Hunan Current Affairs School: the Pioneer of Modern Education in China
Deng Hongbo of Yuelu Academy of Hunan University
Hunan current affairs school was born in the wave of reform and political reform. Its existence is only a short year, just a flash in the pan, but it has written a brilliant page in the history of education in China. As Mao Zedong pointed out, "If there is a school in Hunan, we should advocate the school of current affairs in the Spring of 1898. The current situation is short, but it has cultivated a group of brave and promising young people. " Yang Shuda, a famous master of literature and history, also said, "It is rare to achieve such a career with short-lived learning."
After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the ideological trend of reform and reform rose rapidly, and seeking innovation and change and saving the nation from extinction became the theme of the times. With the joint efforts of a group of local officials and reformers, Hunan's New Deal has flourished and is known as the "most dynamic province" in the country. 1897 1 month, led by Wang Xianqian, president of Yuelu College, officially reported to Chen Baozhen, the governor of Hunan Province, and founded a current affairs school in Xiaodong Street, Changsha, Hunan. 1899 February changed to Qiushi College. 1March 902, Qiushi College was transformed into a provincial university hall. 1903 In February, the provincial capital university hall was renamed Hunan Institute of Higher Education. 1903 1 1 month, Yuelu Academy was transformed into an institution of higher learning, and the original Hunan institution of higher learning was merged into it to form a new Hunan institution of higher learning. 19 12, Hunan higher education institutions were renamed Hunan Normal School. 19 17, Hunan Normal University was changed to Hunan Public Industrial College. 1926, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Law School and Business School merged and was officially named Hunan University.
As an important modern origin of Hunan University, the current affairs school marks the transformation of Hunan education from the old academy system to the new school system. It is not only the beginning of modern education in Hunan, but also one of the beginnings of modern higher education in China. Together with Beiyang University Hall and Shi Jing University Hall, it became the earliest leader of modern education in China. 1895, Tianjin established Chinese and Western Academy Group, which was later renamed Beiyang University Hall. Only two years later, 1897 Hunan "current affairs schools" were established one after another, and 1898 Beijing established Shi Jing University Hall. These schools are the earliest exploration of modern education in China, and have made important contributions to the reform of higher education in China. From the "urgent need" during the Westernization Movement to the "founding the country" during the Reform Movement of 1898, the adjustment of self-orientation of modern higher education reflected the maturity of modern higher education. From Beiyang University Hall to Tianjin University, from Shi Jing University Hall to Peking University, from Yuelu Academy and Shihu School to Hunan University, they are all living fossils of the development of higher education in China, and they are also cases worthy of in-depth study in the modernization of higher education in China.
This year coincides with the 20th anniversary of the current affairs school/kloc-0. At this moment, it is of great significance to look back at the school, remember the contributions of the sages, creatively transform and develop its excellent cultural and educational traditions, and promote the construction of world-class universities and first-class disciplines with China characteristics, accelerate the modernization of education, and run a satisfactory education for the people.
First, the teaching purpose
The current affairs school adheres to the mission of "serving the country, resisting aggression, innovating", "advocating new learning, advocating reform" and "taking politics as the doctrine" and cultivates new talents who are proficient at home and abroad and apply what they have learned.
The purpose of running a school is different from the educational purpose of serving the imperial examination in traditional academies, but to cultivate new talents who can resist foreign humiliation and save the country and strengthen the country. The students trained by the current affairs school are particularly concerned about current affairs. They are all "high-spirited", "talking about academics, politics, or current affairs at home and abroad" and "expecting to take the world as their responsibility". This is not only the development of Huxiang's long-standing patriotic tradition, but also the thought of "worrying about the world" and "managing the world" in Yuelu Academy. After the Reform Movement of 1898, students such as Lin Gui, Li Binghuan, Qin Lishan, Tang Caizhi and Zhu Chenyun were sent to participate in the self-defense uprising led by Tang and join in the anti-Qing struggle. Cai E, the youngest student of the first current school, later became the commander-in-chief who opposed Yuan and defended the country in the Revolution of 1911, and rebuilt the Republic. All these are inseparable from the implementation of "politics-oriented" education in current affairs schools. The school of current affairs opened the prelude for Hunan modern schools to enter the political arena, and became a model of "taking politics as doctrine" in modern China.
Second, enlightenment education.
The enlightenment education of current affairs school has promoted the great liberation of Hunan's ideological circles and the great opening of Hunan and even the whole country's social atmosphere.
Hunan is an inland province in central China, surrounded by mountains on three sides and Dongting Lake in the north. The environment was relatively closed, and the Westernization Movement had limited influence on Hunan until the Reform Movement brought a new atmosphere to Hunan. Someone once said, "Hunan is one of the most conservative provinces in China, and its most obvious manifestation is its refusal to accept advanced western culture". After the rise of the Reform Movement, the current affairs school added fuel to the flames, and the new western learning in Hunan rose, with obvious opening atmosphere. At the same time, the current affairs school emphasizes new learning, enlightens the people and promotes Hunan's ideological liberation; Changing customs has promoted the opening of Hunan's social atmosphere. Especially the current affairs school, propagandizes civil rights politics, opposes feudal autocracy, and inspires people to realize that reform and political reform are necessary to save China. Among them, the thought of civil rights equality and parliamentary thought were the earliest revolutionary enlightenment education in modern Hunan. These theories not only reacted strongly among students, but also caused unprecedented shock in society like a blockbuster. Later, the Self-Guard Uprising, the Revolution of 1911, the May 4th Movement, the law of studying in Japan, the peasant movement, etc. These are closely related to the enlightenment education in current affairs schools. ?
Third, the reform of the education system.
The establishment of the current affairs school set a good example for the reform of academies and the establishment of new schools in Hunan and even the whole country, and it was a successful attempt to transform the modern academy education system into the school education system.
Chen Baozhen, governor of Hunan Province, said in "Introduction to the School of Recruiting New Affairs" that running this school can promote "the rise of officials and gentry at all levels of government, departments and counties, donate money from various donations, set up schools and towns, and create useful materials for the country." After the establishment of the School of Current Affairs, academies all over Hunan followed the example of the School of Current Affairs to carry out curriculum reform, and new schools were established everywhere. For example, the gentry in Liuyang merged six colleges in the county into a large-scale practical school; The gentry in Chenzhou founded the school of economics. Ningxiang opened a math school. These reformed academies and newly-established schools have also followed the teaching method of "paying equal attention to Chinese and western affairs" in current affairs schools, and the style of study in the whole province has also become active, making emerging education full of vitality. In the early 1920s, Hunan's education was also at the forefront of the country, which was inseparable from the educational reform of the current school during the Reform Period.
Fourthly, the exploration of the transformation of modern higher education.
Although the time was short and the course was tortuous, the school of current affairs combined the personality education of China traditional academy with the knowledge education of modern western universities, and cultivated modern intellectuals who had both the spiritual personality of literati and the knowledge and thoughts of western social science and natural science, which influenced modern China and made it shine brilliantly in history. Before and after the current affairs school, only about 200 students were enrolled, but a large number of outstanding talents such as Cai E, Fang Dingying, Yang Shuda, Fan Yuanlian and Li Fuji were trained, which promoted the political reform and social progress in modern China and influenced generation after generation. When young Mao Zedong founded Xinmin Society in Changsha, he talked about Changsha Times School many times. When he talked about Liang Qichao, the chief Chinese teacher of the times school who had a great influence on him, he once said with deep affection: "The times are declining, but Mingde is rising."
Undoubtedly, the School of Current Affairs, which was born in the vigorous national salvation movement 20 years ago, has made a valuable exploration for the modern transformation of higher education in China. As Liang Qichao said, "If you want to learn and be good at it, you will be an official; if you learn western languages internally, you will be taught by the method of learning and being good at it;" The secondary school does not take learning western scholars as a foreign course, but uses the method of academy. "The School of Current Affairs is not only the spiritual wealth of Hunan and Hunan University, but also worth learning, inheriting and developing from the educational reform in China today.
High quality teachers are the core.
University is not a building, but a master. Teachers are the foundation of establishing education and the source of promoting education. Although the conditions for running a school are difficult, it has an excellent team of teachers. For example, Liang Qichao, the first teacher of Chinese, and Li Weige, the first teacher of western languages. School administrators include Xiong Xiling, Tan Sitong, Jiang Dejun and Li. Tang, Han Wenju, Ou Yijia, Ye Juemai, etc. They are all great scholars who have studied both Chinese and western languages. The teachers are very devoted. Liang Qichao has to attend classes for four hours every day, and he has to correct forty student notes and class papers. Every note or class paper has to be graded, some of which are thousands of words long. In order to correct notes and class papers, he often stays up late and even gets sick. With such a dedicated teacher, it is not difficult to understand that a group of celebrities have been trained.
Secondly, innovation in educational content and teaching methods is the key.
Universities are the watchmen of the times. To lead the social fashion, we must keep pace with the times and constantly innovate the educational content and teaching methods, so that the trained talents can shoulder the historical mission and bravely stand on the forefront of the times. In terms of educational content and curriculum arrangement, the current affairs school organically combines the teaching content of China traditional academy with western university education and teaching courses, including general education and specialized education, which is equivalent to today's general education and professional education, and emphasizes the study of general knowledge and professional knowledge of modern western social sciences and natural sciences. In terms of educational methods, the current school organically combines the teaching methods of traditional colleges in China with those of western universities, and adopts lecture system, including classroom teaching, classmates' lectures, reading, question and answer and lecture system. These teaching methods are rooted in the tradition of the academy, which is refreshing, and students also "learn something and play around".
ⅲ High-quality students are the foundation.
"Good medicine, good medicine". High-quality students are the foundation of cultivating first-class talents. The current affairs school has a strict enrollment system, classified training and screening. The strictness of its recruitment examination and recruitment is incredible. The first exam attracted more than 4000 candidates, only 40 candidates were admitted, only 1%. That's not all. In April of the following year, the current affairs school re-examined the students according to their daily homework scores and temperament. After the screening of 40 students in the first phase, only 27 students remain. Cai E, Fan Yuanlian and Yang Shuda. He is a student of this class and is called "the first class in the world" by the world.
Things you may not know about the School of Current Affairs
From the academy to the school, to the academy, to the school, this is a cycle, but it is spiraling up. Hunan University has two sources, ancient and modern. One is Yuelu Academy, which has a history of 1000 years. One is the current affairs school we commemorate today, 120 years. They represent the two most cutting-edge and highest sources of education, ancient and modern, and now gather in Hunan University, which has become the most valuable resource for us to build a "double-class" university. This is also the logical starting point for us to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Current Affairs School/KLOC-0.
The current affairs school was established in 1897. From the beginning of preparation, it started to teach and achieved remarkable results. Yuelu Academy participated in it, and Wang Xianqian, the mountain chief at that time, was an important participant. As Liang Qichao said, the school of current affairs combines the advantages of both academies and schools. It not only exists as an entity like Yuelu Academy, but also integrates two systems, one representing western schools and the other representing traditional education in China. At least that's what they conceived and planned at the beginning, and it was also practiced in the early stage.
1898 After the failure of the coup of 1898, the school of current affairs actually persisted for some time, but with the intensification of disputes and contradictions between the old and the new, it was changed into a reality school in 1899. The school has become an academy, but its courses, teachers and students have obvious inheritance relations and are not completely separated.
The most typical case is Xu Zhaokui, a professor of mathematics. His first appearance was actually in a math class at Yuelu Academy. He was a teacher at that time. From Yuelu Academy to Shihu Academy, to Qiushi Academy, to Hunan Provincial University Hall and Hunan High Church, and finally to Hunan University, he is still a professor in the Department of Mathematics. He is a very cutting-edge participant and witnessed the evolution of the Millennium University, which is particularly interesting.
What I want to say here is that apart from political factors, education reform is actually being carried out in an orderly way in this ancient and dynamic school. We didn't pay enough attention to this point in the past or deliberately shielded it, so we should fully expose it.
There is another interesting phenomenon. Chen Baozhen, who was dismissed from his post for investigation and never used it, formulated the Practical Learning Rules of Henan in the copied Qiushi Academy. Of course, there are some technical treatments, but the articles of association are not introduced by the author. In everyone's imagination, the realistic academy transformed from the current affairs school should be completely conservative and reactionary, but in fact it is not. As the helmsman of the Reform Movement of 1898 in Hunan Province, although Chen Baozhen was dismissed for investigation, he still played the role of a realistic academic school.
There are many such details. With the disclosure of more materials, we will find a particularly interesting phenomenon, that is, schools and academies are not so seriously opposed, and we may simply look at the problem. At the beginning of 1903, Qiushi College was changed to Hunan Provincial University Hall and Hunan High Church. 165438+ 10, Yuelu Academy was transformed into Hunan Higher Education College, and the former Higher Education College was incorporated into it. In other words, Hunan University inherited the Millennium Department and the School of Current Affairs. Here, the two most typical educational institutions, ancient and modern, are integrated and become the two sources of Hunan University.
Such a school, which is the intersection of ancient and modern resources, is carried by Hunan University, which is the most perfect and complete presentation of China's educational development in the past thousand years. Its typicality lies in that it can reflect our commitment to education, society and academics since the Song Dynasty, and it does not rule out the torrent of learning from the West in modern times. As the school song of Huda University says, "Learn from Europe and America by inheriting Zhu Xi". This is a very important tradition and resource. Telling the story of China well and maintaining China's cultural self-confidence are not only the resources of Hunan University, but also the important resources of education. This should attract our attention.
Three generations of gentlemen.