一位省级最高教育行政官员的工作日志——《严修日记(1894-1898)》阅读札记

The Work Diary of a Top Provincial Education Commissioner——Reading Notes of Yan Xiu Diary(1894-1898)

1894至1898年期间,严修奉派提督贵州学政。民族危亡的家国情怀、变法图强的强烈愿望,使他把改革旧教育、培养新人才与拯救国家民族命运的大目标紧紧地联系在一起。对中国传统教育弊端的切身感受和对西学精神的探索体悟,使严修在黔省的各项改革举措站在了19世纪末20世纪初中国教育早期现代化的潮头。在地瘠民贫、风气闭塞的艰苦环境下,他剔除积弊,转移士风,倡导新学,培植人才,三年学政任期,对改变黔省教育面貌、开启新的社会风尚产生了重要影响;而在这个过程中不断得到修炼提升的严于律己、洁身守德的个人品格和情操,不仅是他事业取得成功的重要保证,也为他今后的发展奠定了坚实的基础。一部《严修日记(1894-1898)》为我们了解著名教育家严修的成长过程,并进而丰富对维新运动时期边陲省份教育改革实际情况的认知,提供了翔实而生动的第一手材料。

From 1894 to 1898,Yan Xiu was appointed as Guizhou’s provincial education commissioner of Guizhou province. The patriotism to save the populace from imperilment and the aspiration to reform the old education and cultivate new talents are closely related with his lofty ideal of national salvation. Yan Xiu’s reforms was in the vanguard of the early modernization of Chinese education in the late 19 th century and the early 20 th century owing to his personal experience to the malpractice of Chinese traditional education and the perception of spirit in western learning. In the harsh environment of poor,narrow,and isolated land,he eliminated the longstanding abuse,renovate academic atmosphere,advocated new academic ideas and cultivated talents. His threeyear term of academic administration had an important impact on changing the educational outlook and setting a new social trend in Guizhou Province. In this process,he has been constantly improving his personal character and moral integrity,which is not only an important guarantee for his career success,but also lays a solid foundation for his future development. Yan Xiu’s Diary( 1894-1898) provides us with detailed and vivid firsthand materials to understand the growing process of Yan Xiu as well as the actual situation of education reforms in border provinces during the Reform Movement.