Nanjing University
Nanjing University (南京大学, 南京大學, pinyin: Nánjīng Dàxué; colloquially 南大, Pinyin Nándà) is one of the world's oldest institutions of higher learning and became the first Chinese modern university in the early 1920s. It can be considered as the cradle of modern science in China. As a member of the C9 League, it is a prestigious university with deep traditions and one of the best universities in China.
History
Beginnings
Nanjing, situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze, has historically been the capital of various kingdoms and dynasties, with a reputation as the center of education. In the year 258 AD. C., the Kingdom of Wu under the reign of Emperor Jing of Wu, founded a Confucian learning institute for the purpose of learning the Six Arts. In the first year of Jianwu's reign (317), the Taihsueh (太學) campus was built in present-day Fuzimiao (夫子廟) area on the banks of the Qinhuai River, and Nanjing Imperial University began recruiting students from common families instead of just noble families. Like his predecessor Chengjun (成均) and his successor Shang Hsiang (上庠) founded by Yu (禹, XXI BCE) at Chungyuan, the earliest recorded imperial institutions of higher learning and their successors, was the central university of the Kingdom, to which after the Han dynasty excellent students from local schools could be selected for further training.
In 470 AD, during the Old Song Dynasty, Central Imperial University (Zongmingguan) became a comprehensive institution combining higher education and research, with five divisions: Literature, History, Confucian Study, Xuan Study, and I study Yin Yang. The campus of the School of Literature and the School of History were located in the current Gulou campus of Nanjing University, to the west of the Gulou. (鼓樓) mountain, and the campus was moved to the current Chaotian Palace (朝天宮) at the time when Wang Jian (王儉) was president of the university and the areas of study were reduced, focusing a lot on the Confucian classics. At the time, the faculty members included scholars and scientists such as Zu Chongzhi (祖沖之), Ge Hong (葛洪), Wang Xizhi (王羲之), and among his students were such figures as Xiao Daocheng, Emperor Gao of Southern Qi who studied at the School of Confucian Studies, and Zhong Rong, a founding scholar of poetics who graduated from the literature division. After the fall of the Chen dynasty, the school was closed and later replaced by the Nanjing Academy (or Jiangzhou Academy, Jiangzhou Zhouxue) in the Sui dynasty.
In 937, when the campus of the imperial national university was again in the Fuzimiao area, Li Shandao, a scholar at the university, established another national school Lushan National Academy on the outskirts of the capital Nanjing called Bailudong Shuyuan (White Deer Grotto Academy), a famous academy that hosted many renowned scholars such as Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan, and Wang Yangming.
In 1382 the Imperial University (國子監 Kuotzuchien or Guozijian) moved the campus from the Fuzimiao area of Nanjing to southern Qintian Mountain (欽天山) and Xuanwu Lake (the area surrounding the Nanjing University campus before 1952. In 1952, Nanjing University moved to Gulou, and its engineering school splintered and formed several independent colleges, including the Nanjing Institute of Technology, which at its peak spanned 10 Li and had nearly 10,000 students, and in In the surrounding area there were institutes such as the Qintian Jian (Imperial Institute of Astronomy) and the Taiyi Yuan (Imperial Medical Institute).In 1403 the Peking Guozijian (Beijing Guozijian, Imperial University of Peking) was established.Nanking Imperial University (南京國子監) is developed It developed and flourished at the time, and consisted of six schools: three basic-level colleges (Chengyi, ChongChih, Guangye), two middle-level (Hsiudao, Chenghsin) and one advanced-level (Shuaihsing), totaling 4 years to complete. according to the system, one and a half years for the first two levels and one year for the last one, to achieve 8 credit points per year and then upon graduation the Chushen (qualification, diploma) would be awarded, with subjects including Confucian classics, history, literature, mathematics, law, calligraphy, horse riding and archery, etc. The Yongle Encyclopedia was completed at Nanking Imperial University in 1408 after five years of compilation, 9,169 selected scholars from all over the country took part in it, of whom 2,180 were student scholars of the university. The Nanking Imperial University Press had been a publishing center for several hundred years. Wu Cheng'en, Tang Hsiantzu, and Zheng Chenggong studied there during the Ming Dynasty.
Each time Nanjing became a non-capital city, Nanjing Imperial University became the Nanjing Regional Academy. Nanjing Imperial University was changed to Nanjing Academy (江寧府學, Jiangning Fuxue) in 1650, after the The Qing dynasty replaced the Ming dynasty, and in 1865, after the Taiping Rebellion, the academy was transferred to the Chaotian Palace. The history of the old school was recognized during the ROC. In 1954, the CPC-controlled school authority decided to set the beginning year for establishing the new-type modern school Sanjiang Normal College as the new founding year of the school.
Late Qing and Republic of China
In 1902, Sanjiang Normal College (三江師範學堂) under the new educational system, taking modern Japanese higher learning institutions, was beginning to be established to replace the traditional Chinese school Nanjing Academy, and opened the following year, with the campus built south of Qintian Mountain. The name was changed to Liangjiang Normal College (兩江師範學堂) in 1906, and the new president Li Ruiqing (李瑞清) established the first modern art college in China.
In 1915, after the Republic of China replaced the Qing dynasty, the Nanjing Higher Normal School (南京高等師範) was founded 學校) to replace the Liangjiang Higher Normal School, which was closed three years earlier due to the Xinhai Revolution, Jiang Qian. (江謙) was appointed president. The school established China's first modern gymnastics (physical education) college in 1916. In 1920 the school consisted of five faculties: Liberal Arts, Agriculture, Engineering, Commerce and Education.
The "Scientific Society of China" (中國科學社), a major scientific organization in modern Chinese history, founded its headquarters at the school in 1918. Its members established the "Academia Sinica" (中央研究院) which later moved to Taiwan and became known as the "Chinese Academy of Sciences" (中國科學院) in mainland China. Many Chinese pioneers of modern science, most of whom studied in America and some European countries such as Britain, France and Germany, converged there to found many fields of science in China. It became the Chinese cradle of modern science. Among the 81 academics of the "Academia Sinica" first elected in 1948, five entered or graduated from the university in 1920. More than half of the leading Chinese scientists whose work was published in scientific journals in the early period of modern Chinese science were graduates or scholars of the University from Nanking.
Kuo Ping-wen (Guo Bingwen, 郭秉文), an influential president of the university, was appointed in 1919 after Jiang Qian. The school assembly passed the Audit Law for Female Students (《規定女子旁聽法案》 on December 7, 1919, as a result of the efforts of the pedagogue T'ao Hsing-chih.(Tao Xingzhi, 陶行知), as well as Chairman Guo Bingwen, and teachers including Liu Boming (劉伯明), Luh Chih -wei (Lu Zhiwei, 陸志偉), Yang Hsingfo (Yang Xingfo, 楊杏佛), etc., and then decided to formally recruit the female students. The school became the first higher learning institution in China to recruit co-ed students. In the first year, 1920, enrolled eight female students and, in addition, more than 50 students were admitted face-to-face
In 1921, the National Southeastern University (國立東南大學) was founded, and in 1923 the College was merged into it. Nanking Superior Normal. In the fall of 1921, the College of Business established in 1917 moved to Shanghai to establish the first degree-conferring business school in China. The university then consisted of five faculties (or schools): Liberal Arts (which included the Departments of Chinese Literature, Foreign Literature, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geoscience, and the Department of Politics, Law, and Economics).), Education, Agriculture, Engineering, and Commerce (or Business, which included the departments of general commerce, business administration, accounting, finance, economics, international trade, etc.), and shortly thereafter the College of Liberal Arts divided to be College of Humanities and College of Sciences. China's first modern scientific research laboratories and groups were established at the university. It integrated teaching and research, with the status of university independence and academic freedom, and was regarded as the first modern Chinese university. The university, along with its affiliated elementary and middle school, served as a pioneer and model that laid the foundation for the establishment of the modern education system (壬戌 學制, Renhsü Hsüehchih, 1922) in China, and also his experimental kindergarten (Gulou Kindergarten), founded in 1923, was also later adopted as a model for Chinese kindergartens (Kindergarten Courses Standards by Ministry of Education, 1932), including his teaching system, didactic materials, teaching methods and teaching tools. In October 1921, the "Hsuehheng Society" (or Xueheng Society, 學衡社), which was the center of the "Hsuehheng School", which included scholars Liu Yizheng (柳詒徵), Liu Boming (劉伯明), Mei Guangdi (梅光迪), Wu Mi (吳宓) and Hu Hsien-Hsu (Hu Xiansu, 胡先驌). They reinvigorated Confucian culture and humanism and published the "Critical Magazine" (Xueheng, 學衡 in Chinese) in January 1922. This allowed Nanjing University to become a center of Confucian thought and humanistic scholarship. During this period, Nanjing University was known as the leading "Centre of Oriental Education" and recognized as a center of academic and cultural exchange for East and West. Many scholars visited and instructed there, including the American pedagogue Paul Monroe, W. H. Kilpatrick, E. L. Thorndike, the philosopher John Dewey, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, the German philosopher Hans Driesch, and the Indian (also Bengalai) poet Rabindranath Tagore.
The university became the national capital university after Nanjing became the capital by the Nationalist Government, initially renamed Dyisyi Chungshan National University (or renamed Nanjing Chungshan National University) in June 1927 when the National Southeast University merged eight public schools in Jiangsu Province, and was renamed Jiangsu University in February 1928, and in May 1928 it was renamed National Central University (國立中央大學). At that time there were eight colleges (or schools): Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Education, Commerce, Agriculture, and Medicine. The College of Commerce was moved to Shanghai in 1921 and the College of Medicine established in Shanghai in 1927 was spun off from the university in 1932. In 1935 the College of Medicine was re-established in Nanjing. During the Anti-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945, the university was moved to Chongqing, while the College of Medicine and the Department of Livestock and Veterinary Medicine of the College of Agriculture were moved to Chengdu. The Chinese Association of Natural Sciences (中華自然科學社) originated at the university in 1927 and adopted the name the following year, being the second most important scientific organization in China in 1949, after the Scientific Society of China. The China Association of Scientific Workers (中國科學工作者協會) was founded at the university in 1944. The China Scientific Society and the associations merged to be the China Science and Technology Association. (中國科學技術協會) in 1958 in Beijing. The Natural Science Forum was started by university faculties in 1939, which was later renamed the Jiusan Forum (September 3 Forum) and became the Jiusan Society in 1945, an organization for intellectual groups in China. In the united university entrance exams from 1937, about two-thirds of the students chose it as their first option. It became the first Chinese university to enroll a blind college student, enrolling Luo Fuxin (羅福鑫) in 1942.
People's Republic of China
In 1949, during the late Chinese Civil War, the ROC central government withdrew from Nanjing and the National Central University was renamed Nanjing National University (Nanjing National University, 國立南京大學) after Nanjing was controlled by the CCP army, before the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In 1952, many colleges and departments, primarily the colleges of education (or teacher training, normal, including departments of art and physical education), engineering, agriculture, and medicine, were spun off from Nanjing University, and many new independent schools were formed., such as Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing Institute of Technology, which was located on the former site of Nanjing University and was later renamed Southeast University, etc. The split schools and departments of Nanjing University formed as independent schools in 1952 include present-day Nanjing Normal University, Southeastern University, Hohai University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Forestry University, etc., and among schools that share the source and were established independently after that time include the Fourth Military Medical University, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Technology, Jiangsu University, University of Jiangnan, Changzhou University, etc..</ref> At the same time, Nanjing University (金陵大學), a private university established in 1888 and sponsored by American churches, merged with Nanjing University (南京大學), which lost its "national" in 1950 to reflect the reality that all PRC universities would be public, and Nanjing University moved its campus to the site of Nanjing University, which lay west of Gulou Mountain and was also once the seat of Nanjing Imperial University in ancient times. A separate National Central University was reinstated in Taiwan by its former alumni association in 1962.
During the period of communist society, including the period of the Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the school suffered a lot. In 1976, Nanjing University faculty members and students launched the Anti-Cultural Revolution Force Movement Force Movement which was called the "Nanjing Incident" by the authorities of the time, spreading throughout the country. In 1978, Hu Fuming, a member of the Philosophy Faculty of Nanjing University, wrote the landmark article "Practice Is the Only Criterion for Proving Truth", and after it was published it gave rise to the & #34;Debate on the rules for judging the truth" at the national level, and thus to some degree liberated thought and promoted the end of the Cultural Revolution and the arrival of the era of reform.
After the Reformation and the new development
Many colleges have been re-established or re-founded since the Reform after 1978, for example, Law was re-established in 1981, medical college in 1987, environment department re-founded in 1984. Some departments were divided into two or more departments, for example, the department of Chinese language and literature was divided into departments of language and linguistics, literature, philology, and drama, or some new faculties emerged from older faculties, for example, computer science arose from mathematics, urban planning arose from geography, in many cases they were formed integratively, that is, they were formed from parts of two or more faculties, for example, parts of the faculties of physics and chemistry formed from integrative form the faculty of materials. Around 1990, the university was made up of schools (faculties) of Humanities, Sciences, Technological Sciences, Medicine, Business, etc. Subsequently, many departments became schools, for example, mathematics, physics and chemistry, or were grouped into new schools, for example, architecture and urbanism. The size of the university expanded significantly over the years.
In 2009, the Xianlin campus opened its doors to university students, replacing the Pukou campus, which had been in use since 1993, and the Pukou campus became the campus of NJU Jinling College, a private university independent led by the NJU. The Xianlin campus is now a main campus along with the Gulou campus.
International exchanges
- Several honorary doctors from Nanking University:
- François Mitterrand, President of France
- George H. W. Bush, President of the United States (also contributed to the establishment of the Center for Chinese and American Studies - collectively administered by Johns Hopkins University and Nanking University)
- Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia
- Boutros Boutros Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations
- Johannes Rau, President of Germany (also contributed to the development of the German-Chino Institute for Legal Studies - collectively operated by the University of Göttingen and the University of Nanking)