Wu Rulun

Wu Rulun

Wu Rulun (1840-1903), who was born in Tongcheng County, Anhui Province (now wuniuzhuang, Laoqiao village, Huigong Town, Zongyang County), was a writer and educator in the late Qing Dynasty. In the fourth year of Tongzhi reign, he was a Jinshi, and was awarded a letter to the cabinet. In his later years, he was appointed as the chief teacher of Beijing University and founded Tongcheng school. He and Ma Qichang were the main representative writers of Tongcheng School in the later period.

His main works include four volumes of Wu Zhifu's anthology, one volume of poetry, seven volumes of Wu Zhifu's letters, twenty-two volumes of Shenzhou local records and four volumes of Dongyou Conglu.

Life of the characters

Young and studious

Wu Rulun, whose name is Zhifu, was born in the 20th year of Daoguang (1840) in a farming family in Nanxiang, Tongcheng (now Laoqiao village, Huigong Town, Zongyang County). When he was a child, his family was poor, but he was diligent and eager to learn, so he refused to eat an egg. He went to the market and changed it into turpentine for night study. He read books of various schools of thought, and was good at literature. He especially admired the works of Tongcheng school, such as Fang Bao, Liu Dakui, Yao Nai and so on.

Tongzhi two years (1863) to the county examination of the results of the first scholar. In the third year of tongzhi (1864), the ninth person in Jiangnan Rural examination was elected. Later, he entered Beijing for the joint examination. In the fourth year of tongzhi (1865), he became the eighth Jinshi and was awarded the cabinet letter. Zeng Guofan was one of the "four great disciples of zengmen" who admired his talents, stayed in the shogunate and learned from each other. Wu Rulun also had a close relationship with Li Hongzhang. He served successively in the Tseng and Li shogunate, and the Tseng and Li memorials were mostly written by him.

Enter the official career

Tongzhi 10 years (1871) to 12 years, once served as governor of Shenzhou.

Guangxu seven years (1881) Jizhou Zhizhou.

Wu Rulun once served as the magistrate of Shenzhou (now Shenxian County, Hebei Province) and Jizhou (now Jixian County, Hebei Province) for more than ten years. During his tenure in Shenzhou, he found that the school fields there were occupied by the powerful and the educational funds were not available. Undaunted by his power, he resolutely recovered the tax revenue of Xuetian as the college funds. He also gathered the top students from the three counties of the state to the academy and taught in person. For a long time, people forgot that he was a state official and respected him as a master. During his term in Shenzhou, he returned to his hometown because of his parents' funeral. After the expiration of the term, he was appointed governor of Jizhou, and he was still determined to start school. Therefore, the cultural and educational undertakings of Shenzhen and Hebei have made outstanding achievements and are well-known in Beijing. During his administration, he also paid attention to the voices from the people. In Jizhou, local talents are often invited to discuss local governance, which not only makes Fuyang River's thousand mu barren brine field into fertile land, but also facilitates business travel and transportation, and is praised by people.

Setting up schools

In 1888, Zhang Yuzhao was transferred to Jianghan Academy. Wu Rulun offered himself to Li Hongzhang, governor of Zhili, and resigned as governor of Jizhou. Since 1889, Wu Rulun has been lecturing on Lianchi Academy in Baoding. When he arrived, he was determined to reform and employ Japanese teachers to teach foreign languages and improve teaching methods. Therefore, there are many young people in China who are interested in learning. Yan Fu, Lin Shu, Ma Qichang, Yao yongpu, Yao yonggai, Li guangjiong, Fang Zhiwu and others have all been taught. At that time, Japanese and Western scholars living in Beijing often went to Baoding to consult Wu Rulun and exchange views with each other. In particular, Japanese educators have frequent contacts with him. Their mutual communication promoted Wu Rulun's understanding of Western learning and initiated the idea of setting up new schools.

In the 24th year of Guangxu (1897), when Yan Fu revised the theory of tianyanlun, he invited Wu Rulun to write a preface for it. Wu immediately accepted it and wrote it in the first month of the next year.

In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), the Qing government issued an edict to set up a new school, and appointed Zhang Baixi, the Minister of the Ministry of officials, as the Minister of management. Zhang Zhujian Wu Rulun was appointed as the chief teacher of Beijing Normal University, with the title of five grade minister. Wu Rulun refused and was not approved, so he invited him to study abroad for education. He believes that Japan's rapid national strength after the Meiji Restoration is due to its success in education. To run China's Capital University well, we must take advantage of Japan. In May of that year, he led students li guangjiong, Fang Panjun and others to Japan to study education. During their stay in Japan, they visited various schools and units in Nagasaki, Kobe, Osaka, Xijing and Tokyo, and visited many officials. Later, Wu Rulun sorted out what he saw, heard and thought during his visit, and compiled a Book of more than 100000 words, the first monograph in China to introduce Japan. Because of the students studying abroad, he had a quarrel with Cai Jun, the minister in Japan, and returned home. When he arrived at Maguan, local people gathered to welcome him and asked him to write a memorial. He wrote a big book: "the land of sorrow".

Rulun was very concerned about Sangzi education. When he lived in Anqing, he took advantage of the southern courtyard of governor Yamen to build Tongcheng school, which is the predecessor of today's Tongcheng middle school. "This time we are running a school, there is no retreat. We are not good at changing people, we are not good at changing laws. There is no end to it," he said He personally wrote couplets and plaques for the school. The couplets are "created by the talents in the last 100 years and cultivated by the quintessence of eastern and Western learning", and the plaques are "Miancheng national ware". The school was renamed Tongcheng middle school in Anhui Province in 1952.

In the spring of 1903, Rulun died at home. In 1915, his family buried him in his hometown wuniushan.

Main achievements

Educational proposition

Wu Rulun was open-minded and advocated studying western learning. When he lectured at Lianchi college, he employed English and Japanese teachers. He also wrote prefaces to Yan Fu's translations of tianyanlun and Yuanfu, as well as many works of American and Japanese scholars, advocating enlightenment. He likes to exchange new ideas and new science with Western celebrities and scholars. He thinks that "he has no real ability to compete with outsiders". Wu Rulun devoted himself to education all his life, and he was well versed in the laws of education. He also had a deep understanding of the current situation of education in China and in foreign countries. Therefore, he believed that China's education should be a process of innovation rather than just minor repairs. Not old enough to change the social atmosphere and scholars' ideas, not new enough to cultivate "practical" qualified talents. After clarifying this value, Wu Rulun began his bold educational reform.

He advocated abolishing the imperial examination and advocating Western learning

China's imperial examination system originated in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and was followed by the song, yuan and Ming Dynasties. By the Qing Dynasty, it had been inherited for more than 1000 years. This kind of examination system takes Confucian classics as the main source of proposition and "eight part essay" as the main way of talent selection. Such education was already vulnerable to the Western powers in the late Qing Dynasty. While Wu Rulun insisted on Abolishing the imperial examination, he also insisted on the wide spread of "Western learning" in China. He strongly pointed out that "in view of today's situation, we must take western learning as an important thing." Wu Rulun is a far sighted scholar with a deep understanding of Western learning. Throughout Wu Rulun's life, Wu Rulun joined Zeng Guofan's shogunate to assist in "Westernization" in his early years, and later joined Li Hongzhang's shogunate. He came into contact with more Western books such as philosophy, history, literature, politics, economy, diplomacy, medicine and law, and gradually deepened his understanding of "Western learning". Especially when Yan Fu's translation of tianyanlun was about to be published and asked him to write a preface for it, he greatly appreciated the book. In Wu Rulun's view, the way to make China rich and strong is to thoroughly and deeply learn western knowledge. Taking Japan as an example, he pointed out that in Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the method of Europe and America, advocated "Western learning", and was able to become a world power in a relatively short period of time. "It has only been 30 years since the country was prosperous, and its national strength and talents have been in the same level as those of Europe and America." It is an important proof of Japan's "Western learning" power.

Daxing new schools and cultivating talents

Wu Rulun was the beneficiary of the imperial examination system. However, when he saw that the backwardness of modern China was closely related to the imperial examination system, he immediately changed his mind and strongly attacked the imperial examination system. He became an advanced member of the feudal scholar bureaucrats who clearly recognized that the establishment of new schools and the cultivation of available talents was the fundamental plan for the prosperity of the country and the rejuvenation of the people. After all, Wu Rulun is a visionary educator, so he also saw that the establishment of new schools in China must be based on China's national conditions, step by step, rather than completely copying the western experience and model, we must find a school model that is suitable for China's reality and can be widely accepted by the Chinese people. For this reason, he believes that several major problems should be identified and dealt with

Innovation of Lianchi, a combination of East and West

In February of the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Wu Rulun became the mountain chief of Lianchi Academy in Baoding for 14 years. At the beginning of lecturing on Lianchi academy, it was also taught as the core content, and its main purpose was to serve the imperial examination. However, after the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, Wu Rulun began to doubt the content and effect of the imperial examination system, so he began his initial exploration and attempt of educational reform in this ancient academy. Here, his biggest practice is to open two schools of English and Japanese successively, and to employ teachers from the United States and Japan to teach them, making them as important subjects as classical Chinese and graduation. He also personally raised funds and organized lectures. At that time, he himself once said that "Baoding, a city, has become an East and west language school from the bottom. It doesn't cost much, so he is very happy with it." At the same time, he also bought new books and organized students to discuss the current situation.

Establishing new schools and practicing educational ideas

After returning from his visit to Japan, Wu Rulun began to set up Tongcheng school. After laboring around and negotiating with many parties, he finally solved the problems of venue and funding. He hired Japanese teacher Asakawa Shinji in Japan and finally set up Tongcheng School in his twilight years. Tongcheng school is a practice of Wu Rulun's idea of "harmonizing the East and the west"

Chinese PinYin : Wu Ru Lun