For a time, Lu Xun and Zhang Shizhao were arguing back and forth, with the plaintiff being the section chief and the defendant being the chief. This was an eye-catching lawsuit at the time.

On August 15, 1925, Lu Xun, who worked as a minister of the Ministry of Education, submitted an indictment to the Beiyang Government Certificate Academy against Zhang Shizhao, the director-general of the Ministry of Education. After the Pingzhengyuan accepted the case, Zhang Shizhao responded in the name of the Ministry of Education. For a time, Lu Xun and Zhang Shizhao were arguing back and forth, with the plaintiff being the section chief and the defendant being the chief. This was an eye-catching lawsuit at the time.

Although Lu Xun was not a law major, he was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, where his ancestors were masters, and he was born to be a swordsman and penman. So why did he sue Zhang Shizhao?

On August 4, 1925, Zhang Shizhao, who had just assumed the post of director-general of education of the Beiyang Government, was about to walk into the Beijing Women's Normal School when he saw a notice posted on the school door that teachers were not allowed to enter or leave. This somewhat bizarre announcement originated from a incident a year ago.

Yang Yinyu was the president of Beijing Women's Normal University. In 1924, it happened to be a period of war between domestic warlords. The reigning president at that time was Cao Kun, , and Duan Qirui, joined forces to oust him. Therefore, there were many wars in this area at that time, which caused many students to be unable to return to school on time. When Yang Yinyu was the principal, he acted very arbitrarily, which hurt the students' hearts. If a student returns to school late, she will think that you are late if you don't come, so she will drop out of school. However, during the specific handling, Yang Yinyu took the opportunity to severely deal with three students in the Chinese Department who were usually disobedient and asked them to drop out of school, while leaving the students with whom he had a good relationship alone.

This unfair practice caused serious dissatisfaction among students and faculty. The Student Government Association at that time asked Principal Yang Yinyu to withdraw her appointment, but she did not agree, which triggered the famous wave of women's normal universities at the time. Students want Yang Yinyu to step down and leave his position as principal. But Zhang Shizhao, who was the director of education at the time, didn't think so and wanted to protect him.

Zhang Shizhao did not stop with the announcement. He checked the smashed glass and the seal on the door of the principal's office, questioned several students on the spot, and then left quietly. Four days later, an order from the Ministry of Education was sent to the Women's Normal University.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Shizhao wrote a report on "Closing the Beijing Women's Normal University" and handed it to the Duan Qirui government. He believes that under such circumstances, we cannot make concessions to students, which is a bad trend that encourages student unrest.

When the trend of history universities broke out, Lu Xun was teaching part-time at the school, teaching " A Brief History of Chinese Novels " and "Literary Theory" courses. He stood firmly on the side of the punished students and confronted Yang Yinyu and the Ministry of Education who supported him.

After Lu Xun filed the complaint, Zhang Shizhao was afraid that things would get serious, so he said to Lu Xun, I can give you a full-time official position to eliminate the intensification of the contradiction. Lu Xun firmly disagreed.

Amid the intensifying anti-Yang student movement, more than a thousand people from various schools in Beijing went to the home of Zhang Shizhao in Weijia Hutong, Dongsi, to protest against his oppression of students and suppression of the student patriotic movement. More than two hundred students rushed into Zhang's house and clashed with military police. The angry students destroyed Zhang's house. Zhang Shizhao petitioned the Duan Qirui government on August 12, 1925 to remove Lu Xun from the position of Ministry of Education official on the grounds that Lu Xun, as an official of the Ministry of Education, participated in student riots, served as the general director of the school maintenance committee, and supported students against the government. position.

On the day Duan Qirui received the official letter from Zhang Shizhao, he ordered it to be approved. Lu Xun was particularly angry when he heard the news because he had been working in the Ministry of Education for 14 years and was dismissed from his post without any due process. According to the relevant provisions of the "Regulations on Civilian Punishment" and the "Draft Law on the Protection of Civilian Officials" at that time, Lu Xun's removal from office should first be handed over to the Higher Civilian Punishment Committee, and punishment should be implemented after discussion and approval.

In fact, Zhang Shizhao knew everything about the removal process.He specifically wrote this in the document dated August 12, and requested that it be submitted to the Senior Civil Service Disciplinary Committee for review and approval to complete the legal procedures.

The secretary-general of the municipal government at that time was called Liang Hongzhi. He had a close relationship with Zhang Shizhao and trusted his old friend, so after getting this document, he did not read it carefully and just hurriedly sent a message to express his support.

It was against the relevant regulations of the time that Lu Xun's position was revoked by the government rather than by a specialized agency. Based on this, Lu Xun proposed his procedural errors and sued Zhang Shizhao.

Two days later, Lu Xun personally drafted an indictment and prepared to accuse Zhang Shizhao.

html On August 22, Lu Xun went to the Pingzhengyuan to submit a lawsuit. On September 12th, the Pingzhengyuan officially decided that the first court of the court would hear the case.

Zhang Shizhao is not only the chief of education, but also the chief of justice. He is proficient in law. The Pingzhengyuan submitted a copy of Lu Xun's lawsuit to Zhang Shizhao, who cleverly defended himself with the "Official Service Order" and deliberately avoided the "Civilian Punishment Regulations" and the "Civilian Protection Law".

html On October 13, the Pingzheng Yuan sent Lu Xun a copy of Zhang Shizhao’s defense. On November 16, Lu Xun made a reply and said, you have rules and you should judge my behavior according to the rules. If you have rules, then I have violated the rules. If not, how can you say that I have violated the rules? ?

After some arguments, on March 23, 1926, the Pingzheng Yuan issued a ruling based on the reasons in the mutual argument, ruling that Zhang Shizhao's petition for removal from office was illegal. This civil lawsuit case between colleagues, in which subordinates sued superiors, ended with Lu Xun's victory.

In this case, Lu Xun was a very influential person. His success was indeed very convincing. At least he told people that people can sue officials and they can sue them. As long as we clarify the truth in accordance with the law, we can eventually sue the public and win. This is also finally confirmed by many of our current cases, and it also proves that Lu Xun was a great thinker and writer. In fact, his concept of law was also very accurate.

In this written lawsuit between Lu Xun and Zhang Shizhao, although the two did not directly go to court, it can not but be said to be a very exciting showdown. Even in an era when legal awareness was not very popular, Lu Xun was still able to use the law as a weapon to safeguard his rights.

For Zhang Shizhao, the loser of the lawsuit, this lawsuit also had a huge impact on his own destiny, and he has since faded out of the political arena.

Lu Xun wrote a special article "On "Fairy Play" should be suspended." In the article, he called Zhang Shizhao a drowned dog and said that a drowned dog like Zhang Shizhao should be beaten severely. This article later had such a great impact that many years later, one of Zhang Shizhao's adopted daughters at the time, named Zhang Hanzhi, also felt resentment towards her father. Because Lu Xun called Zhang Shizhao a drowned dog in his article, Zhang Shizhao's adopted daughter Zhang Hanzhi was also affected. Some people even called Zhang Hanzhi a little drowned dog.

Zhang Hanzhi was scolded once, and he hurriedly went to his father and said, why did you persecute Lu Xun and suppress the revolution? Zhang Shizhao was very calm after hearing this, and replied to his daughter that history will judge a person's merits and demerits. I am telling you now, but you can't understand it. There are some things between me and Lu Xun. Misunderstanding, when you grow up, you can do it yourself and judge for yourself when you are independent.

Source: Documentary "Witness"