So for the survival of the Chinese nation, countless talented people stood up. The "Reform Movement of 1898" led by Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong once let countless people see the dawn of hope, but this reform movement, which lasted only a hundred days, failed to resist the ruthless persecution of the feudal class.
When Kang Youwei fled abroad, people at home were waiting for him to make a comeback with the idea of reform, but he bought an island overseas and lived a rich life. What happened?
Kang Youwei was born in an official family in the late Qing Dynasty. He studied under Kang Zanxiu and Zhu Ciqi, the masters of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, so he was deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties.
Even if he later accepted the traditional feudal ideological education, it remained unchanged. Even so, he realized that the Qing government was corrupt, and the country and the nation had reached a dangerous moment of life and death. Especially after coming into contact with advanced western thoughts, Kang Youwei felt that only by reforming the Qing government through western political thoughts could he save the country.
Therefore, Kang Youwei repeatedly wrote to Emperor Guangxu asking for political reform, and all the results ended in failure. He had to establish a school with Liang Qichao and others to spread the idea of reform and political reform. Although he was blocked by the old school many times, Kang Youwei became more frustrated and brave, and his thought of political reform was further improved.
Later, the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 intensified the enthusiasm of reformists such as Kang Youwei, so under the leadership of Kang Youwei, they made a famous "bus letter" in history asking Emperor Guangxu to carry out political reform, but the result ended in failure.
However, Kang Youwei and others did not give up. Finally, their third petition was seen by Emperor Guangxu. Emperor Guangxu also understood that the Qing dynasty had reached a dangerous situation of national subjugation, so he agreed to the requests of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong, and the Reform Movement of 1898 officially kicked off.
From 65438 to 0898, the Reform Movement of 1898 was formally implemented. Kang Youwei was finally able to show his ambition, but their drastic reforms harmed the interests of the old school headed by the feudal nobles such as Empress Dowager Cixi.
So when Kang Youwei and others were ready to show their talents, Empress Dowager Cixi stopped the Reform Movement of 1898, imprisoned Emperor Guangxu and searched for reformists. The famous "Six Gentlemen of the Reform Movement of 1898" headed by Tan Sitong was even killed.
Fortunately, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao escaped from Beijing. Kang Youwei transferred to Hong Kong via Wusongkou, and finally successfully fled to Japan.
After arriving in Japan, Kang Youwei not only evaded the pursuit of the Qing government. He still didn't give up his ideal of political reform, propagated his thoughts of political reform and reform everywhere, criticized the old school headed by Empress Dowager Cixi, called them "national thieves", listed a number of crimes, and claimed that he was "ordered to rescue the driver".
At the same time, Kang Youwei also actively contacted various forces, but the politicians of many forces, including Japanese Prime Minister Ito Bowen, did not give him a clear answer as to whether they would support him.
Of course, it's not that no one is willing to give him support. The Japanese revolutionaries headed by Sun Yat-sen provided great help to Kang Youwei, enabling him to spread and publicize his reform ideas in Japan, and introduced a large number of Japanese revolutionaries to meet him.
However, when Sun Yat-sen and others sought further cooperation from Kang Youwei, they were rejected by Kang Youwei. Because the goal of revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen is to completely overthrow the autocratic rule of the feudal dynasty and create a democratic and free country, and Kang Youwei is a staunch royalist who advocates constitutional monarchy and supports the restoration of Emperor Guangxu.
However, because Kang Youwei's action in promoting the reform thought in Japan was conspicuous, it was quickly discovered by the Qing government, so the Qing government began to negotiate with the Japanese government and strongly demanded that the Japanese side hand over Kang Youwei. Although the Japanese government did not agree with the Qing government's request, they did not want Kang Youwei to stay in Japan. So Kang Youwei went into exile in the United States.
In the United States, Kang Youwei still hasn't forgotten his ideal of saving the country through political reform, but the money given by the Japanese government soon ran out. He must first find a way to make a living.
In order to solve the problem of his livelihood, Kang Youwei quickly came up with a good way to raise money from patriotic overseas Chinese under the banner of defending Emperor Guangxu. Kang Youwei also assured them that all the money raised would be used for reform and political reform activities. As a result, overseas Chinese who were concerned about the motherland began to donate money, and Kang Youwei quickly changed from a poor exile to a rich man.
Although Kang Youwei boasted about raising donations, the actual situation was that he did not use the money for political reform and reform activities, but was obsessed with money and put it all in his pocket.
Of course, in order to put on a show for these patriots who donated money, Kang Youwei set up several "royalist reform" organizations to perfunctory these patriots, and continued to shout slogans of patriotism, national salvation and royalist reform to collect money. Later, these organizations directly became his tools for collecting money.
Kang Youwei has set up more than 100 branches of "Royalist Reform" all over the world, with millions of members, and these members have to pay admission fees every time they join a club. Naturally, the money also flowed into Kang Youwei's pocket. Kang Youwei's original reform ideas and concepts have long been submerged by money, and the rest is the banner he used to collect money.
From then on, Kang Youwei began to spend money like water, buying a house, a car and wine, but these still could not satisfy him. He even came up with the idea of buying his own private territory, and quickly put it into action. He bought an island in Sweden, reclaimed farmland and built a manor on it. Just like a warrior who struggled for the rise and fall of the Chinese nation, he became an island owner who made a fortune in the name of saving the country.
This island is also called "Kang Youwei Island" by the outside world because of Kang Youwei's big purchase. But it may be because I am worried that my corruption and fraud will be discovered by other members of the royalist organization. Kang Youwei only stayed on the island for three years and left, and never came back until his death.
Now, hundreds of years have passed since Kang Youwei bought the island, so the island was taken back by the Swedish government, and because Kang Youwei once lived here, the island has become a popular tourist attraction for China tourists to visit Sweden.
A brave man who once devoted everything to reform and political reform for the sake of the rise and fall of the country and the survival of the nation turned out to be someone who tried to overthrow him, arrest him and even kill him. This result is really embarrassing.