Chapter 33 In the third quarter, Kang Youwei boarded Darjeeling

The Reform Movement of 1898, also known as the "Hundred Days Reform", took place in 1898, and its main representatives were Kang Youwei and his disciples Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong.Kang Youwei cared about Indian issues very early. He wrote in his self-compiled chronicle "Guangxu Ten Years (AD 1884)" under the article: "In the early years, I read Song, Yuan and Ming Xuean, "Zhu Zi Yu Lei", and read Buddhist scriptures in Hualin, Haizhuang. Most of them came from the Brahmins, learned from the four religions, and dabbled in Western books for mathematics." Later, in the 16th year of Guangxu (AD 1890), he wrote "An Examination of Brahmanism".Before the Reform Movement of 1898, he repeatedly emphasized in his articles such as "The Preface to the Capital Strong Society" and "The Preface to the National Defense Council" that China should take India as a lesson and implement the reform as soon as possible to avoid subjugation of the country.Liang Qichao also said in the book: "India, the oldest country on the earth, has kept the old ways and has been reduced to a British vassal." Kang Youwei wrote to Guangxu many times to analyze the reasons for India's subjugation. In May 1895, he said in "The Second Book of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty": "If there are many talented people, the country will be strong, and if there are few talented people, the country will be weak. Turkey is the number one land division in the world and sees it. This is the clear effect." Through the unremitting efforts of Kang Youwei and others, Emperor Guangxu reformed the law, but due to the strong power of the conservatives headed by Xihou, the reform failed.Kang and Liang went into exile overseas. In 1901, Liang Qichao published "On the New Law of Destruction of the Country", pointing out that the subjugation of India was due to the "New Law of Destroying the Country" of the British, "The British destroyed India not with the power of Britain, but with the power of India." "At the beginning of its aggression, the Indians are the ones who attack the Indians; And the mistakes of the fallen dynasties" to prevent the great powers from "using the Chinese to attack the Chinese."In the same year, Kang Youwei escaped disaster in Penang Island. At the end of October, he floated in the sea and went to the long-awaited India.

In early November 1901, Kang Youwei arrived in Calcutta, India. At the end of the month, he lived in Darjeeling, a summer resort in northeast India.He lived in India for a year and a half, traveled around, and wrote "India Travel Notes" and "Xumi Xueting Poetry Collection". The famous "Book of Great Harmony" was also compiled during this period.He said in "India Travel Notes Preface": "Chinese people who traveled to India, from Qin Jing, Faxian, Sanzang, and Huiyun thousands of years later, I am the fifth person." His anecdote about Sino-Indian cultural exchanges It seems that it is not very clear, and there is no information to check, so there are inevitably some discrepancies between the text and the historical facts.But it can be seen that he regarded himself as the "fifth person" and traveled around India with a heavy sense of historical mission.

"India Travel Notes Preface" said: "Today, the sea road is open. Those who come from Guangdong to Karajita (Kalcutta) have six steamboats every month. The sea waves are not prosperous, just like passing on a pillow. The carpentry and footwork in Guangdong are concentrated in India. There are thousands of people. Officials in U-Tsang or businessmen often come and go in false ways. They look at each other like a door for years, but no one remembers the religious customs, characters, palaces, and utensils of India. Use the testimonials of the people of the country to select them to benefit our civilization." This shows that at least around 1901, Guangdong had regular direct passenger ships to India.At that time, thousands of migrant workers from Guangdong gathered there.It can be seen that most of the overseas Chinese in India came in during this period.In addition, people who are officials and businessmen in Tibet often use Calcutta as a transit point.

In June 1909, Kang Youwei traveled to Ceylon. In September, he traveled to India again and wrote a poem: "The bandits and tigers are traveling in the wilderness, and what sand is there to travel to the west. The solemn pure land becomes a prostitute, and it is better than Huiling Mountain. This cold autumn. There are no monks and no Dharma in India, and there will be no life. Don't worry about it. I didn't think about it, but I was willing to go to prison for saving the people." Here, he once again showed his dissatisfaction and grief for China and India's reality, and showed his sense of mission that if I don't go to hell, whoever goes to hell will go to hell.Throughout his life, he never forgot to warn the people of his country with the historical lessons of India becoming a British colony. The Book of Great Harmony said: "Kang Youwei was born on the land at the age of the British Emperor India." Until 1921, in his letter to Zhao Hengti The article also said: "Our country has few people in India, and I don't know why India is dead, so I don't stop it... China has a warlord autocracy, but there is only military rule under separate regimes, and the rule of the people does not come into being. Therefore, the warlords have not been eliminated, and self-government two You don’t need to use false words...You guys didn’t know India’s splitting and internal strife, and the tragedy of the country’s self-destruction for a hundred years. I traveled all over the five Indias, and I lived there for fifteen months. You can’t count them by one or two. The public will definitely want to take our land of thousands of miles and 400 million people into slavery, so that after they come from India, they will listen to mermaid meat, and they will advocate the idea of ​​self-government of the provinces.” It can also be seen from this passage that Kang Youwei took care of India with patriotism, and was very sympathetic to the situation of the Indian people being ruled and exploited by the British.This represented the feelings of the Chinese people at that time.