Column: Studying in a Room (40)
Mr. Zhu Kezhen, a meteorologist and phenologist, served as the president of Zhejiang University in 1936, when the national crisis was deepening. From the beginning of his tenure to the construction of this famous school in the southeast of the mainland, Mr. Zhu learned Xi the advanced school-running concepts of the West, referred to the traditional school-running methods of the mainland's traditional Guozijian and academies, and personally shaped Zhejiang University and formed his own educational ideas.
In the oath taken at the inauguration ceremony, he solemnly declared: "Yu will never spend a single penny, use one person in vain, and never engage in malpractice or accept bribes for personal gain." If you break your oath, you will be punished with the severity. In front of the guests and more than 400 teachers and students of the school, Principal Zhu made his moral law public and took the initiative to accept the supervision of teachers and students. No waste, no corruption, no bribery, no fraud, build a line of defense for yourself.
Judging from several lectures and accounts scattered in articles and diaries, Mr. Zhu has a systematic understanding of university education. Because Zhejiang University was founded in a southeastern province, he said: "It is true that this university is a national university, but it is located in Zhejiang, and most of the students it cultivates are from Zhejiang, and you will probably serve in Zhejiang in the future, so we should also pay attention to the academic and cultural background of this province." "For students, considering where they will go after graduation, first let students pay attention to the local academic and cultural culture, and cultivate the roots of loving their hometown and patriotism from understanding the history and culture of their hometown. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, students were taught to associate career choice with love and understanding of their hometown, which also had the expectation of defending the land and resisting the war. In fact, after the success of the Northern Expedition, one of the questions in the county magistrate examination in Zhejiang Province was to ask candidates to write about several famous cultural towns in the province and talk about their historical and cultural origins.
After talking about the expectations of students, Mr. Zhu talked about teachers, he said: "Professors are the soul of a university, and the quality of a university's academic style depends on the choice of professor. From Mei Yiqi's remark that "a university is not a building, but also a master", to Luo Jialun's regard for teachers as his top priority after he became president of Tsinghua University, and then to Zhu Kezhen's positioning of professors as the "soul" of the university, the three seniors in the education field have the same understanding of modern universities, and they all see that successful universities must have good professors. I read old books and saw that the university professors of that era could be said to be unprecedented, both in terms of peacetime treatment and prestige in society. When Yenching University built several small western-style buildings where professors lived in Yannan Park, the drawings were ready, and the hired professors had to be asked to review them. The residences built by Wuhan University for professors in Luojia Mountain are still a sight to behold today.
Mr. Zhu is a scientist who has returned from studying abroad. He understands that whether it is Cambridge in the United Kingdom or Harvard in the United States, the reason why the school is famous is that there are laboratories led by famous professors and courses taught by famous professors. "With erudite professors, it is not only the good reputation of the school, but also the glory of the country; At the same time, he saw the academy education in the mainland, and believed that Guozijian was equivalent to a national university, and the academy was equivalent to a private university, and the spirit of respecting teachers was the most obvious in the academy, "often because of one or two masters, the brilliance of the academy." For example, when it comes to Bailu Academy, it is reminiscent of Zhu Hui'an, and Goose Lake Academy is famous for Lu Xiangshan's lectures." The inauguration ceremony emphasized the importance of the "soul," and he emphasized: "I will do my best to recruit more specialized scholars from the university to enrich the professors of this university." "Readers are interested in seeing how many famous professors there were at Zhejiang University in the field of natural sciences alone in the decade from 1936 to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.
Positioning professors as the "soul" of the university, Mr. Zhu also put forward requirements for professors, asking professors to set an example and create a good style of study with students, "At present, there is an extremely bad phenomenon in mainland universities, that is, teachers take classes at the school, and after they leave the lecture hall, they will break up with the students and do not meet with each other. He asked the professor to have a comprehensive understanding of the words "teaching and educating people", and hoped that the professor would not only impart his professional knowledge, but also care for and guide students in the classroom, and truly manage the growth of students throughout the four seasons like a gardener.
At the 11th Graduation Ceremony, Mr. Zhu's speech, from history to reality, made a final speech to the graduates, the core idea of which was to ask students to learn to think independently. He said: "It is not surprising that the uneducated people blindly obey them, and the people who can be hated are the many highly educated people who claim to be the intellectual class and sing a hundred harmony without common sense, and this is the most dangerous thing for the future of the Chinese nation." Just imagine what a great power it would be if most highly educated Chinese could develop an independent personality and independent thinking! More than 80 years ago, Mr. Zhu had insight into the inferiority of national character and admonished his students not to "blindly follow" at the graduation ceremony. He is a meteorologist, and he has long known the brainless "listening to the wind is rain" and the paranoid white left.
Popularizing meteorological and phenological knowledge is Mr. Zhu's social responsibility as a scientist and educator. His "Anthology of Popular Science Creation" was written for teenagers and the general public. Understanding the material world from a scientific perspective and learning to think rationally are the implementation of his social education ideas. Reading these beautiful and clear essays, I really feel the happiness of living in a global village from the melting of the lake ice, the green willows and red flowers, and the return of the swallows, because there are four seasons, and I understand the changes of the seasons.
Friends who have read Mr. Zhu's works know that Mr. Zhu's attainments in literature and history are extraordinary: he has quoted classics in his speeches and writings, and has incorporated the essence of traditional culture into his soul. Please read a passage of his "Water Vapor", I am sure you will agree with me -
Water vapor in the air is formless and colorless, and once condensed, it becomes a tangible and colored cloud. This thing is unpredictable, so the ancients had the saying of white clouds and dogs. Bai Juyi once wrote a poem about Huanyun in Hangzhou Wansong Forest: Baiyun has no heart, Shu Yang can be clean, pre-fall into the sky, but Huan can not be Nirvana, the kite flies and the fish jumps, and the top and bottom are clear. According to the current eyes, although the white clouds have no heart, every tiny water point in the white clouds cannot be condensed without a heart core. Because the water vapor in the air reaches the saturation point, it must condense on the core of a heart.
- This is literature, it is science.
Wei Jianmin: Editor and reviewer of the Development Research Center of the State Council, author of essay collections "Looking for Danfeng Pavilion" and "Chen Gu Collection".