Abstract: In the period of the Republic of China, to discipline, named XunYu in Chinese, played an important role together with teaching and administration in high school education. In practical work, what Xun Yu was mainly concerned with were students’ disturbing behaviors, and the main methods to enforce Xun Yu were criticism and punishment. As a result, mental health problems were simply treated as disciplinary problems and handled in the same way.
Having noticed the problem above, Huang Yi (1903-1944), a professor of Psychology in the National University of Zhejiang, who got his PhD in Psychology from Yale University, supervised by Arnold Gesell, decided to transform Xun Yu. His research includes two aspects.
In theoretical research, by conducting questionnaires and case studies, Huang Yi pointed out the wrong guiding ideas behind the traditional Xun Yu methods. For example, some people argued that Xun Yu should focus on the students’ disturbing behaviors, and students, who were shy, dependent or introverted, did not need Xun Yu, because they were quiet and would not make trouble. The students’ disturbing behaviors were normally assessed in accordance with the social standards with little consideration of their psychological well-being.
Different from that, Huang Yi contended that children’s psychological well-being and their character development should be paid more attention to rather than the social standards when dealing with children’s disturbing behaviors. As far as children’s behaviors are concerned, their future development should be given more attention instead of past behaviors.
Huang Yi defined the concept of child guidance and its scientific nature, arguing that child guidance includes moral education and mental health service, and emphasizing that right child guidance methods should also take mental health principles into consideration. Huang Yi looked at child guidance as an applied science.
In practice, Huang Yi established an experimental nursery school in Hangzhou (1935-1937), with an aim to improve the mental health of children aged from 2.5-4.5. In his nursery school, children who had developed maladjusted behaviors were given individually tailored treatment. And for the rest of normal children, their mental health was also given much attention. Huang Yi’s establishment of a nursery school put child guidance into practice for the first time in China.
Huang Yi’s pioneering research on child guidance has shed light on psychological research and practice in China

Key words: Huang Yi, Xun Yu, child guidance