Shu Xincheng (1893-1960) was an educator, publisher, and dictionarian. Also known as Wei Zhou, Xinyi, Andun, a native of Pupu, Hunan. He was the director of the middle school department of China Public School and a professor of education at Chengdu Higher Normal School, where he studied and introduced the Dalton system. He is engaged in educational writings, including "Guide to Chinese Education", "Education Series", "History of Studying Abroad in Modern China", "General Theory of Education" and so on. In 1928, at the request of the Zhonghua Book Company, he presided over the compilation of "Cihai" (1936 edition). In 1930, he became the director of the editorial office of the Zhonghua Book Company, and later acted as general manager. In 1957, he proposed to Mao Zedong to revise "Cihai", which was supported, and he was appointed director of the Cihai Editorial Office of the Zhonghua Bookstore and editor-in-chief of the Cihai Editorial Committee, presiding over the revision.
【Aspire to study pedagogy】
Shu Xincheng was born in 1893 in a small village in Dongxiang, Pupu County, Hunan. Both the great-grandfather and the grandfather lived on the hard work of the tenant fields, and later the family ran some side businesses in addition to farming, and the family road improved slightly. He was a highly valued child in the family, and because of his parents' love, he entered a private school before the age of five. His mother attached particular importance to his education and intended to cultivate his "gentleman's style", so that when he became an adult, he could stand in the forest and no longer be a peasant with callos, so it was inevitable that he would be too strict, but he believed that "the foundation of decades of governance and life was established in that era."
As a child, Shu Xincheng spent a wonderful time in private schools and academies, reading the Four Books and Five Classics, and also learning the Eight Strands of Literature and The Preparation of Poems. In 1908, he entered the New Style Academy. At that time, the new school was in its infancy, and there was no restriction on school age, and he became a primary school student at the age of 15. But after all, his academic ability was already enough to reach middle school, and it didn't take long for him to think that the gentlemen in the classroom had taught too little and too ordinary. He arranged for himself a full range of extracurricular self-study contents: First, he accepted more new knowledge, and the "Times", "Xinmin Congbao", "Turning Back", "The Soul of the Yellow Emperor", "The Soul of China", etc. in the reading room were all read tirelessly, and Zhang Taiyan Zhikang had several recitations of "On Revolution"; the second was to read novels, "Chronicles of the States of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty", "Liaozhai Zhiyi", "Rulin Waishi" and the four famous works, etc. "The things to see are unsystematic, but the knowledge of all aspects of society has increased a lot, and the articles have also made a lot of progress invisibly." The habit of helping the weak and not relying on the strong, and being proud of the strong and not being proud of the inferior, is also mostly developed by these novels"; the third is to read the science books, Zeng Wenzhenggong's diary has been read again, he has made many notes, and he has written a diary according to his method, reflected on his words and deeds at any time, and also learned "Zhu Zi Xue", laying a foundation for doing things responsibly and treating others with loyalty and forgiveness; in addition, he also taught himself calligraphy, painting and martial arts. Self-study for a long time not only enriches the mind, but also develops the habit of self-discipline.
After that, he studied in schools in Changde, Changsha, Wuchang and other places, and was fortunately admitted to the Hunan Higher Normal School, spending another four years of peaceful study in the Mountains of Yuelu. At this time, he was already "full of a brain of the great principle of governing the country and the world", no longer absorbed in the homework itself, in his spare time, in addition to sightseeing in the mountains, he also studied books such as "The Complete Works of Zeng Wenzheng", "Zhuangzi", "Zhuzi Dogma" and so on in the library.
Hunan has a considerable position in the history of China's new education, and there are many enthusiastic private scholars in addition to public schools. Shu Xincheng took classes in some schools during his studies, and after graduation, he naturally continued to engage in education, and had preliminary experience and observation of the current situation of education in China at that time. He successively read Sandek's "Pedagogy", "Educational Psychology", Dewey's "Civil Governance and Education" and other books, further opening his horizons. By this time he was determined to study pedagogy and to write about education. Shu Xincheng said in the book "Me and Education": "I think that the reason why man's thought is so similar, except that his ideological ability is based on his natural endowment, the rest is transferred by the wheel of the times; so a person's thoughts, precisely speaking, are mirrors that reflect the times... At that time, the social environment gave me two major influences: one was the chaotic state of the political situation in Hunan, and the other was the May Fourth Movement. ”
Specifically, since the first year of the Republic of China, the political situation in Hunan has changed the most intensely in the country, with frequent changes in governors, warlords divided, and party rivalries. School education has also been greatly affected, and at this time, the arrears of education funds are consistent throughout the country, and Hunan is not spared. In order to make a living, Shu Xincheng was introduced to teach in some church schools, mainly the director of teaching at Fuxiang Women's School. From the perspective of educational experience, he originally had experience in both private schools and new-style schools, believing that each had its drawbacks. After entering Fuxiang for a period of time, I also realized the irrationality of the church school, for example, because of the lack of Chinese language education, the lack of students' grasp of national common sense, the lack of habits of teachers to read newspapers and care about current affairs, and the lack of peer communication, and so on. All these observations of Chinese education at that time prompted him to constantly think about what kind of teaching system was more suitable for the growth of human nature.
During his time in Fuxiang, the positive side was that the library had various educational and psychological works by Dewey, Sandek, James, Monroe, and others, as well as rich books in the fields of English and American literature and social sciences, and he was "like Columbus's discovery of the New World, when the spiritual pleasure was indescribable, and the desire to learn developed to the extreme."
Shu Xincheng has been reading "New Youth" since 1916, and after the "May Fourth" Movement, various publications have sprung up like mushrooms, giving people the influence of new ideas. Shu Xincheng said: "At that time, when I was awake and unclear, I was almost suspicious of the old, and almost every piece was good for the new, so no matter what, as long as it was white paper and black characters, as long as it could be bought, I read it in detail. Under the influence of the "May Fourth" new wind, Shu Xincheng read and wrote and published diligently, but an article analyzing Fuxiang's advantages and disadvantages, "My Opinions and Hopes for Church Schools", lost his job because it was difficult to tolerate the church education circles. From the education he personally experienced, Shu Xincheng saw the multi-phase of the Chinese education system at that time, which laid the groundwork for him to continue to engage in educational practice and future educational research writings.
【Advocating the Dalton system】
Before and after the Fuxiang storm, Shu Xincheng has been quite influential in the education industry. In the spring of 1921, Zhang Dongsun recommended Shu Xincheng to be the director of the Middle School of China Public School (the predecessor of Shanghai Wusong Middle School), and his first job was to rectify the teaching team, that is, "to ask the teachers, the teachers who came with 'voice and demand', including Ye Shengtao, Zhu Ziqing, Chen Jianshan, Chang Naiyan, Liu Yanging, Liu Jianyang, Wu Youxun, and Xu Dungu", with the purpose of "resolving to turn this solemn hall into an ideal institution and strive to realize my educational ideas." During this period, the educational work in Shuxincheng was quite successful, one of which was the advocacy of the Dalton system.
The Dalton system was created in 1920 by the American educator Helenparkhirst (1887-1973), named after Dalton Middle School in Massachusetts. In the later period of the "May Fourth" Movement, it was introduced to China after the self-study tutoring method, the group teaching method, the Montessori teaching method and the design teaching method.
This is a different form of teaching organization from the class teaching system in traditional education, focusing on the harmonious and free development of students' individuality and group nature. The Dalton system emphasizes three fundamental principles: freedom, cooperation, and planning. Freedom means that teachers assign different assignments according to students' abilities and encourage students to arrange their own learning plans. Collaboration is both between teachers and students and between students, encouraging collaboration based on similar interests among students of the same or different grades. Planning refers to breaking the system of attending classes according to the curriculum, and according to the homework outline drawn up by the teacher, the students complete the learning tasks in accordance with the agreement between teachers and students. Dalton strives to eliminate the disadvantages of the class teaching system that only attaches importance to teachers' teaching and ignores students' active learning, and emphasizes the main position of students in teaching activities. As a result, he was soon introduced to the world and set off a teaching revolution.
Dalton system was introduced to China, the first to land in Shanghai. The first to introduce the Dalton system were the educational publications "Education Magazine" and "Chinese Education Circles" that were very popular in Shanghai at that time, and in a short period of time, articles such as "Dalton System", "Dalton System Reality", "Dalton System Laboratory Plan" and so on were published. Shu Xincheng's first long article comprehensively explaining the Dalton system, "What is the Dalton System", was published in the November 1922 Issue of Education magazine as part of the "Dalton Special Issue". The article elaborates on the theory of the Dalton system and the possibility and inevitability of its implementation in China, encourages colleagues in the education sector to seriously study and experiment with this new teaching method, and clearly states: "First, I hope that domestic educators will have an experimental attitude towards the Dalton system; second, I hope that the spirit of this system in China will create a new system suitable for national conditions." ”
In 1922, Shu Xincheng directed the trial implementation of the Dalton system at the Wusong Middle School in Shanghai, where he worked, setting a precedent for the Dalton system in China, only two years after the establishment of the Dalton system in the United States. After Shanghai, many areas, especially primary and secondary schools in the more economically developed coastal areas, have also taken active actions. Ms. Berkhurst's visit to China in 1925 played a great role in promoting the Chinese people to further understand the original intention and implementation of the Dalton system. However, wusong middle school from the feasibility of the reason, on the grounds of "outside and students opposition", did not support this teaching experiment, so Shu Xincheng resigned at the end of 1922, and in February of the following year, at the request of Professor Liao Shicheng, the attached middle school and director of Nanjing Southeast University, he went to southeast university to teach and continue to experiment with the Dalton system.
The Dalton system experiment attached to Southeast University is relatively comprehensive and complete in the proposal, design, implementation, and analysis of the results of the experiment, representing the highest level at that time, and is a model for the pursuit of scientific education experiments in China in the 1920s. At that time, the experiment was a "comparative experiment", which divided students with similar intelligence and academic ability into two groups, one group using the Dalton system and one group without the Dalton system, comparing the high grades of the two groups. After a semester, Liao Shi admitted that the Dalton system is conducive to students to "enhance their self-learning ability" and "can arouse the fun and spirit of personal research and develop the habit of independent research", but from the experimental results, the teaching effect seems to be difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat, if from an economic point of view, the number of teachers, the time spent by teachers, the homework time spent by students will increase significantly, in addition, there are problems such as the inability to specify standards for assessment scores. Finally, Liao Shicheng concluded in the "Report on the Experiment of the Dalton System of The Dalton System of the Eastern University Annex": The characteristics of the Dalton system are "in freedom and cooperation", but it is difficult to implement according to the specific conditions of our country, so in September 1924, it was decided to cancel all the dalton system experiments.
Although the Dalton experiment was eventually stopped, during the experiment, the educational community was quite interested in this educational model. Shu Xincheng used the holidays to hold the "Dalton System Summer Workshop", and gave public lectures on the Dalton system everywhere, covering Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuchang, Changsha, Wujin, Yixing and other places. In April 1924, after completing the school's teaching work, he went to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui at his own expense to investigate education, and for more than two months, he visited 35 schools in 11 places, including Wuhu, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Xuzhou. The theoretical thinking and practical reflection during this period were later summarized into a number of influential monographs at that time, such as "Discussion Collection of Dalton System", "Dalton System Research Collection", "Dalton System Discussion", etc.
【Writings on the History of Education】
Reflecting on the experiments of the Dalton system in China, Shu Xincheng believes that "the two experiments on the Dalton system did not have good results, and the main reason seems to be the problem of people - the problem that teachers do not doubt the old method and do not need the new method." He believes that in order to change the system, we must first change the people who have the decisive power of the system, that is, we must first educate people. Therefore, he decided to "not be a teacher in any school with the current school system, but to create my own new education system" and devoted himself to educational writing. Except for a semester-long volunteer lecture on the History of Education in Modern China at Fudan University in Shanghai in 1931, Shu Xincheng did not participate in any other teaching work. The focus of his career shifted to the study of educational historical materials in modern China, hoping to create a new education system for the purpose of establishing himself, reaching out to others, and saving the country.
Shu Xincheng divides the writing and research work on the history of education into four parts. The first is to sort out the accumulated manuscripts and lecture notes, and finally write the book "General Theory of Education" and "Modern Education Methods"; the second is to sort out the historical materials of China's change to new education since the establishment of the Tongwen Museum in the late Qing Dynasty, and finally compile it into four volumes of "Historical Materials of Education in Modern China" and "Overview of New Education in China"; the third is to write a relatively complete general history of education in modern China and a number of special histories, and finally write "History of Studying Abroad in Modern China", "History of Educational Thought in Modern China" and a number of papers; fourth, to preserve the historical materials of that year, and to compile an annual yearbook with "The History of Education in Modern China" 14 Years of Chinese Education Guide" and "15 Years of China Education Guide". Receiving private school and college education at an early age, receiving a new-style school education after the age of 15, engaging in education after the age of 24, and focusing on educational writing after the age of 32, Shu Xincheng thought to himself: "On the stage of modern Chinese education, I have pretended to be a variety of horns, and I have also been a viewer of all kinds. Taking my life course as a root clue to explain the changes in education in modern China, I think it is easy to compare it to a few empty educational papers or a book of educational principles. ”
His passion for educational research, in addition to solving the various problems of education in modern China, also pinned on the ideal of the time - to create a self-reliant private college education. In order to raise funds, in addition to writing books, he also decided to edit the dictionary. In 1926, a small team was assembled to edit the Youth Encyclopedia Dictionary, and it was intended to use royalties to cover the funds for running the school. Because the dictionary could not be completed and published in a short period of time, and because the situation changed, the wish was not achieved in the end. By 1928, Shu Xincheng "had made a career as an editor, and the so-called ideal of a private college had been disillusioned," referring to the fact that he had accepted the position of editor-in-chief of Cihai, zhonghua bookstore. This is a major turning point in the cause of Shu xincheng.
【Enter the Publishing Garden】
Shu Xincheng transferred from the education garden to the editing garden, which is closely related to his friend Lu Feikui. Shu Xincheng had read Lu Feikui's articles as early as when he was a student at Hunan Higher School, and he was particularly impressed by his "Women's Education Problems" that advocated the idea of equality between men and women. In the autumn of 1922, Shu Xincheng was teaching at Wusong Middle School, and Lu Feikui went to give a speech, and the two "saw each other as they always" and became friends of Mo Rebellion.
Since his first meeting in 1922, Lu Feikui has urged Shu Xincheng to join the Zhonghua Bookstore to create a career, five or six times before and after, but he has refused on the grounds of "practicing the ideal of education". Lu Feikui was not in a hurry, and while trying his best to help Shu Xincheng's most enthusiastic education cause at that time, he chose the opportunity to constantly persuade. When the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China promulgated the new school system, the curriculum standards were changed accordingly, and Lu Feikui invited Shu Xincheng to edit the civics textbook. This is based on a full understanding of Shu Xincheng's educational experience and rich knowledge: "What junior high school students need is common sense in life, not pure science, and your common sense can be called a living encyclopedia in terms of the books and conversations I have read about you. This "New Middle School Textbook and Junior Citizen Textbook" is shu Xincheng's first participation in the editing work of Zhonghua Bookstore. This set of textbooks is very popular and is constantly being reprinted, which shows Shu Xincheng's editing skills and Lu Feikui's understanding. The publication of dictionaries and reference books is a major contribution of Zhonghua Bookstore to China's cultural circles. In 1915, the Commercial Press published China's first large-scale language dictionary ,字源), but based on the old character books, rhyme books, and similar books, it was more professional. To this end, the Zhonghua Book Company decided to compile another encyclopedic reference book that is useful to people's actual lives, and named it "Ci hai". Due to various objective reasons, after its launch in the autumn of 1915, the editor of "Cihai" dropped out of the time, until Shu Xincheng was disillusioned with writing and studying, and after many invitations by Lu Feikui, he finally took over the compilation of "Cihai" in 1929 and served as the editorial director of the Zhonghua Book Company the following year.
Shu Xincheng took up the post of Zhonghua, as cautious as when he was the director of Wusong Middle School, not only using publishing as a means of livelihood, but integrating his educational ideals into the publishing industry. He wrote in his diary: "The essence of the current position is to run a business, but it is no less culturally influential than that of a minister of education or a university president. Therefore, before taking office, he set a careful plan for his work, including collecting materials and enriching the library collection, working hard to edit dictionaries, secondary school reference books, general reading materials, specialized readings, literary and art books, etc. Judging from his future publishing activities, he followed this plan. Before joining the company, he also met and familiarize himself with the editors. According to his diary, on August 1, 1929, he talked with Zhang Xiang, director of the textbook department of the editorial office, to learn about the editing of textbooks; in October, he asked for a list of fans and a list of job salaries. His emphasis on fandom has continued throughout his publishing career. In 1935, he founded the Vocational Training Institute with Wang Shuqing and others, and was sent to various departments of the bookstore for half a year to intern, without tuition fees, and bonuses were given according to the results, so as to absorb talents. For editors, due to the nature of their work and the nature of their demand for knowledge, a six-hour working day is implemented in order to learn and supplement knowledge. Both public and private, these are thoughtful and reasonable considerations.
After Shu Xincheng took over cihai, he focused on the extensive collection of new words, no longer limited to collecting old words. He extensively collected popular words from newspapers and periodicals, deleted old ones and added new ones, included the unified translations of foreign words that had emerged since May Fourth, and collected colloquialisms from ancient vernacular novels and operas. These innovations have enabled Cihai to take a big step forward in building on the Commercial Press's Ciyuan.
In 1932, the "1.28 Incident" broke out in Shanghai, and some people succumbed to Japanese pressure and advocated the cancellation of the social science articles of "Cihai", and some people proposed to delete the "1.28", "918", "Tanggu Agreement" and other items, which were resolutely opposed by Shu Xincheng. "It is humiliating for our country to be weak and unable to compete with a strong enemy, and it is humiliating for the enemy not to argue with us, and it is unsatisfactory that the enemy has imposed on us." Because of his reasoning, this edition of the "Cihai" was able to retain a number of historical and political terms such as the "Tanggu Agreement" and also maintained the position of Chinese. "Ci Hai" published the first volume in 1936, and then the next volume in the following year, compared with "Ci Yuan", it can be called a work of "post-production and refinement", and gradually became an indispensable tool book for people.
As the director of the editorial office, Shu Xincheng's publishing philosophy of "developing education culture and maintaining the survival of the company" has influenced the publishing pattern of Zhonghua Bookstore. In addition to the editor of Cihai, he still had many efforts during the Zhonghua Bookstore period, and he could not be buried.
In 1933, Shu Xincheng founded the semi-monthly magazine "New China", with the purpose of "instilling the knowledge of the times and carrying forward the national spirit", and later became the forefront of propagating new ideas and publishing progressive translations.
Lu Feikui and Shu Xincheng both adhered to the idea of "opening up the wisdom of the people and supplementing education" with books and newspapers, and Lu Feikui said at the beginning of the founding of zhonghua bookstore: "The founding of the country fundamentally cares about education, and education is fundamentally textbook." Education is not revolutionary, and the foundation of the country will never be consolidated. Therefore, Shu Xincheng presided over the publication of books with great emphasis on practicality. The "Chinese Encyclopedia" for middle school students has been published since 1934, including Jiang Weiqiao's Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy, Wang Guangqi's History of Chinese Music, Feng Zikai's Outline of Modern Art, Zuo Shunsheng's History of the Xinhai Revolution, and Zhou Xianwen's Social Problems and Social Policies. Since 1936, he has collected textbook lectures and translations by professors and scholars from various universities and published them in the form of "University Books", including Chang Dao's "Education Systems of Various Countries", Guo Dali's translation of "Economic Theory" and "History of Lange Materialism", Huang Yuanfang's translation of "Algebraic Equation Theory", Wu Yu's "Theory of Names", Xiang Da's translation of "Archaeology of the Western Regions of Stein", and Lin Hecheng's "Chinese Agricultural Finance".
Under the auspices of Shu Xincheng, zhonghua bookstore also published a number of important ancient books and anthologies, and vigorously transformed the zhonghua bookstore library, gradually becoming a knowledge warehouse that is easy for editors to check. In 1934, Shu Xincheng transferred the various periodicals, magazines and pedagogical books he had treasured over the years to the bookstore at a low price to enrich the collection. Driven by it, other fans in the bookstore also donated books. In 1945, the bookstore still purchased a batch of Zheng Zhenduo's collection of books, so that some books with documentary value at that time could be preserved.
In 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded, and it was imperative to revise cihai, which was published more than 20 years ago. In fact, as early as June of that year, Shu Xincheng had already formulated the "Cihai Supplementary Edition Editing Plan". In 1953, Shu Xincheng, who had been the editorial director of the Zhonghua Bookstore for 23 years, retired, but he was obsessed with publishing, especially the revision of "Cihai", which he had already put on the agenda when he was in office.
In 1957, at the Fourth Session of the First National People's Congress, Shu Xincheng talked about a major problem in China's publishing work, that is, the lack of large number of reference books. Chairman Mao said that he had used "Ci Hai" since 20 years ago, and he also carried it when he was fighting in northern Shaanxi, and later in the case of the emergency situation in Yanchuan, he had to abandon it and bury it, and he could not find it later. He said: "Now this book is too old, old, I hope to revise it." A few months later, Chairman Mao inspected Shanghai and received Shu Xincheng, and the two talked about the revision of cihai and the editing of the encyclopedia. Chairman Mao suggested that Shu Xincheng take command, so in 1958, Shanghai established the Zhonghua Bookstore Cihai Editorial Office (the predecessor of the Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House), and Shu Xincheng re-entered the work of the bookstore and assumed the heavy responsibility of editing the new "Cihai".
In the spring of 1960, the first draft of "Ci Hai" was basically completed. At the time of reviewing the second draft, Shu Xincheng was already ill and hospitalized. According to his wife Liu Jiqun's recollection, at this time he was still bedridden reviewing the manuscript, pondering article by sentence, writing down dozens of revision opinions, until November, when his illness was so serious that he could not write it, he still instructed her to write down the opinions in a diary. Unfortunately, on November 28 of that year, Shu Xincheng finally died of cancer and could not see the official publication of the new "Ci hai".
Shu Xincheng once said that as the son of a small farmer, due to the various relationships between the genetic environment and the educational environment, he experienced a kind of life insight of "infinite conscious creation". Looking back on his life as an education and publishing, it can indeed be said that he has gained both interest and career in "infinite conscious creation".