(July 14,1919)
Zhang Jian39 says: “A government can be likened to a father and elder brother, and
students to sons and younger brothers. If the country is fortunate, father and elder
brother take the lead in educating, sons and younger brothers strictly adhere to their
guidance, and the nation will prosper. If, unfortunately, father and elder brother act
inappropriately, and sons and younger brothers are to remedy the situation, they must
adopt the attitude as in the ‘Minor Odes’ of harboring resentment but not giving vent
to their anger. In this way the nation will be at peace. If this is not done, there is great
danger.”40 Think about it, dear reader— what kind of talk is this?
39 I.e., the controversy over the German concessions in Shandong, handed over to Japan at the
Paris Peace Conference, which had provoked the May Fourth demonstrations.
40 Zhang Jian (1853–1926), zi Jizhi, hao Se’an, Seweng, a native of Nantong in Jiangsu Province, was
one of China’s early modernizers and reformers. After obtaining the jinshi degree in 1894, he turned his
back on an official career to establish a cotton mill in Nantong. Zhang served briefly in 1912 as minister
of industries in Sun Yatsen’s provisional government, and later for two years (October 1913 to December
1915) as Yuan Shikai’s minister of agriculture and commerce. He became best known, however, as an
educator, conservationist, and public benefactor. He founded several schools (including China’s first