A century ago, at the end of the Qing dynasty, the Chinese government established modern schools in an attempt to strengthen the country. What has been the impact of the Western university system on Chinese education? What kind of people should universities produce? What is the real purpose of academia?
"If you throw a rock into a pond, small ripples begin to spread out from the point of entry, becoming larger and larger, and spreading farther and farther." This is how Chiang Meng-lin, an educator of the early Republican era and the 19th president of Beijing University, described one key reform of the late Qing dynasty in his autobiography, entitled Western Tide.
In 1898, the Guangxu emperor attempted major reforms, but they were almost immediately stopped by opponents. Virtually the only relic of these reforms was Jingshi University. In Chiang's words, the tide of the reform movement had completely receded, but it left behind several shells in which there were pearls.
A school with character
One such pearl was Jingshi University, the forerunner of today's Beijing University, which recently boisterously celebrated its centennial. As part of the celebrations, Beijing University-known for short as "Beida"-invited renowned university presidents and scholars from China and around the world.
Some European universities go back 700-800 years. For China, an ancient civilization, what is the significance of having its first university reach its centennial?
In fact, the tradition of systematic advanced education in China goes back a long way. It is said that in ancient times China also had universities, called chengjun. In the Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou), it is written: "It is necessary to have a firm grip on the methods of the chengjun to gain learning for the governing and construction of the country." The term chengjun in fact refers to institutes of higher education.
"Beijing University may think that its age is impressive. But in fact the so-called taixue schools go all the way back to the year 124 BC. In the fifth year of the reign of the Wu emperor of Han, Gongsun Hong petitioned the emperor to establish an institute for 50 students. That is the first reliable historical indication of organized higher education. That was 2072 years ago. That's a lot older than any university currently in existence anywhere in the world," wrote Hu Shih in 1948 in an essay commemorating the 50th anniversary of Beida.
"However, Beida has never thought of itself as inheriting the tradition of the taixue, and has never tried to try to sell itself as having been around for more than 2,000 years," wrote Hu, adding of Beida: "Although its age is not great, it definitely has character."
Knowledge and power
Why would Beida be unwilling to recognize any links back to the early taixue?
"Jingshi University was a product of reforms at the end of the Qing dynasty," says Lao Ssu-kuang a professor of Chinese and Western philosophy. He notes that there were three levels to the modernization movement in which China attempted to learn from the West more than 100 years ago: technology, system reform and thought reform.
Lao argues that the "self-strengthening movement," as well as later calls for complete system reform, were aimed at coping with the pressure of invasion by the Western Powers. The thinking behind the self-strengthening movement was "to learn from the barbarians to control the barbarians." Therefore, institutes were established to study maritime policy, telegraphy and naval warfare.
But the ships and artillery were surface illusions. During the Sino-Japanese war of 1895, the northern fleet was completely destroyed. By the time of the collective foreign invasion during the Boxer Rebellion, there was complete psychological collapse among the Chinese masses, and the Qing government finally realized the seriousness of the problem of having a population living in ignorance.
The strength of the Western powers was eventually understood to be a product of universal education. Late in the Qing a consensus quickly emerged to establish schools around the country, because in the broad expanse of China, with the exception of a few municipal or county schools established to prepare students for the imperial examinations, there were no schools and the vast majority of the public was illiterate.
By 1901, the Qing court had drafted regulations for primary, middle, and higher education to be given to each of the provinces. Thus began comprehensive reform of the educational system. The next year, Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai, leaders of the reform faction, petitioned to eliminate the examination system. This was done in 1905, and the entire structure of education was completely renovated.
The examination system had existed in China for well over 1000 years. It was closely tied to the class structure (determining admission to and status within the literati class), bureaucratic system, and social organization. But it was torn down within a decade or so. This gives some idea of the intensity of the desire for reform at that time.
Old and new
The examination system had always been the ladder by which traditional literati advanced. The alteration of this path brought educational reform in its wake. It was a major turning point in the history of higher education in China.
In fact, at that time "the focus of reform was not on eliminating the examination system per se. It was just that, if the examination system were not eliminated, people would still have looked to it as the focal point, and they would not have actively promoted broader education," avers Kung Peng-cheng, president of the Nanhua Management College.
But in the absence of the exam system, people found it hard to give concrete meaning to the new system of academic qualifications.
In his autobiography, the historian of Chinese philosophy Feng You-lan describes the transformation of the old system into the new in the following terms: "It was like someone who was accustomed to the old calendar using the months and days of the new calendar. He would only feel really sure of the day in his mind after matching up the new date to the corresponding month and day of the old calendar."
"In the minds of people at that time, the qualifications earned through the examination system were still the standard. People would only feel like other qualifications had meaning by equating them to the old examination system. Under the reformed Qing school system, a primary school was to be established in each county and city, with a higher level academy in each provincial capital, and Jingshi University in Beijing," says Feng.
The three levels of the school system happened to be the same number of levels as in the old imperial examination system: A person who passed the county level exam was a xiucai, one who passed at the provincial level was a juren, and at the central level one became a jinshi. Correspondingly, people thought of a graduate of a county primary school as equivalent to the first, a graduate of a provincial secondary school as having the same status as the second, and a graduate of Jingshi University as equivalent to a jinshi.
"Master" goes to school
Under the new system, Jingshi University became the nation's highest academic institution, but it still had a strongly bureaucratic feel.
When the college was first opened, most of the students accepted were government officials. They were respectfully called "master," and servants were employed to "invite master to come to class" when the class bell rang. Teachers were called by the same term of respect used for government officials: "Your honor."
The teachers themselves were not very dedicated academics. They would print out their lectures, and periodically issue these to students. They would then read the prepared text from the podium. Students were often bored, and either slept or read unrelated material. If a teacher were relatively serious, at exam time the students would spend all night reading the lectures in order to muddle through. Students would ask the less rigorous teachers to tell them the exam questions, or at least to limit the scope of the exam.
During the Boxer Rebellion, Jingshi University was closed for two years. When the Republic of China was founded in 1911, it became Beijing University. It went through several school presidents, none of them very memorable. It was only in 1916, when Tsai Yuan-pei took over as school president, that this university began to take center stage in the drama of history.
Tsai Yuan-pei had been living in France when he received a telegram from the Ministry of Education, hoping to entice him to come back to take the reins at Beida: "The nation is returning to normal, and urgently in need of education. Now we are making your virtuous self master of the capital's highest academic institution."
"Most of my friends advised me not to take the job. They said that Beida was too corrupt. They warned that if I entered, and could not put things in order, my own reputation would be sullied. . . . But a few said that, since everyone knows it is corrupt, it is even more important to attempt to put it in order. Even if the attempt ended in failure, at least it would have been tried." In the end, Tsai did go to Beida. When he personally set eyes on China's first modern university, the situation was as follows:
The imperial examination system had been eliminated only 10 years before. The mind-set of simply muddling through-to get diplomas that would serve as the entree to officialdom, and thus to wealth-was still very deeply entrenched. Most students studied law because this was the best path to a career in officialdom. Because they hoped to become officials themselves, most students were snobbish about their teachers. Those teachers who were also working in government or the judiciary were popular. "As far as the professors are concerned, no one asks about the their scholarship, but only their official status. Those of higher rank are especially popular," wrote Tsai. This was because in the future such patrons could help their students advance.
University? What university?
Beijing was the capital, and had a very conservative atmosphere. In the five-and-a-half years during which Tsai Yuan-pei was in charge of Beida, he changed it from a place reeking of bureaucratism to a center of lively, progressive thinking.
"A university is a place of profound learning," said Tsai at ceremonies marking the opening of classes at Beida in the 1917. He would say the same thing at the beginning of classes each year thereafter, extolling the idea that a university is a place in which "knowledge is pursued for the sake of knowledge."
"A university encompasses the great classics and all the schools of thought. In great universities, all the various ideas co-exist: the philosophic schools of materialism and idealism, the aesthetic schools of realism and romanticism, the economic schools of mercantilism and laissez-faire, the ethical schools of moral purpose and utilitarianism, and the cosmological schools of optimism and negativism. That is why universities are 'universal,'" declared Tsai.
Tsai's basic spirit was "to follow the example of major universities in other countries, and adopt the principles of freedom of thought and of tolerance." In terms of concrete directions, he cast a wide net, seeking instructors with both great knowledge and great enthusiasm, in order to raise students' interest in learning. Because at that time Beida's humanities departments were dominated by conservative old professors, the work of reforming the university began with the humanities. Tsai hired a group of young scholars, still in their 20s. "The literary revolution and the attitude of freedom of thought steadily spread."
What has earned Tsai the most accolades is that his principle for hiring people was only to ask whether or not they were knowledgeable, without inquiring into their political positions. For example, Ku Hung-ming had studied in Europe for many years. After the revolution which led to the founding of the Republic, he retained his queue, indicating that he remained loyal to the Qing court. Nevertheless, seeing as he was literate in English, French, German, Greek, and Latin, and had studied English literature, he was hired as a professor of English poetry. Liu Shih-pei was another case in point. He had participated in the anti-Qing revolution, but not long after turned against the revolution. Later he worked to have Yuan Shikai declared emperor. But his knowledge of the Chinese tradition was so profound that Tsai hired him to teach the history of medieval and ancient Chinese literature.
However, whatever difficulties there might have been in hiring new people, these were small compared to those involved in forcing out the old.
"There were foreign professors in every department at Beida. All of them had been introduced to the school by Chinese embassies abroad or by foreign embassies in China. They were not necessarily good scholars and moreover had been at the school for much too long. We considered for a while, then several were forced to retire. We did everything by the book, according to their contracts. One French instructor wanted to bring a lawsuit against me, and one British professor even went so far as to ask the British ambassador to speak with me," wrote Tsai Yuan-pei in an essay entitled "My Experience at Beida."
Rebirth of an ancient civilization
Though Jingshi University may have been a product of systemic reform, by the time it had become Beida, it was having an effect that its founders never anticipated. "It brought together a group of free-thinking intellectuals," says Lao Ssu-kuang, and the concrete result was the May 4th movement which began in the 1919. Beida faculty and students extolled the virtues of freedom, democracy, and science. It was only at this point that the modernization movement moved from system reform to thought reform.
Tsai Yuan-pei had studied in Europe on two occasions. He attended classes at Leipzig University in Germany for three years, and also lived in Paris for one year. According to Luo Chia-lun, the German universities made a strong impression on Tsai. His reform concepts most likely came from his understanding of German universities. He himself said: "Having observed the systems of higher education in various European countries, I think that Germany had the best." He hoped that Beida would become a research university, and he instituted the system of professors administering the school. These were concepts brought over from Germany.
Tsai Yuan-pei had been a court scholar in the Qing dynasty, so he was quite well informed about the evolution of Chinese education. He strongly approved of the goals of the traditional system of producing gentlemen-scholars through the "six arts" (rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and math), and felt the educational principles behind the Confucian ideal of the "virtuous man" and that of the British "gentleman" were completely similar.
Tsai argued that the ancient taixue in Chinese history and modern universities were quite similar. They have students, professors, academic departments, entrance qualifications, and degrees. It's just that under the Qing dynasty, the farther one advanced, the narrower the road became. This is why China's modern university education "was directly copied from the European university system, rather than evolving from the ancient taixue system."
Tsai had also seen the superiority of the facilities for studying science in Britain, and recognized China's shortcomings. Therefore, he considered that "only if the newly rising generation can receive a new form of education can the ancient civilization experience rebirth."
Inevitably, Tsai's adoption of the Western model for reform met with opposition from conservatives. At that time, Lin Chin-nan-who called himself a "Qing court juren"-led the opposition to Tsai's reforms of Beida. He publicly issued a statement criticizing the university for "overturning the classics and burying ethical traditions," and for "eradicating the old books and using the vernacular for writing."
After a rebuttal from Tsai Yuan-pei, however, Lin admitted: "What I am seeking is the path of Confucius, and in word and writings Tsai shows respect for Confucius; what I am seeking is connected to ethical traditions, and in word and writing he does not disparage ethical traditions; that which I seek is to not abandon the ancient language, and in word and writing Tsai uses the classical language. I am satisfied, so I have nothing further to say."
From Beida to Taida
During the Republican era, the nation was continually in crisis. Before the government withdrew to Taiwan, Chiang Meng-lin, Fu Ssu-nien, and Hu Shih served in succession as presidents of Beida. Fu once summed up their efforts at Beida in an interesting way: "Chiang was not up to the level of Tsai Yuan-pei in terms of scholarship, but he was better at administration. I couldn't match Hu Shih in scholarship, but I was better than Mr. Hu at administration." Laughing, Fu criticized Tsai and Hu by saying, "Well, I admit I don't have anything flattering to say about their administrative ability."
Chiang, who was on the scene when Fu made these comments, said to Fu: "You are absolutely right. But that just means that they made great contributions, while we were just beasts of burden."
But this is too modest an appraisal, at least for Fu. Even if he was not one of the greatest leaders of Beida, he definitely served in that role for Taiwan's highest educational institution-National Taiwan University. Because Fu went from leading Beida to leading Taiwan University, "Taida" inherited the spirit of academic freedom and independent thinking of the May 4th movement.
Taida, which will soon celebrate its 70th anniversary, was originally called Taihoku Imperial University. It was established in 1928 by the Japanese governor-general, during the Japanese occupation period. Its purpose was to "bring into play the special characteristics of Japan and southeast Asia to study Taiwan's status and evolution." But this institution mainly existed to provide Japanese colonial administration with needed information and manpower. Before 1943, only 19 percent (161 people) of the graduates were Taiwanese, while the remainder were all Japanese.
After Japan's defeat ended World War II, Taiwan was returned to China. After the government of the Republic of China took control of Taiwan in 1945, they changed the institution's name to National Taiwan University.
Fu's campus clock tower
In two short years, from 1949 until the end of 1950, Fu's practical accomplishments included adding library resources and equipment and building dormitories for the greatly increased number of students (from a few hundred, the number had grown to 3000).
Although Taida was a so-called "national" university (i.e. under the direct jurisdiction of the national government), most of its funding came from the provincial government. However, the provincial government itself was often strapped for funds. Thus Fu often had to go to President Chiang Kai-shek to ask for money. Each time he went to see the president, he came back completely loaded down. No wonder Fu said: "Hu Shih was greater than me, but I was more capable than he."
With funding coming mainly from the provincial government, the president of Taida had to face questioning in the provincial assembly. At the end of 1950, after Fu finished responding to questions from provincial assemblymen about equipment that had been brought over by the Ministry of Education and deposited at Taida, and about increasing admissions to university, he died from a brain hemorrhage.
After the funeral, people wondered how best to commemorate this school president who had done so much for Taida. The result was a decision to bury Fu on campus. His grave was placed to the right of the school gate, in an area that has come to be called "Fu Yard." A commemorative pavilion in the style of a Greek temple was also constructed. Later, this was felt to be inadequate, and in the end, next to the tree-lined road in front of the general administration building, a clock tower was constructed, called the "Fu Clock." Although the clock tower is not large, its bell rings clearly and resonantly, and still sounds out the hours today. The Fu Yard and Fu Clock have become parts of the landscape at Taida, as well as spiritual symbols.
Uniting old knowledge and new
Tsai Yuan-pei once said of Hu Shih that Hu had "profound understanding of traditional knowledge" and also "deep comprehension of new learning." Tsai noted that Hu was able to use new methods to restructure traditional knowledge, and bring in new knowledge as well. The ideal way of reforming the university system would have been to build on ideas inherited from the past, but in the process of learning from the West, it was inevitable that there would be sharp breaks and conflicts with tradition.
Luo Chia-lun has noted, "Among the Beida students at that time, there were many who could not write classical Chinese or could not read it well who praised the new literature. At the same time, there were very few who were good at reading and writing classical Chinese who praised the new literature. But Fu was one of the latter variety."
The impact of Western education on China also arrived at that time through another channel-Christian institutions. Before 1921, China had only one national university, two provincial universities, and five private universities. But there were already 16 universities founded by Christian denominations. Many famous universities, including St. John's University in Shanghai, Huchiang University (also in Shanghai), Yenching University in Beijing and Soochow University were all sponsored by one or more Christian groups.
These Christian universities brought in the Western curriculum and teaching methods, which were widely absorbed by Chinese academic institutions.
The Western models adopted included classroom instruction with set times of attendance, the use of credits based on class hours per week, the use of textbooks and laboratories, and the systems of academic departments and academic years. All of these differed greatly from the traditional system of private academies in China. Also, women were allowed to go to classes, and sports and music were part of the curriculum. These patterns were adopted by all of the new schools in China.
These may appear to be minor matters today, but they touched upon every level of university functions. Take for example using weekly class hours to calculate academic credits. Students attended class for six days, with one day off. This was called "worship day." "This clearly bore the imprint of Christianity," says Kung Peng-cheng. Fixed class times were also something new for China. Because Western universities inherited church traditions, most campuses had chapels and clock towers, and most used the bells as class signals.
Educational independence
"The important thing about these church institutions is that they altered the concept of the school in China," says Kung. In the book Qingshi Gao (The History of the Qing dynasty), you can see that in old China students did not go to fixed classes. They gathered together only for ceremonies and examinations. In comparison to this format, Western schools emphasized formalized instruction. This was a completely novel point of view.
However, universities founded by churches and those that copied from them were different. The most obvious difference was in the extent to which religion played a part in education.
Because there were so few universities early on, Tsai Yuan-pei, who had served as Minister of Education, felt positive about churches founding universities. But at the same time, he saw that they had clear disadvantages. For example, they placed little emphasis on Chinese history or literature. Moreover, each church-sponsored school spread Christian doctrine. In 1922, Tsai issued his "declaration of educational independence." He criticized the church-sponsored schools for "using all kinds of underhanded methods to induce students to believe in their Christianity." He felt that the universities should be clearly separated from missionary activity.
Unexpectedly, the World Federation of Christian Students immediately held conferences at Tsinghua University entitled "How to Spread Christianity to Modern Students" and "The Christianization of Campus Life." This drew sharp criticism from students in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing. In 1926, the Ministry of Education codified the separation of education and religion, stating in regulations governing private universities: "Private universities are universally banned from making religious courses required, and missionary activity is not permitted in class."
Church schools, not religious education
Thus, it was not all smooth going for Western church-founded schools in China. Besides cultural clashes, they also faced pressure from rising nationalism. After the "Movement to Recover Control over Education," the government passed a law prohibiting missionary activities at Christian universities, and stipulated that school presidents could not be foreigners and that more than half of each school's board of directors had to be Chinese. Moreover, the curriculum had to follow standards set by the Ministry of Education, and schools had to register with the government.
After the mainland fell in 1949, the PRC went so far as to completely close Christian institutions of higher education, or to forcibly incorporate them into other universities. For example, Fujen Catholic University was changed into today's Beijing Teachers University, while Yenching University was merged with Beida.
Most church-run higher education moved to Taiwan, where the government did not so actively restrict it. Soochow and Fujen universities re-opened in Taiwan, while new Christian-affiliated universities including Tunghai, Chungyuan, and Providence opened. Several of these schools have been applauded for their achievements, and they have steadily become secularized. Thus the government has decided to eliminate all restrictions on religious groups running educational institutions. In the past few years, Buddhist educational institutions including Hua Fan University, Fokuang University, and Tsu Chi Buddhist Medical School have also opened.
However, opinion is still mixed on such schools. Last year, there was a giant controversy when many university students on a Buddhist-sponsored outing suddenly decided to take Buddhist orders over their parents' strong objections. Kung Peng-cheng, who is also president of Fokuang University, recalls that after that incident, when students came to register at his school, and some parents saw Buddhist monks doing volunteer work at the school, in a panic they wanted to bring their children back home. But in an era in which social values are confused, there are also those who hope that Buddhist-run centers of higher education can contribute to making people more moral in their thoughts and actions.
Based on the history of educational institutions run by Western churches, Kung argues that university secularization has been going on for hundreds of years, and that differentiating universities from theological seminaries and Buddhist academies is already established practice. What's important is that "religious groups can run universities, but the education should not be in itself religious."
The university myth
The development of modern Chinese universities has its roots in conflicts between new values and old, between Western values and Chinese. Indeed, looking back at the moral and intellectual confusion of the late 19th and early 20th century in China, it is still open to debate whether China was simply borrowing forms from the West, or was completely Westernizing.
In that time of controversy, "Tsai Yuan-pei could be said to have been the least controversial personality," says Ambrose King in the book Daxue de Linian (The Idea of the University). In his hands, Beida became a real university, a center for new culture and modern thinking in China. But Tsai did not belong only to Beida; he also belonged to a larger academic and cultural community.
There was a long and deep relationship between the American educational philosopher John Dewey and the Chinese educational community. He came to China twice to lecture, and said: "In looking at the presidents of universities from around the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Berlin, Harvard, Columbia, and others, many have made outstanding contributions in academics. However, in terms of using the position of university president to lead a university in transforming the nation and era, there is not another like Tsai Yuan-pei."
Over the past hundred years, students have still aspired to the standards of Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, carrying on the reform story that began with Tsai Yuan-pei. What is it that makes students admire them? Is it their idyllic campuses, the thoughts of their great philosophers, or the intellectual stimulation they provide?
Some people say that universities need a mythical aura which exerts a force on the culture, which rekindles our real passion for life. Academics have been continually debating the impact of the university on Western and Chinese culture. But probably few people would deny that the university is the most beautiful of the cultural legacies left to us by the past.
[Picture Caption]
Beijing University, China's first modern university, was born in 1898. Since then, "Beida" has been through much turbulence. (photo by Huang Tze-ming)
Mountain greenery, a shimmering lake--Beida's current location at Weiming Lake is the old site of Yenching University.
Beida is a product of massive historical shifts. Tsai Yuan-pei, Chiang Meng-lin, and Hu Shih were all key figures in building the school's spirit of "democracy and freedom."
The photo shows the famous "Red Building." After the Communist Party took power in 1949, Beida was moved to its current location at Weiming Lake, and the Red Building was converted to other uses.
Fu Ssu-nien was an outstanding student at Beida. While still a youth he ran a magazine and wrote articles in support of Hu Shih's literary revolution. A former president at Beida, he transplanted the seeds of the May 4th Movement to Taiwan University.
Taihoku Imperial University, founded in 1928 during the Japanese occupation era, became National Taiwan University in 1945. The photo shows the quiet look of the palm-tree lined road back then. (courtesy of NTU Library)
In the Japanese era, the university included (from left to right) science and liberal arts departments, located next to the palm-lined road, and a medical school, located in the city center. (courtesy of NTU Library)
Tsing Hua University, founded in Beijing, always rivalled Beida in academic standards. After the Communist takeover in 1949, the school was re-founded in Taiwan, where the campus gate is modelled on the original. (Sinorama file photo)
The clock tower commemorating Fu Ssu-nien still rings out the class hours, just as the university ideal is continually passed to each succeeding generation. (courtesy of NTU Library)
The photo shows the famous "Red Building." After the Communist Party took power in 1949, Beida was moved to its current location at Weiming Lake, and the Red Building was converted to other uses.
Fu Ssu-nien was an outstanding student at Beida. While still a youth he ran a magazine and wrote articles in support of Hu Shih's literary revolution. A former president at Beida, he transplanted the seeds of the May 4th Movement to Taiwan University.
Taihoku Imperial University, founded in 1928 during the Japanese occupation era, became National Taiwan University in 1945. The photo shows the quiet look of the palm-tree lined road back then. （courtesy of NTU Library）
In the Japanese era, the university included （from left to right） science and liberal arts departments, located next to the palm-lined road, and a medical school, located in the city center. （courtesy of NTU Library）
In the Japanese era, the university included （from left to right） science and liberal arts departments, located next to the palm-lined road, and a medical school, located in the city center. （courtesy of NTU Library）
Tsing Hua University, founded in Beijing, always rivalled Beida in academic standards. After the Communist takeover in 1949, the school was re-founded in Taiwan, where the campus gate is modelled on the original. （Sinorama file photo）
The clock tower commemorating Fu Ssu-nien still rings out the class hours, just as the university ideal is continually passed to each succeeding generation. （courtesy of NTU Library）
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