The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

July 28.

The University of the Republic of China held a special meeting. Of the nine members of the Education Administration Committee, only four (Cai Yuanpei, Li Shizeng, Wei Wei, and Zhang Naiyan) attended the meeting today.

Among the other five members, Wang Zhaoming is currently working secretly in Shanghai and has no time to discuss education issues; Xu Chongqing and Jin Zengcheng are both in charge of education and party affairs in Guangdong; Chu Minyi has just gone abroad to Europe to study and investigate public health issues; Zhong Rongguang Then we engage in education in the Lingnan area.

Let's talk about the four people who attended the meeting: Cai Yuanpei, Li Shizeng, Wei Wei and Zhang Naiyan.

Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng, together with Zhang Jingjiang and Wu Zhihui, were called the "Four Elders of the National Party", also known as the "Four Elders of the Party and the State". Therefore, Cai Yuanpei and Li Shi had conflicts a while ago, and it was not Hu Shi's turn to speak out. As soon as he spoke, Wu Zhihui immediately mocked and reprimanded him.

Zhang Naiyan is Zhang Jingjiang's nephew, who is now in charge of the education affairs of the Central University College (Department of Education of the Capital Region), and has some personal grievances with Cai Yuanpei.

As for Wei Wei, I am afraid that no one can guess now that this gentleman is a secret member of our party, but he has not gone through the formal formalities of joining the party.

Last year, Cai Yuanpei actively instigated the "Qing Party" and killed many Red Party members and suspected Red Party members, but invited the real Red Party member Wei Wei back from the UK to be the director of the Shanghai Education Bureau, and later recommended Wei Wei to be the Education Administrative Committee Nine members.

It's hard to guard against!

Among the four committee members who attended the meeting, Cai Yuanpei was in the same group as Wei Wei, and Li Shizeng was in the same group as Zhang Naiyan. As for Zhang Jingjiang and Wu Zhihui among the "Four Elders of the Nationalist Party", they both followed Chang Kaishen to Peiping at this time, but they supported Li Shizeng.

To put it bluntly, Cai Yuanpei is already alone in the education system, who made him offend Zhang Jingjiang last year.

When Zhou Hexuan came to the venue, there were only two or three people there, including Li Shuhua, the director of the Physics Department of Peking University.

Li Shuhua immediately got up and greeted: "Hello, Principal Zhou!"

Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile: "How is the research on the human harvester at Peking University?"

Li Shuhua is the direct person in charge of the research and development of the harvester. He said happily: "After five improvements, the harvester can now perfectly thresh wheat and rice, but there are still some problems when harvesting miscellaneous grains such as sorghum."

"That's for sure. After all, the tassels of sorghum rice are very different from wheat and rice." Zhou Hexuan said.

Li Shuhua said: "This time when I came to Nanjing, I brought the machine with me. The rice harvest in the southern region is about to be harvested, so it will come in handy."

Zhou Hexuan asked: "How do you plan to promote the harvester?"

Li Shuhua said eagerly: "I plan to contact the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Industry, and the government will conduct a comprehensive promotion."

"How will the benefits be distributed?" Zhou Hexuan asked.

Li Shuhua hesitated: "Well, I haven't thought about it yet. I think harvesting machines are good for the country and the people, and commercial interests are secondary."

Alas, Zhou Hexuan can only feel that intellectuals are too naive.

Zhou Hexuan shook his head and said, "Brother Runzhang, do you know the truth of 'Zilu was persuaded to be virtuous, Zigong was modest and stopped doing good'?"

Both Zilu and Zigong were students of Confucius. Zilu rescued a drowning man and accepted the gift of a cow, and Confucius praised him. Zigong redeemed many Lu people, but refused the state's compensation, which was criticized by Confucius.

Because by accepting the gift of thanks, people will see the rewards of saving people, and more people will save people. The refusal of state compensation will make people see the loss of doing good deeds, which will lead to fewer and fewer people going to save the Lu people.

"You mean..." Li Shuhua didn't understand.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Why do the great powers have so many scientific inventions? Because the inventions are profitable. The design drawings of the harvester I provided to Peking University were invented by you. The main function is indeed to benefit the country and the people. Any benefits, will the students of Peking University still be so active in inventing in the future? Will other scientists and inventors in China still be so keen on inventing?"

"Uh..." Li Shuhua was speechless, and suddenly bowed, "Principal Zhou, Shuhua has been taught!"

"Have you applied for a patented invention?" Zhou Hexuan asked.

Li Shuhua said: "Applying."

Zhou Hexuan said: "After the meeting is over, I will take you to Shanghai to meet Mr. Yu Qiaqing and discuss with him the commercialization of the harvester."

"It's just right." Li Shuhua dared not object.

Zhou Hexuan asked again: "I heard that Peking University has been renamed Zhonghua University, and I, the principal, have been dismissed?"

Li Shuhua was a little embarrassed, because he was a student studying in France, and Li Shi was once his mentor. In history, after Li Shi once took office as the president of Zhonghua University (Peking University), he had no energy to preside over school affairs, and the acting president was Li Shuhua.

After a moment of silence, Li Shuhua said in a low voice: "Last night I visited Mr. Shi Zeng and persuaded him, and he explained the reason to me. Now many people criticize Mr. Shi Zeng, saying that he is nepotism, but in fact he has nothing to do. Citizens The government wants to control the education field, and Mr. Shi Zeng wants to make education independent. In order to realize his ideal, he must appoint his cronies, otherwise the power of education will be taken away by the government! The old principal (Cai Yuanpei) has already compromised with the government, and the two of them That’s when a violent conflict erupted.”

Zhou Hexuan was silent.

When bad people do bad things, it just makes people feel angry; when good people do bad things for good ideals, it makes people feel sad.

Li Shizeng was indeed a good man, he did not want to be an official, nor did he want to get involved in political disputes. However, in order to realize the ideal of independent education, Li Shizeng became an official, and he also took the initiative to set off factional struggles that he hated so much, and he even did not hesitate to get a bad name because of it.

But why is it said that Li Shi once did bad things with good intentions?

Li Shizeng's education reform mainly imitated the French education system. However, the actual situation in France and China is too different. Although Li Shizeng has made corresponding changes, these changes are of no avail at all.

Li Shizeng's education reform was not only feared by the national government, but also led to criticism from the national education system. Especially grassroots educators, who already had a hard life, were reformed by Li Shizeng, and there was really no way out.

Faced with the joint crusade by the government and the people, Li Shizeng was not discouraged. He is an idealist. He regards educational independence as his lifelong pursuit. He was abused and attacked him for admitting it, and he broke through the south wall and never looked back.

It can only be said that the starting point is good, but the eyes are high and the hands are low. Li Shizeng's education reform even caused bloodshed in history, and the final result can only be failure.

Cai Yuanpei is much more sober and clear. He and Li Shizeng have been like-minded for more than ten years and have been working hard for educational independence. But seeing all kinds of contradictions caused by the reform, he immediately gave up and embarked on the road of compromise.

Today's dispute between Cai and Li is not just a factional struggle, but also a struggle between reality and ideals.