Tan Sitong

Tan Sitong ( Tan Szu-tung ; Chinese 譚嗣同 , Pinyin Tán Sìtóng , W.-G. T'an ² Szu ⁴ -t'ung ² , * March 10, 1865 , † September 28, 1898 , courtesy name Fusheng (复生) , Pseudonym Zhuangfei (壮飞)) was a Chinese politician, thinker and reformer in the late Qing period . After the Hundred Day Reform failed , he was executed at the age of 33. He was one of the " Six Gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform" (戊戌六君子). For many contemporaries, his execution symbolized the failure of the political reforms in the Qing dynasty and drove them to radicalize themselves and overthrow the dynasty through a revolution.

family

Tan Sitong was born into a family in Liuyang , Hunan . He was born in Beijing . His father, Tan Jixun (谭继洵) was the governor of Hubei Province . His mother, Xu Wuyuan (徐五缘), was a very traditional Chinese woman. She raised her 10 children with great rigor.

At the age of 12 he lost his mother, as well as his eldest brother and second oldest sister in a period of just 5 days. You had contracted diphtheria while visiting a cousin . Tan Sitong also became critically ill, but recovered after three days, which was considered a miracle at the time. This event left a deep impression on him. A concubine of his father's took over the upbringing of the children, but treated Sitong very badly. At the age of 19 he was married to Li Run (李闰). They had a son, Tan Lansheng (谭兰生), who died within a year. Li Run still greatly revered Tan Sitong years after his execution. She founded a girls' school in his hometown, which was completely unheard of in rural China at the time.

resume

Tan Sitong spent his childhood in Beijing and his youth in Liuyang. His lessons began at the age of 5. He was taught by the famous teacher Ouyang Zhonggu (欧阳中鹄). Although he was very gifted, he refused to write eight-part essays . Therefore, he only reached the level of a Mandarin scholar (秀才, Xiùcaí) in the official examinations . From 1879 he was tutored by Xu Qixian (徐启先), who taught him a systematic study of representative Chinese works and also brought him into contact with natural sciences .

In 1884 he left his home and made a long journey that broadened his horizons. He visited several provinces in China, including Hebei , Gansu , Xinjiang , Shaanxi , Henan , Hubei , Jiangxi , Jiangsu , Anhui , Zhejiang , Shandong , Shanxi . He wrote more than 200 poems on this tour.

When in 1895 Japan forced the Qing government to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki and annex Taiwan , Tan Sitong was shocked. He was disappointed with how impotent the state apparatus was and angry at this foreign aggression. He and his colleagues began to look for a solution to the problem.

In the years 1896 and 1897 he wrote the famous book “Ren Xue”, which is considered the first philosophical book of the reformer group. He stated that absolute monarchy suppressed human nature and was the source of all kinds of evil. In 1897 he assisted the governor of Hunan in drafting a new guideline for politics. In 1898 he founded a new school called the South Academy (南学会), in which he tried to unite the reforming forces in the south. In addition, he founded the magazine “Hunan Reporter” (湘 um) to make his ideas available to a broader public.

A captain introduced Tan Sitong to the Emperor Guangxu , who soon appointed him a member of his Grand Council. On June 11, 1898, the Hundred-Day Reform began with the publication of a memorandum on a number of new policies. Unfortunately, the reform violated the claims of many officials and Manchu nobles, so that an influential opposition quickly formed. When Tan learned that the Dowager Empress Cixi was plotting against the regent and wanted to put him under house arrest, he immediately went to General Yuan Shikai on September 18 to persuade him to support the reform. However, he immediately betrayed the reform after his return and revealed the plans to Cixi, so that they quickly staged a coup and had all reformers captured on September 21. The reform failed after just 103 days. Tan Sitong was detained in the Liuyang (浏阳Halle) Guild Hall on September 24th . Although he had been warned and told to flee to Japan, he stayed in the hope that his death and blood would awaken the people to take up arms against the corrupt regime in order to realize his unfinished dreams of a strong China. On September 27th, he was charged with treason and attempted coup. However, the trial was stopped at 4 a.m. by the order for immediate execution. (Probably because of CIxi's actions.) He was beheaded along with five others on September 28th in Caishikou (菜市口) outside the Xuanwu Gate. In 1899, his remains were transferred to Liuyang and buried there. His last words became famous in China:

“I wanted to kill the robbers, but I didn't have the strength to change the world. This is the place where I'm supposed to die. Rejoice, rejoice! "

Works

Renxue仁学, 1897, a philosophical treatise based on the Daxue on “humanity” (仁) as a prerequisite for good politics.
Tan Sitong niánpǔ谭嗣同年谱, curriculum vitae with biographical information.
Hubao湘报, 1898-, reform magazine.

literature

Commons : Tan Sitong - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

"T'an Ssu-t'ung," in Hummel, Arthur William , ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912). (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943), Vol II, pp. 701-705. Online at Qing Studies Workshop .

Individual evidence

↑ “有心杀贼，无力回天。死得其所，快哉快哉！” Jonathan Spence: The Gate of Heavenly Peace . Penguin Books, 1981, p. 53.

personal data
SURNAME	Tan Sitong
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tan Szu-tung; 譚嗣同; 谭嗣同 (Chinese); Tán Sìtóng; Fusheng (复生); Zhuangfei (壮飞)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chinese politician and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH	March 10, 1865
DATE OF DEATH	September 28, 1898

[1] “有心杀贼，无力回天。死得其所，快哉快哉！” Jonathan Spence: The Gate of Heavenly Peace . Penguin Books, 1981, p. 53.