Between Support And Discipline-the Relationship Between The Government And Beijing Civilian Education (1919-1929)

Since the May Fourth New Culture Movement,the Beijing Civilian Education Movement has broken through the limitations of the previous“Youth Activities” and linked the government,civil society,student associations,and parties in the mid to late 1920 s in an integrated way.In this process,The Beijing government joined as participants,supporters,and supervisors through the democracy education,the imperial university of Peking(later changed to the Peiping Special City Education Bureau),the Municipal Public Office(later changed to the Peiping Special City Government)and the Beijing Normal Police Department(later changed to the Peiping Special City Public Security Bureau).And it had a very complicated relationship with democracy education activities.The predecessors' researches on the democracy education movement in Beijing mostly focused on the civilian education movement organized by the student associations and civil societies.The government has not yet been included in the system of the democracy education movement,and the standpoint of the government and the civilian education group were regarded as opposite to exist.This article tries to analyze historical materials such as archives,periodicals,newspapers and tries to explore the semantic change of "democracy education" as well as to include the Beijing government in the competition for the right to speak in the democracy education movement instead of just picturing the government as the opponent of the democracy education groups.Specifically speaking,the Beijing Government,through the exertion of the nationalist ideology,with the Nanjing National Government integrating its Three People's Principles into education,had finally turned the thought of pursuing individual freedom and democracy in the democracy education into the preservation of national interest.In the process of the Beijing government's participation in the democracy education movement,the former has established its own civilian schools,subsidized and supported private schools,and played arole as supervisor for them.The achievements of the Beijing government in establishing and subsidizing civilian schools are barely satisfactory,for it has only promoted the prosperity of this movement to a limited extent.And there were also problems of dodge responsibility and no unified leadership within the institution,which has been held accountable by civil societies.The course of government's disciplinary training gradually deepened,and through the dual disciplinary training on students' body and mental thoughts,the Beijing government finally managed to incorporate public and private civilian schools into the existing education system of that time.In the process of accepting the dual disciplinary training,the democracy education groups has further consciously or unconsciously developed their self-discipline awareness.They also showed dependence on the state's administrative power.Through the game between the administrative power and civil autonomy and with the integration of nationalism and populism,the democracy education movement has shown a rich variety of appearances.The development phase of the private civilian schools and the financial situation of the government both had effects on how the former rely on the latter.For instance,when the private civilian schools are less dependent on the government's financial subsidies or when the government finances are cut short,the former would show their slightly obvious rebellion towards the latter's instructions.Through the study of the complex relationship between the Beijing government and the democracy education movement,I wish this paper can be helpful to explore how the state power is trending to deepen during this period and how the entire civilian education movement has evolved.