The Probe Wu Rulun, Zhang Zhidong's Academic Origin And Academic Structure Thinking

Wu Rulun and Zhang Zhidong, scholars and educationists of late Qing Dynasty, made important contributions to modem China education. As officials of Qing Dynasty, they set up educational institutions wherever they worked and denoted all their lives to education. Their most brilliant achievements in education was the drafting of modem school systems, in which drafting, their dynamic education practice and ideas were fully represented: originally they rooted in traditional Chinese education and then began to accept western ideas and advocate "Learning from now foreign ideas" in order to reform traditional China education. In the paper, a dynamic, systematic and comprehensive analysis and comparation is made on Wu and Zhang's ideas on school system, which include origin of their academic thinking, Similarities and differences of their ideas about school system, analysis on the school system and finally the enlightenment on the education reform of Today's China.Before being officials, most of their ideas were traditional, they worked hard in order to succeed in the imperial examination. But after that, Wu and Zhang's ideas were variously influenced and began to show divergence. Thus during their old age, their ideas were developed to extremes respectively: Wu tended to be radical while Zhang regressed traditional. It was in their later years that they participated in the drafting of the school system, therefore, their ideas about school system were greatly diverged.Wu Rulun was sent to Japan as a scholar in May of 1902 and thus brought much to the first school system of China, RenYin school system. Zhang Zhidong presided and promoted GuiMao school system. This school system was thought as the one that was applied to practice. These two were near but their fortune were different, and this was due to their maker's different ideas. The similarity of their school system idea was to advocate the co-existence of Chinese learning and western learning. By using western ideas they hope to save the decline of traditional education, running schools, training talents to save the nation. Thus they two attached great importance to special education, professional education and speeded-up education, programs to meet the need of emergency. At the same time considering from the long run, they emphasized to follow in order and advance step by step and to popularize compulsory education.