On Rural Education Of Xishan Yan's Era In Shanxi (1917-1937)

In the wave of theory of the education saving the nation from the beginning of twentieth Century, Xishan Yan's new reform in the education of Shanxi Province and its outstanding achievement was undoubtedly the most exemplary significance. The new reform involved compulsory education, social education, vocational education and other fields, for the Shanxi won the honour "Education Model Province", and effectively promoted the development of social undertakings in Shanxi Province. From a historical perspective, Xishan Yan's new educational reform followed the logical sequence that "the desire of its country, the new logic to the people". This new reform embodied the idea of distinctive national education under the guidance of the theory of social evolution, whose purpose was to create a modern nation-state identity of the new type of personality. Therefore, Xishan Yan's educational reform not only involved in the replacement of the new and old education system, but also a profound cultural transformation of world view and construction of national character.However, due to many reasons, the academic circles haven't paid enough attention to Xishan Yan's educational reform and "Education Model Province". The relevant researchs were often submerged in the tide of history of special education of the Republic of China. A large number of documents about the title haven't been necessarily excavated and researched. In view of this, on the basis of fully grasping the relevant orginal material, this was the first time to do a comprehensive and systematic research on Xishan Yan's educational reform. Through combining historical analysis with profile analysis, to clarify the concepts and practice of Xishan Yan's new reform, summarize the experience and limitations of the new reform, restore history and provide reference for modern people.The research has been carried on in the aspects as follows. Firstly, education in Shanxi before Xishan Yan's "new reform" was discussed. It was traced back the education system of official "unity system of temple and school" in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, current situation of folk education and the drawbacks of official ideology of the Confucianism. Zhidong Zhang's educational reform in the late Qing Dynast prepared a large number of new talents for education reform in the early Republic of China. A large number of returned students had become a new force in modern education and social reform. Secondly, the starting point of Xishan Yan set up rural education and reason was discussed. The essay summarized the traditional national concept of "No Country Just Home" that Chinese folks had, and analyzed the moral defects that people wree difficult to adapt to the rise of modern nation-state.Xishan Yan's experiences of studying in Japan in his early years made him deeply moved. When China was in the external invasion and internal weak,the rise of Chinese nationalism, and "salvation" consciousness was deep in his heart, he absorbed the thought of Japanese nationalism to transform the national character, which formed his concept that made people self-imprvement and country rich through educating and reforming national people. Thirdly, Xishan Yan's rural compulsory education was discussed. At that time, it was forward-looking that Xishan Yan vigorously promoted the compulsory education within his jurisdiction when people was ignorant and country was poor and weak. Under his vigorous promotion, although it has achieved positive results, but in the environment that overall Chinese social environment need reform, the implementation of compulsory education was unable to achive the original purpose of "enforcing the country and enriching the people". On the contrary, a lot of drawbacks were exposed. For example, the village and vice village head system in Shanxi province, on the one hand, ensured the effective implementation of the compulsory education, on the other hand, because of Chinese social relationships and the ignorance of people, also caused the poor quality of education. Fourthly, rural social education implemented by Xishan Yan was discussed. Rural social education was served as a supplement of compulsory education. Under compulsory education imposed in the whole province, Xishan Yan realized that compulsory education could not been finished overnight, and it was essential to inspire wisdom on facilitating the implementation of educational reform and compulsory education. Therefore, Yan placed great emphasis on social education during his administration and spared no effort to popularize social education through proclamations, slogans, newspaper, direct preaching, ceremony etc. He even went to the countryside and preached to the general public by himself from time to time. This chapter deeply analyzed the causes of Xishan Yan's social education, and the forms and effects of social education. Fifthly, rural vocational education implemented by Xishan Yan was discussed. Vocational education was also a very unique educational content among the Yan's rural education. This article discussed the achievements, shortcomings and drawbacks of Shanxi vocational education at that time through analysing the text blueprint and implementation situation of Xishan Yan's vocational education, and a case study of People's Normal School. Rural occupation education implementated by Xishan Yan has its characteristics of the times. However, how to overcome the national "Officialdom Standard" thought, to establish the concept of modern vocational education, not only to absorb advantages of vocational education in developed countries, to combine with local reality, to carry out the vocational education combined with the social production practice, are problems that need modern educators to constantly think and explore.In a word, through the investigation and analysis of the above problems, the article shows the historical facts in 20s and 30s of the last century that Xishan Yan as a local chief executive regarded rural education as the starting point, cultivated national consciousness, enlightened the people, and gradually established a new system of social management. Due to the limitations of history, Xishan Yan also had many problems in the implementation of rural education in Shanxi, failed to achieve the expected results, but one flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade.