Chapter 87 Chapter 87: The Fall of the Qing Dynasty

The demise of the Manchu Dynasty was actually due to a piece of paper. This "one paper book" is the "Shangli Fu Xiangshu" written by Mr. Sun Yat-sen in early 1894, which is called "Shangli Hongzhang Shu" by later generations. This petition took place against a specific historical background. The nine years from the end of the Sino-French War to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, that is, from 1885 to 1894, was the best period for China in the second half of the nineteenth century.During this period, there was no major chaos in the country, the international environment in the Far East eased, and China and Western countries were in a state of peace.The Westernization Movement with the goal of "rich the country and strengthen the army" has gone through 30 years, and the effect is obvious. Defeated the French army; Liu Yongfu's Black Banner Army repeatedly defeated the French army; destroyed the coup d'etat created by the Japanese soldiers in cooperation with the Kaihua Party members in North Korea.At that time, China's national power was not weaker than that of Japan. British authorities commented: "Asia is now in the hands of three major powers-Russia, Britain and China." In the second half of the 19th century, China fought five foreign wars. The "Sino-French Peace Treaty" after the Sino-French War was the only peace treaty without land cession and compensation.The environment at that time should be said to be quite favorable for China's self-improvement.

Under such an international and domestic situation, many intellectuals fancied that Li Hongzhang, who was under one man and over ten thousand at the time, could take advantage of his high position in the imperial court to implement the New Deal and carry out reforms step by step, so as to realize the dream of self-improvement. Sun Yat-sen is one of them.Out of this kind of thinking, the young Sun Yat-sen decided to write a letter to Li Hongzhang.At that time, he was studying at the Hong Kong College of Western Medicine. At the end of January 1894, Sun Yat-sen returned to his hometown Cuiheng Village to thank guests behind closed doors. After more than ten days, he wrote the eloquent and profound essay "Shang Li and Fu Xiangshu", in which he proposed "Four Strategies for a Rich Country": , make the best use of the land, make the best use of things, and make the best flow of goods", hoping to emerge a government that can improve current affairs, adopting him "take agriculture as the economics, business as the latitude, have the basics and the basics, complete the details, and strengthen the army." The pioneer of a rich country, the hub of governing the country and the world", practiced his desire to change the living environment of the suffering nation.

In February of that year, Sun Yat-sen and his good friend Lu Haodong went north to Tianjin to pay homage to Li Hongzhang, governor of Zhili. At that time, Li had held the important post of governor of Zhili for more than 20 years. There are quite a lot of contacts with people, the position is respected and powerful, and he is well-known both at home and abroad. Before leaving for Tianjin, reformist veterans Zheng Guanying and Wang Tao wrote letters to Li Hongzhang's trusted friends Sheng Xuanhuai and Muyou Luo Fenglu respectively for Sun Yat-sen, and tried their best to recommend them.However, although Sun Yat-sen went to Tianjin despite the long and dangerous journey to Guanshan, and made full preparations for this letter and placed great expectations on it, the result turned out to be a hot face with a cold butt, and things backfired. "After the book was written, Hongzhang approved it very much", but at that time the Sino-Japanese War of 1899-1895 was about to break out, and Li Hongzhang, who was busy with military affairs, was training troops in Lutai. The reply said: "The war is over, see you later!" Sun Yat-sen was deeply disappointed and returned to Shanghai "depressed".

Before the letter was thwarted, in Sun Yat-sen's thought, reform was in the dominant position. After the setback, revolution and reform started a tug-of-war in his mind.In this state of mind, Sun Yat-sen and his friends arrived in Beijing in June and July.During this trip to Beijing, Sun Yat-sen fully witnessed the corruption and disarmament of the Qing government, and realized that "it is completely impossible to achieve any improvement". , Restoring China" revolutionary road. Five months later, Sun Yat-sen founded the anti-Qing revolutionary organization Xingzhonghui in Honolulu, Hawaii (the United States had not annexed Hawaii at that time), and the death knell of the Qing Dynasty sounded!

On October 10, 1911, the first cannon fired in Wuchang City, and the Manchu Qing Empire collapsed. Soon, the Republic of China was established in Nanjing, and Sun Yat-sen became the president. If Sun Yat-sen's letter had been paid attention to by Li Hongzhang, he might not have embarked on the revolutionary road, but would have become "Kang Youwei" before Kang Youwei. Without Sun Yat-sen's leadership, the Qing Dynasty would not have fallen so quickly, which is probably okay. As a real example of the butterfly effect.