Seventy-three years ago today (July 25, 1946), one of the greatest educators of modern times, known as the "Master of Ten Thousand Worlds" by Mao Zedong and Soong Ching-ling, unfortunately passed away. Mr. Guo Moruo juxtaposed him with Confucius and called him: "Kong Zhongni two thousand years ago, Tao Xingzhi two thousand years later." And such a great educator who "came from a scholarly family, but was willing to present himself as a peasant; he had a higher education but devoted his life to the education of the common people", but he was on the blacklist of Chiang Kai-shek's assassination.
Mr. Tao Xingzhi was only 55 years old when he died, so why was such a "Wanshishishi" dedicated to national education hunted down and killed by Kuomintang agents? Did he die of exhaustion on the podium, or was he killed by the secret agent?
On the 73rd anniversary of Mr. Tao Xingzhi's death, let's take a look at his ordinary and great life.
Tao Xingzhi (October 18, 1891 – July 25, 1946) was a native of Shexian County, Anhui Province, an educator and thinker of the Chinese, a great democratic fighter, a patriot, and one of the main leaders of the Chinese People's Salvation Congress and the Chinese Democratic League.
(Tao Xingzhi in his youth)
Tao Xingzhi was born in Shexian County, Anhui Province, to a family of teachers, and from an early age he embodied the idea of using education to develop people's wisdom. In 1914, he graduated from Jinling University with the first place in the overall score, and in his graduation thesis "Republic of Jingyi", Tao Xingzhi wrote: "The people are poor, not educated and rich; the people are stupid, not educated and wise; the party sees, non-education is not removed; jingzhong, non-education can not be out." ”
After graduating from Jinling University, Tao Xingzhi went to the United States to study, studied modern education under the great educator and philosopher Dewey, and got to know Einstein, Russell and other world people. Three years later, on the steamship back to China, the students were talking about their life goals after returning home, with a variety of opinions, and Tao Xingzhi's goal was very simple, that is, to "give the people of the whole country the opportunity to receive education."
(Tao Xingzhi who left the return)
After returning to China, just in time for the rise of the new cultural movement, many cultural celebrities have occupied colleges and universities, pointing out the country and the country, and stirring up the writing. Only Tao Xingzhi gave up the opportunity to make a name for himself, resolutely threw himself into the vastst rural areas, and made a grand wish: to raise 1 million yuan of funds, recruit 1 million comrades, open 1 million schools, and transform 1 million villages.
In order to popularize the education of the common people, Tao Xingzhi personally compiled two textbooks: "The Lesson of a Thousand Words for Civilians" and "A Lesson for the Elderly and The Young", traveled all over the country, volunteered to teach the vast number of peasant brothers to read, and gave away these two textbooks for free, but there was a condition, that is, the recipients wanted to teach the two people around them to read.
After several years of hard work, Tao Xingzhi's civilian education made great achievements, and the literacy rate of peasants in the country suddenly rose by twenty or thirty percentage points, and the result was widely publicized by the shameless Kuomintang Ministry of Education at that time as its own political achievements.
1927 was an important year in the history of modern and contemporary education in China, because Tao Xingzhi founded a normal school in Xiaozhuang, just outside Nanjing, which was the first rural normal school in China, and at the same time founded China's first rural kindergarten, Yanziji Kindergarten.
(Tao Xingzhi with the children)
At the opening ceremony, a couplet written by Tao Xingzhi himself hung: "Be friends with cows, horses, sheep, chickens, dogs, and dogs; work on rice and sorghum and wheat millet." "Clearly and clearly expressed the purpose of this rural normal school.
In December 1929, St. John's University in Shanghai awarded him an honorary doctorate in science in recognition of his contributions to the cause of education and transformation in China.
But such an educator devoted to mass education was wanted by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government for propagating the democracy movement.
In April 1930, he was wanted by the Kuomintang and forced to go into exile for the first time and arrived in Japan.
During his time in Japan, he continued to study education and science tirelessly.
In 1931, he returned to China to carry out education popularization work, and founded a natural science school and a children's science communication school in Shanghai. Editor-in-chief of "Children's Science Series" and so on.
In 1932, he also founded the Shanhai Engineering Society, proposing "work to maintain health, learn to live in the future, and the regiment to protect students", integrating workshops, schools, and society into one, conducting military training, production training, civil rights training, fertility training, etc., and also carrying out the Xiao Mr. Movement.
(Tao Xing's well-known words)
In 1933, together with Li Linxiang and Yang Lianggong, well-known figures from both political and academic circles, he initiated the establishment of the China Education Society in Shanghai.
In 1934, he published an article entitled "Doing Knowledge and Doing" in "Life Education", believing that "action is the beginning of knowledge, and knowing is the completion of action", and changed his original name to Tao Xingzhi, and used this as a lifelong encouragement.
After the 12.9 Movement, together with Song Qingling, Ma Xiangbo, Shen Junru, Hu Yuzhi, Zou Taofen, Li Gongpu, and others, he initiated the organization of the "Shanghai Cultural Circles Salvation Congress".
At the beginning of 1936, the National Disaster Education Society was established, and he was promoted to the president, and Zhang Jinfu was appointed as the director-general, and formulated the "National Disaster Education Program" to combine life education with the struggle for the national democratic revolution.
In May 1936, he was elected to the Executive Committee and Standing Committee of the National Federation for the Salvation of the Nation from All Walks of Life. Together with Shen Junru, Zhang Naiqi, Zou Taofen, and others, he issued a declaration entitled "Unity and Imperial Insults", advocating the cessation of the civil war and joint resistance to Japan. Mao Zedong replied with support.
In July 1936, the National Salvation Congress dispatched to 28 countries in Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa to publicize the anti-Japanese national salvation and introduce the Chinese mass education movement. He participated in the World Peace Congress in Brussels and was elected as a member of the Chinese Executive Committee. During this period, when he learned the news of the arrest of Shen Junru and other "Seven Gentlemen", he was very angry, and immediately contacted Dewey, Einstein, Russell and other world-famous people to jointly send a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek to rescue the Seven Gentlemen.
In 1941, he participated in the initiation of the establishment of the Chinese Democratic Political League.
In 1945, Tao Xingzhi joined the China Democratic League, and in the same year he was elected a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, chairman of the Education Committee, and chairman of the Education Committee.
In January 1945, he founded the Social University in Chongqing and served as its president, and Li Gongpu served as vice president and provost. The purpose of the Social University is "the people create a great society, and the society becomes a university hall" and "the way of the university is in the mingmin morality, in the people's proximity, and in the happiness of the people", which has effectively promoted the process of democratic education.
In January 1946, Tao Xingzhi founded the Social University in Chongqing to promote democratic education. Cultivate revolutionary talents. He also helped some progressive youth to go to the revolutionary base areas. He put forward famous slogans such as "life is education", "society is school", "teaching and doing unity", and was called "great people's educator" and "master of all generations" by Mao Zedong and Song Qingling.
(Tao Xingzhi Memorial Hall, Shexian County, Anhui Province)
In April 1946, he returned to Shanghai and immediately threw himself into the struggle against dictatorship, democracy, civil war, and peace. In the last 100 days of his life, he gave more than 100 speeches in factories, schools, institutions, and squares.
In early July 1946, famous democrats Li Gongpu and Wen Yiduo were assassinated by Kuomintang agents, and Tao Xingzhi was also listed as the third on the blacklist. But Tao Xingzhi was not afraid, declaring: "I am waiting for the third shot!" He also said to the students: "To die for democracy, we must step up the inspiration of 10,000 people to make up for it." ”
On the one hand, Tao Xingzhi made preparations for the sacrifice of "I am waiting for the third shot", while on the other hand, he continued to persist in the struggle, regarded death as a homecoming, and always stood at the forefront of the democracy movement. He wrote a letter to encourage Yucai teachers and students to fight for democracy "to continue to work hard, to succeed in the past, to lose and fight repeatedly, to achieve success at the end."
On the morning of July 25, 1946, after more than 100 consecutive speeches, Mr. Tao Xingzhi finally died of overwork, excessive health, and stimulated by his friends Li and Wen incidents, sudden cerebral hemorrhage, and exhausted death in combat posts. He died on December 31, 2012 at the age of 5
After learning the bad news, Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao, Shen Junru and others hurriedly arrived, holding Tao Xingzhi's hand that still had yu wen and was grief-stricken.
Because Mr. Tao Xingzhi died suddenly just 10 days after Wen Yiduo was assassinated, many democrats speculated that this may be another assassination of Kuomintang agents, and shen Junru's son who practiced medicine diagnosed that he was still overworked, causing cerebral hemorrhage and death.
On the morning of the day after Tao Xingzhi's death, the Shanghai Wanguo Funeral Home was crowded with people who came to mourn. The chinese communist delegation's link was: "the standard-bearer of Chinese education and the superstar of the democracy movement." On August 11, 1946, all walks of life in Yan'an also held a memorial service for Tao Xingzhi in the Central Auditorium, and Mao Zedong sent an elegy: "Mourn the great people's educators."
Why is Mr. Tao Xingzhi called the "Master of All Ages" compared with Confucius? In addition to the above-mentioned great career feats, there are three short stories that are enough to glimpse the greatness of Mr. Ordinary.
1. The story of four pieces of sugar
In the school held by Tao Xingzhi, a boy smashed the boy in his class with a mud block, and after being found out by Tao Xingzhi and stopped, he ordered him to go to the principal's office when he was out of school.
After school, Tao Xingzhi came to the principal's room, and the boy was already waiting for the training. But Tao Xingzhi smiled and took out a candy and gave it to him, saying, "This is the prize for you, because you came here on time, and I was late." The boy took the candy. Then Tao Xingzhi happily took out a second candy and put it in his hand, saying: "This is a reward for you, because when I don't let you hit someone, you immediately stopped, which shows that you respect me very much, and I should reward you." The boy looked at Tao Xingzhi in surprise. At this time, Tao Xingzhi took out the third candy and stuffed it into the boy's hand, saying: "I have investigated, you smashed those boys with mud because they bullied the girls; you smashed them shows that you are very upright and kind, and you have the courage to fight against bad people, and you should be rewarded!" The boy was very moved, and he cried out with tears of regret: "Principal Tao, I was wrong, I smashed not a bad person, but a classmate..." Tao Xingzhi smiled satisfactorily, and he immediately took out the fourth candy and handed it over, saying: "For you to correctly understand your mistakes, I will give you another piece of candy, I don't have more candy, and our conversation can be over." ”
2. Ask the carpenter to make a stool
When the first rural normal school was founded, because of the huge influence of Tao Xingzhi, thousands of children came to the school to register, and the school's tables and chairs were not enough, so Tao Xingzhi invited a carpenter master to make stools. The master carpenter had just prepared his tools to work when Tao Xingzhi suddenly said to him, "Master, we didn't ask you to make stools." ”
The master carpenter was stunned, and did not ask me to make a stool, so what did he tell me to do? Tao Xingzhi then said, "We invited you to be a gentleman, and if you teach a student to make a stool, you will be given a salary, and if you can't teach it, even if you make all the stools, you won't have a penny." ”
When the master carpenter heard this, he also felt fresh and agreed. Tao Xingzhi also said: "You teach students to make stools, and students also have to teach you cultural knowledge to see who can teach well and who can learn fast." ”
In this way, the students learned to make stools with the carpenter master, while teaching him to learn cultural knowledge, and after a few days, not only the stools of the whole school were ready, but the students' knowledge was also deeply understood, killing two birds with one stone.
In this way, Mr. Tao Xingzhi did not miss any opportunity for the public to learn knowledge.
3. Mr. Bare Arms
Tao Xingzhi once famously said: "For the sake of the toiling masses, we eat grass and dry!" For the sake of the suffering children, we will also eat and dry! Indeed, in order to run Xiaozhuang Normal School well, he invested all his heart and all his family property in it.
Once, his former student, Gao Miao, went to him and asked him to take him to the school library to borrow a book. At that time, Tao Xingzhi was working in the field bare-chested, and Gao Miao explained his intentions to him, and Tao Xingzhi hesitated for a moment and said, "Not now, you can wait a while." Gao Miao thought that the teacher did not agree, so he went back sullenly.
After more than an hour, Tao Xingzhi came in wearing a half-worn shirt and told him he could go. Later, Gao Miao learned that the reason why Tao Xingzhi did not promise him at that time was because he only had a shirt, which had just been washed and had not dried, so naturally he could not go out bare-chested.
Gao Miao was very touched when he knew, so he bought a shirt for the teacher, but Tao Xingzhi did not receive it, but asked him to return the shirt and use the money to buy several teaching supplies.
Mr. Tao Xingzhi is such a great and ordinary "Master of All Ages" who combines knowledge and action.
In order to commemorate Mr. Tao Xingzhi's contribution to China's basic education cause, the CPC Central Committee approved the establishment of the "Tao Xingzhi Education Foundation" to commend and reward outstanding grassroots educators across the country.
Mr. Tao Xingzhi, a great patriot and great educator, is immortal!
(Produced by One Point "Festival Research", Qilu Evening News - Qilu One Point Reporter Zhai Hengshui, Reference: Details and Spirit of Tao Xingzhi's Education Career . Tao Xingzhi: Learning from the high school as a teacher, being a model, etc., picture from the network)
The content of this article is published by the author of One Point and does not represent the position of Qilu One Point.