Zhang Boling (1876-1951), a native of Tianjin, educator, and founder of Nankai School. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he led Nankai University and Peking University Tsinghua University to form Southwest United University, and together with Jiang Menglin, president of Peking University, and Mei Yiqi, president of Tsinghua University, served as the standing committee members of the Unissecondum.
In December 2004, Tianjin Jianwei celebrated its 600th anniversary. Two months ago, Nankai University celebrated its centenary and Nankai University celebrated its 85th anniversary. The city and this school are connected to each other, so much so that people will know: "Those who know China must know Tianjin, and those who know Tianjin must know Nankai." ”
Nankai University President Zhang Boling celebrated his 70th birthday in the United States, and Lao She and Cao Yu jointly wrote a dedication, saying: "Who in the world does not know that there is a president Zhang in Nankai?" 〞
However, for a time, Nankai seemed to ignore the existence of the old principal.
In 1949, Zhang Boling, who had served as vice speaker of the National Suffragette and president of the Examination Yuan, refused Chiang Kai-shek's invitation to go to Taiwan and stayed on the mainland. However, because he had "stepped on a stinky ditch", when he returned to his hometown in September 1950, the "progressive" Nankai teachers and students at that time did not welcome the returning old principal, and they talked coldly and indifferently, and many classmates thought that he was a "war criminal" and had already leniented him without registering him with the government as a counter-revolutionary.
Zhang Boling hoped to stay at Nankai University for a period of time in the summer, and deliberately solicited the opinions of the party branch of Nankai University, but did not get any reply. Soon, the Nankai school celebration came, and he was ready to go to the event early, but Nankai University did not allow him to enter, and Nankai University only arranged for him to sit in the general seat in related activities. Since then, he has become silent and lonely, often staying in his room, hitting his head with his hands, looking depressed and sighing. Researcher Situ Yun believes that this is compared with the anger of the tiger and tiger who have become more and more frustrated for most of his life, and the bleakness of his evening scenery is suitable for two poles. ”
At the memorial service after Zhang Boling's death, his deceased friend Huang Yusheng delivered a eulogy: "He regretted the failure of the late festival, he lamented that the old situation could not participate in the work of this great era, he was sad that he was a person who was abandoned by New China, he was sad that he did not have his status in the new society, he was sad that his life's work had been denied, he was sad that the Nankai Middle School where his life's work was located no longer knew him, and he could not get permission to sit in the auditorium on the day of the school celebration, and he was very sad..."
Different from the discouragement of the first two years of life, also according to Huang Yusheng, Zhang Boling has worked hard for education and China for forty years, toiling and running, running into walls everywhere, failing to get up again, getting up and failing, and the more she fails, the more she struggles." He never lost heart, calling himself a "tumbler", saying that "if he does not fall down, he can come back after he falls".
He swirled between people from the military, government, officials, and business circles, talked bitterly about running a private Nankai school, asked people to meet him in order to raise funds, sat on a cold bench, and was blinded by white eyes, but he calmly faced: "Although I sometimes ask people to see and donate money, I am blocked by them, and there are troops in the face, but I am not a beggar, but I am doing it for the sake of learning, and I do not feel embarrassed." ”
Situ Leiden, president of Yenching University, once said: "In recent years, whenever I see Zhang Boling, he always says: "Only he knows my sufferings, and only I know his sufferings." He is talking about the hard work of starting a private university in China. ”
The proceeds of these labors were once incomparably fruitful. Hu Shi wrote an article titled "Educator Zhang Boling", praising: "When he was only 22 years old, he started from a private school of five students, and by 1917, when he was 41 years old, his secondary school had a thousand students." In 1936, when he was 60 years old, Nankai School (including boys' middle school, girls' middle school, primary school, university and research institute) had a total of 3,000 students. ”
The famous political activist Luo Longji studied at tsinghua school in his early years, and an American female teacher invited students to tea and suddenly said to them with a straight face: "Children, you will all have to learn from Zhang Boling of Nankai School in the future." If There are a few more Zhang Boling in China, China will definitely be strong. ”
The female teacher spoke English and pronounced Zhang Boling Sanyu like the foreign name Chamberlain, so Luo Longji always thought that the Nankai school, which was famous and the basketball team could defeat the "powerful" Tsinghua team, was originally run by a foreigner Mr. Chamberlein, and "the school run by foreigners is naturally good." Later, he learned that Mr. Zhang Boling was a Chinese, and Nankai was a school run by Chinese, of course, during which "Nankai's football and basketball have also defeated Tsinghua several times."
Liu Wuji, a famous scholar of literature and history who once taught at Nankai University, called Zhang Boling "the great president", because Zhang Boling's first impression of him was that "that burly body stood like Taishan in the frugal principal's office", while Zhang Boling's personality and his career were "taller than his physique". Later, at the Nankai alumni gathering in the United States, the school song "The Shore of the Bohai Sea, the White River of Jin, the Spirit of Nankai", Liu Wuji thought that the same fascinating thing was the "Wei Wei Hu Nankai University President".