Instalment 48 (1912)
Scene 1:Nanjing; at the former presidential residence
Sun Yatsen learns from the newspapers that all cabinet members of his “Tongmenghui” have resigned in Beijing and that the first cabinet of the Republic of China has failed. He is very upset by this news and has Huang Xing send a telegram to all the “Tongmenghui” members, cautioning them to keep to the provisional constitution when they form a new cabinet.
Scene 2: Beijing; at the provisional parliament
At the provisional parliament the representatives are debating a list of cabinet members which Yuan Shikai has suggested. The most heated topic of debate is the designated Prime Minister, Lu Zhengxiang. Lu spent a long time abroad before returning to China. When presenting himself to the parliament, he gives a speech on morality, and on the rejection of alcohol and opium, instead of talking about the political views he supports. Then he deliberates briefly on the foreign policies of the cabinet. Although the Republic has been in existence for more than two months, the foreign powers have not recognised it as yet. Thus, he believes it is necessary to start a project of “public relations“ – a “new idea” current in the West. All the representatives feel alienated, dissatisfied and unhappy with his speech and thus they decline to approve the proposed list of cabinet members. Chaos breaks out. In this instant, Duan Qirui, Commander of the Armed Forces, enters the provisional parliament, accompanied by army soldiers, and forces the representatives to take part in a “tea party” which is being organised by the Armed Forces. Intimidating the provisional parliament was Yuan Shikai’s idea, and he had Duan Qirui carry it out.
Scene 3: In the banquet hall of the Armed Forces
Duan Qirui gives a speech in front of the representatives of the provisional parliament. He claims that everyone has been so occupied with the establishment of the Republic that they all have not had any time for celebrations. Thus, misunderstandings inevitably had to arise. But soldiers like himself, Duan claims, care for the country as well. Therefore they have organised this tea party in order to help clear up these “misunderstandings”, blocking the successful and timely formation of a new government. Then Duan invites the present journalist Tian Mo to dance with him. While dancing, he tells her that he has recently learnt that the leader of the country is the President, but that the leaders of the present day in general are in fact the journalists. No matter whether this is true or not, he believes that the people will in any case pay heed to what journalists write. Finally, he asks Tian Mo to write something “positive” about China’s state finances in order to fortify the people’s trust in the county. But Tian refuses to accept any interference into her journalist work. Now Yuan Shikai enters. He welcomes all the representatives and hands a new list of suggested cabinet members to the President of Parliament. He adds that he will keep very closely to the stipulations of the provisional constitution, and that he will continue to compose new lists of names, if the provisional parliament should again decline to approve this one, until the parliament finally agrees.
After the tea party, Tian Mo and the young representative Luo Wen are sitting in a Beijing street restaurant talking about the ongoings at the tea party. Tian believes that Yuan’s schemes are tantamount to a deception of the Parliament. But Luo counters that Yuan has not violated the constitution. The fact that he presented a new list, in fact, shows respect to the provisional constitution. Tian ironically remarks at this: can the act of forcing someone by pointing a gun at his face, be called respect?
While Sun Yatsen is moving out of his former residence, former leader of the revolutionary troops in Wuchang, Zhang Zhenwu, comes to pay him a visit. During the revolution, Zhang had forced the Qing military leader Li Yuanhong and his troops to defect to the revolutionary side. Zhang complains that Li, now Vice President of the Republic, treats him badly (in revenge for this humiliation) and is trying to discredit him. Li Yuanhong, he says, claims that the “Tong-menghui” plans to stage a second revolution in Hubei province. To prove this assertion, Li showed him, Zhang, a list on which the alleged leaders of the second revolution are named. Even though he then had the very list burnt in front of Zhang’s eyes in order to “prove” his own reliability, Li went on to discredit the “Tongmenghui” and him behind his back with the aim of building up his own regional power base to then challenge Yuan and the whole Republican government. Sun thereupon asks Zhang how the disbandment of the troops in Hubei after the revolution was arranged. Zhang states that indeed there have been problems, since Yuan Shikai has not paid the soldiers for their contribution to the revolution.
At that moment, Song Jiashu, i.e. Charly Song, and a few others enter. Song wants to accompany Sun Yatsen to Shanghai and has even bought a
house for Sun there. Sun hesitates to accept this present, but Song replies that the present comes with a price tag. Sun is supposed to
fulfil the wish of Song’s second eldest daughter, Song Qingling, who is currently studying abroad in the USA: to send her a personally
signed flag of the Republic as a proof to her classmates that she has personal contact to Sun.
While Sun Yatsen and Huang Xing are having coffee at a café, a group of former soldiers come storming in. They complain to Sun about the unfair treatment they were given after leaving the army. Sun apologises and tries to calm them down. He says that a revolution is not about personal gains; even he himself is only a simple man now (and not the President anymore) who still wants to help set up the Republic. But the soldiers are not willing to accept this excuse. They believe that Sun – as head of the revolution – cannot simply steal away. The soldiers argue that they have risked their lives for the revolution and now they are not being paid, whereas the generals, who earned fame for the soldier’s successes, were fully refunded.
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