On the sixth day of the eighth lunar month of the 24th lunar calendar of the Guangxu Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (September 21, 1898), Empress Dowager Cixi, with the support of conservatives, launched a coup d'état, imprisoned Guangxu, wanted Kang Liang, and killed the "Six Gentlemen of Wushu" at Caishikou in the capital. On August 21 (October 6), the edict punishing Chen Baozhen and Chen Sanli's father and son issued:
The inspector of Hunan, Chen Baozhen, was indeed responsible for appointing a large official who had abused the bandits. Chen Baozhen was immediately dismissed from his post and would never be used. Chen Sanli, the chief of the Yizi bureaucracy, attracted adultery and evil, and dismissed him from his post at the same time.
The sixth person of the Restoration, Tan Sitong, Kang Guangren, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guang, is called "E."
In the winter of the same year, the deposed Father and Son of Chen Baozhen and Chen Sanli, together with their families, left the Hunan Governor's Office and moved to their hometown in Jiangxi. The coffin of Huang Shuzhen, the wife of Chen Baozhen, who died a year earlier (Guangxu twenty-three years ago, 1897), was also moved back. The whole family, old and young, did not return to their ancestral hometown of Zhuxiang, Xiushui County, Jiangxi, but temporarily lived in a house in Mozi Lane, Nanchang, and the next year Chen Baozhen and Chen Sanli father and son lived separately in Xishan, Nanchang (now in Xinjian County, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province), and their families still lived in Nanchang City, at this time, the Chen family's economic situation was extremely poor, but finally settled down in the political storm, but only more than a year later, Guangxu Twenty-six Years (1900) On July 22, Chen Baozhen died suddenly, at the age of 69.
Chen Baozhen was the only powerful figure among the local overseers who was inclined to reform and change the law.
The former residence of Chen Baozhen Chen Sanli, located in Xiushui's hometown.
Chen Baozhen's death was indeed quite abrupt, and Chen Sanli's record is:
On June 26 of that year, he died of a slight illness at the age of seventy.
Some scholars in later generations are very skeptical about this, and the basis for doubt is: Chen Baozhen had written poems a few days before his death, and he was still writing letters to Chen Sanli five days ago. At the same time, Chen Sanli called out to the heavens and the earth, and his emotions were fierce, using "broken soul file", "annoyed and regretted, calling out the heavens and weeping blood", and "children carrying wine syrup, but there are blood and tears gushing", these scholars further believed:
If it was a normal illness and death, Chen Sanli's mental state and the language he used would not be so deeply agitated.
Chen Baozhen and his descendants took a group photo.
There is also textual evidence for this view.
Mr. Zong Jiuqi, a contemporary scholar and special researcher of the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences, made the "Biography of Chen Sanli" has such a record:
According to the manuscript of the "Records of the Literature" of Ming Zhen's father Yuanchuan Weng (Zi Puzhi), there is the following record: "On June 26, the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu (Gengzi), the general duke of XianyanQian (named Hongjiong) bing Ben from Inspector Song Shou to The Western Mountain, Lu Xuan Empress Dowager Secret, gave Chen Baozhen to commit suicide. The northern side of the treasure proverb is prostrate and is commanded, that is, self-hanging. The Inspector Order took his throat bone and reported it to the Empress Dowager."
The suicide of Shirayuki in the film and television drama is a way of giving death.
Scholars who support the doctrine of death argue that:
The manuscript of the "Anthology" is a lone testimony and has not attracted much attention after its publication. The author's attitude at that time was also to believe and doubt. However, the recent scrutiny of the manuscript of the Records shows considerable credibility, because such a falsehood is not easy to create, and in fact there is no need to falsify it. If so, then Chen Baozhen was actually a secret decree of the Nara clan, and the cruelty of the scene of the murder was unspeakable.
The twenty-sixth year of Guangxu is also the year of Gengzi, which is a year of great chaos: in May, the military minister Gang Yi recruited the Boxers into Beijing, and more than 300 British, American, French, Russian, Japanese, and Italian sailors entered the Beijing embassy district; on June 10, more than 2,000 members of the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing from Tianjin; on May 21 (May 25), the Qing government issued a declaration of war to various embassies; on August 15, the coalition army entered Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled west with the Guangxu Emperor.
On August 15, 1900, the coalition army entered and occupied Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled west with the Guangxu Emperor.
Scholars who oppose the theory of giving death believe that at this time, Empress Dowager Cixi was anxious because of the attack of the Eight-Nation Alliance, where there was energy to take care of Chen Baozhen, and the real operator of the Hunan law change was Chen Sanli, killing her father and not killing her son, which made no sense. (Hu Yingjian, "A Generation of Grandmaster Chen Sanli": Why did Empress Dowager Cixi still have the energy to deal with a seventy-year-old minister who had long been exiled in the face of the situation in which the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing and Tianjin? Moreover, if Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to kill Chen Baozhen, why would she spare her son Chen Sanli, who had been dismissed from his post with Chen Baozhen? ）
This is not true. At this time, although Empress Dowager Cixi was anxious, she was also full of pride and high spirits. On July 28 of that year (July 3), Xu Yongyi, Hubu Shangshu Lishan, Xu Jingcheng, a servant of the bureaucracy, Lianyuan, and Yuan Chang, the secretary of the Taichang Temple, who advocated not listening to the Boxers, were beheaded by the imperial court, and Cixi also thought of Zhang Yinhuan, who had long been dealing with the great powers, and ordered his execution, Zhang Yinhuan was killed at the age of 64 in Shushou, Xinjiang, on July 31 (July 6) of that year. The Anthology mentions that Chen Baozhen was given death on June 26, which was at this stage.
Zhang Yinhuan was the only martyr among the imperial court members who participated in the change.
From the contents recorded in the "Records", including the time when Chen Baozhen was cursed, coupled with Chen Sanli's fierce emotional weeping and blood sorrow, it seems to confirm that Chen Baozhen's death is extremely likely, so is this really the case?
The legal system and archive management system of the Qing Dynasty were very strict and meticulous, and killing ministers was a great thing, even if the so-called "secret purpose" was only not open to the public, and there would be detailed corresponding records in the internal archives.
The executions of Xu Yongyi, Li Shan, Xu Jingcheng, Lian Yuan, Yuan Chang, and Zhang Yinhuan mentioned earlier all have clear and clear edicts in black and white in the archives, but the relevant archives do not contain any edicts from Empress Dowager Cixi or (under the guise) of the Guangxu Emperor to give death to Chen Baozhen, nor do they have the jiangxi governor SongShou's reply to the imperial court after carrying out this matter.
Translation of the Qing Dynasty Edict Telegram.
Scholars who have studied Zhang Yinhuan's life have a saying that Cixi fled to Datong and sent a telegram to Rao Yingqi, the governor of Xinjiang, to give Zhang Yinhuan death, but in fact, according to the above timeline (Zhang Yinhuan died on July 31, Cixi fled west on August 15), this statement does not hold true, and the process of killing Zhang Yinhuan was not so, at that time, because the telegraph lines in Beijing, Tianjin and other places had been destroyed by the Boxers, the Qing court had become accustomed to using the telegram that could not be used, and could only be sent to Baoding, Hebei Province, using the traditional "six hundred miles plus urgent" method in the traditional post road transmission. Jinan, Shandong, and other places were sent by telegram again, and the edict that gave Death to Zhang Yinhuan was to first use the traditional way of "six hundred miles plus express" before sending a telegram. In short, according to the rules, whether it is the bottom file of the military aircraft department or every link in the middle, there are records and traces, and the "secret will" of Chen Baozhen and the echo of Song Shou cannot be like a spring dream without a trace.
At this time, Songshou, the governor of Jiangxi, was later the last governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty, and committed suicide during the Xinhai Revolution.
On the other hand, if this matter exists, it involves many people, each of whom is silent and unreasonable. The military ministers Rong Lu and Wang Wenshao had a very good relationship with Chen Baozhen (combining the "Yan Fu Collection", "Yan Fu Da Biography", "Zheng Xiaoxu's Diary" and other materials, Zhang Baixi, Yan Fu, Wang Xiuzhi, Sun Baoqi, Chen Baozhen, Weng Tonggong and others were all spared because ronglu tried to intercede in front of the empress, but after Rong Lu's image was "demonized" later, many people in the world did not believe in such things), even if they could not rescue each other during the Gengzi years, but they did not leave the slightest trace in the public and private records The party concerned, Inspector Song Shou of Jiangxi, has served a lot of official positions, traveled extensively, and has a deep relationship with high-ranking officials and local officials in central Beijing. Chen Sanli had extensive contacts with Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang (who belonged to the same Xiangjun faction as Chen Baozhen), Liang Dingfen, Shen Zengzhi, Fan Zengxiang, and even Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, and it was completely unreasonable not to speak of them in the face of such a great injustice; and for Kang Liang, he later slandered and insulted Cixi, and if he knew that such a thing was even a rumor, he would not let it go lightly; as for after entering the Republic of China, there was no political taboo about secretly giving death, and Chen Sanli was even more unlikely to keep his mouth shut.
The royalist party led by Kang Youwei cursed Cixi, and fell into Cixi's eyes, which just confirmed that the Guangxu Emperor was not filial to himself and became an excuse for deposing him.
In addition, it is very important to note that the method of self-hanging is itself the so-called "holy grace" of the imperial court to leave the whole body of the deceased. In this case, it is impossible for the executor to give the throat bone of the deceased again, let alone to Cixi—a story that the fabricator derives from the rumor that Wei Zhongxian removed the throat bone.
Chen Baozhen, Chen Sanli, and Chen Yinke's grandchildren.
The indignant and mournful texts in poems such as Chen Sanli and Chen Yinke (Chen Baozhensun and Chen Sanlizi) are actually similar to the obituary "No filial piety xxx, deep sins, no self-destruction, and misfortune extends to the examination", which is not only a relatively formatted content, but for Chen Sanli, even if his father only died of illness, but somewhat blamed himself for his own factors, it does not mean that Chen Baozhen did not die naturally.
The aforementioned Zhang Yinhuan is usually considered to be another person who sacrificed his life for the change of law after the six gentlemen of Wu Shu, and was also the only martyr among the imperial court members who participated in the change of law, and only Chen Baozhen was not given death, and this "only" was established.