Fenghua Middle School: A School Founded by a Monk

Basic facts

This section is about a school, not a sight. The school does not receive visitors; please do not linger or take photographs at the school gate.

1947: a middle school founded by Buddhist figures

In 1947 Weiyun founded the private Xingci Middle School of Shanghai. He was a disciple of Master Xingci — a patriotic monk. By the common account of several sources, this was the first middle school in Shanghai founded by Buddhist figures.

The starting point of this school looks less like "a middle school" than like "an undertaking":

• the school board was Zhang Shizhao and Qu Yingguang — the one a man of standing in both the political and the literary world of the Republic, the other at home in both political and Buddhist circles;
• the inscriptions were by Li Zongren and Sun Fo, and read "Like Answers Like".

"Like answers like" comes from the Yi Jing, the Qian hexagram: "Like sounds answer each other, like breaths seek each other out." It means that like calls to like, and kindred breaths seek one another out. These four characters later became the school's motto:

Like sounds answer each other, like breaths seek each other out

A school founded by Buddhist figures had for its first inscription and its final motto the very same sentence. This "growing a motto out of an inscription" happens with only this one of the seven schools.

There are two accounts of the site: one says the first site was No. 32 Xiangyigang, Gonghexin Road, another says it was in the Baoshan Road area; the record that it moved from Baoshan Road to No. 49, Lane 1700 Gonghexin Road in August 1983 agrees with both. Considering that this school changed its name five times afterwards, it is understandable that the early addresses were remembered inconsistently — this book records both accounts, and will not pick one for it.

Five changes of name: a school's "strata"

Fenghua Middle School changed its name more than any other in this part. Set the names out in time order, and it reads like a geological section:

Note that step in 1971: when it was renamed "Fenghua", the school had already been merged with Zhabei No. 3 Central Primary School into "the Dongfanghong 57 School". That is to say, besides that 1968 kindergarten teachers' school, today's Fenghua Middle School also carries the blood of a primary school. (The official website has another account, "merged with the former Fenghua Middle School in 1983", only a year off from 1982; this book records both.)

1978: a district key school, and two "specialities"

In February 1978 the school was designated by the Shanghai Municipal Education Bureau as a district key middle school of Zhabei District. Two things after that put this school's name into the educational history of Shanghai.

One: mental health education, among the very first in the country

In 1986 the school brought psychological counselling into its moral education, among the earliest schools in the country to carry out mental health education. In 1987 it began psychological consultation, in 2000 it set up a district mental health centre, and in September 2015 it was recognised by the Ministry of Education as one of the first batch of national schools with distinctive mental health education for primary and middle schools.

The significance of this only shows against 1986: that year "mental health" was not yet a commonplace term in a middle school. A district key school in Shanghai did this about twenty years ahead of the national pack.

Two: DIS — a middle school's laboratory becomes a national standard

DIS is short for "Digital Information System", put simply, doing physics experiments with sensors and a computer in place of some of the traditional ruler, stopwatch and spring balance.

• In 2002 the Shanghai Municipal Teaching Research Office, Shanghai Fenghua Middle School and Shandong Yuanda Langwei Technology Co., Ltd. worked together to set up the Digital Experiment (DIS) Research and Development Centre;
• on 12 February 2003 the Shanghai Digital Information System (DIS) Research and Development Centre for Primary and Middle Schools was formally set up at Fenghua Middle School;
• in 2013 the reform result "'Shanghai creation' in the reform of physics teaching in middle schools — the development and application of the Digital Information System (DIS)" won the special prize of the Shanghai Teaching Achievement Award;
• in 2014 the same result won the first prize of the National Basic Education Teaching Achievement Award.

An experimental system that one middle school helped to invent ended up in the physics classrooms of many middle schools across the country. This is the only result among the seven schools in this part that "grew up inside the school gate and then went out beyond it".

(According to the school's official website too: in 2017 "'Choosing for oneself, developing according to one's nature' — the creation and application of a growth system for senior-high pupils" won the special prize of the Shanghai Basic Education Teaching Achievement Award, and in 2018 won the second prize of the National Basic Education Teaching Achievement Award.)

2004: moving to Daning Road

This school moved house about as many times as it changed its name:

The years after that:

It now lives on Daning Road. And Daning is the bet Zhabei got right — see the piece on Daning Road Sub-district in Part Two.

Lineage table

Sources: Weiyun's founding of the private Xingci Middle School in 1947 and its being the first middle school in Shanghai founded by Buddhist figures, Zhang Shizhao and Qu Yingguang serving on the school board, Li Zongren and Sun Fo writing "Like Answers Like", the renaming as the private Cuiwen Middle School of Shanghai in August 1955, the change to municipal status and renaming as the Cuiwen Junior Middle School of Shanghai in January 1956, the naming as the New Kindergarten Teachers' School Affiliated Middle School in September 1968, the merger with Zhabei No. 3 Central Primary School under the name Dongfanghong 57 School in August 1969, the renaming as Shanghai Fenghua Middle School in January 1971, its designation as a district key middle school of Zhabei District in February 1978, its merger with the former Fenghua Middle School and Cuiwen Middle School in August 1982, the setting up of Fenghua Middle School North in June 1995, the separation of the junior and senior divisions in September 1997, its move into No. 1000 Daning Road in February 2004, the setting up of the international division in August 2006, and its transfer to Jing'an District in November 2015, are based on An Overview of Shanghai Fenghua Middle School on the school's official website (Grade B), the Baidu Baike entry "Shanghai Fenghua Middle School" (Grade C) and the Kuaidong Baike entry "Fenghua Middle School" (Grade C); the motto "like sounds answer each other, like breaths seek each other out", the school spirit "sincerity, harmony, joy", the teaching spirit "breadth, liveliness, closeness" and the learning spirit "diligence, thought, creation", the ethos, the site of 46 mu, the floor area of 24,000 square metres, the 27 teaching classes, the more than 1,000 pupils and the 155 teachers and staff, the bringing of psychological counselling into moral education in 1986, its recognition in September 2015 as one of the first batch of national schools with distinctive mental health education for primary and middle schools, the setting up of the DIS research and development centre by three parties in 2002, the setting up of the centre at this school on 12 February 2003, the special prize of the Shanghai Teaching Achievement Award in 2013, the first prize of the National Basic Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2014, and the special prize of the Shanghai Basic Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2017 and the second prize of the National Basic Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2018, are based on the same page on the school's official website and the school profile attached to The School and the Law Firm Together Governing the School According to Law by Shanghai Liu Chunlei Law Firm (Grade C); the first site "No. 32 Xiangyigang, Gonghexin Road" and the move from Baoshan Road to No. 49, Lane 1700 Gonghexin Road in 1983, and the renaming of North as the private Fengfan Middle School of Shanghai in 1997, are based on the school profile attached to the above law firm's piece (Grade C); the account "merged with the former Fenghua Middle School in 1983" is based on the same page on the school's official website. The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.