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A closer look at the history of Sun Yat-sen University may reflect China's arduous exploration in the field of education in modern times than that of Tsinghua university and Peking University.
Speaking of Sun Yat-sen University, the average person's impression is probably limited to the famous 985 university located in Guangzhou today. A little knowledge of its history is also known to have been founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen himself as the "National Guangdong University", which was later changed to its current name in honor of Sun Yat-sen. Those who care about its development must be familiar with its beautiful scenery and elegant architecture, and have been rated as "the most beautiful university in China" for many times. As for the students of Guangdong University, they are concerned about the strength and reputation of their "985" and "double first-class", and many people silently take it as the goal of study.
The gate of Zhongshan University
However, many people do not know that this Sun Yat-sen University is not the only "Sun Yat-sen University" in history, it has many differences from the school founded by Sun Yat-sen. From the "Gezhi Academy" in 1888 to today's "Sun Yat-sen University", the development of more than a hundred years in between appropriately reflects all aspects of China's higher education in modern times. A closer look at the history of Sun Yat-sen University may reflect China's arduous exploration in the field of education in modern times than that of Tsinghua university and Peking University.
01
From Gezhi College to National Guangdong University
From the missionary work of foreign missionaries to the educational exploration of revolutionary pioneers
Formal higher education in China began in 1898 with the 1898 Reform Law, which created the Beijing Normal University Hall, the predecessor of today's Peking University and the first real university in China. However, before the Beijing Normal University Hall, there were already many institutions similar to universities on the land of China, most of which were named "Xuetang", and many of them were the predecessors of today's universities. Such schools are mainly divided into three categories: government offices, private offices and foreign offices.
The new government-run school was a product of the Western affairs movement. At the beginning of Xianfeng's reign, Zeng Guofan, a later foreign minister, proposed in a compromise of "Ying Zhao Chen Yan Shu" that "Chinese and foreign countries should be used to practice their talents", and put forward the three methods of "transferring, cultivating, and inspecting" as the standard for cultivating new-style talents. During the Western Affairs Movement, Li Hongzhang personally founded the "Beiyang Western Studies School", which is the predecessor of today's Tianjin University; the Jingshi Tongwenguan of Yi Bi, the Fuzhou Ship Administration School founded by Zuo Zongtang, and the Military Medical Hall founded by Li Hongzhang are the earliest junior colleges in related fields in China. As for the private schools, because at that time, the "first to gain the atmosphere" was mainly officials of the ruling class, so these schools were called "private", in fact, most of them were founded by officials and gentry, but they did not fall under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, among which the representatives were Nanyang Public School founded by Sheng Xuanhuai (the predecessor of Jiaotong University) and zhang Zhidong founded the Self-Improvement School (later evolved into Wuhan University).
Old statue of Nanyang College
The new style of "foreign-run" schools is a unique scene in modern China. After the Opium War, the Western powers seized many rights and interests in China, one of which was the right to preach. At the same time as invading China, a large number of Western missionaries and church members entered China and began to open schools and promote Western-style education in China. Regardless of its purpose, it has indeed made great contributions to the development of modern Education in China, such as the Shanxi University Hall founded by the British missionary Timothy Lee, the Yenching University founded by the Anglo-American Christian Federation, and the Fu Jen University founded by the Holy See, all of which are famous schools in modern China.
Gezhi College, one of the predecessors of Sun Yat-sen University, is also the physical evidence and representative of this history. Founded in Guangzhou in 1888 by the American Presbyterian missionary Haba Ender, the college was a well-known foreign-run private church school in the 19th century. In 1907, Gezhi College was changed to the private Lingnan University, and since then, the school site has changed several times, successively in Guangzhou, Macao, and Recreation, and then moved to Hong Kong in 1937 due to the war, and then moved back to Recreation in 1945. In 1952, Lingnan University merged with Sun Yat-sen University to become part of today's CUHK.
Another tributary of Sun Yat-sen University is the National Guangdong University, founded by Sun Yat-sen, the pioneer of the Xinhai Revolution. After the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, China's education got rid of the situation dominated by the government and priests in the late Qing Dynasty, and progressives, mainly revolutionaries and intellectuals, began a unique exploration in the field of education, including Sun Yat-sen, the pioneer of the Xinhai Revolution. After the failure of the Second Revolution and the Dharma Protection Movement, Sun Yat-sen realized the importance of cultivating revolutionary talents and personally founded two schools, one is the Whampoa Military Academy with "Shangwu" and the other is the National Guangdong University with "Shangwen".
Bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen at Sun Yat-sen University
In 1924, Sun Yat-sen entrusted Zou Lu to take over the Agricultural College and the Law University in Guangzhou, on the basis of which to integrate and prepare Guangdong University; in June of that year, Guangdong University was officially established, and Sun Yat-sen entrusted Hu Hanmin to read out the precepts he personally drafted: "Learn from the sea and the ocean, Yu Ren is a saint, and after graduating from university, this is the beginning." The foundation is solid, the industry is established, the peak is reached, and the ambition is achieved. For the sake of social welfare, for the glory of the state, for the sake of the monarchs, and strive for self-improvement," which complements Sun Yat-sen's exhortation at the Whampoa Military Academy to "build the Republic of China, advance to Datong, consult with the people, and serve as a forward for the people," and represents the expectations of Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries for future generations. In 1926, in order to commemorate the late Sun Yat-sen, National Guangdong University was renamed National Sun Yat-sen University, and "Sun Yat-sen University" was officially established. At this time, Lingnan University, which was also in Guangzhou, also inherited this name after the adjustment of national faculties and departments in 1952.
It can be said that Sun Yat-sen University in the fetal period was jointly conceived by foreigners in the late Qing Dynasty and revolutionary pioneers in the early Republic of China, and these two are also the source of modern Chinese higher education.
02
Sun Yat-sen University blooming everywhere:
The Republic of China's "university district system" educational attempts
In 1927, after the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing, Cai Yuanpei, the former president of Peking University, was entrusted to lead the educational reform. Cai Yuanpei, who has studied and inspected France many times, is fascinated by the French education system, believing that "China and France have a special relationship among European countries." "The freedom of thought of legal persons is in the world, there is no worship of bureaucrats, especially the traces of superstitious religion, not red tape, the most aesthetic sense, thrifty and good at accumulating, and the same as me." The French education system is a government monopoly, the state ontology, and at the same time retains an independent and free learning style, which coincides with the atmosphere of the educational circles in the early Republic of China and Cai Yuanpei's personal philosophy.
Statue of Cai Yuanpei
Therefore, at the 105th political meeting of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee in June 1927, Cai Yuanpei proposed to implement the university district system modeled on France, the core of which was to establish Sun Yat-sen University in each school district directly managed by the graduate school, replacing the original Ministry of Education and the Department of Education as an institution integrating education and administration. To this end, Cai Yuanpei personally drafted the organizational outline of the graduate school, proposing: "The University college of the Republic of China, as the highest academic education institution in the country, undertakes the order of the National Government to manage the academic and educational administrative affairs of the whole country; the committee is composed of five to seven domestic specialized scholars selected by the president of Sun Yat-sen University in each school district, the director of the education administrative office of the academy, and the dean of the college, with the dean as the chairman; in addition, there is also a secretariat, an educational administrative office, a central research institute, and a proposed labor university, library, museum, art museum, Observatories and other national academic institutions. ”
Cai Yuanpei inspected the photo in France
This proposal was passed, and Cai Yuanpei was immediately appointed as the dean of the graduate school, and sun yat-sen university was established in various places in accordance with the charter, and sun yat-sen university, which was originally in Guangzhou, was changed to "National First Sun Yat-sen University". In the next two years, "Sun Yat-sen University" can be said to have blossomed all over the country: in December 1926, the National Wuchang University and the Provincial Liberal Arts University in Hubei University were merged into the "Second National Sun Yat-sen University"; in July 1927, Jiangsu was established as the fourth school district, and nine schools in the province, such as Southeast University and Hehai University of Technology, merged to form the "National Fourth Sun Yat-sen University"; in August, the Zhejiang Public Industrial College and Agricultural College in the Zhejiang School District were merged into the "National Third Sun Yat-sen University"; in 1928, Zhongzhou University (formerly Henan Preparatory School for Studying in the United States, now Henan University) was renamed "National Fifth Sun Yat-sen University".
However, in less than two years, Cai Yuanpei's plan has not yet been fully implemented, and the "Sun Yat-sen University" that has blossomed everywhere has not yet had time to bear fruit, and the huge educational reform of the "university district system" has died in the opposition of the grassroots. In June 1928, a number of middle schools in the Central University District jointly protested because the university district system favored university education, resulting in unfair distribution of funds; at the same time, in the planning process of Hebei University District, Peking University was assigned to Peking University (the "Sixth Sun Yat-sen University in preparation"), which caused dissatisfaction among Peking University students, which led to a wave of students in Peking Universities. In addition, at the top level of the Kuomintang, through a joint proposal by Heng Yi and others to restore the Ministry of Education, he put forward five drawbacks of the university district system: (1) the official system is not unified; (2) the spirit of the graduate school system is to concentrate talents, the degree is increased, but it is not in line with the purpose of universal education; (3) academic and education are two things, universities are not education, and educational administrative organs are not exclusively in charge of academics; (4) the university system is a trial, according to the results of the current experiments, it can be said that it focuses on focusing on academics and ignoring education; (5) primary schools relocate universities, and the national economic capacity is insufficient. The foundation of primary and secondary education has failed, which is contrary to the purpose of the child's standard.
In October 1928, the Nationalist government had to order the abolition of the graduate school and the establishment of the Ministry of Education, and in July 1929, it decided to stop the reform of the university district system, and the "university district system" that lasted less than three years failed, and all the "Sun Yat-sen University" were restored to their original schools. Although this attempt soon failed, it was also of positive significance for reforming the bureaucratic habits of educational institutions and for the independence of education.
03
Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow:
Historical testimony of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party
In addition to The Sun Yat-sen University in China, in Moscow, more than 7,000 kilometers away from Guangzhou, in 1925, nearly a hundred years ago, a school named after Sun Yat-sen was also quietly built, which was called "Sun Yat-sen University of Chinese Laborers", referred to as Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. It is not only the crystallization of the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, but also a witness to sino-Soviet friendship, and has also trained a number of figures who have influenced Chinese history, such as Deng Xiaoping, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Wang Ming, and can be called the foreign school with the deepest influence on China.
Site of Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow
Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow is a historical witness to the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. In 1924, Sun Yat-sen established the policy of "uniting with Russia, the Communist Party, and supporting peasants and workers", all Communists joined the Kuomintang in private names, the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began, and the Soviet Union began to assist the Chinese revolution with guns and funds. After the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925, in order to commemorate Sun Yat-sen and also to help China train revolutionary cadres, at the suggestion of soviet adviser Borodin, the Soviet leadership group decided to create a school in Moscow to train Chinese youth with communist theory. In November 1925, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party openly selected students in Guangzhou, Shanghai and other areas, and the examination question was only one essay: "What is the National Revolution". In addition, the academic system of MOSCOW University is only two years, and it is not divided into departments, which shows that it has a strong purpose from the beginning.
However, due to the changeable domestic and international situation, Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow was also doomed in a limited time, and only two students were selected through the examination in 1925 and 1926. After the "April 12" coup d'état in 1926, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China broke down, the Kuomintang stopped sending students to the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Communist Party could no longer openly recruit students due to its turn underground, and only sent a group of Communists and Communist Youth League members to Russia. After 1927, the Moscow University was in short supply, coupled with the influence of the Soviet Union's domestic purge of Trotskyists, and finally announced its suspension in 1930, which lasted for less than five years.
However, despite this, CUHK moscow still carries the historical memory of the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and witnesses the unique field of education in China's "revolutionary education", which is both a spectator and a personal participant in China's history.
04
New China:
Faculty adjustment
After the founding of New China, the educational circles have mainly experienced two major changes, one is the adjustment of faculties and departments in the early 50s, and the other is the reconstruction and merger since the reform and opening up. Among them, the adjustment of faculties and departments is the result of learning from the Soviet Union, which was originally to meet the rapid requirements of the industrial construction of new China, and the main purpose is twofold: one is to transform and abolish private universities and church universities, so that the old Lingnan University was abolished and merged into CUHK and became a part of today's CUHK; the second is to enhance the specialization of universities and replace comprehensive universities with specialized schools. This process has had an immeasurable impact on many schools, including Nanjing University, Jiaotong University and other schools that still have vitality after adjustment, as well as universities such as Henan University that have collapsed after the split. In this process, the original medical school of Sun Yat-sen University was dismantled into South China Medical College, and the departments of finance, economics, political science and law, and language were adjusted to Peking University, and the remaining departments merged with Lingnan University to become the main body of Sun Yat-sen University today. In 1981, Sun Yat-sen University became one of the first units with the right to award doctoral and master's degrees; in 1985, the Sun Yat-sen Medical College, which was originally demolished from Sun Yat-sen University, was changed to Sun Yat-sen Medical University; in 1988, Lingnan University, which was originally merged into Sun Yat-sen, was upgraded to "Lingnan (University) College".
Former site of Lingnan University
Looking at Chinese education since modern times, whether it is the dispute over the school system in the late Qing Dynasty, the dispute over the relationship between politics and religion in the Republic of China, or the dispute between cultivating professionals and cultivating generalists after the founding of the People's Republic of China, in essence, it is a dispute between learning from advanced foreign experience and retaining local characteristics. Facts have proved that only by taking the road in line with China's reality on the basis of extensive study can We promote the vitality of Chinese education in the new era. The history of Sun Yat-sen University also proves this. Under the new historical conditions, the reform of higher education is still in progress, and we should seriously face the issues of how to run schools, administer schools, and educate people, as well as what people to train, how to train people, and for whom to train people.
Reference Articles:
Yang Ou, "The Establishment of the Western Affairs School at the End of the Qing Dynasty"
Huang Yixiang, National Sun Yat-sen University in the Republic of China
Zhou Guping, "Cai Yuanpei and the Transplantation of the French Education Management Model and Its Enlightenment"
Zheng Lu, "Adjustment and Reflection of Colleges and Universities in the Early Period of the Founding of the People's Republic of China"
Yin Deling, "The Rise and Fall of Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow"
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(This article only represents the views of the author and does not represent the position of this number)