Zhang Xiangwen

Zhang Xiangwen

Zhang Xiangwen (1866-1933) was a pioneer and educator of Chinese geography. The word Wei West, chaos valley. He is from Siyang, Jiangsu Province. He has been teaching in Nanyang public school and Peking University for a long time.

In 1901, the earliest geography textbooks in China, primary geography textbook and secondary geography textbook, were published. In 1908, the earliest book of physical geography in China, earth literature, was published. In 1909, China Geological Society, the earliest geographical academic group in China, was founded in Tianjin and elected as its president. In the following year, he founded the earliest geographical journal in China, Journal of Geosciences. He is also the author of Siyang County annals, Buddhist geography, nanyuancong manuscript and geology textbook.

brief account of the author's life

Zhang Xiangwen (1866-1933), a native of Siyang County, Jiangsu Province, was named zhuangu. He has been engaged in the teaching, research and writing of geography since the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1900). He also founded the first geographical academic group in China, the Chinese Geological Society, and the first geographical academic journal, the Journal of Geosciences. He has promoted the development of Geography in China for 20 to 30 years. He is the first famous geographer in China in the 20th century.

（1） In 1900, when Zhang Xiangwen was teaching in Nanyang public school, he became close friends with Zhang Taiyan, Cai Yuanpei and Zou Rong, who were progressive in thought. After their introduction, he joined the "alliance" and actively engaged in the democratic revolutionary movement. He often made speeches with them in Zhangyuan, advocating revolution, and published many times in the Su Bao run by Zhang Taiyan and the alarm bell run by Cai Yuanpei, Publish articles advocating revolution. Soon after, Zhang Taiyan and Zou Rong were arrested and put into prison for the Su Bao case. Zhang Xiangwen visited the prison many times and ran around with Cai Yuanpei to rescue them. Zhang Taiyan got out of prison, but Zou Rong died in prison.

At the beginning of the third year of Xuantong (1911), Zhang Xiangwen was the president of Beiyang women's College in Tianjin. He and other members of the alliance secret organization "Tianjin Republican Association" were located in "Shengchang restaurant" in the French concession. Not only did he often go to Shengchang restaurant at night to get together with his friends and discuss the planning of luanzhou uprising, but he also asked his daughter Zhang Xinghua (later renamed Zhang Yue nfda1) to secretly deliver weapons and distribute leaflets. In the book, he also said that he had "formed a secret group" in Tianjin (referring to the organization of the Tianjin Republican Association), "waiting for the time to come". If the volunteer teacher goes to the north, he is willing to be "the leader of the north". Later, he regretted that luanzhou uprising failed because of the lack of information.

In 1913, the National Congress was established by election, and Zhang Xiangwen was elected to the house of Representatives. The parliament, which was not long established, was first dissolved by Yuan Shikai; soon after its restoration, it was dissolved in the factional struggle of the Beiyang military government in the sixth year of the Republic of China. In July of that year, Sun Yat Sen went to Guangzhou to put forward the slogan of "protecting the law", advocated maintaining the "provisional constitution" formulated in the first year of the Republic of China, and opposed the dissolution of Parliament. Zhang Xiangwen immediately responded to the call and secretly went south to Guangzhou to participate in the law protection movement.

From 1917 to 1920, Zhang Xiangwen wrote more than 100000 words about the deeds and commemoration of the revolutionary martyrs to show his nostalgia for them. He wrote the biographies of Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin who were killed by the Qing government, and the biographies of Song Jiaoren and Chen Qimei who were killed by Yuan Shikai in the early years of the Republic of China. The most popular biographies of revolutionary figures are about the deeds of martyrs who were killed when the revolutionary masses attacked the Guangzhou governor's office in the spring of 1911, such as the martyrs of Huanghuagang and the biography of martyrs of Huanghuagang, among which Lin Wen, Lin Juemin and other ten Fujian heroes are particularly detailed. In the early years of the Republic of China, when Zhang Xiangwen was a teacher at Peking University, he also worked as the "national history compilation office" to master the first-hand information of these martyrs. Therefore, his biographies are not only detailed, but also true and reliable. For the study of the history of China's democratic revolution valuable information.

（2） Zhang Xiangwen is upright and selfless, upright and unyielding, rich and unyielding all his life.

In the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), Yuan Shikai conspired to claim the title of emperor, and sent Liu Shipei, a key member of the "planning and security association", to win him into the association. He agreed to be granted an important post, but Zhang Xiangwen refused. Yuan Shikai became angry and sent plainclothes detectives to watch around his house day and night. He was forced to disguise himself as an old farmer and went away to Fengtai by a detour. He took the train to Shanghai and wrote a poem on history to scold yuan. The first sentence of the poem "stealing the country is always better than stealing the hook", criticizing yuan for stealing the country; the last sentence of the poem "valuing the Sixteen States of Yanyun", criticizing yuan for being more shameless than Shi Jingtang who claimed to be the emperor of Liao Dynasty.

In 1916, the president of Peking University was short of people. At that time, Duan Qirui was the premier of the State Council. He hoped that Xu Shuzheng, a warlord politician of Anhui Department, would be the president. Zhang Xiangwen was not afraid of Duan's influence, strongly opposed it, and strongly recommended Cai Yuanpei as the president. As a result, Zhang Xiangwen's opinion was approved, and Duan Qirui held a grudge against Zhang Xiangwen.

In 1923, Cao Kun bribed congressmen to elect him president with 5000 silver dollars as bait, but Zhang Xiangwen refused. Cao Kun sent plainclothes detectives to monitor his actions. Zhang Xiangwen was forced to sneak to Shanghai again to avoid his attack.

In 1932, Wu Zhihui went to Beijing to see Zhang Xiangwen and conveyed Chiang Kai Shek's wish to appoint him as a legislator. He hated Chiang Kai Shek for not resisting and abandoning Northeast China.

（3） Full of patriotic enthusiasm, Zhang Xiangwen sympathizes, cares and supports the patriotic movement of young students. In 1926, a large number of young students in Beijing gathered to petition the northern military government in protest against the Japanese and British imperialists who ordered our government to dismantle Dagukou fort. Duan Qirui, who was in power, slandered the students as "student bandits" and ordered to shoot, killing 40 young students on the spot. Liu Hezhen, a student of Beijing Women's Normal University, was also killed. Zhang Xiangwen was very angry about this and wrote a song of "learning bandits" to protest: "with the wave of a sword, blood flows, the wrist of a strong man and the head of a loyal minister He told his compatriots with tears of 40000 yuan. The young people of the eastern vassal state were able to learn from him. When the country died, the monarch was the Marquis of destiny, and the meat of the officials was still safe. " The lyrics are impassioned, denouncing Duan Qirui's brutal crime.

In the autumn of 1932, under the leadership of the underground Party of the Communist Party of China, a large number of young students in Beijing organized a "Southward demonstration group" and went to Nanjing to demonstrate to the Central Committee of the Kuomintang and the national government, demanding to send troops to resist Japan and recover the lost land in Northeast China. As a fellow of Zhang Xiangwen's family, I was studying in Beijing Normal University at that time. I also wanted to take part in it and ask for Zhang Xiangwen's opinions in advance. Zhang Xiangwen immediately said to me, "of course you go. The country has been made like this by Chiang Kai Shek. If you young people don't come out and shout and wake up the sleeping people, the country will be finished." His few words fully reflected that the white haired old man placed the hope of the country on the young people, and I took part in the South demonstration as instructed. Unexpectedly, just over a month after returning to Beijing, the party headquarters of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang ordered Beijing Normal University to expel 49 of its students who participated in the southward demonstration. I was also expelled. Fortunately, Zhang Xiangwen wrote to his old friend Cai Yuanpei and asked him to mediate, so that my student status could be restored.

Zhang Xiangwen's patriotism did not decline in his later years. Two years before his death, he also denounced Chiang Kai Shek for sending the three provinces to Japan; one year before his death, he encouraged our youth to go to Nanjing to ask for resistance against Japan; even when he was in a coma one day before his death and his mind was once clear, he asked for newspapers instead of family affairs. It can be seen that his patriotic thought of caring about state affairs lasted until the last breath of his life.

Zhang Xiangwen's life is at the end of the old Chinese public opinion and the transitional period of modern geography from its infancy to its initial formation. Professor Lin Chao of Peking University once said: "in the early 20th century, it can be said that China's modern geography was in its infancy. The establishment and activities of China Geoscience society are the marks of this period." Because of this, the former Chinese geographical society, which was founded in Nanjing in 1934, specially invited Liu Yizheng to write a special biography for Mr. Zhang Xiangwen, and Guo binghe to write an English memorial speech for him, which was published in the inaugural issue of Acta geographica to commemorate this master of Geosciences. After the founding of new China, in January 1983, the 50th anniversary of Zhang Xiangwen's death, more than 100 geographers from Beijing and Tianjin met at Peking University to commemorate Zhang Xiangwen's contribution to the development of Geography in China.

Career achievements

As early as after the Sino Japanese war in 1894,

Zhang Xiangwen began to care about geography because he regretted that the Qing government had ceded Taiwan to Japan. Later, he went to Suzhou and Changzhou to teach, and bought some books with new geographical content, including Gezhi collection published by Shanghai Gezhi academy and geographical preparation published by Xujiahui Catholic Church. From these books, he got a lot of new knowledge about geography, so he was tired of the old geography. In 1899, he went to Nanyang public school to teach Chinese geography. Since then, his main energy has been in the teaching and research of geography.

（1） In 1900, the year after Zhang Xiangwen came to Nanyang public school to teach, he sorted out the geography lecture notes and compiled two kinds of Geography Textbooks: "elementary geography textbook" and "secondary geography textbook of the country." These two books are the "arrows" of Chinese geography textbooks. After the publication, it was printed many times, and "the sales volume reached more than 2 million units", which was beyond the expectation of the publishing department and Zhang Xiangwen himself. As a result, China's geographical knowledge has been greatly popularized for the first time, "so all those who talk about geography at home do not know it.".

When Zhang Xiangwen was teaching in Nanyang public school, he heard from his British teacher that he had read Gezhi collection and

Chinese PinYin : Zhang Xiang Wen