If you say that the first divine drama out of the circle this year is "The Age of Awakening".
"The Age of Awakening" is a group portrait, a cluster of gods, and most of the characters are relatively close to historical archetypes.
But there is one who is different from the image shown in the play, or that the play only shows his generous and gentle side, but does not show his less gentlemanly side.
He was Cai Yuanpei, the first education director of the Republic of China, the core elder of the League and the Kuomintang, and the hard-core president of Peking University.
If you don't know Cai Yuanpei, but have only seen the play or remember only a few simple descriptions of him in the history books, then reading this article may subvert your understanding of this revolutionary pioneer.
If you are ready, follow this article to understand the real, three-dimensional Cai Yuanpei in history.
Cai Yuanpei
First, from the eight shares of examination to the radical revolutionaries
Cai Yuanpei's family was wealthy when he was young, and his father was the owner of a money house.
Since most of his ancestors were in business, for the purpose of shining lintels, Cai Yuanpei deliberately cultivated the intelligent and sensible Cai Yuanpei to study, so that he entered a private school at the age of 4.
However, when Cai Yuanpei was 11 years old, his father died of illness, and the family road gradually fell, fortunately, his mother insisted on providing him with education.
With the support of his mother and family and Cai Yuanpei's own efforts, Cai Yuanpei began his own open-ended examination career.
Young Cai Yuanpei
In the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), the 12-year-old Cai Yuanpei lived in his aunt's house to study, and at the age of 17, he was admitted to Xiucai.
At the age of 22, he went to Hangzhou to participate in the township examination to take the lifting person, at the age of 23 he passed the examination in Beijing to become a gongshi, and at the age of 25, he passed the temple examination and was admitted to the 34th jinshi of the second class.
At that time, the presiding officer of the temple examination was Weng Tonggong, a heavy minister of the late Qing Dynasty and two generations of imperial masters (Tongzhi and Guangxu).
After reading Cai Yuanpei's article, Weng Tonggong said that he commented that he was "young and knowledgeable, wenji ancient algae, and juncai also."
Subsequently, Cai Yuanpei was ordered into Hanlin and became a Shujishi of Hanlin Yuan.
In 1894, the 27-year-old Cai Yuanpei was appointed as the editor of the Hanlin Academy, Zheng Qipin, equivalent to the current departmental and departmental cadres.
Qing Dynasty imperial examination
From the first level examination of the imperial examination to the clearance, Cai Yuanpei only took 10 years.
If it is now, he will undoubtedly become a bully and god in the mouths of many media and parents and teachers.
Although the official position of Hanlin is not high, in the Qing Dynasty, the walking of the South Study and the walking of the Upper Study were mostly held by Hanlin, from the emperor and the prince to the civil and military officials, and there were many preferential treatment for Hanlin.
Judging from the development path of the traditional scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as long as Cai Yuanpei stayed in the Hanlin Courtyard for more than ten years in peace and stability, it was normal to either enter the cabinet to worship the chancellor in the future or become the head of the government.
However, the wheel of history has taken Cai Yuanpei in a new direction.
Sino-Japanese naval battle
In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, the Restoration Movement failed, and the Penghu Reform Law failed.
Cai Yuanpei, who had a strong patriotic feeling, began to contact Western studies and realized that the court of the late Qing Dynasty was hopeless.
In 1898, Cai Yuanpei returned to Shaoxing, where he supervised the Chinese and Western Schools, began to widely advocate new learning, and slowly turned from a traditional scholar to a radical revolutionary.
From 1901 to 1903, Cai Yuanpei traveled to Qingdao, Japan, Shaoxing, Shanghai and other places to continue to carry out patriotic education and revolutionary activities.
In 1904, Cai Yuanpei organized the establishment of the Guangfu Society in Shanghai, and Qiu Jin, Xu Xilin, Liu Yazi and others were all members of the Guangfu Society.
Assassination and insurrection were the second of the main revolutionary means of the Restoration Society.
It was also during this time that Cai Yuanpei showed his radical and fierce side.
The five ministers went abroad
When it comes to the Guangfuhui, we have to mention a very famous event in history - the assassination of the five ministers of the Qing Dynasty who went abroad by the revolutionary Wu Fan.
The bomb used by Wu Fan is said to have been written by Cai Yuanpei and Chen Duxiu, which is also mentioned in the "Age of Awakening" drama.
Cai Yuanpei's radicalism is not only reflected in his personal development of explosives.
He also developed poisons by joining the chemistry teachers of the Guangfu Society, trained women from patriotic girls' schools to become female killers, organized radical young people in society to engage in killer crash courses, taught them physical chemistry and hypnosis, and put them in Hong Kong films, proper gangster godfather settings.
Although Cai Yuanpei was extremely aggressive in the early stage of the revolution, as a husband and division commander, Cai Yuanpei was very open and avant-garde in that era, and could be called a model of the times.
2. Pioneer of feminism in the Republic of China and hardcore president of Peking University
After Cai Yuanpei was raised in high school, he returned to his hometown and married Wang Zhao under the introduction of the family elders.
Wang Zhao is a typical feudal woman, who obeys the three from the four virtues, the three principles and five constants, foot binding, frugality, and Cai Yuanpei, whether ideologically or in life, are very different.
At first, Cai Yuanpei was very unaccustomed to and did not like this wife.
With Cai Yuanpei's contact with Western studies, he began to reflect on his marriage relationship, and also wrote a very pioneering "Husband and Wife Convention", so that his wife did not have to call him a grandfather, did not have to wrap his feet, and had things to discuss on an equal foot.
Under the understanding and guidance of Cai Yuanpei, Wang Zhao also slowly changed, giving up foot binding, no longer superstitious ghosts and gods, and the relationship between husband and wife also improved.
Cai Yuanpei himself was very happy to say that the two sons were "the love of the couple, and they regarded the new marriage as a plus".
But the good times did not last long, the long-term rush and labor dragged down Wang Zhao's body, and Wang Zhao died when Cai Yuanpei was 33 years old.
Cai Yuanpei and his family
At that time, Cai Yuanpei was already famous in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and after the loss of his wife, there was an endless stream of people who came to say goodbye to Cai.
In order to commemorate his deceased wife and overcome the annoyance of the matchmaker, Cai Yuanpei wrote a marriage notice explaining his courtship requirements:
1, do not tie the foot, the heavenly foot; 2, to read; 3, men are not allowed to marry concubines, do not marry the wife; 4, the husband is dead, the wife can remarry; 5, disagreement, can be divorced.
At that time, this notice was simply a challenge to feudal etiquette, which not only caused great controversy, but also scared off a group of matchmakers.
Later, Cai Yuanpei was introduced to Huang Zhongyu by a friend and launched an active pursuit of her, and in 1902, Cai and Huang held a unique wedding in Hangzhou.
He dispensed with the red tape of old marriages and replaced the cave room with a small lecture.
Unfortunately, Huang Zhongyu also died of illness at the end of 1920.
Cai Yuanpei was very sad, and the "Mourning Wife Huang Zhongyu" written with deep affection was also included in the middle school textbooks at that time and became a representative work of lyrical prose.
"The Age of Awakening" Lecture by Cai Yuanpei
Cai Yuanpei's respect for women is not only reflected in his marriage, but also in his career.
In 1902, Cai Yuanpei founded a patriotic girls' school in Shanghai to encourage women to participate in revolutionary activities.
His third wife, Zhou Jun, was a student at the school.
From December 1916 to the spring of 1923, during his seven years as president of Peking University, Cai Yuanpei transformed Peking University from a third-rate school with a corrupt study style, chaotic discipline, and students who only wanted to be officials into the most free and open new-style institution of higher learning in China at that time.
At that time, Peking University had new schools such as Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Qian Xuantong, and Liu Bannong, who were the first to lead the trend of the times, as well as Gu Hongming, a former Qing dynasty widow with pigtails, Liu Shipei, a master of traditional Chinese studies, as well as professional cattle such as Liang Shuming, a philosopher, Xu Beihong, a famous painter in modern times, and Li Siguang, a geologist.
Cai Yuanpei also encouraged teachers and students to open newspapers and magazines at the school, "New Youth" led by Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Li Dazhao, "National Ancestral Monthly" sponsored by Liu Shipei, Huang Kan, and Chen Hanzhang, the "Confucius Philosophical Research Society" organized by Liang Shuming, and "New Wave" founded by Fu Sinian, Luo Jialun, Yang Zhensheng, and others.
The strengths of each exhibition and the blossoming of a hundred flowers have opened up the ideological atmosphere of "a hundred schools of thought" for the first time in China's modern history.
During this period, the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Patriotic Movement, led by Peking University, opened a new chapter in China's new democratic revolution.
"The Age of Awakening" Cai Yuanpeisan asked Chen Duxiu
In the transformation of Peking University and the reform of education, President Cai's openness of thought, boldness, and superb means are convincing.
The specific details of the author will not say more, want to understand the friends can seriously go to see the "Age of Awakening".
It is also worth mentioning that in 1919, two students applied to Cai Yuanpei to let women enroll in Peking University.
In 1920, without the approval of the Ministry of Education, Cai Yuanpei agreed that Wang Lan, Xi Hun, Zha Xiaoyuan and nine other female students would enter the liberal arts department of Peking University as auditors, and then officially recruit female students, setting a precedent for coeducational schools in Chinese universities.
In that year, Nanjing Higher Education And Shanghai Hujiang University also began to recruit female students, and triggered colleges and universities across the country to follow suit.
Discussions on coeducation then extended to secondary schools, and it was only in 1927 that the Ministry of Education finally approved co-educational co-education in secondary schools.
"The Age of Awakening" Lecture by Cai Yuanpei Peking University
In his inaugural speech at Peking University, Cai Yuanpei said that "the university is a place for studying advanced learning," encouraged "all princes must hold a purpose and come for study, and "should take the study of scholarship as their vocation," and advocated the simultaneous promotion of "military and national education, practical education, civic morality education, world outlook education, and aesthetic education."
Cai Yuanpei not only did this at Peking University, but the principle of "freedom of thought and inclusiveness" advocated by him also profoundly influenced the development of education in later generations.
What is advocated today is that a good university should cultivate people among people, guide students to seek knowledge, seek truth, seek goodness, protect common values, and gain common well-being, which can also be regarded as the evolution of Cai Gong's educational thought.
"Academic heroes, models of the world", this comment of the great man, Cai Gong deserved it!
Staunch patriots and wobbly politicians
When Cai Yuanpei died in Hong Kong in 1940, Premier Zhou made a message for him: "From the platoon to the War of Resistance Against Japan, Mr. Cai's ambition is in the national revolution; from May Fourth to the Human Rights League, Mr. Zhou's trip is in democracy and freedom."
This pair of bangs can be said to summarize Cai Yuanpei's life very well.
In addition to the radical behavior in the early days of the revolution, Cai Yuanpei has always advocated "educational independence" and "academic freedom".
But as a patriot, in that era of broken mountains and rivers and national peril, his life could not be separated from politics.
He also successively supported and favored the warlords Wu Peifu and Chiang Kai-shek, believing that these two people could lead the Chinese government.
In May 1916, Cai Yuanpei also joined hands with Hu Shi, Tao Xingzhi, Liang Shuming, Li Dazhao, Tang Erhe, Luo Wengan and others to publish "Our Political Propositions", proposing the so-called "good people's government":
Mobilize good people to participate in politics, supervise officials systematically, convene a national assembly, advocate reconciliation among various political forces, and propose a number of measures such as disarmament, layoffs, fiscal reform, and elections.
In September, the actual rulers of the Beiyang government at the time, the warlords Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, who were directly in power, were pressured by all sides to agree to form a "good man cabinet" represented by Wang Pethui.
However, the general situation and political situation at that time could not support the existence of such a "good man cabinet".
Under the internal and external troubles of financial collapse, warlords vying for power, and oppression by the great powers, this "good government" that lasted two months and six days died prematurely.
In this regard, Cai Yuanpei was also deeply saddened, but the giant ship of the times did not allow him to easily disembark.
As the leader of the League and the intellectual community, and his neutral position in the various parties, he became the best lubricant and fire brigade for the regulation of the Kuomintang.
In major political events such as the Peace Talks between Ning and Guangdong and Chiang Kai-shek's two dismissals, Cai Yuanpei was influenced.
This series of events also included a famous "April 12 counter-revolutionary coup".
In 1926, Chiang Kai-shek, who was famous in China because of the Northern Expedition, successfully seized the power of the Kuomintang party, army and government, and began to conspire to clean up the party.
In 1927, with the support of Zhang Jingjiang, Wu Zhihui, Cai Yuanpei, Li Shizeng, and other Kuomintang elders, Chiang Kai-shek joined forces with warlords such as Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan, as well as jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols and the Shanghai Green Gang, to collude with US and Japanese imperialism and launch a large-scale hunt and massacre of the Communist Party and the Left wing of the Kuomintang.
Chen Yannian, Zhao Shiyan, Chen Qiaonian, and other young backbone cadres in the early days of our party all died in this massacre.
Later in Chiang Kai-shek's counter-revolutionary activities, the Warlord Zhang Zuolin also hunted down the Communists in Beijing.
Comrade Li Dazhao, one of the founders of the Party, the great proletarian revolutionary and Marxist, and 19 other revolutionaries of the Party's Northern Organization were killed.
In this massacre, Cai Yuanpei's firmness and cold-bloodedness are shocking.
He not only provided Chiang Kai-shek with a list of 179 members of the Qing Party, including Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other Communist Party members, but also Liu Yazi (a student of Cai Yuanpei), Deng Yanda and other representatives of the Kuomintang left.
At this time, President Cai was already wrapped up in his own class limitations and political situation, and he could not see the essence and trend of the revolution.
But he was soon abandoned by the "orthodoxy" of the Republic of China that he espoused.
Chiang Kai-shek and other reactionaries used the name of the Qing Party in the "April 12" to indiscriminately kill the leftists of the Kuomintang and the grass-roots party members who supported Sun Yat-sen's "united Russia, the United Communist Party, and supporting peasants and workers," which eventually led to the massacre of thousands of Communists and more than 400,000 middle- and lower-level Kuomintang members.
Although Cai Yuanpei severely criticized this behavior, Chiang Kai-shek at this time no longer cared about the elder's opinion.
By the time of the "9/18" incident, Cai Yuanpei finally saw the true face of the Kuomintang government represented by Chiang Kai-shek.
At the time of the nation's peril, he began to support the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party again.
Together with Song Qingling and Lu Xun, he also initiated the organization of the Chinese Civil Rights Protection Alliance, actively carried out the anti-Japanese patriotic movement, established the Shanghai Cultural Circles Salvation Association, and actively organized and mobilized cultural circles and people to participate in the Anti-Japanese Salvation Movement.
At the same time, Cai Yuanpei also devoted his energy to the work of the National Academia Sinica ("ACADEMIA").
A set of academic management and evaluation systems have been established, a group of domestic first-class scientific and technological and academic elites have been gathered, and ten research institutes of physics, chemistry, astronomy, meteorology, animals and plants, and historical language have been established successively.
In the past few years, the "Academia Sinica" has made considerable achievements in the fields of astronomy, meteorology, geology and archaeology.
These include excavations of the Xiaotun Yin Ruins site in Anyang, Henan, the establishment of the Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory, and a nationwide survey of stratigraphic structure and mineral resources.
After the Liberation War, in addition to the Institute of History and Philology led by Fu Sinian, the General Office, and the Institute of Mathematics, which crossed south to Taiwan, more than 60 academicians and most scholars of the "Academia Sinica" chose to stay on the mainland and became the main scientific research force of New China.
Songhu Resisted
In 1937, the Songhu War of Resistance broke out.
After personally organizing and directing the three research institutes of science, chemistry and engineering to retreat to the interior, Cai Yuanpei originally intended to take a cruise ship to Chongqing via Hong Kong, accompanied by Ding Xilin.
However, because of his advanced age and poor physical strength, he had to live in seclusion under the pseudonym "Zhou Ziyu" at the Chongzheng Guild Hall in Happy Valley, Hong Kong.
On March 5, 1940, Cai Yuanpei died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 72 and was buried in the Peak Chinese Cemetery in Aberdeen, Hong Kong.