At the beginning of last century, Guangdong Law and Politics School started enrolling students
It was the first specialized legal education institution in South Guangdong.
"Students graduated from law and politics. In the original period, they were useful talents for the country, and allowed the musicians to be dedicated. * * * To help the times, regardless of the official nationality and their positions, they will be indifferent to the opinions of all classes. This half-written, half-written statement was extracted from the articles of association of Guangdong Law and Politics School. If you study it carefully, you will read out the desire of the school-running people for "everyone is equal before the law". Although the legal spirit of emphasizing rules and equality is incompatible with the traditional ethics of "respecting the humble and ordering", Xia Tonghe, the first supervisor of the Law and Politics School, made efforts to "popularize the law among the people" almost like Don Quixote's fighting 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 1 years later, a careful examination of the difficult course of this seed germination may bring us some enlightenment.
Running a school
Hundreds of local officials are forced to attend school
Those who intentionally play truant can't keep their jobs
To trace the origin of modern legal education in Guangdong, we have to mention the Guangzhou Tongwen Museum, which was established in the mid-19th century. As we have said before, the official reason for opening the Tongwen Pavilion is to cultivate trustworthy diplomatic talents. To deal with foreigners, we must understand international law. Therefore, the Guangzhou Tongwen Museum also offers courses such as Public Law of Nations and General Public Law. However, these courses are often regarded as the vassals of "western arts", and the starting time is very short, so few people really take them seriously. However, officials of all sizes who took the imperial examination as the right path, except a small number of people who are enthusiastic about westernization, even regard them as petty tricks and disdain them.
School of Law and Politics opens to recruit local officials to get in touch with foreign goods
The opening of Guangdong School of Law and Politics has made it impossible for officials of all sizes in the province to look down on these "western arts" vassals. In 195, the imperial examination was officially abolished, and the traditional scholars lost their promotion. The imperial examination lost its former golden signboard effect. Coupled with the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, handling police affairs, managing Chinese and foreign businesses, railways and mining industries all needed brand-new knowledge, especially legal knowledge. In November, 195, Cen Chunxuan, the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Yu Shimei, the governor of Guangdong Province, jointly played in the imperial court, saying that "the world is changing day by day, and the academics are becoming more and more numerous, and the politics and laws of eastern and western countries are of great significance, most of which were not owned by China in the old days", 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 the school of law and politics in Zhili.
more than five months later, Guangdong Law and Politics School officially started enrolling students, and officials of all sizes in the province began to have to deal with a lot of new terms that they had never heard of, such as civil law, commercial law, criminal law, civil procedure law, criminal procedure law, constitution law of the court, public international law and private international law. At that time, those old-fashioned 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 want to run.
Local officials are 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 over 1 local officials in Guangdong, big and small, from Daofu to Zuoza, the magistrate of a county. No matter whether they were real or alternate officials, no matter how old or young they were, unless they had studied law and politics abroad or had an important position, they would all come to the school to register for the exam. If those who should come don't come to the exam, or if they are admitted to avoid class, they will be suspended for a demerit, and then forced to enter school, and they will not be allowed to resume their official positions until they graduate. However, if there is a penalty, there will be a reward. According to the regulations, if the students get excellent grades, they will have the opportunity to be promoted, or change to a position with more oil and water. If they are alternate officials, they can also give priority to errands. In this way, in the face of such a carrot and stick policy, officials of all sizes in the province had to reluctantly start learning all kinds of dizzying Chinese and Western legal courses.
The school curriculum is complicated and difficult, and the management rules are quite strict. The charter of the school begins with a clear meaning, saying that "the school is set up for the study of law and politics, and all students should be self-disciplined in the rules at any time." Looking further down, disrespectful teachers, disrespecting subjects, unkempt appearance, bullying classmates, being late for class, not copying lecture notes, 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 Memories of Guangdong Public Specialized School of Law and Politics" published in Guangdong Literature and History Materials (the fourth series in 1963) wrote that students should bow when they see foreign teaching outside the classroom, and bow when they see Chinese teaching. If they are in the classroom, everyone will bow together after the teacher is seated. These polite scenes are probably due to the strict management regulations.
No.1 scholar Dongdu is determined to popularize the law among the people and return to China to run a school for six years.
As the first legal education institution in South Guangdong, the influence of Guangdong Law and Politics School can 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 each court, graduated from Guangdong Law and Politics School (renamed Guangdong Public Law and Politics College after the Revolution of 1911). It can be said that it trained the first batch of urgently needed legal talents for the modernization of Guangdong. As we all know, to run a school well, there must be a soul. Xia Tonghe, the first supervisor of the early Guangdong School of Law and Politics, was the 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" was the first scholar to study abroad at his own expense. After returning from studying abroad, he worked hard for six years in the school of law and politics, sowing the first seed of legal spirit.
Excellent grades impressed the famous Japanese jurist
It's interesting to say that Xia Tonghe was the top scholar appointed by hand in 1898, that is, the year of the Reform Movement of 1898. However, when we turn to his article on palace examination's policy, the whole article is full of such intonations as "The way to govern is nothing more than the method of the ancestors" and "Those who follow the law of the ancestors have nothing". Why did such a conservative person make a decision to go to Japan Hosei University for further study at his own expense after several years? You know, at that time, he was already a scholar in the Imperial Academy, and he was a top scholar. This move of studying abroad at his own expense was shocking, so he made the headlines of Oriental Magazine at that time, and was praised as "Fu Neng entered other countries' schools as students with the first person's clear vision, and his ambition increased." Where does the driving force for this great change come from? Judging from the chronology of his activities, Xia Tonghe traveled to Guangdong in the second year of winning the top prize, where he met Qiu Fengjia, a patriotic poet, and became lifelong friends. Later, he went to Macau and met a group of reformers. Although I don't have exact evidence, it is not groundless to speculate that this trip to Guangdong changed his mind.
Xia Tonghe only studied in a crash course at Hosei University in Japan for one year, but his excellent achievements impressed Mei Kenjiro, then president of Hosei University and one of the founders of modern Japanese law. In July, 195, Japan's Legal News published a transcript of Xia Tonghe's interview with reporters, during which he expressed the idea of saving the country by "popularizing legal thoughts among the people and strengthening the country". That year, on August 29th, the Administrative Law edited by Xia Tonghe was published, which is also one of the earliest books on administrative law in China. Since then, Xia Tonghe, the champion of the Reform Movement of 1898, has transformed into one of the pioneers of modern law in China.
holding extra-school cram schools to popularize legal thoughts
At the end of 195, Xia Tonghe returned to China, accepted the invitation of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and became the supervisor of Guangdong Law and Politics School. Since then, he began the practice of "popularizing legal thoughts". He presided over the formulation of the school charter, and included dozens of modern law courses such as general theory of law, comparative constitution, civil law, commercial law, criminal law, criminal procedure law, etc. into the curriculum; He hired a number of scholars from Japan to teach in the school. In the monthly magazine "The Collection of Law and Politics" compiled by the Law and Politics School, there are often wonderful questions and answers from foreign teachers and students on the frontier issues of law, which is quite teaching and learning. He expects that through school education, "officials and gentry will be harmonious, and they will be extended 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", which led to the scene that "more than a thousand people in school and more than a thousand people outside school received legal and political education, which was very prosperous".
After the Revolution of 1911, Xia Tonghe was elected as a member of the first House of Representatives of the National Assembly. Since then, he has left Guangdong Law and Politics School, which was later renamed Guangdong Public School of Politics and Law, opening a new chapter. However, most of the graduates he trained became the first batch of legal talents that Guangdong urgently needed. A traditional scholar who refused to "reform" thousands of miles away in the past finally became one of the pioneers who introduced imported legal education into China. From the appearance, such a change is very dramatic, but the reason is that he never gave 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 is always scarce and precious, which is why I am willing to write down the story of Xia Tonghe and Guangdong Law and Politics School.