Cai Yuanpei - Saigenbai

Chinese thinker and educator. His courtesy name was Heqing and his pen name was Getsumin. He was from Shanyin County, Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. Born into a merchant family, he received a traditional education in the late Qing Dynasty and passed the Jinshi exam, becoming an editor at the Hanlin Academy. However, after the First Sino-Japanese War, he decided to study Western culture, resigned from his official position, and devoted himself to education. He became close to the revolutionary movement, and in 1904 was recommended as chairman of the Guangfu Association. After the Xinhai Revolution, he became the first Chancellor of Education of the Republic of China in 1912, where he established the foundations of the system and spirit of modern education. He then became president of Peking University in 1917, where he attracted many innovative talents and became a behind-the-scenes force in the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement. After the establishment of the Nationalist Government, he worked to promote academics, education, and culture as president of the Academia Sinica, but in 1932 he formed the China League for the Protection of Civil Rights with Soong Ching-ling and Lu Xun to resist the fascist tendencies of the Kuomintang, demonstrating his status as a strong liberal. He died in Hong Kong on March 5, 1940, during the Anti-Japanese War. His writings are collected in seven volumes as the Collected Works of Tsai Yuanpei.

[Matsuyuki Maruyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の思想家、教育者。字(あざな)は鶴卿(かくけい)、号は孑民(げつみん)。浙江(せっこう)省紹興(しょうこう)府山陰県の人。商家に生まれ、清(しん)末の伝統教育を受けて進士に合格、翰林院(かんりんいん)編修となったが、日清(にっしん)戦争を機に西学に志し、官を辞して教育活動に従事し、革命運動に接近、1904年光復会会長に推された。辛亥(しんがい)革命後、1912年中華民国初代教育総長に就任して近代教育の制度と精神の基礎を定め、ついで1917年北京(ペキン)大学校長となり、多くの革新的人材を集めて、新文化運動、さらには五・四運動の陰の力となった。国民政府成立後は中央研究院院長として学術、教育、文化の振興に努めたが、国民党のファッショ化に対しては1932年宋慶齢(そうけいれい)、魯迅(ろじん)らと中国民権保障同盟を結成して抵抗、強靭(きょうじん)な自由主義者の面目を発揮した。1940年3月5日、抗日戦争中に香港(ホンコン)で死去した。著述は『蔡元培全集』全7巻にまとめられている。

［丸山松幸］

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