中國傳統農村社會係以儒家倫理作為維護社會秩序的最重要準據，其中忠孝節義精神被鄉間的士紳所建構並視為威權，牢牢控制鄉民的思維與生活。20世紀初期，中國知識分子開始思考如何透過鄉村教育來改變農村文化，開啟民智並奠定自治的基礎。30年代在大陸山東省鄒平縣有梁漱溟開辦的鄉村建設研究院，在臺灣有林攀龍主持的霧峰一新會組織。梁林兩人的學思歷程不同，前者由熱中佛學而漸至衷心依附儒學，後者則秉持文學浪漫精神與基督信仰，作為其人生行事的最高指針。在教育思想的比較上，梁氏著重先由鄉村自治體的建立，再進入對農民所亟思農作改良的教育訓練上；林氏則重視鄉民自我力量的提昇，以文化啟蒙為開端。在農村教育的具體實踐上，梁氏偏重利用群眾性與團體性工作，規劃研議良策來務實解決社會問題；林氏則廣泛在教導鄉民正確認識生活與生命之本質，以提昇個人自覺之尊嚴和知能的力道。不過，梁林兩人都以開發鄉民理性為起始點，以期建立鄉民自治能力，再圖謀灌輸民族意識，最終朝向恢復自我民族文化的信心與解決民族受壓迫問題的目標上。

The main system to maintain social order in Chinese village was based on Chinese ethics. In early 20th century, Chinese intellectuals began to think how to change the village culture by local education, as a foundation of self-government. In 1930s, there are two social projects, the former was Liang Su-Min who created the research center at Jopin county in Santon province, and the latter was Lin Pan-Lon who sponsored the I-sin Club at Wu-Fong in Taiwan. Mr. Liang’s learning process, originally in Buddhism and changed to Confucianism afterwards﹔Mr. Lin held the spirit of Romantic literary and the religion of Christ throughout his life. In the beginning, Mr. Liang built the self-governed organization of village and then engaged in the training of the improvement of agriculture﹔Mr. Lin stressed the promotion of villagers’ self-strength and took the movement of cultural enlightenment as his first step. Mr. Liang emphasized on working out solutions for social problems with group work methods﹔Mr. Lin taught villagers the essence of life and what the value of life truly is to help them promote their self-awareness. The ultimate purposes between these two men were done in the same way. They started with teaching the villagers in order to raise their consciousness, which also increase their self-governing ability and gradually instill national consciousness into their mind, ultimately toward the goal of rebuilding the confidence of Chinese culture and releasing pressure from imperialism.