Chapter 154 free

After Cai Yuanpei took office as the president of Peking University, he spoke to the students for the first time, saying: "College students should take academic research as their bounden duty, and should not use university as a ladder for promotion and fortune."Later, Mr. Cai put forward the "Sixteen-Character Proverbs": including the grand ceremony, enlisting all families, freedom of thought, and inclusiveness.In just over two years, Mr. Cai transformed a bureaucratic training center into a "spiritual sanctuary" in China. Cai Yuanpei's "freedom of thought and inclusiveness" is the product of the combination of Chinese and Western - it is not only the absorption of the experience of running schools in the West, but also the inheritance of the fine educational tradition of traditional Chinese Confucianism.Since William Humboldt founded the University of Berlin in the 19th century and established the principles of academic freedom, teaching freedom, and learning freedom, "freedom of thought and inclusiveness" has become the basic value and basic principle of universities all over the world.Cai Yuanpei studied in Germany three times and studied at Humboldt University, so he was deeply influenced by Humboldt and the spirit of German universities.In addition, Cai Yuanpei believes that in the Chinese educational tradition, such a spirit is already contained in Confucian classics such as "The Doctrine of the Mean".For example, there is a saying in "The Doctrine of the Mean", "All things grow together without harming each other, and Tao runs parallel without conflicting with each other."It's just that since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion to oust all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone, the ideological world has been ruled by feudal autocracy for a long time, and it is impossible to have freedom of thought at all.Therefore, Cai Yuanpei believes that to reform Chinese education, we must follow the "principle of freedom of thought."

Xiao Tingyuan recalled: In 1917, I was admitted to the Department of Chinese Literature (namely the Department of Literature) of Peking University, when Mr. Cai Yuanpei was the president.The purpose of Mr. Cai's school is to be inclusive, and the leading idea is to advocate new learning.He hired Mr. Chen Duxiu as the head of the liberal arts department (that is, the principal of literature), and hired new figures such as Zhou Shuren and Qian Xuantong as professors, thus making Peking University a new look. …That year, Peking University recruited a group of auditors. In the Henan Provincial No. 2 Middle School I was studying at, a student surnamed Du asked to be an auditor. I went to Peking University to apply for it on my behalf.A gentleman from the Academic Affairs Office said, "The seats are full, so we cannot take any more." I said, "The seats are not full, please go to the classroom to have a look." The teacher from the Academic Affairs Office refused.I angrily went to see Principal Cai.The principal's office is on the second floor of the Red Building, and there is no secretary blocking it, so students can find it wherever they want.As soon as I entered the door, Mr. Cai saw that I was angry, so he said kindly: "Sit down first, rest for five minutes, and then you can talk after five minutes." After sitting for a while, I told Mr. Cai to apply for a classmate named Du. Listening in.I said: "It is better to accept one more student than one less. There are seats in the classroom, but the teacher in the Academic Affairs Office said that the seats are full. Please ask the principal to go to the classroom to see if there are seats?" The gentleman from the Academic Affairs Office invites you.In front of President Cai, I said to the teacher of the Academic Affairs Office: "There are indeed seats in the classroom, if you don't believe me, go and see." The teacher of the Academic Affairs Office did not speak.President Cai immediately took a pen and wrote a note "Allow Du XX to attend the Department of Chinese Literature", and handed it to the teacher in the Academic Affairs Office.So this student surnamed Du finally entered the school as an auditor.

According to Cao Jinghua’s recollection: “At that time, people from all walks of life in the society could go to the Red Building on the Beach (Peking University) to attend lectures. Those young people who had a strong desire for knowledge but could not afford to go to school due to poverty, such as shop assistants and factory apprentices, etc., Anyone can enter the Peking University lecture hall to attend lectures and learn cultural knowledge. This is unprecedented in the history of Chinese education. Now you need a certificate to enter Peking University, but you didn’t need anything at that time.”

In the memoir "When I was a student at Peking University", Feng Youlan wrote about the past events of the auditors of Peking University: "Peking University at that time was a 'freedom kingdom' in a derogatory term. In other words, it is a kingdom of bourgeois liberalization. After Cai Yuanpei arrived at Peking University, he did not have a reservation table first, and then asked the teachers to talk, but asked the teachers to name their research topics, and took this topic as a For the teacher, the homework table is really alive. The lessons he teaches are his research topics. He can enrich the new achievements of his research into the content of the course at any time, and can also use what he discovers during the lecture. To develop his research. Lectures are an opportunity to publish his research results, and the research results directly enrich his teaching content. In this way, he feels comfortable when speaking, not burdened by lectures, and students feel lively , do not take lectures as a burden. In this way, research and teaching are unified. To say unity is two words more, but in fact they are the same thing. It is the teacher's freedom to teach what class to teach. As for how to teach this class , that's his freedom. Students, that's even more freedom. He can take courses in his own department or in other departments. No one cares about what courses you take and what courses you don't take; you take courses No one cares if you don’t go to class. As long as you take the exam, you can take it. If you don’t plan to get a diploma, no one will care if you don’t go to the exam. The school is also open to the public. Anyone who wants to come to the class can ask for a handout at the door of the classroom, and sit down and listen to it. The person handing out the handout doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you ask him, he will hand it out until the handout is finished. Sometimes you should go to this Those who took the class didn’t get the handouts, and those who shouldn’t take the class got the handouts first. There was a saying at the time that there were three kinds of students in Peking University, one was formal students, who entered through the entrance examination; One is eavesdropping students, although they have not passed the entrance examination, they have completed the audit procedures and obtained permission; the other is eavesdropping students, who have neither passed the entrance examination nor completed the audit procedures, and come to the school freely to listen to lectures without permission. Some people rented houses near Peking University and lived there for a long time as eavesdroppers."

Cai Yuanpei advocates vernacular writing, but does not think that classical Chinese must be absolutely rejected; he advocates new literature, but believes that old literature also has its own undeniable value: "Old literature, focusing on the arrangement of tones, and the parallelism of words, is like music, like dance, Such as patterns, such as Chinese paintings, can not be called non-fine arts." Only in this way, he is not only enthusiastic about writing a preface for Shen Yinmo's collection of new-style poems, but at the same time he does not agree with "the young people embrace the superstition of new-style poems, write to obliterate", so I am also happy to write a preface for Pu Ruitang's "Seven Hundred Poems of Tang Ren in Vernacular".

In early 1920, Cai Yuanpei published a famous essay in "New Youth".He vividly compared the new trend of thought to a flood, and the generals to a beast, thinking that China's current situation can be regarded as a struggle between a flood and a beast. "If someone can tame the beast and come to help guide the flood, then China will immediately be at peace."Hu Shi emphasized in the "Notes" to the publication of this article that this is "a very important text that can represent what many people want to say but cannot say."Luo Jialun called it "a brilliant essay".

Cai Yuanpei advocated science, but he opposed the scientism of Chen Duxiu and others, which ignored the importance of human emotions.He said: "Knowledge and emotion are not good to be dry, it is science and art, which cannot be neglected." Cai Yuanpei believes that it is an objective fact that after the war, European thought circles reflected on the weaknesses of their own culture, and many scholars turned to Eastern culture for help. "The opportunity for cultural communication between the East and the West has arrived. We just need everyone to do their best."He instructed the Institute of Chinese Studies of Peking University: "On the one hand, we should pay attention to the import of Western civilization, and on the other hand, we should also pay attention to the export of our inherent civilization", and we must "pay special attention" to this.Cai Yuanpei said: "I am entirely optimistic about China's future."In time, "Chinese culture will surely be on par with European culture and contribute equally to the world."

Cai Yuanpei once said bluntly: "I have always had a prejudice against the student movement. I think that students should focus on studying in school and should not have any kind of political organization. Some of them are over 20 years old. People with special interests in politics can join political organizations with personal qualifications, without having to involve schools." On July 23, 1919, Cai Yuanpei affirmed the patriotic enthusiasm of the students during the May 4th Movement in the "Letter to Peking University Students and National Students", but at the same time warned students not to sacrifice their studies because of political issues, and called on students to return to education to save the country On the way, he pointed out: "Our country has a population of 400 million. In this era of incompetence in education and incompetence in science, how many percent of people receive ordinary education, and how many percent of those who receive pure science education? Those who are suitable, have the opportunity to receive education, and have the opportunity to receive pure science. Therefore, those who establish the foundation of our country's new culture and participate in the world's academic forest will all depend on you. How important is the responsibility of you, Is it an absolute sacrifice today for the sake of participating in most national political movements?"

Cai Yuanpei also opposed the strike by teachers. On April 9, 1922, Cai Yuanpei resisted the teacher's proposal to stop teaching at the staff meeting of the Eight National Schools.Hu Shi recorded the situation in his diary on April 11 as follows: "The day before yesterday (9th) the joint meeting advocated extending the spring break, which is actually an alias for class strike, and Mr. Cai attended in person and gave a very fierce speech. Ken extended it, and said: If the teaching staff insist on this proposal, he will resign, but this resignation is not for the government, but for the teaching staff. Although the people in the joint meeting are very dissatisfied——because Mr. Cai also said a lot Straightforward words—but you can’t resist. So yesterday, all five schools started classes, and all the representatives of the joint meeting resigned.”

After liberation, Qian Duansheng published an article saying: "Mr. Cai Yuanpei is partly responsible for the freedom and laxity of Peking University."