Rural Reconstruction Reconstruction Thought

Dr James Yen was an eminent mass educator as well as one of the representatives of the Rural Reconstruction Movement in modern Chinese history .He was well-known all over the world for his devotion to the mass education cause, which was based on the love of his country, his people and the world peace. The Dingxian Experiment in his early years, as a significant part of the rural reconstruction, was for the purpose of "eliminating illiteracy to cultivate new citizens" and eradicating the four maladies in China-ignorance, poverty , weakness and selfishness. Through the experiment, James Yen developed his own features and formed a special group in the rural reconstruction , which exercised great influence on modern Chinese education. In his later life, Yen emigrated out of China, continuing to carry out his experiment in the Third World and establishing the International Institute of the Rural Reconstruction(IIRR),thus his theory and practice went round many countries in Asia, Africa and the Latin America. Because of his great contributions ,Yen won great honor throughout the globe.Here the thesis, divided into three parts, is intended to make a careful exploration of Yen's thoughts of the rural reconstruction at a macroscopic angle in order to get a thorough understanding.Part I expounds the theoretical background of Yen's thoughts of the rural reconstruction. First, Yen was deeply edified by Confucianism, whose political ideology of "regarding the people as a nation's base", aspiration of "cultivating oneself, regulating the family and ruling the world", and upright character were all fully incarnated in James Yen. Yen's thought of people-as-base was also sublimated by Liang- Qichao's "theory of new citizens". Besides, Yen was greatly affected by Christian and modern western democracy and science. His thoughts of loving themasses were enlightened by the Christian philosophy of universal fraternity, its humanitarianism and the concept of Great Harmony, which brought the spiritual impetus to him. Finally, the deep going understanding of the "coolies" provided social bases for Yen.Part II discusses Yen ' s fundamental theories of the rural reconstruction. First, the thesis makes a whole description of the meanings, missions, contents, elements and steps of the rural reconstruction to grasp Yen's theory completely. Then it describes in detail from different aspects of education, economy, sanitation and politics. Correspondingly, the thesis points out the fact that the chief goals of reform were separately to popularize the mass education, improve agriculture, establish health institution and reform the county' s administration. These aspects of reform were all connected, constituting Yen's practice of the rural reconstruction, whose purpose was to reform the whole country by means of the rural reconstruction.Part III tries to make an objective comment on Yen's theory by comparison with Liang- Suming so as to highlight Yen's distinctive features. It holds the view that Yen was really carrying out the motions of democracy and science of the May 4 Movement practically and developed the spirit of the May 4 Movement, since Yen went deep into the midst of the masses, from improving the farmer's life to popularizing the mass education, and he posed people should have "the freedom from ignorance."Yen's thought of carrying out the rural reconstruction to rejuvenate China by developing the people, was a valuable foresight. It is still of great practical significance for the present time.