Cai Yuanpei

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisCai.

Cai Yuanpei
Thái nguyên bồi
President of theControl Yuan
In office 1928–1929
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Zhao Daiwen
President of theAcademia Sinica
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Zhu Jiahua
Personal details
Born	11 January 1868(1868-01-11) Shao xing,Zhe gian g,Qing dynasty
Died	5 March 1940(1940-03-06)(aged 72) British Hong Kong
Spouses	Wang Zhao ​ ​ (m.1889; died 1900)​ Huang Zhongyu ​ ​ (m.1902, died)​ Zhou Jun ​ (m.1923⁠–⁠1940)​
Children	7 (includingCai Weilian)
Parent	Cai Guang (father)
Alma mater	Leipzig University
Occupation	Philosopher, politician
Chinese name
Chinese	Thái nguyên bồi
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cài Yuánpéi Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tsay Yuanpeir Wade–Giles Ts'ai4Yüan2-p'ei2 IPA [tsʰâɪ ɥɛ̌npʰěɪ]
Courtesy name
Traditional Chinese	Hạc khanh
Simplified Chinese	Hạc khanh
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hèqīng Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hehching Wade–Giles Ho-ch'ing
Second alternative Chinese name
Chinese	Kiết dân
Literal meaning	Lone Citizen
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiémín Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jyemin Wade–Giles Chieh-min

Cai Yuanpei(Chinese:Thái nguyên bồi;1868–1940) was a Chinese philosopher and politician who was an influential figure in the history of Chinese modern education. He made contributions to education reform with his own education ideology. He was the president ofPeking University,and founder of theAcademia Sinica.He was known for his critical evaluation ofChinese cultureand synthesis of Chinese and Western thinking, includinganarchism.He got involved in theNew Culture,May FourthMovements, and thefeminist movement.His works involve aesthetic education, politics, andeducation reform.

Biography

TheFormer Residence of Cai Yuanpeiin Shao xing

Born in Shanyin County,Shao xing,Zhe gian g,Cai was appointed to theHanlin Academyat 26. In 1898, he became involved in administering institutes and became:

• Superintendent of Shao xing Chinese-Western School ( Thiệu Hưng Trung Quốc và Phương Tây học đường giám sát )
• Head of Sheng District Shanshan College ( Thặng huyện diệm sơn thư viện viện trưởng )
• Director-Teacher of the Special Class ( đặc ban tổng giáo tập ) of Nanyang Public School (predecessor ofShanghai Jiao Tong University)

He establishedGuangfuhuiin 1904 and joinedTongmenghuiin Paris the next year, and became a member of theChinese anarchistgroup led byWu Zhihui,andLi Shizeng.He studiedphilosophy,psychology,andart historyin theUniversität Leipzigof Germany in 1907 underKarl LamprechtandWilhelm Wundt.

He became Minister of Education in the new Republic of China in 1912.As Minister of Education, Cai advocated that film should be used to support public education.

Cai returned to China in 1916 and served as the President ofPeking Universitythe following year. There he resumed his support, begun in his Paris years with Li Shizeng, for theDiligent Work-Frugal Study Movement,which sent worker-students to France.It was during his tenure at Peking University that he recruited such famous thinkers to the school as futureChinese Communist PartyleadersChen DuxiuandLi Dazhao,as well as thinkers likeHu Shih,a close friend,Liang Shumingand the painterXu Beihong.

In 1919, after the student leaders of theMay Fourthdemonstrators were jailed, Cai resigned in protest (returning to office in September). Meanwhile, he and Xu Beihong wrote regularly for theDaily University of Peking Universitythat dealt with broader issues than just campus politics. Xu addressed issues of Art and Art History and in 1920 a university art journal calledPainting Miscellanywas published.After resigning again in 1922, he spent a period of withdrawal in France. Returning in 1926, he supported his fellow-provincialChiang Kai-shekand theKuomintang's efforts to unite the country. Along withWu Zhihui,Li Shizeng,andZhang Renjie,he was known as one of the "Four Elders" of the Party, and a staunch anti-communist. He was appointed president of theControl Yuan,but soon resigned.

Cai was frustrated in his efforts to remodel the national system of education to resemble the French system,but in 1927, he co-founded the National College of Music, which later became theShanghai Conservatory of Music,and in April 1928, he helped to found and became the first president of theAcademia Sinica.He and a wide circle of colleagues founded theChina League for Civil Rightswhich criticized the national government and Chiang Kai-shek for abuse of power. The situation worsened, however; the League could not attain the release from jail ofChen Duxiu,Cai's former dean at Peking University, for instance. In June 1933, the Academia Sinica's academic administrator and co-founder of the League,Yang Quan,was shot and killed in the street in front of the League's Shanghai offices. After a period of shock and reflection, Cai retired from public view in a statement denouncing the political repression of the Nanjing government.

After the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese Warin 1937, partly because of declining health, instead of accompanying the national government toSichuan,Cai moved toHong Kong.He lived there in seclusion until his death in March 1940 at the age of 72.

Cai with students from Peking University studying abroad

Contributions to education

Under Cai's influence, and with his support for literati and educators in New China, Peking University became important for the development of Chinese education and culture.Cai established the Ministry of Education in 1927, modelled after the French education system.

Aesthetic education

Cai was an advocator and implementer of Chinese aesthetic education. He promoted the development of Chinese aesthetic education.He had his own unique insights into aesthetics which he associated aesthetics with Chinese traditional virtues. He connected aesthetics with education and politics, which is influenced by his experiences. He emphasized the importance of aesthetics for social stability and development.Besides, he proposed that aesthetics is beneficial to the formation of "public morality and civic virtue".

Women's education

Cai not only improved women's equity in the education system, such as the first women's admission in 1920 andmixed-sex education,but he also advocated feminism to change the traditional Chinese concept of women. Cai successively invited several feminists to teach at Peking University, including Chen Duxiu andHu Shih.They played an important role in Cai's reform of women's education at Peking University, which was a breakthrough in the history of Chinese education.

Pedagogy

Education independence

In the journalNew Education( tân giáo dục ), Cai proposed that education must be independent of the government. He tried to protect the University Council from direct control by the government.

Liberality and democracy

Cai raised the traditional virtue of “righteousness ( nghĩa ), reciprocity ( thứ ) and humanity ( nhân )” based on the Western ideas of "Freedom, equity, fraternity".He was committed to establishingacademic freedomand a pure research atmosphere at Peking University. He also tried to protect the freedom of educators and students, in education reform.Among the teaching staff at Peking University, there were many representatives of the new cultural movement such as Li Dazhao, Hu Shih, and Chen Duxiu. He also assembled notable conservative and old-fashioned scholars such asGu HongmingandLiu Shipeito teaching at Peking University.

Five types of education

Cai advocated practising five types of education in the education system. The five types of education refer tomilitary education for citizen( quân quốc dân giáo dục ), utilitarian education ( thật lợi chủ nghĩa giáo dục ),civic education( công dân đạo đức giáo dục ), education for a world view ( thế giới quan giáo dục ), and aesthetic education ( mỹ cảm học giáo dục ). "

Other thought

Women

Cai's perspectives on women combined both traditionalism and modernism.He believed in the subordinate, Confucian, relationship between husband and wife, holding that men rule outside the house, and women inside it ( nam chủ ngoại nữ chủ nội ).His views on women's virtues were also conventional, including, for example, the idea that mothers should be the educators of their children. He held that an unmarried woman was not a virtuous one.Cai Yuanpei was a proponent of women's right to divorce and remarry. He strongly opposedfoot bindingand concubinage, both of which were widely practiced in China at the time.He also advocated education equity as well as physical education for women.

Political thoughts

He advocated anarchism about anti-oppression to re-establish human civilization. But he emphasized the importance of “a complete state”, which is partly influenced by Western Anarchism's views on the state and the family.Cai Yuanpei's view on anarchism mainly targets to abolish the colonial oppression China suffered.He studiedanarcho-communismand was influenced byPierre-Joseph Proudhon,Mikhail Bakunin,andPeter Kropotkin.

May Fourth movement

The statue of Cai Yuanpei in the campus of Peking University

New Civil Religion

Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shih put forward their own views on social values and were committed to solving the impact of the Revolution of 1911 on social systems and beliefs during the May Fourth Movement.Cai Yuanpei proposed that the formation of a new civil religion can be achieved by cultivating the Chinese to learn aesthetics, democracy, and science.

Representative works

"New Year's Dream"

"New Year's Dream" ( tân niên mộng ) is a short story based on Cai's own life, reflecting his ideal society. It is influenced byLiang Qichao’sutopian stories.The writing style is "painful, even violent, and struggle".The story revolves around the protagonist, a Chinese citizen, telling about China's 20th-century revolution.Cai wrote the story while China was suffering from the war with Japan, and was also influenced by theRusso-Japanese War.

See also

• Chinese Education Improving Institute
• History of education in China
• New Culture Movement
• Anarchism in China

References

Bibliography

• Cai Jianguo (1998).Cai Yuanpei: Gelehrter und Mittler zwischen Ost und West(in German). Translated by Stichler, Hans Christian. Münster.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Wang Peili (1996).Wilhelm von Humboldt und Cai Yuanpei: eine vergleichende Analyse zweier klassischer Bildungskonzepte in der deutschen Aufklärung und in der ersten chinesischen Republik(in German). Münster: Waxmann.
• Boorman, Howard L. (1970). "T'sai Yuan-p'ei".Biographical Dictionary of Republican China.Vol. III. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 295–299.ISBN0-231-04558-1.
• Weston, Timothy Bergmann (2004).The power of position: Beijing university, intellectuals, and Chinese political culture, 1898-1929.Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN978-0-520-23767-4.

External links

• Tsai Yuan-pei (Cai Yuanpei) Thái nguyên bồiArchived2019-03-28 at theWayback MachinefromBiographies of Prominent Chinesec.1925.

Les Jean Jacques Rousseau en Chine: Cai Yuan Pei et John Dewey (French Edition): 9781493536009: de Shazer, Marie-Laure