On November 20, the sixth year of Guangxu (1880 AD), the gate of the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty was crowded and full of traffic. On the ground, I saw a man pacing back and forth with a sword in his hand, and then he groaned:
Gu Lai was loyal and filial to several people, and he had been worried about the country for five years.
Once dead, the society remains, and the high church relies on the brothers.
Twenty years later, he was half-disobedient to his relatives and confessed to being a sinner.
The old tearful child's double gray hair, and smelling the bad news hurt even more.
After chanting the poem, he drew his sword and killed himself. The capital was still bustling, and no one seemed to care about a crazy person or what would be hysterical at the door of the big masters.
But there will still be people who remember the name, and hopefully we can remember the name. That is - Lin Shigong.
It has been 142 years since his death.
In the twenty-first year of Daoguang (1842 AD), Lin Shigong was born in the village of Kume in the Ryukyu Kingdom, with the character Zishu, the trumpet Chun Ping, the child name Kana, and the son of the famous city, Kinun Shang Chun Pong. Lin Shigong has been learning Chinese and Chinese at Minglun Hall since he was a child, showing extraordinary talent, and like Lin Huiyin, he is also a well-known calligrapher.
In 1865, at the age of 23, Lin Shigong was selected to become an official international student. Because he was born in the Lin clan's Shingaki family, he is also known as the "Official's New Yuan", of course, and your wife Shingaki is a new wall.
I got the entrance ticket to the suzerainty of the Great Qing Kingdom for further study. In the winter of 1868, together with Mao Qixiang, Ge Zhaoqing, and Lin Shizhong, he took a boat to the Qing Dynasty as a team of official-funded students from the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the following year enrolled in the jingshi Guozijian, the institution of higher learning with the strongest teaching force at that time. It is worth mentioning that this was the last batch of students sent to the Great Qing Kingdom in the Ryukyu Kingdom. Unfortunately, Mao Qixiang died on his way to Beijing.
Lin Shigong studied the history of the classics and poetry articles in Guozijian, and because of his own talent and great effort, his grades have always been among the best, and the Chinese poems he composed during his time in China have been collected into a book, named "Ryukyu Poetry Lesson" and "Ryukyu Poetry Record".
In the summer of 1873, Lin Shigong successfully graduated from the Guozijian and embarked on the return journey with Xiang Deyu and Cai Dading, the envoys of the Ryukyu State. In the past few years in the Qing Dynasty, their lives have not been very easy and pleasant, because Ge Zhaoqing and Lin Shizhong have also died during this period, so only Lin Shigong has returned to China after completing his studies.
Now that I think about it, it is not easy for them to study in the Great Qing Dynasty, and this intensity has a feeling comparable to watching "Journey to the West". But fortunately, Lin Shigong's efforts were not in vain, and he was able to return home after successful studies.
In 1874, Hayashi Shikō, who had just returned to Ryukyu, was appointed as the master of poetry and literature in his hometown of Kume Village, and in December of the same year, he was transferred to the head of the Kume Village Literary Group.
In June 1875, Lin Shigong became a master of traditional Chinese studies, and in September he was promoted to the position of interpreter of the Nakajo Prince (Shizi) Shangdian .
It seems that everything is developing on the good side, and Lin Shigong also seems to be moving in the clouds, gradually moving towards the soaring yellow Tengda. But as everyone knows, the little day... The Japanese, who have a good life, have been coveting Ryukyu for a long time. Ryukyu was also facing unprecedented pressure from Japan and gradually fell into the abyss of national subjugation. In 1872, when Hayashi was still studying in the Qing Dynasty, Japan had already changed the Ryukyu Kingdom to Ryukyu Domain and began to annex Ryukyu.
When Lin Shigong was waiting for the tribute ship to return to China in Fuzhou, Japan sent troops to Taiwan on the grounds of avenging the Ryukyuans killed in the Bayao Bay Incident, and later won the great righteous title of "Defending the People's Righteous Deeds" in the Beijing Treaty signed with the Qing government, which was tantamount to recognizing Ryukyu as a Japanese vassal state. Since then, China has lost its status as a suzerainty to Ryukyu and was forcibly taken over by Japan. Ostensibly to declare Ryukyu a japanese vassal state, it actually wants Ryukyu to become a japanese territory. Of course, this confirmed this in the later course of history.
In 1875, Japan sent the minister of internal affairs Matsuda Michiyuki to Ryukyu to force Ryukyu to sever its ties with The Chinese clan, shocking the upper and lower levels of Ryukyu and leaving Ryukyu in a chaotic situation of storm and panic. Despite Ryukyu's arguments against the Japanese demands, it was still powerless, and after negotiations with Michiyuki Matsuda broke down, he had to send officials directly to Tokyo to petition.
On the other hand, king Shangtai of the Ryukyu Islands was worried that the Qing Dynasty would inquire about this matter, and in order to save the fortunes of the country, he sent the Purple Turban official Xiang Dehong to secretly send an envoy to China on the pretext of praying on Iheingya Island, and Lin Shigong accompanied him as a generalist. On the night of December 10, 1876, a group of 19 people set out from the lakeside port of Kitayama Nagoma (the bottom of the lake in the Hsuda area of nago city). The road was not smooth, they first encountered a typhoon on Ijiang Island, and almost sank the reef.
After passing through the Yaeyama Islands, they arrived in Fuzhou on April 12, 1877, to rendezvous with Mao Jingchang, a tribute envoy stranded in Fuzhou. Xiang Dehong, Lin Shigong, and others presented Shang Tai's secret letter to He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and proposed to go directly to Beijing to petition. After He Jing played it, the Qing court learned everything that had happened in Ryukyu.
However, the Qing government reacted negatively, believing that Ryukyu was of little value, but in order to preserve the shelf of the suzerainty, it could only "refute Japan with the word reasonable." In fact, it is actually quite outrageous but reasonable for the Great Qing Kingdom to be so negative now, because they were about to enter a situation where it was difficult to protect themselves.
But what was really outrageous was that the Qing government did not even allow Xiang Dehong and others to enter Beijing, so that they could all return to China. Taking advantage of the Qing government's policy of non-interference, Japan brazenly implemented the "Ryukyu Punishment" two years later, established Okinawa Prefecture in Ryukyu, and took King Shangtai, Setsuko Shonori, and other members of the Ryukyu royal family to be put under house arrest in Tokyo, and Ryukyu was destroyed.
Writing here, it can only be said that although the Ryukyu State is a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, it is essentially an independent country, and we should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries; but as a suzerainty, it takes the tribute of the vassal countries every year, and does not care about the mess of others, I am afraid that the Qing government is also responsible for the demise of Ryukyu.
At that time, Xiang Dehong, Lin Shigong and others did not return to China according to the requirements of the Qing government, but stayed in Fuzhou to continue to wait. They heard the bad news of the fall of the country from the Ryukyu refugees who had drifted to Fujian, and then received a secret letter from Shizi Shangdian asking them to go north for help, so they went north to Tianjin in June 1879 to seek help from Li Hongzhang; by September 29, 1876, Lin Shigong, Cai Dading, Mao Jingchang, and others had traveled north from Fuzhou to Beijing for help.
After Lin Shigong, Cai Dading, Mao Jingchang and others arrived in Beijing on October 19, 1879, they actively carried out activities to save the country, echoing Xiang Dehong, who petitioned Li Hongzhang in Tianjin. From October 23, 1879 to November 18, 1879, they petitioned Prime Minister Yamen or Rebbe nine times, calling on the Qing government to join the Ryukyu government in crusading against Japan and helping Ryukyu to restore the country, but the Qing government was now carrying out a crazy foreign affairs movement, and had no time to take care of them, only advising them to return to Fuzhou as soon as possible, and then find a way to return to Ryukyu.
But this team is in the face of the difficult situation of national destruction and family destruction, and it is obvious that they will not lose their fighting spirit because of a word of dissuasion. They even waited at the Donghua Gate, which was necessary for the Hundred Officials to pass through, and when they met the ministers, they knelt down and cried to them, and many Qing officials were deeply touched, but they had to comfort them not to cry, so that the Japanese would not know. Can only say that the outrageous opened the door to the outrageous - outrageous to the home. In addition, Lin Shigong is also more superstitious, and even pins their hopes on the gods and Buddhas, who will go to the Zhengyang Gate Guandi Temple every month to pray for the return of the country.
Just as Lin Shigong and his party were trying their best to restore the country, the Qing government and Japan began secret diplomacy against the Ryukyu Islands. This is not because the petition of Lin Shigong and his party was successful, but under the mediation of former US President Grant, Japan tried to amend the "Sino-Japanese Amendment Treaty" with the "Island Reformation Case". The meaning of the "island division agreement" was to divide the Ryukyu Islands into two, and the southern Xiandao Islands were ceded to China. At the same time, China needs to agree to amend the Sino-Japanese Rapprochement Treaty to grant Japan one-sided most-favored-nation treatment.
Faced with pressure from Japan, the United States, and the Ryukyu Islands, China intended to accept the case and negotiated with the Ryukyu countries to restore the Ryukyu countries in the southern Senjima Islands. As a result, China and Japan have held eight negotiations on the case in two months.
And even secret diplomacy has missed the wind after all. Lin Shigong and his party heard the news about the "Division Of Islands Amendment Case" and submitted a petition to the Qing government on September 28, 1880 opposing the partition of Ryukyu. The petition stated that the Senjima Islands were too barren to be restored, and requested the restoration of all Ryukyu territory. However, as a former vassal state, even if it is strong, there is no way to influence the decisions of the two great powers, let alone the country that has been destroyed.
In the end, the Qing government signed the treaty on October 21, but not surprisingly, the Qing government quickly began to debate the case, the most important of which was certainly not about the Ryukyu Islands, but about the unequal demand of "one-sided most-favored-nation treatment". In this desperate environment, Lin Shigong seems to perceive that he must die to save the fortunes of the Ryukyu nation. Therefore, on November 20, 1880, he personally submitted a petition to the Qing government, the main contents of which were:
"The Ryukyu Kingdom expressed its affection for Lin Shigong, and asked for heavenly grace for the sake of death, and quickly gave the salvation of the surviving country, with the whole minister's feast: Stealing merit was due to the humiliation of the Lord, and it was already in September of the year of the guest, and he went with him to pay tribute to the official Mao Jingchang, who was the ear and ear official, and so on, and folded the number of creeps to knock on the Constitution, and begged to save each of the cases, but what to do, has not yet been instructed. It has been three years since wept for three years, and our country has been tragically destroyed by the Japanese people, one is a ruin, the second is that the king and the son of the world see the eastward march, and then the people are subjected to its tyranny. All of them are caused by the fact that they cannot cry bitterly and ask for help, they have already died and have more than one sin, but the lord of the country has not returned, the son of the world has been detained, and he has been ashamed to survive, he has not dared to sacrifice his body to be blamed, and now Jinjing is waiting, and for more than a year, he still has not been able to help, why should he be a subject? Only by weeping with death asked the prince and the lord to bow down, according to the situation, summoned the envoys stationed in Beijing, and decreed them with great righteousness, and the mighty spirit with sound, and properly prepared for the preparations, and returned my king, restored the capital of the mainland, and took the festival of the whole subject, then although the merit died without regret! Sincerely. ”
This petition is dripping with tears and blood, tearfully praying for the restoration of the motherland and helplessness for its own weakness. In addition to the petition, Lin Shigong also left a suicide note to his companions, which is also mixed feelings:
"There is no word of involvement with anyone, although it is not harmful to hand it over, and it is prayed that the magistrates will take it for granted." If it does not help, there is no need to deliver, then the work is the same. Although, instead of handing it over afterwards, there is no real name, if you die beforehand, please save it, and take the whole subject to the festival? Moreover, the merit is to be urgent at the command of the Lord, and the five years are here. If the lord cannot save the king, and the lower cannot save the capital, why should he overthrow the lord's command, and why should he deal with the people of the country? If the son of the world asks the father and the king, what will he think is right? This merit is so that he gave his life to save him, and hoped that the princes would pity their foolishness and forgive their sins. Weeping bitterly on the verge of death, the note is clear. ”
Therefore, in the autumn and winter of 1880, the desolate scene described above appeared at the door of the prime minister of the Qing Dynasty. This seems to be the autumn queen to ask the chop, but it seems to be asked to cut himself, the last batch of official students in Ryukyu that year. He used his own death to bring a lot of shock to the Qing government and Ryukyu at that time.
In 1881, the Qing government resumed the Ryukyu negotiations to protect the Ryukyu Community. Qing dynasty officials also spoke highly of Lin Shigong, praising him as a loyal subject. The Qing government also rewarded 200 taels of silver and buried it in Lichan'an Village, Zhangjiawan, Tong County. Later, during the Cultural Revolution, Lin Shigong's tombstone was destroyed and has not been repaired to this day.
That tombstone was like Lin Shigong's broken body, and it was also like the broken territory of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but standing majestically was still the straight backbone of a man and a nation!