On December 8, 1905, the democratic revolutionary Chen Tianhua came to the shores of the Omori Bay in Tokyo, Japan. He glanced at the sea, and then walked from the shallow part of the sea to the deep water area until the figure disappeared completely.
(Portrait of Chen Tianhua)
Chen Tianhua was a strong and indomitable revolutionary, but why did he end his life by committing suicide?
According to media reports at the time, a month before Chen Tianhua committed suicide, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology promulgated the "Rules for the Suppression of Qing International Students." After fierce protests were ineffective, Chen Tianhua finally decided to use his own death to wake up the sleeping people.
However, Chen Tianhua wrote such a sentence in his 10,000-word "Fatal Words": "But be cautious not to misunderstand its meaning and say that contempt is to die for the issue of banning rules." The meaning of this sentence is: Please don't misunderstand me, I did not commit suicide by jumping into the sea to protest the regulations.
So, what is the real reason for Chen Tianhua's suicide?
Chen Tianhua is a native of Xinhua County, Hunan Province, whose mother died early when he was a child, and it was his father who pulled him up. Despite his family's poverty, his father insisted on sending him to study, and Chen Tianhua also read a lot of books.
In 1898, the Restoration Movement was carried out vigorously throughout the country. Chen Tianhua also began to advocate for the non-entanglement of football in the local area, and became a staunch supporter of the Restoration Movement. Later, the "Pengshu Reform Law" failed, and Chen Tianhua entered the provincial city of Yuelu Academy to continue his further studies.
During his studies, a local official admired Chen Tianhua's talent and wanted to marry his daughter to him. However, Chen Tianhua politely refused, saying: "The country is uneasy, and I will not marry." Until he committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea, Chen Tianhua never took a wife.
In 1903, Chen Tianhua was granted an official fee to study in Japan. In the same year, Tsarist Russia wanted to invade and occupy China's three eastern provinces, and the "rejection of Russia incident" broke out in the country, and patriots, mainly students, began to spontaneously organize rallies and parades.
When Chen Tianhua, who was far away in Japan, learned of this incident, he was deeply saddened by the situation in which his motherland was being bullied. That night, he bit his finger, wrote several blood letters in succession, and sent them back to various schools in Hunan.
(Zhao Erxun)
Zhao Erxun, who was the governor of Hunan at the time, was touched by Chen Tianhua's behavior, and he personally went to various schools to read blood books and published the matter in the official newspaper. Morale in Hunan Province's rejection of Russia rose with it.
In the same year, Chen Tianhua successively wrote two books, "Turning Back" and "Alarm Clock". In the book, he denounced the Qing government as having become a "court of foreigners" and called on the people to unite against foreign enemies. As soon as these two books were published, they caused strong repercussions in society.
In 1904, Chen Tianhua, together with Song Jiaoren and Huang Xing, founded the huaxing association in Changsha and prepared to launch an uprising in Jiangxi. However, the matter was soon leaked, and Chen Tianhua had to return to Japan for refuge.
In August of the same year, Chen Tianhua ventured back to China to prepare for an uprising in Changsha. But the news leaked again, and Chen Tianhua had to sneak to Japan again.
In 1905, the Chinese League was established, with Chen Tianhua as secretary and was promoted as one of the drafters of the constitution.
At the end of the same year, Japan promulgated regulations that discriminated against and restricted Chinese students.
The "Rules for the Suppression of International Students in the Qing Dynasty" stipulate that any activity carried out by Chinese students must be registered with the Japanese Academy or the Qing Dynasty Minister in Japan. Even letters to relatives and friends in China must be registered. In addition, international students can only live in student dormitories and are not allowed to stay overnight anywhere else.
Simply put, Chinese students have been completely monitored.
(Old photo of Song Jiaoren)
After the promulgation of this rule, a large number of international students launched a protest. However, on the choice of the method of struggle, there were serious differences among Chinese students: a faction, represented by Song Jiaoren and Qiu Jin, advocated that all students immediately strike and return to China. The other faction, represented by Wang Zhaoming and Hu Hanmin, advocates continuing to bear the burden of humiliation in Japan. There was a fierce quarrel between the two factions, and then all the students' union officers in Japan resigned.
The Japanese media, gloating, described the Chinese students as "rabble-rousers" in the newspaper and accused the Chinese of lack of unity. And this news has become an important reason for Chen Tianhua's suicide.
After much deliberation, Chen Tianhua decided to use his own death to achieve three goals.
First, they protested against the "Rules for the Suppression of International Students in the Qing Dynasty". Chen Tianhua hoped that through his own death, the influence of this matter would be expanded and attract the attention of the Japanese government and the Qing government.
Second, the rebuttal of the Japanese media's "ragtag crowd" statement. Chen Tianhua mentioned in "Desperate Words" that Chinese is by no means a ragtag group that lacks unity, and he is willing to fight with his life.
Third, to die to make the country clear and to repay the country with death. Chen Tianhua hoped to use his own death to awaken more Chinese numb will. He wanted to be a revolutionary bloody person like Tan Sitong and dedicate his last strength to the rejuvenation of China.
Chen Tianhua's death did cause a great sensation at that time. In the spring of 1906, when Chen Tianhua's coffin was transported back to Shanghai, thousands of students came to mourn and held a public funeral for him.
This incident awakened more sleeping Chinese, and also laid the groundwork for the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution later.
(Reference: Who's Who in the Late Qing Dynasty)