A Study On Fan Yuanlian's Charity Views And Actions

Fan Yuanlian was a famous educationist and an important charity figure in modern Chinese history,had made a lot of direct and joint donations during his life.Fan Yuanlian had also helped others in the name of himself,recommended or promoted talented people,and throwed himself into the disaster relief relief activities.At the same time,he had extensively participated in the donation of teaching equipment,the establishment of universities,the donation of books,the advocacy of peace and other public volunteer activities.Undoubtedly,the times from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China,the domestic political situation of domestic troubles and foreign invasions had a great contribution on Fan Yuanlian's charitable activities.In addition,the frequent disasters in the five provinces of North China,especially the natural disasters in his hometown Xiangyin,had stimulated him greatly.Fan Yuanlian's philanthropic views were also affected by the inheritance and integration of Chinese and Western cultures,which was mainly in his two resides in Japan and the experience of visiting Europe and America as well as the influence of traditional culture and his childhood experience.In the formation and development of Fan Yuanlian's charitable views,Liang Qichao,Xiong Xiling,Yan Xiu,Cai Yuanpei and other people's communication experience also played an important role.Fan Yuanlian's charity views had following characteristics.He thought education should occupy the most important poisiton in charity activities.He argued for developing popular education by social ways,such as mobilizing social forces and social resources.He emphasized that the modern new education should adapt to the local society.For example,he criticized the imperial examination system strongly because education should conform to the trend of the times.He attached great importance to gratitude education,equal rights between men and women,the role of social education such as library,and the influence of system on charity education.Fan Yuan-lian's charitable views had a bright patriotic hue and he adopted the way of foundation to carry out charitable education.Compared with other philanthropists of the same time,Fan focused on teachers' education,foundations' managements and fund-raising,and the preparation and use of donations through foundations,which was a long-term charity instead of a kind of pure donation.Therefore,Fan Yuan-lian's charitable views had some certain characteristics related to his times.Fan Yuanlian's philanthropic views had a direct impact on the charity practice of his brother called Fan Xu-dong.To some extent,Fan Yuanlian even promoted the development of the charitable education,the transformation of modern charity,and the development of Hunan region and modern China.From our current point of view,Fan Yuan-lian's charity work and views also had some certain positive significance.It is conducive to forming an atmosphere for the common people's participation in charity,to giving play to the social security role of charity,and to forming a situation of promoting the development of charity by system.