From Khanh Ung Nghia Thuc (Khanh Ung Free School) to the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc (Dong Kinh Free School) in Vietnam

Abstract

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901), a bushido and he was also a Nipponese great scholar in the Meiji period, who early acquired the Western bourgeois liberal democratic thoughts. He was the first man, who founded the a "gijuku" in Japan in 1868 named as the Keio Gijuku. Keio means the memorization of the dynasty prior to the Meiji regime (1865), and Gijuku manifests the "free school" spirit of the English people. About 1906, Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chau Trinh visited Keio Gijuku in Tokyo. Based on the knowledge on such a school of talent training for national development, the Vietnamese patriotic Confucian intellectuals imitated the Keio Gijuku style and decided to establish in Hanoi a public school name as Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc. On Mars, 1907, patriotic intellectuals of the same orientation with Phan Boi Chau founded Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc school, situated at No. 4 and 10 Hang Dao street, Hanoi. This school's organization consisted of four sections, including Education, Propaganda, Book Writing and Finance.