Pan Guangdan: Maverick Doctor

If Pan Guangdan now went into the university library to look through the borrowing records, I am afraid that he would still be angry.

In the late 1940s, when he was the director of the library of Tsinghua University, he once checked the library's borrowing and found that the most common thing was "Chinese - vernacular - novel", which could not help but be extremely angry, because it showed that students were lazy and liked to read novels instead of reading chinese and foreign languages. He later wrote a special article analysis, saying that young people are dominated by the stereotypes of the times, like to read vernacular, translated books and newspapers, and snubbed foreign languages and literary books, which should be worried - today's university libraries, the most borrowed, are often all kinds of commercially strong best-selling novels.

Pan Guangdan was angry about such a thing, not nitpicking. His life as a person, the world, and the study are full of the humanistic feelings of traditional scholars. Reflected in his educational ideas, it has a strong Confucian characteristic.

The core of Pan Guangdan's educational thought, "neutralization and positional education", that is, the Classic Of the Confucian Classic "Zhongyong". Its text reads: "In the undeveloped words of joy and sorrow, the sum of the middle verses is said to be the sum." The one who is in the middle, the great ben of the world, and the one who is also the one who is in the world, the way of the world. To neutralize, heaven to the heavens, and all things to nurture. With this as the core, Pan Guangdan made profound observations and reflections on human development in connection with the reality of national social development at that time, and put it into practice.

So why does he care so much about students not reading and foreign languages? That's because he believes that language and foreign language are indispensable tools for students to become "perfect people". At that time, the trend of thought in the education circles was keen to cultivate specialized technical talents, and Pan Guangdan was very disgusted by this. He believes that education must be aimed at everyone, must be started in every person, the main purpose of education is to complete a person, the biggest purpose of education is to promote personality development, the ultimate purpose of education is to let the educated complete the "self", to promote the self to a "supreme good" realm, to become a "perfect person". Expert talents must be able to become professionals in the sense of a complete "person" after completing people's education, otherwise they can only be excellent tools at best.

But Pan Guangdan is clearly not an old gentleman of the old era. It should be noted that in his title, there is also a "first scholar to unveil the psychological veil of national human nature". Even today, the word "sexologist" attracts more attention than their research, let alone at the time. However, as early as the age of 22, Pan Guangdan wrote "Feng Xiaoqing Kao" with Western sexual science theory, which was deeply appreciated by Liang Qichao: "With the clarity of my brother's mind, he can be a scientist; with the depth of my brother's emotions, he can be a literary scholar!" Another example of Pan Guangdan's active WTO membership is that he is an active political participant. He has participated in political campaigns as many times as his friends have heard a lot. After Wen Yiduo's assassination, it was Pan Guangdan's turn next, so much so that he had to take refuge in the U.S. consulate in Kunming.

Such a positive "WTO entry" is not only related to his temperament as a scholar and doctor, but also because he pays attention to the words and deeds of teachers. Pan Guangdan attaches great importance to the exemplary role of teachers, he proposed to choose teachers carefully, the selection of teachers not only depends on how much he has learned, the depth of learning, more importantly, his knowledge has had a good impact on his personal daily life, Pan Guangdan believes that the exemplary role of teachers' demeanor is far better than those life precepts implemented in the discipline and the regulations for rewarding and punishing meritorious deeds.

Pan Guangdan is qualified to say this. When he was seventeen years old, he lost half a leg due to a sports accident and wanted to study abroad, and was also ridiculed by Yan Heling, the acting principal of Tsinghua at the time, "I am afraid that it is not appropriate, Americans will say that Chinese two legs are not enough, and one leg is also sent"! In exchange for someone else, I am afraid that I have long been in a slump, but Pan Guangdan not only did not think it was a thought, but also made a poem to describe the nostalgia: talking about the soldiers and passing on the sun to the sun, and telling the history of the funeral ming said Zuo Qiu. This thought is still in existence, and there is no worry about even if the religion is abandoned. Later, he won a master's degree in the United States for four years on crutches and a stump of his leg, and after returning to Tsinghua as provost, he became one of the most powerful core members of the old Tsinghua people.

Pan Guangdan loves students. He loves to give speeches and interact with students, so that students have the joy of spring breeze. Students not only communicate with him in class, but also freely come to his home to ask for advice, and he always answers big things and small things sincerely. The student said, "Mr. Pan's personality is as amiable as his round face." His humor is even more unique. In a speech at the Southwest United University, he said of Confucius: "For Confucius, I admire him so much. Then, he glanced at his missing leg and corrected: "If you say it wrong, it should be four bodies thrown to the ground." "It caused a lot of laughter. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference ,And when he went out to inspect, he walked on both crutches, and some people teased him: "Mr. Pan's position and viewpoint are all problematic. "Not only that, but there's something wrong with my approach, the crutches I'm driving are American." In the political environment at that time, pan Guangdan's temperament was evident in the dare to speak like this.

However, he still did not escape the fate of fate. On the evening of June 10, 1967, persecuted, he stopped breathing in the arms of his student Fei Xiaotong. According to Fei Xiaotong's recollection, Pan Guangdan had long predicted the end of his life, and even at that moment, he did not resent, and even indifferently said that this was the inevitability of the times. What kind of mind and character is this? People who are familiar with Pan Guangdan are all impressed by his great Confucian demeanor, and Fei Xiaotong sighed: "Mr. Pan's personality and realm are very human! ”

The two crutches are Pan Guangdan's inseparable companions, but he has walked actively and healthily throughout his life.