Yan was born in a scholarly family, then went to Yale University in the United States for further study, and accepted some advanced western ideas. After graduation, he clearly realized that due to the low level of civilian education, China's status was low, and he resolutely returned to China. He believes that the biggest problem in rural China lies in ignorance, poverty and weakness. At that time, most people in China were illiterate, and the so-called illiteracy was foolish; Most people live in dire straits and struggle to survive in the cracks, which is poverty; There are many people who are weak and sick, which is cowardice; Most people will not cooperate, unite and have no sense of morality and responsibility. This is private. To this end, Yan proposed four major educations, namely, attacking fools with literature, attacking poverty with life, attacking the weak with health, and attacking private with morality. So how to change it? He proposed three ways: school, society and family. In the process of going deep into the countryside, he found that it was unrealistic for you to ask farmers to study, and the farmers simply wouldn't listen, so he thought of a way, "If you want to turn farmers into farmers, you must first turn farmers into farmers", which is civilian education.