Arriving in Japan at this time, Li Yu also had to witness and even participate in a huge debate that was unique in Japan:
The reformists represented by Liang Qichao vs. the revolutionaries represented by Zhang Taiyan, Hu Hanmin, Wang Zhaoming and other big guys.
Liang Qichao's position was his "Xin Min Cong Bao", while the revolutionary faction's position was the newly established "Min Bao".
It just so happened that the victory of the Russo-Japanese War also greatly shocked all international students in Japan and Chinese in Japan, and everyone launched an unprecedented debate around the future direction of China.
To be honest, in terms of popularity, although the revolutionaries are also very powerful, their combined popularity is not as good as that of Liang Qichao, so arguing with Liang Qichao can actually increase the popularity of the revolutionaries.
Li Yu guessed that they must have such an idea, and they were eager to have a writing battle with Liang Qichao. It didn't matter if they couldn't win, since their revolutionary ideas could be publicized anyway.
"Minbao" has just published the Three People's Principles, and then proposed six policies for running the newspaper: overthrowing the Qing government; establishing a republic; nationalizing land; maintaining world peace; uniting China and Japan; and gaining support or approval from all countries in the world for China's revolution.
cause.
In fact, these six articles are still deepening the Three People's Principles.
As for Liang Qichao, he originally had some revolutionary ideas, but after he went to the United States and was scolded by Kang Youwei, he could only follow his teacher's orders and continue to persist in reforms. He even said: Oh, republic, republic... I'll say goodbye to you!
At the beginning of this year, Liang Qichao published two long articles, "On Enlightened Despotism" and "On the Gains and Losses of Racial Revolution and Political Revolution," which were later combined into one, "The Major Issue of China's Survival and Destruction."
Tens of thousands of copies of this article were printed and widely distributed in Japan. Its main purpose was to oppose revolution with all its strength, but to implement "enlightened autocracy" first and then implement constitutional monarchy.
After welcoming back Zhang Taiyan, the "number one troll in the Republic of China" who trolled Cixi at the top, Sun Wen at the bottom, and later Chiang Kai-shek, the revolutionary faction finally had the strength to face Liang Qichao head-on.
The revolutionaries can produce many people; although the reformists also have many people, the others can basically only be responsible for guarding the home, and Liang Qichao guards the three roads alone.
The article published by "Min Bao" was concise and to the point, and struck a chord directly into the soul: First, we must revolutionize and overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty; second, we must implement a republic; third, we must abolish feudal land ownership.
Seeing the fierce attack of "Min Bao", Liang Qichao did not dare to neglect and wrote an article in person to respond:
"I think there is no need for revolution. This is because there is no ethnic discrimination or oppression in China; the people of the country are already equal under the law. Emperor Guangxu is the Holy Lord. As long as the constitution is implemented, the situation in China can be changed and the country will gradually become prosperous and strong.
"Since the Manchus and Han are equal after the establishment of the constitution, there is no need for revolution. Moreover, the Chinese people are ignorant and rashly instigate revolution, which will only cause mob riots, kill people, and even lead to the intervention of the imperial powers, which will lead to the destruction of the country and the annihilation of the species!
"..."
In a tavern, Zhang Taiyan invited Li Yu to have a drink.
Li Yu had just completed a speech at Tokyo Imperial University, which won praise from many teachers and students. For a while, major newspapers in Japan were promoting the fact that Li Yu had won the Nobel Prize.
There were even arguments in newspapers such as "Japan defeated the white people militarily, while Li Yu defeated the white people scientifically" and so on.
In short, Li Yu is also very popular in Japan now.
Europe and the United States did not satisfy Japan's treaty after its victory over Russia. Japan felt that it was still isolated by Europe and the United States in the international arena. It was heartbroken and could only turn back and continue to win over the Qing court.
Now Li Yu's popularity can be said to be as good as that of Liang Qichao, but they are in different fields.
Of course Zhang Taiyan knew Li Yu's abilities, so he pulled him over.
Also present in the tavern were Hu Hanmin, Wang Zhaoming, Song Jiaoren, Tao Chengzhang, etc.
When Li Yu saw this, he smiled and said, "If you have a meeting, I'll come back another day."
Zhang Taiyan quickly pulled him over and sat down: "You can't leave. Such a good wine will lose half of its flavor without you."
Li Yu said: "All of you here are members of the Tongmenghui. I am an outsider, so I may make it inconvenient for you."
"How could it be inconvenient?" Zhang Taiyan pointed at the people present and asked, "Isn't it convenient for you?"
Hu Hanmin and others immediately said: "Convenient, convenient!"
"Look!" Zhang Taiyan said, "They are all convenient! And we just hope to have an open-minded and outsider like you as a consultant, not to let you join the association."
Song Jiaoren said: "Mr. Zhongshan said that when you were in the United States, you had become a brother with Situ Meitang, a Hongmen boss in New York. We will not make things difficult for him."
Li Yu said, "Okay, I'll just sit here and taste the wine and listen to your chat."
Zhang Taiyan smiled and said: "That's right! Try it quickly. I brought this specially from Shanghai. It's much stronger than the Japanese sake!"
After Zhang Taiyan drank a round of wine, he took out Liang Qichao's article and said: "Liang Gong's writing is still as sharp as ever. Although his theory is full of loopholes, it doesn't seem to be that easy to refute. How do you think you can fight back?
?”
Song Jiaoren said: "Simple, we can list too many arguments. Let's just say that the Manchu and Qing court he supported. Looking back over the past two hundred years, there is only a history of massacre between Manchu and Han, but no trace of friendship. How can there be any
What is racial equality? Even if we want to live in peace, we cannot allow the Manchus to continue to be superior. This is a deformed system."
Wang Zhaoming said: "I agree with what the fisherman said. The Manchus are not a member of our nation at all. It is the bounden duty of the Han people to fight against the Manchus!"
"I also agree," Hu Hanmin said, "but I need to add that if we want revolution, we have to pay attention to the interference of Western powers that Mr. Liang is worried about. Therefore, the revolution needs to be restrained to make it an orderly revolution and not like a revolution.
Back then, Boxer Boxing was generally barbaric and xenophobic. We must abide by international law and be xenophobic but not xenophobic. Only in this way can the great powers remain neutral and not interfere with the revolution."
"The Han people have done a good job of complementing us!" Zhang Taiyan said, "If we want to achieve the goal of making foreigners neutral, we must be civilized enough. All treaties and debts made by the Qing court and the great powers can be borne in accordance with international law."
Everyone replied unanimously: "What Mr. Taiyan said is absolutely true."
Li Yu took a sip of hot tea and thought that there was no big problem with their overall thinking, but how to deal with the details was difficult. After all, these people had no power at all.
Zhang Taiyan added: "Also, how can we refute the point raised by Mr. Liang about bloodshed in the revolution?"
Wang Zhaoming said confidently: "Revolution will naturally involve bloodshed. Even the so-called 'peaceful revolution' countries such as Britain and Japan will inevitably lead to murder and bloodshed."
Since they are called revolutionaries, of course everyone has already reached a consensus on this point. Song Jiaoren said: "Even if there is no revolution, more than one million compatriots are massacred by the Manchu rulers every year? What does Liang Qichao say?"
Zhang Taiyan nodded: "It's a good argument. There are countless people who died from exorbitant taxes."
Zhang Taiyan, the most talented of them all, wrote on paper: "Revolution is bound to involve murder and bloodshed, but without revolution, will the disaster of murder and bloodshed be avoided?"
Only then did Zhang Taiyan ask Li Yu: "Brother Shucai, do you think there are any flaws in what we said?"
Li Yu put down his tea cup: "I don't dare to say anything because I am not talented. But I also have a small question, how do you carry out a revolution? Where do the soldiers come from and where are they found?"
Zhang Taiyan said: "This is indeed a key matter, but what we want is to clarify the concept first before we can continue to consider actions in the future."
Li Yu sighed: "I hope we won't repeat the mistakes of the 1898 Movement."
The next day, after the article was published, before everyone could take a breath, Liang Qichao published another article on a more appropriate constitutional monarchy in Xinmin Congbao.
Liang Qichao wrote:
“China’s national conditions make it impossible to implement a republican form of government, because the Chinese people are still ignorant and do not have the qualifications to be citizens of a republic, let alone the conditions for implementing a democratic republic.
“If we want to enlighten the people’s wisdom, we need the Qing government to take immediate educational measures.
"If China implements a republic, it will inevitably lead to class competition and chaos. The final result will be that the people will have to hand over all power to one person.
"Therefore, revolution will never lead to a republic, but will lead to autocracy!
"Instead of a republic, it is better to have a constitutional monarchy; instead of a constitutional monarchy, it is better to be an enlightened autocracy!"
On this point, Zhang Taiyan and others responded quickly and very straightforwardly:
"To enlighten the people's wisdom, revolution can enlighten them completely. If you place your hope on the Qing government, you can only get nothing! Because everything the Qing government does is to fool the people. As for what Liang Gong mentioned
The concentration of power in one person is a wrong extension, because this is not a revolutionary path, but a despotic path."
The two sides are facing each other tit for tat.
It can be seen that Zhang Taiyan's side has a large number of people and his arguments are more comprehensive and impeccable.
Liang Qichao could only rely on himself, but his mind moved quickly enough. He raised his pen and continued to refute:
"If you want to change the feudal land system, have you ever thought about the resistance you will encounter in the process? This will not only come from the Qing court, but also from local tyrants and landlords. If you incite land to be nationalized, you will incite countless gangsters and gamblers.
Bachelors, thieves, thieves, beggars, etc. all bring harm to one party.
"Therefore, anyone who dares to say that social revolution and political revolution should go hand in hand is the traitorous son of the Yellow Emperor and the criminal of China, and he must be punished by all 40 million people!
"Since the Qin Dynasty, the nobility in China has been eliminated. By this dynasty, the roots have become clearer and clearer. For this reason, the country is classless!"
What Liang Qichao meant was to distinguish a social revolution like the Agrarian Revolution from a political revolution like the overthrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
But those with a discerning eye can see that Liang Qichao’s arguments are somewhat inconsistent at this time.
But Liang Qichao was Liang Qichao, and he wrote thousands of words eloquently, quoting classics and discussing classics, mixing Chinese and Western things, and including everything he saw and heard during his trip to Europe and the United States. In short, almost everything came together.
Zhang Taiyan and the others were not to be outdone and continued to fight back:
“The cause of the social revolution lies in the incomplete social and economic organization; although China is not as separated from the rich as in Europe and the United States, there is still a distinction between rich and poor, and there are still hidden clues for the second revolution.
"In order to prevent China from the disaster of the second revolution in the future, social revolution should go hand in hand with political revolution to prevent mob revolutions like the Paris Commune in France.
“The main thing of social revolution is to equalize land rights and state ownership of land!
"In a society that realizes people's livelihood in the future, the rich will get richer and the poor will get richer! There will be no unfair classes!..."
Li Yu has been reading newspapers these days, and the two sides are arguing with each other.
But in fact, many of the arguments of the revolutionaries are, at least at this moment, too optimistic and a bit idealistic.
But of course Li Yu knew that revolutionaries must be idealistic enough, otherwise they would not be revolutionaries. This is what makes them great.
Many of the arguments of people like Zhang Taiyan have many overlaps with the textbooks of later generations. It is not easy to see the dawn of the future in the gloomy society of the late Qing Dynasty.
At this level of discussion between the two sides, the revolutionaries have gradually gained the upper hand.
However, Liang Qichao did not admit defeat, he was still persisting, but it was visible to the naked eye that more and more people were supporting the revolutionaries.
Liang Qichao felt helpless and sent a telegram to Kang Youwei, who was far abroad, reporting the situation here and seeking Teacher Kang's advice.
Kang Youwei was in Sweden at this time. When he heard that Li Yu had bought an island in Stockholm, he blew his beard and bought an island too.
He even went to Li Yu's island to have a look, and was immediately very contemptuous: "As expected of a yellow-haired boy, he didn't follow the essence of architecture at all. He actually built foreign buildings with sand and gravel. There is no emotion, no emotion! What a pity.
Nice view of the island.”
Kang Youwei spent 30,000 Swedish francs and started building a Chinese-style garden on the island he bought.
But where can Sweden find people who understand Chinese gardens? Kang Youwei could only personally participate in the design and construction.
Fortunately, the scenery here in Sweden is pleasant, and it is not difficult to find various vegetation and strange rocks.
Kang Youwei directed several workers in English: "no!no!no!put it here!yeah!"
His daughter Kang Tongbi came over and said: "Father, there is a telegram."
Kang Youwei did not look back and said: "The latest donation list from the Royal Society? They move very quickly."
Kang Tongbi said: "It's not from America, it's from Liang Qichao."
"Liang Qichao?" Kang Youwei stopped what he was doing, turned around and picked up the telegram, "What's the matter with him?"
Kang Tongbi said: "It seems to have been besieged by a group of Japanese revolutionaries. It is said that Sun Wen and Huang Xing in Nanyang have joined the debate. Mr. Liang was quite struggling. He sent a telegram to ask his father for countermeasures."
Kang Youwei had read the telegram and knew about the situation in Japan. But he had been studying how to make money and enjoy life in the past few years, and he had no time to care about these "little things".
Kang Youwei was silent for a moment and said to Kang Tongbi: "Reply the telegram to Qichao and tell him that when you are in trouble, think more about the Clothing Order and Emperor Guangxu's kindness to us, and then things will naturally flow like springs. How can a mere revolutionary?
It’s worth mentioning!”
Kang Tongbi wanted to ask if he had anything more specific to say, but Kang Youwei waved his hand directly: "Just send it... No, you are wrong! Look at me!"
Kang Youwei continued to immerse himself in the construction of his new manor.