Empress Dowager Cixi was in charge of life and death for 47 years. She killed many people in her life, but she once regretted killing Shen Zhou. On July 3rd, Kloc-0, 65438, 0903, Shen Zhou, who worked in the Japanese-sponsored Tianjin Daily newspaper, was beaten to death in the prison of the Ministry of Justice. It's only been 20 days since he was caught dead everywhere, and the charges have not been announced. At that time, it was generally believed that his death was due to the leakage of the draft of the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty. Some people verified that this statement was unfounded. His death was mainly because he was one of the leaders of the Self-Defense Forces three years ago. After Tang and others were killed, he escaped through the net and has been wanted by the Qing court.
This article was originally published in Literature and History ReferenceNo. 1 No.20 10, with the original title "Cixi regrets killing journalists"
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Shen Zhou went to prison that month, which coincided with the birthday of Emperor Guangxu, and punishments were ordered, "If the death penalty is not executed within ten thousand years, Hitachi will kill him with a stick. I respect this. " The punishments specially made a big board for this purpose and hit it more than 200 times, until the flesh and blood were flying and the bones were like powder, but he didn't say a word. The executioner thought he was dead, but his blood was flowing, and he said, "Why don't you die? Twist me up with a rope. " Finally, he had to be strangled alive by a rope.
It is said that Su Yuanchun, the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Sai Jinhua, a famous prostitute, were also imprisoned in this cell soon, so officials of the Ministry of Punishment made a speech and formed an alliance: the heroic blood party of children. So far, there is no bottom link.
A year later, Wang Zhao, a member of the Reform Movement of 1898, was convicted and imprisoned, and happened to be in the same cell. Wang Zhao's Chronicle of Miscellaneous Poems recalls that "the powder wall is black and purple, four or five feet high and full of blood."
The tragedy of Shen Zhou's death was soon made public, and even West Renye Fang was frightened. China Times reporter Mo Lixun called Cixi "a vicious old woman who should be killed". On the back of the photo Shen Zhou gave him was written: "Shen Kecheng, taken with a stick, Friday, July 3 1903". Thanks to this photo kept by Morrison, we can clearly see Shen Zhou's face after 100 years.
Shen Zhou's death is equivalent to sending a shell to his opponent. Zhang Taiyan, who was convicted of "reporting to the Soviet Union", wrote a poem in Shanghai prison and Zhang compiled a book "Shenzhou". The journals of students studying in Japan, Zhejiang Chao and Jiangsu also published critical articles respectively, condemning the atrocities of the Qing court and adding another reason for the Manchu revolution.
On August 4th of the same year, Tianjin Ta Kung Pao published four poems of Shen Zhou's Breaking Bad, and the last one was well-known:
I'm in my thirties and one year older. It's not worth winning a fame.
From then on, it doesn't matter whether you rise or fall, and the soul belongs to heaven.
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This poem conveys his calm and philosophical attitude towards death. In contrast, other poems reveal more information. The first poem, "The old friend in the food market bleeds, and the five loyal ministers and six scholars soar * * *", confesses his relationship with the "six gentlemen of the Reform Movement of 1898" who died five years ago. He is from Hunan, and Tan Sitong are like-minded close friends. When Ta Kung Pao first reported Shen Zhou's case, it only said that he "participated in the Reform Movement of 1898", and subsequent reports never involved the truth of the case. In fact, in his second and third sentences of despair, there is not only a poem "Who destroys Liaodong today, and China and North Korea will leave the capital from now on", but also a direct sentence "Check the epidemic situation and make a new secret agreement". Judging from these two poems, the cause of his death seems to be related to the secret agreement between China and Russia.
Whether Shen Zhou really died for the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty has been a conclusion for hundreds of years. Empress Dowager Cixi killed countless people in her life, and no one was criticized by Chinese and foreign public opinion like this time. Therefore, Shen Zhou is known as "the first journalist who died in the line of duty in the history of China".
Because the diplomatic envoys in Beijing complained a lot, on September 14 of the same year, Ta Kung Pao reported that after the death of Shen Zhou's chief of staff, the wives of diplomatic envoys in various countries pleaded for Shen Zhou when they met with Empress Dowager Cixi, and Cixi was quite remorseful. She said that she had told courtiers that the party should be strict, but it must not be implicated in goodness, thus losing people's hearts. The reason why the Qing court did not insist on the extradition of Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong, who reported the case to the Soviet Union, was closely related to the death of Shen Zhou.