Walk through the hustle and bustle of the city, stroll through the quiet streets and alleys, and walk to the Chai Garden, where the Suzhou Education Museum is located, and the white walls and tiles are set against each other. Opened in 2017, the Suzhou Education Museum is the first prefecture-level education museum in China. Like a "double-sided embroidery", the Suzhou Education Museum is both a garden and a museum.
Chai Garden
Chai Garden was originally built in the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, and was originally the residence of Pan Zengqi of the "Guipan" family in Suzhou. During the Guangxu period, it was obtained by Zhejiang Shangyu Chai Anpu, after repairing and expanding, it was called "Chai Garden". There are water pavilions, rockery flowers and trees here, showing the elegant style of Jiangnan gardens. There is a couplet hanging in front of the preface hall: "Zhangjiao Huagong is the story of the museum's collection, and you have to visit the new appearance of the Joy Garden." Ye Min, director of the Suzhou Education Museum, introduced: "This couplet has two meanings. First, through a wealth of physical displays, the story of Suzhou education is explained; Second, here, visitors can appreciate the beauty of Suzhou's classical gardens. This is another meaning of 'double-sided embroidery'. ”
The Suzhou Education Museum aims to deeply excavate the development process of education in Suzhou, extensively collect educational historical materials and classics, and comprehensively display educational achievements, which contains rich Wu cultural heritage. In a limited space, the museum has carefully planned and laid out the ancient hall, academician hall, audio-visual hall, experience hall and other exhibition halls.
Suzhou Education Museum
The exhibition hall of the east wing of the ancient museum, through the use of advanced light and shadow technology, vividly reproduces the educational scenes and styles in the "Prosperous Map of Gusu", such as "village school teaching", "study building", "righteous learning", "imperial examination", "champion and first", etc. The bronze statue of Confucius in the center of the Hall of Fame was created by Yuan Xikun, a famous sculptor in mainland China. On the east and west walls are the floating statues and seals of famous educators and educators in Suzhou, such as Taibo, Zhantai Zhanming, Yan Yan and Fan Zhongyan. In addition, the Modern Pavilion, the Modern Pavilion and other venues display various academic achievements in the modern and modern periods, including academic transcripts, graduation certificates, tuition receipts, and letters of appointment.
The Suzhou Education Museum has a collection of nearly 2,000 pieces, the most precious of which are the "Zhengyi Academy Lessons" and the Qing Dynasty pocket bookcase.
Zhengyi Academy was founded in the sixth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty and was one of the four major academies in Fujian Province in the Qing Dynasty. "Zhengyi College Lessons" is a collection of student poems hand-ordered by Zhu Jue, the ninth president of Zhengyi College, which includes the works of Wu Zhongjun, the champion of Daoguang in the twelfth year, Feng Guifen in the 20th year of Daoguang, and Gu Wenbin, a Jinshi in the 21st year of Daoguang. There are many works on agricultural themes in "Zhengyi Academy's Small Lessons", ...... "Zhengyi Academy", which vividly reflects the production and life scenes of farmers.
"Zhengyi College Small Lesson" silkworm feeding words
"Ignore what is going on outside the window and read only the books of the sages" is a stereotype of ancient readers. In fact, during the Northern Song Dynasty, Suzhou education began to focus on vocational training. Fan Zhongyan founded Suzhou Fuxue and invited Hu Ying to be a professor. In the process of teaching, Hu Ying set up two schools, "Jingyi" and "Governance". Jing Yi Zhai studied and studied the basic theories of scriptures, and Zhi Shi Zhai specialized in farmland, water conservancy, military, astronomy, calendar and other practical knowledge. "The students' poems in the "Zhengyi College Lessons" provide us with a new perspective to understand the education of ancient academies." Ye Min said that from this collection, it can be seen that the ancient academy also attached great importance to the knowledge of agriculture and related fields in cultivating talents, emphasizing that scholars must be familiar with agricultural affairs, understand the countryside, and care for farmers.
Qing Dynasty pocket bookbox, size of 24 cm× 23 cm×17 cm, the book box panel has "pocket six classics" four words, the inside of the panel is written with a collection of books, including "four books Zhu Zi Ji Note", "I Ching Zhu Zi original meaning", "Book of Poetry Zhu Zi Ji Biography" and a total of 40 books. The books contained in the box are 10 cm × 15 cm in size, and these books are called "towel box books". The towel box is a small basket used by the ancients to hold headscarves, and the "towel box book" is a very small book with a frame printed in ancient times. The towel box can be placed in the sleeve, so it is also called a "pocket book". Although the font of the 40 books in the collection is small but the handwriting is clear, the heart of the edition has the title, number, page number, single fishtail, and the title page is printed with "Wenguangtang Six Classics Full Note".
Qing Dynasty pocket bookcase
Ye Min said that in the future, Suzhou Education Museum will give full play to the advantages of profound cultural heritage and rich collection of cultural relics, and take the museum as a platform to actively build a collection center of Suzhou educational historical materials, an academic center and a communication center of Suzhou education and culture.
(Jiangnan Times reporter Zhang Ziyang)