Kang Youwei's earliest teacher was his grandfather Kang Zanxiu. Nineteen-year-old studied under Zhu Ciqi, a famous scholar in Jiujiang, Nanhai. Kang Zanxiu and Zhu Ciqi both believed in Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. Therefore, under the influence of Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties, Kang Youwei despised the tedious textual research of the so-called sinologists in an attempt to open up a new way of studying. After studying Neo-Confucianism for a while, I don't agree with Neo-Confucianism either. Because Neo-Confucianism "only talks about Confucius' self-cultivation, not Confucius' salvation." He left Zhu Ciqi at the age of 22 and went to Baiyun Cave in Xiqiao Mountain to study alone. He read many practical books, such as Gu's Records of Diseases in Counties and Countries under the World, Gu Zuyu's Minutes of Reading History, etc. In the same year, he went to Hong Kong once, which opened his eyes. Later, I read some books, such as Atlas of Sea Countries, A Brief Introduction to Ying Huan, and said that "buying a map of the earth and gradually collecting books on western learning are the basis of speaking about western learning". This year is an important beginning for Kang Youwei to change from middle school to western learning. 1882, Kang Youwei went to Beijing to take the exam. When he came back, he passed by Shanghai, where he was further exposed to capitalist things and collected many books and periodicals introducing the political system and natural sciences of capitalist countries. After studying, Kang Youwei gradually realized that the capitalist system was more advanced than the feudal system in China. The imperialist aggression and corruption in the Qing Dynasty ignited the fire of saving the country in the young Kang Youwei's chest. The prosperity of the west made him determined to learn from the west in order to save the motherland in danger.
1888, Kang Youwei went to Beijing to take the rural examination in Shuntian, but failed. In September of that year, he wrote to Emperor Guangxu, lamenting the peril of the motherland, criticizing the conformism, demanding reform and reform, and putting forward three programmatic propositions of "changing into law, being clear about the current situation and being cautious about the current situation". 189 1 year, Kang Youwei returned to Guangdong, opened 10,000 mu of Caotang Academy, gathered disciples to give lectures, and founded theories for the political reform movement. He has written two books, New Learning Test and Confucius Reform Test, both written in the name of Zun Kong. The previous book declared some classics that feudalists always considered sacred as forged documents; The latter book dressed Confucius, who was originally conservative, as an enterprising man, and advocated thinking and equality as much as possible. Although Kang Youwei's views are unscientific, his spirit of reform has had a strong shock and repercussions in the intellectual circles, posing a great threat to feudal diehard conservatives, so these two books are regarded as heresies by them. 1894, Kang Youwei began to compile the book "Axioms of Human Beings", which was revised several times and later published as "Datong Book". Datong Book describes all kinds of human sufferings, and puts forward that Datong society will be a paradise on earth with selfless production, no class, mutual friendship and equality. This is of course ridiculous, because "Kang Youwei wrote The Book of Great Harmony, and he didn't and can't find the way of great harmony."
After laying the theoretical foundation for the Reform Movement of 1898, I took my time. From 1895 to 1898, Kang Youwei actively carried out political reform practice. 1in April, 895, juren from all provinces who were taking exams in Beijing were extremely indignant when they heard that the Qing government was going to conclude the treaty of shimonoseki with Japan. Kang Youwei drafted a 14,000-word theory of emperors overnight. More than 1300 people from all provinces got together and passed the book. On May 2nd, this Yan Hong book was sent to Douchayuan. This is the famous bus book. In the book, Kang Youwei, from the standpoint of patriotism, strongly advocated "rejecting peace, moving the capital and reforming the law" and suggested that the emperor "summon the spirit of the world, move the capital to set the foundation of the world, train troops to strengthen the trend of the world, and reform the law to govern the world." In this exam, Kang Youwei won the Jinshi and was appointed as the director of the Ministry of Industry. Later, Kang Youwei gave the emperor several books in succession. Kang Youwei's question moved Emperor Guangxu very much. In these books, Kang Youwei gave full play to his thought of political reform and put forward his own opinions from politics, economy, culture and education. Politically, Kang Youwei put forward the requirement of changing absolute monarchy into constitutional monarchy. He pointed out: "The strength of the East and the West is due to the formulation of the Constitution and the establishment of the National Assembly. Members of Congress, monarchs and people discuss the politics and laws of a country together. " Economically, Kang Youwei put forward the idea of developing industry, revitalizing commerce and protecting the interests of the national bourgeoisie. In terms of culture and education, Kang Youwei put forward the ideas of "enlightening people", "promoting learning" and "abolishing stereotyped writing". These aspects constitute the basic program of Kang Youwei's political reform and reform.
In order to organize and develop the reformist forces, Kang Youwei organized a strong society in Beijing on August 1895. After the establishment of Qiangshe, a regular meeting was held every three days to discuss "China's self-improvement" with each other and criticize the die-hards for surrendering and betraying the country. This angered Li Hongzhang and others, who ordered the closure of the society. Kang Youwei felt nervous before the society was closed. In the same year, he left Beijing and set up a strong branch in Shanghai 165438+ 10, which was closed down soon. 1897,1/kloc-0 In June, Germany sent troops to occupy Jiaozhou Bay, which aroused fierce opposition from the people of the whole country. 1898 In March, Kang Youwei organized the Bao National Congress in Beijing. At the inaugural meeting, Kang Youwei made a generous speech, saying, "Since February, there have been 20 cases of losing land and power. There is still a long way to go. Why did you die? " Kang Youwei's words deeply touched the hearts of the audience, and the number of members in the country grew rapidly to hundreds. This has aroused the fear and slander of the die-hards. Someone wrote a letter cursing Congress for "protecting the country will inevitably lead to chaos." Some people also wrote an impeachment letter, ready to investigate Kang and others. It's just that Emperor Guangxu said, "It's good to protect our country and defend our country." However, since then, there has been little activity in the National Assembly. Kang Youwei and his colleagues promoted patriotism by organizing associations, further mobilized the masses and expanded the influence of the political reform and reform.
The reformists also carried out public opinion propaganda by publishing newspapers and periodicals. When 1898 was founded, Kang Youwei founded The Story of China and Foreign Countries in Beijing, and began to print 1000 copies, and later printed 3,000 copies. At that time, many officials could see that it had great influence both inside and outside the imperial court. In the same year, Kang Youwei organized and published "Strong Magazine" in Shanghai. The reformists mobilized their strength and expanded their positions through newspapers.
Kang Youwei gained great social reputation through a series of political practices. Emperor Guangxu wants to summon Kang Youwei. However, it failed because of the obstinate minister's obstruction. Emperor Guangxu ordered that if Kang Youwei had a memorial in the future, it would be presented on the same day and could not be stopped. On June 1898, 1 1 day, Emperor Guangxu issued an imperial edict, announcing the implementation of the New Deal and "strengthening the country through reform". Five days later, Emperor Guangxu officially received Kang Youwei, and granted him six titles to walk on the "Prime Minister's yamen Zhang Jing", and at the same time granted him the power to specialize in playing things. Soon, Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong also served in the government. In this way, Kang Youwei and his colleagues finally participated in the secret political reform and political reform. In the past three months, according to the emperor's instructions, they issued many imperial edicts aimed at implementing the New Deal, such as setting up schools, advocating certain freedom of speech, rewarding inventions, protecting and rewarding agriculture, industry and commerce, and reforming finance. Kang Youwei and others thought that as long as the emperor was caught, nothing would happen. In fact, Emperor Guangxu was just an empty shelf, and the real power was entirely in the hands of the die-hards Nala and others. Just when Kang Youwei and others were full of ambitions, the die-hards counterattacked and overthrew the reformists. Emperor Guangxu went to prison, Tan Sitong and others were killed, and Kang Youwei and Ran Qichao fled abroad. The Reform Movement of 1898 lasted only 100 days, which was also called "Hundred Days Reform" in history.
Although the reform movement led by Kang Youwei has its progressive significance, its failure is also inevitable. Because they are afraid of the masses and even hostile to them. They advocate political reform, but oppose revolution. Kang Youwei believes that "the three laws of absolute monarchy, constitutionalism and democracy must be carried out one by one, and if they are orderly, chaos will occur." In the preface to the French Revolution, he described the revolution as very cruel and terrible. "I have read the history of various countries. At the time of the French Revolution, the drama of people's struggle with people was not without tears. The whole country was bleeding, Paris died in a hundred days, 1.29 million corpses changed three times, the monarch was restored, and the disaster was eighty years. " It is based on this understanding that after the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei clung to Wang Baosi and resolutely opposed the revolution, which eventually became a stumbling block to historical progress.
At the same time, when Yuan Shikai proposed to worship Confucius, Kang Youwei summoned Li Heduan, proposed to worship Confucius, and shouted, "China people don't worship heaven or Confucius, so why leave this knee?"
Edit this life
Kang Youwei was born in a feudal bureaucratic family. Grandfather Kang Zanxiu was a juren during the reign of Daoguang, and father Kang Dachu was a magistrate in Jiangxi. Kang Youwei studied Confucianism since childhood, and began to contact western culture in 1879. 1882, Kang Youwei went to Beijing to take the rural examination in Shuntian, but failed. When I returned to South China, I passed through Shanghai, bought a large number of western books, absorbed western evolutionism and political views, and initially formed the ideological system of reform and reform.
1888, Kang Youwei once again went to Beijing to take the provincial examination in Shuntian, and took the opportunity to write to Emperor Guangxu for the first time, demanding political reform, but he was blocked. 189 1 year later, a 10,000-acre thatched cottage was founded in Guangzhou, and it was taught by apprentices. His disciples are Liang Qichao, Chen and others.
1895, he went to Beijing to take an exam, and learned that the treaty of shimonoseki was signed, which attracted more than 300 people and tens of thousands of books, that is, "writing on the bus", but failed to be reached. At the end of May of that year, he wrote a letter for the third time and got the approval of Emperor Guangxu. In July, he and Liang Qichao founded "Chinese and foreign stories" and soon organized a strong society in Beijing.
1897, when Germany occupied JIAOZHOU bay, Kang Youwei wrote to ask for political reform again. In June 5438+the following year 10, Emperor Guangxu ordered Kang Youwei to express his opinions on the political reform. He presented the book Ying Zhao as a whole, as well as two books, namely, the Meiji Reform in Japan and the Reform of Peter the Great in Russia. In April, he and Liang Qichao organized to defend the National Assembly and called for saving the country and strengthening the country. /kloc-in June of 0/6, Emperor Guangxu summoned Kang Youwei in the Qin Zhengting Hall of the Summer Palace, and appointed him as Zhang Jing, the Prime Minister's yamen, to make special preparations for the political reform, known as the Reform Movement of 1898. Later, due to the intervention of Empress Dowager Cixi, the reform failed, and its specific details are still controversial.
After the failure of the political reform, Emperor Guangxu was placed under house arrest, Kang Renguang, Kang Youwei's brother, was killed, and Kang Youwei fled to Japan, claiming that he held the imperial edict, organized a royalist society, advocated enlightened autocracy and opposed the revolution. In order to gain international support, he traveled around the world and met European monarchs.
After the Revolution of 1911, Kang Youwei returned to China in 19 13, edited the magazine I can't stand it, and advocated the restoration of Confucius. As the leader of the royalist party, he opposed the republic and always planned to abolish the Puyi Emperor and reset him. 19 17, Kang Youwei and Zhang Xun, a Beiyang warlord loyal to the previous dynasty, launched the restoration, leaving Puyi to reign, and soon failed under the crusade of the then Prime Minister Duan of Beiyang Government.
Kang Youwei always declared his loyalty to the Qing Dynasty in his later years. After Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang, he personally went to Tianjin and visited Bird where Puyi lived. 1927, Kang Youwei died in Qingdao.