Recommendation: Educational Map Of Scholars In That Era

Beijing has a long history and culture. In the past 100 years, this city has witnessed the magnificent social changes in China. In the 1930s and 1940s, a large number of important scholars gathered in the universities and research institutions here to jointly promote the development process of the times. It was also at that time that an influential media in Beijing, whose "education circle" supplement, published a series of interview articles in the form of serial. All the 69 scholars interviewed were celebrities in the academic circles at that time. One by one interview articles objectively record a scholar's academic experience and ideas. These articles published in the newspapers present a bright picture of modern Chinese scholars, which is the main content of the new book of the Commercial Press, the interview of scholars in Beiping. At present, the collation and publication of these articles is of great significance for us to understand the surging winds and clouds of an era.

The first period is from 1935 to 1937 before the Anti Japanese War, and the second period is from 1945 to 1947 after the Anti Japanese war. All respondents, without exception, were engaged in education related work. As for how to run education well, they have their own thoughts and actions, which show the profound feelings of a generation of scholars.

In the 1930s and 1940s, it was also an era of internal and external troubles. The scholars interviewed in the book are deeply worried about the backward education at that time. Although they have their own opinions on education, many ideas are difficult to put into practice due to the influence of economy, war and social system. However, this does not mean that they stop at this point, and they still make unremitting efforts. After the May 4th Movement and before the war of resistance against Japan, the cultural and educational circles carried out a "national language movement" around the issue of the leaving and leaving of Chinese characters. Qian Xuantong, as a character expert, believed in the interview that complicated and difficult Chinese characters are not conducive to popularization and popularization in China, where illiteracy accounts for the majority. Simplifying Chinese characters into symbols is the best choice. Now it seems that this view is extreme, and the historical environment at that time was not totally groundless, because the primary task of opening up the wisdom of the people was to popularize the written language. On the other hand, people in that era were generally lack of scientific thinking, scientific knowledge and scientific literacy, and science is just an important driving force to move forward from traditional society to modern society. At that time, Zhang Yihui, a mathematical expert and Dean of the Institute of technology of Peking University, was deeply aware of the lack of scientific literacy of Chinese people. He was keen on translating foreign popular science works and spent a lot of time on science popularization after work. Like many scholars, he has his own views on the cultivation of university talents. Advanced equipment is the prerequisite for the cultivation of science and engineering students. However, the funding was not sufficient at that time. He felt helpless in the interview. In his opinion, science and engineering college students obviously do not master the theory of books. They must do it by themselves and improve their academic level in experimental practice. In an interview, Professor Feng Youlan, a philosopher at Tsinghua University, believes that the more urgent thing than university education is to promote rural education. The reason is that China's population is mainly in rural areas, and illiteracy is also concentrated in rural areas. There are not a few scholars like Professor Feng Youlan. All of them have devoted themselves to the rural education movement. The interview also shows how difficult it is to popularize rural education in poor and weak China at that time.

It is not a new problem for universities to cultivate talents with the integration of Arts and science. In the 1930s, scholars began to pay attention to it. In a series of columns of "scholar's interview", there is an interview with physicists on mathematics. Many people classify this subject as science. However, this interview holds that mathematics is not a natural science, because natural science takes nature as its research object. Mathematics is the foundation of science and engineering and most liberal arts. Mastering mathematics knowledge will bring great convenience for in-depth academic research. But mathematics is difficult to learn, and even those who study science and engineering also stay away from it. This is wrong. People who study liberal arts should understand science, and those who study science should have the basis of literature and history. As a university, we should cultivate talents who are compatible with arts and science.

An interview with an educationist in the series of "scholar interviews" shows the ecology of Chinese education at that time. At that time, there was a lot of discussion in the society about the extension or reduction of students' holidays. He firmly believes that more holidays should be given to students. For students in development, more holidays are conducive to physical development and can also release students' talents. For teachers, extended vacation can recuperate physically and mentally, and after appropriate rest, it is more conducive to efficient work. In addition, for the university education at that time, he also felt that the university curriculum and the primary and secondary school curriculum were completely isolated, which obviously did not conform to the consistency of people's acceptance of knowledge. Moreover, the disciplines of the University were too detailed, which made the students easily "see the trees but not the forest".

Generally speaking, the series of interview articles about scholars in that era in Beiping involve many aspects of the professional background of scholars. The social, economic, cultural and other research fields that people pay close attention to are closely related to education. However, the educational problems of that era are still of referential significance and value for further discussion.

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