The Hall of Three Pines: An Account of My Life

Chapter Eight. Beijing University

313 Before the Ten Years of Chaos, Beijing University president Lu Ping advanced his program for running Beijing University: “To carry on the heritage of the Grand Academy, to learn from the Soviet Union,and to draw on the knowledge of England and America.”After the outset of the Great Chaos, his program was criticized, and it was taken as one of his crimes. I, too, had said that the history of Beijing University should begin with the Grand Academy of the Han dynasty, but the criticism was not leveled at me. I said that the history of Beijing University should begin with the Grand Academy because it did not seem to fit with China’s status as an ancient seat of civilization that Beijing University’s history dated back only a few dozen years, while the famous Western universities had histories hundreds of years long. Now it is usual to speak of the history of Beijing University as commencing with the late-Qing Capital Higher Academy, a product of the reforms of 1895. After seizing power the Empress Dowager discarded all the new governmental measures that Emperor Guangxu had initiated during his reign. Only the Capital Higher Academy continued to exist. You could say that it was a memorial to the reforms of 1895.When I was with my father in Chongyang, I saw in my father’s seal room the recently issued charter of the Capital Higher Academy. It was printed in several c h a p t e r e i g h t b e i j i n g u n i v e r s i t y volumes with woodblocks and red ink. I did not understand it, but I remember that in the list of academic sections there was one called the Classics Section, for each classic was a “door,” or course, of study, such as the Book of History Course or the Mao Commentary to the Odes Course. Besides the various sections there was the College of Accomplished Scholars, which was probably analogous to a research institute at a Western university. The rank of the Capital Higher Academy was very high in the Qing dynasty, and it was administered by a court-appointed grand councilor of education.The grand councilor of education was, in effect, the president of the Capital Higher Academy. A succession of grand councilors served in the post, but the one whom students were still talking about when I entered Beijing University was Zhang Baixi. It would be fair to say that he was the president who contributed most to Beijing University before Cai Yuanpei. People tell of how, after he was made grand councilor of education, he invited Wu Rulun to serve as superintendent of pedagogy. Instructors in the new-style schools of the time were called“pedagogues,” and the superintendent was the leader of the pedagogues. I do not know what duties were specified for this position, but I do not think it was comparable to what later universities called “the dean of studies.”The job of a dean of studies is to handle the administration of teaching, whereas the job of a superintendent of pedagogy was to take charge of academic matters. In today’s terms, he might have been a vice president responsible for academics and research, or a vice president in charge of teaching. Wu Rulun was a famous scholar of the Tongcheng school1 of classical studies; he was thought of as an authority on “the old learning.” But he also understood a little of what was called “the new learning.” Several of the books translated byYan Fu had prefaces written by Wu Rulun.At the time he was thought to be a man whose knowledge encompassed old and new, East and West.As a local official in Zhili (now Hebei Province), he had set up a few new-style schools. By asking him to serve as superintendent of pedagogy, Zhang was making clear his educational policy. It is said that after Zhang became grand councilor,he personally went toWu Rulun’s house and asked him to come out, but Wu Rulun would not see him. One day Zhang went there early in the morning, wearing his grand councilor’s robe, and stood outside the door of Wu Rulun’s sleeping 314 : universities chamber (some say that he knelt outside the house) until Wu Rulun would see him.Wu...