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Instalment 49 (1912)

Scene 1: At the residence of the Provisional President

At the residence of the Provisional President, Yuan Shikai is conversing with Duan Qirui and Zhao Bingjun, his former Beiyang men. They are discussing the current political situation before the election of the regular President, which is supposed to take place in five months according to the provisional constitution. During the election for the regular presidency, Yuan Shikai will compete against two other possible favourites: Sun Yatsen and Li Yuanhong. Yuan makes an analysis of his rivals: Sun Yatsen is more highly regarded among the people since he is the founding father of the Republic. Li Yuanhong has earned the people’s respect as the most decisive figure of the Wuchang uprising, the first successful revolutionary uprising. In order to win the elections, Yuan and his advisors plan a political intrigue. Yuan believes that they all used to be versed in military battles.
Now they have to learn how to use the provisional constitution as a form of weapon in the political battle. Then, Yuan shows Duan and Zhao Li Yuanhong’s telegram in which he calls Commander Zhang Zhenwu an enemy of the Republic and accuses him in fifteen different points. Naturally, Yuan has seen through Li’s scheme and knows that Li is planning to have his enemy, who once shamefully forced him at gunpoint to cooperate with the revolutionaries, killed by someone else, i.e. by Yuan. Yuan intends to answer Li’s scheme by a counter-manoeuvre: he plans to use the opportunity to discredit Li in the eyes of the public. Yuan thus aims to eliminate Li as one opponent in the upcoming election campaigns. He therefore has a telegram sent to Li in which he requests Li to gather further evidence against Zhang Zhenwu.

Scene 2: At a small restaurant

In a small restaurant, the drunken Zhang Zhenwu complains about Li Yuanhong and the bad treatment he himself has received since the foundation of the Republic. After all, he claims that had he not acted back then, the entire Revolution may have failed. The Member of Parliament, Luo Wen, and Zhang’s friends, try to console him. Then they leave the restaurant.

Scene 3: On the street

A troop of soldiers are searching for Zhang Zhenwu. Luo Wen’s carriage is halted because they have confused Luo with Zhang. Luo thus learns that the Military Tribunal of the Armed Forces has issued a warrant for Zhang’s arrest. Luo hurries back to the editorial department of the daily newspaper Shibao (“Times”), to report the sensational news to Tian Mo.

Scene 4: At the scene of execution

The Military Tribunal has sentenced Zhang Zhenwu to death. He is immediately executed. With permission of the Commander of the Armed Forces, Duan Qirui, Tian Mo and her colleague, the photo reporter Wang, are allowed to photograph some of the gruesome scenes during the execution.

Scene 5: At the provisional parliament of the Republic of China

Luo Wen distributes the freshly printed newspaper Shibao among the Members of Parliament. The headlines read: “Secret Execution of the Revolutionary Veteran, Zhang Zhenwu”. Luo’s suggestion, that the provisional parliament should draft an inquiry and hand it to the Prime Minister Lu Zhengxiang and to the Commander of the Armed Forces, Duan Qirui, is accepted. The parliament requests an explanation from the two, why Zhang Zhenwu was not first subjected to a proper trial.

Scene 6: At Tian Mo’s home

Tian Mo and her mother are preparing the dinner in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Tian’s father shows Luo Wen his stamp collection, among which there is the first Chinese Dragon Stamp Series whose editor was the then Imperial Governor Yuan Shikai. By now this series is ten times more worth than it was back then, since its editor is now the Provisional President of the Republic of China. Tian’s father asks Luo what divides the feudalist Qing government from today’s Republic. Luo believes that the former society was a society of a single person’s reign (ren zhi). Today’s Republic, however, is governed by the (provisional) law (fa zhi – a very contemporary issue!). In other words, the law governs all individuals in the Republic. But Tian’s father does not agree. He believes that personal power still reigns over the law in China. Quoting an old proverb: “When the sovereign tells his minister to die, the minister must die” (jun jiao chen si, chen budebu si), Tian’s father points to the hidden lead actor, Yuan Shikai. He thereby implies that Yuan was the one who arranged for Zhang Zhenwu’s execution.

Scene 7: At Yuan Shikai’s residence

Once Zhang Zhenwu has become a victim of Yuan Shikai’s intrigue, Yuan Shikai now explains the next step of his plan to Zhao Bingjun and Duan Qirui: i.e. how he intends to instrumentalise the parliamentary inquiry to defame his future election rival Li Yuanhong. First, he has Zhao and Duan look through the provisional constitution he had studied beforehand to find the appropriate paragraphs and read them out loud. Then Yuan points out the loopholes of the constitution which they can use for their own purposes at a later stage. The provisional constitution does not prohibit the Military Tribunal from issuing a death sentence. Moreover, the constitution stipulates that the Commander General of the Armed Forces (i.e. the President) has the right to issue orders to army members, including execution orders.

Scene 8: At the provisional parliament

During a session of the Provisional Parliament, Duang Qirui, Commander of the Armed Forces, tries to justify himself and respond to the parliament’s inquiry because of Zhang Zhenwu’s execution. He follows Yuan Shikai’s advice and admits that, in his function as a member of the army, he merely executed orders of the Commander General Yuan Shikai. Thus, he insists on being innocent and not responsible for a soldier’s death on orders. In the end, the parliament decides to put forward an inquiry to the Provisional President and Commander General Yuan Shikai. This meets with Yuan’s silent hopes. As planned, he can now take the parliamentary inquiry as an occasion to betray Li Yuanhong. But it will not seem like he is doing this out of his own free will, but rather, he will appear to have been forced to do so by orders of the Parliament.

Scene 9: At Yuan Shikai’s presidential residence

At the residence of the Provisional President, the parliamentary inquiry takes places in the form of a press conference. Yuan Shikai publicises all of Li Yuanhong’s secret telegrams in front of the gathered press. These telegrams prove that Li Yuanhong in fact had accused Zhang Zhenwu of a host of crimes. Tian Mo rightly points out that Yuan’s actions were illegal as well; namely, that he only disclosed the telegrams after the execution orders, although they really should have been used as evidence during a court trial. Thus, she contends, Yuan’s execution orders did in fact breach the regulations of the provisional constitution.
Yuan admits that the entire procedure may not be flawless. But he argues that it was the Vice President of the Republic, Li Yuanhong, who had pressurised him. Yuan therefore states that although he committed errors in his function as the Provisional President, he nevertheless was only trying to guard the interests of the Republic of China. Since the provisional constitution is sketchy in passages, the Zhang Zhenwu event should simply be taken as a good lesson for the future!

Scene 10: In the mourning hall set up for Zhang Zhenwu

Li Yuanhong is sobbing in the mourning hall which has been set up for Zhang Zhenwu. But he is not sobbing for Zhang, but rather he is saddened because he has come to understand that he might be excluded from the election campaigns for the regular presidency. At that moment, Sun Yatsen, Huang Xing and the other revolutionaries enter. Sun Yatsen castigates Li Yuanhong’s and Yuan Shikai’s political intrigues which he believes endanger the newly established Republic.

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