Chapter 156 politics

Cai Yuanpei founded the "Russian Police News" in 1903, and the "Alarm Bell Daily" in 1904 (the headline was written by Zou Rong in Tilanqiao Prison).On the front pages of both newspapers, there is a commentary from time to time, talking freely about state affairs, most of which are written by Cai. In 1904, on Empress Dowager Cixi's birthday, Cai wrote a current commentary "Longevity Without Boundaries", implying that "every longevity, the land must be lost". Cai Yuanpei was very sharp when he was young.When he was the principal of Shaoxing Chinese and Western School, he attended a banquet one night. After drinking for three rounds, he raised his glass and loudly criticized Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao for their incomplete reform movement, because they advocated preserving the Manchu imperial family to lead the reform.Speaking of fierceness, he raised his right arm and shouted: "I, Cai Yuanpei, am not like this. Unless you overthrow the Manchu Qing, no reform is possible!"

Cai Yuanpei was very violent in the revolution in his early years.He ran two schools, a patriotic boys' school and a patriotic girls' school, and he wanted the boys to riot and the girls to assassinate (because the girls didn't attract attention).When Cai Yuanpei presided over the patriotic girls' school, the textbooks often infiltrated revolutionary content, such as history teaching the history of the French Revolution, Russian nihilists (anarchists) stories, and physics and chemistry focusing on bomb manufacturing.In Cai Yuanpei's office, earth bombs are displayed. Mr. Cai Yuanpei was once a key member of the assassination group.As early as after the signing of the "Xin Chou Treaty", Cai Yuanpei had the ambition to fight against the Qing Dynasty.In view of the repeated failure of the uprisings led by Sun Yat-sen, Cai Yuanpei was determined to change the means of struggle against the Qing Dynasty. In the spring of 1904, he initiated the establishment of a secret assassination group among students studying in Japan in Tokyo, intending to start with the assassination and promote the anti-Qing revolution.

Cai Yuanpei believes that assassination requires self-made weapons that are convenient, secret, fast and easy to disguise and conceal. He is determined to make chemical poisons by himself.People who understand chemistry are needed to make chemical poisons. He immediately recruited Zhong Xianchang and Yu Ziyi, chemistry teachers from Patriotic Girls' School, into the group.Yu Ziyi prepared cyanic acid, Cai Yuanpei asked a worker to get a cat, and forced him to drink a few drops, the cat was poisoned and died.Later, Cai Yuanpei thought that liquid poisons were inconvenient to use and could be easily detected by others. It would be better if they could be changed into solid powders, so he rushed to the bookstore to buy a batch of books on pharmacology, pharmacognosy and forensic medicine, and personally led the research.

Soon, Cai Yuanpei felt that it was better to use explosives, and then turned to research on explosives.He led the research and development team to tackle key problems day and night, and finally made a small but powerful explosive.In addition, Cai Yuanpei believes that women's assassination is more concealed than men's, so he pays special attention to the teaching of chemistry in the patriotic girls' school in order to cultivate the seeds of assassination.Since then, the explosives developed by Cai Yuanpei were continuously brought back to China by members of the assassination regiment, and the upper-level officials of the Qing government were frequently assassinated.

Before 1904, the revolutionary parties in Zhejiang operated secretly and did not belong to each other.For example, Xu Xilin, Zhu Shaokang, and Wang Jinfa were in Shaoxing and Shengxian, Tao Chengzhang was in Jin, Yan, and Chu, Ao Jiaxiong was active in Jiaxing, and Gong Baoshuan was in Tokyo, Japan.The dragons have no leader, the power is scattered, there is no strict organization, and there is no program of action.After Gong Baoshuan and others arrived in Shanghai, they managed business with Cai Yuanpei, established the Restoration Association in the winter of 1904, and elected Cai as its president.Cai Yuanpei successively invited Xu Xilin and Tao Chengzhang to join the Restoration Association. In 1907, Xu Xilin died heroically in Anqing, and Qiu Jin was also arrested and sacrificed because of the Anqing incident. The strength of the Restoration Society suffered setbacks. After the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911, Shanghai and Hangzhou were restored one after another. Tao Chengzhang returned from Nanyang, and soon after, Chen Qimei, the governor of Shanghai, appointed Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Zhuqing to assassinate him in Shanghai Guangde Hospital.After Tao Chengzhang's death, the powerful faction with appeal in the Restoration Association disappeared.At that time, under the sphere of influence of Chen Qimei, the governor of Shanghai, the Shanghai newspapers did not comment on Tao's assassination.However, "Yuelong Daily" once published a comment saying: "Tao's death received little response from all parties. Only Cai Yuanpei, the president of the Restoration Association, delivered a eulogy at the memorial service for Tao held in Nanjing, expressing deep regret and even weeping.

In January 1912, Cai Yuanpei became the chief education officer of the Nanjing Provisional Government.During his tenure in the Beijing government, he became increasingly dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai's arbitrariness and dictatorship, and expressed that he could not serve as a cabinet member who was "accompanied by food". In July, he withdrew from the cabinet together with Song Jiaoren and did not cooperate with Yuan Shikai.Yuan Shikai hated and feared him very much. During the law protection movement, although Cai Yuanpei had no disagreement with Sun Yat-sen in opposing warlord rule and striving for a democratic republic, he did not approve of Sun Yat-sen resorting to force to protect the law, and advocated that the unification of the country should be achieved through peaceful negotiations. On October 23, 1918, Cai Yuanpei, Xiong Xiling, Zhang Jian, Wang Chonghui and others initiated the establishment of the Peace Period Conference. With a super-partisan attitude, they telegraphed the whole country, calling for an end to the division between the North and the South, alleviating the suffering of the people in war, and lamenting the "self-made domestic structure". Suddenly, for more than a year, it has become a division of borders, leading to a situation between the north and the south, taming to the point where all the government is not repaired, bandits are everywhere, the three armies are exposed, and the people are displaced. How can we build a country if we keep fighting against each other for a long time." He wrote in a letter to Sun Yat-sen The same view was also expressed in .

At the end of April and early May of 1922, the Zhili warlords Wu Peifu and Cao Kun defeated the Fengtian warlord Zhang Zuolin and became the chief figure of the Beiyang warlords. Cai Yuanpei took the position of liberal intellectuals again, hoping to realize the unification of the North and the South under Wu Peifu's rule. Create a government of good people.In May of that year, he and 16 people including Wang Chonghui, Luo Wengan, Tang Hualong, Tao Xingzhi, and Li Dazhao jointly published an article drafted by Hu Shi, saying that "there are various reasons why China has become so corrupt, but it is the good people who pretend to be noble." An important reason."

At the same time, Cai Yuanpei opposed Sun Yat-sen's idea of ​​the Northern Expedition, and supported Wu Peifu's proposal to restore the old Congress and invite Li Yuanhong to reinstate his post. On May 22, he and Liang Qichao, Xiong Xiling, Wang Daxie, Sun Baoqi, Wang Chonghui, Lin Changmin, Liang Sianji, Zhang Yaozeng and others jointly issued a telegram with opinions on solving the current situation, saying that Wu Peifu "has a great road ahead, and the whole country looks up to him. Prospects depend on strength.” On June 3, at the commemorative meeting of June 3 held in Beijing’s educational circles, Cai Yuanpei and more than 200 representatives called Sun Yat-sen and the Guangdong Extraordinary Congress, arguing that the illegal president Xu Shichang had resigned and that the old Congress It is about to be restored, and the purpose of protecting the law has been achieved. Sun Yat-sen is required to "stop the Northern Expedition and implement the declaration that he will go to the field at the same time as the illegal president." On June 8, he and 10 people including Wang Jiaju, Li Jianxun, and Mao Bangwei issued a telegram on behalf of the education sector, welcoming Li Yuanhong's reinstatement.Even when Hu Shi suggested that he should not send a telegram to urge Li Yuanhong to come to Beijing, Cai Yuanpei still insisted on his opinion, saying that "the Southwest opposes the old Congress, and Jie Yili treats Sun as a way to negotiate a peace. Criticized by the Kuomintang, but he still insisted on his position.

Cai Yuanpei does not object to students' participation in political activities, and believes that students can study behind closed doors without caring about the fate of the country and the nation. When he talked about his attitude towards the domestic student movement during his European tour in 1923, he made it clear: "The view of the school authorities is that if the behavior of the students does not exceed the scope of citizenship, if the behavior of the students has good patriotic beliefs , then the students are blameless. The school authorities should judge this correctly, should not interfere with the student movement, and should not regard the intervention of the student movement as their own responsibility to the students.”

In 1932, Cai Yuanpei, Song Qingling, Yang Shuan (Xingfo) and others organized the China Civil Rights Protection League in Shanghai, with Soong Ching Ling as the chairman, Cai Yuanpei as the vice chairman, Yang Quan as the director general, and Lu Xun as the executive committee member. After the "September 18th" Incident and the "January 28th" Incident, Chiang Kai-shek arrested many progressive people and patriotic students in Beiping, Shanghai and other places.For example, Xu Deheng, Hou Wailu, Fan Wenlan were arrested in Beiping, Chen Duxiu, Ding Ling and many students were arrested in Shanghai, as well as the foreigners Niu Lan and his wife.Cai Yuanpei sent letters and telegrams to rescue him in the name of China Civil Rights Protection League. On June 8, 1933, Yang Xingfo was assassinated by Kuomintang agents. Cai Yuanpei cried bitterly when he heard the news.