Sun Yat-sen University: Bridging Tradition and Modernity

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’ll talk about Sun Yat-sen University, which stands as a testament to the seamless integration of traditional Chinese values and modern educational reforms, shaping the intellectual landscape of China through its commitment to academic excellence and cultural innovation.

Transcript

Sun Yat-sen University: Bridging Tradition and Modernity 

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’ll talk about Sun Yat-sen University, which stands as a testament to the seamless integration of traditional Chinese values and modern educational reforms, shaping the intellectual landscape of China through its commitment to academic excellence and cultural innovation.

Few centenary universities are like Sun Yat-sen University, where the campus retains such well-preserved architecture. The neat red bricks and green tiles, the Western-style arches and large Chinese-style roofs, and the vibrant, colorful glass floral windows in the sunlight evoke the charm of Lingnan culture. These buildings, blending both Chinese and Western styles, are scattered along both sides of the central axis of Kangle Garden, which is located on the South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou in south China’s Guandong Province.

Entering from the South Gate and strolling along the central axis to the north, one soon encounters a bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen. He faces north, extending his right hand forward. His fingertips reach toward the north, symbolizing his ambition for the “Northern Expedition,” while also pointing directly toward the flowing Pearl River. More than a century ago, the “Western winds” arrived at the port of Guangzhou, bringing with them the spark of revolution. In 1924, the National Guangdong University, founded by Sun Yat-sen, was born here – this is the predecessor of Sun Yat-sen University.

For a hundred years, this time-honored institution has passed down Sun Yat-sen’s spirit, integrating into China’s development and transformation through the university. At the same time, it has been nurtured by the pragmatic and inclusive Lingnan culture of Guangzhou, a city known for “leading the way in new ideas.”

In January 1924, the Nationalist Party held its first national congress. During the congress, Nationalist Premier Sun Yat-sen made an important decision: to establish two schools – one for military training and one for academic purposes. The military one would be the famous Whampoa Military Academy, and the academic one would be National Guangdong University.

This revolutionary leader recognized that for the revolution to succeed, it could no longer rely on local warlords, overseas Chinese, or other external forces. It was necessary to cultivate a revolutionary army and theoretical talent from within. Professor Cao Tianzhong from the Department of History at Sun Yat-sen University told The Context: “This can be said to be the most significant revolutionary shift in Sun Yat-sen’s later years.”

On February 4, 1924, Sun Yat-sen, in his capacity as Grand Marshal of the Navy and Army, issued the order: “Merge the National Higher Normal School, Guangdong Law School, and Guangdong Agricultural Specialization School into one institution, to be named National Guangdong University.” 

Sun Yat-sen’s old ally Zou Lu was appointed the first president. In November of the same year, Sun Yat-sen, already in poor health, headed north. During the last four months of his life, there were 13 decrees issued related to National Guangdong University, covering everything from funding and dormitories to student drills, reflecting his meticulous attention to detail.

Sun Yat-sen initially envisioned a lofty goal for this university: “It should be the highest institution of learning in the country.” At its founding, the university established four faculties – literature, science, law, and agriculture – and a year later, it added a medical faculty. At that time, Peking University only had three faculties: literature, science, and law. In 1934, with the addition of the engineering faculty, Sun Yat-sen University became a comprehensive institution with six faculties, quickly evolving into the complete Sun Yat-sen University with a unified structure.

In the 1920s, provinces such as Jiangsu and Shandong were merging specialized schools and normal universities into comprehensive universities. However, due to funding issues and the changing political climate, many provinces saw these comprehensive universities struggle, shut down, or fragment. In contrast, National Guangdong University, thanks to its founding by Sun Yat-sen, experienced rapid growth within a short span of six or seven months. For example, in the case of the Boxer Indemnity, National Guangdong University successfully secured more than 200,000 yuan in compensation from Western powers. Zou Lu used this fund to purchase a large number of foreign books in English, French, Japanese, German, and Italian for students to broaden their horizons.

On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen passed away in Beijing. The following July, to honor his memory, National Guangdong University was officially renamed National Sun Yat-sen University. On March 1, 1927, the restructured university held its opening ceremony, with the president being Dai Jitao, a prominent figure in the Nationalist Party. The actual governance of the university was handled by Zhu Jiahua, who later became a key leader in the educational affairs of the Nationalist government in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Zhu Jiahua emphasized that “Sun Yat-sen University has a different responsibility from other universities.” “What is Guangdong?” he asked. “It is the base and the source of the Nationalist revolution... Our Sun Yat-sen University is to become the center of China’s revolutionary construction, linking the university with society.”

The integration of the university with society became the overarching direction for Sun Yat-sen University’s academic and research development. In 1924, the year of the university’s founding, Sun Yat-sen issued the University Regulations consisting of eight articles, which he considered the model for higher education. The first article outlined the university’s purpose: “The main goal is to impart and explore the latest theories and technologies of the world, while responding to national conditions and striving to promote their application, so as to advance the moral progress of society and the development of material resources.”

Cao Tianzhong believes that the core of Sun Yat-sen’s educational philosophy is encapsulated in the phrase “responding to national conditions” – this reflects his personal philosophy of “unity of knowledge and action” and his vision for China’s new-style universities. Sun Yat-sen emphasized the importance of not only pursuing advanced academic research but also addressing practical issues facing the country.

During Zhu Jiahua’s tenure as the university’s head, the mission of Sun Yat-sen University was further clarified as “on one hand, striving for academic excellence, and on the other, seeking practical outcomes in scholarship.” In the 1920s, departments at Sun Yat-sen University had ambitious goals: the Department of Language and Literature sought to revolutionize Chinese literature, recognizing the deep relationship between language and nationality; the Philosophy Department aimed to make philosophy a living discipline, not just a collection of dead antiques; and the Medical School sought to establish research institutes in anatomy, physiology, pathology, and microbiology.

In a certain sense, Sun Yat-sen University pioneered a different model of higher education in modern China. At the same time, Cai Yuanpei, head of Peking University, advocated for “educational independence,” arguing that education should be free from political interference. When scholars in Beijing sought refuge from the warlord conflicts and political repression, their first thought was to head south to Guangzhou, the center of the revolutionary movement.

From 1926 to 1927, many prominent intellectuals such as scholar Guo Moruo, writer Lu Xun, historians Fu Sinian and Gu Jiegang, as well as philosopher Feng Youlan moved to Sun Yat-sen University, creating a phenomenon of “northern scholars flying south.” Guo Moruo was appointed as a preparatory committee member and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the university.

When Lu Xun arrived in Guangzhou in January 1927, he immediately noticed many things that were not visible in other provinces, such as films commemorating Lenin and labor unions. On February 8, 1927, the Guangzhou Republic Daily published the list of new department heads at Sun Yat-sen University, with Lu Xun ranked first as the head of the Department of Literature and the Dean of Academic Affairs. At the welcome event, Lu Xun immediately captivated the students. Dressed in a simple cloth robe, wearing canvas shoes with rubber soles, and smoking the cheapest cigarettes of the time, he gave a speech that left the audience eager for more. However, Lu Xun stayed in Guangzhou for only a few months, resigning in frustration after failing to secure the release of arrested students.

With the victory of the Northern Expedition, the center of the revolution shifted to the Yangtze River region. Many scholars followed the National Revolutionary Army northward, spreading the academic ideals fostered at Sun Yat-sen University across the country. At the same time, a “Sun Yat-sen University construction boom” swept across the nation. At one point, there were as many as eight universities bearing the Sun Yat-sen name. In addition to Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, the most well-known were National Sun Yat-sen Universities II, III, and IV, which correspond to today’s Wuhan University, Zhejiang University, and Nanjing University, respectively. The key organizers of these universities had all held important positions at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. In 1928, the Nationalist government decided to rename these universities according to their locations, leaving only the Guangzhou campus as “First Sun Yat-sen University” to honor the founding premier.

To this day, Sun Yat-sen University remains the only university named after Sun Yat-sen. Scholars of the university’s history emphasize that Sun Yat-sen University was “founded by Sun Yat-sen” rather than “the first to be founded,” highlighting the personal involvement of Sun Yat-sen in its establishment – an intentional nuance in their framing.

Cao Tianzhong points out that, in the history of modern Chinese higher education, Peking University symbolizes the transition of Chinese academia from tradition to modernity. Tsinghua University, born out of “national humiliation,” played a key role in the process of foreign academic cultures entering China and becoming independent. In contrast, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou continuously intervened in the course of modern Chinese history.

“If Guangzhou was the birthplace of the democratic revolution, then Sun Yat-sen University is the birthplace of the birthplace,” Cao Tianzhong says. “Revolutionary spirit is the most unique characteristic of Sun Yat-sen University. While the founders of most universities in the Republic of China were educators, the founders of Sun Yat-sen University were revolutionaries.”

In May 1928, a rare group of visitors arrived deep in the mountainous region of Dayaoshan in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Region. Leading the group was Professor Xin Shuzhi from the Department of Biology at Sun Yat-sen University.

They traveled upstream along the Xijiang River, crawling through dense weeds, climbing among the hills of bamboo, and struggling through the nests of evil bees, leeches, and venomous snakes, taking two months in total. Unlike ordinary scientific expeditions, during the day, they collected specimens of plants and animals, but at night, they worked under dim light, collecting folk songs, recording local dialects, and investigating customs.

Xin Shuzhi held another important role: he was a special research fellow in the Anthropology and Ethnology Group at the Language and History Institute of Sun Yat-sen University. The institute was established in early 1928, with historian Fu Sinian as its first director. Fu Sinian had just returned to China and was appointed by Zhu Jiahua as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and the head of both the Chinese and History departments at Sun Yat-sen University. The creation of the Language and History Institute reflected Fu Sinian’s grand academic vision: “To establish the orthodox school of Oriental studies in China.” He aimed to apply Western linguistic scientific methods to build history and linguistics into fields as rigorous as biology or geology, breaking away from the traditional Chinese approach of academic study “from paper to paper.”

Fu Sinian’s colleague and helper was his old classmate from Peking University, Gu Jiegang. As one of the most influential historians in 20th-century China, Gu Jiegang was known for his work on “Critical Historical Studies” and the development of a new understanding of Chinese ancient history. He was also one of the founders of Chinese folklore studies. Before joining Sun Yat-sen University, Gu had spent four months in Hangzhou on the university’s behalf, purchasing fifty to sixty thousand books, focusing not only on classical texts but also on magazines, newspapers, family genealogies, diaries, and official documents – materials that recorded “personal lives.” He and Fu Sinian corresponded about the difficulty of acquiring the materials they wanted, with Gu writing, “The materials I need are considered unnecessary to purchase.”

Gu Jiegang, known for his independent and rebellious character, had by this time developed the academic philosophy that would guide his work in the future: “Look downward.” This approach aimed to break free from the traditional, sage-centered narrative of history and build a “history of the common people.” This idea was most clearly expressed in the editorial of the Language and History Institute Weekly, which stated: “We must search for materials on the ground, seek dialects among the common people, excavate ancient cultural sites, and gather information from all human societies to build new fields of study!”

This description is deeply imbued with the spirit of the New Culture Movement. Starting in 1918, Peking University led efforts to collect folk songs, which had previously been seen as unrefined. Gu Jiegang brought this new trend to Sun Yat-sen University, along with many of his old colleagues from Peking University’s National Studies Institute. Together, they founded the Sun Yat-sen University Folklore Society and launched the Folklore Weekly, publishing over 60 volumes of folklore books. Professor Zhou Daming from the university’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology explained to The Context that it was at Sun Yat-sen University that Chinese folklore gradually evolved into a legitimate academic discipline.

Initially, Gu and his colleagues intended to make the Language and History Institute at Sun Yat-sen University a second “National Studies Institute” like the one at Peking University. However, this plan quickly changed. Studying folklore, songs, and language was naturally more convenient in the south than in the north, where many ethnic minorities lived in close proximity, making it easier to collect material. As a result, the focus of research at Sun Yat-sen University shifted from Han Chinese culture to the folklore of borderland ethnic minorities, with southwestern China becoming the primary area of study.

While Xin Shuzhi and his team were collecting folk songs, in the summer of 1928, Yang Chengzhi, then 25 years old and newly employed at the Language and History Institute, ventured into the Yi ethnic region at the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. At that time, the society held deep fears of the Yi area, with some claiming “one in nine would die upon encountering the Yi people.” Yet, Yang ventured alone, accompanied only by a mule, a dog, and a small horse carrying gifts. Staying in the mountains for two years, he traveled through over 200 villages, living a “tribal life” and eating what were considered ethnic delicacies such as raw pig liver, lung, heart, and blood with chili. On one occasion, he even won the favor of a tribal chieftain and nearly became his son-in-law.

This was more than just a folklore survey – it was an immersive anthropological field study. Later, Yang studied anthropology in France, undergoing rigorous European training. After returning to China, he founded the first Department of Anthropology in the country at Sun Yat-sen University in 1948. According to Zhou Daming, it was Yang Chengzhi’s influence that shifted the focus of Sun Yat-sen University’s folklore studies toward anthropology, which eventually became an independent discipline. 

“To this day,” Zhou notes, “the Anthropology Department at Sun Yat-sen University retains two key features: Southwestern research and a strong emphasis on fieldwork, which continued even through the 1960s and 1970s.”

That concludes part one of our podcast on Sun Yat-sen University. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Huo Siyi, translator Du Guodong and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.