Portrait of Xu Yuanquan
In 1960, Xu Yuanquan died in Taiwan, and many politicians and scholars sent many politicians and scholars to the league included sentences such as "Zhengyuanxing School, Canghanshu Traffic; more teaching Tao Li Sanqian Wenwu cultivation..." and other sentences, reflecting Xu Yuanquan's contribution to the education of rural civilians in running an industry during the Republic of China period in Hubei.
When Xu Yuanquan was seventy years old, the famous scholar Tao Xisheng published in Taiwan's "Central Daily" with the title of "Education and Industry": "Zhang Jizhi, who founded a textile factory in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, and Yan Yangchu, who promoted civilian education in Dingxian County, Hebei Province, these two gentlemen are famous all over the world. We Hubei people are not good at flaunting, and we have a Mr. Xu Yuanquan (Kecheng) who is committed to education and industry. ”
At the time of Xu Yuanquan's fame, some of his subordinates suggested buying a lifen in Hankou. He immediately said: "I don't buy a share in Hankou, I want to go to the countryside to get a share." The people present were puzzled, thinking that he was joking, in the countryside, there will be people to live there? He said, "After you see me built, there will be more people living there!" After that, in 1931, Xu Yuanquan founded the private "Zhengyuan School", which was praised by the people as "the most beautiful rural school in China", and towered on a wasteland in the ancient town of Cangzibu...
The former site of Zhengyuan Middle School
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he also founded Chongqing Yingcai Middle School, donated funds to Wuchang Zhonghua University, Wuchang Art College, and later went to Taipei to create Jin'ou Girls' Commercial School. To this day, Xu Gong's schools still benefit the students of Hubei and are the foundation of the country's centennial tree people!
Xu Yuanquan (1886~1960), also known as Kecheng, was sent to succeed him. He was a second-class army general of the National Revolutionary Army and a member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee. A native of Cangbu Town, Huanggang (now part of Xinzhou, Wuhan). In the second year of Xuanun (1910), he graduated from the Nanjing Army Lecture School and became the commander-in-chief of the 26th Group Army.
In the military leisure, he devoted himself to the establishment of industries and the use of industry to run education. Docks, brick factories, banks, and chemical plants were set up along the river in Hankou, Shashi, and Hunan. In his hometown, he opened an electric light factory, a ginning factory, a rice mill, a printing factory, a women's knitting industry society, a Chunshengtang pharmacy, a Yihe silk satin shop, as well as a cantonese, miscellaneous goods, and rice shops.
In 1949, he went to Taiwan via Hong Kong and served as the chairman of the Hubei Hometown Association. On November 11, 1960, he suffered from cerebral hemorrhage and died at the Taipei Central Clinic. He was the author of the new martial arts books "Zeng Hu Zhibing Language Sentence Explanation", "My Memories", etc.; collected the "Complete Works of Taiyue", and wrote a preface to the engraving of the book for his descendants to treasure.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Xu's grandfather Xu Songtian's generation moved from Huangpi County, which is across the lake (Wuhu Lake), to Cangzibu, Huanggang County, to run an oil mill. Later, his grandfather died, the family's wealth gradually declined, and Xu's father Xu Chenglin also contracted lung disease. The Xu family originally cultivated and read heirlooms for generations, and Xu Yuanquan's father closed the oil mill during the illness, studied behind closed doors, studied medicine at the same time, and also sought the road of self-help, did not want to become more and more sophisticated in medicine, in addition to self-medicine, it was also published, and applied medicine to help the poor of the neighborhood. Helplessly, Xu's father was weak and sick after all, leaving behind his old mother's wife and five children who were not yet minors, when Xu Yuanquan was seven years old...
After the death of Xu's father, the family lived on more than ten acres of thin fields, and Xu's mother served her mother-in-law soup medicine and raised orphans. Xu Yuanquan was the second among the five brothers and sisters, the older brother jigong studied medicine with his uncle, Xu studied private school at home, and the income from the mother's textile was used to help her cultivation.
Cangzi port, because of the warehouse and set up a port, the ancient language cloud, warehouse (commonly known as cangzi), warehouse also, port, dock also. Cangzibu, since ancient times, is a place where merchants gather, Wuhua Tianbao, people are brilliant, known as "Little Hankou". Xu Yuanquan, who lives here, sees his father holding a sick doctor at a young age and does not forget to help the poor and sick; his mother's family is poor and old-age to care for orphans, but he is determined to keep his virginity and raise and teach. When his father was alive, he often said: "The Qing court lost its government, the pro-nobles were in power, the Manchu and Han guards were strict, the external troubles were urgent, the people's livelihood was increasingly difficult, and among the relatives and nobles in the court, there was a saying that 'it is better to give friends (referring to foreigners) than to be with domestic slaves' (referring to Han people). All diplomacy, politics... And so on, all of them are incompetent and corrupt, forming a habit of flattering outsiders, and if they are not thoroughly reformed, the country will not be a country, and the country will soon be destroyed! The people of the country should be more vigilant and clearly understand the relationship and responsibility between the individual and the state. Especially for the education of children, it is necessary to learn both culture and martial arts, so that the country can use them from time to time." The young and weak crowned Xu Yuanquan was inspired and educated by his parents, and he was less enthusiastic about the Festival, and he had the great ambition to clarify the world and learn both the way of literature and martial arts.
At the same time, his uncle Xu Chaohai served as a pipe belt (forbidden army) in the Anhui Wuwei Left Army, returned to his hometown to visit relatives, and intended to take him with him to raise. Xu Yuanquan, in order to raise his father's legacy, obtained his mother's consent and followed his uncle to the Anhui camp. In the following year, he entered the camp school run by the army and lived for one year. At that time, Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, proposed to prepare the school in Nanjing, recruiting active school officials from the restructured provinces of Suwan, and Xu Yuanquan was able to learn from the status of an official to enter the Jiangnan General Bei School.
A special edition of the Third Anniversary of the Private Zhengyuan School, published in March 1935, details the preparation and evolution of Xu Yuanquan's initiative to establish the Zhengyuan School.
In May 1931, Xu Yuanquan convened the preparatory committee of Zhengyuan School in Cangbu Private Residence, and the office of the Preparatory Office was also temporarily located in Xu Zaicangbu's private residence, with Xu Yuanquan as the chairman. Xu Yuanquan wrote in the report of the board of directors of the zhengyuan junior high school in Huanggang Cangbu: "Benyi Cangbu, the northwest corner of the land in Yiyi. Bordered by Huang'an in the north and Huangpi in the west, boats and cars are convenient, and it is an important market at the junction of Sanyi, densely populated and merchants. Since the reform, the transportation has become more convenient, and the market has become increasingly prosperous. However, it is far away from the metropolis, the people's wisdom is extremely closed, the educational future, and so far there is little development, so that culture cannot advance with the times, the source of the sangzi, the time is hidden, and it is planned to set up a primary and secondary school in the city. To subsidize the government and enlighten the people's wisdom. He donated his private property, calculated more than 110,000 yuan in cash, for construction and construction expenses, and prepared funds for perennial income as a permanent fund for the university's funds."
In June, an 11-member school building committee was established, and Lin Yong, a former Qing dynasty squire, was recommended as the chairman of the committee. In July, a construction contract was signed with the Hanxingchang Factory and the survey of the school site began. It was decided to use the old inspector of Cangbu as the school site, and to buy some surrounding land, and also to get donations from nearby families to complete the school land acquisition. In August, the construction of the Hanxingchang factory drawing and design and building materials began, and the operation of Zhengyuan School in the early days was very efficient.
In January 1932, the first buildings were completed, consisting of a Western-style building, a column of Western-style bungalows, and a sports field, kitchen, toilet, etc. The school was named "Peiyuan School", Xu Yuanquanli hired former Qingyou students and teachers to graduate, Xiong Zumo as the first president, and the school's teaching staff were mostly Wuchang Zhonghua University, Wuhan University, Lianghu General Normal School, Beiping Agricultural College, Hubei Provincial Vocational School, Jingnan Normal School, Wuchang Art College and other colleges and universities, as well as former Qingju people and Xiucai. In February, the new student examination admitted more than 180 primary school students. On February 18, the school began teaching. On April 4th, the school made up the opening ceremony, and Wang Jieyong, inspector of the Hubei Provincial Department of Education, Tao Jixian, governor of Huanggang County, Liu Wenpu, director of the Education Bureau, and Wuhan journalists attended the ceremony.
In July 1933, the school board decided to open a secondary school class and began to enroll students, admitting 40 middle school students for the first time. In March 1934, the school was reported to the Ministry of Education by the Hubei Provincial Department of Education, and the ministry issued the "Jiaozi No. 4444" directive and changed its name to "Private Huanggang Zhengyuan Junior High School" (referred to as Zhengyuan School). In the small town of Cangbu in eastern Hubei, there has been a resounding school name of "Zhengyuan" since then.
During the preparatory period of Zhengyuan Middle School, Xu Yuanquan, as the chairman of the board, donated more than 110,000 yuan to the current foreign, and more than 30 other school directors such as Tao Qinfu and Lin Tao, directors Wan Yaohuang, Zhu Huaibing, Li Qizhi, Li Xibai, Tao Jixian, educator Yan Shijia and other more than 30 school directors also donated money, so that the teaching funds were sufficient, and the teaching facilities, living facilities and cultural and sports activities were built according to high standards. At the beginning of 1935, when Cheng Qibao, then director of the Hubei Provincial Department of Education, inspected zhengyuan school, he said: "Today I came to visit Zhengyuan school and felt very happy. Because such a large-scale, well-equipped school is built in such a township. It is not easy to see in the townships and cities of our country..."
General Hao Mengling, a hero of the Anti-Japanese War, also wrote a plaque for Zhengyuan Middle School to write the inscription "Cultivating Talents and Tree People".
In order to ensure the school's operating expenses, Xu Yuanquan also gave the two steamships he operated, Canghan and Cangxing, to the school. According to records, Zhengyuan students uniformly dressed in clothes and hats, and students in major festivals and gatherings uniformly dressed and wore school emblems. In addition to the students from this county, there are also students from Hankou, Hanyang, Echeng, Huangpi, Huang'an, Macheng, Nanzhang, Yidu, Xiaogan, Jingshan and other places, and even students from other provinces, such as Shanghai, Shandong, and Jiangxi.
In 1946, the Hubei Provincial Department of Education inspected Zhengyuan Middle School and commented: "Two-storey Western-style buildings, two large rows of dining rooms and kitchens, and three rows of bungalows... Eight Mile Lake outside the city, with a broad view and an open mind, is actually the most excellent environment that is not easy to obtain in the countryside to handle higher education. Folk praised it as "the most beautiful rural school".