A statue of martial arts in today's LiaochengGuan County
Wu Xun was originally named Wu Qi, because he devoted his life to the great cause of establishing a righteous school, so the Qing government gave the name "Xun" the word, taking the meaning of "training in the world" to show appreciation. He was born in 1838 in Tangyi (present-day Liaocheng District) and died in 1896, although his life was already in the era when the Qing Dynasty was facing "three thousand years of great changes", he did not choose to establish Yixue for the sake of changing times. Although Wuxun is a beggar, the nobility of his personality has been passed down through the ages and is worthy of being praised by future generations, so in the more than a hundred years after his death, Wuxun has been praised by writers and educators many times and put on the stage of drama, and has also won the supreme honor of educators and "saints" who "give charity to the people and can help the people".
The image of martial arts in the movie "The Legend of Wu Xun"
Wu Xun came from the bottom of the family, the family situation can be regarded as a family of disciples, his father died when he was seven years old, and since then he has followed his mother around wandering and begging for a living. Because of his young age, it did not take long for him to stop begging and follow his brother Wu Qian to do farm work, and after the age of 14, he began to leave the fields to work as long and short-term workers in his uncle and other large families, which could make the family's conditions better. He did not expect that the life of a domestic worker was not good, in the traditional imperial era, the status of the domestic worker in the large household depended entirely on the attitude of the master to them, because the martial arts training was not old and illiterate, so in the years of work he suffered extraordinary abuse and beatings, and because of the low level of knowledge, his master owed three years of wages and did not settle, Wu Xun understood this matter and went to his employer's house to ask for an explanation, but did not want to be falsely accused by his employer as extortion and was beaten severely.
"Long worker" in the family of a large family in the late Qing Dynasty
According to records, the blow of this incident to the martial arts was very great, and after he returned home, he slept for three days and three nights without eating, drinking, and speaking, he felt the great pain and inconvenience caused to him by the lack of knowledge, and also realized how great the importance of education for a person is. Therefore, Wu Xun began to make a grand wish to start a school so that the suffering children could afford to read, but he did not have the culture how to accumulate the wealth of starting a school, and at this time there was only one road in front of him, that is, to regain the begging road he had walked with his mother, and to make money to learn by begging.
The image of a martial arts beggar in the movie
At the age of twenty, Wu Xun began his career as a beggar, and when he decided to dedicate his life to starting a school, he resolutely and resolutely sold the only piece of land left to him after his mother's death, which also indicated that Wu Xun did not have his own piece of land that could be buried even after his death, and Wu Xun was eventually buried near the "Chongxian Yishu" that he had established, which drew a satisfactory end to his life.
The tomb of "martial arts" built by the present-day people
After thirty years of begging, the nearly fifty-year-old Wuxun began to implement his long-cherished wish to run a school, and in 1886 he bought a piece of land near the east gate of Liulin Town and built 20 houses as classrooms for Yixue, and two years later, the construction of Yixue was completed, and Wuxun named it "Chongxian Yishu". This incident caused a huge sensation in the local area, and the parent officials of Tangyi County reported it to the governor of Shandong Province, who, after learning of the matter, reported the righteous deed to the imperial court and asked the emperor to commend him. In 1891, Wu Xun continued his schooling career, this time turning his attention to townships outside the countryside, and he purchased a mansion in the Xiguan area of Linqing and transformed it into a school within two years, which allowed the influence of the Yixue school he founded to continue to expand.
Today's Wuxun Experimental Elementary School
In 1896, at the age of fifty-eight, Wu Xun died, leaving several righteous schools for posterity, and also confirmed his own song, which was written like this: "Life is seventy years old, fifty-three years old does not marry a wife, relatives and friends are quiet, and when they die, they fall ill with righteousness", Wu Xun's life is clean, and he only wants to let poor children go to school and study all his life, which can be described as bright and upright.
As early as when Wuxun was still alive, he had already received commendations from the local government and even the imperial court, and his name "Xun" was given by the imperial court, in addition, the imperial court also ordered the inspector of Shandong to give Wuxun a plaque of "Happy Charity and Good Charity" to express his praise for running the school. Soon after Wu Xun's death, the Qing government began a vigorous reform movement known as the "New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty" under the strong invasion of western powers, and a very important point in the reform was to reform education, abolishing the imperial examination and reviving the school. At this time, the local government of Shandong Province remembered the deeds of Wuxun's founding of Yixue, so they again reported the relevant deeds of Wuxun to the Inspector of Shandong, and in the recital these local officials proposed: "If you have thousands of martial arts training, and supplement it, the prosperity of the school can wait and wait." In the context of this reform, Wuxun's act of establishing schools coincided with the educational reform measures advocated by the central government, which made Wuxun once again remembered, and he was about to receive the second court commendation after his death.
On the left is Yuan Shuxun, then the governor of Shandong
In 1909, the Inspector of Shandong once again reported the righteous deeds of wuxun to the imperial court, and after review, the faculty decided that the wuxun school was in line with the trend and morality, and agreed to include it in the work of the national history museum, so that wuxun, as a beggar, was able to share the national historical memory project with countless dignitaries and nobles, and his status was greatly improved.
After entering the Republic of China, the deeds of martial arts continued to circulate, and in the 1930s, with Tao Xingzhi and Yan Yang junior beginning their rural construction undertakings throughout the country, the feats of wuxun in setting up righteous schools in the countryside were greatly respected by this group of new educators, and wuxun began to be praised as "civilian educators", and its identity began to become a symbol representing rural education, which was continued to be remembered and respected by the people of the time.
The first on the left is Yan Yangchu, a famous educator in the Republic of China
As the saying goes, poor can not be poor education, education cares about the foundation of the country, especially rural education, due to the huge restrictions of economic conditions, in the late Qing Dynasty turmoil in the countryside appeared a large number of out-of-school children. They are often unable to receive education, and can only rely on their strength to make money in their lives, and the martial arts practice of begging for a lifetime to establish a righteous school, although it is a drop in the ocean, it is like a bright light in the night, illuminating the way forward for children.
1. Guo Yang, "The Change and Construction of the Image of "Martial Training" in the Past Hundred Years", Shenzhen Social Science, No. 01, 2019.
2. Meng Xianxia, "Selflessly Dedicated Civilian Educators--Martial Training and "Righteous Learning" Examination", Lantai World, No. 11, 2010.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Liu Yue)
This article is the original work of Wenshi Science Popularization Self-media Haoran Wenshi, and unauthorized reprinting is prohibited!
The pictures used in this article are from the Internet except for special instructions, if there is any infringement, please contact the author to delete, thank you!
We will provide you with wonderful historical articles every day, and we kindly ask all readers and friends to pay attention to our account! Your likes, retweets, comments, this is the best support for us!