100 years ago, a Chinese "sage" bought an island in Sweden. What is happening now?

A hundred years ago, he spent a huge amount of money to buy an island in Sweden and built a classical garden on the island. This old man is Kang Youwei.

▲ Kang Youwei Island

A hundred years ago, wasn’t China at its most precarious? As an ideological leader of his generation, Kang Youwei always thought about reform and strengthening the country. How could he go to Sweden to buy an island?

The reason is very simple. In addition to his upright image, Kang Youwei is also a super rich man. And his methods of amassing money make one's teeth tremble.

1

Since the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei went into exile overseas. Moreover, the Qing government offered a reward of 100,000 taels for the capture of Kang Youwei, and he would be rewarded regardless of life or death.

It stands to reason that life in exile is full of bitterness and danger. But Kang Youwei was no ordinary person. He created a new style: globe-trotting exile.

At that time, the airplane had just been born and had not yet become a means of transportation. Kang Youwei took the ship and started sailing again and again.

According to statistics: “In the 16 years from 1898 to 1913, Kang Youwei crossed the Pacific Ocean four times, the Indian Ocean eight times, and the Atlantic Ocean nine times, and visited the United States, Britain, Italy, Canada, Greece, Egypt, Brazil, and Mexico. , India and more than 30 countries and regions.”

His fate with Sweden began in the early morning of August 19, 1904. When he came to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, he found that the roads were clean, the pavilions were beautiful, and the girls were pretty. The well-informed Kang Youwei angrily praised it in four words: Crowning Europe.

In that era, Europe was a paradise, not to mention Sweden, which topped Europe.

Kang Youwei took his family around and found that Sweden was a really good place with its beautiful mountains and rivers and beautiful islands.

When he traveled to the eastern sea, he discovered an extremely quiet island, just like the paradise described by Tao Yuanming.

Kang Youwei immediately decided to suspend his life in exile and bought the island. "There is nothing to live in, so I bought a mountain to hide in. It is called Bidao, and it is called Beihailu."

After buying the island, he found someone to build a Chinese classical garden. The pavilions, carved beams and painted buildings, and the winding paths are so pleasing to the eye.

Of course, this all requires money. It costs 28,000 crowns to buy an island and 8,000 crowns to build a garden, which is equivalent to 1.5 million today.

It is a pity that Kang Youwei only lived in such a good place for three years, and then he drifted away and never looked back. This level of luxury is simply a tribute to Cixi.

Today, the buildings on the island have long been deserted, and the ownership has been taken back by Sweden. Kang Youwei never bothered with such a huge asset.

Where did Kang Youwei’s money come from?

2

After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei first fled to Japan and then went into exile in Vancouver, Canada.

After hearing the news that Kang Youwei had arrived in Canada, thousands of overseas Chinese who were concerned about the fate of their motherland came. Kang Youwei then talked about the tragic life of Emperor Guangxu in captivity, and encouraged everyone to work together to save China.

The compatriots burst into tears and donated money generously, hoping that this great hero could turn the tide. Later, Kang Youwei gave several such speeches, and each time the effect was shocking.

As smart as Kang Youwei is, of course he knows that this is not a long-term solution. So I had an idea and thought of a more awesome method, forming a royalist association! You had to pay a fee to join the association, one dollar of American silver, which was later increased to five dollars.

"If there are five million people overseas, and by some calculation, each of them can donate five dollars of American silver in addition to tobacco and alcohol... then China can be saved!"

In addition to the dream of a strong country, Kang Youwei also drew a big pie. As long as the emperor is restored to the throne, rewards will be given based on the amount of donations.

At that time, the Chinese lived an extremely difficult life overseas. The level of discrimination against the Chinese was almost equal to that of blacks. Who doesn’t love the motherland where they gave birth, and who doesn’t want to be backed by a strong motherland?

Kang Youwei's fame and commitment certainly made the compatriots' blood boil. Not only could they serve the motherland, but they could also be promoted to a higher position afterwards, so they donated their hard-earned money one after another.

How popular is this royalist society overseas? Disciple Liang Qichao once said: "There are sixty-seven out of ten people who join the association in Vancouver." Moreover, Kang Youwei later traveled around the world, and who knows how much money he made through this.

But this money was not spent on strengthening the country at all. Kang Youwei spent money and money arbitrarily, easily spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each time he took his family on a trip.

American Homer Lee originally followed Kang Youwei admiringly, but later became extremely disappointed with him and turned to Sun Yat-sen. Even his assistant Xu Qin warned him not to make random withdrawals.

When the dream of a powerful country becomes a cash machine, there is only a sigh.

Why is Kang Youwei’s image so different from that in history books? What is the real Kang Youwei like?

3

Kang Youwei was born in a scholarly family in Guangdong in 1858. He could recite hundreds of Tang poems at the age of 5 and was called a child prodigy at the age of 12.

But unlike other children, he has a very high self-esteem. He looked at his classmates with a domineering air, and compared himself to Qiu Chuji, the great Taoist master, and Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism.

When he was 20 years old, he criticized Han Yu's articles for being shallow in Taoism, making later articles empty and useless. The teacher laughed and scolded him for being crazy, but he looked down upon him favorably from then on.

▲ Kang Youwei

And he himself feels better and better about himself. "While sitting quietly, I suddenly saw that all things in the world are one with me, shining brightly. I thought I was a saint, so I smiled with joy."

When I was a child, I compared myself to the saints. .

When he was 21 years old, he visited Hong Kong and found that the city governed by the British was very prosperous, so he began to buy books on Western learning. Three years later, he passed through Shanghai again and was even more impressed by Western-style governance. "I bought a lot of Western books and returned home, so that I could explain all my old opinions and lecture on Western learning."

However, his road to the imperial examination was extremely unsmooth, and he was unhappy after failing in the imperial examinations. Instead, he became famous through Western learning.

In 1891, 33-year-old Kang Youwei gave lectures at Wanmu Thatched Cottage in Guangzhou, advocating such advanced ideas as "monogamy", "equality between men and women" and "women not binding their feet". His reputation became so great that even Liang Qichao, who had already won the imperial examination, was willing to become his disciple.

▲ Kang Youwei (left) takes a photo with Liang Qichao

But he would really come to the forefront of history and would have to wait four years before going to Beijing to take the imperial examination again.

In April 1895, as candidates in Beijing were waiting for results to be announced, the Qing government and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. After the news reached Beijing, people were furious, and Kang Youwei made a brilliant appearance.

He convened people from eighteen provinces for discussion. More than 1,200 people signed and wrote a 10,000-word letter in one day and two nights, advocating rejection of peace, moving the capital, and reform. After days of copying, it was spread throughout the capital, boosting morale. However, the emperor had already used his seal on the peace treaty when he submitted the letter, so it was rejected by the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

But these are just his personal descriptions. According to research by Peking University history professor Mao Haijian, writing on the bus actually has two concepts.

“The first is the petition initiated by high-level political officials and organized by Beijing officials. There are as many as 31 petitions signed by as many as 1,555 people, and the petition has reached the throne of Guangxu.”

< p>This is the real public letter in history. How could such a huge national humiliation not cause shock to the top brass. As for Kang Youwei, all 31 petitions were accepted. Why was his petition rejected? Because he didn't send it at all.

According to the records of his disciple Xu Qin and others, Kang Youwei learned from the internal eunuch that he had passed the Jinshi examination, and was afraid of affecting his reputation, so he retreated from the battle. < /p>

One thousand and two became three thousand in the blink of an eye. The people who dared to be more affectionate were all changed by Kang Youwei pulling out his hair.

But due to his self-promotion, he became the leader of the public petition.

4

Kang Youwei is famous for two things in modern history: the public letter and the Reform Movement of 1898. The letter written on the bus was fake, and the reform was also full of loopholes.

In the winter of 1897, Germany sent troops to occupy Jiaozhou Bay, shocking the Chinese people again. In 1898, Kang Youwei described various dangers from the perspective of looking at the world in "The Fifth Book of the Shangqing Emperor":

The Western powers are carving up Africa. When Africa is finished, what will happen next? It will be China's turn. Moreover, the Western powers are engaged in an arms race. In order to avoid direct conflicts, they will definitely continue colonial expansion to divert conflicts.

"If you want to keep peace in Europe, you will know that it will spread its poison to Asia."

In that shaky and ignorant era, this kind of insight was really extraordinary. This was indeed the case. Later, the Eight-Nation Allied Forces invaded China, and then the Europeans themselves started fighting.

Emperor Guangxu also felt that the situation was critical and issued an edict to "clearly determine the status of the country" and began the reform and reform.

However, Kang Youwei had two big problems: First, he was reckless and aggressive. Others advised him to take it step by step, but he advocated thunderous measures, which seriously violated the interests of the conservative faction. The second is exaggeration and self-promotion. In order to prove one's own point of view, he does not hesitate to exaggerate and misinterpret the evidence.

For example, some ministers questioned where Kang Youwei would raise funds for the New Deal, and he came up with the destructive trick of selling Tibet to Britain. Two examples are cited for this purpose: the sale of Sakhalin to Russia and the sale of Alaska to the United States.

This is because the information of that era was blocked. Let’s not talk about Sakhalin. Russia sold Alaska mainly because it was worried about being captured by the United Kingdom, so it sold it to the United States, and the United States only sold it to the United States. for $7.2 million.

We all know what happened next. The conservatives headed by Cixi took the lead in taking action. Tan Siping and the Six Gentlemen of 1898 died generously, and Kang Youwei quickly fled to Japan.

Many people thought that Kang Youwei would become lonely from now on. But later Kang Youwei became a rich man in his life.

5

In terms of emotional life, Kang Youwei is equally colorful. He is famous for advocating "monogamy" and has married six wives and concubines in his life. He can definitely exchange experiences with Wei Xiaobao.

When he was 61 years old, he fell in love with an 18-year-old girl. Before going to the church to get married, I found that many of my children were older than my sixth aunt, so I asked all children over the age of 18 to stay away.

Eight years later, in 1927, Kang Youwei drank a cup of lemon black tea and died of food poisoning, ending his indescribable life.

It is undeniable that Kang Youwei did have a broad vision and a certain degree of foresight when he was young. But he is by no means a wise politician, and he is far from reaching the standard of a saint.

Even Liang Qichao said, "I don't know whether you can be a great politician or not."

Lu Xun's teacher Zhang Taiyan even commented unceremoniously: "The country is about to perish." There must be; it is for old age not to die."

Zhuangzi once said: As long as the saint does not die, there will be no more robbers.

No matter in any era, beware of those who want to be saints.

Being a doctor, a celebrity, or a scientist is all fine, because there is no limit to the number.

But it takes hundreds or even thousands of years for a saint to appear. You have to do something earth-shattering to become one.

Interested students can search for Kang Youwei’s racial improvement plan.

Because this kind of person’s obsession with canonization is too strong, he is likely to do all kinds of exaggerated things. At the same time, I feel that I am detached from the world and not restricted by various rules.

This is very interesting. Over time, the two faces have become perfect and hypocritical to the extreme.

The country is in turmoil, and the saints are amassing money and indulge in lust.

With the hard-earned money of compatriots who long for a powerful country, they can travel around the world, buy islands and build gardens, how "free and easy" it is.

To use the popular term of son-in-law: It’s okay not to want such a saint.