.

I received a letter, inviting him to attend a debate, with a bonus of 100,000 yuan. If he wins, Confucianism may become the state religion; of course, if he fails, his doctrine will be greatly hit and Confucianism will be completely excluded from the state religion.

If it weren't for the signature at the end of the letter and the exclusive envelope of the State Council, Gu Hongming would have handed over the letter and threw it into the trash can. However, the signature was Zhao Gang, which means that this is an opportunity worth fighting for. If possible, the national status of the Confucian religion can be determined, which is very important for Gu Hongming.

Gu Hongming is a well-known cultural genius at home and abroad. Mr. Gu Hongming is enough to be proud of the world in the 20th century." "Gu's family is the representative of Chinese culture, and China's only propagandist in the world." His high evaluation is not without reason.

On July 18, 1857, when Gu Hongming came enthusiastically towards the hot summer in Malaya, this tropical island of Nanyang had long been occupied by British colonists and was renamed "Prince Wells Island". The mixed-race boy's body, extraordinary talent, clever words and deeds, and unique temperament made Gu Hongming deeply love the British businessman Brown.

Brown accepted him as his adopted son and made careful and meticulous arrangements around 1867. At the age of fourteen, Gu Hongming completed various courses offered by his adoptive father with excellent results, and was sent to Germany to study science. Soon after he was admitted to the University of Leipzig and obtained a diploma in civil engineering. After returning to Scotland, he went to the University of Edinburgh, an ancient prestigious university in the UK.

At the University of Edinburgh, Gu Hongming insisted on studying Greek, Latin, etc. When he was two years old in 1877, he studied and tested in many subjects such as Latin and Greek, as well as mathematics, metaphysics, moral philosophy, natural philosophy and rhetoric. He won the title of Master of Arts at the University of Edinburgh. Later, he went to Oxford to study for a while, and went to Italy, Austria, Germany and other places to study.

After obtaining a Ph.D. in Local Philosophy (some say the master's degree), he transferred to Paris. Over the years, he went to study at famous universities such as Leipzig, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Berlin, and Paris. With his genius and diligence, Gu Hongming has mastered more than a dozen foreign languages ​​and obtained more than a dozen diplomas and degrees in various subjects including arts, science, engineering, philosophy, etc., and has become a young scholar with extensive knowledge, knowledgeable, eloquent, and early achievements.

If he was a normal person, Gu Hongming would definitely choose to find a high-paying job abroad and live a comfortable life. But Gu Hongming did not, and he made a surprising move. Gu Hongming returned to his motherland, and then Gu Hongming entered the curtain of Zhang Zhidong, an important official in the late Qing Dynasty, and was entrusted as a foreign copywriter to handle diplomatic relations.

Although George Molixun, a famous Chinese journalist in China in Times, has been a rival to Gu Hongming for his life, the conceited British doctor said sincerely: "Gu Hongming's English vocabulary is rarely rich, and he is a language genius." Gu Hongming's language genius can be regarded as an unprecedented person, and his English attainments are all regarded as "China's No. 1".

His German level is also superb. German writer Pakai said: "Gu Hongming is the first Chinese to talk to him in authentic German." At the German party celebrating the 100th anniversary of Bismarck's birth, Gu Hongming improvised a wonderful speech in German, which won the applause of all German scholars and gentlemen. As for French, Greek and other languages, Gu Hongming was as easy as Gongsun’s sword dancing. Even the almost lost Latin language is not a problem

Such a person has been exposed to Western learning for more than 30 years, but he advocated the "middle school theory" and everything is best. It's really strange.

Another celebrity who received the invitation with him - Yan Fu

Yan Fu (1853-1921), whose original name was Zong Guang, and his courtesy name was Youling, later changed his name to Fu, with his courtesy name Jidao, Fujian. When he was a teenager, Yan Fu was admitted to the local Naval Academy in his hometown and received extensive education in natural sciences. From 1877 to 1879, ~|Study in the UK, he first entered Putzmaus University, and then transferred to Greenwich Naval Academy.

During his study abroad, Yan Fu became interested in British social politics, and was involved in a large number of bourgeois political academic theories, and especially appreciated Darwin's theory of evolution. After returning to China, Yan Fu moved from the navy to the ideological world, actively advocated the enlightenment education of Western learning, and completed the translation of the famous "Evolution of Heaven". His translations not only distinguished from Huxley's original works, but also from Spencer's general concept of evolution.

In "Evolution of Heaven", Yan Fu used the theory of "sustaining heavenly choice" and "surviving the fittest" to explain his view of saving the nation to survive, and advocated encouraging the people's strength, enlightening the people's wisdom, renewing the people's morality, self-improvement and self-reliance, and calling for saving the nation to survive. The translation is concise, and the translation standard of "faithfulness, excellence, and elegance" was first advocated. The host of "Guowenbao". "Fighting with Heaven" was widely circulated in the intellectual community at that time. Currently, Yan Fu serves as the president of Peking University, which also shows Yan Fu's convincing and prominent position in the ideological and academic circles.

Yan Fu (1853-1921)'s name is Youling, and Yujidao, a waiter in Fujian Province

.One of the "advanced Chinese" who searched for truth from Western countries in ancient history.

During the Reconstruction Movement, Yan Fu was a reformist thinker who opposed stubborn conservatism and advocated Reconstruction. He not only explained the necessity, importance and urgency of reform in his article, but also translated the "Evolution of Heaven" by British biologist Huxley, using "the nature of things to be chosen, and the fittest survive" as the theoretical basis for saving the nation, which had a huge impact at that time.

"Therefore, today's political system is unified in three ways: one is to boost people's strength, the second is to open people's wisdom, and the third is to new people's morality." The so-called boosting people's strength means that the people of the whole country must have a healthy body, ban opium and prohibit foot binding; the so-called enlightenment of people's wisdom mainly replaces the imperial examination with Western learning; the so-called new people's morality mainly abolishes autocratic rule, implements constitutional monarchy, and advocates "respecting the people". In short, the "education and national salvation theory" is a prominent ideological feature of Yan Fu.

In the Qing Dynasty, Yan Fu called for reforms to be implemented, otherwise the country would inevitably be destroyed. The first thing to do about reforms was to abolish the eight-legged essays. Yan Fu listed the harm of eight-legged essays: Eight-legged essays cannot harm the country, but the harm lies in the world without talent. What can he do if there is no talent in the world? It is said that there are three major harms: "One is to imprison wisdom", "The second is to destroy the mind", and "The third is to cultivate the idleness". Yan Fu advocated running more schools. He once discussed that Western countries attached importance to education and expressed his appreciation for the forced compulsory education that "people do not study, blame their parents."

Because the Chinese people's ignorance and wisdom are naturally not better than others. Based on this idea, Yan Fu is active in running schools. In addition to personally premiering the Beiyang Naval Academy for twenty years, he also helped others run schools, such as Tianjin Russian Museum and Beijing Tongyi Academy. Yan Fu asked for a complete school system to popularize education to "enlighten the people's wisdom."

According to the system of the capitalist country, he proposed that China's school education should be divided into three stages, namely primary schools, middle schools and university schools. It is straightforward, with primary schools: = three or four years, and then it is promoted to a specialized school for major studies in the subject. Smart people who are good at studying are sent to study abroad to create talents with expertise.

Yan Fu advocated Western learning and opposed the Wu School's view that "middle school is the body and Western learning is the use". He has compared middle school with Western learning many times: "China attaches the most importance to the three principles, and Westerners first say equality; China is close to relatives, while Westerners value virtuousness; China governs the world with filial piety, while Westerners governs the world with public authority; China respects the lord, and Westerners prosper the people... In terms of learning, China praises more knowledge, while Westerners rely on human power. In short, Western learning "demolishes falsehood and respects the truth in academics."

He also pointed out that "Chinese people like the past and ignore the present, and the power of the West is better than that of the past." "The ancients must be." Therefore, he believed that if Shun and Confucius were born today, they should also learn from the West. To save China, they must learn Western learning and Western "Grade": "Because of Western learning, foreign literature cannot be heard, but if the matter of abandoning the gaze can only obtain its basics." The body and function of learning is divided into two parts, and when combined, two stops."

From the perspective of "consistent physical and practicality", he specifically stipulated the teaching content and teaching methods of each stage in the envisioned school system. He believed that in the primary school stage, the purpose of education was to enable children to "be a proper text" and "and to be well-versed in classical and historical events," so that "the old learning lessons should be nine out of ten", and used the "simplest and most practical universal learning" in Western learning to translate the "superbest and most practical universal learning" as auxiliary reading materials.

In terms of teaching methods, explanations should be used to reduce the ability to memorize. In the middle school stage, we should focus on "Western learning", "Western literature homework ranks seven out of ten, Chinese homework ranks three out of ten", and it is stipulated that "everything is taught in foreign languages". In the higher school stage, we should mainly learn "Western learning". As for "Chinese", it is "there are exams, no homework; there are books, no lectures, and listen to scholars to use their spare energy to govern themselves." He believes that for young people, they should be guided to analyze and learn some in-depth knowledge, so that they can benefit from it, learn from other things, and get along with each other.

The issue of scientific methods is an important aspect of Yan Fu's view of Western learning. He once translated "Muler's Famous Science" (formal logic) and actively promoted and introduced "Famous Science". He believed that induction and deduction are two important means to establish science. For thousands of years, my country has had many "deductions" and very few "inductions". This is also a reason why China "has many academia false, and the national economy and people's livelihood are sick."

Yan Fu attached more importance to induction, advocated "observation and investigation in person", and opposed "whoever asked for many things to discuss are between the characters (paper and ink) and did not know how to seek the facts." He once said in Huxley: "It is the second-hand thing to learn from reading. Only those who can use the universe to compile and write for me and learn from each thing."

Such a person has been influenced by Chinese culture for thirty years and his final thought is Western learning theory. It is similar to Gu Hongming.
Chapter completed!