Tang Wenzhi

Tang Wenzhi

Tang Wenzhi (1865-1954) was born in Taicang, Jiangsu Province on October 16, 1865, and settled in Wuxi in 1912. He is a famous educator, pioneer of engineering and learning, and master of Sinology.

Guangxu eighteen years (1892) Jinshi, official to the Qing Ministry of agriculture, industry and Commerce left Shilang and acting secretary. He retired from politics and devoted himself to education. He once served as the supervisor (president) of "Shanghai higher industrial school" and "higher merchant shipping School of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications" (predecessor of Dalian Maritime University and Shanghai Maritime University), founded private Wuxi middle school (predecessor of Wuxi third senior high school) and Wuxi National College (predecessor of Suzhou University).

He died in Shanghai in April 1954 at the age of 90. His works include Ru Jing Tang anthology, outline of the thirteen classics, Chinese classics, chronology of Ru Jing, etc.

Life of the characters

On December 3, 1865 (October 16, the fourth year of Tongzhi reign in the Qing Dynasty), Tang Wenzhi was born in Jinguan hall, Lu's residence in Yuewang City, Yangxian County, Zhili Town, Taicang City, Jiangsu Province. His grandfather Tang Xuehan named him "Zhi", which means "Tongjing Zhiguo", the word "yinghou", which means "Congmin Yinghui", the name "Weizhi", which means "Dexin Zhilan". In 1870, at the age of 6, Tang Wenzhi began to read Confucian classics such as filial piety, the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, the book of songs, Shangshu, the book of changes, the book of rites and the biography of spring and autumn Zuoshi. In 1879, he was admitted as a scholar, read historical records, Gongyang biography and Guliang biography in three biographies of spring and autumn, and began to learn to write ancient prose. In the following year, he entered the state school, studied Wang Zixiang (Wang Zuyu), a neo Confucianist in Taicang, and studied the theory of Xing Li and ancient Chinese prose. In 1882, 18-year-old Tang Wenzhi was elected in the examination. The next year, he failed in his first entrance examination to Beijing. Seeing that his academic ability was insufficient, he went back to Taicang to continue to study Neo Confucianism. At the age of 21, he entered Jiangyin Nanjing Academy and studied exegesis under the guidance of Huang Yuantong and Wang Xianqian. In 1892, at the age of 28, Tang Wenzhi took the Jinshi examination for the fifth time. He passed the imperial examination and imperial examination and became a new Jinshi. He served as the head of Jiangxi Department of the Ministry of household. In 1894, the Chinese army and Navy were defeated by Japan in the Sino Japanese War of 1894. Tang Wenzhi wrote to the Qing government "please take the overall situation in order to maintain the country's prosperity" (i.e. Wanyan Shugao), criticizing the current situation and calling for reform. The next year, he wrote a memorial to shangchayuanyu for Jiangsu provincial examination, opposing the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. In 1898, Tang Wenzhi was transferred to Zhang Jing, the premier's Yamen. In the autumn of 1901, he went to Japan with natong, the Minister of the Ministry of household affairs. In the winter of the same year, the premier's Yamen was changed into the Ministry of foreign affairs, and Tang Wenzhi was the head of the Department of accounting of the Ministry of foreign affairs, managing trade, customs and other affairs. In the spring of 1902, Portugal took the opportunity of amending the Old Testament ten years ago to make an unreasonable request to the Qing government to include Dagu, Xiaogu and other islands near Macao into the concession. Tang Wenzhi drafted a note to refuse. In May of the same year, Tang Wenzhi went to Britain with general Zaizhen to attend the gala ceremony of Edward VII, the new king of England. After going to Britain, he visited Belgium, France, the United States, Japan and other countries. When he went abroad twice, he extensively investigated the political, economic, cultural and educational situations of Japan, Europe and the United States. In 1903, the Qing government set up the Ministry of Commerce. Tang Wenzhi transferred from the Ministry of foreign affairs to the Ministry of Commerce and successively served as Youcheng, zuocheng and zuoshilang. During his tenure of office, he formulated commercial laws and set up chambers of Commerce to support and protect national industry and commerce. In order to safeguard national sovereignty, the government strongly opposed building railways with foreign debts and actively carried out the policy of commercial railways. In 1906, the Ministry of Commerce was changed into the Ministry of agriculture, industry and commerce. In December 1906, Tang Wenzhi returned home to mourn for his mother's death and no longer returned to Beijing to work. At the beginning of the ninth lunar month in 1907, Tang Wenzhi, who was in the period of "Ding you", was invited by Chen Bi, then Minister of post and communication of the Qing Dynasty, to be the supervisor (president) of Shanghai higher industrial school. After Tang Wenzhi took office, he immediately began to adjust the disciplines, stopped business, turned to engineering education, and successively created two engineering specialties: Railway and electrical engineering. Railway specialty is the first engineering specialty established in the history of the University, and it is also the beginning of Engineering Specialty Education in modern Chinese colleges and universities, and the electrical education in Chinese colleges and universities also started from then on. In the spring of 1909, the Ministry of post and communication planned to develop maritime trade and needed to train shipping talents urgently. Tang Wenzhi asked the Ministry of post and communication not to change the direction of the school, to add a shipping administration specialty, and to assist the merchant shipping school to be formally established. In 1911, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications ordered the construction of a merchant shipping school in wusongpao Taiwan. Tang Wenzhi personally went to Xiangdu terrain, ordered engineers to draw drawings, and built the school in August of the same year. It was named "higher merchant shipping School of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications". It is still managed by Shanghai higher Industrial School of the Ministry of Posts and telecommunications, and Tang Wenzhi is also the supervisor of the school. So far, the first Maritime University in modern Chinese history was born. In December 1912, Tang Wenzhi invited Sun Yat Sen to give a speech at the school, which made all the teachers, students and staff understand Sun Yat Sen's grand plan to revitalize the country. In April 1920, Tang Wenzhi offered to resign from the post of president of Shanghai Polytechnic School to the Ministry of communications due to eye disease, father's disease, and academic boom, and then returned to Wuxi qianxixi residence to recuperate. In December of the same year, Shanghai Polytechnic School, together with the other three schools, became "Jiaotong University". Since May 1920, Tang Wenzhi supported Gaoyang to set up "private Wuxi middle school" and volunteered to be the principal of private Wuxi middle school without salary. On December 25, 1952, Wuxi Municipal People's government announced that it would take over the private Wuxi middle school and change its name to Wuxi No.3 middle school. In July 2000, Wuxi No.3 middle school was merged with Zhongshan high school and upgraded to Wuxi No.3 high school. In October 1920, Tang Wenzhi was invited by Shi zhaozeng, former director of Longhai Railway Bureau and chairman of Bank of communications, to be the curator of Wuxi Sinology school. Although he was blind, he taught in person. Recite ancient prose, cadence, when called "Tang tune", and record records. In 1927, Tang Wenzhi changed the name of the school to "Wuxi Guoxue College", which faded the color of private school, and contacted Wuxi business circles to set up the board of directors of Wuxi Guoxue college. In December 1935, in order to celebrate Tang Wenzhi's 70th birthday, alumni of Jiaotong University and students of national college raised funds to build "Mr. Ru Jing Memorial Hall" by Baojie mountain on the Bank of Wuli Lake in Wuxi. In November 1937, on the eve of the Japanese occupation of Wuxi, Tang Wenzhi led the whole school to move to Guilin. Later, due to illness, he returned to Shanghai concession to recuperate. In the spring of 1939, it founded a branch school in Shanghai concession. In 1941, the Shanghai concession was occupied by the Japanese and puppets, and the branch school of national college was changed into a special school of Chinese studies to avoid registering with the Japanese and puppets. The puppet government once sent people to persuade Tang Wenzhi to take up the post of puppet government, which was severely rejected. In June 1946, due to the victory of the Anti Japanese War, Wuxi National College, which moved to Guilin, moved back to Wuxi to resume its school; Shanghai Branch continued to open, and Tang Wenzhi presided over the school affairs. After liberation in 1949,

Wuxi Guozhuan

It was renamed the College of Chinese arts, and Tang Wenzhi was still the president. On April 9, 1954, Tang Wen died in Shanghai at the age of 90.

Relative members

Tang Shouqi, the father of Tang Wenzhi, was formerly known as Xi Xi, whose name was ruoqin and the other name was Lanke. He was named xunzou in the late days, and was a former school teacher. His mother was Hu. Tang Wenzhi married his wife, Yu, and later took his cousin Huang binqiong as his stepwife. There are four sons and one daughter, two of whom, Tang Qingping, died young. His eldest son, Tang Qingyi (his wife is Yu Qingtang, a famous educator), was the director of the Department of foreign languages of Jiaotong University. His third son, Tang Qingzeng, is a famous historian of economic thoughts and a professor of economics at Fudan University. His fourth son, Tang Qingyong, is a banker. His youngest daughter, Tang qingwanshang. His grandson, Tang Xiaowei, a nuclear physicist, was a former academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; his granddaughter, Tang Xiaochun, was a Chinese teacher of former US President George W. Bush.

Main contributions

Character thought

Sea power

Tang Wenzhi thought that "where the merchant ship came, where the sea power came" and China's "shipping power was lost, and it was urgent to cultivate talents to save". He added the shipping administration department in 1909, which was the origin of China's modern maritime education and the pioneer of China's Higher Maritime education. From the beginning, China's maritime education stepped on the historical stage of China's education as a higher education. The birth of the Department of shipping administration has changed the traditional way of teaching by heart and by mouth. It has made China's maritime education move towards science and embarked on the road of cultivating senior maritime talents by itself. It has taken the first step to save the navigation rights and change the situation that China's sea going ships and river ships are in the hands of foreigners. This is of great significance in China's maritime education and maritime history.

education

Tang Wenzhi's thought of running a school is "practical". In order to protect the students from the influence of the old educational thought of "learning is excellent, then being an official", he often encouraged the students to "pursue practical learning, work for industry" and be the specialized talents of "bringing up learning for practical use, revitalizing China's industry". At the same time, attaching importance to physical education is also an important part of his school running thought. He attached great importance to the teaching of Chinese language. In view of the tendency of some people in the educational circles at that time to emphasize "Western learning" but despise Chinese language, he added the subject of Chinese language and established the Chinese Language Research Association. He also knew that to learn western science and technology, one must master a foreign language so that one can see its essence. The next year, he set up a western arts course, allowing students to study English, German, French and Latin, and set up an English conference. He paid special attention to moral education, thinking that morality is the foundation and knowledge is the building. The building wall without foundation is bound to be unstable. The distinction between classics and non classics is an eternal standard. Tang Wenzhi attached great importance to the development of humanistic spirit

Chinese PinYin : Tang Wen Zhi