1 00:00:22,310 --> 00:00:22,610 . 2 00:00:22,398 --> 00:00:24,192 He died on the very day he 3 00:00:24,207 --> 00:00:28,089 had just won. March 20, 1913. 4 00:00:28,545 --> 00:00:30,354 Ten forty-five at night. 5 00:00:30,810 --> 00:00:34,942 Zhabei, Shanghai. The Shanghai station of the 6 00:00:34,957 --> 00:00:38,751 Shanghai-Nanjing railway. The station building was four 7 00:00:38,766 --> 00:00:41,281 years old, designed by the British, 8 00:00:41,295 --> 00:00:44,134 four storeys, built for three hundred and 9 00:00:44,148 --> 00:00:46,825 twenty-nine thousand silver dollars, one of the 10 00:00:46,839 --> 00:00:49,501 most presentable railway stations in all of 11 00:00:49,516 --> 00:00:52,957 China. Tonight the fast train for Nanjing 12 00:00:52,972 --> 00:00:55,751 was taking tickets. A man had just 13 00:00:55,766 --> 00:00:58,339 walked out of the assembly members' waiting 14 00:00:58,354 --> 00:00:59,942 room inside the station. 15 00:01:00,413 --> 00:01:02,325 He had just shaken hands with the 16 00:01:02,339 --> 00:01:04,295 people who came to see him off. 17 00:01:04,751 --> 00:01:06,031 He was still talking. 18 00:01:06,501 --> 00:01:09,457 Thirty-one years old, in a long gown, 19 00:01:10,016 --> 00:01:12,163 carrying so little luggage you would think 20 00:01:12,178 --> 00:01:13,869 he was going on an errand across 21 00:01:13,884 --> 00:01:15,648 town. Then a shot. 22 00:01:16,134 --> 00:01:18,075 The bullet entered from the right side 23 00:01:18,089 --> 00:01:21,104 of his back, drove slanting down into 24 00:01:21,119 --> 00:01:24,148 his abdomen, and stopped not far from 25 00:01:24,163 --> 00:01:26,236 his heart. He was taken to the 26 00:01:26,251 --> 00:01:31,148 Shanghai-Nanjing Railway Hospital on Laobazi Road, a road 27 00:01:31,163 --> 00:01:35,163 called Wujin Road today. Two German doctors operated 28 00:01:35,178 --> 00:01:37,545 for more than an hour, took out 29 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:39,486 the bullet, and found it had been 30 00:01:39,501 --> 00:01:42,913 poisoned. He held on for seventeen hours. 31 00:01:43,354 --> 00:01:45,501 At four forty-eight in the morning of 32 00:01:45,516 --> 00:01:48,266 March 22, he was gone. 33 00:01:48,722 --> 00:01:50,589 His name was Song Jiaoren. 34 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:53,325 That year, he had just led his 35 00:01:53,339 --> 00:01:56,178 party to win the first nationwide election 36 00:01:56,192 --> 00:01:57,825 in the history of this country. 37 00:01:58,249 --> 00:02:00,558 And that is exactly the question. 38 00:02:00,986 --> 00:02:02,707 A man who has just won, 39 00:02:03,075 --> 00:02:04,604 why does he die on his way 40 00:02:04,619 --> 00:02:07,045 to work? Who needed him dead? 41 00:02:07,516 --> 00:02:09,913 And who, holding ten cheaper ways to 42 00:02:09,928 --> 00:02:13,163 stop him, chose the most expensive one, 43 00:02:13,619 --> 00:02:15,589 the loudest one, the one that could 44 00:02:15,604 --> 00:02:17,898 never be hidden? And here is the 45 00:02:17,913 --> 00:02:19,795 detail that will not let go: 46 00:02:20,516 --> 00:02:22,913 the higher he climbed, the harder somebody 47 00:02:22,928 --> 00:02:25,942 else fell. That somebody's family name was 48 00:02:25,957 --> 00:02:28,825 Sun. This is not a lone shooting. 49 00:02:29,281 --> 00:02:31,207 This is the scene of a transfer 50 00:02:31,222 --> 00:02:32,648 of power that failed. 51 00:02:33,089 --> 00:02:34,428 What we are going to do is 52 00:02:34,442 --> 00:02:37,031 put that scene back together, inch by 53 00:02:37,045 --> 00:02:39,369 inch. We will name no one. 54 00:02:39,825 --> 00:02:41,751 We will leave the verdict to you. 55 00:02:42,206 --> 00:02:42,506 . 56 00:02:42,309 --> 00:02:45,618 Almost everything until now has happened inside 57 00:02:45,632 --> 00:02:46,927 the city of Beijing. 58 00:02:47,397 --> 00:02:50,059 From this episode on, the camera follows 59 00:02:50,074 --> 00:02:53,000 one man. Wherever he goes, we go. 60 00:02:53,456 --> 00:02:55,324 His name was Song Jiaoren. 61 00:02:55,765 --> 00:02:59,853 Courtesy name Dunchu. He signed his articles 62 00:02:59,882 --> 00:03:02,368 "the Fisherman. " To make sense of that 63 00:03:02,382 --> 00:03:03,985 one shot, we have to go back 64 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,544 to where he started: Taoyuan, in Hunan. 65 00:03:07,015 --> 00:03:10,794 On April 5, 1882, he was born into a 66 00:03:10,809 --> 00:03:14,515 family of scholars in Xiangchong, Shangfang village, 67 00:03:14,544 --> 00:03:15,647 on the Yuan River. 68 00:03:16,065 --> 00:03:18,477 At six he entered a private school. 69 00:03:18,903 --> 00:03:22,565 At seventeen, the Zhangjiang Academy in Taoyuan. 70 00:03:23,044 --> 00:03:26,750 In 1901, at nineteen, he passed the examination 71 00:03:26,765 --> 00:03:29,485 and became a xiucai, a licensed scholar. 72 00:03:29,971 --> 00:03:31,794 The script written for that age was 73 00:03:31,809 --> 00:03:35,427 simple: the provincial exam, the metropolitan exam, 74 00:03:35,456 --> 00:03:37,441 climb all the way up, become an 75 00:03:37,456 --> 00:03:39,515 official, grow old in office. 76 00:03:39,956 --> 00:03:41,324 He did not follow it. 77 00:03:41,780 --> 00:03:44,794 In 1902 he went to Wuchang and sat 78 00:03:44,809 --> 00:03:47,177 the entrance exam for the Wuchang General 79 00:03:47,191 --> 00:03:49,485 Middle School. He came first. 80 00:03:49,956 --> 00:03:51,750 In Wuchang he met a group of 81 00:03:51,765 --> 00:03:54,309 men, and he settled one question in 82 00:03:54,324 --> 00:03:57,603 his own mind: this dynasty cannot save 83 00:03:57,618 --> 00:04:01,918 this country. In August 1903, in Changsha, 84 00:04:01,932 --> 00:04:03,418 he met Huang Xing. 85 00:04:03,882 --> 00:04:05,500 The two took to each other at 86 00:04:05,515 --> 00:04:09,265 once. On November 4, he and Huang Xing, 87 00:04:09,574 --> 00:04:13,103 Liu Kuiyi, Chen Tianhua and Zhang Shizhao 88 00:04:13,118 --> 00:04:15,015 met to plan an organisation. 89 00:04:15,485 --> 00:04:20,088 In February 1904, the Huaxing Society was formally 90 00:04:20,103 --> 00:04:22,882 founded in the West Garden at Changsha. 91 00:04:23,338 --> 00:04:25,735 Huang Xing became its president. 92 00:04:26,191 --> 00:04:30,191 Song Jiaoren, at twenty-two, its vice-president. 93 00:04:30,647 --> 00:04:32,956 What did the Huaxing Society do? 94 00:04:33,397 --> 00:04:36,030 Rebellion. They planned to rise on the 95 00:04:36,044 --> 00:04:39,074 seventieth birthday of the Empress Dowager Cixi, 96 00:04:39,735 --> 00:04:43,044 in five places at once: Changsha, 97 00:04:43,412 --> 00:04:47,177 Yuezhou, Hengzhou, Baoqing and Changde. 98 00:04:47,647 --> 00:04:50,853 Song Jiaoren's assignment was the Changde column. 99 00:04:51,309 --> 00:04:54,000 The rising failed. Word leaked. 100 00:04:54,471 --> 00:04:57,044 The governor of Hunan ordered a sweep 101 00:04:57,059 --> 00:04:59,059 of the city. You need to hear 102 00:04:59,074 --> 00:05:01,412 what happened next, because it later turned 103 00:05:01,427 --> 00:05:04,132 into a name. That day Song Jiaoren 104 00:05:04,147 --> 00:05:06,500 was at his family home in Taoyuan 105 00:05:06,515 --> 00:05:09,603 and knew nothing. A boyhood schoolmate ran 106 00:05:09,618 --> 00:05:11,000 all the way to bring him the 107 00:05:11,015 --> 00:05:13,395 news. He left in a hurry, 108 00:05:13,763 --> 00:05:15,616 and on the river there was not 109 00:05:15,630 --> 00:05:18,691 a single boat. The soldiers were closing 110 00:05:18,706 --> 00:05:21,324 in. And then, out of the reeds, 111 00:05:21,780 --> 00:05:24,206 a small boat was sculled into view. 112 00:05:24,630 --> 00:05:27,101 An old fisherman rowed him across. 113 00:05:27,530 --> 00:05:28,780 He kept his life. 114 00:05:29,250 --> 00:05:31,912 To remember that stranger, he gave himself 115 00:05:31,927 --> 00:05:34,412 a pen name: the Fisherman. 116 00:05:34,882 --> 00:05:38,059 For ten years, every article he published 117 00:05:38,074 --> 00:05:40,765 in the newspapers carried those two characters. 118 00:05:41,235 --> 00:05:43,956 Hundreds of thousands read the Fisherman. 119 00:05:44,441 --> 00:05:46,500 Almost none of them knew that under 120 00:05:46,515 --> 00:05:48,794 those two characters lay a life an 121 00:05:48,809 --> 00:05:50,427 old fisherman had saved. 122 00:05:50,897 --> 00:05:53,853 In December 1904 he reached Japan. 123 00:05:54,324 --> 00:05:58,588 First Tokyo's Hosei University, then the preparatory 124 00:05:58,603 --> 00:06:02,015 course at Waseda. Notice what he studied 125 00:06:02,030 --> 00:06:04,309 in Japan. Not bombs. 126 00:06:04,780 --> 00:06:07,971 Not assassination. Not how to raise a 127 00:06:07,985 --> 00:06:11,338 unit. He studied how elections are run, 128 00:06:11,368 --> 00:06:14,103 how a parliament opens, how a cabinet 129 00:06:14,118 --> 00:06:17,015 is formed, how a political party works 130 00:06:17,030 --> 00:06:19,485 day after day. In those years he 131 00:06:19,500 --> 00:06:23,265 translated a dozen books: The Japanese Constitution, 132 00:06:23,294 --> 00:06:25,177 A Survey of the British System, 133 00:06:25,441 --> 00:06:27,515 An Outline of the American System, 134 00:06:27,897 --> 00:06:29,838 A Survey of the Russian System, 135 00:06:29,868 --> 00:06:32,044 Police Systems of Various Countries. 136 00:06:32,530 --> 00:06:34,368 In an age when every young man 137 00:06:34,382 --> 00:06:37,059 was discussing how to overthrow a dynasty, 138 00:06:37,441 --> 00:06:39,618 this man was copying out, page by 139 00:06:39,632 --> 00:06:42,000 page, the rules of procedure of other 140 00:06:42,015 --> 00:06:45,809 countries. In 1907 he did something else that 141 00:06:45,824 --> 00:06:48,221 had nothing to do with revolution and 142 00:06:48,250 --> 00:06:50,235 unexpectedly served the country. 143 00:06:50,706 --> 00:06:53,162 He slipped back into Manchuria to stir 144 00:06:53,177 --> 00:06:54,912 up a rising and failed. 145 00:06:55,412 --> 00:06:57,000 But while he was there he wrote 146 00:06:57,015 --> 00:07:00,030 a book, The Jiandao Question, arguing point 147 00:07:00,044 --> 00:07:01,882 by point that this stretch of land 148 00:07:01,897 --> 00:07:03,662 had been Chinese since the Zhou and 149 00:07:03,677 --> 00:07:07,235 Qin. Later, when the Qing government negotiated 150 00:07:07,250 --> 00:07:09,912 with Japan, they stood on that book 151 00:07:09,941 --> 00:07:11,191 and held their ground. 152 00:07:11,662 --> 00:07:15,603 A revolutionary under imperial arrest warrant rescued 153 00:07:15,618 --> 00:07:17,353 the imperial government once. 154 00:07:17,838 --> 00:07:19,912 That was not strange in those years, 155 00:07:19,941 --> 00:07:22,309 because young men then knew the difference: 156 00:07:22,721 --> 00:07:25,221 the dynasty is the dynasty, the country 157 00:07:25,235 --> 00:07:28,559 is the country. In 1911 he came home 158 00:07:28,588 --> 00:07:31,059 and became chief writer at Minli Bao 159 00:07:31,074 --> 00:07:34,353 in Shanghai. When the Xinhai Revolution broke 160 00:07:34,368 --> 00:07:37,677 out, he drafted the Provisional Constitution of 161 00:07:37,691 --> 00:07:40,471 Ezhou, seven chapters, sixty articles. 162 00:07:40,956 --> 00:07:43,853 The first document of a constitutional nature 163 00:07:43,868 --> 00:07:46,265 in Chinese history came from the hand 164 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,015 of a man not yet thirty. 165 00:07:48,437 --> 00:07:51,054 So far, the man's record is simple. 166 00:07:51,515 --> 00:07:54,567 He read. He ran a newspaper. 167 00:07:55,023 --> 00:07:58,273 He wrote institutions. He had no troops, 168 00:07:58,303 --> 00:08:00,141 no money, no territory. 169 00:08:00,611 --> 00:08:03,597 He held exactly one thing: a real 170 00:08:03,611 --> 00:08:05,523 belief that rules could be made to 171 00:08:05,538 --> 00:08:09,038 work. And that is precisely where everything 172 00:08:09,053 --> 00:08:10,479 that follows begins. 173 00:08:10,910 --> 00:08:11,210 . 174 00:08:10,969 --> 00:08:13,439 Now the camera comes back to Shanghai. 175 00:08:13,910 --> 00:08:19,601 Between December 1912 and March 1913, this country held 176 00:08:19,616 --> 00:08:21,528 its first national election. 177 00:08:21,998 --> 00:08:25,057 First, some numbers, because these numbers carry 178 00:08:25,072 --> 00:08:27,145 more weight than any adjective. 179 00:08:27,616 --> 00:08:31,925 Registered voters nationwide: over forty-two million, 180 00:08:32,586 --> 00:08:34,484 nine hundred and thirty thousand. 181 00:08:34,939 --> 00:08:37,984 The population was then estimated at over 182 00:08:37,998 --> 00:08:39,660 four hundred and six million. 183 00:08:40,101 --> 00:08:42,660 That means one Chinese in ten cast 184 00:08:42,675 --> 00:08:45,410 a vote. On this land, it was 185 00:08:45,425 --> 00:08:47,998 the first time anyone had ever spoken 186 00:08:48,013 --> 00:08:51,086 by ballot. You had to qualify first. 187 00:08:51,557 --> 00:08:54,631 Under the electoral law: male; twenty-one for 188 00:08:54,645 --> 00:08:57,425 the House of Representatives, twenty-five for the 189 00:08:57,439 --> 00:09:00,616 Senate; paying two yuan or more in 190 00:09:00,631 --> 00:09:03,910 direct taxes, or owning property worth five 191 00:09:03,925 --> 00:09:07,072 hundred yuan or more; and a primary-school 192 00:09:07,086 --> 00:09:09,910 education or above. In other words, 193 00:09:09,939 --> 00:09:11,910 the one in ten who qualified was 194 00:09:11,925 --> 00:09:14,822 usually literate, had something behind him, 195 00:09:14,866 --> 00:09:16,631 and lived not too far from the 196 00:09:16,645 --> 00:09:20,469 county seat. This was not universal suffrage. 197 00:09:20,939 --> 00:09:23,778 But in China in 1913, it was an 198 00:09:23,792 --> 00:09:25,822 overturning of heaven and earth. 199 00:09:26,278 --> 00:09:29,719 Then the results. Five hundred and ninety-six 200 00:09:29,734 --> 00:09:32,160 seats in the House, two hundred and 201 00:09:32,175 --> 00:09:35,189 seventy-four in the Senate, eight hundred and 202 00:09:35,204 --> 00:09:37,410 seventy in both houses together. 203 00:09:37,881 --> 00:09:40,189 The Nationalist Party took two hundred and 204 00:09:40,204 --> 00:09:43,042 sixty-nine plus one hundred and twenty-three, 205 00:09:43,763 --> 00:09:45,954 three hundred and ninety-two in all, 206 00:09:46,645 --> 00:09:48,572 forty-five point one percent. 207 00:09:49,057 --> 00:09:51,631 Its three opponents, the Republican Party with 208 00:09:51,645 --> 00:09:54,292 one hundred and seventy-five, the Unity Party 209 00:09:54,307 --> 00:09:57,381 with twenty-four, the Democratic Party with twenty-four, 210 00:09:57,734 --> 00:09:59,851 came to two hundred and twenty-three between 211 00:09:59,866 --> 00:10:02,763 them, not sixty percent of the Nationalist 212 00:10:02,778 --> 00:10:04,881 total. Who won that fight? 213 00:10:05,307 --> 00:10:11,278 Song Jiaoren. On August 25, 1912, the Revolutionary Alliance 214 00:10:11,292 --> 00:10:14,542 joined with several smaller parties and reorganised 215 00:10:14,557 --> 00:10:16,028 as the Nationalist Party. 216 00:10:16,498 --> 00:10:19,998 Sun Yatsen became chairman; Song Jiaoren a 217 00:10:20,013 --> 00:10:24,234 director, and soon after, appointed acting chairman 218 00:10:24,248 --> 00:10:27,101 by Sun Yatsen. In plain words: 219 00:10:27,763 --> 00:10:29,925 Sun Yatsen was the name of this 220 00:10:29,939 --> 00:10:32,954 party. Song Jiaoren was its hands. 221 00:10:33,425 --> 00:10:35,704 During the campaign he travelled Hunan, 222 00:10:35,734 --> 00:10:40,263 Hubei, Anhui, Shanghai and Zhejiang, speaking all 223 00:10:40,278 --> 00:10:42,278 the way. The papers gave it a 224 00:10:42,292 --> 00:10:45,278 name: the Song Jiaoren whirlwind. 225 00:10:45,763 --> 00:10:47,763 In his speeches he said it flatly: 226 00:10:48,175 --> 00:10:50,395 for the present, a sound government must 227 00:10:50,410 --> 00:10:53,263 be organised at once; for a government 228 00:10:53,278 --> 00:10:55,131 to be sound, there must be a 229 00:10:55,145 --> 00:10:58,131 party cabinet; and the Nationalist Party now 230 00:10:58,145 --> 00:10:59,645 stands in that position. 231 00:11:00,116 --> 00:11:04,439 On February 13, 1913, he came down the river 232 00:11:04,454 --> 00:11:06,734 from Hankou and reached Shanghai on the 233 00:11:06,748 --> 00:11:11,101 fifteenth, moving into number twenty-one, Tongfu Road, 234 00:11:11,528 --> 00:11:12,998 the house of Huang Xing. 235 00:11:13,469 --> 00:11:16,734 On February 19 he spoke at the Nationalist 236 00:11:16,748 --> 00:11:20,939 Party's Shanghai communications office, on the constitution. 237 00:11:21,498 --> 00:11:24,704 He spoke about how executive, legislative and 238 00:11:24,719 --> 00:11:27,675 judicial power should be separated, and how 239 00:11:27,689 --> 00:11:30,307 authority should be divided between the centre 240 00:11:30,322 --> 00:11:32,969 and the provinces. Notice what he did 241 00:11:32,984 --> 00:11:35,675 not speak about. He did not speak 242 00:11:35,689 --> 00:11:38,895 about Sun Yatsen's five-power constitution. 243 00:11:39,439 --> 00:11:41,660 He set aside the scheme his own 244 00:11:41,675 --> 00:11:44,945 comrade had invented. At the same moment, 245 00:11:44,975 --> 00:11:47,210 one more thing is worth recording. 246 00:11:47,689 --> 00:11:50,116 On February 10, at the very point when 247 00:11:50,131 --> 00:11:51,807 the election was being won and the 248 00:11:51,822 --> 00:11:53,748 cabinet was about to be formed, 249 00:11:54,263 --> 00:11:56,881 Sun Yatsen boarded the Yamashiro Maru for 250 00:11:56,895 --> 00:11:58,528 Japan to study industry. 251 00:11:58,998 --> 00:12:01,292 He did not discuss with Song Jiaoren 252 00:12:01,307 --> 00:12:03,307 how any of this should be handled. 253 00:12:03,763 --> 00:12:05,322 This is nobody's fault. 254 00:12:05,792 --> 00:12:08,439 It is a fact: at that moment, 255 00:12:08,631 --> 00:12:10,278 the two men at the centre of 256 00:12:10,292 --> 00:12:12,410 this party were no longer thinking about 257 00:12:12,425 --> 00:12:14,803 the same thing. So what was Song 258 00:12:14,817 --> 00:12:18,111 Jiaoren thinking? Something very concrete. 259 00:12:18,586 --> 00:12:21,145 He wanted a responsible cabinet system: 260 00:12:21,542 --> 00:12:24,616 the cabinet answers to parliament; the president's 261 00:12:24,631 --> 00:12:27,175 power is restrained by the cabinet and 262 00:12:27,189 --> 00:12:29,954 the assembly. What he wanted was not 263 00:12:29,969 --> 00:12:32,351 to be president. It was to form 264 00:12:32,366 --> 00:12:34,336 a cabinet, to put the leader of 265 00:12:34,351 --> 00:12:36,792 the majority party into the premiership, 266 00:12:37,101 --> 00:12:39,734 parliament behind him, the president in front. 267 00:12:40,175 --> 00:12:43,101 Someone will ask: wouldn't he have done 268 00:12:43,116 --> 00:12:45,086 better to be president himself? 269 00:12:45,557 --> 00:12:49,131 Under the Provisional Constitution, the presidency was 270 00:12:49,145 --> 00:12:52,175 an empty seat. Real power sat with 271 00:12:52,189 --> 00:12:55,286 the premier. So in Beijing that year, 272 00:12:55,580 --> 00:12:58,197 the office that mattered was not president. 273 00:12:58,622 --> 00:13:01,395 It was premier. And the premier had 274 00:13:01,410 --> 00:13:03,910 to be produced by the majority party 275 00:13:03,925 --> 00:13:07,072 in parliament. The majority party was the 276 00:13:07,086 --> 00:13:10,631 Nationalist Party. The man who actually ran 277 00:13:10,645 --> 00:13:13,741 the Nationalist Party was Song Jiaoren. 278 00:13:14,212 --> 00:13:16,623 That piece of arithmetic, all of China 279 00:13:16,638 --> 00:13:19,932 could do. The newspapers were already calling 280 00:13:19,947 --> 00:13:21,520 him the future premier. 281 00:13:21,991 --> 00:13:24,520 Why was the premiership so important? 282 00:13:24,962 --> 00:13:26,844 Look back at the year before. 283 00:13:27,315 --> 00:13:32,373 On March 11, 1912, the Provisional Constitution was promulgated, 284 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,226 days before Yuan Shikai was to take 285 00:13:35,241 --> 00:13:38,623 office, changing the presidential system into a 286 00:13:38,638 --> 00:13:42,094 cabinet system. From that day, the real 287 00:13:42,109 --> 00:13:44,241 power of this country was written in 288 00:13:44,256 --> 00:13:46,829 black and white into the premier's hands. 289 00:13:47,256 --> 00:13:49,844 And that cabinet never found its feet. 290 00:13:50,315 --> 00:13:52,035 From the founding of the republic to 291 00:13:52,050 --> 00:13:55,506 September 1912, in less than half a year, 292 00:13:56,035 --> 00:13:58,579 the premiership changed hands three times: 293 00:13:59,212 --> 00:14:02,903 Tang Shaoyi, Lu Zhengxiang, Zhao Bingjun. 294 00:14:03,373 --> 00:14:05,623 Tang Shaoyi lasted a little over two 295 00:14:05,638 --> 00:14:09,550 months, quarrelled with Yuan Shikai, and walked 296 00:14:09,565 --> 00:14:12,403 out. In other words: up to the 297 00:14:12,418 --> 00:14:15,976 spring of 1913, nobody had yet sat 298 00:14:15,991 --> 00:14:17,903 firmly in the premier's chair. 299 00:14:18,373 --> 00:14:19,962 And the first man with a real 300 00:14:19,976 --> 00:14:21,932 chance of sitting firmly in it was 301 00:14:21,947 --> 00:14:24,226 Song Jiaoren, who had got there by 302 00:14:24,241 --> 00:14:27,776 votes. In Song Jiaoren's calculation, this is 303 00:14:27,791 --> 00:14:29,394 what a republic means. 304 00:14:29,873 --> 00:14:32,800 He wanted to move power into institutions, 305 00:14:32,829 --> 00:14:35,947 peacefully, by ballot. What did he want: 306 00:14:35,976 --> 00:14:37,653 the power of the cabinet. 307 00:14:38,123 --> 00:14:40,756 Who stood in his way: the real 308 00:14:40,770 --> 00:14:42,844 power in the president's office. 309 00:14:43,300 --> 00:14:45,447 What means did he use: votes, 310 00:14:45,462 --> 00:14:47,756 seats, newspapers, all of it out in 311 00:14:47,770 --> 00:14:51,315 the open. The price: once the cabinet 312 00:14:51,329 --> 00:14:53,770 was formed, the president would have to 313 00:14:53,785 --> 00:14:55,138 give up real power. 314 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:57,310 So who was the man in the 315 00:14:57,325 --> 00:15:01,432 presidential office? Camera, follow him to Beijing. 316 00:15:01,886 --> 00:15:02,186 . 317 00:15:01,945 --> 00:15:04,930 In the spring of 1913, Yuan Shikai 318 00:15:03,695 --> 00:15:06,371 from. How far did the case get? 319 00:15:04,945 --> 00:15:06,268 had plenty of ways. 320 00:15:06,739 --> 00:15:08,680 To make the formation of a cabinet 321 00:15:06,827 --> 00:15:10,474 Wu Shiying died in prison on April 24. 322 00:15:08,695 --> 00:15:11,151 fall through, he did not need to 323 00:15:10,930 --> 00:15:13,312 Ying Guixin died on a train in 324 00:15:11,165 --> 00:15:13,857 lift a hand. He only needed not 325 00:15:13,327 --> 00:15:17,886 January 1914. Zhao Bingjun died in Tianjin in 326 00:15:13,871 --> 00:15:16,695 to nod. In name the cabinet is 327 00:15:16,710 --> 00:15:19,695 formed by the majority party in parliament. 328 00:15:17,901 --> 00:15:22,327 February 1914, officially of a stroke, and by 329 00:15:20,180 --> 00:15:22,254 But the choice of premier and the 330 00:15:22,268 --> 00:15:24,474 list of ministers all have to pass 331 00:15:22,342 --> 00:15:24,018 common rumour of poison. 332 00:15:24,489 --> 00:15:27,151 the president. He drags his feet, 333 00:15:24,489 --> 00:15:26,871 Hong Shuzu ran, and ran until he 334 00:15:26,886 --> 00:15:31,592 was caught in 1918; in April 1919, in Beijing, 335 00:15:27,695 --> 00:15:30,107 does not nod, and there is no 336 00:15:30,121 --> 00:15:32,783 cabinet. He had a second step: 337 00:15:31,621 --> 00:15:33,651 he was strangled for having procured a 338 00:15:33,312 --> 00:15:36,680 cut the money. The Nationalist Party's operating 339 00:15:33,665 --> 00:15:37,357 killing. Four men: three never stood in 340 00:15:36,695 --> 00:15:39,577 funds, the members' allowances, all of it 341 00:15:37,371 --> 00:15:40,062 a court, one stood on the gallows. 342 00:15:39,592 --> 00:15:41,974 could be blocked. He did not even 343 00:15:40,533 --> 00:15:42,607 And the one sentence that mattered, 344 00:15:41,989 --> 00:15:43,812 need to dissolve the party. 345 00:15:42,974 --> 00:15:45,680 who gave the order, was never written 346 00:15:44,283 --> 00:15:46,386 Letting it go hungry for a while 347 00:15:45,695 --> 00:15:47,680 into any official conclusion. 348 00:15:46,401 --> 00:15:47,562 would have been enough. 349 00:15:48,033 --> 00:15:50,533 And one step further: to go north, 350 00:15:48,151 --> 00:15:50,312 This republic had just declared that it 351 00:15:50,327 --> 00:15:52,577 would do things by law, and its 352 00:15:50,562 --> 00:15:52,504 Song Jiaoren had to take a train, 353 00:15:52,533 --> 00:15:54,739 had to enter Beijing, had to deal 354 00:15:52,592 --> 00:15:54,651 first great case stuck right here. 355 00:15:54,754 --> 00:15:56,298 with the presidential office. 356 00:15:56,768 --> 00:15:58,989 Every step of it was inside the 357 00:15:59,004 --> 00:16:00,607 government's line of sight. 358 00:16:01,092 --> 00:16:03,842 One telegram from Yuan Shikai and he 359 00:16:03,857 --> 00:16:05,871 would never have reached the capital. 360 00:16:06,293 --> 00:16:08,499 So here is the peculiar thing about 361 00:16:08,514 --> 00:16:11,342 this case. Yuan Shikai had motive, 362 00:16:11,371 --> 00:16:14,268 had power, and had slow, legal methods. 363 00:16:14,686 --> 00:16:17,495 Assassination was the worst of them all. 364 00:16:18,224 --> 00:16:20,504 He knew better than anyone what follows 365 00:16:20,518 --> 00:16:24,342 an assassination: the whole country boils over, 366 00:16:24,665 --> 00:16:27,018 the south moves at once, and he 367 00:16:27,033 --> 00:16:28,665 has lit a fire at his own 368 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,621 door. Nobody who means to hold power 369 00:16:31,636 --> 00:16:33,518 for the long run picks the road 370 00:16:33,533 --> 00:16:35,548 that costs the most and pays back 371 00:16:35,562 --> 00:16:38,533 the least. Which forces a more important 372 00:16:38,548 --> 00:16:41,098 question. If the man who ordered it 373 00:16:41,112 --> 00:16:42,936 need not have been Yuan Shikai, 374 00:16:43,568 --> 00:16:46,230 then whose office decided that Song Jiaoren 375 00:16:46,245 --> 00:16:47,671 must not reach Beijing? 376 00:16:48,136 --> 00:16:50,312 Let us take this apart into four 377 00:16:50,327 --> 00:16:53,298 layers. Each layer has its people. 378 00:16:53,768 --> 00:16:56,254 Each layer does only its own piece. 379 00:16:56,724 --> 00:16:59,195 Each piece looks proper on its own. 380 00:16:59,665 --> 00:17:01,680 Put the four together and you have 381 00:17:01,695 --> 00:17:05,709 one complete chain. First layer: Beijing, 382 00:17:05,739 --> 00:17:09,754 the cabinet. In March 1913 the premier was 383 00:17:09,768 --> 00:17:12,548 Zhao Bingjun. In his Ministry of the 384 00:17:12,562 --> 00:17:15,092 Interior there was a secretary named Hong 385 00:17:15,107 --> 00:17:18,651 Shuzu, a man who travelled constantly between 386 00:17:18,665 --> 00:17:23,180 Beijing and Shanghai. Second layer: the Shanghai 387 00:17:23,195 --> 00:17:26,342 underworld. Hong Shuzu knew a man named 388 00:17:26,357 --> 00:17:29,460 Ying Guixin, also called Ying Kuicheng. 389 00:17:29,930 --> 00:17:32,960 In Shanghai this man had enormous reach. 390 00:17:33,445 --> 00:17:35,812 He came out of the secret societies, 391 00:17:36,151 --> 00:17:38,445 and yet carried the official title of 392 00:17:38,460 --> 00:17:42,636 Jiangsu inspector. Money, contacts, and a talent 393 00:17:42,651 --> 00:17:46,004 for dirty work. Third layer: the platform. 394 00:17:46,426 --> 00:17:49,234 Ying Guixin found a man, Wu Shiying. 395 00:17:49,710 --> 00:17:52,430 On the night of March 20, this man 396 00:17:52,445 --> 00:17:54,548 lay in wait near the ticket barrier 397 00:17:54,562 --> 00:17:57,357 at Shanghai station. And then the case 398 00:17:57,371 --> 00:17:59,857 was solved with astonishing speed. 399 00:18:00,327 --> 00:18:02,695 A dozen hours after the shooting there 400 00:18:02,710 --> 00:18:03,960 was still no lead. 401 00:18:04,430 --> 00:18:07,430 The police of the Shanghai International Settlement 402 00:18:07,445 --> 00:18:10,239 posted a reward of ten thousand yuan. 403 00:18:10,695 --> 00:18:14,430 The Shanghai-Nanjing railway administration put up five 404 00:18:14,445 --> 00:18:17,739 thousand. The military governor of Jiangsu, 405 00:18:18,386 --> 00:18:21,680 Cheng Dequan, telegraphed the province to hunt 406 00:18:21,695 --> 00:18:23,577 the killers and set a deadline. 407 00:18:24,048 --> 00:18:27,121 On March 24, the fourth day after the 408 00:18:27,136 --> 00:18:30,459 shooting, Wu Shiying was arrested in Ying 409 00:18:30,474 --> 00:18:33,827 Guixin's house. The case was first heard 410 00:18:33,842 --> 00:18:36,577 at the Mixed Court in the International Settlement, 411 00:18:37,165 --> 00:18:39,680 then handed over to the Chinese side. 412 00:18:40,151 --> 00:18:43,062 At the preliminary hearing Wu Shiying confessed 413 00:18:43,077 --> 00:18:46,224 clearly: Ying Guixin told him to do 414 00:18:46,239 --> 00:18:49,033 it. But when the trial proper opened, 415 00:18:49,062 --> 00:18:50,254 he took it back. 416 00:18:50,724 --> 00:18:53,342 Then the police searched Ying Guixin's house 417 00:18:53,357 --> 00:18:55,283 and found a batch of telegrams. 418 00:18:55,754 --> 00:18:58,121 Those telegrams are the hardest thing in 419 00:18:58,136 --> 00:19:00,254 this whole case. Let me read a 420 00:19:00,268 --> 00:19:01,518 few of them to you. 421 00:19:01,989 --> 00:19:05,651 March 13, Hong Shuzu to Ying Guixin: 422 00:19:06,312 --> 00:19:08,959 destroy Song, and the rank of merit 423 00:19:08,989 --> 00:19:13,136 is your reward. Translated: ruin him, 424 00:19:13,371 --> 00:19:15,033 and I will repay you with a 425 00:19:15,048 --> 00:19:20,562 decoration. March 14, Ying Guixin replies: the bandit 426 00:19:20,577 --> 00:19:23,165 chief of Liangshan is stirring up trouble 427 00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:26,974 everywhere, the danger is real, urgent orders 428 00:19:26,989 --> 00:19:28,724 have been issued to hunt him down. 429 00:19:29,180 --> 00:19:31,695 He calls Song Jiaoren the bandit chief 430 00:19:31,710 --> 00:19:34,871 of Liangshan. He calls murder a hunt. 431 00:19:35,342 --> 00:19:40,401 March 19, Hong Shuzu telegraphs again: proceed at 432 00:19:40,415 --> 00:19:45,842 once. March 21, Ying Guixin reports: the bandit 433 00:19:45,857 --> 00:19:48,915 chief is destroyed, our men not one 434 00:19:48,930 --> 00:19:52,798 wounded, rest assured. By then Song Jiaoren 435 00:19:52,812 --> 00:19:55,107 had been lying in hospital for nearly 436 00:19:55,121 --> 00:19:58,077 a day. Hong Shuzu later explained that 437 00:19:58,092 --> 00:20:00,415 what he wanted was to destroy Song's 438 00:20:00,430 --> 00:20:03,636 reputation, not the man, and that the 439 00:20:03,651 --> 00:20:03,951 decoration was an empty promise. Ying Guixin plainly did not read it that way. A deputy handed a vague instruction to a man with great reach and plans of his own. That is where the ambiguity grew 440 00:20:59,294 --> 00:20:59,594 . 441 00:20:59,368 --> 00:21:01,632 Let us put the conclusion first. 442 00:21:02,103 --> 00:21:04,809 Measured with four rules, Yuan Shikai is 443 00:21:04,823 --> 00:21:06,912 the least likely man to have ordered 444 00:21:06,926 --> 00:21:10,147 Song Jiaoren killed. This is not excusing 445 00:21:10,162 --> 00:21:13,235 him. Quite the opposite: what Yuan Shikai 446 00:21:13,250 --> 00:21:16,353 did later, this film hides nothing of. 447 00:21:16,809 --> 00:21:19,118 He dissolved the Nationalist Party. 448 00:21:19,588 --> 00:21:21,618 He tore up the constitution. 449 00:21:22,044 --> 00:21:23,706 He made himself emperor. 450 00:21:24,176 --> 00:21:25,676 All of that is his. 451 00:21:26,147 --> 00:21:27,970 But as far as this one shot 452 00:21:27,985 --> 00:21:30,617 is concerned, putting the account on his 453 00:21:30,632 --> 00:21:33,265 head is the least defensible entry in 454 00:21:33,279 --> 00:21:36,059 the ledger. Why? Four measures. 455 00:21:36,515 --> 00:21:38,147 Let me show you them one at 456 00:21:38,162 --> 00:21:41,059 a time. Before we measure, one thing 457 00:21:41,073 --> 00:21:43,809 has to be added: where did Yuan 458 00:21:43,823 --> 00:21:46,206 Shikai's position come from in the first 459 00:21:46,220 --> 00:21:51,500 place? On February 12, 1912, the Qing emperor issued 460 00:21:51,515 --> 00:21:53,103 the edict of abdication. 461 00:21:53,588 --> 00:21:55,500 The sentence in its first half, 462 00:21:55,691 --> 00:21:58,059 the ruling power is hereby made public 463 00:21:58,073 --> 00:21:59,823 to the whole nation and the state 464 00:21:59,838 --> 00:22:02,265 shall be a republican constitutional one, 465 00:22:02,662 --> 00:22:04,515 is the one everybody quotes. 466 00:22:05,015 --> 00:22:07,029 But the sentence that actually decided the 467 00:22:07,044 --> 00:22:08,809 next four years is the one that 468 00:22:08,823 --> 00:22:10,779 follows, and here it is in the 469 00:22:10,794 --> 00:22:14,750 original words: Yuan Shikai, having previously been 470 00:22:14,765 --> 00:22:17,544 elected prime minister by the Advisory Council, 471 00:22:17,882 --> 00:22:19,265 and this being a time when the 472 00:22:19,279 --> 00:22:20,897 old gives place to the new, 473 00:22:21,338 --> 00:22:22,897 there must be a way to unify 474 00:22:22,912 --> 00:22:26,353 north and south; let Yuan Shikai therefore, 475 00:22:26,382 --> 00:22:30,015 with full powers, organise the provisional republican 476 00:22:30,029 --> 00:22:33,485 government and consult with the revolutionary army 477 00:22:33,515 --> 00:22:35,382 on the manner of unification. 478 00:22:35,853 --> 00:22:38,044 Listen to that sentence carefully. 479 00:22:38,515 --> 00:22:40,441 On the day the Qing emperor stepped 480 00:22:40,456 --> 00:22:43,294 down, the full power to organise the 481 00:22:43,309 --> 00:22:46,397 provisional republican government was already written in 482 00:22:46,412 --> 00:22:48,456 black and white to Yuan Shikai. 483 00:22:48,926 --> 00:22:51,485 His position was not seized from Song 484 00:22:51,500 --> 00:22:54,044 Jiaoren. It was handed to him by 485 00:22:54,059 --> 00:22:57,103 that edict. Hold on to that layer, 486 00:22:57,132 --> 00:22:59,206 or the four measures will not measure 487 00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:01,662 straight. Measure one: motive. 488 00:23:02,132 --> 00:23:05,044 Whose position grew worse because Song Jiaoren 489 00:23:05,059 --> 00:23:06,765 was about to form a cabinet? 490 00:23:07,206 --> 00:23:11,029 Yuan Shikai's did. Under the Provisional Constitution, 491 00:23:11,397 --> 00:23:13,588 real power sits with the premier; 492 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,250 once Song Jiaoren formed his cabinet, 493 00:23:16,279 --> 00:23:18,029 the president would have to hand that 494 00:23:18,044 --> 00:23:21,073 power over. This is true, and there 495 00:23:21,088 --> 00:23:22,735 is no need to argue it for 496 00:23:22,750 --> 00:23:25,229 him. So on the first measure Yuan 497 00:23:25,243 --> 00:23:27,670 Shikai stands: he had motive. 498 00:23:28,147 --> 00:23:31,088 But notice: motive is not an order. 499 00:23:31,544 --> 00:23:33,735 What this column proves is only that 500 00:23:33,750 --> 00:23:35,676 he did not want Song Jiaoren in 501 00:23:35,691 --> 00:23:38,212 office. It does not prove that he 502 00:23:38,226 --> 00:23:40,912 struck. Measure two: means. 503 00:23:41,382 --> 00:23:44,250 Here Yuan Shikai collapses completely. 504 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:46,691 To make sure Song Jiaoren could not 505 00:23:46,706 --> 00:23:48,779 form a cabinet, did he need a 506 00:23:48,794 --> 00:23:50,603 gun? Not at all. 507 00:23:51,073 --> 00:23:53,265 The choice of premier and the list 508 00:23:53,279 --> 00:23:55,294 of ministers all had to pass the 509 00:23:55,309 --> 00:23:58,559 president. He only had to withhold his 510 00:23:58,573 --> 00:24:01,132 nod, and there would be no cabinet, 511 00:24:01,441 --> 00:24:03,441 and Song's trip north would have been 512 00:24:03,456 --> 00:24:05,500 for nothing, and he would have gone 513 00:24:05,515 --> 00:24:08,294 back to Shanghai. Here was a road 514 00:24:08,309 --> 00:24:10,470 that cost almost nothing and had a 515 00:24:10,485 --> 00:24:12,073 fair chance of success. 516 00:24:12,544 --> 00:24:14,220 And he had a second step: 517 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,309 cut the money. The party's funds, 518 00:24:17,338 --> 00:24:19,559 the members' allowances, all of it could 519 00:24:19,573 --> 00:24:22,132 be blocked. He did not even need 520 00:24:22,147 --> 00:24:23,603 to dissolve the party. 521 00:24:24,029 --> 00:24:25,779 Let it starve for a while; 522 00:24:26,265 --> 00:24:27,662 that would have been enough. 523 00:24:28,147 --> 00:24:30,132 Why would a man holding that many 524 00:24:30,147 --> 00:24:32,838 legal, cheap and quiet options choose the 525 00:24:32,853 --> 00:24:34,515 one the whole country would see, 526 00:24:34,897 --> 00:24:36,735 the one that traces straight back to 527 00:24:36,750 --> 00:24:40,632 him? And one harder sentence: Yuan Shikai 528 00:24:40,647 --> 00:24:42,323 was not a man who built his 529 00:24:42,338 --> 00:24:45,632 career on assassination. What he used all 530 00:24:45,647 --> 00:24:49,470 his life was armies, silver, office and 531 00:24:49,485 --> 00:24:53,265 treaties. Assassination was neither his habit nor 532 00:24:53,279 --> 00:24:55,412 a means he had no way around. 533 00:24:55,838 --> 00:24:58,691 Measure three: timing. To go north, 534 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,926 Song Jiaoren had to take a train. 535 00:25:01,397 --> 00:25:03,706 Which train, what hour he arrived, 536 00:25:03,735 --> 00:25:06,103 which barrier he walked through, all of 537 00:25:06,118 --> 00:25:08,029 it was inside the government's view. 538 00:25:08,515 --> 00:25:11,191 One telegram from Yuan Shikai and he 539 00:25:11,206 --> 00:25:13,015 would not have left Shanghai. 540 00:25:13,441 --> 00:25:15,368 And the fact is: he left. 541 00:25:15,838 --> 00:25:18,029 What this column means is that whoever 542 00:25:18,044 --> 00:25:19,838 you want to charge, someone had to 543 00:25:19,853 --> 00:25:22,338 do the stopping, and the Beijing end 544 00:25:22,353 --> 00:25:23,294 did not do it. 545 00:25:23,735 --> 00:25:26,912 Measure four: gain. What did Yuan Shikai 546 00:25:26,926 --> 00:25:28,897 get when Song Jiaoren died? 547 00:25:29,368 --> 00:25:32,132 A moment of safety, and the curses 548 00:25:32,147 --> 00:25:33,382 of the whole country. 549 00:25:33,868 --> 00:25:36,676 The south moved at once; four months 550 00:25:36,691 --> 00:25:39,000 later the Second Revolution broke out, 551 00:25:39,353 --> 00:25:40,809 and he was forced to use a 552 00:25:40,823 --> 00:25:42,912 war to solve a problem he could 553 00:25:42,926 --> 00:25:44,559 have solved by not nodding. 554 00:25:45,029 --> 00:25:47,485 More than that: with Song Jiaoren dead, 555 00:25:47,765 --> 00:25:50,118 what Yuan Shikai lost was an opponent 556 00:25:50,132 --> 00:25:52,250 he could negotiate with under rules. 557 00:25:52,706 --> 00:25:55,183 What he got in exchange was a 558 00:25:55,197 --> 00:25:57,403 set of enemies he could only deal 559 00:25:57,418 --> 00:25:59,977 with by gun. However you add it 560 00:25:59,992 --> 00:26:01,786 up, this account loses. 561 00:26:02,256 --> 00:26:04,565 Put the four measures side by side 562 00:26:04,594 --> 00:26:05,683 and it is clear. 563 00:26:06,109 --> 00:26:07,447 Motive: he had it. 564 00:26:07,889 --> 00:26:09,639 Means: he did not need it. 565 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:12,109 Timing: he did not stop him. 566 00:26:12,565 --> 00:26:14,271 Gain: he lost the most. 567 00:26:14,693 --> 00:26:16,590 So this film says it plainly: 568 00:26:17,311 --> 00:26:19,825 Yuan Shikai is the least likely man 569 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,046 to have ordered the assassination of Song 570 00:26:22,061 --> 00:26:25,050 Jiaoren. Then who is the most likely? 571 00:26:25,492 --> 00:26:27,197 This film names no one. 572 00:26:27,683 --> 00:26:29,227 But one thing has to be put 573 00:26:29,242 --> 00:26:31,521 on the table, and it is documented: 574 00:26:31,889 --> 00:26:34,962 in the spring of 1913, the voice 575 00:26:34,977 --> 00:26:38,006 inside the Nationalist Party was changing hands. 576 00:26:38,477 --> 00:26:40,668 The party's real power was in Song 577 00:26:40,683 --> 00:26:43,933 Jiaoren's hands. The votes in parliament were 578 00:26:43,947 --> 00:26:45,742 won by his own travelling. 579 00:26:46,197 --> 00:26:48,492 The papers were already calling him the 580 00:26:48,506 --> 00:26:51,609 future premier. And in his speeches he 581 00:26:51,624 --> 00:26:54,786 talked about separation of powers, and never 582 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,697 once mentioned the five-power constitution his own 583 00:26:57,712 --> 00:27:01,227 comrade had invented. On February 10, with the 584 00:27:01,242 --> 00:27:04,462 cabinet about to be formed, Sun Yatsen 585 00:27:04,477 --> 00:27:06,874 took the Yamashiro Maru to Japan and 586 00:27:06,889 --> 00:27:08,550 did not discuss any of it with 587 00:27:08,565 --> 00:27:11,903 Song Jiaoren. These are facts, not guesses. 588 00:27:12,374 --> 00:27:14,815 Later writers have used these facts to 589 00:27:14,830 --> 00:27:17,536 point suspicion toward the party's own end. 590 00:27:18,006 --> 00:27:20,550 That is one school of opinion among 591 00:27:20,565 --> 00:27:23,441 later writers. It is not this film's 592 00:27:23,456 --> 00:27:26,815 conclusion. This film's conclusion is a single 593 00:27:26,830 --> 00:27:30,594 sentence: Yuan Shikai is the least likely. 594 00:27:31,065 --> 00:27:32,830 As for whose name goes in that 595 00:27:32,844 --> 00:27:35,241 last cell, this film leaves it to 596 00:27:35,256 --> 00:27:38,889 you. What follows is inference, not record. 597 00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,006 If there had been one plain-clothes policeman 598 00:27:42,036 --> 00:27:43,771 on that platform that night. 599 00:27:44,242 --> 00:27:45,844 If he had been willing to let 600 00:27:45,859 --> 00:27:47,962 two attendants walk ahead of him. 601 00:27:48,447 --> 00:27:50,933 If the Shanghai newspapers had printed the 602 00:27:50,947 --> 00:27:53,286 rumour that someone meant him harm one 603 00:27:53,300 --> 00:27:56,080 day earlier. Then that shot might have 604 00:27:56,094 --> 00:27:59,109 missed. Every one of those ifs really 605 00:27:59,124 --> 00:28:00,742 existed at the time. 606 00:28:01,183 --> 00:28:03,477 Not one of them was impossible. 607 00:28:03,962 --> 00:28:05,874 History did not go that way, 608 00:28:06,197 --> 00:28:08,227 and we cannot say the outcome would 609 00:28:08,242 --> 00:28:09,683 certainly have been different. 610 00:28:10,139 --> 00:28:12,462 But we can say this: that road 611 00:28:12,477 --> 00:28:16,080 did exist. This is inference, not record. 612 00:28:16,521 --> 00:28:18,447 Now read the chain once more, 613 00:28:18,947 --> 00:28:22,212 backwards. At both ends, the people who 614 00:28:22,227 --> 00:28:24,330 could have prevented it were absent. 615 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,271 At Yuan Shikai's end, a single telegram 616 00:28:28,286 --> 00:28:30,256 could have stopped him, and he did 617 00:28:30,271 --> 00:28:33,271 not send it. At Song Jiaoren's end, 618 00:28:33,580 --> 00:28:35,977 two more men, a later train, 619 00:28:35,992 --> 00:28:38,491 three days' delay, any of it would 620 00:28:38,506 --> 00:28:40,036 have worked, and he did none of 621 00:28:40,050 --> 00:28:42,536 it. Neither end was guarded. 622 00:28:43,006 --> 00:28:45,109 That is why someone in the middle 623 00:28:45,124 --> 00:28:45,918 could act. 624 00:28:46,382 --> 00:28:46,682 . 625 00:28:46,485 --> 00:28:48,397 Now let us turn the clock back 626 00:28:48,411 --> 00:28:50,706 to the night of March 20 and walk 627 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,794 those seventeen hours, hour by hour. 628 00:28:54,264 --> 00:28:56,617 That night he had just shaken hands 629 00:28:56,632 --> 00:28:58,338 with the people seeing him off. 630 00:28:58,794 --> 00:29:00,073 He was still talking. 631 00:29:00,544 --> 00:29:02,441 After the shot he did not fall 632 00:29:02,456 --> 00:29:05,294 down. He could still speak, and he 633 00:29:05,308 --> 00:29:07,191 told the people around him that he 634 00:29:07,206 --> 00:29:09,720 had been hit. Yu Youren ran out 635 00:29:09,735 --> 00:29:12,147 of the station, stopped a car in 636 00:29:12,161 --> 00:29:14,044 the road, and got him to the 637 00:29:14,058 --> 00:29:17,470 Shanghai-Nanjing Railway Hospital on Laobazi Road. 638 00:29:17,941 --> 00:29:20,529 Two German doctors operated for more than 639 00:29:20,544 --> 00:29:22,558 an hour and took out the bullet. 640 00:29:23,029 --> 00:29:24,764 It had entered from the right side 641 00:29:24,779 --> 00:29:27,294 of the back, drove slanting into the 642 00:29:27,308 --> 00:29:30,250 abdomen, and stopped close to the heart. 643 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:32,764 Before it went in, the bullet had 644 00:29:32,779 --> 00:29:35,603 been poisoned, or so the Shanghai papers 645 00:29:35,617 --> 00:29:36,691 said at the time. 646 00:29:37,161 --> 00:29:40,338 After the operation the pain was unbearable. 647 00:29:40,794 --> 00:29:44,147 He vomited continuously. There was blood in 648 00:29:44,161 --> 00:29:46,397 his urine. On the morning of the 649 00:29:46,411 --> 00:29:50,029 twenty-first, men like Zhang Jian and Zhang 650 00:29:50,044 --> 00:29:53,558 Binglin came. The doctors operated a second 651 00:29:53,573 --> 00:29:56,000 time. He knew he could not hold 652 00:29:56,014 --> 00:29:58,220 on. He said to Yu Youren, 653 00:29:58,250 --> 00:30:00,588 who stayed at his side, that there 654 00:30:00,603 --> 00:30:02,764 were three things he wanted his comrades 655 00:30:02,779 --> 00:30:05,853 to do. First: the books I have 656 00:30:05,867 --> 00:30:08,867 deposited in Nanjing, Beijing and Tokyo, 657 00:30:09,397 --> 00:30:11,617 give them all to the Nanjing Library. 658 00:30:12,088 --> 00:30:15,294 Second: my family has always been poor, 659 00:30:15,323 --> 00:30:17,338 and my old mother is still living; 660 00:30:17,970 --> 00:30:19,794 I ask my old friends to look 661 00:30:19,808 --> 00:30:24,676 after her. Third: comrades, go on fighting 662 00:30:24,691 --> 00:30:27,088 to save the country, and do not 663 00:30:27,103 --> 00:30:29,117 set down your duty because of me. 664 00:30:29,588 --> 00:30:31,514 Then he asked Huang Xing to write 665 00:30:31,529 --> 00:30:34,073 for him, and sent his last telegram 666 00:30:34,088 --> 00:30:36,514 to Yuan Shikai. I will read you 667 00:30:36,529 --> 00:30:38,485 the whole of it, without changing a 668 00:30:38,500 --> 00:30:41,735 word. To President Yuan in Beijing. 669 00:30:42,206 --> 00:30:44,794 Tonight I was to take the Shanghai-Nanjing 670 00:30:44,808 --> 00:30:46,794 train to the capital to pay my 671 00:30:46,808 --> 00:30:50,270 respects. At ten forty-five, at the station, 672 00:30:50,770 --> 00:30:52,858 a villain suddenly fired on me from 673 00:30:52,873 --> 00:30:56,000 behind. The bullet entered above the waist 674 00:30:56,029 --> 00:30:58,147 and passed into the lower abdomen, 675 00:30:58,603 --> 00:30:59,985 and death is certain. 676 00:31:00,456 --> 00:31:03,603 I have reflected: since I first received 677 00:31:03,617 --> 00:31:06,573 instruction, I have kept myself clean. 678 00:31:07,058 --> 00:31:09,367 Though I have not succeeded in avoiding 679 00:31:09,382 --> 00:31:12,206 fault, I have never made a private 680 00:31:12,220 --> 00:31:13,632 enemy of any man. 681 00:31:14,117 --> 00:31:16,338 The Qing government was bad, and I 682 00:31:16,353 --> 00:31:19,426 rose to reform it; I also honoured 683 00:31:19,441 --> 00:31:22,014 human decency and held to public right, 684 00:31:22,367 --> 00:31:23,941 and I have not dared to keep 685 00:31:23,956 --> 00:31:26,500 the smallest thought of power or profit. 686 00:31:26,970 --> 00:31:29,073 Now the foundations of the state are 687 00:31:29,088 --> 00:31:31,617 not yet firm and the people's welfare 688 00:31:31,632 --> 00:31:34,250 not yet increased. To let go so 689 00:31:34,264 --> 00:31:37,897 suddenly, I die with regret remaining. 690 00:31:38,367 --> 00:31:40,235 I beg that the President, with an 691 00:31:40,250 --> 00:31:43,014 open heart and public justice, will do 692 00:31:43,029 --> 00:31:45,206 his utmost to guarantee the rights of 693 00:31:45,220 --> 00:31:47,514 the people, so that the nation may 694 00:31:47,529 --> 00:31:50,544 obtain a constitution firm and unshakable. 695 00:31:50,985 --> 00:31:52,794 Then the day of my death is 696 00:31:52,808 --> 00:31:54,485 as the year of my life. 697 00:31:54,956 --> 00:31:57,000 These words are spoken on the edge 698 00:31:57,014 --> 00:31:59,617 of death; I pray they will be 699 00:31:59,632 --> 00:32:03,405 accepted. Song Jiaoren. Stop at these two 700 00:32:03,420 --> 00:32:05,794 lines. A man who has just been 701 00:32:05,808 --> 00:32:07,750 shot and is waiting to die, 702 00:32:08,206 --> 00:32:10,176 and the first defence he offers for 703 00:32:10,191 --> 00:32:12,867 himself is: I have never made a 704 00:32:12,882 --> 00:32:14,691 private enemy of any man. 705 00:32:15,161 --> 00:32:17,794 The second: I have not dared to 706 00:32:17,808 --> 00:32:20,058 keep the smallest thought of power or 707 00:32:20,073 --> 00:32:23,073 profit. More than a hundred years later, 708 00:32:23,353 --> 00:32:25,529 these are the two hardest lines in 709 00:32:25,544 --> 00:32:26,853 this case to answer. 710 00:32:27,338 --> 00:32:29,088 The last thing a man who has 711 00:32:29,103 --> 00:32:31,853 just been assassinated leaves his country is 712 00:32:31,867 --> 00:32:34,441 a request that the president guarantee civil 713 00:32:34,456 --> 00:32:36,500 rights and settle a constitution. 714 00:32:36,970 --> 00:32:39,029 At four forty-eight in the morning of 715 00:32:39,044 --> 00:32:43,720 March 22, Song Jiaoren died, tears in his 716 00:32:43,735 --> 00:32:46,014 eyes. He was thirty-one. 717 00:32:46,485 --> 00:32:48,603 Among the comrades who had watched all 718 00:32:48,617 --> 00:32:51,397 night, Chen Qimei wept aloud. 719 00:32:51,853 --> 00:32:54,117 Huang Xing, crying as he worked, 720 00:32:54,367 --> 00:32:57,147 washed his body. He lay on his 721 00:32:57,161 --> 00:32:59,985 side in white bedding, the upper body 722 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,632 bare, a bruise on the right side 723 00:33:02,647 --> 00:33:04,544 of his abdomen where the dressing had 724 00:33:04,558 --> 00:33:07,603 been taken off. Tan Renfeng later wrote 725 00:33:07,632 --> 00:33:09,794 that in Japan someone had once told 726 00:33:09,808 --> 00:33:12,338 Song Jiaoren's fortune and said he would 727 00:33:12,353 --> 00:33:14,573 be a peaceful chief minister for thirty 728 00:33:14,588 --> 00:33:17,264 years. The stars were no guide, 729 00:33:17,691 --> 00:33:19,441 the way of heaven too dark to 730 00:33:19,456 --> 00:33:23,279 question; after he was struck, only seventeen 731 00:33:23,294 --> 00:33:25,264 hours passed and he was dead. 732 00:33:25,750 --> 00:33:27,735 The man who three months later should 733 00:33:27,750 --> 00:33:29,926 have been sitting in the premier's chair: 734 00:33:30,588 --> 00:33:32,558 from the bullet to the last breath, 735 00:33:32,573 --> 00:33:36,632 seventeen hours. On the afternoon of March 23, 736 00:33:37,191 --> 00:33:39,456 the body was moved from the hospital 737 00:33:39,470 --> 00:33:41,779 in Zhabei to the Hunan Guild Hall. 738 00:33:42,250 --> 00:33:44,058 At the head of the procession, 739 00:33:44,088 --> 00:33:46,529 a formation of the five-coloured flag, 740 00:33:46,956 --> 00:33:49,351 then a military band. 741 00:33:49,851 --> 00:33:52,292 His portrait was placed in a bower 742 00:33:52,307 --> 00:33:55,277 of flowers. The coffin of nanmu wood 743 00:33:55,292 --> 00:33:58,321 rode on a flower-decked double-horse carriage. 744 00:33:58,792 --> 00:34:01,895 Behind came the naval band, wreaths from 745 00:34:01,924 --> 00:34:05,086 every quarter, troops with shouldered rifles, 746 00:34:05,586 --> 00:34:08,336 then one thousand five hundred Nationalist Party 747 00:34:08,351 --> 00:34:11,660 members, white gauze in hand, many of 748 00:34:11,674 --> 00:34:13,057 them weeping all the way. 749 00:34:13,483 --> 00:34:15,836 And at the end, over two hundred 750 00:34:15,851 --> 00:34:18,777 cars of guests. The citizens who came 751 00:34:18,792 --> 00:34:20,777 to see him off kept gathering. 752 00:34:21,218 --> 00:34:23,586 The procession ran from Zhabei into the 753 00:34:23,601 --> 00:34:26,468 old city, more than ten li long. 754 00:34:26,924 --> 00:34:31,395 On April 13, Shanghai held a memorial service. 755 00:34:31,865 --> 00:34:34,071 Over twenty thousand people came. 756 00:34:34,542 --> 00:34:37,410 The hall was hung with elegiac couplets. 757 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,160 Among those who came were old men 758 00:34:40,174 --> 00:34:44,204 of the Revolutionary Alliance, and also constitutionalists 759 00:34:44,218 --> 00:34:46,218 who were not of the Nationalist Party's 760 00:34:46,233 --> 00:34:48,807 road. The heaviest couplet of all, 761 00:34:48,836 --> 00:34:51,557 the one by Tang Hualong, was hung 762 00:34:51,571 --> 00:34:54,895 at that time. Sun Yatsen's couplet read: 763 00:34:55,233 --> 00:34:57,057 to guard the rights of the people, 764 00:34:57,086 --> 00:34:59,174 who is not one who survives you; 765 00:34:59,821 --> 00:35:01,880 to shed blood for a constitution, 766 00:35:01,910 --> 00:35:03,454 you are truly the first. 767 00:35:03,924 --> 00:35:07,512 Tang Hualong, leader of the Democratic Party, 768 00:35:08,130 --> 00:35:11,115 wrote: what countryman could bear to tear 769 00:35:11,130 --> 00:35:13,204 down the long wall of ten thousand 770 00:35:13,218 --> 00:35:14,601 li with his own hands. 771 00:35:15,071 --> 00:35:18,307 Calmly you came, my lord, but drawing 772 00:35:18,321 --> 00:35:20,498 the knife and setting down the brush, 773 00:35:20,865 --> 00:35:22,351 to whom can one speak. 774 00:35:22,821 --> 00:35:24,895 Yu Youren, under the pen name Sao 775 00:35:24,910 --> 00:35:28,674 Xin, wrote a plainer line: I do 776 00:35:28,689 --> 00:35:30,689 not weep for a private friendship. 777 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,160 I do not weep for Minli Bao 778 00:35:33,174 --> 00:35:34,880 or for the Nationalist Party. 779 00:35:35,351 --> 00:35:37,218 I weep for the future of the 780 00:35:37,233 --> 00:35:40,410 Republic of China. And then the burial. 781 00:35:40,895 --> 00:35:43,557 Where the coffin should go was discussed. 782 00:35:44,027 --> 00:35:46,836 Some proposed sending it back to Hunan, 783 00:35:47,336 --> 00:35:49,057 for a leaf to fall at its 784 00:35:49,071 --> 00:35:51,468 root. In the end it was settled: 785 00:35:51,483 --> 00:35:53,145 he stayed in Shanghai. 786 00:35:53,601 --> 00:35:55,615 He was buried in Zhabei, on ground 787 00:35:55,630 --> 00:36:00,027 later called Song Park, later still renamed Zhabei Park, 788 00:36:00,498 --> 00:36:02,027 and it is still there today. 789 00:36:02,498 --> 00:36:04,012 In front of the grave stands a 790 00:36:04,027 --> 00:36:07,704 square stone tablet, zero point seven five 791 00:36:07,718 --> 00:36:10,586 metres on each side, one point two 792 00:36:10,601 --> 00:36:13,939 metres high. On the front, two characters: 793 00:36:14,101 --> 00:36:17,380 the Fisherman. That is Zhang Binglin's hand. 794 00:36:17,851 --> 00:36:20,145 On the back is an inscription composed 795 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,365 by Yu Youren and written by Kang 796 00:36:22,380 --> 00:36:25,248 Baozhong. Let me read you the heaviest 797 00:36:25,262 --> 00:36:28,174 lines. That the gentleman died, all the 798 00:36:28,189 --> 00:36:31,071 world grieves. What the gentleman did, 799 00:36:31,101 --> 00:36:32,468 all the world knows. 800 00:36:32,939 --> 00:36:34,351 What more should I record? 801 00:36:34,768 --> 00:36:37,033 If I write straight, the straight writer 802 00:36:37,048 --> 00:36:39,665 is killed. If I write crooked, 803 00:36:40,107 --> 00:36:42,857 the crooked writer is destroyed by heaven. 804 00:36:43,321 --> 00:36:44,307 What does it mean? 805 00:36:44,748 --> 00:36:47,071 Write it true, and fear being killed. 806 00:36:47,542 --> 00:36:50,674 Write it slanted, and heaven will not 807 00:36:50,689 --> 00:36:52,968 forgive it. A man who has just 808 00:36:52,983 --> 00:36:55,498 lost his closest friend stands in front 809 00:36:55,512 --> 00:36:58,189 of the stone and says: I dare 810 00:36:58,204 --> 00:37:00,865 not write, and I cannot not write. 811 00:37:01,336 --> 00:37:03,836 Two lines follow. Cut it into the 812 00:37:03,851 --> 00:37:06,895 empty mountain, and wait for an honest 813 00:37:06,910 --> 00:37:09,865 historian. Engrave it on the heart and 814 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,762 liver, and lay it before heaven and 815 00:37:12,777 --> 00:37:15,630 earth. Set this stone in the mountain 816 00:37:15,645 --> 00:37:17,704 and wait for an historian who will 817 00:37:17,718 --> 00:37:20,542 tell the truth. Those few lines are 818 00:37:20,557 --> 00:37:23,027 the method this episode is made by. 819 00:37:23,483 --> 00:37:25,777 We name no one, not because we 820 00:37:25,792 --> 00:37:28,483 are avoiding it, but because the sources 821 00:37:28,498 --> 00:37:31,042 available today cannot carry a verdict. 822 00:37:31,464 --> 00:37:33,273 So we set the facts out one 823 00:37:33,287 --> 00:37:35,479 by one and leave the judgment with 824 00:37:35,493 --> 00:37:37,998 you. That is what waiting for an 825 00:37:38,012 --> 00:37:41,542 honest historian means. One more thing about 826 00:37:41,557 --> 00:37:43,865 that stone tablet is worth telling. 827 00:37:44,321 --> 00:37:47,630 In 1966 the grave was destroyed. 828 00:37:48,101 --> 00:37:50,983 Several park workers pushed the tablet into a 829 00:37:50,998 --> 00:37:53,292 water pit and covered it with earth. 830 00:37:53,777 --> 00:37:56,910 In 1981 a new grave was completed; 831 00:37:57,307 --> 00:37:59,615 the tablet saw daylight again and was 832 00:37:59,630 --> 00:38:01,807 set up once more before the grave. 833 00:38:02,231 --> 00:38:04,643 Some people wanted it to disappear. 834 00:38:05,071 --> 00:38:05,865 It did not. 835 00:38:06,302 --> 00:38:06,602 . 836 00:38:06,405 --> 00:38:08,846 Less than eight months after Song Jiaoren 837 00:38:08,861 --> 00:38:12,037 died, this country became a different thing. 838 00:38:12,508 --> 00:38:17,420 On November 4, 1913, Yuan Shikai ordered the Nationalist 839 00:38:17,434 --> 00:38:20,214 Party dissolved and cancelled the credentials of 840 00:38:20,228 --> 00:38:21,670 its members of parliament. 841 00:38:22,140 --> 00:38:24,773 After that step, party politics in this 842 00:38:24,787 --> 00:38:26,728 country stopped in substance. 843 00:38:27,214 --> 00:38:30,434 Parliament still sat, and the majority party 844 00:38:30,449 --> 00:38:33,787 no longer existed. The constitution was still 845 00:38:33,802 --> 00:38:36,743 being drafted, and the people drafting it 846 00:38:36,758 --> 00:38:38,008 had been driven out. 847 00:38:38,478 --> 00:38:40,611 For more than ten years afterward, 848 00:38:41,140 --> 00:38:44,081 nobody again treated forming a cabinet as 849 00:38:44,096 --> 00:38:46,934 a political goal. Not because people did 850 00:38:46,949 --> 00:38:48,993 not want to, but because it had 851 00:38:49,008 --> 00:38:51,008 been tried once, and the price was 852 00:38:51,023 --> 00:38:54,302 Song Jiaoren. The premise of party politics 853 00:38:54,331 --> 00:38:56,567 is that the other side also keeps 854 00:38:56,581 --> 00:38:59,199 the rules. Once the other side decides 855 00:38:59,214 --> 00:39:01,302 to use force, you discover that every 856 00:39:01,317 --> 00:39:03,787 advantage you had, the votes, the seats, 857 00:39:03,817 --> 00:39:06,023 the newspapers, all of it works inside 858 00:39:06,037 --> 00:39:08,787 the assembly, and on a railway platform, 859 00:39:08,817 --> 00:39:10,361 none of it is worth anything. 860 00:39:10,831 --> 00:39:14,155 That is the most expensive lesson 1913 861 00:39:14,184 --> 00:39:16,308 left this country. If you go to 862 00:39:16,323 --> 00:39:19,337 Shanghai today, there are still two places 863 00:39:19,352 --> 00:39:22,287 you can find. One is that station. 864 00:39:22,743 --> 00:39:24,846 The building is still there, the one 865 00:39:24,861 --> 00:39:26,964 the British built in 1909. 866 00:39:27,390 --> 00:39:30,199 It is the Shanghai Railway Museum today. 867 00:39:30,670 --> 00:39:32,640 In the exhibition hall there is no 868 00:39:32,655 --> 00:39:35,964 sound of gunfire, only old timetables. 869 00:39:36,405 --> 00:39:39,949 The other is in the northwest corner of Zhabei Park. 870 00:39:40,420 --> 00:39:42,846 Song Jiaoren's grave is still there, 871 00:39:43,361 --> 00:39:45,081 and on top of it an eagle 872 00:39:45,096 --> 00:39:47,861 with spread wings. On one side, 873 00:39:47,890 --> 00:39:50,464 the gunshot in Shanghai, the millions of 874 00:39:50,478 --> 00:39:53,037 newspapers, the whole ambition of a peaceful 875 00:39:53,052 --> 00:39:55,964 transfer of power. On the other side, 876 00:39:56,258 --> 00:39:58,978 two characters cut on a stone tablet. 877 00:39:59,449 --> 00:40:01,493 That age put both of those things 878 00:40:01,508 --> 00:40:03,464 into the same stretch of history, 879 00:40:03,861 --> 00:40:05,684 and less than a year lay between 880 00:40:05,699 --> 00:40:08,567 them. What he wanted was very simple. 881 00:40:09,008 --> 00:40:11,890 Let parliament sit. Let a cabinet be 882 00:40:11,905 --> 00:40:14,964 formed. Let the president step back. 883 00:40:15,405 --> 00:40:17,331 The answer Song Jiaoren gave with his 884 00:40:17,346 --> 00:40:20,434 life is simpler than anyone's: the moment 885 00:40:20,449 --> 00:40:22,361 you win by the rules, the rules 886 00:40:22,376 --> 00:40:25,552 become dangerous. This republic had just learned 887 00:40:25,567 --> 00:40:27,773 how to vote, and it learned something 888 00:40:27,787 --> 00:40:31,067 more important: how dangerous voting can be. 889 00:40:31,537 --> 00:40:33,581 And that lesson it has gone on 890 00:40:33,596 --> 00:40:34,876 learning to this day. 891 00:40:35,318 --> 00:40:35,618 . 892 00:40:35,406 --> 00:40:39,171 July 1913. Hukou, in Jiangxi. 893 00:40:39,642 --> 00:40:42,362 Li Liejun fired the first shot there. 894 00:40:42,833 --> 00:40:45,230 After the Song case, the first war 895 00:40:45,244 --> 00:40:47,142 of this country was opened by a 896 00:40:47,156 --> 00:40:50,583 single province. That war lasted a little 897 00:40:50,597 --> 00:40:53,906 over a month. And its outcome decided 898 00:40:53,921 --> 00:40:56,259 the next dozen years of this country. 899 00:40:56,686 --> 00:40:57,906 Next episode.