This is a study on Tao Xingzhi the most active and free-spirited public educator during the period of Guomindang government in Nanjing. Xiaozhuang(曉莊) School, Shanhai-gongxuetuan(山海工學團), and Yucai(育才) School that he ran represented the education dissemination movement that were far from Guomindang’s education policy. Therefore, this study examines Tao Xingzhi’s Life Education Theory and Mass Education Movement from the perspective of transformation and sinicization of the western sciences and thoughts.<BR> Tao Xingzhi as an educator and anti-Japanese activist showed his devotion to the public, creativity for education, and enthusiasm and actions to save his nation. He was ideologically based on democracy and nationalism, and emphasized real actions and directivity toward the public rather than ideological pursuits. The Life Education Theory was suggested as an educational model for China’s rural area by unifying Dewey’s pragmatism and Wang Yangming’s knowledge-action unity. Specifically, he pursued that “teaching, learning, and practice are combined into one,” which sought to match knowledge and labor in life. This was realized within Xiaozhuang School’s rural education movement and Shanhai-gongxuetuan’s and Yucai School’s education dissemination movement. Throughout the process, ‘Yiyouzhi(藝友制)’ and ‘Little Teacher System(小先生制)’ were set as main educational methods. Yiyouzhi was derived from apprenticeship, and Little Teacher System was the real practice of the way in which one learns a thing and then transmits it to others.<BR> During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tao Xingzhi was very active for the anti-Japanese movement. He thought that the national liberation and the people’s liberation were not separable, so he was very much interested in educating farmers and laborers and strived for freedom of speechㆍpublicationㆍassemblyㆍassociation. He criticised Nanjing Government’s educational policy, but did not deny customs and ethics, and Goumintang itself. He overcame traditional education, and propelled Mass Education Movement depending on Life Education Theory which he transformed the pragmatist education into China’s circumstance.<BR> Tao Xingzhi did not put individual freedom and equality ahead of national security. Nevertheless, he showed an educator’s perception that he did not give up the minimum indispensable freedom directly related to human survival and creativity. He was both ideologically and politically unbiased. He was, however, a China-first pragmatic educator who was interested in any ideology for the survival of the people and the revival of the nation.