zhaotang treat thieves in Chongqing? According to Wu Guangyao, a famous Sichuan minister in the late Qing Dynasty, Chen Zhaotang "rewarded severely and punished severely, and thieves disappeared". If you are cheap, the thief will be convinced. "1926 published" Chongqing County Records "described this more specifically:" The urgent task is to rectify Garbo and clarify the household registration. As soon as I heard it was a policeman, I bowed my head and led the healthy soldiers out to hunt down, and the speed was fast and there were many people arrested. "

The book "* * * changes the present history" is Wu's later work, and it is written recklessly. The evaluation of someone's point of view and something in a straight book is highly reliable. From Wu's narrative, we can already see the signs of Chen Zhaotang's bloodthirsty. When Chen Zhaotang was appointed as the magistrate of Chongqing, Li Renxin was the magistrate. Chen and Li are both sons of the governor, and they are close, and they are both officials, so they are very close. On one occasion, Chen Zhaotang proposed to Li for his son. Li heard that Chen Zhaotang "killed 300 thieves every year" and thought that "it is illegal to simply kill thieves" and refused the marriage.

Nevertheless, Chen Zhaotang is still a good official in the eyes, because since Chen Zhaotang was transferred from Chongqing, his successor has been Jiangyou magistrate with a "strict reputation", but in contrast, Jiang is "not so effective" and "not so clean".

Take the lead as a civilian and a military attache.

On the one hand, it is cheap to convince thieves, on the other hand, it is tyranny that regards human life as dirt, which makes Chen Zhaotang's true face confusing. In fact, Chen Zhaotang at this time is far from becoming conspicuous. In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), Chen Zhaotang was transferred from Chongqing to Jianzhou. Not long after, his cousin Xia Shouyan was promoted from Chuandong Road to be the deployment envoy of the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Justice. Chen Zhaotang avoided it according to the Qing system, so he changed his official position and became an idle role in Jiangxi. This is bad news for Chen Zhaotang, who is on the rise. After arriving in Jiangxi, he "does not compete, entertains himself", a gesture of being at peace with the world. Surprisingly, after five years as a local official, Chen Zhaotang seems to be penniless. According to his brother Chen Zhaokui's "Mr. Hu Gan's 50th Birthday", Chen Zhaotang was "too poor to even take care of his luggage and marry his wife, and Cen Shaobao was in charge of Sichuan, so he was a little embarrassed at first." That is to say, it was not until two years later that Cen Shaobao (that is, Cen Chunxuan) appeared that he walked out of this trough.

Cen Chunxuan is definitely a noble person for Chen Zhaotang. When Chen Zhaotang was in Chongqing, Eight-Nation Alliance was plundering the capital, and people all over the country were scrambling to destroy the church. Chen Zhaotang's judgment on this point is very correct. He "tried his best to protect the church under his jurisdiction and took this offense seriously. Although the parishioners were hurt, the priests were not hurt, "so he escaped the second guessed of the religious plan of the Qing dynasty." Cen Chunxuan, then governor of Shanxi Province, was surprisingly consistent with Chen Zhaotang in his judgment on the religious plan in the late Qing Dynasty. In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), Cen Chunxuan, who became the favorite of Empress Dowager Cixi, was appointed as the governor of Sichuan, that is, Chen Zhaotang was invited to recall to Qiongzhou and Zhou Zhili's Sichuan Province. The following year, Cen was transferred to the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Chen Zhaotang was also sent to Guangdong to lead Wu Kuangjun. According to the regulations, Cen Chunxuan gave two thousand daughters to Chen Zuotong for a unified fee, but Chen Zhaotang "refused" and said "no money, no favoritism, no willfulness", so he disciplined himself.

At that time, the whole province of Guangxi was hungry and cold, and bandits and thieves were everywhere. "The big massacre robbed the wild, and the small one took money to grab things." "The people are suffering, and the government forces can't save them." Cen Chunxuan studied the art of war with Chen Zhaotang, and asked him to recruit 1500 children from Guiyang to form the "Yuegui Tangzijun" and move to Guangxi. Chen Zhaotang took the lead, "bowing his head and taking the stone as the guide", and played more than 70 battles in several years. "The military power has not been slightly damaged, and the armies of the Western Expedition take the public army first." At this time, Chen Zhaotang has become Cen Chunxuan's right-hand man in the Guangxi War. In the 31st year of Guangxu (1905), Guangxi was purged, and Chen Zhaotang immediately went to Guangdong, where he was ordered by Cen Chunxuan to inspect all the troops, and his career was in full swing.

From a small magistrate to an all-powerful army commander, Chen Zhaotang completed the transformation from a civilian to a military attache. This change undoubtedly magnifies the violent side of Chen Zhaotang's character infinitely. When he was ordered to handle Huizhou military affairs and Huizhou camp affairs in Guangdong, and later promoted to Huizhou magistrate, he was responsible for clearing his hometown. Huizhou was caught in the horror of rivers of blood, and Chen Zhaotang was nicknamed "Tubo".

Indifference to human life killed 3000 people.

/kloc-At the end of 0/9th century, the rule of the Qing Dynasty in Guangdong was facing severe challenges, and the prominent bandit problem was one of the main manifestations. An article in Macau's Intimate Newspaper 1899 165438 in August said: "There are many thieves in the world, and China has the most; There are many thieves in China and the most in Guangdong. " Officials do not shy away from the fact that there are many thieves in Guangdong, and even exaggerate them in many ways. For example 1885 Zhang Zhidong, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, said: "The mountains and seas in eastern Guangdong are intertwined, the people's feelings are blazing, and the thieves are blazing, which is better than other provinces." When Chen Zhaotang handled military affairs in Huizhou, he had to face more bandits and chaos than Sichuan and Guangxi. According to his own "successful experience", that is to upgrade Sichuan's policy of punishing chaos with heavy punishment and turn it into indiscriminate killing under heavy punishment and heavy law.

Chen Zhaotang's indiscriminate killing is "legal" in Guangdong. As early as the 11th year of Guangxu (1885), Guangdong Governor Zhang Zhidong and Guangdong Governor Ni Wei cooperated to resume on-the-spot execution in Guangdong. Since then, the "spot justice" has been used in Guangdong with the policy of cleaning up the countryside. In Huizhou, Chen Zhaotang gave full play to the role of "on-site justice". According to the Record of Chen Shouban's Discussion on the Qing Township of Huifu published by Guangzhou General Chamber of Commerce/KLOC-0 on August 20th, 907, Chen Zhaotang once issued a notice, demanding that all gentry and house clans "must be bound and punished according to their names quickly, with a view to uprooting them". The implication is that Huizhou gentry and businessmen refer to cracking down on gangsters in the clan in order to achieve the goal of clearing the countryside. However, how can the real thief in Jiangyangli do nothing? Therefore, people who are "summarily executed" in Qing Xiang are often "thieves, rats and dogs" or even good citizens.

The photo news of Huizhou government's indifference to human life is the most typical case of indiscriminate killing: Robin Er, a farmer in Yong 'an, Huizhou (now Zijin County, Heyuan), has been doing small business in Shangyi market for a living and was robbed and kidnapped by bandit Wu at 1906. After Robin II's father Luo Guozan reported the case to the county government, the Qing Xiang Business Office quickly solved the case and arrested Robin II and the gangsters. Unexpectedly, bandits bribed Hu Youde and accused Robin II of being a kidnapper. As a result, as soon as Chen Zhaotang heard the case, he immediately executed Robin II indiscriminately. Afterwards, Chen Zhaotang knew that he had killed the wrong person before he took Hu Youde into custody, but the deceased could not be resurrected. For this matter, the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Pictorial issued a "three sighs": "Chen Shou is not chaotic. As we all know, benefiting the people and being salty can tell the truth. Oh! Since the implementation of the on-the-spot method, I don't know how many belong to Qing Xiang! Robin II, an innocent man, suffered this terrible poison! "

How many people did Chen Zhaotang kill when he was in office for three years? "The township, each for a book. Write down the name, jurisdiction and place of the owner, arrest Zhao Tang according to the book and punish him. It will reach more than 3000 people in three years. Those who avoid it will be destroyed, which is called' Tubo'. " 1909165438+1On October 27th, Chen Jiongming's speech at the Guangdong Consultation Bureau during the on-the-spot discussion on stopping grass also confirmed this terrible figure: "It is indeed unjust to watch Chen Zhaotang benefit and kill more than 3,000 people." In the article "On the Trend of Revolution", Wang Jingwei even said that "Chen Zhaotang, the magistrate of Huizhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, killed more than a thousand people in January". Therefore, it can be understood that Chen Zhaotang is indifferent to human life.

Cause and effect of death in Chaozhou prefecture.

It should be said that Qing Xiang not only achieved Chen Zhaotang, but also led him to the point of no return. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, members of the "Qing Xiang Committee" were stationed in various places like permanent officials, and the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi also regarded Qing Xiang as an important part of assessing state and county officials. However, Chen Zhaotang's unique inferiority complex-he entered his official career with Lin's background-made him spare no effort to carry out the policy of cleaning up his hometown in order to gain further promotion space. No wonder Wang Ching-wei said, "A murderer who likes to kill people will definitely be valued by Lu Ting, which is beneficial to Zhang Qiwei. Therefore, if you are a local official, everyone is unexpectedly Chen Zhaotang. "

Chen Zhaotang's reputation as a killer reached the ears of his mentor Wang Kaiyun, who knew Chen Zhaotang's character very well and gave him some advice. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), Chen Zhaotang just turned 50. Wang Kaiyun wrote "A couplet for Chen Shugan's 50th birthday": "Five horses and one ride, brothers embroidered clothes; Whales are crocodiles, and people are in the same spring. " After Zhao Chen's official position is high, he will write "Sacrificing Crocodiles" to drive away crocodiles when Han Yu is demoted to Chaozhou as a secretariat. Only by replacing Wu Zhi with Wen Zhi can ordinary people live and work in peace and contentment. According to Wang Kaiyun's Diary of Xiangqilou, this couplet is followed by Wang Kaiyun's evaluation of Chen Zhaotang: "He is willing to kill foreigners, so he makes his whales crocodiles, but he can't kill them." Obviously, he is worried about Chen Zhaotang's "good killing".

Contrary to Wang Kaiyun, it is Chen Zhaokui. Chen Zhaokui also said in an article celebrating Chen Zhaotang's birthday: "(Chen Zhaotang) said a lot about killing thieves. At that time, the suspicion was serious. After going, people should think about it. Therefore, between Sichuan and Guangdong, honest and clean people are pushing each other. Although Shen Sishi and Wang Fenxun were famous for a while, they all called themselves incompetent. " The implication is that Chen Zhaotang is good at killing, which greatly shocked criminals and made the people live and work in peace and contentment.

Wang Kaiyun and Chen Zhaokui respectively analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of Chen Zhaotang's bloodthirsty. In fact, history has proved that Wang Kaiyun is more far-sighted. Because killing is a palliative measure, it is impossible to eradicate the source of theft, and indiscriminate killing is bound to further intensify contradictions. In the end, ordinary people "die for bandits, not for bandits" and "are bound to kill each other and fight for trapped animals". In addition, the Qing court building is about to collapse at this time, and Chen Zhaotang, who ignores human life, is bound to become a thorn in the side of the people and try to get rid of it quickly. As for Chen Zhaotang's clean and honest administration at the local level, it has long been forgotten.

In August, the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu, Chen Zhaotang was ordered by Zhang, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, to be transferred to Chaozhou Prefecture, and as always, he carried out his violent philosophy. "Killing 300 people a day shocked the whole county", which is chilling.

In the third year of Xuantong (19 1 1), Wuchang Uprising caused a sensation in the whole country, Chaozhou recovered, and Chen Zhaotang was also captured by the revolutionary army. 165438+1At 8: 00 on October 22nd, the revolutionary army tied Chen Zhaotang to a bamboo ladder, and a long slogan hung on the top of the ladder, which read "Execute the thief Chen Zhaotang to thank the world". In this way, Chen Zhaotang was taken to the front of the office and shot. "Draft of Qing Dynasty" records that "middle 13 guns are necessary", and there are also 19 guns, with 7 guns in the middle. In any case, Chen Zhaotang paid a heavy price for what he did.

Before his execution, Chen Zhaotang drew up his last words to his family: "Don't die in the king, don't die in the country, die in cause and effect." These words remind people of Wang Kaiyun's farewell to Chen Zhaotang before going to work in Sichuan. Wang Kaiyun looked at this passionate young man who had no choice but to serve his country, and expressed such feelings: "What's the use of reading? It' s really infinite. " Or it can be said that Chen Zhaotang's death was not a speechless tragic ending in the late Qing Dynasty.