The YMCA arose in the West in the mid-nineteenth century to spread Christianity by promoting the four educations of young people. Its motto is "Not to serve people, but to serve people", which means not to serve people, but to serve people in order to serve society.
In the 1870s and 1880s, a number of schools and the YMCA were introduced to China. With the support of the North American Association of YMCA, the Tianjin YMCA was first established in 1895; in 1896, the General Committee of the Christian YoungMen's Association of Chinese Academy was established, and in 1902 it was renamed "General Committee Of the YMCA of China, Korea and Hong Kong".
The Nanjing YMCA (1903-1912, hereinafter referred to as "Nanhui") as an important Chinese youth association, witnessed important historical events such as the Xinhai Revolution, the Second Revolution, the Nanjing Incident, the Nanjing Massacre and the liberation of Nanjing, of which the only remaining fruit is the former site of the clubhouse at No. 26 Zhonghua Road in Nanjing, which is still a cultural relics protection unit in Nanjing. However, at present, there are many errors in the study of the establishment of the Southern Association, especially its establishment, and the introduction of the history of the Southern Association on the official website of the Southern Association can be called representative, so this article is mainly based on the in-depth study of the establishment of the Southern Association archives collected by elmer l. andersonlibrary of the University of Minnesota.
1. Preparation
The establishment of the Southern Association was not smooth sailing, but after nearly ten years of preparations for the three YMCA officers of Boson, Wei Demo and Haishi.
Dispatched by the North American Association of YMCA, the first to arrive in Gangnyeong Province to investigate the founding of the City YMCA was C. Boson (c. Thompson). h. robertson）。 Jiangning Fu is the name of Nanjing during the Southern Tang, Northern, Southern Song, and Qing dynasties. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, and the capital was established here, which was originally named Nanjing. He departed from San Francisco on November 15, 1902, and arrived in Jiangning province on New Year's Day of the following year. His main activities were held at the local school YMCA, especially the study Chinese. In 1904, Around Besson began experimenting with scientific lectures to attract local literati, including teachers and students from government schools. His final advice was not to rush to form the City YMCA. In April 1905, he left to work in Tianjin.
The American Wei Demo (f.b. whitmore, with the Chinese and English names Wei Demai and Wheatiman, both mistaken) came to Jiangning Province in 1906 instead of 1909. He began to study Chinese and founded an eye clinic to connect with people from all walks of life. In 1907, the construction of the Ten Temples Apartment began, and the conference was carried out at the same time, which later developed into the South Hui Hall. In fact, Wei Demo began to work in 1908 as the general secretary of the Southern Conference, and in this regard he should have been the first director general of the Southern Conference, but he was not yet established at that time. In the spring of 1909, Wei Demo rented a private house in Xinjiekou as a temporary clubhouse to prepare for the Southern Conference, and at the same time attached an English lamp club, which was actually an English night school. In 1910, a university club was established in the Ten Temples Apartment. This organization has Chinese and foreign people at the level of higher education, so as to understand each other and cooperate comprehensively, and is committed to the cause of modern education in China. There were about forty members, including some teachers, Chinese government officials and employees, foreigners and missionaries from Jinlingguan and the consulate, of whom Jiang Ning was the president and the consul of the British consulate was the vice president. He worked in Jiangning Province until 1911, laying the foundation for the establishment of the Southern Association.
On October 17, 1911, Haishi (l. newton hayes, with the Chinese and English names Haier and l. n． Herpes, all wrong) arrived in Jiangning Province and was responsible for the preparation of the local urban youth meeting. But Jiangning Province was already shrouded in terror and chaos. On October 10, the Wuchang Uprising broke out; on November 8, the Ninth Town of the New Army in Jiangning Province revolted, and on November 24, the Jiangning And Zhejiang combined forces besieged Jiangning Province; on December 2, Jiangning Province was restored. On January 1, 1912, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established here, and on January 3, it was renamed Nanjing Prefecture, with Nanjing as the capital.
Wang Zhengting
The war was quite tragic, so "Haishi and even the Drum Tower Hospital transferred wounded soldiers, so the president Ma Lin was deeply assisted by Haijun's arm", but Haishi was blessed with the misfortune to contact the important members of the Provisional Government of Nanjing. Wang Zhengting and Ma Boyuan, two members of the League who served as the former director general of the China Youth Association for Students Studying in Japan, are now the vice presidents of the Senate of the Provisional Government of Nanjing, the secretary of President Sun Yat-sen and the chief of the Nanjing Horse Police, respectively, so they and others have formally initiated the preparation for the establishment of the South African Association, including the selection of the Chinese officers and directors of the Board of Directors of the South Conference. The Provisional Government of Nanjing also allocated the Eight Flags Guild Hall on Mafu Street and the surrounding vacant land as a clubhouse, which was formed by the Qing Dynasty flag people themselves, and was soon returned for some complicated political reasons. "On April 1 of that year, the princes of the Senate were invited to hold a tea party at the residence of the West Officer of the Tenth Temple Entrance and prepare everything. Present at the meeting were Sun Yat-sen, Tang Shaochuan, members of the Senate and the heads of state of the ministries, who donated more than 3,600 yuan at that time." It must be pointed out that sun yat-sen had just formally resigned from the post of interim president in the Senate before this tea party.
This was a preparatory meeting for the Yugoslav Conference, not the inaugural meeting of the Yugoslav Conference, so the Yugoslav Conference was not founded on April 1, 1912, and this is also clearly pointed out in the group photo description. The Shimiaokou Xiguan Residence was founded in 1907 and was held concurrently, and later developed into the "Nanjing YMCA", located at No. 21 Baotai Street (now the west section of Beijing East Road), but the so-called Nanhui in the current published literature was not correct at first, because the Nanhui was not established here.
Ten Temples Kou West Officer Residence South Association Preparatory Committee Sun Yat-sen and others group photo
2. Establishment
Although the Southern Association was not founded on April 1, 1912, the tea party on this day raised more than 3,600 yuan from Sun Yat-sen and others, and also recruited relevant talents and contacts, which greatly promoted the formation of the Board of Directors, the Chinese and foreign officers team and the leased club, and thus the Southern Association was established.
The Board of Directors of the Southern Association was established in the fall of 1912 and consisted of nine members: President Hong Huanqing, Head of the Chinese of Jinling University
Chinese teacher), a native of Hanshan County, Anhui Province, a Methodist in Nanjing, studied in the United States for two years after graduating from Jinling University, and served as Sun Yat-sen's English secretary after returning to China; Chen Jinyong, vice president of the Bible School (should be the bible training school, the predecessor of Jinling Theological Seminary), Chinese chief teacher; accounting Wang Qingdao, German secretary of the Jiangning Negotiation Department, who studied in Germany for 6 years; Professor Li Minfu of Jinling University, Previously, he worked in the United States for four years; Cao Fugeng, deputy director of the Jiangning Negotiation Bureau; Wang Xiaoshan, a western doctor; Wu Qingqin, secretary of the Jinpu Railway; a methodist priest surnamed Chang; and a military doctor surnamed chou. The Board of Directors of nanhui officially recognized Li Hansheng as the china officer of Nanhui. He was also a student at Jinling University, studied at a university in Tokyo, Japan for several months, returned to China and became a teacher at a government-run university, served as a secretary of the Ministry of the Interior of the Provisional Government of Nanjing, and trained for four weeks at the Moganshan Youth Association Officer School in the summer of 1912.
President Hong Huanqing
According to the introduction of the 100-year history of Nanjing ymca on the official website of the Southern Association, the first board of directors in Nanjing was chaired by Wen Peishan, who was supervised by Jinlingguan, as well as Tu Yuqing (then the president of Southeast University and later the officer of the National Association of the Chinese YMCA), Zhou Jigao (principal of Chengmei Middle School), Li Xiudong (manager of Cuihua Store) and other directors; the American Ji Litai served as the first foreign director general, and the Chinese xia Rihu served as deputy director general. But there is no reliable basis for this content.
As Dr. Sun Yat-sen took the lead in donating money as a fund, Haishi eventually leased the former Qing Dao Yin Zhou Ziang official residence at No. 1986 Huapailou Street in Nanjing. Zhou Ziang (周子安), a native of Feixi, was the son of Zhou Shengchuan, a famous general in the Huai Army, who served as a Daoist in Nanjing during the Guangxu dynasty. During the Xianfeng period (1851-1861), Zhou Shengbo and Zhou Shengchuan brothers held regimental training in Zipeng Mountain, Feixi County, and in the first year of Tongzhi (1862), the elite of their units was organized into the "Shengzi Battalion" of the Huai Army, which later became the elite of the Huai Army.
Wei Demo had cured Zhou Ziang's eye disease, so Nanhui was able to rent it at a low price before mid-October 1912 as a clubhouse. It is about 327 feet long, 136 feet wide, and has an area of 9.25 acres, of which the house covers half of the area, and there are 70 large and small houses. The buildings have several vacant lots to the west and south to serve as pitches. The Southern Garden covers an area of about 4 acres, including a two-storey tea house that combines Chinese and Western styles, a court, a lotus pond and various flowers and trees. Because Nanhui discovered that film was the best way to attract Nanjing people the following year, this clubhouse was the first place in Nanjing to screen movies, and Nanhui screened films rarely camedic films, but mainly put educational, humanistic and scenery films. The Nanhui Huapailou Clubhouse was first moved to the basically completed Clubhouse at No. 26 Zhonghua Road in June 1926, and it is said that it was moved here in April 1925, but construction had just begun at that time, which was obviously impossible.
On November 13-14, 1912, the inaugural meeting of the South Society was held at the Huapailou Clubhouse, and the South Conference was officially established, with the first president Hong Huanqing, the first director general Haishi, and the first Chinese officer Li Hansheng.
Floor plan of the Flower Arch Building Clubhouse
Yuan Shikai soon came to power to suppress the second revolution and capture Nanjing. On December 16, 1913, Nanjing Prefecture was abolished and Jiangning County was restored as the capital of Jiangsu Province. The name Nanjing, which was short-lived in the early days of the Republic of China, was forever integrated into the name of the Southern Society, which was obviously given by the Xinhai Revolution and the Republic of China, and the Southern Society was more like a gift from the new Republic of China to this place.