扫盲运动：改变中华民族命运
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party of China(CPC) and the government took various measures to spare no effort in raising the cultural level of the peasants and launching a campaign to eradicate illiteracy. From 1949 to 1969, China launched four campaigns to eradicate illiteracy. During that period, the scenes of learning culture and stories of children teaching their parents to read were everywhere. Qi Jianhua, a soldier, invented an “accelerated literacy method” that allowed people to learn more than 3,000 Chinese characters in 30 days. No starting gun was used in PLA games, and the one who wrote the prescribed word first started the race. As early as the period of Yan’an, Mao Zedong personally taught little 8th Route Army men to read... From illiteracy rate of 80 percent to universal access to compulsory education, this was the outstanding contribution of the Chinese nation to the history of world civilization.
新中国成立后，党和政府采取多方面措施，不遗余力地提高农民的文化水平，开展扫盲识字运动。1949年至1969年，中国先后开展四次扫盲。那时，到处都是学文化的景象，还有孩子教父母识字的趣事。战士祁建华发明的“速成识字法”让人30天学会3000多个汉字。全军运动会赛跑不用发令枪，谁先写出规定的字谁起跑。早在延安时期，毛泽东就曾经亲自教小八路识字……从文盲率80%到义务教育全面普及，这是中华民族对世界文明史作出的杰出贡献。
The CPC has always attached great importance to cultural popularization. On April 24, 1939, in Dongguan, Yan’an, two little 8th Route Army men said hello to Chairman Mao excitedly. Mao laughed: “My name is not Chairman Mao. My name is Mao Zedong.” Then he wrote these three words in his hand and showed them how to do it. This picture was taken by photographer Shi Shaohua. Soon after, Mao Zedong began to promote compulsory education in Yan’an.
中国共产党历来重视文化普及。1939年4月24日，在延安东关，两个小八路兴冲冲地问毛主席好。毛泽东笑道：“我不叫毛主席，我叫毛泽东。”说着，他在手心里写下这三个字，教他们怎么写。这一画面被一旁的摄影记者石少华拍了下来。事后不久，毛泽东开始在延安推行义务教育。
It was not until the early 1960s that Mao Zedong met Shi Shaohua, then vice president of Xinhua News Agency, and asked, “Have you found the two little 8th Route Army men yet?” “I can’t find them.” Shi said.
直到20世纪60年代初，毛泽东见到时任新华社副社长的石少华，还问：“找到那两个小八路没有？”石少华说：“找不到。”
Who would have thought that, in 1986, in Liaoning Province by chance Shi Shaohua met Liu Changgui, the smaller one of the two boys. Just because he started to study, he has grown into a state cadre.
谁能想到，1986年，一个很偶然的机会，石少华在辽宁见到了当年两个小八路中个子小的刘长贵。就因为学了文化，他已成长为一名国家干部。
In 1939, in Yan’an Mao Zedong taught
little 8th Route Army men to read.
(Photo by Shi Shaohua, Xinhua News Agency)
1939年，毛泽东在延安教小八路认字。
（新华社记者 石少华 摄）
The running race in the 1952 PLA Sports Games was very special: the runners at the starting line did not start, but wrote on cardboards. What were they doing? The truth was, without the starting gun, the first to finish writing the prescribed words could run first. This was because many athletes were illiterate that time. This kind of culture popularization method could be regarded as the unique one in the world.
1952年全军运动会赛跑现场很特别：起跑线的运动员不起跑，却在纸板上写字。他们这是干嘛呢？原来，起跑不用发令枪，谁先写出规定的几个字，谁就可以起跑。之所以这样，是因为当时很多运动员都是文盲。这种文化普及方式，堪称世界一绝。
On August 2, 1952, in the PLA Sports Games for celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, athletes from different teams were competing in literacy race. (Photo by Yue Guofang, Bureau of Press Photography)
1952年8月2日，庆祝中国人民解放军建军25周年全军运动会上，各代表队运动员在进行识字赛跑比赛。
（新闻摄影局资料 岳国芳 摄）
In August 1952, a group of soldiers were marching. As they walked, they read the phonetic alphabet on the knapsacks of the men in front of them. Before then, most of these battle-hardened soldiers were illiterate. A soldier named Qi Jianhua, on his way to the southwest, invented an “accelerated literacy method” that enabled one person to learn more than 3,000 Chinese characters in 30 days. Liu Shaoqi called him “contemporary Cang Jie”. Nowadays, this method still remains in the Xinhua Dictionary.
1952年8月，一队战士在行军，他们一边走路，一边念着前面一个人包袱上的注音字母。此前，这些身经百战的战士大都是文盲。而一个名叫祁建华的战士在向大西南进军途中发明了“速成识字法”，能让一个人30天学会3000多汉字。刘少奇称他是“当代仓颉”。注音识字法，现在还留在《新华字典》上。
It was also interesting that it was often not parents to teach their children, but children who taught their parents. It was a special product of that era, a rare phenomenon in the history of human culture, and a cultural debt that the new China paid back to the old society.
当时还有一个有趣的现象，常常不是父母教孩子，而是孩子教父母。刚读书不久的孩子，反过来教半辈子不识字的大人，这是那个年代的特殊产物，也是人类文化史上的罕见现象，是新中国在还旧社会欠下的文化账。
In September 1950, the Ministry of Education and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions(ACFTU) jointly held the first conference on workers’ and peasants’ education, and clearly stated that literacy education should be promoted to gradually reduce illiteracy. At that time, according to the statistics, among the young and middle-aged people in Zhongshan County (now Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province), illiteracies and the semiliterate accounted for about 50.1% of the total. In response to “reduce illiteracy”, Literacy Office was set up in Zhongshan County in 1953 to improve the farmers’ reading and literacy skills, develop the farmers’ education in an all-round way, and carry out a campaign to eradicate illiteracy in the form of “winter school”, civil schools and education guarantee.
1950年9月，教育部和全国总工会在联合召开的第一次工农教育会议上明确指出，要推行识字教育，逐步减少文盲。当时，据统计，中山县（今广东省中山市）的青壮年中，文盲和半文盲约占总数的50.1%，为响应“减少文盲”的号召，中山县于1953年成立扫盲办公室，采取“冬学”、民校、包教保学等形式，提升农民的阅读、识字能力，全面发展农民教育，大力推行扫盲运动。
Among them, “winter school” is a seasonal form of farmer education. In the winter of the slack season, farmers went to attend the evening school to study in urban or rural area. After 1953, the “winter school” was transformed into a year-round civilian school (farmer’s spare-time school), which followed the principle of “study more in slack season, study less in busy season, and have a holiday in busiest season” to ensure both farming and study done perfectly.
其中，“冬学”是季节性的农民教育形式，农民在每年冬季农闲时，到城区或农村的民众夜校参加学习。1953年后，“冬学”改办为常年民校（农民业余学校），实行“农闲多学，农忙少学，大忙放假”的原则，确保农作学习两不误。
//In 1956, Zhongshan County had opened 643 civilian schools, 858 literacy classes, enrollment of more than 41,000 farmers, literacy campaign gradually into the climax. A graduation certificate of 1956, collected by the Archives of Zhongshan City, belonged to Li Peimei, a student, graduated from the literacy class of the Civil School. After studying, she “knew 1800 common words and could write short essays”, which showed that the literacy work had been very successful.
1956年，中山县已开办民校643所，识字班858个，入学农民4.1万余人，扫盲运动的开展逐渐进入高潮。中山市档案馆收藏的一份1956年的《毕业证书》，记载了学生李佩媚从民校扫盲班毕业的情况，经过学习，她“已认识1800个常用字并能写短文”，可见扫盲工作颇有成效。
Li Peimei’s literacy graduation certificate
李佩媚的扫盲毕业证书
At the beginning of 1958, the Workers and Peasants Education Group was set up in Zhongshan County to carry out the activity of “Reading ten thousand books and writing ten thousand characters” in coordination with the literacy work. Farmers’ enthusiasm for learning continued to rise, and many interesting stories were also derived.
1958年初，中山县成立工农教育组，配合扫盲工作开展“读万本书，写万个字”的活动，农民的学习热情持续高涨，亦衍生出不少趣闻。
In the third page of Zhongshan Daily on May 1, 1958, collected by Zhongshan Archives, there was an article of the commune challenging the whole county of Zhongshan to “literacy”. The content was that the Gangkou County Democratic Commune challenged the Shatin Commune to compete in the competition of “eliminating illiteracy” and “learning culture”. The article described the members’ learning situation in detail: “Now, there is a sound of reading everywhere, a cultural climax has formed of a hundred people teaching, a thousand people learning... Slogans were pasted all over the streets, couplets were pasted on every household, words were written on everything, reading signs were everywhere, and more than 200 group teachers (teachers made up of literate masses) went to the commune members’ houses to sign contracts guaranteeing education.” In the newspapers of that time, similar news was very common, which demonstrated the “grand occasion” of the literacy campaign.
中山市档案馆收藏的1958年5月1日《中山报》第三版中，就有一篇公社下战书向中山全县挑战“识字”的文章，内容为港口乡民主社向中山全县沙田社发出挑战，比赛“扫文盲”“学文化”的事项。文章详细描述了社员们的学习情况：“现在，到处是一片读书声，已形成百人教，千人学的学文化高潮……标语满街贴，户户贴对联，见物写上字，看图识字牌到处密布，200多个群师（由识字群众组成的教师）四处上门和社员订包教保学合同。”在当时的报纸上，类似的新闻十分常见，可见当时扫盲运动的“盛况”。
The third page of Zhongshan Daily on May 1, 1958
1958年5月1日《中山报》第三版
By 2000, China’s illiteracy rate has dropped to 6.72 percent. This is an outstanding contribution of the Chinese nation to the history of world civilization. The formation of the atmosphere of national emphasis on education is changing the destiny of the Chinese nation. Looking back at the history, we realize more and more deeply that “education is the foundation of the centennial plan and the first to strengthen the country and enrich the people.”
到2000年，中国文盲率下降至6.72%。这是中华民族对世界文明史作做出的杰出贡献。全民重教气氛的形成，正在改变着中华民族的命运。回望历史，我们越来越深刻地体会到，“百年大计，教育为本；强国富民，育人为先”。
On the road to literacy, no one should be left behind.
扫盲路上，一个人都不能落下，一个人都不能少。
图文：菌菌
编辑：菌菌
排版：菌菌
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