The Work Diary of a Top Provincial Education Commissioner——Reading Notes of Yan Xiu Diary (1894-1898)

From 1894 to 1898, Yan Xiu was appointed as Guizhou's provincial education commissioner of Guizhou province. The patriotism to save the populace from imperilment and the aspiration to reform the old education and cultivate new talents are closely related with his lofty ideal of national salvation. Yan Xiu's reforms was in the vanguard of the early modernization of Chinese education in the late 19th century and the early 20th century owing to his personal experience to the malpractice of Chinese traditional education and the perception of spirit in western learning. In the harsh environment of poor, narrow, and isolated land, he eliminated the long-standing abuse, renovate academic atmosphere, advocated new academic ideas and cultivated talents. His three-year term of academic administration had an important impact on changing the educational outlook and setting a new social trend in Guizhou Province. In this process, he has been constantly improving his personal character and moral integrity, which is not only an important guarantee for his career success, but also lays a solid foundation for his future development. Yan Xiu's Diary (1894-1898) provides us with detailed and vivid first-hand materials to understand the growing process of Yan Xiu as well as the actual situation of education reforms in border provinces during the Reform Movement.