In the context of the fierce erosion of traditional Chinese culture since the May 4th Movement, Wuxi Junior High School insisted on absorbing the essence of traditional academy education in the process of running schools, embodying distinctive school-running characteristics that were different from ordinary colleges and universities at that time. . In the author’s opinion, this school-running characteristic is reflected in at least the following aspects:
First, it focuses on integrity and discipline, emphasizing the unity of study and practice.
Paying attention to integrity and integrity and emphasizing the unity of learning and practice are important educational purposes of Wuxi Junior High School, and have always been implemented in the course of more than 30 years of running the school. When the National College was first established, Tang Wenzhi formulated the "Academic Regulations of the Wuxi Chinese Studies Specialized Training Center" with reference to the "White Deer Cave Regulations", "Donglin Meeting", etc., which emphasized that "our school is established to revitalize Chinese studies, cultivate Taoism and establish education." , so what we pay special attention to is "checking the body and mind, and sharpening one's character." This emphasis on moral character and conduct should be reflected in the unity of "speaking" and "doing", "learning" and "conduct": "Everyday reading should be reflected in the heart and returned to the body. If you are convinced by Confucianism, Sustainability is nothing more than elegance and elegance. Just like what Lu Qingxian said about studying, you should study by yourself, and be a good person by yourself. Whenever you talk about it, you only make empty talk, but have absolutely no practice in etiquette, justice and morality. You deceive yourself and others, which is despicable. You are not my disciple. "Yes." This kind of meaning was emphasized repeatedly by Tang Wenzhi at different times and on different occasions.
Emphasis on integrity and integrity, focusing on self-cultivation, is reflected in daily life, starting from small things, starting from bit by bit. During the Anti-Japanese War, Xia Chengtao, a master of modern Ci, taught at the Shanghai National Technical College, Shanghai Zhijiang University, Taiyan Literary College and other schools. He once recorded a detail in "Tianfeng Pavilion Ci Study Diary": During the Spring Festival of 1942, several Students from the school came to wish him New Year greetings. He found that the etiquette of the students from the national secondary school to their teachers was more thoughtful than that of students from Zhijiang and other schools. At a critical moment when the nation is in danger of survival, special emphasis is placed on cultivating students' "integrity". Tang Wenzhi and the teachers of the National Junior College used their actions to set the best example for the students. In August 1942, the "Ministry of Education" of Wang's puppet Nanjing government forcibly took over Shanghai Jiao Tong University and renamed it "National Jiao Tong University". Wang Fangchang, the provost of the Shanghai National Technical College who was a part-time professor at Jiao Tong University, and five colleagues resigned from Jiao Tong University. He is known as the "Sixth Professor of Anti-Puppetry"; Wang Zangchang also wrote "The Song of a Chaste Woman" to clarify his ambition. It was also reported that the "Ministry of Education" of the puppet Nanjing government sent people to persuade Tang Wenzhi to serve as the chairman of the puppet University of Science and Technology (some said he was appointed as the president), and threatened him to sign and agree. Tang Wenzhi calmly replied: "I am seventy or eighty years old, so I don't have to sign this." !" Xia Chengtao heard about this matter decades later, and wrote a poem called "Nanxiangzi", praising Tang Wenzhi for "being shocked by Hu'er's few words" and "for the wind and frost in the late festival, and the generous song of his porridge career". "The stanza line.
The second is to focus on the training practice of reading original works and writing.
Qian Zhonglian, an early student of the National Primary School, summed up that one of the teaching features of Wuxi National Primary School is the emphasis on reading the original ancient books. He said: "The emphasis in teaching is to teach the original ancient books and teach students to master basic knowledge. Even if The compilation of textbooks also selects a large number of original works and combines them with theory, which is not a general theory. "The bibliography used by early national secondary school students is the "Thirteen Classics Readings" compiled by Tang Wenzhi, and the biography category of the history department is "Four. "History" refers to "Historical Records", "Hanshu", "Later Hanshu" and "Three Kingdoms", the chronological category is "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and "Xu Tong Jian", and the cultural relics category is "Tong Dian" and its sequels ; The sub-parts are "Twenty-Three Sons" by Zhejiang Book Company and "The Great Meanings of the Five Sons of the Song Dynasty" written by Tang Wenzhi; the collections include "The Great Meanings of Political Science" written by Tang Wenzhi, paragraph annotations "Shuowen Jiezi", "Selected Works of Zhaoming", Zhengbu Continuing "Compilation of Ancient Chinese Ci", "Miscellaneous Notes of One Hundred Schools of Classics and History", etc. In this way, the important original works in the four traditional collections of Classics and History are basically included.
In addition to reading original works, paying attention to Chinese writing is also a prominent feature of Wuxi Junior High School teaching. Writing is a comprehensive and comprehensive ability training, which can promote the overall improvement of people's reading comprehension ability, analytical thinking ability and written expression ability. Students' writing training is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, regular writing classes in each semester. Qian Zhonglian said: "The Special Training School attaches great importance to writing (classical Chinese). It requires writing once every two weeks and handing in the paper for three hours in class. Those who are rated first twice in a month will be given a tuition fee of ten yuan in silver coins and will be assessed twice. The second-place students are given five yuan (similar to a scholarship) as a reward. Each essay is carefully corrected by the teacher. There is an eyebrow review and a general review. The second is the Chinese Language Competition, which is held once a semester, also known as the Chinese Literature Conference. , the Chinese Language and Literature Conference Examination is regarded as "a major event" in the teaching life of the national secondary school.
During each competition, all students in the school gather in the auditorium, select one of several predetermined topics, and write a paper within a time limit. After several rounds of selection, individual awards and grade awards are awarded. Because of the high emphasis on writing training, students' writing skills improve rapidly; and because they have experience in writing practice, they can have a personal understanding of how the ancients wrote, which plays a role in promoting each other between reading and writing.
The third is to follow the trend of modern education and adhere to the characteristics of Chinese studies education.
As mentioned earlier, one of the characteristics of early teaching in Wuxi National College was reading original ancient books. After the establishment of the reform, in order to integrate the school into the formal system of national higher education and to adapt to the needs of cultivating modern educational talents, Wuxi Junior High School has made many changes in the curriculum and other aspects, such as the establishment of a credit system, all courses It is divided into two major categories: compulsory and elective, and many introductory courses such as Chinese cultural history, Chinese philosophy, literature history, introduction to Chinese studies, introduction to philosophy, history of Western literature, literary criticism, and education have been added. Despite many changes, in the entire curriculum and teaching content of Wuxi National High School, the reading and training of important classics of Chinese studies, and the academic training in writing, exegesis, phonology, edition catalogs, etc. have always occupied a relatively large proportion. Large proportion. The students trained in this way have both a solid foundation in Chinese studies and a relatively broad cultural vision. This is an important guarantee for Wuxi National College to cultivate a large number of outstanding talents in Chinese studies research and literature and history education.
The fourth is to focus on cultivating students’ abilities of self-learning, practice and self-management.
Wuxi Junior High School also inherits the characteristics of traditional academies to a certain extent. In addition to classroom lectures, it focuses on cultivating students’ personal reading and self-study habits and abilities; in this process, teachers provide students with Necessary guidance is always given, and students and teachers always maintain good communication and interaction. For example, student Chen Guanghan was fond of poetry and often asked famous writers such as Chen Yan and Xia Chengtao, who had not yet taught at the national secondary school, for advice on poetry. In 1936, Chen Guanghan wrote a letter to discuss the purpose of poetry with Xia Chengtao. Xia Chengtao responded with a long letter, and the entire letter was published in the fifth issue of the fifth volume of "Guozhuan Monthly" as "On Poetics and Chen Guanghan's Book". The following year, Chen Guanghan compiled the poetic issues he discussed with Chen Yan into an article "Mr. Chen Shiyi Answers Seven Questions about Chen Guanghan's Poetry", which was published in the third issue of Volume 5 of Guozhan Monthly. There are many such examples, from which we can see that junior college students are good at self-study and self-research, and there is a strong culture of exchanges and discussions between classmates and teachers and students.
While cultivating students’ self-learning and self-research abilities, Wuxi Junior High School also focuses on practical training, especially allowing students to participate in the practice of collating literary and historical classics and documents, and in the process improving students’ practical abilities. Research ability. For example, in October 1923, Tang Wenzhi sent five people, including Wang Changchang, Tang Lan, Wu Qichang, Wu Baoling, and Dai Enpu, to Baoying Liu Hanchen's house to copy the "Zhuji Annotations" written by Qing Dynasty scholars Wang Maohong and Zhu Zeyun, and completed it in seven days. After returning to Wuxi, Tang Wenzhi asked Wang Zangchang to organize it and organize it into four volumes. He created some rough rules and named it "Compilation and Commentary of the Complete Works of Zhu Zi". In 1922, Tang Wenzhi compiled and published the "Thirteen Classics Reading", which is a set of 20 letters and 120 volumes. Fifty-six people including Tang Lan, Wang Zangchang, Jiang Tingyao, Wu Qichang, Jiang Tianshu, etc., who wrote this book at Xiang School, were all students of the first two batches of the Wuxi Chinese Studies School. Although this move is to ensure that the book can be published as soon as possible, it is an excellent opportunity for professional learning and academic training for the students involved.
An important content in the management system of Wuxi Junior High School is students’ self-organization and self-management. Since the 1930s, the school has established a student government association, which organizes, coordinates and mobilizes students to conduct academic research, lectures, visits, assemblies and entertainment activities. Under the organization and operation of the Student Government Association, Wuxi Junior High School students conduct academic seminars, invite experts and scholars to give speeches, carry out club activities, and publish their own academic journals. The atmosphere is very active.
For example, in terms of club activities, Wuxi Junior High School has successively organized poetry clubs such as Guofeng, Jiheng, Qiushui, Furong, and Bianfeng, calligraphy research societies, history and geography research societies, and many other societies. There are full-time teachers responsible for guidance." In terms of compiling and creating publications, it has successively compiled and printed "Wuxi National Special Education Quarterly", "Wuxi National Special Education Annual", "National Special Education Monthly", etc., especially the "National Special Education Monthly" in the mid-1930s. It contains the works of teachers and students of the National College. It was not only the longest-running publication in Wuxi National College, but also occupied a place in the academic field of domestic Chinese studies at that time.
Wuxi Junior College is a very famous school in the history of modern Chinese academics. Although it is private, it is extremely famous. Wuxi National College was founded with donations from Shi Shengzhi at the end of the 9th year of the Republic of China. At that time, it was called the Chinese Studies College, and its director was Tang Wenzhi. The National College was established in the second year after the May 4th Movement. Its emergence may be related to the radical attitude of the May 4th New Culture Movement towards Chinese studies. After the May 4th Movement, in revitalizing Chinese studies, the efforts of the National College should be said to be very successful. Its efforts have a special significance, that is, when the new academic trend has an impact on traditional academics, how can traditional academics maintain their vitality? The choice of profession is education and talent.
In 1928, after Qian Jibo became the dean of academic affairs at the National College, the school’s curriculum changed slightly. “The original academic curriculum of this college is roughly the same as that of the Chinese Literature Department of the National University College of Liberal Arts.” It can be seen that its teaching also adapts to the times. In the same year, the Central University sent personnel to the National College to investigate the teaching situation and the response was: "The management is extremely perfect." At the same time, the university sent Liu Yizheng to the National College to investigate and concluded: "The submitted regulations are in compliance with the regulations and the results are excellent, so the case will be approved on September 20." From then on, the national junior high school received funding from the Ministry of Education of "three thousand yuan per academic year." The price paid by the national college for this is to set up party consciousness courses, experiments on the Three People's Principles and military education and training.
In modern society, it is quite difficult to maintain a completely traditional education method, but national secondary schools have relatively adjusted this relationship. In terms of the number of students, the first class recruited thirty people, and each subsequent class will have between thirty and forty people, with a maximum of fifty people recruited at one time. Although the number was small, many famous scholars in Chinese studies were produced, such as Tang Lan, Wu Qichang, Jiang Tianshu, Qian Zhonglian, Wang Quchang, Chen Zhongfan, etc. These scholars eventually settled in modern universities in China. When this collection was published, nine classes of students had graduated from the national junior college (including studies and correspondence courses). Judging from their place of origin, except for a small number of people from Sichuan, Fujian, Anhui and Guangxi, the rest were from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. I looked through the alumni list and found no northerners.
The final destination of students from Wuxi’s national secondary schools, especially after 1949, was basically in the Chinese and history departments of various universities in China. This experience became the pride of their lives. It can also be said that in terms of the total number of students in the school, the number of students in national secondary schools is not too large, but in terms of the number of majors, it is not too small. At that time, it was common for Chinese universities to have as many as ten students and as few as three or two students in Chinese language and history departments. In terms of time, the National College is five or six years earlier than the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University, so the best of its students went to the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University, such as Wu Qichang and Jiang Tianshu. This is actually a system. Looking at it a few decades later, it can be said that the world of Chinese literature, history and philosophy is generally supported by these two groups of people. Just look at the list of graduates of the Tsinghua Institute of Chinese Studies since 1926. These two Chinese studies educational institutions, one state-owned and the other private, neither lasted for a long time. Their discontinuation also foreshadowed the final fate of Chinese studies research. There happened to be a period of academic continuity between the rise of these two Chinese studies educational institutions. It is this continuity that continues the life of Chinese studies research. After them, it will be difficult for academics like them to appear again in this field. This is why Tsinghua Institute of Chinese Studies and Wuxi National College are particularly valued, because they turned the tide when Chinese Studies faced impact. Then it fell. History is sometimes frightening when viewed with hindsight. Without these two institutions, it is really unimaginable what kind of situation China's later Chinese studies research would have been like. By the way, although Qian Mu and Qian Zhongshu did not come from Wuxi National College, they actually have a deeper relationship with it. Qian Zhongshu's father, Qian Jibo, was the academic director of Wuxi National College, and Qian Mu also started his early academic career in Wuxi. Unexpectedly, the life of traditional Chinese academics was finally connected with a water town in the south of the Yangtze River.