Tan Sitong
| Tan Sitong | |
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| Born | 10 March 1865 |
| Died | 28 September 1898 (aged 33) |
| Region | Chinese Philosophy |
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Influences
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| Tan Sitong | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 譚嗣同 | ||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 谭嗣同 | ||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Tán Sìtóng |
| Wade–Giles | T'an2 Ssu4-t'ung2 |
| IPA | [tʰǎn sɨ̂tʰʊ̌ŋ] |
Tan Sitong (Chinese: 譚嗣同, March 10, 1865 – September 28, 1898), courtesy name Fusheng (復生), pseudonym Zhuangfei (壮飞), was a well-known Chinese politician, thinker and reformist in the late Qing Dynasty (1636–1911); he was however, finally executed at the age of 33 when the Reformation Movement failed. He was one of the "Six gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform" (戊戌六君子). He occupies a place of tremendous importance in modern Chinese history. To many contemporaries, his execution symbolised the political failure of Qing Dynasty's reformation from within itself and turned the intellectual class to seek violent and hostile means, through revolution, to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
Tan Sitong was born in Beijing though his family came from Liuyang, Hunan Province. His father, Tan Jixun (谭继洵), was the governor of Hubei Province. His mother, Xu Wuyuan (徐五缘), a traditional Chinese housewife, was quite strict with her children. Tan Sitong had nine siblings in total.
At the age of 12, Tan Sitong lost his mother, his eldest brother and his second eldest sister, who died one after another within a span of 5 days due to diphtheria contracted from one of his cousins when they went to visit her. He himself also fell gravely ill and only recovered three days later, which was deemed to be a miracle. This event struck him so much that his outlook on life completely changed. After Tan Sitong lost his mother, his father’s concubine treated him badly. He was married to Li Run (李闰) at the age of 19 and together had a son named Tan Lansheng (谭兰生), who died within a year. His wife was known to be extremely devoted to him even years after his execution. She established a special school for girls in his hometown. Schools dedicated to the education of girls/women were almost unheard of at that time in rural China.
Tan Sitong spent his childhood in Beijing and his youth in Liuyang. He began to study at the age of 5. He learned from a famous scholar called Ouyang Zhonggu (欧阳中鹄) when he was 10. Though he was talented in writing essays, he objected to the conventional form of the essay which was required in every exam at that time. As a result, he was only titled "mandarin scholar" (Xiu Cai), a very low educational level.
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