Chapter 24: To each his own mind

Nanjing night, except for a few commercial streets are extraordinary, most of the streets are quiet, the Anyi District of the old city of Nanjing, the block is formed by the lake, the lush trees on both sides of the street, but also gives birth to a sense of quietness in the middle of the noisy, and because of this, many dignitaries often choose to live here, or rent or buy a house.

No. 76 Anyi Street, is a traditional Chinese-style courtyard, compared with the neighboring Chinese or Western-style villas, courtyards, this once belonged to a former Qing Dynasty official's courtyard, in Anyi District is not very conspicuous, but the old Nanjing people know, in fact, in the old city of Nanjing, this old courtyard itself symbolizes identity and status, in the old city of Nanjing drastic construction, I don't know how many old houses have been razed and rebuilt, and in this process, some of the old houses that have been preserved are either large households in Nanjing for hundreds of years, Either it is the private residence of the founding nobles, most of these private residences are given by His Majesty, this is not an identity, what is an identity.

The door of No. 76 Anyi Street hangs the door plaque of the Liang Mansion, the owner of the Liang Mansion is the famous mansion of Liang Qichao in China, in China, Liang Qichao is so famous, I am afraid that only Kang Youwei can compare with it, and unlike the exiled Xia Weiyi's wanted "Manchu remnants" and "traitor" Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao can be regarded as an influential politician in Chinese political circles.

Liang Qichao received traditional education at home since childhood, and was promoted in 1889. In 1890, he went to Beijing to take the examination, but failed. On the way back to Guangdong, I passed through Shanghai and saw the introduction

The geography of "Yinghuan Zhiluo" and the translation of Western books by Shanghai Machinery Bureau have opened their eyes. In the same year, he became acquainted with Kang Youwei and joined his disciples, and later, together with Kang Youwei, he led the famous "Wuxu Change".

After the failure of the Hundred Days Restoration, he went into exile in Japan, and his teacher Kang Youwei advocated constitutional politics, he focused more on ideological enlightenment, and many ** people were influenced by it, so he was known as the "ideological enlightener" in China.

After the Guangfuhui uprising, Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei made completely different choices in the face of the Guangfuhui uprising, he returned to China at the first time, and tried to promote a compromise between the Guangfuhui and the Qing government, but in the end, in the face of the national liquidation after the republic, he could only sigh secretly, and then he accepted the invitation to join the Guangfuhui, and later the Guangfuhui due to the selection of the national system in the process of royalist and constitutional disputes, he did not choose to join the royalist faction or the constitutional cleansing, let alone to the ** party that had not been banned at that time, but to create another Democratic Party.

In the following nine years, the royalists became royalists, the constitutionalists were weakened, and the ** party was imprisoned and exiled, while the Democratic Party, which was not favored at that time, crossed one pass after another, and after the constitution was established, it became the second largest party in the lower house by 15 seats beyond the Constitution.

In China, Liang Qichao's talent, knowledge, insight, and qualifications are naturally needless to say, and he is also the leader of the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party has a very powerful political party, and because of this, in China, which has been in the empire for nine years, no one can ignore this Liang Zhuoru.

As in the past, when night falls, in the pavilion in the backyard of the Liang house, some members of the House of Commons or politicians gather in the pavilion to discuss national affairs, and unlike in the past, today, there is one more guest, the leader of the Constitutional Party, Yang Du.

In the past nine years, the Constitutionalist Party has been up and down, when the Liberation Society was divided, and Yang Du and others, who advocated the Constitution, attracted a large number of members of the Liberation Society, almost with the royalists, but in the following years, as the leader of the Constitutionalists, Yang Du did nothing, but disappointed most of the members, and chose to quit.

The reason why the Democratic Party has been able to develop has a great deal to do with the leader Liang Qichao; during the nine years of writing books and books, he also accepted invitations from many universities to give lectures and give lectures, and published newspapers to engage in polemics with the royalist party.

"The political history of nations shows that freedom-oriented democracies based on the rule of law may be the most robust democracies,

For it to become a reality, it must have an appropriate social foundation, the most important of which is a large and stable middle class, which is a prerequisite for a robust democracy. ”

Putting down the teacup in his hand, Yang Du spit out such a sentence, in the past nine years, he may have had to be in semi-silence because he was in the hands of the Investigation Bureau, but he had enough time for him to learn, to be precise, to learn from Liang Qichao. ,

More than ten years ago, when Kang Liang and others fled to Japan, Liang Qichao continued to sum up the lessons of the failure of the reform, and mentioned in his book, "The urgent task at present is to popularize the knowledge of constitutionalism, improve the awareness of democracy, and prepare the conditions for constitutionalism." Therefore, he visited famous teachers in Western studies, studied the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu and others, and examined the reality of Japan and other countries, and finally practiced the magic of thought to a mature state. He has a correct grasp of the essence of democratic politics. The former "right" is the right of man, and the latter "right" is power, which indeed shows the essence of constitutionalism.

And what about Liang Qichao's mention of preparing the conditions, instead of quickly seizing the excellent situation of the first country to establish a "beautiful" Western-style democratic constitutional government and republic? For this point, that is, whether China has the basic conditions for realizing democratic politics, whether it is the ** faction or Yang Du himself is too optimistic, it can be said that it is this optimism that has led to Sun Yishan being imprisoned and not coming out, and he is trapped in the confinement of the Investigation Bureau and does nothing.

But in contrast, Liang Qichao's view is very objective and fair, even pessimistic. He believed that for the establishment of a democratic system and its effective operation, it is necessary to have a certain national foundation, without which democracy will be a castle in the air, and society, the state, and the people will not be able to benefit from it, and will even cause chaos. That is to say, democratic politics is certainly the supreme martial arts, which is fascinating.

With China's possessive skills, it is really impossible to practice such high-level divine skills, because China's internal skills are seriously insufficient, and its external skills are seriously weak, and it does not have the ability to practice and control "divine skills" in any case.

The top priority at the moment is to make up for the lessons as soon as possible, practice the basic skills, and move to the highest level step by step in a down-to-earth manner. If you forcibly cultivate, it must be similar to the shape and not the same, and it is still a ** in essence, which has become a fierce way to go crazy relative to the ** party and constitutionalist who want to succeed in a battle, Liang Qichao is very optimistic about the feminine way of reform, as the so-called "moisturizing things silently" in the reform to complete the construction of democracy, and gradually realize China's political democracy.

In the end, the facts proved everything, the ** party is a chaotic party in collusion abroad, and the suppressed Constitutional Party is declining, and only Liang Zhuoru's Democratic Party has not only not been suppressed in the past nine years, but has even continued to develop, becoming the second largest party in the House of Commons, and even His Majesty admires it very much, and wants to give it knighthood several times, but Liang Zhuoru politely refuses on the grounds of "supervision in the opposition".

"The so-called new middle class mainly refers to the wage earners who rely on knowledge and academic qualifications to engage in intellectual work, including civil servants, bank clerks, intellectuals, artists, industrial and commercial workers, teachers, etc., and these people are China's new middle class."

At this point, Yang Du, as a loser, has more understanding than Liang Qichao, because he has been reflecting, reflecting on why China moved towards the imperial system, why the ** party and the Constitutional Party chose to fail, once, he thought that this was His Majesty's skill, but it was not until four years ago, after a two-year investigation in 16 countries in Europe and the United States, that he understood the root cause, and the root pressure was not how skilled His Majesty was, but how "ignorant" the Chinese people were.

"In the nine years since the founding of the empire, China's level of industrialization and urbanization has been increasing rapidly. The population of China's own cities has risen from 36.39 million to nearly 99.1 million, the number of cities with a population of less than 50,000 has increased from 1,233 to 3,510, the number of cities with a population of 5-100,000 has increased from 64 to 171, the number of cities with more than 100,000 has increased from 31 to 116, and the number of cities with more than 200,000 has increased from 7 to 42. Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Tianjin are large cities with populations of one million. ”

Listening to Yang Du's narration, Liang Qichao just smiled and nodded in agreement from time to time, in fact, the two of them were early

There have been many discussions on this issue. Industrialization and urbanization have led to the emergence of the middle class, especially with the establishment of industrial capital, large and medium-sized cities have rapidly absorbed local labor, and at the same time, the new middle class centered on wage earners has grown, gradually expanding the place of residence to the suburbs, and China's demographic structure is now

There has been a radical change.

"The middle class is economically stable and ideologically active, but it does not participate in politics. Therefore, it is the common demand of the middle class to seek a political voice, to improve political status, to defend its interests by legitimate means and to guarantee a stable life",

"Indeed"

Zhang Binglin nodded vigorously, although he was once a close confidant of His Majesty, but as early as nine years ago, after the country established the imperial system, he quit the royalists and joined the Democratic Party.

"The House of Lords is monopolized by the nobles, and the House of Commons, although elected by the people, has no right to form a cabinet, and the provincial, municipal, and county councils are monopolized by the local gentry. ”

"Right"

Nodding affirmatively, Cai Yuanpei said immediately.

"Nine years ago, at universities, students were excited about the war, but today it is the mainstream among young people to advocate for a political party and a cabinet and to reduce armaments......"

"And businessmen, big and small, are also eager for change, they want to be able to really make their voices heard in Congress, so as to put an end to the special economic model, compared with the production resources at the disposal of government enterprises, the production resources that private enterprises can obtain are too limited, and in terms of commercial competition, government enterprises enjoy various advantages."

"The same is true for students at various universities, and in China today, university students are also part of the country's resources, and a considerable number of them must be forced to accept the deployment of the state, which is necessary for national construction, but on the other hand, it comes at the expense of the freedom of young people."

In every word you and me, everyone is constantly expressing their own views and opinions, and these views are all adding points to the grasp of the "party cabinet".

In fact, as early as half a year ago, Yang Du, Liang Qichao and others intended to promote the merger of the Constitutional Party and the Democratic Party, and finally through joint efforts to promote the formation of a political party cabinet in China, but now, the unconstitutionality of the cabinet has given them an opportunity to hold an early general election for the lower house.

Elections for members of the House of Commons are held again, and they are confident that they have an advantage over the royalists, because of the middle class

Disgusted with the "Cabinet of Ministers" and the "gentry organs", they needed to express their voices, and the royalists were precisely on the opposite side of them.

"And the development of the industry has been accompanied by the growing ranks of the domestic working class. According to the data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce at the beginning of the year, there are now more than 10 million workers in China's industrial and mining enterprises. The growth of the working class led to the emergence of trade union organisations, the rise of the workers' movement and the formation of workers' parties. Five years ago, Shanxi coal miners founded the "Workers' Volunteer Friends Association", and then organized trade unions, and then the "Iron Workers Union", "Railway Trade Union" and other trade unions were born one after another, and now the domestic trade unions have a tendency to rise to the sky, and the trade unions organize workers' rallies, petitions, strikes, and try to pass social policy legislation represented by the "Factory Law" to strive for the protection of workers......' rights.

Without waiting for Lin Changmin to finish speaking, Yang Du said sarcastically.

"The interests of the son, of course, should be taken care of when Lao Tzu, seven out of ten Chinese workers work in state-owned enterprises, and the state-owned enterprises have the greatest loss through the factory law, and the country has to suffer indirect losses, in this case, how can they pass the factory law?"

When Yang Du's voice fell, Liang Qichao spit out a sentence lightly, for many years, he has been opposed to the special economic model, and even in the face of the "brilliant achievements" of China's industry, he has never expressed his approval.

"As I warned many years ago, if the government manages all the businesses, its power will inevitably exceed the power of the citizens and the power of the citizens' representative bodies, and such an increase in government power would in itself be a devastation for democracy,"

After a pause, Liang Qichao added.

"So, our second step is to target the needs of the middle class, the working class, and only then will it be possible for people to fight for their interests."

"The rights of citizens must be won by the citizens themselves, and if they rely on the government, then "Zhao Mengzhi is expensive, and Zhao Meng can be cheap; If the government can take away the people's rights, it can also take the people's rights. ”

In the professor's dormitory, facing more than a dozen students in front of him, Cao Shijing quoted a passage from Mr. Liang Qichao, the leader of the Democratic Party.

"This means that it is up to the government to give you democracy, there is no hope, he can give it to you, he can also take away your rights, as long as he wants. Rights are not given by others, so in order for people to win rights, they must have certain qualities, that is, they must become modern citizens. The qualities of the people include the idea of the state, the idea of rights, the idea of freedom, the ability to govern themselves, and so on. ”,

Professor Cao Shijing, who is known in the Department of Economics at Sungkyun University, is a republican and also a member of the Democratic Party, and most of the students in his study group are also influenced by it and tend to be democratic and constitutional.

"But, Professor, what's the use of just fighting for it? When the coal miners in Huaibei went on strike last year, we did a survey and the strike did not make any progress, and now the government controls all the enterprises, and there are royalists in the House of Commons who are waving their flags for them, and it is impossible for the factory law to be passed."

Cui Guozheng said a little confused beside him, while Wu Ruoyang sighed helplessly.

"That's right, the government manages all the enterprises, and the government naturally no longer considers the interests of the workers in the government's factories, and this lack of consideration has caused another result, when the government does not consider the interests of the workers, they naturally cannot pursue the rights and interests of the workers in the private enterprises are harmed, and correspondingly, the interests of the working people in the whole society are damaged in the process."

"So ......"

After a pause, Cao Shijing looked at the student in front of him expectantly.

"Many years ago, our generation worked hard, but the time was not ripe, the vast majority of the people were not educated, and they could not realize the importance of a government owned by the people, governed by the people, and enjoyed by the people, so even if Fang Zhipu and others sacrificed their lives, they could not wake up the people.

Now, after nine years of ideological enlightenment and the popularization of the idea of freedom and civil rights, the idea of freedom and democracy has been initially sown throughout society, and now the middle strata of society also hope to change the reality of the current cabinet and make personal interests and personal political demands

realization, and for the workers, they are equally eager for change that they are now

Aware that as long as the Cabinet exists, the Cabinet will ignore their demands, and if the right opportunity arises, then perhaps all parties will be able to seek justice or protection for their own interests, and it is still possible for China to establish a political party cabinet, and once a political party cabinet has been established, then any cabinet will not be able to ignore the interests of the voters who represent the "votes"

"Professor Cao, when will the right opportunity appear?"

Faced with the student's question, Cao Shijing was silent for a moment and then spit out two words.

"Now".

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