I read "Yan Yang Chu".
Qian Liqun, Miao Yong, and Oriental Publishing House invited me to write a preface to the book "Yan Yang Chu". Many years ago, I wrote a short article in the "Volunteer Culture Series", expressing my admiration for Mr. Yan's practice, theory, and spirit.
In the 20-40s of the 20th century, Yan Yangchu was undoubtedly one of the most important representatives of China's civilian education and rural construction movement. As the researcher put it, the education and rural reform experiments led by Yan Yangchu "are extremely remarkable in terms of their grand scale, long history, rigorous organization, thorough planning, the large number of professionals involved in education and agriculture, and the depth and breadth of the use of modern educational theories to guide practice." In the course of his 100-year-old life, Yan Yangchu (1890-1990) left behind a glorious footprint, that is, "several historical events" in the "history of the rural transformation movement" mentioned by Yan Yangchu: in 1917, on the European battlefield of World War I, the twenty-seven-year-old Yan Yangchu engaged in the service of Chinese workers, ran Chinese classes for them, edited the "Chinese Workers in France Weekly", and learned the "suffering" and "force" of "coolies", and thus embarked on the road of civilian education;In 1922, as the host of the civilian education section of the YMCA, Yan Yangchu organized large-scale citizen literacy campaigns in Changsha, Wuhan and other places, and his peers were also volunteer teachersIn 1923, the "Chinese Association for the Promotion of Civilian Education" was formally established, and Yan Yangchu was appointed as the director generalIn 1929, Yan Yangchu took a decisive step in his life's work: he went to Dingxian County to preside over the research and experiment of comprehensively reforming rural education and construction, which was used as a pilot for the study of social problems in China as a whole, and created the "Dingxian Doctrine" and "Dingxian Spirit".In 1932, the national government convened an internal affairs conference, passed the county government reform bill, Yan Yangchu served as the president of the Hebei County Government Construction Research Institute, and took Dingxian County as the county government construction experimental area, which marked the Dingxian experiment into a new stage centered on the county government reformIn 1934, the National Conference on Rural Reconstruction was held, and there were more than 600 groups of rural construction in the country, and more than 1,000 experimental areas and experimental sitesIn 1936, Yan Yangchu was invited by Hunan Province to establish Hengshan Experimental CountyWhen the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Yan Yangchu immediately organized the "Peasant Anti-Japanese War Education Group", and at the same time insisted on the experiment of rural transformation, and expanded the scope to Bishan, Ba County, Beibei, Tongliang, Qijiang County, Hechuan, Jiangbei and other counties in the "Third Commissioner's District" near Xindu and ChongqingIn 1941, the Rural Construction and Talent Training College established in Xiemachang, Chongqing, cultivated a large number of talents for rural construction during the Anti-Japanese WarIn 1951, Yan Yang left for the United States, established the International Committee for Civilian Education, and actively promoted the International Rural Renewal Movement (LMEM).In 1958, under the initiative of Yan Yangchu, the Philippines established the International Institute of Rural Rehabilitation, and he successively assisted the Philippines in implementing the three-year plan for rural rehabilitation, and assisted Thailand in Asia, Guatemala and Colombia in Latin America to establish rural regeneration promotion committees. In this way, the experience of the Dingxian experiment has been popularized all over the world, and adapted to the different national conditions of the third countries in the world, with new creation and development, so Yan Yangchu is called "the father of the international civilian education and rural transformation movement".
As Yan Yangchu himself said, he "worked poorly, hard, and hard" all his life, "from China to the world". In the face of all kinds of praise and doubts, he "self-dissected": "What kind of person am I?I am a child of the combination of Chinese culture and Western democratic thought. I do have a sense of mission and a sense of salvationI am a missionary, preaching civilian education, and the starting point is benevolence and love. I am a revolutionary, and I want to use education to get rid of bad habits and customs, eliminate the old and innovate, but I do not pay attention to countering violence with violence, killing people and setting fires. If socialism is defined as egalitarianism – equality of opportunity and rights, I can be considered a socialist, but I want humanity to solve problems in a peaceful way, so I don't approve of struggle, and I don't believe that class determines human nature. I believe that 'everyone can be Shunyao'. St. Augustine said, 'In the depths of every soul there is something sacred.' I am convinced of the universality of the human conscience. ”⑥
Interestingly, the first thing that attracted international attention and recognition was the "revolutionary" Yan Yangchu: In 1943, the New York City Association of Cosketusenko and the National Committee to Commemorate the 400th Anniversary of Copernicus's death set up a special commendation committee composed of representatives of more than 100 famous universities and research institutions in the world to select "great people of our time" who "have the revolutionary spirit of Copernican in our time" and "have made or are making revolutionary contributions to the thinking and methods of dealing with problems" Yan Yangchu and Einstein, Dewey, Ford and other ten people are also winners. In 1948, when the International East-West Association awarded Yan Yangchu, he called him "the son of a Chinese and a citizen of the world from a family of scholars" and praised: "You have prepared a set of methods that can improve the lives of civilians not only in China, but also anywhere in the world, and have proven to be effective." You have lit a light in the darkness of the world. In 1983, on his 90th birthday, he was awarded the Eisenhower Medal by the "Humanities" for his "exceptional contribution to world peace and mutual understanding." In 1987, Reagan presented Yan Yangchu with the "Lifetime Achievement Award for Ending Hunger", praising him for "more than 60 years, in order to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty in the Third World, unswervingly promote and develop a continuous and comprehensive plan" In 1988, Reagan congratulated Yan Yangchu on his birthday, and said: "I have always believed that people have the potential to solve their own problems. I appreciate your lifelong efforts to promote this idea" and "Your contribution to the liberation of human ignorance and poverty is the most precious treasure you have given to future generations"[11]. In 1989, the new US Bush also congratulated Yan Yangchu on his birthday, saying that "you are the ode to our humanity" and talked about his understanding of Yan Yangchu's thoughts: "You have made countless people realize that every child is not just a mouth to eat, but a valuable person with unlimited potential, two working hands. [12] These are very good reviews. In China, Yan Yangchu was misinterpreted and gradually faded out of people's sight until 1985, when Zhou Gucheng, then vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, invited Yan Yangchu to visit China and re-evaluate him, restoring his historical status as "a well-known civilian educator at home and abroad, an advocate and practitioner of the rural transformation movement" [13]. In the past two or three decades, Yan Yangchu has been widely recognized, and people have praised him as a "true friend" of the Chinese peasants[14], saying that he "has only the peasants in his heart, and his words and deeds are for the interests of the peasants", that his "extraordinary wisdom and perseverance come from loyalty to the peasants"[15], and that "he has demonstrated and confirmed the potential and resilience in the human spirit" [16]. More importantly, a group of young volunteers who have appeared one after another in recent years, as a new generation of rural builders, named their rural construction bases after "Yan Yangchu", indicating that Yan Yangchu's career has an heir in his motherland and homeland, which is naturally of great significance and far-reaching influence.
In his last public speech, Yan Yangchu said: May my life's work – rural renovation – become my legacy [17]. It is a very rich and rich legacy, which is first and foremost embodied in an extensive, lasting and fruitful practical activity that will be remembered forever by future generationsAt the same time, it has a great theoretical content, and this is a theory that is really extracted from the practice of modern Chinese society, and it is a native and modern Chinese educational thought and rural transformation and construction thought, so it can transcend the era in which it was produced, and have a continuous impact on China's modern education and social transformation. In my accustomed parlance, Yan Yangchu's thoughts, like those of Liang Shuming, Tao Xingzhi, Lu Zuofu and other sages of rural construction, are "living in contemporary China". If we want to inherit their legacy, we must first understand their thoughts and feel their spirit by reading their relevant works, and use them as spiritual resources for the new practice we are engaged in to transform China's rural education and society.
Notes:
Qian Liqun is a senior professor at Peking University. After his retirement, he paid more attention to language education, rural education in the western region, local cultural research and the youth volunteer movement, and at the same time engaged in research on the ideological phenomena of contemporary Chinese people.
Song Enrong, "The Complete Works of Yan Yang Chu", for the preface to "The Complete Works of Yan Yang Chu", vol. 1, Hunan Education Publishing House, 1989, p. 23.
Yan Yangchu, "Speech at the Closing Ceremony of the Guatemalan Training School" (April 29, 1965), in The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, Vol. 2, Hunan Education Publishing House, 1992, p. 407.
See Liu Chonglai, "Lu Zuofu and Research on Rural Construction", People's Publishing House, 2007, p. 52.
Quoted from Wu Fusheng, "I Look at Yan Yangchu", Yan Yangchu Commemorative Anthology, Chongqing Publishing House, 1996, p. 49.
Yan Yangchu: "Ninety Self-Statement" (1987), see The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, vol. 2, p. -530.
Yan Yangchu's Selected Documents of "Great Men with Revolutionary Contributions in the Modern World", see The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, Vol. 3, pp. 797-798, Hunan Education Publishing House, 1992.
Speech of the President and Board of Directors of the East-West Association (1948), in The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, vol. 3, p. 799.
Yan Yangchu himself has always believed that he was born in 1893, the same age as Lu Zuofu, Liang Shuming, and **, and 1983 is the ninetieth birthday, and 1988 and 1989 are the same age.
Nine. Ten. 5. Ninety-sixth birthday;However, the family tree of the Cha Yan family was later revised to 1890.
Ronald Reagan of the United States awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Ending Hunger (1987), in The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, vol. 3, p. 302.
11] "Ronald Reagan's 95th Birthday Message to Yan Yangchu" (1988), in The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, vol. 3, p. 803.
12] "George W. Bush's Message to Yan Yangchu on His 96th Birthday" (1989), in The Complete Works of Yan Yangchu, vol. 3, p. 804.
13] Lei Jieqiong, "Yan Yangchu - The Pioneer of the Civilian Education Movement", in Yan Yangchu Memorial Anthology, p. 1.
14] Hu Jieqing, "A Little Understanding", Yan Yangchu Memorial Anthology, p. 2.
15] Chen Zhiqian, "The Pioneer of Rural Construction", Yan Yangchu Memorial Anthology, p. 8.
16] Lü Jianxin, "My Self-Identification Process", Yan Yangchu Memorial Anthology, p. 87.
17] Quoted from Richard Els David, "Speech at the Centennial Commemoration of the Birth of Yan Yangchu" (October 26, 1993), see Qian Liqun, "Volunteer Culture Series: Yanyang First Volume", Life, Reading, and New Knowledge.
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**Please specify: "*Fang Zhi Sichuan".
*: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles.
Author: Qian Liqun (Senior Professor, Peking University).
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan.