The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

The development of education during the Anti-Japanese War had two most significant achievements -

First, the focus of national education has gradually shifted from higher education before the war to primary education, mainly the popularization of compulsory education and literacy.

The national government has explicitly stipulated that every town and town should have a central primary school, and every national school should have three parts: children, adults, and women, so that public education and compulsory education can be integrated.

Of course, friends who don’t like the Kuomintang can also accuse the Nationalist government of passing the blame. Because primary education is run by local governments and the main funds are raised by local governments, the central government only allocates a certain amount of subsidies every year.

However, after 1940, due to local financial difficulties, the Executive Yuan and the Supreme Council for National Defense issued regulations to include primary education funds as "special funds" in the budget, and strictly prohibited local governments from misappropriating them without authorization. This move has greatly increased the popularity of primary education, and the central government has correspondingly increased funding for primary education.

Second, secondary and higher education gradually transformed from pre-war elite education to civilian education, breaking the knowledge monopoly to a certain extent.

In the past, those who could go to university, except those majoring in normal education, basically belonged to the children of wealthy families, or at least from well-off families. There were very few college students from poor families.

However, during the Anti-Japanese War, due to a large number of students moving inland with their schools, many lost their source of livelihood. Not to mention asking them to pay tuition, even providing food and clothing is not enough.

So the national government adopted a "loan" system, which simply means granting student loans to students. These loans actually do not need to be repaid. Later, "publicly financed students" replaced the "loan" system, and public high schools and other schools were directly responsible for supporting students.

The loan system and the public funding system allowed countless poor children to attend middle schools and universities for free. This situation was impossible before the war. Later, most of the backbone of society from the 1960s to the 1970s, whether in New China or Taiwan, benefited from the loan system and public funding system for education during the war.

Although students generally eat junk food, at least they can barely eat enough and at least they can study, right? We really can't be too demanding in this regard. After all, the country is in financial difficulty, and the money spent just to support students every year is enough to support several elite teachers.

During the entire period of the All-out Anti-Japanese War, education funding was second only to war funding, and even much higher than the budget for developing agriculture and industry.

That's why Chen Lifu later had the confidence to say: "I have asked myself for seven years whether the Minister of Education is worthy of the Chinese people."

You can imagine the scene back then. From the top of the government to the bottom of society, the Chinese people gritted their teeth and persisted in the war of resistance while doing their best to develop education. It's like a poor family who is bullied outside and hungry at home, but tightens their belts so that their children can study - it seems that this way they can see a glimmer of hope for the future.

This kind of educational work is not only carried out in the rear area, but also in the occupied areas occupied by Japan, the government has established 102 educational guidance areas, covering 18 provinces and 6 cities. A large number of educational cadres were dispatched to the occupied areas to engage in open or secret educational activities, contact and absorb primary and secondary school teachers in enemy-occupied areas, eliminate enslavement education that resisted the Japanese, and actively guide high school graduates in occupied areas to go to college in the rear areas.

Of course, wartime education achieved remarkable results as a whole, but for specific teachers and students, it suffered from various drawbacks. The wages are too low, the food is too poor, the conditions are too harsh... teachers and students have too much to complain about.

Especially in universities, the government vigorously promotes party-oriented education and forces school leaders to join the party collectively. How can gentlemen who pursue academic freedom endure this?

Take the Southwest Associated University as an example. From the school leaders to the department heads, they will take the initiative to issue you a Kuomintang membership card regardless of whether you are willing or not. Some people are indifferent to this, while others are firmly opposed to it, such as Wen Yiduo.

Nankai principal Zhang Boling's attitude was to hide if he could. When he heard that someone was coming to issue party membership certificates, he ran away immediately. When people blocked her at home and tried to persuade her to join the party, Zhang Boling tried to deal with it in various ways, and even Kong Xiangxi and others came as lobbyists to no avail.

But Zhang Boling finally joined the party.

Half a month ago, Wu Tiecheng, secretary-general of the Kuomintang Party, visited in person and put a party membership card on the table before leaving. Zhang Boling wanted to return it, but when he opened the ID and saw that the name of the party introducer was "Chang Kaishen", he could only accept it with a wry smile.

…

A few days after Tao Xingzhi left, Zhang Boling also came to Zhou Mansion.

Zhang Boling did not come to Zhou Hexuan to raise funds. Although Nankai Middle School and Nankai Primary School were private and could not receive "loan" support from the central government, Zhang Boling was not short of money at all. He is a master of making money. When Zhang Xueliang was in charge of North China, he rushed to donate to him. Now Chang Kaishen also takes the initiative to donate to him.

When all institutions were short of funds, Zhang Boling even had the money to take over other schools. For example, he merged Zigong Shuguang Middle School into the Nankai system three years ago.

Zhou Hexuan cupped his fists and said, "What kind of wind brought Mr. Boling here?"

Zhang Boling joked: "I'm here to visit the students' homes."

Little Wei Lie was promoted to Nankai Middle School last year and completed his first year of high school. He will be a sophomore in high school next semester.

Of course it was just a joke to do a home visit or something, the summer vacation is almost over now.

Zhou Hexuan said: "The dog is naughty and troublesome to Principal Zhang."

Zhang Boling laughed loudly: "If everyone can be like your noble master, I hope there will be a few more naughty students. Although I don't go to the school often, every time I go to inspect, I hear the teachers say that Nankai Middle School A genius emerged."

"His liberal arts skills are still not good." Zhou Hexuan shook his head repeatedly.

Zhang Boling also stopped smiling: "Indeed. I personally reviewed Wei Lie's last semester's test papers. His Chinese proficiency is not enough to graduate from junior high school. It's time for him to work hard."

Zhou Hexuan said: "I will not allow him to skip another grade."

After chatting for a while about children, Zhang Boling finally got down to business. He cupped his fists and said seriously: "Mingcheng, Southwest Associated University has received the supplies you sent. Principal Mei wrote a letter to me to thank you in person."

"It's just a thought." Zhou Hexuan said.

"No matter what, Mingcheng's move helped the Southwest Associated University solve practical difficulties." Zhang Boling said.

The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and each chatted about their current situation, the current situation, and various interesting things in education and academia.

Suddenly, Zhang Boling asked: "Does Mingcheng know Zhang Zhengquan?"

Zhang Zhengquan is Zhang Daqian. Zhou Hexuan said: "I met him once in Tianjin. What's wrong?"

Zhang Boling said angrily: "I just came back from Chengdu and heard something from Director Feng Hanji of the Sichuan Provincial Museum. Director Feng received a letter of complaint a few days ago, accusing Zhang Zhengquan of wantonly destroying and defacing Dunhuang murals. Caused irreparable huge losses."

This is a stain that is difficult to erase in Zhang Daqian's life. Zhou Hexuan knew something about it before traveling through time, but did not understand the specific situation.

"Is this true?" Zhou Hexuan asked.

Zhang Boling said: "We don't know the authenticity yet, but the person who wrote the whistleblower letter is not an unknown person, and I'm afraid he will not speak lightly. Zhang Zhengquan has close contacts with important officials in the government, and is a close friend of Mr. Yu Youren. Without obtaining With enough evidence, no one dares to touch him, and it’s not even easy to directly condemn him in the newspaper.”

Zhou Hexuan asked: "Who wrote the letter to report?"

Zhang Boling said: "Wei Juxian."

"That should be true." Zhou Hexuan said.

Wei Juxian is the second class student of Tsinghua Institute of Chinese Studies. He studied under Liang Qichao, Chen Yinke, Wang Guowei, Zhao Yuanren, Li Ji and others. He also served as the director of the Nanjing Antiquities Preservation Institute. He is also a famous archaeologist.

Zhang Boling said: "Wei Juxian was preparing to return to Sichuan from Dunhuang. He had no ability to stop Zhang Zhengquan. The Sichuan Provincial Museum also had to wait for him to return and obtain definite evidence before daring to speak out and condemn."

"Let me go to Dunhuang and have a look." Zhou Hexuan said.

If I wait for Wei Juxian to return to Sichuan, the day lily will be cold.

Historically, the Sichuan Museum was unable to stop Zhang Daqian and could only write a letter to the Central Museum to report. The Central Museum attached great importance to this and asked the Ministry of Education to organize an inspection team to Dunhuang. By the time the inspection team arrived in Dunhuang, Zhang Daqian had been destroying Dunhuang murals for a whole year.

However, Zhang Da had thousands of hands and eyes, and even the Ministry of Education inspection team was unable to stop him. He continued to mess around in Dunhuang for several months before leaving on his own.