In 1980, the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was established, with Fei Xiaotong as its director. The picture shows Fei Xiaotong (third from left) taking a group photo with workers from the Institute of Sociology (file photo)
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Fei Xiaotong (1910.11-2005.4). Fei Xiaotong always believed that he was "still a scholar when he was old" and used his life to adhere to the conscience and backbone of intellectuals.
Three generations of a family devoted themselves to education
Fei Xiaotong was born on November 2, 1910 in Wujiang County, Jiangsu Province. He comes from a typical family of traditional knowledge molecules in the Taihu Lake Basin, but also a family full of new ideas and attaches great importance to education. In Tongli Town, Wujiang County, Fei Lao's hometown, there are four major households in Fei Lao's generation, and Yang refers to Fei Lao's maternal grandfather Yang Dunyi. Yang Dunyi was selected in the 1904 examination and was sent to Zhenjiang as a school platform.
Fei Lao's parents were all advanced figures in society at that time. His father, Fei Pu'an, had obtained the qualification of a student in the last imperial examination in Chinese history, and then traveled to Japan to study education. After returning to China, he advocated new learning and put it into action, and founded a new-style secondary school in his hometown of Wujiang. Fei Lao's mother, Yang Shulan, graduated from the "latest trend" Shanghai Wuben Women's School at that time, and was one of the first Women of the Republic of China to receive a Western education. In her hometown, she opened the first ever nursing home (kindergarten) in Wujiang County. The husband and wife jointly participated in the grand education event, opened up the same atmosphere, and had their own world, which became a good story in their hometown that year.
In 1933, Fei Lao graduated from the Institute of Tsinghua University. In 1936, he studied at the School of Economics and Politics of the University of London; in 1938, he graduated with a doctorate. In 1938, he returned to China and successively served as a professor at Yunnan University, Southwest Union University, and Tsinghua University. Three generations of Fei's family have been engaged in education and have a deep understanding of intellectuals.
Drumming and shouting for intellectuals
Fei Lao has always paid attention to intellectuals. In his article "The Early Spring Weather of Intellectuals" published in the People's Daily on March 24, 1957, he described the mentality of intellectuals in a subtle way:
As soon as the wind of a hundred schools of thought was blowing, the positive factors of intellectuals should be moved from time to time. But for the average old intellectual, it seems that it is still early spring. Their anger is bubbling up, but they are still a little shy, their self-confidence is not so strong, and there seems to be a lot of concerns. The early spring weather is inevitably cold and warm, which is the most difficult season to rest. Looking closely, there are still many problems.
How has the policy of a hundred schools of thought been implemented? First of all, from the intellectual side: they are enthusiastic about the controversy of a hundred schools of thought; their hearts are hot, but their mouths are still very tight, and it is best for others to fight and listen to themselves. If you want to go out on your own, you have to see, wait and say, not for the world first. In terms of the scope of my exposure, the majority of people still refuse to open up and expose their minds. In the past year, the situation has improved somewhat, and on certain occasions, some people are willing to confide in some confidants, but they are still quite shy.
At that time, many intellectuals believed that this article not only spoke the inner words of intellectuals, but also that the first half of the article was mainly written about "spring" and the second half was written about "morning", which mainly meant that the intellectuals at that time had felt light and warmth in their hearts, giving people a lot of confidence and hope, but also raising issues that needed further consideration. This article reflects the common problems among intellectuals at that time, and describes the mentality of intellectuals in three points. The article has attracted widespread attention from the national intellectual circles.
When Zhou Enlai saw this article on a trip, he even claimed to praise it: "An article by Mr. Fei Xiaotong, "The Early Spring Weather of Intellectuals", expressed some thoughts in the depths of the intellectuals' hearts. There are also many intellectuals in the Communist Party who can write articles, but I can't think of such articles, and even if they have such ideas, they will not write them. "Fei Xiaotong knows intellectuals, is familiar with intellectuals, and his heart is in touch with the hearts of intellectuals; as a friend of the Communist Party, he reflects the situation of intellectuals to the CCP.
In the early days of reform and opening up, Fei Lao resumed the study of the intellectual issue, and constantly encouraged and shouted for improving the political status and economic treatment of intellectuals and giving play to the enthusiasm of intellectuals. At a symposium, he called for improving the living conditions of intellectuals, saying: "In terms of housing, we elderly intellectuals have probably not yet completely solved the problem, but middle-aged intellectuals are much more serious... We intellectuals have reason to prioritize the solution, because housing is also their workplace. Now primary and secondary school teachers have to wait for children to sleep at night before they can change their homework, there is no space! ”
Soldiers must not take away their "will"
Fei Lao particularly emphasized the significance of "Zhi" to life, "Intellectuals always have a landing in their hearts and have a sustenance." What to do in a lifetime, to know, to understand... In the past, it was said that 'the three armies can seize the marshal, but the puppet cannot seize the will'... I think 'Zhi' is a key thing for the former intellectuals." Fei Xiaotong once wrote "The Turmoil of the Qinghua Generation", thinking that he could see that his teacher's generation had commonalities in spirit. He took Mr. Zeng Zhaozhuo as an example, Mr. Zeng was already very famous during the Southwest United University and was the head of the department. The shoes Mr. Zeng was wearing were torn, and he couldn't remember whether he wanted to wear better shoes or whether Mrs. Pan reminded him to change a pair. Others may comment that he does not trim the edges, but in Mr. Zeng's heart, he could not imagine that there were edges to repair. Fei Xiaotong said: "There is something in his life that is more important than other things. How do I think this thing is expressed? Can it be expressed with 'zhi', the 'zhi' of 'piaf cannot seize the will'. This 'zhi' is very clear in the hearts of my predecessors. He wants to pursue a thing, a life destination. ”
Fei Xiaotong said that he and Mr. Zeng joined the NLD at about the same time, both in the 1940s. There is no other reason to join the NLD, that is, patriotism. Fei Xiaotong returned to China in 1938, which was the most difficult time of the War of Resistance. The foreigner felt strange and asked why he was still fighting and why he wanted to go back. Fei Xiaotong said that it was because of the war that we had to go back, "Many of our friends in foreign countries at that time rarely wanted to come back because they lived better in foreign countries." We just don't want to be slaves to the country, we don't want to live in a foreign land, and we haven't considered other paths. This is the patriotism of our traditional Chinese intellectuals."
Fei Xiaotong studied in the pre-medical department of Soochow University for two years in his early years, with the purpose of treating diseases and saving people. Later, he realized that China's problem was not a question of one or two people getting sick, but a question of whether China would perish, so he transferred to the sociology department of Yenching University and made up his mind to study Chinese society.
Fei Xiaotong said: "I am an intellectual, and I am also a person who came out of the family of intellectuals, especially after the May Fourth Movement, I believe in science to save the country. What we hope is to find a way out from understanding China's problems. This was a yearning that the times gave to our young people. In the autumn of 1938, Fei Xiaotong returned from studying in England with the belief of saving the country. Eating enough to eat and wear warm was the biggest requirement of the peasants at that time, and Fei Xiaotong said: "My responsibility is to relieve the peasants of poverty, to make them full and wear warm, this is the first step, it is the most basic." Fei Xiaotong's whole life has been "aimed at enriching the people", and he has a sense of mission to try his best to make Chinese farmers get rid of poverty and become rich."
On November 15, 1938, just two weeks after arriving in Kunming, he went to Lufeng County, about 100 kilometers west of Kunming, and began an investigation in a village. He gave the village the scientific name "Lu Village". In the preface to Three Villages in Yunnan, Fei Xiaotong writes: "After the victory of the War of Resistance, China has a more serious problem to be solved, that is, what kind of country we will build." On the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War, I could not contribute much. But in order to solve the more serious problem, I have a responsibility to use what I have learned and do more preparation. That is to understand Chinese society scientifically. To understand China, we must first know the peasants and understand the peasants. From this passage, we can clearly see the sense of social responsibility and mission of a Chinese intellectual. For this purpose, Mr. Fei Xiaotong used the type comparison method to select several types of Rural China in a targeted manner, conducted investigation, analysis and comparison, from one point to many points, from part to whole, and then understood the overall appearance of China's rural areas. From 1938 to 1942, Fei Xiaotong led students and assistants to complete the survey of "Three Villages in Yunnan". Under the leadership of Fei Xiaotong, "Kui Ge" became a prototype of China's modern academic group, and a number of classics of sociology and anthropology were born.
In 1952, the departments of higher education across the country were reorganized, and the department of sociology was abolished. In 1979, Comrade Deng Xiaoping put forward the demand that "sociology should be re-taught", and this glorious task fell on Fei Xiaotong's shoulders. Hu Qiaomu, then president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, approached Fei Xiaotong and asked him to go out of the mountains to restore and rebuild sociology and anthropology. Fei Xiaotong's re-creation of sociology is to establish our own social science from the chinese land, the life of the Chinese, and the socialist life. Since then, discipline construction has become an important mission for him, and he was 70 years old at that time.
His second academic life began in Emura. In 1981, he visited Jiangcun three times and was very happy to see that his original proposal of "complementary peasants and workers" had been fulfilled. After that, he took the Kaixian Bow Village, that is, "Jiangcun", as a specimen, tracked and investigated 28 times, and from village to town, put forward "small towns, big problems", and summed up the development experience of various places, put forward a variety of development types such as "Southern Jiangsu Model", "Pearl River Model", "Wenzhou Model", "Civil Rights Model", etc., to "come up with ideas and think of ways" for the development of rural economies in various places, and then upgrade from a blocky development model to regional cooperation and regional development, including the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the Yellow River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Regional development issues with major impacts, such as the Pearl River Delta. Finding a way out for the Chinese peasants, "aiming to enrich the people", is what he has been painstakingly pursuing for most of the century.
Although Fei Xiaotong has served as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and chairman of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, he said: "I like to teach the most, I have been engaged in education all my life, and I also like to be called a teacher by others." Why? I think that learning is a lifelong thing, and learning is the foundation of one's life. I can't do it without learning, I see scholarship as my life. We Chinese ancients said that to be virtuous, meritorious, and make a statement, these 'three stands' are very important! Academia is the foundation of this 'three stands', and it is necessary to take learning as the foundation, which is my lifelong pursuit. ”
Text: Liu Youmei