Professor Liu Wenquan (1912.4.12-2001.11.19), a native of Wan'an, Jiangxi, stayed on as a teacher after graduating from Wuhan University in 1936. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he served as a professor at Soochow University in Shanghai, Datong University, Lixin Accounting College and Shanghai Institute of Finance and Economics (now Shanghai University of Finance and Economics), and he was the first generation of famous accountants in New China. In 1953, he wrote the textbook "New Accounting Tutorial", which was published by Shanghai Lixin Accounting Book Society that year, which was one of the earliest formal textbooks used by domestic financial and economic colleges, laid the foundation for the teaching of accounting principles, and influenced the development of the teaching content of the course for decades, was the "founding father" of the course, and also established the important academic status of Professor Liu Wenquan in domestic accounting education.
November 19, 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Professor Liu Wenquan's death. Cai Yong, executive vice president of the All-Union M&A Association and former party secretary and chairman of Guoyuan Securities, posted an article in Peking University Financial Review to mourn the tutor Professor Liu Wenquan, expressing his thoughts and respect for the mentor in timeless words. This article will be published in Peking University Financial Review No. 10.
November 19 this year marks the 20th anniversary of the death of my esteemed mentor and renowned accountant, Professor Liu Wenquan. Time flies, the sun and the moon are like shuttles, and in the blink of an eye, Professor Liu Wenquan has left us for 20 years. But no matter where I am, I often think of the 12 years I spent studying and teaching at Anhui University of Finance and Economics; I miss many of the old professors I met, even though most of them have left this world. On November 19, 2001, when Professor Liu Wenquan drove to hexi, I regretted that I was not able to attend his funeral because I did not receive the news of his death, and I have been feeling guilty about it for many years, so I wanted to write some words on the occasion of a certain death day to remember the idea of my esteemed mentor.
In August 1958, during the preparatory period of Anhui University of Finance and Trade (now Anhui University of Finance and Economics), Professor Liu Wenquan was transferred from Shanghai to Anhui to participate in the establishment of the school. There were only 34 teachers in the school at that time, and he was one of the 8 full professors among the transferred teachers. At that time, as a full professor, he had been teaching basic courses (principles of accounting) to new students in accounting for decades. During the Cultural Revolution, the Anhui Institute of Finance and Trade was abolished and replaced by a secondary school of finance and economics, and his teaching career was interrupted for nearly a decade, until in 1976, after the overthrow of the "Gang of Four", the school was restored to a university, and he once again took the podium and still taught the basic course of this major. In 1978, the state restored the college entrance examination system, I was admitted to the Accounting Major of the Department of Finance and Finance of Anhui University of Finance and Trade, the introductory course of the major I learned was taught by Professor Liu, I only remember that he was very "special" when he attended class, never took the lecture script or lecture notes, every day when he went to class, he pinched a piece of chalk to enter the classroom, and then began to take the class, memorizing all the lecture content, slow and rational, logical rigor, never pause, and the board book is neat and clear, we listen while remembering, sighing that he is too familiar with the content of this course, It's all in his heart, casually, easy to understand, very exciting, so that we, the students who are new to accounting majors, do not feel any difficulty, it can be said that he unconsciously brought us into this more boring profession. When I graduated from the university in 1982, I stayed on to teach, and I also taught him as a teaching assistant for two years, and in the next few years I also taught the course "Principles of Accounting", and I also served as the director of the Accounting Principles Teaching and Research Department for three years.
In March 1981, the Anhui Provincial Government approved the establishment of the "Anhui Higher Education Academic Committee", the main task is to evaluate the titles of professors and associate professors in various colleges and universities in the province, and discuss the teaching and scientific research work of higher education institutions. In 1983, Professor Liu Wenquan served as a director of the second council of the Accounting Society of China; in 1985, with the approval of the Degree Committee of the State Council, the school set up a master's program in accounting, which is also the earliest master's program with master's degree conferring authority in Anhui University of Finance and Economics, and the reason why the school was able to obtain the first batch of master's programs in China was inseparable from the strong teaching team of the school's accounting major at that time, including Liu Wenquan, Li Yaohuan, Zhou Shunchen and other famous professors, who all had unique insights in their respective teaching and research fields. It enjoys a high reputation in the domestic accounting and auditing circles.
Professor Liu Wenquan Academic Achievements Registration Form (Partial)
In the mid-1980s, the State Education Commission planned to compile the "Dictionary of Celebrities in China's Education Circles", which directly pointed out the names of the selected professors of the Anhui Academy of Finance, namely Liu Wenquan, Guo Yangang, and Hua Boquan. Professor Liu Wenquan was selected because he was a pioneer in accounting education in China; Professor Guo Yangang was selected because his book (in collaboration with Qian Jiaju) "The History of Chinese Numismatics" was The First Monograph on Monetary History in China; Professor Hua Boquan invented the law of statistics (called "Fahrenheit's Law") at the same time as Soviet scholars. At that time, the school asked me to participate in the compilation work and organize the personal files of the three professors, and their wonderful lives, teaching careers and rich experiences deeply affected me. It is somewhat regrettable that the above-mentioned "Celebrity Dictionary" was somehow not officially published when I left school at the end of 1990.
In September 1988, Professor Liu Wenquan re-edited the new textbook "Principles of Accounting", which was published by China Financial and Economic Publishing House. Taking political economy and materialism as the theoretical basis, the book combines the economic system reform that was under way in China at that time and the "Accounting Law" of Xintai, and summarizes the accounting theory and practice since the founding of New China in a realistic manner. It is admirable that when he compiled the book from 1986 to 1988, his eyes could hardly see the words on the paper due to severe cataract disease, and the writing was basically based on memory and habits on the scratch paper, the degree of scribbling was very difficult to identify, and the draft of more than 300,000 words was "re-sorted" according to the approximate content of the work written by me and my colleagues according to the general content of the writing, and then copied on the checkered paper (a kind of paper in a special format of publishing institutions is now uncommon). In this book, the chapter "Computerization of Accounting", at that time, it was still a new thing that had just emerged, and Professor Liu was sensitive to the fact that this was the direction of the future development of the accounting industry, but he did not understand it very well, and finally I wrote a chapter to add it.
Professor Liu Wenquan's re-edited textbook "Principles of Accounting"
In the 1980s, Professor Liu Wenquan wrote many academic papers on the theoretical construction of the accounting industry, which had a profound impact on the theoretical research and discussion of the national accounting industry in that era. His papers published in Accounting Research in 1980 and 1982, such as "The Objects and Tasks of Socialist Accounting" and "On the Nature, Theory and System of Accounting Science", were all heavy articles at that time, and had a profound impact on the academic research and theoretical discussion of "accounting attributes, functions and positioning" in the national accounting circles, so that in the more than thirty years since then, people will mention his above two important articles when combing and summarizing academic views and papers in this regard. In 1984, I also cooperated with Professor Liu to publish an article entitled "The Problem of Socialist Accounting Principles in China", which was the earliest article in China to discuss "accounting principles (or standards)", because there were still more ideological inhibitions in academic discussions at that time, so the qualitative word "socialism" was added in front of it, so as not to be restricted when publishing, just as the "market economy" must be said to be "socialist market economy" to distinguish "capitalist market economy". This article was also selected as the "Academic Exchange Paper in the Southeast Region of the Accounting Society of China" that year, and I also went to Quanzhou, Fujian Province to participate in this academic seminar.
A paper co-published by Mr. Cai Yong and his supervisor, Professor Liu Wenquan
In 1982, Professor Liu published the article "Some Theoretical Issues of Socialist Economic Accounting" in the Journal of Anhui University of Finance and Trade, No. 2, which conformed to the background of the ongoing economic system reform and opening up to the outside world in that year, and deeply explored the theoretical basis and basis for the reform of the economic management system and the accounting system of state-owned enterprises that were extremely rigid and inefficient at that time. The economic accounting system was first produced as the antithesis of the "supply system", and the means of production and production costs needed by enterprises were all supplied by the state according to the principle of "actual reimbursement and actual sales", and all the products of enterprises were handed over to the state for unified distribution. The "supply system" was also implemented in the first few years after the October Revolution in the Soviet Union, during the Stalin period, in China's liberated areas before 1949, and in the early days of the founding of New China. Although this system played a very positive role in the war years, in the later socialist construction, it was very unfavorable to giving play to the initiative and sense of responsibility of enterprises, nor was it conducive to saving labor time and improving product quality, which was contrary to the nature of socialist ownership and the current situation of the coexistence of various economic components. Practice has proved that objectively, it is required to replace the "supply system" with the "economic accounting system".
To trace the origins of the "economic accounting system" forward, it is necessary to understand the "New Economic Policy" proposed by Lenin, the teacher of the Soviet Revolution, in March 1921, which was the general economic policy and measure of the Soviet Union's transition to a socialist economic system. When the October Revolution was just succeeded, due to the Soviet regime's internal and external troubles and economic difficulties, it implemented the wartime communist economic policy of "collecting surplus grain", which aroused great dissatisfaction among the broad masses of the people at the bottom, represented by the peasants. After full consideration, Lenin proposed to replace the wartime communist economic policy with the "New Economic Policy" and to replace the "surplus grain collection system" with a "grain tax", which greatly reduced the peasants' burden. At the same time, foreign-funded enterprises are allowed to manage enterprises which the state is temporarily unable to operate, to restore commodity money and thus regulate production, and in the New Economic Policy he points out the need to establish a new socialist economic management system, saying: "In any socialist revolution, when the task of the proletariat to seize power is solved, with the task of 'expropriating' the expropriators and suppressing their rebellion largely and substantially solved, it is necessary to raise to an important position the fundamental task of creating a socio-economic system higher than that of capitalist society" (see See Selected Works of Lenin, vol. 3, p. 509). This was a breakthrough in the so-called "orthodox" concept of the time (i.e., Marxism), which reflected the law of social development in which the relations of production must adapt to the conditions of the productive forces. The New Economic Policy focused on the development of commodity production and various forms of operation, invigorated the market economy and free trade, and made the transition from highly centralized planning and management to opening up to the outside world and invigorating the country within a certain limit, thus promoting the development of the productive forces at that time and consolidating the alliance of workers and peasants. The success of this new economic policy is based on the coexistence of multiple economic sectors, such as socialist and capitalist economic sectors. It can be said that this was a bold reform of the traditional socialist economic system in the early days.
In order to coincide with the implementation of the New Economic Policy, the Soviet power demanded that all state enterprises implement the system of economic accounting, Lenin pointed out: "The introduction of the system of economic accounting in state enterprises is necessarily and closely linked to the New Economic Policy, and in the near future or in the future this form must be the principal, if not the only one" (see The Complete Works of Lenin, vol. 33, p. 156). It is a pity that the Implementation of the Soviet Union's "New Economic Policy" was relatively short, and after Lenin's death in 1924, Bukharin once supported the "New Economic Policy", but in 1928 it was completely abolished by Stalin and replaced by the soviet Union's first "Five-Year Plan". Stalin wanted to quickly accumulate capital for the industrialization of the country and reach the industrial level of the capitalist countries in the West, comprehensively introduced the centralized planned economic system, and completely replaced the "grain tax system" in the "New Economic Policy" with rural collectivization. Stalin's above economic policies and measures were completely imitated and accepted by us when we "one-sidedly" comprehensively studied the experience of "Big Brother" after the founding of New China. The newly published "A Brief History of the Communist Party of China" (page 185, People's Publishing House, 2021 edition) points out that "at the beginning, we learned from the Soviet experience. But through practice, our Party soon became aware of the limitations of the Soviet model and of some of the shortcomings and mistakes of the Soviet Union in the process of building socialism" (see Brief History, p. 185). After the reform and opening up in 1978, we further summarized the profound lessons of economic construction during the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution", re-advocated the essence of Lenin's "New Economic Policy" theory, and used it to guide China's economic system reform and the practice of opening up to the outside world.
In August 1985, when Deng Xiaoping met with foreign guests, he had an objective and profound evaluation of Lenin's "New Economic Policy", saying: "What socialism really looks like, the Soviet Union has been doing it for many years, and it has not been fully understood." Perhaps Lenin had a better line of thought and a new economic policy, but then the Soviet model became rigid" (see The Collected Works of Deng Xiaoping, vol. 3, p. 139). In reform, opening up, and grasping economic construction, no matter what specific ideas and modes of operation are adopted, we must do a better job in developing the social economy under the basic principles of socialism. The "New Economic Policy" requires that in order to obtain the best economic benefits, all economic activities carried out by enterprises must also be used to record, calculate, compare and analyze the living labor and material consumption in the production process and the results achieved in the form of value, so as to explore the potential and ways of increasing production and savings. Therefore, this is an effective way to manage the production and operation of enterprises in a planned manner, and is regarded as a basic principle of production and operation management of various types of enterprises. In fact, these are the basic functions and important roles of enterprise accounting, financial management and statistics. Professor Liu's theoretical research and discussion on the "economic accounting system", in the context of China's economic system reform and opening up in the early 1980s, in the theoretical circles to reshape the basic theoretical issues of accounting (such as attributes, functions, principles and objects, etc.) and the actual emphasis on accounting, play the role of accounting, financial management and statistics have had a profound impact, many of Professor Liu's views and expressions can still be seen today.
In 1982, when I graduated from college, the title of the thesis was "designated" by Professor Liu, called "On Lenin's New Economic Policy Theory and Enterprise Economic Accounting Problems", at that time he talked about the importance and reality of many studies to explore, let me write this content, in fact, at that time I did not understand too much, but I felt that this topic was a bit "big", enterprise economic accounting covers accounting, cost calculation, financial management and quantitative statistics, etc., just in line with the idea I want to write a more "big" topic, Because my academic year thesis is to write a more specific cost calculation method, but also want to change it, so I promised to come down, after going back to the library to check the materials, find content, write, but the middle of the writing only feel inadequate, this topic is really not easy to write, but also had to do it hard. A few months later, when I saw Mr. Liu's article entitled "Some Theoretical Issues in Socialist Economic Accounting" published in the journal, I understood the reason for this, and it turned out that he was also doing research in this area. During the period of writing my graduation thesis, I asked Professor Liu for advice many times, and he gave me a lot of guidance, and I can say that without his dedicated teachings, I would not have been able to complete that graduation thesis. Because of the long time, I could not find that article, and I remember that when I graduated, I was selected into the "Graduation Thesis Collection" of the 1978 class of Anhui Finance Institute. Later, I also went to the school to look for it, and I didn't need to find it, which is a bit of a pity, after all, this paper reflects the exploration of economic accounting theory in that era, and it is also the crystallization of Professor Liu Wenquan's dedicated guidance.
Today, Professor Liu Wenquan has passed away for 20 years, and I often think of him, think of his words and deeds to me, and remember his campus past. At this moment, there is a famous seven small words that can be the best closing words: the meeting is too hurried, the flowers in the school are red several times; the friendship is always in the soul dream, and the deep gratitude is always in my heart.
Author business card
Cai Yong, Executive Vice President of the M&A Association of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Former Chairman and Party Secretary of Guoyuan Securities Co., Ltd., Director of the Institute of International M&A and Investment of Chinese Min University, Member of the Strategic Development Committee of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Postdoctoral Tutor of Shanghai Stock Exchange, Distinguished Professor of Shenzhen Capital Market Institute and Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Consultant of the Securities Industry Culture Construction Committee of the Securities Association of China.
His major works include: Looking Back at Practice: Securities Companies, Capital Markets and Cultural Construction (Anhui People's Publishing House), Eyes of Practice: Research on Securities Companies and Capital Markets (China Economic Publishing House), Special Studies on China's Capital Markets (Hefei University of Technology Press), Principles of Accounting (Fudan University Press), International Accounting (China Tourism Press), Learning and Teaching of Accounting Principles (Anhui People's Publishing House), China Mergers and Acquisitions Report (2021) (Social Sciences Academic Press): "Anhui Listed Companies Development Report (2018~2020)" (Social Sciences Literature Press); "Code of Conduct for China's M&A Industry (2019 Edition)" (Capital University of Economics and Business Press); and published more than 50 academic papers and project reports in newspapers and magazines. (Cai Yong)
Article source: Peking University Financial Review, No. 1, 2022 (No. 10) Producer: Zheng Li | Editor: He Aiwen