Wu Xun (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

: 武训;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: Wǔ Xùn; 1838–1896) was a Chinese educational reformer who pioneered free popular education in the country and became a hero of Chinese liberalism. In the 1950s and 1960s during

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated go ...

his reputation came under attack and his body was exhumed and burned.

Biography

Wu was born Wu Qi () as the seventh child among his siblings, at Wuzhuang, Tangyi county (堂邑县, a part of Guan county nowadays). His father died when he was a child, leaving him to fend for himself. Too poor to attend the local academy, Wu determined to promote universal free education,

Suzanne Pepper Suzanne Pepper (1939 – 29 June 2022) was a Hong Kong-based American author, political scientist, and former editor from 1995 to 1996 of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's ''China Review''. Biography Pepper left the United States for Hong ...

, ''Radicalism and education reform in 20th-century China: the search for an ideal development model'', Cambridge University Press, pp.167-169. supposedly because he was swindled for his illiteracy. A wandering beggar, Wu educated himself and used his little money to develop business ventures. Eventually he achieved success as a businessman, but he continued to beg, using the money he got to fund the foundation of local academies in Shandong. In the last decade of his life, Wu was a successful money lender and landlord, and he used his earnings to found three charity traditional academies. He got the bestowed name Xun from the court later. Wu never married, and he fostered the second grandson of his eldest brother.

Reputation

Wu's life and work was promoted as exemplary by many leading figures in the imperial court of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. After his death in 1896 a memorial temple, the

Wu Xun Temple Wu may refer to: States and regions on modern China's territory *Wu (state) (; och, *, italic=yes, links=no), a kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period 771–476 BCE ** Suzhou or Wu (), its eponymous capital ** Wu County (), a former county ...

Guan County, Shandong Guan County () is a county of western Shandong province, People's Republic of China, bordered by Hebei province to the west. It is administered by Liaocheng City. The population was in 1999. History As an isolated county, with relatively low ...

, was created to honor his work. He was portrayed as a

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

hero and his body was preserved. He continued to be regarded as a hero in Shandong, and the phrase "the spirit of Wu Xun" was used to refer to the social ideal of progress through education and traditional Confucian ideals of service.

Reaction

In 1950 a film about his work, '' The Life of Wu Xun'', was made. It was quickly criticised by radicals within the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

for promoting Wu, whose life was attacked as counter-revolutionary. The campaign was the "first major politico-ideological campaign in the Chinese Communist regime".Henry Yuhuai He, ''Dictionary of the political thought of the People's Republic of China'', M.E. Sharpe, 2001, p. 297. It was initiated by Mao's wife

Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (19 March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of ...

, who loathed the "bourgeois reformism" epitomised by Wu. She persuaded Mao himself to write an article denouncing Wu as a promoter of "feudal" culture. The backlash against the film led to an attempt to destroy the cult of Wu.

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard le ...

exhumed his corpse and carried it to a public square where it was subsequently given a trial and ordered burned. The Red Guards broke the body into pieces before setting light to it with gas.MacFarquhar, Roderick. "Red Terror." Mao's Last Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University. 2006. p. 120. After Mao's death, Wu's reputation was restored. In 1985 the '' People's Daily'' stated that the criticisms of Wu "cannot be said to be even basically correct".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Xun 1838 births 1896 deaths Educators from Shandong People from Liaocheng Qing dynasty people