Chapter 86 on youth

on youth Mr. Feng Youlan pointed out for the first time in the article "Xin Shi Lun·Praise for China" that most people value youth more than old age.This sums up our times.This is the age of youth, and this era should have started with the May 4th Movement.Since then, young people have raised their heads and found themselves, no longer just being grandchildren of grandparents, sons of parents, or children of society.They discovered themselves, their group, and the strength of themselves and their group.They are fighting against tradition and society, and are constantly fighting for their own leadership and even social leadership, wanting to truly be the masters of New China.But, like all societies at all times, leadership in China is in the hands of the elderly and middle-aged, especially the middle-aged.So came the rebellion of the youth, rebelling against teachers in school and rebelling against rulers in society.They rebelled against tradition and discipline, with sabotage and sometimes jerking.The middle-aged rulers remembered the tranquility of the youth before the May 4th Movement, and felt that young people like to make trouble and cause trouble, and the first step was to suppress it.But no.So perfunctory.The perfunctory got to the point where it was difficult to deal with it. Group training came and opened up a new situation, but we have to wait and see.

Young people have rebelled against tradition and society since ancient times. It's just that they have bowed their heads and been oppressed, unable to make great efforts, and appear to be quiet.It is common for parents and offspring to quarrel in the family, which is a sign of repression and resistance.There are also struggles between the old and the young in politics. There are many examples from Jia Yi in the Han Dynasty to the Six Gentlemen of 1898.The middle-aged people are always in the position of dominance. When the old people are powerful enough to affect their position, it is the age of old age. When the young people are powerful enough to affect their position, it is the age of youth.The influence of old age and youth ebbs and flows with each other, but the middle age is always in power, so there is no middle age.The decay of the elderly is the past, the youth is still immature, it is the future, and it is only the middle-aged who occupy the present.While they have to comfort the old and nurture the young, they also ridicule the former and loathe the latter.Consolation is still smooth, but cultivation is often reversed, so it is more difficult.Cultivation is based on the knowledge and experience of middle-aged people as the standard, and it is generally necessary to cultivate Chinese people who are willing to protect their loved ones and their things.Young people hate that such close typical standards hinder their leaping ideals.They are not willing to be pressed into the typical before the ideal is not tired, so they are always struggling, looking forward to the realm of the sea and the sky.Middle-aged people can't understand why young people always tend to go sideways and not follow the right path, calling it a disease of the times.In fact, this is the road to achieve morality and talent; oppression, struggle, the realization of morality lies in the balance of these two forces.These two forces are eternally balanced step by step. It has been since ancient times, but now it is more superficial.

Young people love to say that they are "innocent" and "pure."But look at this era, there are quite a lot of experienced young people.Sophisticated but only working for self-seeking, when it comes to major events and decisive doubts, it seems to be naive again.Young people demand progress and reform, which is naturally good. They have the strength to struggle.However, it is difficult to focus on big things, and easy to start small things. Their full energy may finally be used only on their own material reform and progress;There is no shortage of such people among middle-aged people, but their efficiency cannot keep up with that of young people.There is still a way to go if you are narrow-minded, that is to be a self-made man and live with ease; or you can take a step back and be negative when things happen, and deal with them carelessly, without being serious at all.There are enough of these two kinds of middle-aged people.However, if you are infected with these habits when you are young, you will be prematurely aging, which is even more creepy.Fortunately, young people tend to turn their heads back, "the prodigal son turns his head back without changing money", unlike middle-aged people who tend to make mistakes and sink to the bottom.

Young people are easy to reborn and change their appearance, which is what they can really be proud of; they are full of energy, have a long life, and have a wide road ahead, which is also what they can really be proud of.In short, there may be many.Maybe the more you rely on, the bigger it is, so young people are crazy.People say that you are not crazy when you are young, when will you be crazy?good.But this madness has to be cleaned up when the time comes, otherwise it will be forgotten.Young people love to be sarcastic, ridiculing and scolding hotly, once they learn it, they can't get rid of it; but this is only enough for a short time, and it will become boring after a long time.Young people scold middle-aged people for escaping reality, being tactful, not struggling, and compromising, and they have their own reasons.However, young people are sometimes shrouded in reality, unable to stretch their heads or open their eyes, and can only vaguely see a section of the road in front of them.This is another small thing.If you can occasionally go to the so-called "world outside the world" to rest for a while, maybe you can magnify yourself.Young people are also sometimes paranoid and do not return. In the past, they thought that studying could not save the country.At that time, Mr. Cai Zimin pointed out that "studying does not forget to save the country, and saving the country does not forget to study".This is not a compromise, but a tactful view of weighing the pros and cons.If you understand this tact, you can put yourself at ease.Only by being able to magnify yourself and calm yourself can you have real "work and seriousness", and you need to struggle here.

Mr. Cai Zimin deserves to be a teacher, and young people still need teachers.You don't need to be full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, you don't need to be polite, and you don't need to spread the scriptures with one hand and hold a sword in the other. As long as you serve seriously and kindly, you will be a teacher.But these people have to organize and work together.Reasonable, but not perfunctory, heavy inducement, but it can also be attributed to law-abiding.Don't rely on mother-in-law to beg young people, don't rely on sweet words to buy young people, and don't use knives and pistols to protest young people.Only after words and deeds are consistent, first follow what should be done and do it boldly.But the foundation must be laid in the school; the school may as well be as social as possible, but the youth training still has to be in the school.A school is like a laboratory, everything can be planned strictly; it is not a greenhouse, unless it is allowed to degenerate to that point.Training should focus on the collective. If the collective training is good, the individual will also change.People say that teachers only need to impart knowledge, and students should hone themselves as human beings.But there must be group training first, to teach young people the courage to help others and punish others, and then they can hone themselves.The great responsibility of this kind of collective training has to be shouldered by the teachers.The current tutoring system focuses on individual guidance, which is trivial and difficult to practice. It is better to postpone it so that everyone can concentrate on group training.Outside the school, there was intensive training first, starting with intensive military training, followed by various training classes.The former seems too simple, and the effect is much worse than expected, while the latter seems to be about the same.But the training class is at most just a step forward, and the foundation has to be cultivated in the school.In the age of youth, the mission of the school is even greater, and the responsibility of the middle-aged teachers is even greater. They have to work hard to lead groups of young people on the road of becoming moral and talented.

Made on June 9, 1944. (Originally published in Issue 78 of "Middle School Students" in August 1944)