Guangzhou Private Zhiyu Middle School (abbreviated as Zhizhong) was founded by the Guangzhou Zhiyu Society, which was founded on November 4, 1922, by twelve graduating students of the Guangdong Higher Teacher's College, including Yu Xinyi, Li Yu, Xiong Runtong, Xie Kang, Yu Mingluan, Chen Kewen, Pan Xuezeng, Long Zhanxing, Li Jaxue, Chen Xiante, Xuan Senhua and Su Rui, with the aim of "firstly, summarize for knowledge, and then, deduce for use, with equal emphasis on both knowledge and use". In order to "first generalize in order to seek knowledge, and then deduce to use," they initiated the organization of the Society of Knowledge and Use for the purpose of "only translating for business, writing articles for their own amusement, and all public and private collections, banknotes and magazines of secret books, the seven strategies of the four, nine streams of the six, and there are searched for, * * * deep research". Emphasis on academic and academic, there is a tendency to detach from politics. Subsequently, there are Wang Yankong, Chen Shunong, Tang Fuyin, Chen Silence, Zhang Nong, Cen Qixiang, Wu Sanli, He Rong, Xie Shen, Zhang Ruiquan, Hu Jinchang, Zhang Zhaoyi, and other **** more than 50 people to join the society. By the summer vacation of 1924, members of the society had the proposal of founding a school to strengthen the foundation of the society, so they borrowed 3 classrooms (in Wenming Road) from Zou Lu, the president of Guangdong University, to start a summer school (class), with more than 100 students, and allocated the rest of the proceeds to the start-up costs of ZhiYuXian Middle School, and rented a house at No. 90, Paper Row Street, as the school building. This is the first trial in guangdong province, that is, the six-three-three system of secondary school (the old system is four years of secondary school; in 1922, representatives of the provinces of education in guangzhou meeting by li yinglin proposed the use of six, three, three system, that is, six years of secondary school ***, junior high school, senior high school three years in guangzhou, trial), when opened, only two junior high school classes, 80 students, due to the shortage of funds, the teaching staff is more than mandatory, only to pay for the number of transportation costs; The founder was hollowed out from the public. By the community friends (i.e., of course, the school board, chairman of the board Jin Zengcheng) publicly elected Tang Fu-yen as principal.
When Zhizhong was first established, it was met with the revolt of the Guangzhou merchant group, and there was a war in the Ximen area, which soon subsided. In the following year, there were battles against Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan, but they had little effect on the school. At that time, the warlords were tyrannical, and internal disputes often occurred. Public schools had very little funding, which made it difficult to maintain; whenever there was a political change, the public school staff would always move in and out of the school with the principal, and they could not teach with peace of mind. In contrast, working in a private school is more stable, and at that time, the establishment of a private school did not need to be filed first, it can be enrolled in the school, but also can choose their own teaching materials, teaching methods, students can also be transferred to and from the school at will, without having to obtain a certificate of transfer.
The founders of the Society of Knowledge and Utilization were mostly young men of high school classmates with high self-esteem. They had great ambitions for the founding of the school. In the first year of its operation, the school's fees were too low, and the burden of rent, water and electricity charges was too heavy, resulting in a shortage of funds and many difficulties. The teaching staff was young and disunited. In the summer of 1925, the principal, Tang Fu-yen, and He Xuejian resigned from the Xingzhou Yangzheng Middle School, and the school board elected Zhang Rui-quan as the principal. (Zhang Rui-quan was reelected once every three years, and was reelected until 1956). Chang was re-elected until 1956, when the school was changed into the Municipal 28th Middle School. The staff was hired regardless of faith, region, gender, or origin (no limitations on graduates of the high school division), but only for the purpose of unity and cooperation, dedication to the cause of education, and the elimination of the views of the gateway to the boundaries. In terms of students, two more junior high school classes were recruited, both male and female, and high school students were recruited three years later. Before there were high school classes, the university preparatory classes, two classes per year, 80-100 students, one year of study period, specializing in university courses, good results. It also organized experimental work-study classes on a trial basis for more than a year, but was discontinued due to financial difficulties. It also organized evening schools for the general public, with staff and students serving as volunteer teachers, and I personally participated in the teaching, which played a certain role in popularizing education. Knowing that the school board and staff of the children and nephews can study free of charge, to show favoritism. In addition, some poor students are also exempted from tuition, as for the semester examination results in the first and conduct B above the students are also fully exempted from tuition, the second half of the tuition, the third third free of one-third of the tuition. The school's finances and employment are open to the public, and the books and instruments are gradually being enriched, initially laying the foundation of the school.
Since 1926, the quality of teaching in Zhi Zhong has gradually improved, and the number of students has increased a lot year by year. In addition to the original school building on Paper Row Street, the school has rented more houses in the area of Shihshu Jiao as school buildings, and has actively enriched the equipment, so that the school has begun to take shape. In order to the needs of work-study students, the school also has a printing press, imitation Song font type and manufacturing tools such as bamboo. At that time, many schools had some progressive staff and students as a result of the national **** cooperation, and Zhizhong was naturally no exception. After Chiang Kai-shek's defection from the revolution, he massacred progressives everywhere, and Guangzhou was turned into a miserable area. on April 15, 1927, a special committee formed by Li Jishen, Gu Yingfen, Li Fulin, Chen Fumu, and Deng Yenhua declared martial law in Guangzhou, appointed Qian Dajun as the commander of the martial law, and hunted down and killed the members of the ****production party and related people. Xie Yingzhou (one of the leaders of the Shi's Party) and his clique, who had returned from France without any territory, coveted Zhizhong and wanted to seize their territory. They colluded with Deng Yanhua, the head of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, to announce that most of the members of Zhizhong belonged to the ****productionists, and ordered it to be disbanded, while secretly seizing Zhizhong as their territory. In 1928, when Deng Shizeng (Li Jishen's chief of staff) succeeded as the head of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, some people in the bookstore picked up a copy of Kropotkin's "Letter to the Youth" translated by Li Shaoling, who was also a Chinese language instructor at Zhizhong in the past, which was printed on the cover with the words "ZhiYuYi fragmented series of books of the second". "They used this as evidence of their guilt and attempted to wipe out all the staff of Zhizhong, and decided to have the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau execute it. Know in the same people heard of the news, that is to argue, we said, know in the middle did not publish fractions of the series, neither fractions of the series of one, how to series of two? And Kropotkin is not a member of the ****production party, he is an anarchist, this pamphlet is to promote anarchism, can not be confused with the propaganda ****productionism. The Department of Education of Guangdong Province sent inspector Zhang Zimo to the school to make inquiries, but no incriminating evidence was found. In addition to refuting it on the basis of reason, we also asked Li Minxin (who was Li Jishen's deputy chief of staff at the time, and who was a colleague of Deng Shizeng) to help us, and as a result, Zhiyong Middle School came to an end.
In 1932, when Xie Yingzhou was the director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, he summoned the inspectors to discuss the disbandment of Zhiyou Middle School, but in the end, there was no way to achieve his goal.
The school grew and developed gradually after several hard struggles. Because the rented school building is too scattered, the management is inconvenient, the students will be happy to donate some of the school building fund, and borrowed a sum of money to buy the Bailing Road vegetable land of about 10 acres, and later to buy some connected to the land to build the school building. When we first bought the first section of school land, it was only about 70 yuan per well, and later on, because many overseas Chinese invested in the purchase of land back home, the price of land on Bailing Road increased to more than 300 yuan per well. 1931, we began to build a new school building on Bailing Road, first 25 bungalows were constructed, followed by the construction of classrooms, auditoriums, libraries, and science museums and other buildings (including the Hall of Enlightenment and Ziyong Hall, etc.). To 1936 were completed, *** spent about 200,000 yuan of silver construction costs.
The new school building was constructed on the one hand, and the equipment was enriched on the other. After moving to the new school building, students came to learn, to 1932 has 25 classes of high school and junior high school students, male and female students more than 1,380, become a more famous private middle school in Guangzhou. There were three reasons for this: firstly, the founder and staff were determined to engage in education, especially the staff had a stable work and life, they were enthusiastic and responsible for teaching, and the quality of teaching was improving, for example, Hu Jinchang and Zhang Zhaoyi, mathematics teachers, and Huen Sam-hua and Wu San-li, Chinese literature teachers, etc. were the better teachers at that time, and they had a certain appeal; secondly, the school's equipment was getting more and more abundant, and there was an increase in the number of books and instruments, and the science hall built was the best in the city. Secondly, the school's equipment became more and more sophisticated, with more and more books and instruments, and the science center was the most prominent among the city's secondary schools. Thirdly, the school was more strict in recruiting students, as there were many students applying for admission to Zhiyong Middle School at that time, and so it was able to select the better ones among the many, and so most of the students who sat for the examination for higher education were able to be admitted. Therefore, young students who were unable to get into public secondary schools were eager to apply to Zhiyou Middle School. The reason was that the school was more prestigious and attractive. At that time, the Ministry of Education of the Kuomintang government had ordered the establishment of private schools to deposit funds in the bank, and the amount of deposits depended on the number of classes. Some people who wanted to establish a private school first negotiated with a commercial bank to write a pseudo-deposit book and submitted it to the education administration for record. The Chih-Yung Middle School, which had already been established and had land and a new school building, did not need to go through these formalities. In the old society, many private schools were reluctant to deposit money in banks because commercial banks often failed and government banknotes were often devalued. Knowing that the funds in the public election of three people to **** with the custody of the funds, do not lend money, do not covet interest, more appropriate, in case of price fluctuations, it is purchased and deposited in kind, to ensure the stability of the staff's income, so that they can rest assured that the teaching.
Just when the school affairs of the Zhiyou Middle School is flourishing, in 1931, the "9-18" Incident, Japan occupied my Northeast, Chiang Kai-shek adopted a policy of non-resistance, so that the Japanese invasion one after another. 1937, the "seven-seventh" Incident, in order to After the "July 7th" Incident in 1937, in order to resist the Japanese and save the country, the curriculum of Zhizhong Middle School added the subjects of anti-drugs, rescue, communication, military training, etc., in which the communication class was taken by Li Hua, a famous wood engraver (who was also experienced in researching the telecommunication), and at the same time carried out the ideological education of resisting the Japanese and saving the country. When the Japanese invaders bombed Guangzhou City, the students and staff of schools in the city returned to their hometowns or went to Hong Kong and Macao, and some schools were moved to other counties. However, Zhi Zhong did not relocate the school, but added anti-aircraft equipment to the school as a shelter for the students and residents, and in the summer of 1938, before the fall of Guangzhou, Zhi Zhong set up two branch offices in Lishui, Nanhai, and Daliang, Shunde, to prepare for a rainy day. A month or so after the opening of the school, the Japanese invaded Guangzhou, and Yu Hanmou retreated northward in haste, and Guangzhou fell instantly. All the equipment of the main school and the Lishui Branch Office were lost, and only some school equipment of the Daliang Branch Office remained. In February 1939, the school was temporarily relocated to Green Island, Macau, due to transportation difficulties in the northern part of Guangdong.
Before the fall of Guangzhou, the private Pui Ching Middle School was forced by the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau to pay decades of housing and police fees, and all the city's private schools were united in support of the city's Public Security Bureau to argue. The original regulations stipulated that all schools were exempted from the payment of police fees if they built their own school buildings, and if they rented private buildings as school buildings, they would only pay the police fees (i.e., half of the fees) that were borne by the landlords. After a number of negotiations with the representatives of the private secondary schools, the issue was finally resolved.
After Guangzhou was occupied by the Japanese, several Guangzhou private secondary schools were moved from Guangzhou to Macau, and the Portuguese government intended to use the newly enacted education ordinance to impose on the schools moved to Macau, for example, a classroom with a capacity of 60 was allowed to accommodate only 30 students, and the teachers were required to pay a certain amount of tax per person per year, which was hard to accept with all the harsh regulations. Zhizhong asked Mr. Xu Zhaofu, who knew Portuguese, to negotiate with the Macao Education Bureau, and as a result, all the schools moved to Macao were exempted from the restriction of this decree.
When the Japanese invaded and occupied Zhongshan County, many students from Zhongshan County flowed into Macao, starving and cold, Zhi Zhong and other schools respectively took in a group of homeless young students and exempted them from the cost of food and lodging, so that they could study at ease until graduation.
After Zhi Zhong moved to Macau, the pseudo Guangdong Provincial Department of Education sent Kuang Jiading to Macau to induce Zhi Zhong to move back to Guangzhou to resume schooling, to allow the school building on Bai Ling Road to be handed back to Zhi Zhong, and to give relocation fees and subsidies to Zhi Zhong, which was strictly refused by us. At that time, the leaders of the Hong Kong Youth League, such as Lau Sai-tat and Wong Suk-tao, decided to develop the Youth League of Hong Kong, Kowloon and Macau. They asked Zhi Zhong to be responsible for developing the Youth League organizations in various schools in Macau, and used the offer of a subsidy as a lure, saying that if the members of the Youth League went to the Mainland, they would be given hospitality along the way and be introduced to the higher education institutions and so on. We refused to work for them on the grounds that the relocation of Zhizhong to Macau was temporary. After three years of being in Macau, we saw the Japanese invaders sent from Zhongshan County to Macau, who were rampaging around, trying to force all the schools in Macau to move back to Guangzhou to resume schooling. In this adverse situation, most of the staff and students of the Zhizhong into the mainland, leaving only a few students in Macao Shui Hang Mei branch school to look after the school equipment, until the Japanese surrender, only to return to Guangzhou.
In February 1938, some of the members of the Society opened the Hong Kong Knowledge Middle School in Hong Kong and elected Mr. Su Rui as the principal.
In the spring of 1939, some of the members of the Society opened the Vietnam Knowledge Middle School in Saigon, with Mr. Thang Phu Yen as the principal. These two high schools were founded by members of the Society, but they were economically independent and had no direct relationship with the Guangzhou High School.
In the summer of 1942, Zhiyuan Middle School moved from Macau to the mainland. At first, in the north of Guangdong Province, Niuyuan County, Hou Gongdu one year, the nearby rural population is sparse, the residents only seek farming and animal husbandry, in order to solve their minimum living, really not have the energy to learn the culture, the young people of the right age, although free of charge of their tuition, but also do not want to enroll in the study. At that time, the milk source county magistrate Liu Dewen, etc. run a milk source county secondary school, afraid of the development of Zhizhong in milk source, affecting its enrollment, they conspired with the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education Director Huang Linshu, etc., to Zhizhong pressure to Zhizhong to move to another place. Not wanting to fight with them and jeopardize the unity of the school, Zhizhong decided to move to Liangtian, Chen County, Hunan Province.
There are a lot of young people in Liangtian, Chenxian County, and their parents welcome the relocation of Zhi Yu Middle School to Liangtian because of the inconvenience of transportation during wartime and the high cost of their children's schooling, so that their children can study, and in normal times their children can take care of the fields and help with the family's labor; and in case of an attack by the enemy, they will be easy to evacuate. However, the Department of Education of Guangdong Province deliberately made things difficult for the students by requesting the Hunan Provincial Government and the Department of Education to stop the relocation of Zhi Yu Middle School to Liangtian, and spread rumors of the redress of Zhi Yu Middle School to the elders in Liangtian and attacked the school arbitrarily. At that time, the right to primary and secondary education in Hunan Province was in the hands of graduates of Changsha Normal No. 1, and the principals of primary and secondary schools were all from Changsha Normal No. 1, while graduates of other teacher training colleges were not allowed to serve as principals. The Hunan education authorities also restricted the establishment of schools by requiring the purchase of thousands of mu of land as a fund. Although the education authorities of Guangdong and Hunan had used all kinds of methods to restrict and crack down on Zhiyong Middle School, we received enthusiastic support and help from the public and local elders, and we negotiated and filed a petition while preparing for the opening of the school, resulting in the enrollment of more than 500 students, of which more than 100 were poor students, and all of them were exempted from the tuition fee. Zhizhong in Liangtian teaching one year, Changsha fell, the Japanese army attacked Chenxian, Zhizhong only had to move on Huangmao Dashan, the Japanese army attacked Huangmao Dashan, Zhizhong that is, moved on Tianchi hole. The Japanese army had sent people to persuade Zhizhong to return to Liangtian to attend classes, we strictly refused, and then moved the school to Niutoufen, Linwu, and re-purchased the school equipment and recruited new students. Soon after the surrender of Japan, the school was still teaching in Linwu for half a year, and then moved back to its original location on Bai Ling Road in Guangzhou when the transportation was slightly restored. Bailing Road school building in the fall of guangzhou was used by the Japanese army as a military hospital, after the surrender of japan, take over guangzhou, the new army and occupied for the sick and wounded hospital, to the new army in the northeast after the collapse, know in the recovery of all the school buildings, but has been damaged. Immediately constructed in phases, re-acquisition of books, instruments, school equipment, the official resumption of school.
In 1945, Guangzhou schools have been demobilized, that is, the organization of Guangzhou City, private middle and upper secondary school fellowship, the election of the National University, Guangzhou University, Lingnan University, know the use of secondary schools, teaching the Chung Middle School, Pui Zheng Middle School and Yue Shan Middle School 7 schools as a member of the Board of Governors, the provisions of the General Assembly at least twice a semester, to discuss the fee standard, in accordance with the conditions of the school, the number of charges, and consultation with the same area of the school does not accept each other transfer students. The seven schools were to meet at least twice a semester. Representatives of the seven schools (principals or provosts) went to the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education to negotiate with Yao Baoyou, the director of the department, on the fees to be charged by each school. Yao Baoyou advocated for lower tuition fees, and after an agreement was reached, enrollment and classes were held. Most of the meetings of the Guangzhou Association of Private Upper Secondary Schools were held to discuss school fees and currency depreciation, but seldom did they discuss teaching methods and materials, and rarely did they hold meetings to exchange teaching experiences.
In 1946, when the currency was devalued and prices were in turmoil, parents of Hunan students remitted one month's meal money to Zhi Zhong to pay for their children's meals, but by the time they received the money, the value of the money had already been devalued and they could not afford to keep one month's meals, so the students had to drop out of the school. In order to ensure the livelihood of the students, Zhizhong immediately purchased rice and grain after receiving the various fees (tuition and boarding fees, etc.) and stored them in the school to avoid any accidental loss.
During the Anti-Japanese War, some of the students of the school participated in the armed struggle against the Japanese and the hypocrites in order to defend their hometowns. During the War of Liberation, students of Zhizhong organized a reading club, and many of them joined this organization to join the patriotic movement together with students of various colleges of Sun Yat-sen University, such as participating in the anti-starvation and anti-civil war student patriotic movements.
When the army of liberation came south, Yu Hanmou, the director of Guangzhou pacification, wanted all schools to be evacuated, and all private and public schools were reluctant to suspend classes. Representatives of seven schools, including Minzu University and Guangzhou, who were members of the Guangzhou Private Middle and Upper Secondary Schools Association, negotiated with Yu, and the classes finally started on time, waiting for the liberation of Guangzhou.
After the liberation, the students and pupils of the school were cared for and educated by the Party and the government, and their political awareness and quality of teaching continued to improve. The Party and the government allocated funds to build school buildings, additional equipment, and issued people's scholarships to students, faculty and staff to enjoy public health care, and sent cadres to the school to strengthen the leadership. To the summer of 1956, the people's government in accordance with the request of the students and parents of the students, the private Zhiyu Middle School into the twenty-eighth secondary school in Guangzhou City, became a high school and junior high school with 35 classes in a complete secondary school, male and female students *** up to more than 1,700.
In addition to founding the Zhiyu Middle School and engaging in educational work in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Vietnam, the members of the Zhiyu Society were also engaged in academic research and publications. From May 1, 1923 to February 1925, we published "The Sound of Learning" (at first a daily publication, but later changed to a decennial) in the Guangzhou 72nd Commercial Newspaper, which served as a venue for the publication of articles by the members of the Society. 1927 saw the launch of "The Sound of Learning Monthly", which was discontinued after three issues. 1929 saw the publication of "The Sound of Learning Series", a series of journals that were published by the Society. In 1929, it published "Zhiyuan Series", which was the second issue, and in 1935, it resumed "Xue Sheng Monthly", which also published only three issues. These publications played a certain role in the work of literature and education at that time. Every year on November 4, the community gathered in Guangzhou, published a special edition of the meeting, the community's academic research to the community to openly introduce, this activity until 1949 to stop.
There are a lot of academic contributions among the friends of the Society of Knowledge and Use, such as Hu Jinchang's outstanding achievements in mathematics, Xie Shen's high achievements in soil science, Wu Sanli's achievements in oracle bones, Liu Liangqun's achievements in modern literature, Lai Changren's achievements in physics, Wang Danyangkong's achievements in philosophy, and Chen Silent's achievements in ancient poetry, and the poetic friends Yu Xinyi, Xiong Runtong, and Tong Shaobi, Zeng Ximing, and Li Cuan, who are the "Five Sons of the Southland Today". The "five sons of the South now" as it is called.
The Knowledge Society had planned to organize the Knowledge College of Arts and Sciences, and was approved by the Ministry of Education of the Nanjing government to start, but due to the relationship between teachers and other conditions, in order to focus on the Knowledge Middle School, so cancel the plan to create the Knowledge College of Arts and Sciences.