On May 29, 1906, in Changsha, Hunan Province, a spontaneously organized funeral procession was marching around Changsha City towards Yuelu Mountain.
The team consisted of about 10,000 students and people from all walks of life in Changsha. In disregard of the Qing government's prohibition, they carried coffins, dressed in white, held up elegy, and sang elegy, and the atmosphere was both sad and solemn. Someone described the scene at that time: "From the city of Changsha, the whole mountain is full of mushrooms... The military police stood aside, were also touched by it, and did not interfere. ”
The two people commemorated by the people are Chen Tianhua and Yao Hongye, who also went to the water after him.
Later, mao Zedong commented in the Xiangjiang Review that Chen Tianhua was "indignant about the country's peril and died in the sea" and was "an earth-shattering and disciplined matter."
Chen Tianhua used his life to sound the alarm bell to the Chinese people that "the Chinese nation has reached the most dangerous time."
He was only 30 years old.
Portrait of Chen Tianhua
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 01, genius teenagers are born in pain</h1>
When Chen Tianhua was born, it was at a time when the country was in many difficulties and how difficult the family road was.
He was born in Xinhua County, Loudi City, Hunan Province. After birth, he was infected with smallpox, and although he recovered a life, he still left a large scar on his face, and he had a stuttering - these shortcomings became Chen Tianhua's lifelong heart disease.
His father was a village private school gentleman, who usually wrote and fought lawsuits. When Chen Tianhua was 5 years old, his father offended a local tycoon because he was upset in a lawsuit, and not only lost his job as a part-time lawyer, but also his job at a private school.
Originally, their family could only barely make ends meet, and after his father was laid off, Chen Tianhua dropped out of school.
In order to live for the family's daily living expenses, Chen Tianhua could only start carrying a basket to sell candy around. However, his candy business did not make much money, because Chen Tianhua really did not concentrate on this business.
When selling candy in the streets and alleys, Chen Tianhua always reads novels such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Villagers often steal his candy to eat while he is reading books or listening to stories, while Chen Tianhua is addicted to stories and does not know how to collect money from others.
His love of learning touched a fellow man across the river from his family. The well-meaning man saw that he was talented, so he asked him to help herd the cattle while learning from himself. Chen Tianhua really received an enlightenment education.
Chen Tianhua's talent was soon revealed. At the age of 9, he imitated the style of the commentary, writing some popular novels and mountain song minor keys. His works quickly spread, and he was also dubbed the "prodigy".
When he was 20 years old, Chen Tianhua moved with his father to Xinhua County and boarded at Zijiang Academy, the most famous in Xinhua County, Hunan.
Chen Tianhua's family was still very poor, so while he continued to do some small business, he sneaked into the academy for three days to observe. After listening to the class, he will also write homework and hand in homework carefully. At that time, when the dean of Zijiang College was reviewing the students' compositions, he found Chen Tianhua's articles, greatly appreciated them, and made an exception to allow Chen Tianhua to borrow books from the academy. It is said that Chen Tianhua read the Twenty-Four Histories in only half a year.
The dean was shocked and persuaded Chen Tianhua's already wealthy colleagues to sponsor him to go to school.
Since then, Chen Tianhua no longer has to worry about his livelihood. He officially enrolled in Zijiang College and devoted himself to his studies.
At that time, Tan Sitong went to Changsha to preside over the New Deal, contact local patriarchs, publish newspapers, and run schools for current affairs, and the local atmosphere was new. As soon as the Shiwu Academy was founded, Chen Tianhua was admitted as a foreign student because of his excellent results, and soon became the top student among the foreign students.
Tan Sitong (second from left) poses with the teachers of the Shiwu Academy
Since then, with his excellent results, he has successively studied in Xinhua Experimental School, Changsha Yuelu Academy, and Qiushi College, and his grades have always been among the best, and finally he was guaranteed by the government to study in Japan.
At this time, Chen Tianhua was only 28 years old.
From receiving formal education to studying abroad in the official school, Chen Tianhua only took 8 years, which can be described as "a bully among scholars".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, which point in China, I still have a share? </h1>
But in Japan, Chen Tianhua not only did not continue this excellent academic ability, but also fell into a crisis for a long time.
When you study in a foreign country, the first thing you have to pass is the language barrier, and then you can enter the real learning stage. The students who enrolled at the same time as Chen Tianhua soon learned to speak fluent Japanese. But Chen Tianhua had a stuttering problem, and this language was particularly difficult to close. His classmates recalled that six months after Chen Tianhua arrived in Japan, he "still couldn't say a word."
This is undoubtedly a huge blow to Chen Tianhua, a scholar who has always been among the best. He entered school in April 1903, and after August he was less likely to appear in the school. Even in these 4 months, Chen Tianhua's absence from class was quite serious, and he did not even take the exam.
But Chen Tianhua soon found his place in the revolution—soon after arriving in Japan, Chen Tianhua embarked on the revolutionary road.
In April 1903, Tsarist Russia broke the treaty and refused to withdraw the army that occupied northeast China, and put forward 7 unreasonable demands to the Qing government, which made the students in Japan indignant, organized the formation of the "Anti-Russian Volunteer Brigade", and prepared to return to China to participate in the war. Chen Tianhua and Huang Xing both signed to join the volunteer team.
However, the Qing government's interpretation of the activities of international students was "to reject Russia in name, but to be revolutionary." Less than a week after the establishment of the "Anti-Russian Volunteer Brigade", it was ordered to stop its activities.
Against such a background, Chen Tianhua not only insisted on publishing articles in the newspaper and calling on everyone to rise up and engage in revolution, but also wrote down the two works that have been handed down to the world- "Alarm Clock" and "Turning Back". Written in rap style throughout, these two books are particularly novel, affectionate and powerful, and catchy and easy to understand.
Russia, from the north, covers three sides of me; England, fake trade, poison schemes in Tibet; France, occupying Guangzhou, spying on Qiangui; Germany, Jiaozhou, tiger look to the East; new Japan, take Taiwan, and then map Fujian; the United States, also wants, cut the land and divide the territory. Which point in This China, I still have a share? This imperial court, originally a court, exists in name only.
At that time, the newspaper introduced: "It is a book that writes about the tragedy of foreign bullying in bullet words, awakens the dreams of the people, advocates the spirit of independence, every word and tear, one word and one blood, and the treasure raft of the world is also purified." ”
"Alarm Clock", "Turning Back"
In the process of writing these two pamphlets, Chen Tianhua's own thinking also underwent tremendous changes, from only resisting Russia and rejecting Russia at the beginning, and slowly transforming into a revolutionary ideology against the Qing And Qing.
At the end of 1903, Chen Tianhua left Tokyo and returned to Hunan to prepare for an armed revolution. He was full of confidence and felt that the time was ripe for the success of the revolution.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, can not be done, what is born</h1>
Back in Changsha, he co-founded the Huaxing Society with Huang Xing and others and served as the editor of the progressive newspaper Slang Daily.
However, Chen Tianhua's Slang Daily was soon shut down for propagating revolutionary ideas. In the late spring of 1904, Chen Tianhua had to return to Japan again. This time, he entered Hosei University in Tokyo. But he continued to miss classes, not take exams, and eventually did not graduate.
In the summer of the same year, Chen Tianhua returned to Hunan to prepare to participate in the Changsha Uprising.
Members of the Huaxing Association who participated in the Changsha Uprising
However, Chen Tianhua and Huang Xing's uprising in Hunan soon ended in failure—they were inexperienced, only wanted to be powerful, and did not do any secrecy work. The uprising plan had not yet been carried out, and before a single shot had been fired, the then governor of Hunan had already received the news and sent troops to surround and suppress them. Chen Tianhua, Huang Xing, and others had to flee Hunan and reach Shanghai.
They did not die and tried to launch a revolution in Shanghai, but they failed.
When the revolutionary cause encountered serious setbacks, as one of the leaders of the revolution, Chen Tianhua was quite depressed. He fell into self-blame and could not extricate himself, and every day he was depressed, neither trying to save the crisis of the revolution, nor actively contacting comrades to preserve his strength, or even escaping, so he sat in despair and waited for the Qing government to arrest him, because he felt that "things will not be accomplished, the country will perish and die, and so on.
Finally, under the persuasion of the revolutionary comrades, he left Shanghai and went to Japan for the third time.
During that time, Chen Tianhua was "pessimistic, looked haggard, and whenever he mentioned major events in the world with his friends, he did not shed tears before he said anything, and sometimes he did not dry his eyes almost all day."
At this time, Chen Tianhua began to have pessimistic thoughts about dying rather than witnessing the fall of China, and he said to his friend: "I really don't want to tease this human world for a long time." ”
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >04, determined to die, for the remembrance of the kings</h1>
It was not until he saw Sun Yat-sen that Chen Tianhua perked up again, no longer the appearance of "tears and dry eyes" a few months ago.
He participated in the establishment of the League, and together with Huang Xing polished the oath and drafted the relevant statutes. In the same year, the people's newspaper, the organ of the League, was founded. Sun Yat-sen personally wrote the publication speech, and the "Three People's Principles" made their first public appearance. Among the 17 articles in the inaugural issue, Chen Tianhua alone accounted for as many as 7 articles. Sun Yat-sen praised him as a "great revolutionary writer."
During this period, Chen Tianhua could not see the inferiority of the past at all, but was extremely confident. Every day he does what he loves and is good at: writing editorials, editorials. In his free time, he also wrote the novel "The Lion Roar", which outlined what he thought the future of China would look like.
However, the "outlaw incident" that broke out at the end of 1905 once again pushed him into crisis and pushed him to the end of his life.
The cause of the incident was that the Qing government found that the international students it had painstakingly cultivated had fallen to the revolutionary party in large numbers, and immediately contacted Japan to help curb it.
Around this "ban rule", the international students were divided into two factions. Radical students called on everyone to strike and return to China in protest, while moderates advocated that the puritans should be self-purifying, that they should have no shame in themselves, and that they should study with peace of mind.
Chen Tianhua's close friend Song Jiaoren sided with the radicals
Chen Tianhua opposed the use of such a fierce group activity as a strike to protest to the Japanese side. He is worried that the international students will not be able to act uniformly, but it will cause a division in the international student community and cause the Japanese population to be real.
This was a normal disagreement, but it was deliberately misinterpreted and vilified by the Japanese media, slandering Chinese "a peculiar indulgence and despicable temperament, but its unity is quite weak." And the students continue to split, as if to justify the Denigration in the Japanese media.
This was originally just an accidental event, but it made Chen Tianhua feel confused, and his sense of inferiority broke out again.
He found himself so proud of his words, his own language, so powerless to influence others. He eventually decided that all this chaos was caused by his own lack of ability. This time, he made the extreme decision to give his life to the last voice.
On December 7, 1905, he drafted the "Desperate Speech" overnight, and decided to use extraordinary actions to motivate people to "make a vigilance" and "talk about patriotism together". He hoped that "after the death of the contemptible person, the problem of banning the rules will be solved, and it will not be stubborn."
Chen Tianhua's roommate was unaware of his determination to die, only to see him "hold the pipe and write the text until night."
In the early morning of December 8, Chen Tianhua, as usual, washed, read the newspaper, ate breakfast, and had a calm and calm attitude.
After breakfast, he borrowed a little money from his friend and went out.
After going out, he sent the suicide note he had written in the night to "Surugadai, Kanda District, Yang Du of the Qingguo International Students Association."
Then, he drove to Omori Bay and walked towards the cold sea.
At that time, how desperate he was, and how calm he was.
This year, Chen Tianhua was only 30 years old.
Chen Tianhua
Looking at Chen Tianhua's few remaining photos now, people will think that he has big ears, looks great, and has a kind of heroic and martial spirit.
But the scars left by smallpox in his childhood were his life's heart disease—he thought he was wide and numb, ugly and not handsome enough. He was young and frail, and he stuttered, which prevented him from learning Japanese, and made him always socially poor, resulting in a particularly withdrawn personality.
All this eventually formed the feeling of inferiority in his bones.
In fact, everyone will be inferior, but the degree is different, moderate inferiority can make people not arrogant, often with awe of foreign objects. But excessive inferiority is a fatal character defect. If a person has excessive inferiority, he will completely lose immunity to the setbacks and blows encountered in life.
Psychological problems with extreme inferiority complex occur repeatedly. When you achieve certain results, you will feel that your confidence is constantly accumulating, and you are more and more sure of your performance; but as long as you fail again, you will let yourself return to zero again, feel that you are useless, and feel that the situation has collapsed so much that you cannot make a difference.
Throughout his life, Chen Tianhua has been fighting against his native environment, against the branding given to him by the times, and even more against the sense of inferiority they imposed on him.
The native environment gave him poverty, and he fought it with hard work; the times gave him anxiety, and he confronted it with revolution. But looking around the environment, he seemed extremely lonely. He was not a radical and was not accepted by moderates. His position in the League was important, but he could not influence anything. He leapt into the sky like a soaring wave, but when he looked around, he found that there was no alliance.
Eventually, the sea engulfed it, and he turned into a bubble that dissipated between heaven and earth.
(Reprinted, invaded and deleted)