In the 24th year of Guangxu (1898), the "Hundred Days Reform" ended with Emperor Guangxu being imprisoned in Yingtai in the South China Sea, completely losing his freedom, and Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who advocated political reform, were forced to flee to Japan. Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi, Kang were all killed by die-hards. Afterwards, the Qing government accused Kang Youwei of "conspiring to contain the Summer Palace and rob Empress Dowager Cixi" and asked him to pursue it.
Regarding the plot of the robbery around the garden, the parties left little historical materials. The first to expose this conspiracy was an imperial edict issued by the Qing government on August 14th, the 24th year of Guangxu (1898), after the execution of Tan Sitong and other "six gentlemen of the Reform Movement of 1898". However, whether there is a plot of "surrounding the garden after robbery" is controversial in academic circles. To sum up, there are mainly the following opinions:
First, Kang Liang denied it. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, the main leaders who advocated political reform and reform, have never publicly admitted the plot of encircling the Summer Palace. According to the records in Lost of the Four Dynasties, he personally asked Kang Youwei about the robbery of the Summer Palace. Kang Youwei suddenly said, "Is this what Wu did?" "I rule the world with filial piety, and I welcome it. Who dares to talk nonsense? This is all glory, and Yuan Bei has no knowledge and skills, so he uses dangerous words to invite powerful ears! " Liang Qichao recorded in 1898, the third volume of the coup, Before the coup, that Yuan Shikai was persuaded to be loyal to the king on the third day, but did not mention that soldiers surrounded the Summer Palace, but said that the reformists were "worried about the danger, I dare say it happened during the military parade in September" and said that Yuan Shikai was loyal to the king and "hoped that he would try to protect it during the military parade". In Volume 6 of Tan Sitong's Biography, there is a detailed description of Tan Sitong's talk about Yuan Shikai at night: "On the third night, he made the Fokker Ji contained in Yuan and shouted:' How can the emperor be a human being? Yuan Yue:' Lord of the barren world is also. You said,' Do you know the plot of the Tianjin military parade? Yuan Yue said,' Of course, I've heard about it. In your secret letter, you said,' The one who can save today is the first step, and the first step is to save it. He put his hand around his neck and said, "If you don't want to be saved, please go to the first servant in the Summer Palace and kill him. It will be rich. Yuan Zhengse snapped,' Why do you think Yuan looks like a human being? The Lord is the Lord who works with us, and both the servant and the first step are responsible for the extraordinary encounter and rescue. If you are educated, your servant will be willing to hear it. "You said,' Rong Lu's plot is a Tianjin military parade. In the first step, both Dong (Fuxiang) and Nie (Shicheng) are under the control of glory, and they will do great things with their troops. Although Dong and Nie are not good at Taoism, they are the best in the world. If they change, the first step will be to protect the Lord with one army against the other two armies, restore power, remove the monarch and save the court. If the order is confirmed, it will not be a world heritage. Yuan Yue said, "If the emperor rushes into the servant camp during the military parade and orders the traitors to be punished, the servants should try their best to save the situation for the gentleman." ..... You said:' Rong Lu is a solid and headstrong talent and a peerless hero. It is not easy to treat him. Yuan glared at him and said, "If the emperor is in the servant camp, Rong Lu will be punished like a dog." . Because of the detailed arrangement of "Talking to the Savior", Yuan said: "The bullets and gunpowder in this camp are in the hands of Rong thieves, and most of the officers in the camp are old people. Since the matter is urgent, the servants must hurry back to the camp and try their best to prepare and store ammunition. "Is Ding Ning and go. In other words, Tan Sitong said that Yuan Shikai wanted Yuan to take anti-coup measures to protect Emperor Guangxu when Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu visited Tianjin in September, instead of staging a coup in Beijing. Of course, there will be no siege of the Summer Palace.
Second, after the robbery of the surrounding gardens, Kang Liang was framed. The researcher who holds this opinion points out that if Tan Sitong goes to see Yuan Shikai at night and persuades him to kill Rong Lu, he will take the direct command on his behalf and then lead troops to Beijing to surround the Summer Palace, unless Tan Sitong is an idiot, he will say such a thing. Yuan Shikai's "new army" has only 7,000 people, while Beiyang Minister Rong Lu has a13,000-person "Wu Yijun" under Nie Shicheng. Dong Fuxiang's "Gan Jun" has eleven thousand people; Twelve thousand people, Ma's "rebel army", plus twenty-eight thousand people in Zhili green camp; Twelve thousand people in the Huai army; More than 19 thousand people are brave, with a total strength of more than 95 thousand people. Still no match for Yuan Shikai's 7,000 men? Even if we can reach the capital, we will be intercepted from Yongdingmen to the Summer Palace. Even if we can reach the Summer Palace, but the queen mother has not been robbed, and the emperor has lived in seclusion first, what can be saved? So, does Empress Dowager Cixi know that there is a saying that there is robbery in the garden? Since Tan Sitong has never put forward such absurd suggestions, why did Yuan Shikai say so convincingly in the Diary of the Reform Movement of 1898? Critics pointed out that this was Yuan Shikai's last resort to protect himself. Therefore, Levin thinks that Tan Sitong will never persuade Yuan Shikai to lead troops around the garden, because it is absolutely impossible. The so-called plot around the garden is just a rumor made by the opposition. Killing six gentlemen is killing them.
Third, Kang Youwei did have a conspiracy, and the evidence was attached to Yang Shenxiu. Huang Zhangjian, a scholar in Taiwan Province, believes that there is indeed a plot to surround the garden. Kang Youwei impressed Yang Shenxiu, and suggested in the attachment that Yuan Shikai send troops to the Yuanmingyuan to dig a gold pit. Perhaps Guangxu therefore gave Yuan an edict. Although Guangxuhe didn't know about the plot, Yuan saw it and confirmed Tan Sitong's talk on the third night, thinking that it was really for him to lead troops to surround the garden. Kang Youwei's chronicle also said: (on the third day of August) Yang Yichuan (Shenxiu), Song Zhidong (Bolu), Li Mengfu (Yue Rui) and Yu (Zhao) came to comfort the spirit ... Li Mengfu said that the British had seven ships in Dagu to fight Russia. I didn't talk to the gentlemen about the secret edict, but handed over the map of Timothy Richard, so that the gentlemen could find more people to fold it, and let Yuan Jun go to Beijing to be a diligent king. According to the "Shen Bao"10.2, in the 24th year of Guangxu, Jing You wrote that on August 4th, Yang Shenxiu, the rebel, said that there were many gold vaults in Yuanmingyuan, so please recruit 300 people and dig them out among the eighth batch. Everyone is surprised at it. In fact, it is the same as Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong. The purpose of digging gold pits is to meet the needs of emergency training, and since the beginning of August, Yuan Shikai has been appointed to be in charge of training affairs. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the imperial court often used soldiers. It is suggested that when Guangxu summoned Yuan, he instructed 300 people from Yuan Pai to dig gold pits in Beijing. In the Reform Movement of 1898, Yang Shenxiu handed in the concession of the country decided by the Kang Dynasty and the concession of inviting Chen Baozhen to win the prize, both of which were approved by Guangxu. The new party wanted to attach this attachment on the fifth day of August, but it wanted to take advantage of Guangxu's trust in Yang to defraud the imperial edict of transferring Beijing, which made Yuan think that the real purpose of transferring Beijing was inconvenient to be clearly announced in the imperial edict. Therefore, in the name of digging a gold pit, Yuan believed that what Tan said on the evening of the third day of August was really on the orders of the emperor and acted according to Kang's original plan on the third day of August.
Fourth, there is a conspiracy, and the evidence is "deceiving his superiors and deceiving his subordinates" and Miza of Liang Qichao. Bi Yongnian, a reformist, arrived in Beijing before the coup and had close contacts with Kang Youwei. He wrote a diary in which Kang asked him to participate in the plot around the garden. Later, he kept it in Japan, which was called "seeking the truth". Bi Yongnian recorded in detail how Kang Youwei persuaded him to lead troops around the garden in "Deceiving the World and Seeking Truth". When Tang Zhijun and Yang Tianshi saw this photo, they thought it was reliable evidence of a conspiracy. According to Bi Yongnian's memory, Bi had arrived in Beijing before the coup, and Kang Liang and others were nervously planning a coup plot, demanding Bi's active participation. First, let him go to Yuan Shikai's army, but never put off till tomorrow what you can't go it alone. Later, he asked Bi Dangyuan to lead the troops around the Summer Palace and led the strong men into the Summer Palace to assassinate Cixi.
Fifth, there is indeed a conspiracy, and the evidence is not "seeking truth by deception." Fang's textual research on "Deceiving the World and Seeking Truth" thinks that Bi's falling out with Kang Liang after the coup was based on rumors and unreliable. However, Kang Youwei's chronicle revealed his plot to launch a coup in Beijing. Kang Youwei recorded in "Self-edited Chronicle", which was kept secret during his lifetime: On August 3, after receiving a secret imperial edict from Emperor Guangxu, he consulted with Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong to persuade Yuan Shikai to be diligent, and Tan Sitong went to Huokeji to lobby Yuan Shikai that night. Although there was no mention of surrounding the Summer Palace and killing Empress Dowager Cixi, it was said that Yuan would "lead hundreds of dead people to the meridian gate, kill Rong Lu and get rid of the old party". Such a move is certainly a coup for Beijing. In this case, the Empress Dowager Cixi should be robbed in the Summer Palace in a planned way, otherwise how can we "open the door in the morning"? The Chronicle also records that while Tan Sitong went to Hokeji, Liang Qichao also went to town to wait for news at Jinding Temple Yung Wing, while he stayed in Nanhai Hall to pack his bags and prepare to go to Shanghai to take over the official newspaper, namely The Times. That night, friends Yang Shenxiu, Song Bolu and Wang Zhao came to visit them, but he didn't disclose the secret edict to them. "The split map handed over by Timothy Richard made the gentlemen find more people to fold and asked Yuan Shikai to enter Beijing." Kang Youwei's proposal is obviously in line with Tan Sitong's overnight statement that Yuan Shikai would launch a coup in Beijing. It can be concluded that Kang Youwei and others do intend to surround the Summer Palace with Yuan Shikai's army, instead of just guarding against a possible coup during the Tianjin military parade in September, as Liang Qichao said.
It was a shocking event after the surrounding gardens were robbed. But whether it happened or not, there are different opinions. At present, there seems to be a lot of evidence, but even if there is no evidence, it will have a great impact on the relationship between Cixi and Guangxu.