Chapter 313: Ink Bottle Incident

In the next few months, Zhang Xingjiu spent most of his time teaching quietly in Shanghai, conducting experiments and research step by step, publishing a few papers from time to time, and continuing to maintain his influence in the scientific community.

At the same time, he had another child, still a boy. Zhang Xingjiu named him Guosheng, which was connected with the eldest brother, meaning that he hoped the country would be strong. Ma Zongwen did not delay teaching during her pregnancy, and only stayed in the hospital for a while before giving birth.

The students were very moved to see her coming to class despite her big belly. In addition, Ma Zongwen's teaching quality was indeed excellent, so the students gradually put aside their prejudices against women and began to respect her more and more. As a result, Ma Zongwen became one of the most respected teachers in the entire Aurora University.

This peaceful life was suddenly disrupted in November by an unexpected event, which was the famous ink bottle incident in the history of modern education.

This incident occurred at the Nanyang Public School, which was founded in 1896. The school was built by Sheng Xuanhuai, the Minister of Railways. Together with the Beiyang University, it was the earliest university founded by Chinese people themselves in modern Chinese history. It was also the earliest school in China with a complete educational system including normal schools, primary schools, middle schools and universities.

Among them, the Normal School was the earliest new normal school in modern China; half of the school funding was donated by merchants and citizens (namely the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company and the China Telegraph Administration), and the other half was funded by the government. It was a public school. In the late Qing Dynasty, the present-day Shanghai area was called Nanyang, so the school was named Nanyang Public School.

During the Republic of China period, the school was transferred to the Ministry of Communications of the Nationalist Government in Beijing and renamed the Shanghai Industrial School of the Ministry of Communications, which is the predecessor of the famous Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Later, due to the invasion of Japanese invaders, the school moved westward and gave birth to Xi'an Jiaotong University.

Sheng Xuanhuai attached great importance to this school and specially hired the American missionary and former president of Nanjing Huiwen College (later renamed Jinling University) Fu Kaisen as the abbot; he also appointed Zhang Huanlun, the former head of Meixi Academy, as the chief instructor (Dean of Chinese Studies).

But he was a bureaucrat at heart after all, and was reluctant to hand over the power of managing the school to outsiders, so he specially invited his fellow townsman, the old-school scholar He Sikun, to serve as the principal of Nanyang Public School.

He Sikun worked diligently and dedicatedly. During the more than four years that he was in charge of the public school, he enrolled more than 300 students of various types and sent more than 10 students abroad. After several years of his management, the Nanyang Public School began to take shape.

But it also left behind many bad habits, such as excessive emphasis on the hierarchy between teachers and students, extremely autocratic management, etc., and the "Ink Bottle Incident" was born in such a context.

On November 5, Class 5 of the Secondary College of Nanyang Public School was in class. When the liberal arts teacher Guo Zhenying saw an empty ink bottle on the lecture stage, he thought someone was deliberately teasing and mocking him for being illiterate. He flew into a rage and investigated the matter severely. No one in the class responded. The school put pressure on them severely, and a student in Class 5 falsely accused the student Wu Zhengjun of having released the ink.

A week later, at the request of Guo Zhenying, the school announced the expulsion of the innocent student Wu Zhengjun, which aroused doubts and opposition from the students in Class 5. After appealing to the principal to no avail, the students of Class 5 decided to drop out of school collectively in protest.

Before leaving, they went to each class to say goodbye and expressed their opposition to this autocratic oppression. This action won the sympathy of all the students in the special class.

After learning about this, Principal Wang Fengzao announced the expulsion of all students in Class 5 without asking for any reasons. All students in the school were in an uproar upon hearing the news and expressed their strong dissatisfaction. Many new-style schools also responded by speaking out upon hearing the news.

As the leader of new-style schools in Shanghai, Aurora College naturally could not stay out of the incident. Many students clamored to support the students of Nanyang Public School and oppose the autocratic rule of the school management.

Ma Xiangbo was suddenly caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, he was full of sympathy for the students who dropped out of Nanyang Public School and supported their approach from the bottom of his heart. On the other hand, he and his brothers had always had a close relationship with Sheng Xuanhuai. When he founded Aurora College, Sheng Xuanhuai had written a letter to congratulate him and donated a sum of money, showing that he was somewhat grateful to the school.

According to traditional moral concepts, if he supported the students of Aurora College to support the students who dropped out of Nanyang Public School, he would be ungrateful and might have attracted unanimous criticism from traditional literati.

The more dangerous the situation, the more difficult things will happen. Before Ma Xiangbo could figure out how to deal with the matter, Cai Yuanpei, the head teacher of the special class at Nanyang Public School, came to him in a hurry and said, "Mr. Ma, I'm here to ask for your help!"

"What do you mean?" Ma Xiangbo was shocked. Could the impact of the ink bottle incident be so great?

"The students in the special class I was in charge of were very sympathetic to the students in Class 5 who were expelled. They were very dissatisfied with the school's management. They said, 'Today we are slaves of the school, and tomorrow we will be slaves of the government or foreigners. What benefit will this bring to our country?' So they also had the idea of ​​dropping out!"

"It's not just them. Most of the more than 200 students in Nanyang Public School have similar ideas. The school is in a dilemma, so they asked me to appease the students. I finally convinced the students to wait for a few days, and then I went to see Master Sheng, hoping that he could properly resolve the matter. But Master Sheng was very dissatisfied with me and avoided me."

"At about 10 o'clock this morning, there was still no response, so all the students in the special class walked out of Nanyang Public School in an orderly manner, shouting the slogan 'Long Live the Motherland', and I resigned in anger and left the school with the students."

"It doesn't matter if I lose my livelihood. I have a certain reputation in the education field, so it won't be difficult for me to find a place to teach and educate people! It's a pity for these more than 200 students. Once they drop out, they will have nowhere to go! After much thought, I think your Aurora College is the one with the highest teaching level in the whole of Shanghai and can accommodate them. So I ask Mr. Ma to lend a hand and give these students a place to continue their studies!" After saying this, Cai Yuanpei bowed deeply.

In the original history, Aurora College was established to accept some students. Now, because of Zhang Xingjiu, the college was established ahead of schedule. Unexpectedly, the ink bottle incident occurred, and Cai Yuanpei still came to the door.

But then again, there is probably no place in Shanghai, or even in the whole country, more suitable than Aurora College to accommodate these students.

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"This is the inevitable product of the contradiction between the new education and the old system. Even if there was no ink bottle incident, as long as school teachers still stick to such decadent things as hierarchy, the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues, similar contradictions will occur sooner or later!" Zhang Xingjiu commented after listening.

This touched Cai Yuanpei's heart. "Yes, the reason why I was not welcomed by Lord Sheng was because I preached the theories of Rousseau and other great Western sages in the public school. Lord Sheng thought that I was violating the principles of respect for hierarchy. He only wanted to use Nanyang Public School to train some talents in railways and telegraphs for the court. He didn't know that without the breakthrough in the field of social sciences, the natural sciences in Europe would not have developed so rapidly."

But now they couldn't chat any more. Cai Yuanpei looked at Ma Xiangbo eagerly and said, "Mr. Ma, please take a look at this matter."

(End of this chapter)