(1) In truth, the 1912 Chinese National Assembly election saw the KMT (Nationalist Party) not even gain a majority, but merely a plurality. This speaks to the sheer extent of political diversity during the very early republic. Note also that historically, a unified Progressive Party with Liang Qichao at the helm did not happen until after this election, in 1913.
(2) Song Jiaoren‘s final actions here, donating his books and addressing a letter to Yuan Shikai, follow the historical account exactly. The only thing omitted is him asking for his family to be taken care of.
(3) Who killed Song Jiaoren? Possibly no other question is more pertinent towards understanding why China failed in its first grand experiment with a functioning democracy. And it is a surprisingly contentious question.
Conventional view invariably blames Yuan Shikai’s faction. Either Yuan issued the order directly, or Zhao Bingjun did, he being the one directly threatened by Song replacing him as premier. You will not find the show deviating much from this tradition.
And this is where things get interesting. The one directly culpable is certainly Ying Guixin, the inspector general of Jiangsu. Ying was originally a street thug who had connections with both sides (Beiyang in the north and revolutionaries in the south), but his closest patron was Chen Qimei, the revolutionary leader in Shanghai, and someone well-versed in assassination. Ying later died under mysterious circumstances, as did pretty much everyone involved in Song’s murder.
What seems true is that Yuan Shikai cannot benefit from assassinating Song Jiaoren. His death doesn’t change the Nationalist Party’s dominance in the national assembly, and Song seemed like the Nationalist candidate he could work best with.
For similar reasons, Zhao Bingjun is also only a plausible culprit if you take him to be small-minded and incapable of understanding the true ramifications of his actions. In the show, he may come off as such, but as a general rule real historical politicians of note tend not to be idiots.
Meanwhile, why might revolutionaries want Song Jiaoren dead? Well, factional infighting is a tradition among them both before and after Song’s death. One uncharitable interpretation sees Song quickly positioning himself as the true leader of the Nationalists and therefore Chinese progressives as a whole, and his death gave way for Sun Wen to once again dominate that limelight. That Sun Wen seemed to have been getting sidelined can be seen by him choosing to visit Japan (for no reasons of particular consequence) at the moment of the Nationalists’ triumph in the election. Of course that is very far off from any actual evidence of Sun Wen’s culpability, and the aforementioned factionalism indicates many independent parties might instead be to blame.
The show definitely does not make any overt suggestion that revolutionary infighting led to Song’s murder. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t drop some easter eggs for those already in the know. Note for example Song’s bold proclamation that the revolutionaries are the true masters of assassination.
By the way, I find the Wikipedia article on Ying Guixin extremely biased and baseless in both the English and Chinese versions. The important thing to remember is that all purported evidence about Ying never came to light, because the case never made it to trial.
And for that, we have more than just Yuan Shikai to blame, as even the show will be forced to demonstrate. Frankly, the greatest tragedy of Song Jiaoren’s death might be the atrocious response to it by every side involved.
(4) Mt Liang appears in the classic novel Water Margin, which tells the story of a bunch of rebels, outlaws, and malcontents. Notably, the rebel leader in the novel is called Song Jiang, which is supposed to be an oblique reference to Song Jiaoren.
(5) Because he is so associated in the show with the fictional characters Tian Mo and Luo Wen, and because the whole situation is so ridiculous, it may surprise you to learn an antique dealer named Wang Afa really was implicated in the assassination of Song Jiaoren.
Chinese Shows Translated 