The rise and fall of a country often occurs in certain historical moments that are difficult to explain with common sense.
And when the Manchu Dynasty came to an end, a series of incomprehensible "anecdotes" appeared on the land of China.
It was as if the heavens were heralding that the overthrow of the Manchu ruling regime was coming.
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Anecdote 1: Lushun's "walking corpse" sings
In 1894, when the Sino-Japanese War was full of gunsmoke, the Japanese army captured Lushun, a key place in China.
In the dark of the night on November 21, the Japanese army staged an unprecedented massacre in this former maritime garden city.
In an instant, the entire city became a purgatory on earth, and the tragic scene of mutilated limbs and flesh flying everywhere was everywhere.
However, at this extremely dangerous moment, in a local time-honored teahouse "Jixian Pavilion", there was a noisy sound of gongs and drums, opera.
Following the sound, a Japanese army team, after pushing open the door of the teahouse, saw an extremely strange and terrifying scene.
On the stage, a group of "actors" with pale faces and skeletal shapes are repeating the same play mechanically.
Some of them had red blood flowing from the corners of their mouths, and some of their bodies were even mutilated, but they were still chanting and dancing tirelessly, like a group of walking corpses that had been detached from their bodies.
After a later investigation, it was learned that this was originally a troupe invited from the famous Baihuating Theater in Tianjin.
After the fall of Lushun, officials abandoned the city and fled, leaving only these homeless dramas here.
In the face of the sudden massacre, their spiritual world has long collapsed, and they can only instinctively repeat what they are most familiar with, singing.
As if this was already their last spiritual sustenance.
And not far from them, there were bloody corpses everywhere, bubbling blood, which had been woven in the city, a terrible hell scene on earth.
Anecdote 2: The Qing Dynasty official's "Di Bao" failed
After the catastrophe of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Manchu Qing government, under the coercion of Japanese force, signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, which humiliated the country.
Article 6 of the treaty required that Shashi, the capital of Jingzhou, Hubei Province, be opened to the outside world and that Japan be allowed to set up a consulate there.
As a diplomatic treaty, it should be a household name, but when a Japanese mission arrived there, it was stunned by the "sluggish" reaction of the officials in Shashi.
Not only did these officials know nothing about the Shimonoseki Treaty, but they were even confused about the existence of the entire Sino-Japanese War.
In the face of the Japanese side's questioning, they would only shake their heads blankly.
Such a diplomatic reaction is really surprising.
After all, this is already a major event related to national security and territorial sovereignty, how can it be so easily ignored?
Actually, this is not accidental.
Although the Qing government had a "Di Bao" as early as the Kangxi period, such officials read publications, but the transmission chain of its news was very closed.
From ministers to local officials, their right to know about major current affairs is usually strictly restricted.
Many people are completely ignorant of the policies of their superiors and the major affairs of the country, and the information they can get is nothing more than their own side, a few miles.
This institutional lockdown eventually led to a serious disconnect between the managers and the governed, and the real situation of the country could not be widely known.
As far as Shashi officials are concerned, their energy has long been occupied by the corrupt life of accumulating wealth to support their families and taking bribes.
The survival of the nation does not matter at all.
Therefore, when there is a major war, or even a peace treaty, they are ignorant of it, which is tantamount to the complete loss of popular support and will of this ruling group, and it is best to note it.
Anecdote 3: The city fell without blood
At the end of the 19th century, the partition and aggression of the great powers against China showed signs of becoming more and more frenzied.
In 1897, Germany first forcibly occupied Jiaozhou Bay on the Shandong Peninsula, and then sent a team of only 120 people to occupy the coastal county town of Rizhao.
For this well-fortified, customs city, the German army was still a little afraid at first.
But soon, they were stunned by an unexpected, unexpected scene.
I saw a missionary who could speak Chinese recruited by the German army, shouting to the soldiers on the Qing army's position.
Promised to be paid with money, the officers and soldiers defending the city laid down their arms, took the initiative to carry the German army, and crossed the defensive line.
In this way, the German army was able to press the border without much effort, and occupied the county town of Rizhao without any injuries.
In the face of the invasion of foreign enemies, the officers and soldiers defending the city were not only indifferent, but also threw away the dignity of the land and the honor of the nation on their shoulders for the sake of a mere silver dollar.
The patriotic fervor of the heroic struggle has long been lost in this land, and the Manchu regime has completely lost its hearts and minds.
From the zombie actors in Lushun, to the state of confusion of Shashi officials, to the easy loss of Rizhao City, these three "strange anecdotes" reflect that the atmosphere of numbness, indifference and corruption in society at that time has reached a rare level.
The gulf between the rulers and the people is also deepening, and the Manchu Qing has long lost the moral basis for its existence.
The so-called "omen of the country's demise" is nothing more than an external reflection of this internal and external troubles.
postscript
In 1912, the history of the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty finally came.
But its various banes can be traced back to the back of these strange phenomena.
Let us take history as a mirror, keep in mind the humiliating history of the nation, forge ahead with one heart and one mind, and continue to write a magnificent chapter of the Chinese people's unremitting self-improvement.
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