Zhang Taiyan pointed out in the preface to the revolutionary army: Fu China was swallowed up by the anti-Hu for 260 years. The coolness of the massacre, the work of fraud and violence, everyone felt it, and everyone was talking about the revolution. He also praised Zou Rong's works, which made him feel ashamed. Although it tastes like a philosopher of Luo and Peng, it is still a shame to recite it. Therefore, as a righteous teacher, a few people have the same ambition, and scholars know what to return! If the husband is a pawn, by making it straightforward and easy to understand, his wisdom and knowledge can be restored, which is far away. What he meant was that Zou Rong's book aroused people's shame and anger by shouting unscrupulous language. Even stupid people like Luo Zenan and Peng Yulin should sweat deeply after reading this book. With this book as the forerunner of The Teacher of Justice, people probably won't have other ideas, and those talented people also know that they should go astray. As for the small businessmen who kill pigs and sell wine, they can benefit from the straightforward understanding of this book and restore their wisdom and knowledge. Then the influence of this book will be far-reaching. Later, Zhang Taiyan published a book in Su Bao, refuting Kang Youwei's revolutionary theory, and continued to denounce the so-called Manchu-Chinese reformers headed by Kang Youwei, who ruled together with the people. In fact, this is a land of slavery. Zhang Taiyan resolutely stood in the position of national democratic revolution, mercilessly castigated Kang Youwei's fallacy of advocating constitutional monarchy, and enthusiastically praised the revolutionary struggle.
At this point, the Qing court smelled the faint pitfalls in Zhang Taiyan's article and ordered Wei Guangtao, governor of Liangjiang, to severely arrest this group of outlaws who advocated revolutionary heresy. Wei Guangtao said that Su Bao published the cloth fallacy, while Zou Rong wrote the book Revolutionary Army in Sichuan with a preface, especially with reckless words. He ordered the Governor of Jiangsu Province to send alternate Dao Yuzhen to Shanghai to cooperate with Shanghai Yuan Shuxun, and asked the Shanghai Concession authorities to arrest a group of troublemakers who advocated revolution in the Soviet newspaper.
1On June 29th, 903, Su Bao published a book Refuting Kang Youwei's Revolutionary Theory, and Shanghai Road reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry in the concession, which sent foreign policemen and Chinese agents to Su Bao to arrest people, and named Chen Fan, Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Taiyan, Zou Rong and others. Chen Fan got the news in advance that Cai Yuanpei had already fled to Qingdao. Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong are not here, only one accountant is taken away. That night, Zhang Taiyan got the news of his arrest, but he didn't take it seriously at all. He only said that little things were bothering him, and he got into bed to sleep. Even more surprising, the next day he went to the newspaper Su Bao as usual. Therefore, he met a patrolman in the concession area and continued his arrest. Before the patrol asked him the source of the hero, Zhang Taiyan himself generously stepped forward and pointed to his nose and said, I'm not here. I want to take one, that's me! This is really a trap. The concession went to heaven, so put on handcuffs. At that time, Zou Rong was also the target of pursuit, but he got the news and hid in the home of a missionary in Hongkou. Zhang Taiyan was taken to the patrol room of the Ministry of Industry, but he wrote a letter asking him to turn himself in voluntarily. Zou Rong is really loyal. In July 1, he turned himself in to the patrol house in the concession. Then, the newspaper Su Bao was seized, its property was confiscated, and Chen Fan went bankrupt and fled to Japan.
This leads to the last literary prison case in the Qing Dynasty-Su reported the case.
Since the establishment of the Qing dynasty, since the network-intensive Qianlong dynasty, there have been few cases of literary inquisition. There is no record of literary inquisition in Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi dynasties, and Su's report is the last scene of literary inquisition in Qing Dynasty. Before the incident, Empress Dowager Cixi dreamed of imitating the handling of the case of Kangxi and Qianlong Wenzi Prison, and planned to quickly cull the revolutionary fire, arresting Shanghai on the first day, escorting Suzhou on the second day, solving Nanjing on the third day, entering Beijing on the fourth day, and then executing it during the year, making an example for one hundred. But the development of things was beyond the expectation of the Qing court. Due to the boycott of consulates in western countries, the Qing court encountered unprecedented troubles.
As Su Bao was located in the British Concession, the Qing Dynasty had to obtain the consent of foreign consuls before arresting people in the Concession. Therefore, when the order to arrest Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong, the boss and editor-in-chief of Su Bao, was given to the governor of Jiangsu Province, they had to negotiate with the foreign consular corps in Shanghai to request an arrest warrant, but the consuls of various countries insisted on not allowing it in order to safeguard the sovereignty of the concession. Later, after consultation between the two sides, it was decided that the case was a concession case, and Qing * * * had no right to solve the relevant criminals in the concession for independent trial. Only the mixed court located in the concession tried the case. Qing * * * entrusted a foreigner lawyer to accuse Su Bao of libel today, criticized * * *, and accused Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong of treason and conspiracy.
On July 15, Zhang Taiyan's case was heard in the mixed court of concession. Nominally, the jury consists of Sun Jiancheng, a judge of the Shanghai Public Trial Court, Wang Maokun, the county magistrate of a county in Shanghai, and Di Binan, the British vice consul. In fact, everything is decided by the British vice consul.
After the trial began, Qing * * * hired British lawyers represented by Cooper and Hawatore, accusing Zhang Taiyan and others of committing heinous crimes, inciting disorderly parties and conspiring to commit misconduct, and quoting comments in Su Bao and Revolutionary Army, refuting Kang Youwei's book On Revolution, especially the clown contained in the book, which failed to distinguish Hussain's two sentences. Friends outside the prison also hired two foreign lawyers for Zhang Taiyan and others. In court, Zhang Taiyan looked solemn and dismissed the charges against him. He smiled and said, hey! He claimed to be China * * * and accused the sinner of China * * *, not in other countries' courts, but in the smallest new yamen under his jurisdiction. This is the laughing stock of all ages. Expose the weak nature of the Qing dynasty.
After the trial officially began, Zhang Taiyan mocked the judge in court. Regarding the fact that the word "clown" he wrote in the Preface to the Revolutionary Army violated the taboo of the Qing emperor, he said: I only know that the Qing emperor is Manchu, and I don't know the so-called taboo. And according to western law, people are not shy, so there is nothing wrong with me writing it directly. Besides, as far as the meaning of the word "clown" is concerned, the word "ugly" is originally used as a word, or as a solution for children, so the clown is just a little thing or a child, and there is no slander. Zhang Taiyan argued from the perspective of philology that the applause from the audience thundered, while the ignorant judge was in a fog and was very embarrassed. In the face of such a knowledgeable and eloquent criminal, they simply don't know how to judge. When one of the judges was dumbfounded, he suddenly realized that Zhang Taiyan was a famous scholar at home and abroad. He must have been on the right track in the imperial examination, so he leaned over carefully and asked, Where did you take the scientific examination? When Zhang Taiyan heard this question, he felt even more ridiculous and played dumb. He replied loudly, I'm flying all over the sky. Why is it there? Branches and nests are homophonic and flying all over the sky, which means old cloth in Zhejiang dialect. Zhang Taiyan's witty answer won warm applause from the court. So the first trial ended dramatically.