Ma Yinchu: Love the motherland and offer ideas and suggestions

【The most beautiful strivers】

Guangming Daily reporter Jin Haotian Guangming Daily correspondent Jiang Jiaqian

As one of the most famous institutions of higher learning in China, in the past 121 years, Peking University has produced countless patriots and academic masters, and countless names with the brand of Peking University have left a deep mark on the history of national progress and rejuvenation. And Ma Yinchu is one of them.

Ma Yinchu (1882-1982) Xinhua News Agency

He was the president of Zhejiang University and the president of Peking University, and is also a well-known economist, educator and demographer. He was one of the pioneers in the study of Western economics in China, and since the 1920s, he has introduced various schools of Western economics more systematically. After the founding of New China, Ma Yinchu shifted the focus of his research to the theory of economic construction in socialist countries. With his solid theoretical foundation and keen academic insight, he laid the foundation for the construction of new China's economic theory.

He had ups and downs in his life, but his original intention did not change, always adhered to the truth, and pursued progress. Of course, when ma Yinchu is mentioned, it is naturally inseparable from his famous "new population theory", which can also be said to be a model of theory combining practice to solve major practical problems.

In September 1954, Ma Yinchu, who was already the president of Peking University, was elected a member of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress. The first national census that followed caused concern in Ma, who believed that the population growth rate at that time seemed too high, and that China would not be able to support its huge population in 50 years. He wrote his research results into an article entitled "Population Control and Scientific Research", which he submitted to the Zhejiang group of the Second Session of the First National People's Congress for discussion in 1955. In 1957, Ma Yinchu proposed to the Fourth Session of the First National People's Congress on "controlling the number of people", and then published "The New Population Theory" in the People's Daily, and demographers issued a "yellow card warning" to the history of human reproduction. However, the infatuations of the honest men were soon criticized. Under the pressure of the extreme "left", Ma Yinchu was forced to resign as president of Peking University, and his post as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress was also removed.

"Although I am nearly eighty years old, I know that I am outnumbered, and I stand alone and fight until I die in battle, and I will never surrender to the kind of critics who are dedicated to suppressing unreasonable persuasion." In the face of more than 200 articles in the press against him, on the one hand, he read them carefully one by one and humbly adopted reasonable factors to improve his own views; on the other hand, he relentlessly engaged in academic controversy against the fallacies in them, publishing more than 10 articles on rationality to fight back. In the following decades, the facts proved Ma Yinchu's prediction of the "new population theory". In 1979, at the age of 98, Ma Yinchu was completely rehabilitated, restored his reputation, and became the first honorary president of Peking University. In 1993, he was also posthumously awarded the "Special Honorary Award of the First China Population Award". Mr. Ji Xianlin once said that Ma Yinchu was one of the intellectuals he most admired after the founding of New China. To this day, Ma Yinchu's "new population theory" still has important reference significance for China's overall solution of population problems, the construction of a balanced population society, and the promotion of comprehensive and coordinated economic and social development.

Ma Yinchu's personal practice has set an example for the students to forge ahead in spite of difficulties. He once wrote in the article: "I do not teach on weekdays, I have no direct contact with students, but I always want to educate students with actions, and I always hope that the 10,400 students of Peking University will go forward in their practical work when they are studying and in the future, and do not bow their heads when they encounter difficulties." ”

Ma Yinchu, who has worked hard in the education garden for more than 60 years, has explored many fruitful experiences in education management and practice. He believes that the fundamental purpose of education and running schools is to cultivate specialized personnel who meet practical requirements and serve society. He has always regarded teaching as the foundation, believing that "the most important thing in school is to read and teach, and all those who have the conditions should go to the first line to give lectures to students and strive to teach the lessons well." He believes that "misleading people is the greatest sin." He believes that reading must be combined with social practice, "to defeat the dead reading." He has made bold and beneficial attempts in curriculum content reform, teaching method reform, teacher training and so on. At the same time, Ma Yinchu attached great importance to ideological and political education, stressing that in running education, it is necessary to "learn new ideas and establish a position of serving the people."

Ma Yinchu's student and professor of the Department of Economics at Peking University, Zhao Yixuan, once wrote in Guangming Daily with the title of "Unyielding in Mighty and Worthy of the Truth -- I Wish Ma Yinchu the Sixty-fifth Anniversary of His Academic Activities": "In the decade before liberation, he hated the corrupt Kuomintang government, dared to speak out in anger, suffered all the devastation without yielding, and could be called a righteous and mighty mountain! In the next ten years, he loved new China, worked with one heart and one mind, waged a resolute struggle for the dignity of scholarship, criticized mistakes, was indomitable, and lived up to the truth! Mr. Ethics article, admired by the world. ”

Guangming Daily ( 2019-09-18 04 edition)