Tan Sitong


Tan Sitong, courtesy name Fusheng, pseudonym Zhuangfei, was a well-known Chinese politician, thinker and reformist in the late Qing Dynasty. He was executed at the age of 33 when the Reformation Movement failed in 1898. Tan Sitong was one of the "Six gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform" and occupies an important place in modern Chinese history. To many contemporaries, his execution symbolized the political failure of the Qing Dynasty's reformation, helping to persuade the intellectual class to pursue violent revolution and overthrow the Qing Dynasty.

Early life

Tan Sitong was one of nine siblings and was born in Beijing, although his family originally came from Liuyang, Hunan Province. His father, Tan Jixun, was the governor of Hubei Province. His mother, Xu Wuyuan, a traditional Chinese housewife, was very strict with her children.
Tan Sitong spent his childhood in Beijing and his youth in Liuyang. He began his formal education at 5 and was tutored by a famous scholar called Ouyang Zhonggu when he was 10. Although he was talented at essay writing, he objected to the conventional form of the essay that was required for examinations. As a result, he only achieved the title of "student member", a very low educational level.
At the age of 12, Tan Sitong lost his mother, his eldest brother, and his second eldest sister, who all died within a span of five days due to diphtheria that had spread during a visit to a cousin. Tan Sitong also fell gravely ill but recovered three days later, which many people deemed to be a miracle. After Tan Sitong lost his mother, his father’s concubine treated him badly.
In 1879, Tan Sitong studied under another scholar, Xu Qixian, with whom he began a systematic study of representative works in Chinese, as well as natural science.
In 1884, he left his home and traveled to several different provinces of China, including Hebei, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Shanxi. He composed more than 200 poems during the trip.
At the age of 19, Tan Sitong married a woman named Li Run and had a son named Tan Lansheng, who died within a year of being born.

Reforming campaign

Background

National isolationism in the late 18th century resulted in a wide technological gap between China and the Western world, which had exacerbated corruption among the feudal authorities. One effect of this gap was a push by Western countries to develop and invest in underdeveloped nations, including China. This led to the First Opium War between China and Britain, which ushered in a period of foreign invasion and colonization in China, at the time ruled by the Qing Dynasty. During this time, Chinese intellectuals and officials sought ways to improve Chinese life and national prospects. In 1895, after a defeat by Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, China was forced to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki, under which Taiwan was occupied and 250 million taels were paid to Japan.
Astonished and indignant by the defeat, Tan Sitong began to realize the necessity of a thorough reformation in China. He and his colleagues began to search for new approaches to improve national standing. In 1896, he wrote the poem My Feelings :

世间无物抵春愁，
合向苍冥一哭休。
四万万人齐下泪，
天涯何处是神州？
Nothing in this world can withstand the longing for Spring,
These longings join together until they reach the shadowy netherworld in tears.
The wailing 400 million people are owning the same question:
Oh Where, oh where on this earth can we find our divine China?

Between 1896 and 1897, he finished writing a famous book called Ren Xue, which was considered to be the first philosophical work of the Reformation. In this book, he said absolute monarchy greatly oppressed human nature. In 1898, he founded a new academy called the South Academy, which attempted to introduce Reformation ideals in southern China, specifically the Hunan district. Later, he also created the newspaper “Hunan Reporter” to publicize the advantage of Reformation policies.

Hundred Days Reform

Early in 1898, Tan Sitong was introduced to Emperor Guangxu, who was considering enacting Reformation policies. Tan was appointed a member of the Grand Council, and within two months the Hundred Days' Reform began with the issuing of an Imperial order called Ming Ding Guo Shi. However, some of the new policies appeared to challenge the existing interests of many government officials, which led to objections from Manchu aristocrats, including Empress Dowager Cixi. At the time, Cixi held more dominant political power in the central authority than the current emperor, even though Emperor Guangxu had been in throne for more than two decades. As a result, the Reform policies did not gain wide and effective support.
In September of 1898, Tan Sitong became aware the Dowager was planning to interfere with the Reformation campaign and immediately visited general Yuan Shikai, hoping Yuan's army might support the Reformation Movement and defeat the opposition forces headed by Cixi. However, after returning to Tianjin, Yuan immediately betrayed the Reform movement and divulged the conspiracy to overthrow Cixi’s power. As a result, Cixi swiftly returned to the Forbidden City from the Summer Palace and led a coup, in which she seized the throne power from Emperor Guangxu and ordered the arrest of all those involved in the Reformation. The short-lived Reformation movement effectively ended 103 days after it began; as a result, it has been known ever since as the Hundred Days' Reform. Emperor Guangxu was imprisoned, allowing Cixi to consolidate her public standing and authority. All the Reformation policies were abolished except for Jing Shi Da Xue Tang, the first government-established tertiary educational institution in China’s history, which later on became Peking University.
Tan Sitong was arrested at the "Guild Hall of Liuyang" in Beijing on September 24. He had been encouraged to escape to Japan, where the government had expressed sympathy for Reformist scholars, but he refused to go, hoping his death would serve as a catalyst for Reformation ideals among the people of China. His words on this were as follows:
各国变法，无不从流血而成。今中国未闻有因变法而流血者，此国之所以不昌者也。有之，请从嗣同始。
Seen from the world, no successful transformations were made without sacrificing. So far, within China, it has never been heard that anyone was bleeding from their efforts to reform the nation, for which this country lacks prosperity. If there is anyone to be, just start from me.

After being caught, Tan Sitong was put in the Xing Bu Da Lao, a jail belonging to the Ministry of Justice, and charged with treason and attempting a military coup. The legal process was interrupted by an Emperor’s order calling for an immediate execution due to the severity of his crimes. Consequently, Tan was escorted to the Caishikou Execution Grounds outside Xuanwu Gate of Peking on the afternoon of September 28, 1898, where he was executed by beheading along with five others. Historically, these men are called the six gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform.
Tan Sitong's last words on the execution ground are famous in China, translated as follows:
有心杀贼，无力回天。死得其所，快哉！快哉！
Having got the intention to kill the robbers though, I lacked the strength to challenge the fate. Sacrificing at the place where I should die, it is an exciting thing! Exciting thing!

Death and legacy

After the execution, Tan Sitong's remains were collected and stored by some of his friends. In 1899, the remains were sent to and buried in his hometown, Liuyang, Hunan. His father, despite his disagreement with his son's Reform efforts, was stripped of all official duties. He returned to his hometown and died three years later. Tan Sitong's wife, Li Run, became active in promoting girls’ education and also volunteered as a foster mother in Hunan in her later years. Li passed away in 1925, 14 years after the collapse of Qing Dynasty and 27 years after her husband’s death.
Shortly before his execution, Tan Sitong wrote a farewell letter to his wife, in which some of his principles and values are expressed:

闰妻如面：
结缡十五年，原约相守以死，我今背盟矣！手写此信，我尚为世间一人；君看此信，我已成阴曹一鬼。死生契阔，亦复何言，惟念此身虽去，此情不渝。小我虽灭，大我常存。生生世世，同住莲花。如比迎陵毗迦同命鸟，比翼双飞，亦可互嘲。愿君视荣华如梦幻，视死辱为常事。无喜无悲，听其自然。我与殇儿，同在西方极乐世界相偕待君，他年重逢，再聚团圆。殇儿与我，灵魂不远，与君魂梦相依，望君遣怀。
戊戌八月九日，嗣同
My love Run as you see my face here,
You see, we had promised our 15-year marriage to finish the life hand in hand but heartbreakingly, I may have to break the promise now! When I was writing this, I was still alive in the world; however, you, as the reader, are facing a ghost in the netherworld. A long separation is standing ahead, deserving no extra words. Though I am gone, our affections exist as usual. My small ego perished though, long lives my super ego. Life after life, a lotus is accommodating us, we are something like inseparable king birds there - always flying together and making jokes on each other. My last hope, here for you, is to endow glory and wealth with unreal illusions while defining the daily life largely as sacrifice and humiliation. Better to discard extreme happiness and sorrow and, just let everything go. I, along with our dead son, am sincerely waiting for our another reunion in heaven some time after you. We will not go too far away from home, where we are still accompanying your soul and dream, for which nothing will be different for you.
Sitong
Sep 24 1898

Tan Sitong has become a symbol of courage, patriotism and anti-feudalism among Chinese people, for which he is always portrayed in a positive light in literature and film. His life and accomplishments are part of popular cultural knowledge and well known to most of the Chinese population.