Turning over the history of the Republic of China, there are many big-man figures, who have both personality and Kochi. Many people have studied, but they are extremely conservative, and some big guys are in a state of intolerable water and fire. For example, gu hongming, a former Qing dynasty widow and a tycoon of the Republic of China, who was proficient in 9 Chinese dialects, was known as a translator, studied in Britain, Germany, etc., and could be said to be the person who accepted Western culture the most, but was regarded as a stubborn conservative representative in the early days of the Republic of China. He later entered the newly established Peking University to teach, thanks to the appreciation of another Qing Dynasty scholar and a big man of the Republic of China, this person is Cai Yuanpei.
Speaking of Cai Yuanpei as a person, it is difficult for you to evaluate him in one or two sentences, you can say that he is an educator, you can say that he is a politician, and you can say that he is a revolutionary. I read a lot of novels, and there are very few literary works about Cai Yuanpei. However, in "The Age of Awakening", Cai Yuanpei is the president of Peking University, and he accepts new cultural representatives such as Chen Duxiu, and the speech is profound. There are many stories about Cai Yuanpei, and film and television dramas have not all been interpreted. Historical records record that this Big Man of the Republic of China has more and more wonderful things.
1. Qing Dynasty Hanlin
Cai Yuanpei was born in January 1868 in Shanyin County, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and was admitted to Xiucai at the age of 17 and opened a library to teach at the age of 18. Don't underestimate Xiucai, which is not only a symbol of Qing Dynasty culture, but also an important identity to the Qing Dynasty official class. Xiucai is a person with status, can be exempted from various miscellaneous services, see the county official can not kneel, the official government can not easily torture Xiucai.
Cai Yuanpei did not stop at xiucai, and at the age of 22, he was admitted to the lifting. The imperial examination system is like a pyramid, the higher the examination, the smaller the number of people, the person who lifts people is actually an official, that is, one foot into the official field, and when the official field is short of officials, the person can be directly appointed as an official. Lifters are also exempt from taxation.
Why did Fan Jinzhong go crazy after lifting? It is because I was in my seventies that I was able to pass the exam and finally achieved the goal of becoming an official, can I not be crazy?
At the level of lifting people, there is another step, that is, to pass the entrance examination. At the age of 25, Cai Yuanpei was admitted to the Jinshi and was ordered to Hanlin, and he entered the Hanlin Academy as a university fellow. In fact, it is to enter the work of the highest leading organ of the state. Judging from these resumes, Cai Yuanpei is not an ordinary person.
Originally, Cai Yuanpei decided to work well for the Qing Dynasty, but he did not expect him to catch up with the chaotic world of the late Qing Dynasty. In particular, he witnessed the humiliation of the defeat of the Qing Dynasty in the Sino-Japanese War, and he also realized that the Qing Dynasty must be reformed, in accordance with the new culture of the West. In 1898, Cai Yuanpei left Beijing and returned to his hometown to work as a superintendent of chinese and Western schools, and began to promote new culture. To talk about the elders of the new culture, Cai Yuanpei is also one of them.
2. Feminist pioneers
Cai Yuanpei believes that new ways of education are needed to cultivate people, he advocates equality between men and women, believes that women should be given status, and is a feminist in the late Qing Dynasty. A Qing Dynasty official as a feminist vanguard is indeed incomprehensible. But Cai Yuanpei is such a person.
Cai Yuanpei's wife, Wang Zhao, was introduced and married, a woman of the feudal era. It is said that after Cai Yuanpei married his wife, he initially asked his wife to have three subordinates and four virtues, and also three and five constants. Think that the wife must obey herself. But the gap between his wife and Cai Yuanpei is very large, the two often quarrel, and Cai Yuanpei once wanted to leave his wife.
But after Cai Yuanpei accepted new ideas and new cultures, he had a new understanding of feminism, so his relationship with his wife further improved, and he also wrote a husband and wife convention. So that the wife does not have to honor herself as "lord", nor does she have to wrap her feet, and the husband and wife have equal status. But soon his wife died.
On the continuation of the string, Cai Yuanpei openly solicited marriage and wrote the husband and wife convention, one of which reads "The husband dies, the wife can remarry." Either spouse can file for divorce, and he will have to go to the house again. This kind of new thinking was rare at that time, because people with heads and faces at that time, even those who accepted new cultures and new ideas, were all three rooms and four concubines. The outside world feels very strange about Cai Yuanpei's practice, thinking that there is something wrong with this person's brain. No one cares if you find a few wives.
However, with Cai Yuanpei's big name, even if you don't have to openly marry, you can find a wife. In 1902, his student Huang Zhongyu married Cai Yuanpei.
In 1902, Cai Yuanpei and others created the China Education Association. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was not as open as in the early years of the Republic of China, but many students, influenced by new ideas, stood up against the unfair treatment of schools and even went on strike. Cai Yuanpei founded patriotic women's schools and other groups, and let the revolutionaries at that time come to class. This attracted the attention of the Qing government at that time, when investigating the matter, Cai Yuanpei ran away, went to various places to carry out propaganda and education, and he also actively studied German and prepared to study in Germany.
3. Revolution comes first
Cai Yuanpei really embarked on the revolutionary road, mainly in 1903, when he saw that the territory was occupied by Russia, so he and the Shanghai anti-Qing revolutionaries founded the Comrades' Association against Russia, and also founded the "Russian-style Police Questions".
Although Cai Yuanpei was a university scholar and the promoter of the new style of education in early China, although there are records of the revolutionary side, not many people know about it.
In 1904, Cai Yuanpei established the Guangfu Society in Shanghai, and it is said that several people who promoted the new culture at that time put the emperor's statue in a room and then read the oath, even if the Guangfu Society was announced. The purpose of the GuangfuHui is to restore the Han nationality, return our mountains and rivers, and pledge the country by example. But this "revolution" also has feudal overtones. Which dynasty is the emperor statue? Is it the emperor of the Ming Dynasty? Will the constitutional monarchy continue?
Although the Restoration Society had feudal overtones, it was guided by new ideas, and many famous revolutionaries emerged. People like Qiu Jin, Tao Chengzhang, Xu Xilin, etc. are all members of the Guangfu Society.
At that time, the Guangfu Society was active in the four southern provinces and cities, and often used assassinations to attack Qing bureaucrats. Cai Yuanpei is also said to have been involved in directing the assassination. It was not until 1905, after the establishment of the League, that the Restoration Society was merged into the League. After several failed uprisings, Cai Yuanpei believed that the uprisings were time-consuming and laborious. In ancient times, it was said that the thief must first capture the king, and assassination must have superior and ingenious techniques.
So Cai Yuanpei plunged into how to make poisoning drugs, he also found a chemistry book to study, and developed a poison, using cats for experiments. But how to give the Qing Dynasty officials a hand, so Cai Yuanpei thought that he still had to study explosives. It is said that he and Chen Duxiu were locked in the house to study explosives, and the two were very interested, and they really studied and made their own explosives, and it is said that they also used the explosives studied by Cai Yuanpei to kill the Qing Dynasty officials.
4. Reconcile old and new
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, China entered the Northern Qing Dynasty, and Cai Yuanpei supported the Beiyang warlords. As a former Qing Dynasty Hanlin and Republic of China tycoon, the Beiyang government also took a look at Cai Yuanpeigao. Later, Cai Yuanpei relied on his academic qualifications and prestige to serve as the president of Peking University.
During the presidency of Peking University, the new cultural movement in the country was in a climax period, and Cai Yuanpei also felt that this new cultural movement would inevitably bring new ideas. Chen Duxiu also briefed him on the situation in Soviet Russia.
As an educator, he understands that education comes first. But universities need to be compatible, with new ideas and traditions that can't be lost. So Cai Yuanpei invited Chen Duxiu to be a professor, and then invited Gu Hongming. This Gu Hongming was a representative of the stubborn conservatives of the time, but he was very knowledgeable, and this person looked down on the New Culture Movement. Chen Duxiu had suggested that Cai Yuanpei dismiss Gu Hongming, but Cai Yuanpei did not agree.
Later generations do not understand why Cai Yuanpei accepted both the new cultural movement and the conservative Gu Hongming.
In fact, whether it is a new culture or a new idea, who can save China and who can make China strong? There is no "good medicine home remedy". You can't throw away traditional things because you are looking for "folk remedies". As a traditional Chinese culture, Gu Hongming and others are fully competent.
5. Support Old Jiang
Cai Yuanpei's life has changed with the times, and he is also changing. He turned his back on the Qing Dynasty and supported Beiyang, and later felt that Beiyang had no hope, went to Europe to study, and when he returned, he became a member of the Supervisory Committee of the National Government.
As a big man in the Republic of China, Old Jiang had great respect for Cai Yuanpei. Therefore, Cai Yuanpei supported Chiang Kai-shek, and it is precisely this point that posterity does not highly value Cai Yuanpei. Cai Yuanpei did not see clearly what kind of person Chiang Kai-shek was at first.
In 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek decided to clean up the party and launched the "April 12 Incident" to massacre the Communists, it was said that Cai Yuanpei presided over the meeting. But later it was confirmed that Cai Yuanpei did not attend the meeting, and although Cai Yuanpei supported the old Chiang Kai-shek Party, he did not support the old Chiang Kai-shek's killing.
Cai Yuanpei was later dissatisfied with Lao Jiang's approach and began to stay away from him. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he and Soong Ching-ling formed the "Chinese Civil Rights Protection Alliance" to organize the Anti-Japanese War and rescue some political figures arrested by Lao Jiang.
In March 1940, Cai Yuanpei died of illness in Hong Kong.
As a representative of the awakening era, Cai Yuanpei is also groping forward. No one could see what tomorrow would be like then.
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