Former Site of Lize Girls' School

Former Site of Lize Girls' School

Lize Girls' School

Located at the eastern end of Nanhaong Lane, just a wall away from the Retreat & Reflection Garden. In February 1906 (the 32nd year of the Guangxu reign), it was founded and presided over by Ren Chuangxin, the son of Ren Lansheng, the owner of the Retreat & Reflection Garden. The site includes the school gate, the National Humiliation Monument, and the teaching building. On April 19, 1995, it was approved by the provincial government [Su Zheng Fa [1995] No. 48] as part of the fourth batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units. In 2001, it was designated as a patriotic education base in Wujiang City.

In the spring of 1907 (the 33rd year of the Guangxu reign), the girls' school added art education and offered specialized art courses. In 1909 (the first year of the Xuantong reign), a normal school program (which later became Lize Girls' Middle School) was established to train female teachers for the local community. In August 1915, the normal school program was discontinued, while the upper primary department (grades five and six) was taken over by the county and renamed "Wujiang County First Girls' Higher Primary School." The lower primary department (grades one to four) remained privately run under Lize Girls' School. After 1924, when Tongli became the second district of Wujiang County, the lower primary department was renamed "Tongli Girls' Primary School." After 1935, both the upper and lower primary departments were collectively referred to as Nanhaong Lane Primary School. In 1958, it was renamed Dongxi Street Primary School, and in 1964, it became Tongli Town Central Primary School. On April 19, 2004, during the 8th China "Tongli Spring" Tourism and Culture Festival, the Former Site of Lize Girls' School opened the "China Sex Culture Museum" to the public.

When the girls' school was first established, classrooms were set up in the eastern garden of the Retreat & Reflection Garden. However, as enrollment increased year by year, land owned by the Liu family was purchased in 1911 to construct a seven-bay, two-story teaching building facing south. In 1916, an additional floor was added to create a three-story teaching building. The building has a total height of 15.9 meters (including a 0.7-meter base), a total width of 21.95 meters, a total depth of 8.4 meters, a balcony depth of 2.15 meters, and covers an area of 231.57 square meters. It features a hip-and-gable roof (with large cantilevered wings) and a brick-and-wood structure, supported by a king post truss system. The hip-and-gable roof is connected and supported by purlins extending from the lower gold purlin. The roof is covered with small tiles and facing bricks, with an exposed timber frame. The corner brackets are internally supported by angled beams, though the flying eaves have not yet developed fully—they only use angle beams and sub-angle beams for upward curvature, with flying rafters extending the eaves, resulting in deeper overhangs. The interior is fitted with rain-shielding boards. The walls are constructed using a one-stretcher-one-header bond technique, with gypsum mortar used for joint detailing. The window frames feature a half-moon arch above and a protruding single brick below, crafted into decorative borders. The corridor ends on the east and west sides have cylindrical arches made of one stretcher and one header, while the north-facing columns between each are adorned with comb-like arches consisting of one stretcher, one header, and an additional protruding brick. In the center of the gable walls at the east and west ends of each floor, a fireplace is built. On the north wall of the central bay on the third floor, there is a plaque inscribed with the school motto "Sincerity, Diligence, Simplicity, Love," personally written by Fu Zengxiang, the Minister of Education of the Beiyang Government, in 1916. On the south wall of the central bay on the second floor, there is a stone tablet inscribed with the "School Building Record," authored by the scholar Qian Jibo and calligraphed by Zhuang Xian. The ground floor is floored with wooden planks, and the base perimeter includes 16 semi-circular vents for ventilation and moisture control. The building largely retains its original appearance from the May Fourth Movement era.

While adding the third floor to the teaching building in 1916, a new six-column, eight-character-style school gate facing south was constructed in the northwest part of the building, using the Ming-style one-stretcher-one-header bond method. It covers an area of 6.05 square meters and has a total height of 7.1 meters. The depth between the first and second columns is 2.73 meters at a 45-degree angle, with a wall thickness of 0.36 meters. The brick columns are 0.5 meters square, with the distance from the centerline of the eastern first column to the centerline of the western first column (width) being 13.15 meters, the distance from the centerline of the eastern second column to the centerline of the western second column being 7.42 meters, and the distance from the centerline of the eastern third column to the centerline of the western third column being 2.5 meters. Apart from the original iron railings and solid wooden doors, which no longer exist, the rest of the gate remains intact. The completed teaching building and school gate are majestic and elegant, representing the only Sino-Western architectural fusion structure in Tongli at the time.

The National Humiliation Monument was erected in 1915 to oppose Yuan Shikai’s signing of the "Twenty-One Demands" with Japanese imperialism. In the spring of 1938, when Tongli fell to Japanese occupation, Lize Girls' School was requisitioned as a military barracks. To prevent the monument from being destroyed, patriotic teachers and students risked their safety to bury it underground. After half a century, in the spring of 1982, during campus renovation work, teachers and students of Tongli Town Central Primary School unexpectedly discovered the long-buried monument. The monument is in the shape of a gui, standing 1.75 meters tall, 0.4 meters wide, and 0.16 meters thick. The front bears the inscription "Monument to the National Humiliation of May 9th" in bold characters, while the back contains nearly 500 characters across 12 lines. The text was written by the scholar Qian Jibo and calligraphed by Wu Zhiliang, a renowned female calligrapher and close friend of martyr Qiu Jin. In July 1986, the National Humiliation Monument was listed as part of the second batch of Wujiang County Cultural Relics Protection Units. In September 1992, to better protect the monument, the Snow-Shaming Pavilion was built in the campus, with the monument standing inside.

Lize Girls' School was a school specifically established for female education and enjoyed considerable prestige in the Jiangnan region at the time. Its founder, Ren Chuangxin (1887–1962), influenced by the patriotic ideals of fellow villagers Chen Qubing and Jin Songcen, deeply believed that widespread school establishment was essential for China’s prosperity, with women's education being particularly urgent. He argued that only when women acquired modern knowledge and economic independence could they achieve equal political rights with men and truly attain independent social identities. In February 1906, with the support of his mother, he founded the private Lize Girls' School using the Retreat & Reflection Garden as its campus. In the early days, the school faced numerous challenges. Ren Chuangxin sacrificed his family wealth to establish a library with over 10,000 volumes, a natural science laboratory with plant and animal specimens, a complete set of Japanese-made physics and chemistry instruments, and a small workshop. He also acquired a grand piano and later brought back a film projector from Germany during an overseas trip. These facilities were unparalleled among similar schools of the time. To improve teaching quality, Ren hired distinguished educators at high salaries, including the Confucian master Qian Jibo, calligrapher Qian Zuyi, and writer Fan Yanqiao. The presence of these renowned teachers yielded remarkable achievements. For instance, at the 1915 Panama International Exposition, the school’s embroidery works won a silver medal. In 1921, Shanghai World Book Company published *New Era Essays: A Collection of National School Achievements*, which included over 200 outstanding essays by students nationwide, with 14 essays from eight students of Lize Girls' School among them. Ren Chuangxin wrote a glorious chapter in the history of Chinese women's education by pioneering female schooling and revitalizing modern education.

Wujiang Economic Development Zone (Jiangling Subdistrict): The administrative region of Jiangling Subdistrict includes seven village committees from Tongli Town—Yita, Shebang, Tongxing, Zhaqiao, Yeming, Fangjian’gang, and Yezhe—as well as five neighborhood committees from the former Songling Town—Jiangling, Panshanhu, Xingang, Xinliuxi, and Hudong—and sixteen village committees—Qingshawan, Yaojiazhuang, Huagang, Liuxu, Wuxin, Songnan, Sanliqiao, Pangbei, Pangnan, Pangdong, Pangshan, Pangyang, Bailongqiao, Lingyi, Longjin, and Xilian. The office of the Jiangling Subdistrict People's Government is located within the village committee area of Pangshan Village, at 1688 Yunli Road. … More details about Wujiang Economic Development Zone (Jiangling Subdistrict) ++

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units