Sakamoto Ryoma's Life

Friends who are familiar with the Japanese Warring States history must remember that Sakamoto was the center of Akechi Mitsuhide's fief. Sakamoto is derived from this. Akechi Mitsuhide's son-in-law is very clever and talented. Legend has it that he didn't die of arson in the Tianshou Pavilion in Sakamoto, but fled to Nagaoka Prefecture in Tosa, and opened a "Caigu House" in izakaya. From the fourth generation to the eighth generation, he was qualified as a rural scholar. Eight Lang Wei Bing's name is Naichi, and he is the grandfather of Ryoma Sakamoto (real name Naoyu).

Ryoma Sakamoto was born on 6th 1 15 10 (1836, 13 10) in Tosa Mountain (located in Shikoku Island, now Kochi Prefecture), Kochi Prefecture. His ancestors ran the Caiguyu Hotel and sold sake. Later, they obtained the status of local scholars, that is, the lowest samurai class who paid for it (the samurai class of Tosa Francisco can be mainly divided into the higher rank staff sergeant class and the lower rank corporal class, and there are various differential treatments between the staff sergeant and the corporal, so the corporal class has long been suppressed by the staff sergeant class).

His father Sakamoto is straight and his mother is lucky. It is said that when her mother was pregnant, she dreamed that Yunlong was running in her belly, so she was named Malone. He is the youngest son of Sakamoto's family. His father has a big brother (Quanping) and three sisters (Rong and a daughter). Therefore, Malone is different from most other reformers. First of all, he is humble, just a countryman, and then he is rich (Cai Guyu is one of the best businessmen in Tosa). Ryoma Sakamoto was born in the invasion of western capitalism at the end of the shogunate, and Japan was in an unprecedented era of national crisis. At this time, people of insight in Japan had a high sense of national defense. In order to defend Japan, samurai began to practice martial arts, especially fencing, which was once revived and fencing halls all over Japan flourished again. Teenager Sakamoto is no exception. He studied fencing at the fencing hall of swordsman Hineno in Kokura School near his home. The children of junior soldiers are gathered here, and there is a strong sense of freedom without restraint.

Sakamoto, 19 1853, 199 years old, went to Edo, entered Beichen, Jingqiao Town, and sent Chiba Ding to the fencing hall to further practice fencing. He kept in mind his father's warning-never forget to practice loyalty and filial piety first, never waste money on material things, never forget national affairs and concentrate on learning skills. Two years later, he finally obtained the teacher's secret certificate, and moved his household registration to the Ding Fencing Hall in Chiba and settled in Edo. In the fourth year of Anzheng (1857), Toyoji in Toyotomi Mountain of Tosa held a martial arts competition in Edo. Dozens of swordsmen took part in the competition, and Sakamoto of Teru Shimada and Xiao Ye Sukeyoshi won the competition.

The fencing hall at that time was not only a place for practicing martial arts, but also a political school. The young people of the governors discussed the affairs of state and how Japan should treat its foreign enemies. To prove their point, they traveled all over the world (Francisco) to collect information, and then returned to Edo as materials for discussion. Ruishanwu of Tosa, Nobuyuki Takayama of Changzhou, and Kogoro Kwai are such young people. In the first year of Wenjiu (186 1), Ruishanwu organized Tosa Wangqin Party in Edo Mansion and returned to Tusa to expand the organization, with more than 200 participants, Sakamoto being one of them. 1862 65438+ 10 Sakamoto went to Changzhou on behalf of Zhu Ruishan, the leader of Tosa Wangqin Party, to meet with Hisaka Xuanrui, the leader of Changzhou Wangqin Party, and asked about the world situation. After returning to San Francisco in March, he resolutely left San Francisco.

At that time, it was a felony to leave the vassal, not only to be executed, but also to implicate the family. Because of Sakamoto's desertion, his sister and daughter B had to divorce and gave Sakamoto's sister Rong a famous knife to commit suicide. Brother Quan Ping finally saved himself from a large sum of money. He himself became a professional revolutionary after leaving Tosa Francisco, but the severe test of life awaited him.

After the curtain fell, the only way out for people who left the vassal state was to send troops to riot. For example, Yoshlmura Tara-Tatro, a pioneer in martial arts who started the "Tianzhu Party Rebellion", had a strong desire for fame and fortune. However, Sakamoto left the vassal not for fame, but to get rid of the shackles of Tusa vassal full of reactionary forces and gain freedom of thought and action. Therefore, Sakamoto did not follow Yoshlmura Tara-Tatro, but traveled around Kyushu, went to Edo via Osaka, met Shogun Katsumoto, and learned navigation from him. Wushi Ruishan wrote poems praising his decisive desertion;

Courage, strange machine spewing out.

Who knows diving, but not ashamed of the name of the dragon? 1863 After the coup in August, the radicals, including three Shi Mei and seven other ministers, lost power, and Zun Wang was expelled from Kyoto for resisting his assignment. Tosa's conservative Toyoji Yamauchi suppressed the loyalist party headed by Ruishan in Takeshi, and Takeshi was arrested and committed suicide. This is the result that Wu can't get rid of feudal thoughts-loyal to the emperor, loyal to the generals and loyal to the famous soldiers. Sakamoto cooperated with Samoan to establish Kameyama Trading Company, which specializes in trade, transportation and purchase of weapons and ships between Samoan and Samoan, surpassing the "one school, diligence and imperial way" of Ruishan in May. Sakamoto worshipped Laozi all his life and called himself "the natural hall". He accepted nihilism from Laozi, that is, he regarded himself as empty. Laozi's thought that "when we return to nature, people only have the meaning of existence in nothingness or emptiness" attracted Sakamoto's attention most.

This spirit of wanting nothing and self-denial is embodied in "I don't want other people's evaluation" or "I don't agree with other people's evaluation", as his teacher Sheng Haizhou said, "Action is in me, evaluation is in others, and it has nothing to do with me". 1867, Sakamoto didn't brag that I had come up with "eight strategies in the boat" when he confided in Jiro Goto, so Goto, Toyo Yamauchi's favorite, took it as a vassal theory of Tosa and further developed it into a proposal to return the shogunate's major policies. Even Takashi Fukuoka, who participated in the major political return movement with Goto at that time and drafted the "Five Oaths", didn't know about it. Later, he learned that "Eight Strategies on the Ship" was a plan that Sakamoto Ryoma came up with. This is of great significance to banbenzhi. Toyo Yamauchi will not accept it if it is not completely regarded as Goto's own creation. This is his role of "not wanting others to judge", and he is free to play his own thoughts.

The progress of Sakamoto Ryoma's thought lies in abandoning the narrow "one vassal is loyal to the king" and bidding farewell to the simple thought of respecting the king and resisting foreign countries. It is neither resisting foreign aggression nor founding the country, but transcending these two concepts and focusing on the green ocean. In other words, making Qiang Bing rich is the top priority for current officials. So he went to Edo on 1862, not to kill the founder Sheng Haizhou, but to be influenced and educated by him. Because Sheng Haizhou went to the United States by "Xianlin Pill" two years ago to learn about the politics, economy and society of modern capitalist countries. Under the protection of Sheng Haizhou, Ryoma Sakamoto entered the Kobe Naval Training Institute (similar to the National Naval University or Merchant Marine University) and became the leader of the Institute. However, in the first year of Yuan Zhi (1864), Sheng Haizhou was dismissed because some students participated in the Ikeda House incident as a reaction force, and the naval training institute was closed in the first year of Qing Ying (1865).

So Ryoma Sakamoto and the students of the training institute set up Kameyama Trading Company in Nagasaki, specializing in the transportation and arms import business of Sasakawa and Sasakawa. Although the trading company was established to make a living, it was not so much a political struggle as an economic struggle for Sakamoto. That is to say, Fan Xiong wanted to seize the trade monopolized by the shogunate at that time, disintegrate the shogunate system, and then reorganize the new government.

1867, based on Kameyama trading company, a maritime rescue team was established, with Sakamoto Ryoma as the captain and civil servants, military attaché s, equipment palace, transport officers and medical officers. , become the chamber of commerce of Tosa Francisco. Therefore, Tosa Francisco also pardoned Sakamoto for desertion.

Sakamoto's aid team was not designed solely for Tosa's benefit, but condensed the policies and guidelines established by the Japanese state under the new system after the return of the major government. Sakamoto put all his thoughts on the aid team, and later he told Iwakura Tomomi that it was "the aid team of the whole world".

The first rule of the salvage team says: "Anyone who is interested in maritime affairs can join the team. The purpose of this team is to help us in transportation, commerce, development and speculation. In the future, the selection of players, regardless of their origins, will be done according to my own wishes. " In this way, the salvage team has become a group of so-called deserters and an informal organization. On the one hand, it is opposite to the class society of Mufan system, and it also creates a social organization without hierarchical identity. This is far from the vassal government established after the Meiji Restoration, and Sakamoto Ryoma's ideal disappeared without a trace.

The two ministers disagreed on the leadership of the country's political situation. Through Ryoma Sakamoto's mediation, Ryuji Muhu of Cheung Chau, Saigō Takamori and Komatsu of Satsuma 1866 concluded the "Sasakawa Alliance" in Kyoto by knife, and they all united to overthrow the shogunate. But foreign countries will inevitably take advantage of civil strife to invade. In order to ensure Japan's independence and prevent foreign powers from ravaging Japanese territory like China, civil war must be avoided. Kojiro Goto appreciates Ryoma Sakamoto's point of view and asks him what his secret strategy is.

The secret strategy is not without, that is, let Tokugawa return the political power to the court. ""what? ！” Even they went straight, but immediately turned around, "indeed, in that case, the two San Francisco can't get up, the war can be avoided, and Britain and France are also depressed. However, I am afraid that the Zuomu faction will not be silent. " "Tokugawa Yoshinobu can be a minister again." "Isn't that a big difference?" "No, don't ask officials, princes, warriors and subalterns, so that all talents in the world can participate in parliamentary and state affairs. "

Finally, Goto understood Sakamoto's brilliant plan-to avoid civil strife, so that the powers had no crisis to take advantage of, and also implemented the ideas of two powerful governors. At the same time, the shogunate was not fatally injured, so that Tosa governors could play a leading role better. This is not only a good way to kill two birds with one stone, but also a good way to kill four birds with one stone. "See, just do it! No, that's it. Tomorrow, I will go to Beijing by boat and go with me. I want to rearrange your words into documents on the ship. " Goto Jiro said.

On the "Xiyan Pill", Okamoto, the chief civil servant of the Maritime Aid Corps, recorded Sakamoto's idea, which is the so-called "eight strategies in the boat"-(1) returning to politics; (2) Set up upper and lower councils; (3) recruiting talents from all over the world; (4) extensive use of public consultation to amend the treaty; (5) rewriting the code; (6) expanding the navy; (7) Set up Qin Bing to defend the Imperial City; (8) Formulating laws and regulations on gold and silver prices equal to those of foreign countries. Four months later, this new political outline was realized as a "major policy return", and it also developed into a "five vows" discussed by 1868-( 1) Guangxing Conference. (2) Confucian classics prevail from top to bottom; (3) Official Wushu has achieved the goal of common people; (4) Old habits are based on the meaning of heaven and earth; (5) learn from the world and greatly strengthen the foundation of the empire.

The greatness of Ryoma Sakamoto lies in the strategic assumption of realizing the revolutionary goal in the division of national political theory of diligent king or foreign invasion, and in the outline of post-revolutionary political system. However, Goto was rewarded by Toyotomi Yamauchi, a vassal, because he achieved great returns from the government. It was not until the Meiji period that he realized that this was Sakamoto's original idea. Moreover, Sakamoto's eight strategies on the ship were very specific, but later they became very abstract when they developed into five oaths. In the era of vassal rule, his democratic political thought became a bubble.

After the Meiji Restoration, the organizational program of the new Japanese government was completed on the basis of these two "eight strategies", which also shows how outstanding Sakamoto Ryoma's thoughts are and how extraordinary his knowledge is. However, some scholars have pointed out that the historical role of the dragon horse has been artificially exaggerated. The original work of "Eight Strategies on the Ship" was written by Yoshiyama and Ueda Francisco Chimatsu Saburo, another disciple of Sasuke Shigeru. It was not Ryoma who completed the eight strategies of the new government program, but Goto Shojiro. Right and wrong, there is no way to determine for the time being. In the third year of Keio (1867),165438+1October 15, the weather was extremely cold and the north wind roared, even people had to run when they walked.

On the second floor of the "Omiya", a soy sauce shop frequented by Tosa, three people in Tomohara-machi, Kyoto Prefecture, Ryoma Sakamoto and Nobutaro Nakaoka, the visiting captain of Lu Yuan (scholar at the end of the curtain, born at 1838, died at 1867), are arguing. On this day, the debate between them was particularly fierce, because Sakamoto advocated peaceful evolution, while Nakaoka advocated the use of force.

"Ishikawa (Nakaoka Nobutaro's pseudonym), if you put the knife aside, everyone doesn't know what to do. Is it not good to discuss from the knife? " Sakamoto suggested to Nakaoka.

"Well, let's do it!" Nakaoka replied. So the two men used force to avoid conflict, and both sides put their knives out of reach in the floor room. This buried the cause of death of two people.

"It's cold, I'm hungry. Today is my birthday. Let's have a drink. Ji Feng, buy me some chicken. " Sakamoto said to Nakaoka. When the maid Bee Ji went out to buy chicken, it was about 9 pm. Soon there was a visitor downstairs. Fuji Yamada, who was taking care of Sakamoto, opened the front door and saw two masked warriors standing. They said politely, "Is Mr. Sakamoto there? I am a rural scholar in Shi Jinchuan. If I were here, I would like to see it. " Then he showed his business card. Fujimoto knew that Sakamoto and Nakaoka had many friends, so he took the business card without doubt and introduced them into the house. Fujiji was about to go upstairs, but he was cut by the assassin who followed him and fell to the ground bleeding profusely. The two assassins went straight upstairs and ran into the house like a high wind. An assassin pointed his knife at Nakaoka sitting in front from behind, and another assassin pointed his knife at Sakamoto's forehead sitting in front of the brazier. When the injured Sakamoto turned to get the love knife "Jixing" in the floor room, he ate two more knives on his left and right shoulders. The assassin was about to cut again when he was stopped by Sakamoto's unsheathed knife, and the blade was cut off. Then the assassin swept a knife on Sakamoto's forehead, and blood splashed on the camellia hanging shaft on the wall. The brains were DC. Sakamoto shouted "His head is broken" and "Ishikawa, Dao Dao ..." Then he fainted.

Nakaoka heard Sakamoto call his alias "Ishikawa", but because the long knife was behind the painting and calligraphy screen, he had to fight the assassin with the short knife of Shinguo, only to be killed by the assassin. The two assassins said "done, done" and left.

After the assassin left, Sakamoto woke up for a while and asked Nakaoka, whose face was covered with blood, "Is your hand still useful?" Climbing up the stairs with lanterns, bowing their heads and calling for their families, a lot of blood flowed downstairs.

Less than half an hour later, monsoon came back with the chicken he bought. When he saw such a terrible situation, he fainted. Sakamoto died that night (33 years old), Fujiji, who suffered six serious injuries, died the next night (25 years old), and Nakaoka died two days later (17) (30 years old). At 2 pm on June 5438+08, three coffins were carried from the Grand Palace to Lingshan Cemetery at the foot of Dongshan Mountain for burial under the escort of Lu Haiyuan and Comrade Tosufan in Beijing.

In fact, don't say who the assassin is, even the real intention of the assassin is a mystery. Longma's thought tends to settle disputes peacefully, forcing the shogunate to hand over power, while Nakaoka Nobutaro is a staunch rebel. They respectively commanded a team, namely the "Sea Aid Team" adapted by Kameyama Society and the "Land Aid Team" of Nobutaro, which can be said to be the most important contact between powerful governors.

"Sea aid" and "land aid" are both external and internal. Although Nobutaro Nakaoka's inspiration for establishing the land aid team came from Kameyama Society, Ryoma Sakamoto adapted Kameyama Society into a maritime aid team, actually imitating the land aid team. In contrast, the aid team is more like a business group, the dragon horse is more like a debater, and the land aid team is more like an army. Nobutaro is undoubtedly a soldier. Although the statement that "Dragon Horse's main purpose is to make money, while Nobutaro's main purpose is to reform" is simply nonsense, Nobutaro Nakaoka's role in the Meiji Restoration is not less than Dragon Horse's-and it is even more envied by the shogunate.

Therefore, for a long time, public opinion believed that the assassin's target was not the Dragon Horse but Nobutaro in the Miyako incident, and the poor Dragon Horse was only implicated. After the reform, with the new government's hype about Dragon Horse and the appearance and popularity of various literary works praising Dragon Horse, Sakamoto's reputation has been raised higher and higher, and its advantages and disadvantages have been greatly reversed. Dragon Horse was regarded as the main target of assassination, but Nobutaro Nakaoka became unlucky.

Because it is not clear who the assassin's main target is, the source of the assassin has become a historical mystery. It is generally believed that there are three possibilities:

First, the assassin was organized by the Kyoto Conference. Similar to the new electoral college, this organization is a semi-police group established by the shogunate to maintain public order in Kyoto, and the higher authorities are also the guardians of Kyoto. The difference is that the main members of the newly elected group are a group of low-level samurai and ronin, while the main members of the Hui Hui group are shogunate warriors with higher status. After the Reform, it was reported that members of the Hui people's group, Shinjiro Imai and Atsushi Watanabe, confessed that the assassin was Sasaki of Saburo (if you remember the murder of Kiyokawa Hachiro of the newly recruited group, you should be familiar with this name), and the emissary was probably the teacher of Ryoma Sakamoto, or other senior shogunate officials at the same level as Katsuya.

However, Saburo Sasaki died of serious injuries in the closing battle of 1868, and there is no evidence of his cause of death. Now Nobuhiro Inoue and Atsushi Watanabe have not personally participated in or planned the Miyako incident, and they know little about the details of the incident. Testifying against Sasaki Saburo is just a rumor. Although there are witnesses, they are not reliable.

Second, the assassin came from a newly elected group. The evidence of this speculation has been listed in the last section, and I don't need to say more, but the problem is that the imperial guards and the new electoral college who provided testimony are as deep as the sea, and they are probably just deliberately planted.

On the third day after the Miyako incident, kondou Isami invited Ito Kanetaro to his concubine's house to drink and get drunk. Then, on the way home, Jiro Ishigaki and several newly elected members of the regiment suddenly fought from the street and hacked Kanetaro to death-for the "Abrakogi incident". Not only that, the newly elected group is also ruthless. They displayed Ito Kanetaro's body on the avenue, set an ambush, and suddenly attacked seven main body guards who came to collect the body and hacked to death three of them.

Why so cruel? Because according to the regulations of the new electoral college, quitting the college is treason and only a dead end. Later, he killed three people. Hirasuke Fujikura was the captain of the new electoral college, and Hattori Beowulf and Maunei Arinosuke were also old players-the new electoral college killed one of its own, which was more cruel than killing the enemy!

Therefore, it is asserted that the murderer of the Miyako incident came from the newly elected group's body guard, and their words should not be accepted at all.

Third, this is all a Samoan conspiracy. Although they used to be like-minded comrades-in-arms, Satsuma and Ryoma Sakamoto went further and further in the attitude of whether the shogunate was a military crusade or a political coercion. Moreover, Long Ma's support for Yamauchi Toyoji's proposal to Tokugawa Kei-hee to return the great government is almost a despicable act of subsidizing the enemy with ammunition in Shama's view. Therefore, some scholars speculate that the assassin was hired by Samoans, or that Samoans quietly leaked the whereabouts of Dragon Horse to the shogunate. I'm afraid the truth will be lost in the weeds and smoke of history forever, and there is no way to pursue it.