Famous Schools and Teachers, Revitalizing the Nation through Science and Education (Part 3)
Section 3: Vocational Training, Model Bases — China's First Taxation College: Hunan Taxation College. Founded in September 1984 and located in Yuhua District, Changsha, the college was rated a Hunan Civilized University in 1999 and a National Advanced Unit in Greening in 2001, commended by the State Council.
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section Three
Vocational Training, Model Base
China's First Taxation College — Hunan Taxation College
Hunan Taxation College was founded in September 1984 and is located in Yuhua District, Changsha City. In 1999 it was rated a civilized college of Hunan Province; in 2001 it was rated a national advanced unit in afforestation and was commended by the State Council, and is one of the "National Top 400 Units in Sectoral Afforestation." In recent years, the college's teachers have undertaken 2 national-level research projects, 27 provincial (ministerial)-level research projects, and 60 college-level research projects; they have served as chief editors of 30 publicly published textbooks, co-editors of 80 publicly published textbooks, and authors of 9 publicly published monographs, and have published more than 540 research papers, 11 of which were reprinted by the Renmin University of China's reprint materials.
New China's First Privately Run Vocational School — Hunan Jiuyi Vocational Technical College
Hunan Jiuyi Vocational Technical College (formerly Jiuyi Mountain College) was founded in 1985 in Yongzhou, Hunan, by the educator Professor Le Tianyu. It has two campuses, South and North. The college covers an area of 212 mu, with a building area of more than 30,000 square meters. It has more than 200 faculty and staff, including more than 50 well-known experts and professors. It has multiple multimedia classrooms and language labs, a large mold internship factory and various laboratories, and advanced CNC machine tools and CNC machining centers, with total assets exceeding 100 million yuan. Today's Jiuyi Mountain College has been listed among the first batch of pilot schools in Hunan Province for the national higher education diploma examination. In 2002 it was awarded the plaque "New China's First Privately Run School" by the National Private Education Committee. In 2003 it was formally included in the national planned enrollment roster and renamed Jiuyi Mountain Vocational Technical College.
Hunan's First Transportation Vocational College — Hunan Communication Polytechnic
Hunan Communication Polytechnic was established in 1956 and is located in Yuhua District, Changsha City. Its predecessor was Hunan Provincial Communications School, affiliated with the Hunan Provincial Department of Communications. In January 1999 it merged with Hunan Provincial Communications Cadre School to form the new Hunan Provincial Communications School. In August 2001, with the approval of the Hunan Provincial People's Government, it was upgraded to a higher vocational technical college. In March 2004 it merged with the former Hunan Provincial Highway Technical School. It now has three teaching and living areas: the South Campus, North Campus, and Xiangzhang Campus. The college is a national training base for skills-shortage personnel (automotive), a training base for engineering machinery of the Ministry of Transport, a Hunan provincial automotive internship and training base, and a national highway management cadre training base of the Ministry of Transport, and is among the first batch of demonstration higher vocational colleges in Hunan Province.
The Cradle of Hunan's Arts and Crafts Army — Hunan Arts and Crafts Vocational College
Hunan Arts and Crafts Vocational College is the only provincial public full-time regular higher education institution in Hunan specializing in art and design. It is a construction unit of Hunan's demonstration higher vocational colleges, an institution rated excellent in talent cultivation by the Ministry of Education, and the chairman unit of the Hunan Arts and Crafts Vocational Education Group. The college is located at the foot of Huilong Mountain in the Yiyang Scenic Area of Hunan and has a strong dual-qualification teaching team. It currently offers more than 20 majors, with more than 5,000 full-time students. The college has established and implemented a work-study integrated talent cultivation model of "major + project + studio," achieving abundant results. Over the past 30-plus years, the college has cultivated a large number of high-quality arts and crafts talents, including arts and crafts masters, well-known designers, and skilled craftsmen, and has become the cradle of Hunan's arts and crafts army.
Hunan's Only Regular Higher Education Institution for Insurance Vocational Education — Hunan Insurance Vocational College
Hunan Insurance Vocational College was founded in 1986 and is located in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. Its predecessor was the China Insurance Management Cadre College. In 2003, with the approval of the Ministry of Education and the Hunan Provincial People's Government, it was restructured into a higher vocational college. The college's collection of insurance-related professional books is the largest among all colleges and universities nationwide, with 330,000 volumes held. The college has established 22 three-year higher vocational majors, including the Department of Commercial Insurance, Department of Finance and Insurance, and Department of Insurance Management, as well as 2 two-year Sino-Australian cooperative programs in International Business (Accounting) and International Business (Insurance), making positive contributions to China's insurance education, the insurance industry, and local economic development.
Hunan's First Regular Higher Education Institution for the Information Industry — Hunan College of Information
Hunan College of Information was established in 1978. In 1999, with the approval of the Hunan Provincial Government, Hunan College of Information was sponsored by the Hunan Provincial Department of Information Industry, with its teaching affairs administered by the Hunan Provincial Department of Education. It is the only public higher vocational college in Hunan's information industry. The college has 9 teaching departments, including the Department of Information Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and Department of Computer Engineering, and offers 26 majors, including Applied Electronic Technology, Embedded Systems Engineering, CNC Technology, and Mold Design and Manufacturing.
China's First Higher Education Institution in the Civil Affairs System — Changsha Social Work College
Changsha Social Work College was founded in 1984. In 1999, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, it was upgraded to a higher vocational technical college and became one of the first batch of 28 national demonstration higher vocational colleges under construction. In 2000, it implemented a new system of co-construction by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Hunan Province, with provincial management as the main component. It is a regular higher education institution directly under the Hunan Provincial Department of Education and the only state-owned public higher education institution in the national civil affairs system. The college has 13 teaching departments, including the Department of Civil Affairs, Department of Social Work, and Department of Economics and Trade, and offers 47 majors and major directions, including Civil Affairs Management, Social Security, Social Work, Drug Rehabilitation, and Modern Funeral Technology and Management.
China's First Fireworks and Firecrackers Specialized School — Liuyang Fireworks and Firecrackers School
Liuyang Fireworks and Firecrackers School is a secondary specialized school established by the Liuyang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government to cultivate technical talent for the fireworks and firecrackers industry and to modernize the industry. It is the only fireworks and firecrackers specialized school in the country. A group of masters and experts from the fireworks and firecrackers industry serve as specially appointed professional teachers at the school. The school has organized some experts and teachers to compile nearly ten supporting textbooks and monographs for the fireworks and firecrackers specialty, including Principles of Fireworks, Fireworks and Firecrackers Production Techniques, Fireworks and Firecrackers English, and Fireworks and Firecrackers Formulas. The school has teaching support facilities such as a fireworks and firecrackers testing and analysis room and a fireworks and firecrackers production techniques room, and has designated a number of influential fireworks and firecrackers enterprises in the city as the school's internship bases.
China's Only Privately Run with Public Support School for the Elderly — Changsha University for the Elderly
Changsha University for the Elderly, founded by the Hunan Provincial Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, is one of the earliest universities for the elderly in the country and is currently the only privately run with public support school for the elderly nationwide. Over the past 25 years, the school has admitted more than 39,000 students, injecting rich and colorful content into the later lives of these elderly people.
China's First Fire Safety Education Base — Wangcheng County Fire Safety Special Education School
On May 14, 2009, the Wangcheng County Fire Brigade of Hunan Province cooperated with Changsha Special Education School to establish the country's first fire safety special base education school. More than 90 blind special students at Changsha Special Education School received a special textbook — a "Braille version" fire safety knowledge handbook — from Political Commissar Yue Xiqiang of the Hunan Provincial Fire Corps and other officers and soldiers. This was the country's first "Braille version" fire safety knowledge handbook, specially compiled by the provincial fire corps out of care for special groups. More than 300 other mute, disabled, and intellectually disabled students also received a fire safety knowledge reader and fire safety publicity discs suited to their own characteristics.
Hunan's Largest Tutoring and Education Institution — Changsha Xueda Education
Changsha Xueda Education was established in January 2008 and is Hunan's largest one-on-one personalized tutoring and education institution. It currently has three campuses in Changsha. Its head office is in Beijing, and it has 33 teaching and research centers for the high school and college entrance examinations and 130 personalized learning centers across the country. It is a high-tech company that combines high-quality educational resources with advanced information technology and focuses on China's education service sector. The company is a nationwide chain personalized education institution dedicated to the development and cultivation of students' learning abilities, the building of autonomous learning communities, family education research and consulting, and after-school tutoring services. Since entering Hunan, Xueda Education has been rated Hunan's most trustworthy after-school tutoring institution for two consecutive years, is the education institution most loved by parents and students in Hunan, and is Hunan's most market-influential brand education institution. Changsha Xueda Education has won the Top Ten Innovative Education Award and the Outstanding Training Achievement honor.
Hunan's Largest Software Engineer Training Base — Niuer Software Education
Niuer Software Education was founded in 2001. It is one of China's earliest institutions specializing in IT vocational education, one of China's top ten brand IT education institutions, a designated "service outsourcing talent training base" of Hunan Province, and the largest software engineer training base in Hunan and the entire central-south region. Niuer now has three campuses in two major cities, Changsha and Dalian. Niuer Software Education advocates a new education model of "academic credentials + skills." With advanced teaching concepts, an international industrial perspective, an independent curriculum development system, and a strict standardized management system, it has cultivated more than 7,000 software professionals for China's IT industry and has been highly recognized by employing enterprises.
China's First Foreign Aid Training Base for Hybrid Rice Technology — Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd.
Since 1999, entrusted by the Ministry of Commerce, Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. has undertaken more than 20 foreign aid hybrid rice technology training courses, training over a thousand agricultural management officials and scientific research and technical personnel from more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific region, achieving abundant results. This has not only promoted hybrid rice technology, enhanced the self-development capacity of recipient countries, and promoted China's agricultural cooperation with foreign countries, but also effectively supported the national foreign aid cause, trained a large number of China-friendly and China-sympathetic people, and consolidated China's friendly and cooperative relations with the vast number of developing countries. China's foreign aid training is an important component of foreign assistance and an indispensable strategic expenditure for China. The Ministry of Commerce's plan to establish a foreign aid training base — the "China Hybrid Rice Technology Foreign Aid Training Base" — at Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. is a major event in the development of China's foreign aid training cause. This move will play a positive role in further improving the quality and effectiveness of foreign aid training work.
Related Records
China's Millennial Academy — Hunan University
Hunan University is located at the foot of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City, Hunan Province. It is a national key university with a long history of education that has continued from Yuelu Academy to the present day. It is directly under the Ministry of Education and is a key university jointly developed by the Ministry of Education and Hunan Province. For more than a thousand years, its academic lineage has continued unbroken and its scholarly traditions have never ceased, hence its reputation as a "millennial academy."
Hunan University's predecessor is Yuelu Academy, one of the four famous academies of the Song Dynasty, founded in the ninth year of the Kaibao era of Emperor Taizu of Song (976 AD). Through the vicissitudes of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, it has maintained the continuity of cultural education. In 1903, Yuelu Academy was restructured into Hunan Higher School, and in 1926 it was named Hunan University. In 1937 it became one of the more than ten national universities under the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist Government. For more than a thousand years, its academic lineage has continued unbroken and its scholarly traditions have never ceased, hence its reputation as a "millennial academy." During the period when the famous Southern Song Neo-Confucian scholar Zhang Shi presided over the academy, the renowned "Huxiang School" in Chinese academic history was formed here, establishing the fine traditions of "patriotism" and "pragmatism." From Yuelu Academy to Hunan University, this sacred land of education has cultivated countless talents capable of statecraft and practical application.
Hunan University, integrating natural and cultural landscapes, has received great attention and care from Party and state leaders. Leading comrades such as Liu Shaoqi, He Long, Wang Zhen, Hua Guofeng, Hu Yaobang, Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Qiao Shi, Wei Jianxing, Li Lanqing, and Chi Haotian have all visited Yuelu Academy to inspect its work. They pointed out that Hunan University and Yuelu Academy are of the same lineage, with a glorious history and great development, and that it should be given proper attention, inheriting and carrying forward the good traditions of the past to run Hunan University well. At present, Hunan University has formed scientific and technological group strengths in chemical engineering, civil engineering, architectural design, mechanical manufacturing and vehicle engineering, mechatronics and automatic control, computer application technology, materials science and engineering, and environmental engineering. Management science and engineering, international trade, finance, and accounting have all become important research forces in the fields of management and economics, and humanities and social science research has shown good momentum of development. In the second phase of the "985 Project," the university focuses on building the "Chemical and Biological Science and Technology Innovation Platform," the "Automotive Advanced Design and Manufacturing Technology Innovation Platform," the "Modern Structures and Bridges Science and Technology Innovation Platform," and the "Economic Opening and Trade Development Philosophy and Social Science Innovation Base," further integrating and optimizing its research forces. In recent years, the university has achieved zero breakthroughs in major projects of the National Philosophy and Social Science Fund and "973" National Major Science and Technology Projects, and the number of National Social Science Fund projects it has been granted has consistently ranked among the top in the province; national science and technology progress awards have increased substantially, and it has successively won 15 national-level awards, including first and second prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and second prize of the National Natural Science Award. Since the founding of New China, it has cultivated more than 160,000 senior talents for the country and society, of whom 13 alumni have been elected academicians.
Ode to Zhounan
In the late Qing Dynasty, the times were chaotic and difficult. Internally, the people's livelihood was in misery and state affairs were in turmoil; externally, beacon fires burned continuously and tigers and wolves followed one after another. The calamity of national subjugation and racial extinction was imminent. Yet the court continued its songs and dances of peace and prosperity, and the streets and markets remained in a stupor of drunken dreams, still unchanged from their old ways. Tracing the causes, they were none other than the darkness of the political system and the backwardness of culture and science, yet both were also tied to the accumulated weakness of Chinese education. The rigidity of China's educational system, the stale educational concepts, and the simplistic educational methods can be said to have existed for a long time, and their impact on Chinese society was nothing less than removing firewood from under a boiling pot and adding frost to snow. Thus, people of heart and insight mostly advocated the theory of saving the nation through education, establishing schools and cultivating talent, which for a time became a prevailing trend. Yet amid what was gratifying and comforting, there was also something regrettable: the weakness of basic education and the neglect of women's education.
Zhu Jianfan of Ningxiang, a descendant of the Ming imperial house and son of the famous general Zhou Dawu, who served as commander-in-chief of Shaanxi and Gansu, always harbored the sentiment of saving the nation through education and long held the idea of enlightening the people's wisdom, with particularly deep concern for equality between men and women. After studying in Japan, in the 31st year of the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty (1905 AD), he sacrificed his family fortune to establish a school, founding Zhounan Girls' School at "Tuiyuan" in Changsha. It was initially named "Zhou Family Private School" to evade the edge of the court's ban on women's education. In the 33rd year of the Guangxu era, the court, constrained by circumstances, permitted the opening of women's schools, so the school took the female symbolic meaning of "Zhounan" from the Book of Songs and changed its name to Zhounan Girls' School. From then on, the name Zhounan spread far and wide with its fragrance, growing ever more fragrant with time. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China period, despite repeated political turmoil and turbulent changes, Zhounan continued its unbroken tradition of teaching and cultivated outstanding talents for society, and its extraordinary achievements and great merits should be inscribed in the annals of history.
After 1949, with the great political changes that reshaped the land, the strings and pipes were retuned. In 1951, Zhounan was reorganized by the provincial department into a provincial middle school, and the school's private nature was thus transformed. In 1968, the school began admitting both boys and girls, and the atmosphere of a girls' school became a thing of the past. During the period of reform and opening up, the school forged ahead with determination, its social prestige grew daily, and its enrollment scale expanded rapidly. Thus in 1998, Zhounan Experimental School was established on the west bank of the Xiang River at Wangyue Lake, and in the same year Jianfan Middle School was added to facilitate the diversion of student sources. One school with three campuses, answering one another in song, became a much-told tale in the Star City. And Zhounan's effective management—governing the complex with simplicity, achieving smooth administration and harmonious human relations—was all the more praised by contemporaries.
Time moves and the stars turn; rivers and mountains renew together with the sun and moon. The world changes and eras shift; ideas and the market advance side by side. Since the new century, the nation's momentum of reform and opening up has become a surging wave striking the shore, and Zhounan's topics of research and curriculum reform have each borne abundant fruit. With the succession of old and new, the command tent has been reopened. The school upholds the principle of putting people first and pursues the policy of growing bigger and stronger. All teachers and students, full of spirit, with the diligence of burning the midnight oil and the ambition to chase the sun and grasp the clouds, advance together in arts, sciences, sports, and the arts, and whenever they ride forth, they seize every championship. Thus the children of ten thousand families all take pride in carrying their book packs to Zhounan, and the elders of the Three Xiangs vie to delight in praising Zhounan. Zhounan's strong faculty ranks, the expansion of student quality, and society's demand for Zhounan could no longer be accommodated by the former Tui Garden, and so the thought of expansion arose. Fortunately, with the vigorous support and assistance of the provincial and municipal governments and the education authorities, a site was chosen in the Economic Development Zone north of the city on Furong North Road to build a new campus, covering 415 mu, at a cost of 240 million yuan. After three changes of seasons, the hibiscus of the new campus finally emerged from the water. Strolling through the campus, wherever the eye wanders, one's heart is stirred: the buildings are either elegant or majestic, the facilities both advanced and complete; surrounded by green hills, with lush vegetation, in the glow of the morning sun the national flag flaps vigorously, in the light of the evening sun the clock tower stands tall; the sound of reading and the songs of birds, all voices in harmony, the vigorous vitality of nature and the profound heritage of campus culture reflecting each other—truly a blessed realm for reading and cultivating the mind, for washing away dust and distancing oneself from the mundane, and surely a gathering place where hidden tigers and crouching dragons lie, where leaping dragons and soaring phoenixes rise.
The vice governor personally attended the new campus groundbreaking ceremony to cut the ribbon; the municipal party secretary sent the message "Zhounan's tomorrow will be even better"; the mayor inscribed "Flower of Famous Schools."
"As heaven's movement is ever vigorous, so must a gentleman ceaselessly strive for self-improvement." The teachers and students of Zhounan are of one heart and one mind, self-respecting and self-strengthening, riding the spring breeze of the times, spreading wings for a mighty flight, crossing the vast seas, battling in the clouds.
Look at tomorrow's Zhounan—it will surely be the finest of the academic world!
All-Round Character Education Cultivates the Yali Temperament
Yali students can be recognized even without wearing school uniforms; Changsha people call this the "Yali temperament." This temperament is cultivated through the trinity of moral, intellectual, and physical education known as "all-round character education." The character and moral education of students—this is Yali's "goal" and even more its "required routine." In the eyes of Yali people, it is the all-round development of character, as well as the development of individuality.
Yali Education Dictionary: "Personalized education means liberating students bound by 'standards,' respecting their individuality, displaying their individuality, and developing them into an ocean of individuality."
The Yali temperament is inseparable from the school's education. At present, Yali Middle School has established 14 student clubs based on students' interests and hobbies, including a drama club, manga club, literature club, television station, English association, psychology association, computer association, young volunteers association, and others. The school also has a large choir, dance troupe, orchestra, and football team, with dedicated instructors, allowing students to take what they need. These clubs, which others might see as "neglecting one's proper duties," are full of vitality at Yali. In the impression of Yali people, student clubs are a great place to develop individuality during one's student years. In 2004, the American Youth Leadership Association nominated the school's student Yan Hao as a "Global Scholar" to attend the Global Young Leaders Summit held at the United Nations Headquarters. He was an active participant in club activities.
Yali Education Dictionary: "Carry out autonomous education, allowing students to learn autonomously, manage autonomously, and experience autonomously, achieving self-education through experience, benefiting students for life."
"A student who leaves Yali should be a modern person with expertise, an autonomous consciousness, and an independent character."
In the eyes of Principal Liu Weichao, "autonomy" means tapping into students' inner drive. In his words, it is "let go and let them do it."
Let go and let them do it. As long as you have done well what you are interested in, what you have set your mind on, what you have carefully planned—this is an opportunity to showcase yourself and improve yourself. No venue? The school provides it. Funding difficulties? The school advances the money...
Thus, the student-run English magazine Wings came out on schedule despite funding shortages; thus, all 14 school clubs were handed over to students for autonomous management; thus, the school opened dozens of elective courses for students to choose freely. Children who are given freedom go further, and students who grow up in this environment that advocates autonomy are full of a questioning spirit.
Four students—Zhang Yifei, He Lin, Yang Manman, and Ren Xin—actually dared to challenge the authority of higher mathematics experts. There is a "Josephus problem." To understand this problem generally requires a university science degree, and experts had long concluded that only solving it with a quadratic equation was best. But these four newborn calves refused to believe it; they always felt it could be calculated with a linear equation. So they discussed the idea with their instructor Zhu Quanmin. After receiving Teacher Zhu's encouragement, the four buried themselves in calculation and finally solved the "Josephus problem" with a linear equation, much simpler than the experts' quadratic equation.
Yang Changji, Spiritual Mentor of the Xinmin Society
In 1918, when Hunan's intellectual and cultural circles were still relatively quiet, Changsha saw the emergence of the province's first group advocating cultural reform—the Xinmin Society. Its initiators were mainly Mao Zedong, Xiao Zisheng, Cai Hesen, and a group of brilliant young students from Hunan First Normal School. Under Yang Changji's influence, they gradually realized that without a movement of cultural enlightenment and moral reform, China could not be saved. So they gathered like-minded comrades and founded the Xinmin Society on April 14, 1918.
The spiritual mentor of the Xinmin Society was Yang Changji. The "Xinmin Society Affairs Report" says: "(The members) were mostly students of Mr. Yang Huaizhong, and having heard Mr. Yang Huaizhong's discourses, they adopted a striving and upward outlook on life, and the Xinmin Society was thus born." This shows how great Yang Changji's influence was.
Yang Changji was a native of Bancangchong, Changsha. He firmly believed in the power of moral education, holding that as long as one had sincerity, one could move and propel everything. He also advocated that people should cast aside material desires, handle the complex as simply as the plain, and cultivate their noble spirit, emphasizing that one should not seek fame or profit, should do practical things, and should guard against empty talk. This immersion in Huxiang traditional culture laid the foundation of Yang Changji's lifelong thought. In 1903, Yang Changji went abroad to study, spending a total of 10 years in Japan, England, and Germany. During this time, he studied philosophy, ethics, psychology, pedagogy, and other disciplines, returning to Hunan only in 1913.
Yang Changji was a famous educator in modern China. After returning home in 1913, he actively introduced Western educational systems, advocated saving the nation through education, and insisted that "to save the nation from peril, there is no other way but to engage in national education." He regarded educational work as laying the foundation of society, just as a tall building should be built from the bottom foundation up, and he himself was willing to engage in and devote himself to this foundational work. From 1913 onward, Yang Changji taught ethics, pedagogy, philosophy, and other courses at Changsha's Hunan Provincial First Normal School, Hunan Higher Normal School, Hunan Commercial Specialized School, Changsha First Joint Middle School, and other schools. Because of his extensive learning and noble character, he was deeply respected by his students.
When the national New Culture Movement began and New Youth was published, Yang Changji actively recommended it to friends and students, becoming the earliest promoter of New Youth in Hunan. In Hunan's New Culture Movement, Yang Changji used the weapons of Western bourgeois liberty, equality, and fraternity to criticize China's feudal ethical codes, saying that "China's doctrine of the Three Bonds severely demeans the young and lightly reproaches the elders, truly brewing a trend of tyranny and cruelty." Mao Zedong wrote to his classmate Zhou Shichuang in 1920: "World civilization is divided into Eastern and Western systems. Eastern civilization occupies half the position in world civilization. But Eastern civilization can be said to be Chinese civilization. We should first study the essentials of our nation's ancient and modern doctrines and systems, and only then go to the West to study, so that we have something for comparison." Clearly, this thinking of Mao Zedong and others came directly from their teacher Yang Changji. Thus it is entirely fitting to call Yang Changji the spiritual leader of the Xinmin Society; with his extensive learning, lofty character, and outstanding contributions to Hunan's cultural and educational undertakings, he became a famous figure in the cultural history of Changsha and Hunan.
Zeng Zhaolun, a Model Teacher of a Generation Who Devoted Himself to the Motherland
Zeng Zhaolun was nurtured from childhood in a family of scholars, "gentle and serene, earnest and fond of learning." In 1912, he entered the preparatory course of Yali College. In 1915, he was admitted to the Peking Tsinghua School (predecessor of Tsinghua University). He completed the eight-year curriculum in only five years with outstanding grades. In 1920, Zeng Zhaolun went to the United States to study, entering the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Due to his diligence and excellent grades, he graduated a year early in 1923, earning a Bachelor of Science degree, and then entered the Chemistry Department for further study. In 1926, Zeng Zhaolun received his Doctor of Science degree.
In 1927, he was invited to Nanjing Southeast University (later Central University) as an associate professor, beginning his educational career. In 1931, he was again invited to Peking University as a professor and department chair. Upon taking office, he carried out a series of educational reforms in the Chemistry Department. He introduced advanced Western educational ideas and teaching methods and pioneered the system requiring Chinese university students to write graduation theses. He raised funds to build new laboratories and purchase instruments, equipment, chemicals, books, and journals. Under his leadership, the school expanded four laboratories and ordered a large number of books. He compiled his own lecture notes and textbooks so that students could more quickly understand new developments in science and technology. In class, he lectured while performing demonstration experiments, which was still rare in China at the time.
After the July 7 Incident, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University formed a temporary university, renamed National Southwest Associated University, and were forced to relocate to Kunming. Zeng Zhaolun and some other professors and students voluntarily formed a walking group, traveling on foot to Kunming, conducting surveys, investigations, and anti-Japanese propaganda along the way. They took 68 days and traveled over 1,500 kilometers, arriving victoriously in Kunming. This became an extraordinary "Long March" in Chinese educational history.
In 1946, Zeng Zhaolun went to the United States to study atomic energy technology; he wanted to use atomic energy science and technology to serve the motherland. In 1947, he went to England to visit, lecture, and investigate. In 1948, upon learning that the motherland was about to be liberated and was in urgent need of talent, he returned without hesitation. In March 1949, under the careful arrangements of Premier Zhou Enlai, Zeng Zhaolun returned to Beijing from Hong Kong, became a professor at Peking University, and served as dean of studies, standing member of the university affairs committee, and chair of the Chemistry Department. In 1955, Zeng Zhaolun was elected as one of the first batch of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1958, he was transferred to teach in the Chemistry Department of Wuhan University. Even when he received unfair treatment, he did not change his original aspiration to devote himself to the motherland, to education and scientific research, and to nurturing talent. With far-sighted vision, he identified the frontiers of chemical discipline development at the time and founded the specialization in elemental organic chemistry, successively establishing research groups in organosilicon, organofluorine, organoboron, organophosphorus, and elemental organic polymer chemistry. He conducted deep and extensive research on the synthesis and properties of elemental organic compounds, published a series of important scientific papers, and wrote multiple volumes of the monograph Elemental Organic Chemistry.
Le Tianyu and New China's First Private University
In October 1980, Professor Le Tianyu, the first president of Beijing Agricultural University, returned from Beijing to his hometown of Ningyuan, Hunan, and self-funded the establishment of New China's first private university—Jiuyi Mountain College—to cultivate talent for the mountainous region.
Kindling a Spark at the Foot of Jiuyi Mountain Five thousand years ago, legend has it that Emperor Shun rode a raft up the Xiao River and taught local farmers at the foot of Jiuyi Mountain to make tea and plows, pioneering the dawn of agricultural society. He also established a school by Zixia Rock beside Shunyuan Peak to educate the Yao people, and finally died after being poisoned while subduing a python for the common people. Five thousand years later, Le Tianyu, at the foot of Shunyuan Peak, within the Shun Emperor's tomb temple, self-funded the establishment of Jiuyi Mountain College, thus igniting the first "spark" of private education in New China.
That was 1980. At the time, Jiuyi Mountain had no electricity and no roads, and the conditions for running a school were extremely difficult. With no school buildings, they borrowed the simple side rooms of the Shun Emperor's tomb temple, and even used the shade of the General Tree as a classroom. With no desks, they used earthen mounds and stones as tables and chairs. With no regular source of funding, Le Tianyu took out all 50,000 yuan in compensation paid by the state after the Cultural Revolution. Later, he also used most of his monthly retirement salary of 350 yuan for the founding of the college.
"Plank walls and paper-pasted windows, a single room above the wind and rain." In 1984, after four years of arduous pioneering, Le Tianyu dedicated his last bit of light and warmth to his hometown, exhausting his final efforts for Jiuyi Mountain College.
After Le Tianyu's death, people sorrowfully discovered that he was wearing a worn shirt and a belt made of three strips of cloth tied together.
Le Tianyu's spirit of struggling to run a school moved his friends, including then Party and state leaders Li Weihan, Xiao Ke, and Wang Shoudao, and famous scientists Qian Xuesen, Zhou Peiyuan, and others, who gave enthusiastic attention and strong support to the founding of Jiuyi Mountain College.
In 1981, General Xiao Ke inscribed the school name when he personally visited the school for inspection.
In July 1985, Comrade Hu Jintao, then First Secretary of the Communist Youth League Central Committee, specially instructed his secretary to write to the college's teachers and students, encouraging everyone to overcome difficulties and run the school well.
On June 5, 1992, General Xiao Ke, then already 86 years old, said when meeting comrades from the Lingling Prefectural Committee in Beijing, "Le Tianyu built Jiuyi Mountain College and did a great good deed, cultivating a large number of talents." "I truly supported Le Tianyu in running the school."
Le Tianyu's spirit of running a school moved the educational and intellectual circles. At the time, the school's teachers did not take salaries, asking only for modest meals and 5 yuan in pocket money. Professors invited from Beijing, Tianjin, and elsewhere offered to lecture voluntarily, accepting no payment whatsoever.
It was precisely this selfless dedication of "many hands make the fire burn high" that enabled Jiuyi Mountain College, this "spark," to become a "prairie fire." It was precisely this united striving of "many oars row the great ship" that enabled Jiuyi Mountain College to emerge from its initial difficult circumstances and welcome a garden full of spring colors.