It is the first specialized legal education institution in South Guangdong.
"Students who have studied law and politics are all useful talents in the country, allowing them to dedicate themselves to the orchestra and help the times. No matter the official and civil status, the position is high or low, all opinions of the class and the gate valve must be eliminated, and order can survive. Then they will engage in politics in the future to avoid the disadvantages of the gap between the government and the people ... "Dear readers, this half-written statement, although emphasizing the legal spirit of rules and equality is incompatible with the traditional ethics of" pecking and ordering ",Xia Tonghe, the first inspector of the Law and Politics School, tried to" popularize the law among the people "like Don Quixote against the windmill. However, as the first specialized legal education institution in South Guangdong, Guangdong Law and Politics School sowed the first seed of legal spirit in poor soil. Even today, more than 0/00 years after/kloc-,a careful examination of the difficult process of this seed germination may bring us some enlightenment.
run a school
Hundreds of local officials were forced to go to school.
Those who plan to play truant can't keep their jobs.
To trace back to the source of modern legal education in Guangdong, we have to mention the Guangzhou Wentong Museum, which was built in the middle of the 9th century. As we said before, the official reason for opening Wentong Library is to cultivate trustworthy diplomatic talents. When dealing with foreigners, you must understand international law. Therefore, Guangzhou Wentong Museum also offers courses in public international law and general public law. However, these courses are often regarded as vassals of "western learning", and the starting time is very short, and few people really pay attention to them. The officials, big and small, who take the imperial examination as the right path, even regard it as petty except for a small number of people who are keen on westernization.
Law and politics college began to recruit students, and local officials contacted foreign goods.
The opening of Guangdong Law and Politics School has made provincial officials no longer look down on these "western learning" governors. 1905, the imperial examination was officially abolished, and the traditional Jinshi lost the opportunity for promotion. The imperial examination lost its former golden signboard effect. In addition, it was at the time of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, and new knowledge, especially legal knowledge, was needed to deal with police affairs, manage Chinese and foreign businesses, railways and mining industries. 1905, 1 1 In June, Guangdong Governor Cen Chunxuan and Guangdong Governor Yu Shimian jointly played in the imperial court, saying that "the world is changing day by day, and the politics and laws of eastern and western countries are of great significance, and most of the old days were not owned by China", so they called for the establishment of Guangdong Law and Politics School to "train judicial administrative officials in Guangdong Province". Their memorial was approved in less than half a month. This is the second school of law and politics in China and the first school of law and politics in South Guangdong after Zhili School of Law and Politics.
More than five months later, Guangdong School of Political Science and Law officially began to recruit students, and officials of all sizes in the province began to have to deal with a lot of unheard-of new terms, such as civil law, commercial law, criminal law, civil procedure law, criminal procedure law, court organization law, public international law and private international law. At that time, those conservative officials who were used to reading the Four Books and Five Classics, when they saw these new terms, most of them were sure to see stars and run away.
Local officials were severely punished for playing truant.
Those with excellent grades can be promoted.
But they can't run if they want to. According to the official regulations at that time, there were more than 100 local officials in Guangdong, ranging from Daofu to Zuoza. No matter whether they are real or alternate officials, regardless of their age, unless they have studied law and politics abroad or occupy important positions, they will come to the school to sign up for the exam. Those who don't come to the exam, or who are admitted because they skip classes, will be suspended for a record, and then they will be forced to enter school until graduation. However, if there is a penalty, there will be a reward. According to the regulations, if students get excellent grades, they will have the opportunity to get promoted or change to a more lucrative position. If you are an alternate official, you can also give priority to running errands. In this way, in the face of such a policy of combining hard and soft, officials in the province, large and small, had to bear the pain and start learning a variety of dazzling Chinese and Western legal courses.
The school curriculum is complex and difficult to learn, and the management rules are quite strict. The charter of the school has a clear meaning at the beginning, saying that "the school is set up to study law and politics, and all students should be self-disciplined in the rules at any time." Looking down, disrespect for teachers, disrespect for subjects, untidiness, bullying classmates, being late for class, not copying speeches, asking questions without rules, and even laughing and smoking in class will all be recorded. If you record a demerit, you will be deducted. If you deduct too much, you will be ordered to drop out of school and your career will be greatly affected. No wonder an article entitled Miscellaneous Notes of Guangdong Public School of Political Science and Law published in Guangdong Literature and History Materials (Volume IV 1963) wrote that students should bow when they see foreign teaching outside the classroom, and they should also bow when they see China teaching. If it is in the classroom, everyone bows after the teacher sits down. These polite scenes are probably due to strict management regulations.
Du Dongli, the champion, decided to popularize the law among the people and returned to China for six years.
As the first specialized legal education institution in South Guangdong, the influence of Guangdong Law and Politics School should not be underestimated. According to relevant records, after the Revolution of 1911, almost all the local courts in Guangdong, from the president to the procurator-general, and then to the presidents of various courts, graduated from Guangdong Law and Politics School (renamed Guangdong Law and Politics School after the Revolution of 1911). It can be said that it has trained the first batch of urgently needed legal talents for Guangdong's modernization. As we all know, to run a school well, you must have a soul. Xia Tonghe, the first inspector of the early Guangdong School of Law and Politics, was a soul figure. Although few people have heard of his name today, this pioneer of modern legal education who is determined to "popularize the law among the people" is the first scholar to study abroad at his own expense. After returning from studying abroad, he studied hard at the School of Law and Politics for six years, sowing the first seed of legal spirit.
The outstanding achievements touched the famous Japanese jurist.
Interestingly, Xia Tonghe was 1898, that is, the year of the Reform Movement of 1898, and was the top scholar appointed by hand. However, when we turn to his article on the imperial examination policy, the whole article is full of tones such as "the way to govern the country is nothing more than the ancestors" and "those who follow the laws of the former king have nothing". According to our understanding today, it is simply a defender of political reform. Why did such a conservative person decide to go to Japan Hosei University for further study at his own expense after several years? You know, at that time, he was already the top scholar in imperial academy, and he was the top scholar. This move of studying abroad at one's own expense was shocking, so it made the headlines of Oriental Magazine at that time, and was praised as "Fu Neng entered other countries' schools as a student with the clear vision of the first person, and his ambition increased greatly. "Where does the power of this great change come from? Judging from the chronology of Xia Tonghe's activities, he went to Guangdong in the second year of winning the prize, where he met the patriotic poet Qiu and became lifelong friends. Later, he went to Macao and met a group of reformists. Although I have no definite evidence, it is not groundless to speculate that this trip to Guangdong has changed his mind.
Xia Tonghe only studied in a crash course at Hosei University in Japan for one year, but his outstanding achievements impressed Mei Kenjiro, then president of Hosei University and one of the founders of modern Japanese law. 1In July, 905, Japanese Legal Newspaper published a written record of Xia Tonghe's interview with reporters, during which he expressed the idea of "popularizing legal thoughts among citizens and strengthening the country and saving the country". That year, on August 29th, the Administrative Law edited by Xia Tonghe was published, which is also one of the earliest administrative law books in China. Since then, Xia Tonghe, the champion of the Reform Movement of 1898, has become one of the pioneers of modern law in China.
Run off-campus cram school to popularize legal thought
At the end of 1905, Xia Tonghe returned to China and accepted the invitation of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi as the supervisor of Guangdong Law and Politics School. Since then, he began the practice of "popularizing legal thoughts". Presided over the formulation of the school charter, including dozens of modern law courses such as general theory of law, comparative constitutional law, civil law, commercial law, criminal law and criminal procedure law. Incorporate into the curriculum; He hired some scholars from Japan to teach in the school. In the monthly collection of legal affairs compiled by the College of Law and Politics, there are often wonderful questions and answers from foreign teachers and students about the frontier issues of law, which is quite teaching and learning. He expects that through school education, "the harmony between officials and gentry will extend to the people, or from now on", which is actually only one step away from the concept of "everyone is equal before the law"; In order to realize the ideal of "making all citizens have legal knowledge", he even set up an "extra-school cram school", and there was a scene of "more than a thousand people on campus and more than a thousand people off campus receiving legal and political education, which was very prosperous".
After the Revolution of 1911, Xia Tonghe was elected as the first member of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly. From then on, he left Guangdong Law School, which was later renamed Guangdong Public School of Political Science and Law, and opened a new chapter. However, most of the graduates he trained became the first batch of legal talents urgently needed in Guangdong. A traditional scholar who refused to "reform" thousands of miles away eventually became one of the pioneers who introduced foreign legal education into China. On the surface, such a change is very dramatic, but the reason is that he has never given up his feelings of worrying about the country and the people and his efforts to seek truth. No matter how the times change, such quality will always be scarce and precious, which is why I am willing to write the story of Xiatonghe and Guangdong School of Political Science and Law.