Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Anatomy of Kang Youwei

The previous article has already said.In the late Qing Dynasty, Kang Youwei was not the first person to advocate removing the old and introducing the new, as "slow progress non-violent political reform".Before him, there were in-depth observations, mature theories, and sorrowful feelings, and those who advocated reforms such as Feng Guifen (1809-1874) and Rong Hong (1828-1912) and others Both are earlier than Kang.Even the reigning Li Hongzhang (1823-1901) already knew this.However, within the camp of traditional scholar-officials, they firstly combined Chinese and Western theories and turned theories into actions. , then there is only one Kang Youwei. ——He is the first sprinter to "take over" and run the "second stage" in the long-distance "relay race" of "Modernization Movement" in modern China.After he finished the second stage, another Cantonese guy, Sun Yat-sen, took over the "third stage"—the stage of "radical political reform" (overthrowing the authoritarian regime by violence).After Sun Yat-sen "established the Republic of China", there were still a lot of problems that could not be solved, so Hu Shi took over and ran his "fourth stage"-the cultural revolution stage of "overthrowing the Confucian family shop" and "entirely Westernizing".This is a later story.There is another explanation in the sequel.

But then again.In the late Qing Dynasty, the "slow progress" political modernization was actually "political Westernization" (more correctly, it was "constitutional monarchy" following the "British model"). Why was it the turn of Kang and Liang's masters and disciples to take the lead? Woolen cloth?The reason is very simple, Kang and Liang are both Cantonese!In the late Qing Dynasty, the Cantonese were the first to adopt the Anglo-American style of reform.At that time, we inland people still regarded the British and American "barbarians" as barbaric people who could only make murderous weapons!But the Cantonese at that time began to admit that the culture, political and social system of the barbarian nation far surpassed ours after hearing and seeing it!Kang and Liang's masters and apprentices were the outstanding ones who stood out among the southern intellectuals at that time.

Guangdong and Guangxi provinces were originally backward areas in my country's thousands of years of political and cultural history.Gai Han culture developed from north to south.Guangdong is located in the southern border, so it is culturally backward.Liang Qichao said: "My Guangdong is a border area in China. It is blocked by five mountains. The culture often comes after the Central Plains. Therefore, the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin have been civilized for a long time, and people have repeatedly emerged, but my Guangdong is unknown. Counting Regardless of the academic achievements in the millennium, no one has made..." (see "Biography of Kang Youwei" by Liang).

But three thousand years of feng shui took turns.In modern times, the culture of the Han family has shrunk, and Western learning has spread eastward, and advanced elements who believe in foreign religions, reform and reform, and revolutionize the crowd, such as Hong Xiuquan, Rong Hong, Sun Wen, Kang, and Liang...they are all Lao Guang.Let us dissect this "Kang Shengren" first. Kang Youwei (1858-1927) was born in Nanhai, Guangdong, and his eldest grandson, Zhongshan, was eight years old.The day of his birth coincided with the invasion of the "British and French Allied Forces" (1858-1860).Six years after his birth, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established by his little fellow Hong Xiuquan fell.In his adolescence, our centipede Manchu Empire, in the north of Emperor Xianfeng hunted Chengde "Dragon Yu Bintian", the young master ascended the throne, "Two Palaces Chuilian", "Taiping Army" and "Nian Army" successively After the collapse, a well-off situation of "Tongzhi Zhongxing" (since 1861) came into being.With the concerted efforts of a series of "ZTE famous ministers" who were "born in Kejia", on the surface, this rotten dynasty has a bit of a "ZTE atmosphere"-at least the political situation is still stable.This situation was maintained until the eve of the "Jiawu".

[Note] The "Sino-French War" in 1885 had little impact on the domestic political situation and the confidence of the people.Liu Mingchuan was in Taiwan and Feng Zicai was in Annan. After all, they also won two small victories, which was enough to make the government and the opposition still have some illusions. At this point, the author has to put down his pen and sigh twice: During the Tongzhi Zhongxing period, those "famous Zhongxing ministers" who were "born in the first class" were really scolded by the later theorists and propagandists of the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party. value.But let’s look back a hundred years later—those worthless Hanlin, Jinshi, and Juren (not to mention the earlier Lin Zexu, Xu Jiyu, Ruan Yuan, etc.) such as Zeng, Zuo, Li, Hu, Zhang (the Dong), Weng (Tonghe), Chen (Baozhen), Shen (Baozhen), Liu (Kunyi), etc. How many people can be found in the later Kuomintang and Communist regimes?In addition, Zhou Enlai, a mason who "has the style of an ancient minister", can be compared with him.But who else is there besides the Zhou family?Friends, you can underestimate our "inherent culture" and "imperial examination system". Unfortunately, they are all born in the "transition period" and belong to the previous "type" and cannot cope with the development of the latter type. . ——After the Republic of China, foreign slave tyrants and party stick politicians cannot be compared with them! ——This is also the cultural environment of Kang Youwei’s adolescence.Therefore, this Xiaokang Zuyi (Youwei's scientific name), who is "a great talent and a hundred times more successful ministers" (commented by Weng Tonghe), had the ambition to clarify the world when he was still young, and he proclaimed himself a "Kang Shengren".

Their Nanhai Kang family, according to Youwei's self-report, was originally a scholarly family in the south of the Five Ridges, with generations of officials.His great-grandfather, Kang Hui, was a Juren of Jiaqing, who served as the chief envoy of Guangxi (commonly known as "fantai", from a second-rank official, and also in charge of a province's people's finances and government); , is also a second-rank official, and is the highest judicial chief of a province); his grandfather Kang Zanxiu was a member of the Daoguang Dynasty.Although his father Kang Da had a low education, he also served as a county magistrate in Jiangxi, but unfortunately died early.Therefore, the responsibility for early education was entirely borne by the grandfather.The above are the immediate family members of Kang Youwei.Other close branches range from officials to governors and magistrates.So Youwei said that his Kang family had been a scholar for thirteen generations. "My family is really based on the teaching of the family", and eventually become a Jinshi. (The above are all based on "Kang Nanhai's Self-Compiled Chronicle")

Therefore, Kang Youwei in his adolescence enjoyed privileges in education.At that time, there were neither schools nor libraries in the countryside.It is rare for a small number of children to have private schools to read.Even if you are lucky enough to be able to enter a private school, what you read are only enlightenment books such as, etc.If you can finish reading the Four Books and Five Classics, that's the end of it; your future future depends on the imperial examination of "one fate, two luck and three geomantic omens".In order to take the exam, what ordinary scholars can continue to study is only some "tiekuo" studies. "Tie Kuo", in modern terms, refers to books such as "examination guide" and "TOEFL shortcut".Therefore, most of the young candidates (including Liang Qichao in his youth) are "beyond the postcards, I don't know the so-called classics and history" (Liang Qichao's words). ——In fact, ordinary scholars have no money to buy classics and history books.

But Kang Youwei was different when he was studying.Not only does he have four walls of books in his home, but his uncle's house also has a "20,000-volume library", which contains all kinds of ancient and modern classics.Coupled with a grandfather named "Professor", he keeps giving orders all day long.Youwei himself is smart and eager to learn, and has the reputation of a child prodigy. Therefore, after he finished reading the "Four Books and Five Classics" at the age of eleven, he began to read "Gang Jian", "Da Qing Hui Dian", "Dong Hua Lu" and "Ming History" , "Three Kingdoms" and other classics; and read "Di Bao" (almost the government bulletin of the Republic of China era) from time to time to know the current affairs of the government.If you have poems and books in your stomach, and write a piece of writing, you will be "different" if you are promising.This also cultivated his bad temper of aloofness throughout his life.However, when it comes to the "tiekuo learning" necessary for the exam, he may not be higher than "Qun'er".Therefore, in the examination room of "Four Accumulations of Yin Gong and Five Renditions", Kang Zuyi took the exam three times in Guangzhou, and did not get the title of "Xiucai" until he was sixteen years old. ——Note: Hong Xiuquan, who was earlier than Kang, was in the same examination room as a scholar. He fought three times and went to the north before he went crazy and went to see God.

Now that you have become a scholar, the next step is to take the "township examination" and take the "juren" examination.Cantonese people can take the provincial examination in two places that year.One is in the native place (Guangzhou), and the scholars (jiansheng and gongsheng) with better grades can go to Beijing to participate in the "Shuntianfu Township Examination", the so-called "Southern dish" in "Northern Wei". The word "dish" is the abbreviation of the word "supervisor".Nanpan is a student from the southern provinces who is eligible to enter the "Guozijian" (National University).If you pass the township examination, everyone is the same "juren".However, the Juren admitted in Beijing may be more glamorous than the Juren admitted in Guangzhou.

When Youwei was nineteen years old (1876), he took the provincial examination for the first time in Guangzhou. Apparently, he had not done a good job in the study of Tie Kuo, and as a result, the rural examination was not sold.Three years later (1879), under the "supervision" of my uncle, I went to the examination room again, but did not sell it.Three years later (1882), Youwei changed places and went to Beijing to participate in the "Shuntianfu Township Examination", but he still lost his name in Sunshan. During the Three Wars and Three Norths, Kang Youwei was already an "old boy".He changed places to join Beiwei, probably to avoid embarrassing scenes in the Guangzhou examination room.In the society of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was treated as a joke that "the old boy rushed to the examination room".Kang Youwei was an arrogant young man who was very pretentious.Obviously, he couldn't bear this kind of cold stare and snickering, so he avoided the villagers in Jinjing to rush for the exam, but he didn't know that the "Northern Chamber and Southern Dishes" were even more difficult than the Guangzhou rural exam.Gai competed with him in Guangzhou only from local students from Guangdong and Guangxi.Participating in the Northern Palace and the Southern Dishes meant that he would be an enemy of the entire South China elite, and the Southern Dishes were often arranged by talented scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang (see "Drafts of Qing History? Election Records III").Kang Zuyi said that it is difficult to give up what is easy, because he knows what is impossible and does it.

In the "traditional China" of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, the only "ladder of success" for educated youth was the imperial examination.My friend Professor He Bingdi once wrote a book on it.The examination room is often a prison cell where "the hero earns nothing".A senior from my township, once every three years, is ambitious, old and strong, and participated in the "Jiangnan Township Examination" a total of 24 times.After the last failure, Zeng wrote a poem about himself saying: "Poor Mingyuan Building for the first month, I have recited four times according to Hansheng." The reason why it was held.At this time, he was at least ninety years old as a Tongsheng; so compared with him, Kang Lao Tongsheng still had 21 chances to pass the exam! Sure enough, in Yiyou (1885), the 11th year of Guangxu, Kang Zuyi was 28 years old, and he got old enough to walk into the examination room in Guangzhou to compete with the local teenagers.The list is released, and there is another "township test not for sale".Three years later, we found that Zu Yi appeared again in the Beijing Nanpan examination room; the following year in the same examination room in Beijing (probably the "Enke" of Guangxu's wedding), Lao Tongsheng failed twice in a row. ——Ji Zi From 1876 (the second year of Guangxu) to now (1889? The fifteenth year of Guangxu), in the thirteen years, Kang Tongsheng failed in six exams and six. This is a blow to the psychology of an intellectual with high self-esteem. It is unimaginable, thanks to his patience and ambition. Fortunately, the sky pays off. Kang Youwei had given up on the examination field and died in the mountains. But he was no match for the poor widowed mother (who began to widow around thirty) and the uncles. Strong pressure; when he was thirty-six years old (1893), he still had to carry an "examination basket", and then lined up with some ten-year-old little tricks into the Guangzhou examination room to compete for the last time. Sure enough, where there is a will, things come true. Kang Youwei won the "Central Examination" this time.——Having been an "old boy student" for 20 years. After that, things turned around, and Lian Ke passed the first place. Two years later, he was in Beijing " He actually became a "Jinshi" in the high school of "Huaijian"——as Zheng Banqiao said: "Now I take off my green shirt, and I am ashamed when I wash it off."——Banqiao is a scholar of Kangxi, a scholar of Yongzheng, and a Jinshi of Qianlong! Kang Youwei fought three times in the examination of scholars and three times in the north and three north;In the end, when the candidates were admitted to the Jinshi examination, they got it immediately. How can the imperial examination really depend on "one fate and two luck..."?In fact, there may be other explanations between the candidate's victory and defeat.The key points of the Gai County Examination, the Government Examination (examination for scholars) and the township examination (examination for Juren) are that literary talent is more important than knowledge.Young people with literary talents can cope with it with a little "Tie Kuo" (eight-legged essay) training.For example, Liang Qichao, who "has always been emotional in his pen", could "enroll" at the age of twelve and become a scholar, and at the age of seventeen he passed the exam.But after winning the examination, he still "doesn't know that there is knowledge outside the post."His teacher Kang Youwei was just the opposite.Kang has knowledge but no literary talent.If you don't have the talent to write a pen, you will see it in a local examination room.As for the entry into the soil and the Imperial Academy, it is not enough to rely on talent alone.Those who take the exam must have some real talents and insights.Therefore, in the era of imperial examinations, unreasonable candidates (like Fan Jin above) can be found everywhere; bullshit Jinshi and Hanlin are rare-after all, they are the highest degrees in the country!Therefore, Kang Youwei was trapped in the "country examination" for six times. Once he "could take the examination", he promised himself as "Huiyuan" (the first place in the examination). I remember that Acting President Li Zongren once told me that professional military officers in the Republic of China era were all "tung pomelo barrels".Except for the tung oil, it is waste.In fact, scholars in the imperial examination era were also tung oil barrels.Apart from studying, taking exams, and being an official, it is useless.To be an official, you must be born in the imperial examination and pass the exam.If you fail the exam, prepare for the exam again, and there is nothing to prepare for besides postscript.But there are also a small number of scholars who, apart from preparing for the exam, study for the sake of reading.After reading for a long time, you can become some experts and scholars.Experts and scholars went to the exams and gained fame and fame, and then became learned bureaucrats, like Ruan Yuan, Zeng Guofan, and Zhang Zhidong.Experts and scholars who have never been able to test for fame can also be used as "commoner" for Youyou Quanlin or a proud prince.Since there were not many government-run schools in China at that time, they could also run schools and open schools to teach students. ——Those who are less educated should be the minimum "Sanjiacun school teachers" (Zheng Banqiao has been a school teacher for half his life); Deer Cave", and various academies in the Qing Dynasty. Kang Youwei is exactly like this.He was nineteen years old in 1876 (the second year of Guangxu), and after the first "country examination was not sold", he was greatly stimulated.After working as a school teacher for a while, he went to Zhu Ciqi, a well-known Jinshi and Confucianism scholar at that time, to continue his studies.Zhu is a great scholar.Kang Youwei learned a lot from him, especially Neo Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties.However, after five or six years of studying, I still couldn't get a good reputation, but my "knowledge" was getting better day by day-from Confucianism to Buddhism, and from Buddhism to Western learning. The wastebasket.Therefore, after Mr. Zhu died of illness in 1882, Youwei failed to sell it again and again in the township test.After continuing to be a teacher of Mengtong School for a while, I also upgraded myself, tried to run a small academy, and gave lectures to apprentices. At that time, Kang Youwei traveled to Beijing several times, and traveled to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin and other foreign ports.And make a special trip to visit the Great Wall and West Lake; visit Jinshan Temple, Yellow Crane Tower, Bailu Cave and other places of interest.Read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles, and make friends in Japan.Among famous Confucian scholars, high-ranking officials and dignitaries, he, a Kangbuyi, is always above his peers in discussing learning and writing, and commenting on state affairs.After a long time, it has also lost its reputation.Occasionally, he taught at the Guangzhou Academy with the qualifications of a senior supervisor, and students from far and near also heard the wind and admired him.Among these catechumens, there was unexpectedly a talented and well-known new imperial examiner, Liang Qichao (1873-1929), who later became Kang Shengren's number one disciple.This combination of "scholar teacher, juren student" made Kang Tong's reputation ten times higher. As mentioned earlier, Liang Qichao, who was born in Xinhui County, Guangdong Province, was a prodigy who "admitted to school" at the age of twelve and "successful" at the age of seventeen (both of which were false ages).When he was in the examination for candidates, Li Duanfen, the well-known chief examiner, actually took a fancy to him, and betrothed his cousin to Qi Chao as his wife.Needless to say, this was a master-student story that spread throughout South China at that time.But Qi Chao is smart. He knows how much "knowledge" he, a new imperial examination candidate and a well-known Liang talent, has in his stomach except for some "tie Kuo".Therefore, after admiring the reputation of the Kang family for a long time, especially after the Kang family came back from writing the first "Book to the Emperor" (1888), he personally worshiped his disciples and became Youwei's number one disciple. Liang Zhizhi visited Kang one year after his "Ji Chou Zhongju" (Kang failed in the same department), Geng Yin in the 16th year of Guangxu, 1890 AD, when Kang Youwei was 33 years old and Qi Chao was 18 years old.According to Liang Qichao's recollection, he himself was "a young man, and he knew a lot about the exegesis of exegesis and chapters, which was highly respected by the times, and was always complacent..." (see Liang's "Thirty Self-Reports") Shi denounced it as "a hundred years old useless learning".When his master and apprentice first met, they had a one-day conversation from Chen (8:00 am) to Xu (7:00 pm), Qi Chao felt that it was simply "a cold water poured on the back, a blow to the head, once all the bases were lost, he was at a loss and didn't know what to do." , until "I can't sleep at night".From then on, Liang Juren abandoned what he had learned and went to learn from Kang Xiucai from the beginning. At this point in writing, the author can't help thinking of a past event: On a certain night in the mid-1950s, Yu talked with his predecessor, Mr. Hu Shizhi, about exegesis all night, and he was so sleepless.He wrote several small poems from the beginning, and there is a saying: "writing books is to explore the art of life and the people, and bear with Hu Lang to distinguish between us." Shi Zhishi was only ten years old when he wrote "Wu Wo Pian" and "Er Ru Pian" nine years old.I was in my middle 30s when I made this exclamation.After going through internal strife against the bandits, the family was ruined and the family was destroyed.Conscious of "hundreds of years of useless old learning", I can't bear to paint the ground for it.Kang Shengren, who didn't know his middle age in his early thirties, also expressed this emotion.sad husband! Kang Xiucai was proud of being such a high-ranking apprentice, and his confidence increased greatly.In the following year (1891, the 17th year of Guangxu, Xinmao), the Kang family moved to "Changxingli" in Guangzhou, surrounded by many high-level students, and officially gave lectures. up. Anyone who reads history knows that "Wanmu Thatched Cottage" was the hotbed of Kang and Liang's reform theory;But what kind of knowledge and theories did Master Kang Youwei teach in this "teaching"?A little clarification is necessary here. The learning that Kang Youwei taught to Liang Qichao and other students in the "Wanmu Thatched Cottage" at that time can be roughly divided into two categories: "Western Learning" and "Middle Learning".What kind of "Western learning" did Kang Shanchang (the dean of the Manchu Academy called "Shanchang" for example, but Kang didn't seem to use this street) talk there?It turned out that when he went northward on a foreign ship from Guangzhou several times, when he went to Beijing to participate in the "Shuntianfu Township Examination", he passed through the "concessions" in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin and other places. Knowing that the Westerners have laws and regulations in governing the country, they should not be regarded as ancient barbarians." In addition to admiration in his heart, Kang bought a lot of Chinese-translated books on Western learning.Concentrate on reading, and after a long time, you will become a rare "Western learning" expert at that time (see "Kang Nanhai's Self-compiled Chronicle" Guangxu five years, 22 years old and other festivals).Kang Youwei's experience and understanding are exactly the same as Sun Yat-sen's impression of taking the seagoing ship in his early years.As a result, both of them became pioneers in advocating Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty.This kind of unusual cultural experience is beyond the reach of our inland literati. But Youwei was not fluent in foreign languages, and at that time Chinese translations (or retranslations from Japanese) of Western books were extremely limited, and the translations were all the most elementary works.The contents of history, literature, political society and other subjects introduced in these works are roughly comparable to the level of "senior high school textbooks" after the May 4th Movement (this is the level of Mao Zedong); as for the natural sciences such as sound, light, electricity, etc. The level is far below the "junior high school".However, Kang Youwei was, after all, a Confucian scholar with the level of "super Jinshi", and an essayist who was good at Confucianism and Buddhism, especially a mature "modern essayist" who was good at interpreting righteousness.He knows ten things from what he has heard, and draws inferences from one fact-the longest is to take the meaning out of the text, and he doesn't know what he doesn't know, so he rambles and writes the first and second chapters of his "Kangzi". In fact, this is not the fault of "Kangzi" alone.It is a common problem of thinkers in the period of cultural transition.After Kang and Liang, until today's 1980s and 1990s, scholars who are respected as masters of Chinese studies, and who like to call themselves sages, often feel that the nation will suffer and the country will perish. , are all harmful and unknown problems.Too much self-confidence, everything is like this.Yu Ye read the anthology of Kang Zi, and he couldn't help sighing when he reached his "Book of Great Harmony".Such a scholar, does he really want to be an "Emperor's Teacher"?However, in terms of intelligence and intelligence, how dare I compare myself to Mr. Ren, and Mr. Ren burns incense and pays homage to his teacher and book, which is also incomprehensible.The only way to "solve" it is the relationship of the times. ——This is the joke I often tell: In terms of understanding of "astronomy", Zhuge Liang is no better than a primary school student on the streets of Taipei. Every time my friend Mr. Liu Binyan laments the doom of China today, it is the result of not having a "truly great thinker".Foolishness does not mean that.Gaizhen can turn the world around and lead our nation (forgive me for borrowing a set of clichés from "Jianwenjia") through this "modern transformation period" that lasts for a century and a half Therefore, we cannot rely on one or two most sages, sitting firmly on the sofa, holding on to the book, and the so-called "isms" and "thoughts" that come out of random thinking.It relies on the comprehensive process of "experience", "thought", "practice" and "experiment" of countless "wisemen" (wisemen), ordinary people, and even warlords, bureaucrats, hooligans, and foreign slaves. And cooperate with the subjective and objective "chances & opportunities" (chances & opportunities), stage by stage, accumulate and manufacture.How can we rely solely on one or two "thinkers"? At this point, we have to say something fair for the historical philosophers within the framework of "experimentalism", especially the theories of Dewey, Hu Shi, and Deng Xiaoping.They "experimentalists" believe that within the field of social science (in fact, natural science is not the same), there is no "ultimate truth" (ultimate truth) - "truth" is a process of continuous creation and continuous sublation among. "Mr. Experimentalism" is the same as "Sun Yat-sen, the father of the country", but the scientific name and genealogy are unclear.A quick search of its family tree reveals that there are as many as four of its original names.It is also called "experimentalism"; it is also called "pragmatism"; it is also called "opportunism"; it is also called "instrumentalism". Dewey's "experimentalism" is actually a "lab report".He used the results of two hundred years of experiments in this large laboratory in the United States.To be summarized and "conceptualized" (conceptualized). Hu Shi is not the same.Hu never entered the laboratory.All he focuses on is Dewey's abstraction.Talking more about "concepts" is not talking more about "isms", but his "isms" did not touch the actual "problems" in China at that time.So his "empiricism" quickly gave way. The "black cat and white cat theory" put forward by Deng Xiaoping, the "second generation" of "experimentalism" in our country, is actually a kind of "opportunism".But we must not forget that "opportunism" was originally the basis of "experimentalism".It's just that "experimentalism" focuses on "experiment".The results of any experiment are positive and negative.Doing "the negation of negation" is the most difficult experiment.So Deng Gong's identity today is not the Queen Mother who "listens behind the curtain"; he is a "lab director" in jeans.If the experiment is successful, you can join the ranks of Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao and win the Nobel Prize.The experiment failed, so I had no choice but to pedal three rounds on the streets of Beijing. In this section, the author wrote a large article that seems to have nothing to do with the topic. The purpose is nothing more than to point out how complicated it is to transform our country’s political society and cultural patterns from the medieval Eastern style to the modern Western style. sports.The burden of history is too heavy. Kang Youwei carried out reforms and reforms with his little knowledge of Western learning at the middle school level.Looking back a hundred years ago, the Reform Movement of 1898 is really like being in a glass ball.But Kang Shengren's popularity in Confucianism is not so simple.The following is a special article to discuss it in detail. *Originally published in Taipei "Biographical Literature", Volume 60, Issue 4