Xu Tong (1820-1900) was a minister of the late Qing Dynasty and a member of the Han Army, who was also stubborn and disgusted with Western studies, so he was also one of the important figures of the conservatives of the late Qing Dynasty. Xu Tong has served as a cabinet scholar, a rebbe right attendant, a rebbe Shangshu, a co-organizer university scholar, and a tirenge university scholar. He also gained the trust of Empress Dowager Cixi, and once suggested that he borrow the strength of the Boxers to support Empress Dowager Cixi in declaring war on the outside world. Later, the Gengzi Rebellion broke out, he and his son Xu Chengyu agreed to martyr the country together, Xu Chengyu promised to be good, but he did not expect that after Xu Tong hanged himself, the son actually slipped away. However, the son of this "pit daddy" did not end up with a good ending, and was finally caught and beheaded in the vegetable market for public display.
Xu Tong was a jinshi in the 30th year of Daoguang (1850), and after that, he entered the Hanlin Academy according to the general procedure and served as a Hanlin editor. But soon something went wrong, and the history books recorded that he "sat in the middle of the revision and went dry and grinding, and resigned from office." In the Xianfeng Decade (1860), Xu Tong was "specially rewarded for reviewing and assisting in the revision of the Records of Emperor Wenzong." At the beginning of the Tongzhi Dynasty, he was ordered to walk in the upper study, and he was ordered to preach the "Zhiping Treasure Book" on the order of Yi, enter the Zhihongde Hall, and transfer the lecturers to the bachelors. Successively, he neglected to study political affairs and diligently cultivated the province, and became the "University Derivative Body" to advance. Count to the Ceremonial Attendant. ”
Xu Tong hated foreigners the most in his life, but he did not obey people's wishes. His home is in Dongjiang Mi Lane, which is the Dongjiaomin Lane of the Later Republic of China. It has been an embassy district since the first year of tongzhi, and the Hanlin Temple, where he works every day, is also nearby. He went up to the court every day, and he always looked up and could not avoid encountering foreigners. So he wrote a handwritten couplet and pasted it on his door: "Look at the ocean and sigh, and be neighbors with ghosts."
Xu Tong
His famous saying is, "The West class has teeth, the grapes have teeth, and the teeth have become a country, which has never been heard of in history, and has not been recorded in the book, and the absurdity is not complete." He did not say this as a joke, but did not believe that there were two countries in the world, Spain and Portugal, and he believed that these two countries were made up by foreigners and could not exist at all, because it was impossible for the world to name them with teeth. The Draft History of the Qing Dynasty says that he is "conservative and evil to the West." He believes that all foreigners are from one country, on the same level as monkeys, so he refuses to accept that foreigners have culture, and the language of foreigners also has the need to be translated gracefully. Someone told him that the man who named the United States Meilijian was Zhang Jing, who was the prime minister Yamen who specialized in translating foreign languages, and he was very angry, thinking that if he was both Beautiful and sharp and strong, how could it be the United States, it should be the Great Qing Dynasty.
After the coup d'état, Empress Dowager Cixi began to reuse him because "with her high expectations and courtesy, she asked her to be favored by her close attendants." At this time, Empress Dowager Cixi was already preparing to depose Emperor Dezong, and "Pujun, the Prince of Liduan, was made the 'Great Elder Brother', and the power of the Lord of Tong was very strong," "and Tong was ordered to take care of him, and it was beneficial to zaiyi." Countries do not carry out the actions of ripples and so on, and the ripples are even worse, in an attempt to retaliate. After a while, the Boxer Rebellion began to rise, and Zaiyi felt that the time had come, "Zaiyi was overjoyed and led to the capital." Kirito said: 'China should be strong from now on!' 'And be kind to him.' However, when it was chaotic, it was still plundered. The deaths of Yuan Chang and Xu Jingcheng were unjustly accused by the whole country, and Tong said: "It is death and there is still a surplus!" When his son Chengyu was imprisoned, Yang Yang was quite satisfied. ”
The Eight-Power Coalition
Due to the wrong attitude of the Qing government, it eventually led to the eight-power alliance attack on China. The enemy army entered the capital, many people fled, at this time Xu Tong was a Qing Dynasty minister, seeing the situation of the national destruction, "Tongcang Emperor was confused." At this time, his son Xu Chengyu said: "The father is a fist bandit, and outsiders will inevitably lose their body." Martyrdom? Erdang from the waiter's ear! When Xu Tong heard his son say this, he hanged himself with confidence. Unexpectedly, this son was actually greedy for life and afraid of death in the end, and slipped away.
Although Xu Chengyu avoided martyrdom with his father, he did not succeed, "He was detained by the Japanese army, placed in the Yin Office of The Shun Tianfu, and corrected the law with Qi Xiuju in the first month of next year." At the order, the Japanese officers put wine as a feast, passed on the edict, inherited the color change, cried out for injustice, and slandered the Westerners endlessly. On the day of the wing, the public opinion was sent to the vegetable market, and the prison officer attended the ceremony, but he was unconscious, and he was killed. Although Xu Tong is conservative and dislikes Western learning, Xu Chengyu likes Western cigarettes, of course, he does not dare to let his father Xu Tong see it.
Although Xu Tong was fooled by his son's words and committed suicide, the ending he chose was not bad, otherwise he would die more humiliated later. With Xu Tong's performance, when the peace was finally discussed, it was definitely the top five of the list of 173 culprits, and he was not an imperial relative, Li Hongzhang would certainly not die to protect him, and it was estimated that there would be no grace such as giving orders to commit suicide. After the peace talks were reached, the Qing government's conclusion to him was very clear: "Peace is agreed upon, the tongtong office is taken, the canon is seized, and the spin theory abandons the city, so as to be spared by death first." ”