△ Jiang Menglin
Cai Yuanpei and Jiang Menglin (Part 2)
△ Dewey and his wife took a group photo with the students when they visited the declaration hall.
Front row from left: Shi Liangcai, Mrs. Dewey, Dewey;
Back row from left: Hu Shi, Jiang Menglin, Tao Xingzhi, Zhang Zuoping.
On May 22, 1919, Jiang Menglin replied from Shanghai to Hu Shi's letter, Yun: "The letter has been handed over for public reading. Gong Gong has now left Shanghai to return to his hometown and return to school to take up his duties, and Gong Gong has allowed it. If this matter is not another matter, the university is expected to return to the original state. On July 14, the cheerful Cai Yuanpei was accompanied by Jiang Menglin to play in The Flower Dock in Hangzhou and composed seven unique six songs, on the same day, Cai Yuanpei had dinner with Jiang Menglin, Tang Erhe, and decided to invite Menglin's representative to the school to do things ("Cai Yuanpei's Diary"). On July 16, Jiang Menglin left Hangzhou via Shanghai to go to Peking University to run school affairs. On July 21, Jiang Menglin wrote a letter from Beijing to report to his mentor, saying that he had gone to Peking University first as a professor, and second, as a private representative of Cai Gong, he should treat things quietly, treat them with justice, judge them with clarity, and make peace with words. Then there will be no accidents. After receiving the letter, Cai Yuanpei immediately issued the "Notice to peking university faculty and staff" announcing that the position of president was temporarily represented by Jiang Menglin, and asked the faculty to support it. Jiang Menglin did not live up to Mr. Cai's expectations, faithfully implemented Cai's school management policy everywhere, and was welcomed and supported by the masters and students of The North.
△ Middle-aged Jiang Menglin
On the 26th, Tang Erhe wrote a letter reporting to Cai Yuanpei: "(Jiang Menglin) is enough to be knowledgeable and skillful, the students are at ease, and the rest can be solved." The Peking University Council also called Cai Yuanpei to express satisfaction with What Chiang had done. After hearing the news, Cai Yuanpei was very happy in his heart and composed a poem "Ascending to the Heights" to express his happiness. The poem says: "Looking across the mountain and looking at the harvest, a curved river is like a thin stream, and the whole lake is made into a spiritual swamp, and a few flat boats are slowly steaming."
At midnight on September 12, Cai Yuanpei returned to Beijing, and Jiang Menglin was appointed as general affairs director, presiding over daily affairs. On April 12 of the following year, Jiang Menglin was entrusted by Cai Yuanpei to go to Hangzhou to deal with the zhejiang first division trend, and in May of the same year, Jiang Menglin, Huang Renzhi and Shen Xinqing were designated by The Shanghai big capitalist Mu Rongchu as the administrators of the "M Moser Scholarship Storage Fund", and Professors Cai and Hu Shi, Tao Menghe and Jiang Menglin were selected for international students. The first batch of 5 students studying in the United States, namely Luo Jialun, Duan Xipeng, Kang Baiqing, Zhou Binglin, and Wang Jingxi. They are all backbone molecules in the May Fourth Movement. On September 11, Cai and Jiang attended the opening ceremony of Peking University together and delivered a speech. On September 16, Cai, Jiang, Gu Mengyu (provost of the Department and also a Shao national), Ma Xulun, Li Dazhao, Hu Shi and others jointly initiated the establishment of the Peking University Disaster Relief Association. On October 16, the notice was published: "Yuan Pei is about to leave Beijing, and on the 18th, I would like to hand over the position of president to Professor Jiang Menglin, acting president." During Cai Yuanpei's several overseas inspections, Jiang Menglin still sent the principal's full salary for Cai's use.
△ Jiang Menglin Letter
On January 2, 1921, Cai's wife Huang Zhongyu died of illness in Beijing, and Jiang Menglin immediately telegraphed Cai Yuanpei in Switzerland and arranged huang's affairs on Cai's behalf. After Cai Yuanpei returned to Peking University in mid-September to resume his post, he supported Peking University in establishing the Marxist Theory Research Association, and instructed Jiang Menglin to arrange office space for the research association, which Jiang immediately complied with, allocated two very spacious houses with very good equipment, and sent workers on duty. On September 29, 1922, Cai Yuanpei, together with Li Dazhao, Hu Shi, Jiang Menglin, Cai Hesen, and others, published the "Notice on Collecting Litigation Fees for Chen Duxiujun" in the Beijing Morning Post, and on October 19 of the same year, Cai Yuanpei resigned in anger because a small number of students at Peking University were in a state of wanton noise against the levy of lecture fees, and clashed with the school authorities, and Jiang Menglin immediately resigned with him.
Only from the above records can be seen that between Cai and Jiang in the Peking University period, it was completely a relationship between the liver and gallbladder, honor and disgrace and commonality.
● The third period: after Cai Yuanpei left Peking University
△ Commemorative photography after the ceremony in October 1920 awarded Dewey and Reinsch honorary doctorates.
Front row from left: Jiang Menglin, Dewey, Cai Yuanpei
(Source: Peking University Archives)
Jiang Menglin continued to practice Cai Yuanpei doctrine without Cai Yuanpei until he himself left Peking University. Jiang and Cai continued to maintain a good teacher-student relationship, with occasional exchanges of letters, and agreed on a series of reform measures such as the trial implementation of the university district system and the establishment of a university college. In the two years that he served as the chief education minister, the education reform system promoted by Jiang Menglin was basically in line with Cai Yuanpei's ideas.
After December 4, 1930, when Jiang Menglin was in charge of Peking University, under very difficult conditions, he resisted the interference of traitors and spies, and was determined to carry out various reforms of Peking University's affairs, winning the stability and ZTE of Peking University for 6 years. However, on certain issues related to the interests of the country and the nation, he disagreed with Mr. Cai, and a gap began to arise between teachers and students. Nevertheless, Jiang Menglin was still grateful to Cai Yuanpei for his importance and cultivation in his early years. On January 11, 1936 (Mr. Cai's birthday), he and Hu Shi, Luo Jialun and others jointly sent a letter to Mr. Cai, proposing to raise funds to build a house as a congratulatory gift for the seventh birthday. The letter fully expressed the high respect for this "citizen who has been loyal to the country and culture all his life and not to his own selfishness".
△ Former residence of Jiang Menglin
On March 5, 1940, Cai Yuanpei died of illness in Hong Kong, and Jiang Menglin sent a picture of "Great Virtue Descends to the Future, China Is a Perfect Man". On March 24, he published a eulogy entitled "Mr. Cai's Immortality" in Chongqing's "Sweeping Newspaper", summarizing Mr. Cai's life's moral character into four major spirits, namely, the spirit of academic freedom, the spirit of magnanimity, the spirit of peace and happiness, and the spirit of scientific truth-seeking, and spoke highly of Mr. Cai's life.
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-The end-
Written by | Lu Peng
Edited | Han Hua, Qing Yi
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