Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:45:07.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Politics and Education in Nationalist China: The Case of the University Council, 1927–1928

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Allen B. Linden
Get access

Extract

In 1927, Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei, one of China's eminent intellectuals in the first half of the twentieth century, initiated a program to reform Chinese education. In June of that year, the leaders of the Kuomintang government in Nanking approved Ts'ai's recommendation that they establish a new organization, a University Council [ta-hsüeh yüan], in place of a Ministry of Education to direct educational affairs. A month later they appointed Ts'ai to the post of Chancellor of the University Council. In the first issue of the Bulletin of the University Council, Ts'ai accounted for the change. He stated: “Looking back over the past decade, one can see that the Ministry of Education, situated in the midst of the corrupt atmosphere of Peking, was infected by the government agencies around it. There were times when those who headed the Ministry knew nothing about scholarship and education. Those ministers took advantage of their position and put members of their personal cliques into office. Word of this has spread so that the title Ministry of Education is synonomous with corrupt officialdom. It is for this reason that the Nationalist Government has decided to abolish the title ‘Ministry of Education’ and adopted the title ‘University Council’ for the body which supervises scholarship and education.”

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , August 1968 , pp. 763 - 776
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Yüan-p'ei, Ts'ai, “Fa-k'an ts'u” (“Introduction”), Ta-hsüeh-yüan kung-pao [Bulletin of the University Council], I (january, 1928), 11Google Scholar. Cited hereafter as THYKP.

2 Ibid., 13.

3 “Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei chieh-min hsien-sheng chung-yao shih-lüch chi-nien-chi wei-ting-kao” (“A Draft of a Chronological Summary of Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei's Career”) in Te-chung, Sun (ed.), Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei hsiensheng kuei-uien lei-ch'ao [Posthumous Collection of the Writings of Mr. Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei] (Taipei: Fuhsing shu-chü, 1961), pp. 3–7.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., pp. 7–16.

5 Yüan-p'ei, Ts'ai, “Tui-yü chiao-yü fang-chen chih i-chien” (“My Ideas concerning Educational Plans”), in Sun Te-chung (ed.), Ts'ai, p. 78Google Scholar. For an English translation of portions of this statement, see “Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei's Views of the Aims of Education, 1912,” in Teng, Ssu-yü and Fairbank, John K., China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), pp. 235–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For further consideration of this article see Sakai, Robert K., “Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei as a Synthesizer of Western and Chinese Thought,” Harvard Papers on China (may, 1949), III, 179–81Google Scholar and Shang-ssu, Ts'ai, Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei hsüeh-shu ssu-hsiang chuan-chi [The Scholarship and Thought of Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei] (Shanghai: Ch'ang-ti ch'u-pan-she, 1950), pp. 173–74.Google Scholar

6 Tse-tsung, Chow, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 136.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., p. 135.

8 Hsin-ch'eng, Shu, Chin-tai chung-kuo chiao-yü ssu-hsiang-shih [A History of Modern Chinese Educational Thought] (Shanghai: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1929), p. 257 ff.Google Scholar

9 Chow, , May Fourth Movement, pp. 240–41.Google Scholar

10 Richard, C., L'enseignement en France (Bibliothèque de l'Office national des universités et ècoles Francaises, Tome III; Paris: Librarie Armand Colin, 1925), 3–5, 59–60, 80.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., 11–12.

12 Ibid., 5–9, 13, 16.

13 Yüan-p'ei, Ts'ai, “Chiao-yü tu-li i” (“A Proposal for Establishing Educational Independence”), Hsin, chiao-yü, IV (march, 1922), 317–19Google Scholar. I am indebted for this point to MrsChin-hsieo, Yiu who cited this article in her disertation, “The Life and Work of Ts'ai Yüan-p'ei” (unpublished PhD. dissertation, College of Education, Harvard University, 1952), p. 137.Google Scholar

14 Ibid., pp. 77–85. Scalapino, Robert A. and Yu, George T., The Chinese Anarchist Movement (Berkeley: University of California, february, 1961), pp. 45–54.Google Scholar

15 Shih-tseng, Li, “Fa-kuo chiao-yü yü wo-kuo chiao-yü ch'ien-t'u chih kuan-hsi” (“The Relationship between French Education and the Future of Our Nation's Education”), Hsin chiao-yü, IV (march, 1922), 420.Google Scholar

16 Hsin-ch'eng, Shu, Chin-tai chung-kuo chiao-yü shih-liao [Historical Materials on Modern Chinese Education] (Shanghai: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1928), Pu-pien, p. 28.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., Pu-pien, pp. 33–34Google Scholar. THYKP, 1 (january, 1928), 49.Google Scholar

18 “Chung-hua min-kuo ta-hsüeh-yüan tsu-chih-fa” (“The Organic Law of the University Council of the Republic of China”), THYKP, I (january, 1928), 49.Google Scholar

19 “Ta-hsüeh-yüan ta-hsüch wei-yüan-hui t'iao-lieh” (“The Regulations of the University Committee of the University Council”), THYKP, I (january, 1928), 66.Google Scholar

20 Shcn-pao, february 5, 1928Google Scholar. Tung-fang tsa-chih. XXV (april, 1928), 11–12.Google Scholar

21 Ching Heng-i and others, “Chung t'i-ch'u she-li chiao-yü-pu an” (“Resubmission of a Proposal to Establish a Ministry of Education”), Chung-kuo kuo-min-tang ti-erh-chieh chung-yang chih-hsing wei-yüan ti-wu-tz'u ch'üan-t'i hui-i chi-lu [A Record of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Second Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang] (no publication data, september, 1928), p. 291.Google Scholar

22 Ch'en Kuo-fu hsien-sheng ch'üan-chi [Collected Worlds of Mr. Ch'en Kuo-fu] (Taipei: Cheng-chung shu-chü, 1952), X, 107Google Scholar. J. B. P., “Nationalists Complete Reorganization of Nanking Government,” China Weekly Review, march 3, 1928, p. 21.Google Scholar

23 For sketches of official careers of these men see jo-jo-bu, Gaimu-sho, Gendai Chuka minkoku manshu tokoku jimmei-kan [Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese and Manchurians] (Tokyo: Toa dobun-kai, gyomu-bu, Showa 12 [1937]).Google Scholar

24 Ta-hsüeh-yüan, , Ch'üan-kuo chiao-yü hui-i pao-kao [Report of the Nation-wide Educational Conference] (Shanghai: Shang-wu yin-shu-kuan, 1928), p. 10.Google Scholar

25 Chung-yang tang-wu yüeh-k'an, No. 1 (august, 1928), “Wen-shu,” p. 8.Google Scholar

26 Israel, John W., Student Nationalism in China, 1927–1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966), pp. 22–25Google Scholar. For additional detail see Israel, John, “Kuomintang Policy and Student Politics, 1927–1937,” in Feuerwerker, Albert, and others (eds.), Approaches to Modern Chinese History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 292–94.Google Scholar

27 Israel, , Student Nationalism, p. 25.Google Scholar

28 Chiao-yü hui-i pao-kao, I, 1–2Google Scholar, II, 1–4.

29 hsün-lien-pu, Chung-yang, “Ch'üeh-ting chung-hua min-kuo chiao-yü tsung-chih chi chiao-yü piao-chün an” (“A Proposal to Set the Aims and Standards of Education of the Republic of China”), Hui-i chi-lu, pp. 282–83Google Scholar. pu, Chiao-yü, Ti-i-tz'u chung-kuo chiao-yü nien-chien [The First China Education Yearbook] (Shanghai: K'ai-ming shu-tien, 1931), I, 10–11.Google Scholar

30 Israel, , Student Movement, pp. 30–35Google Scholar. Israel, , “Policy and Politics,” p. 296Google Scholar. Hui-i chi-lu, p. 29.Google Scholar

31 Hui-i chi-lu, p. 29.Google Scholar

32 Ibid.

33 Chung-shan, Sun, Kuo-fu ch'üan-chi [The Collected Works of the Father of Our Country] (Taipei: Chung-yang wen-wu kung-ying-she, 1957), I, 11–12.Google Scholar

34 Chi-ch'ing, Chu and others, “Ch'ü-hsiao ta-hsüeh-yüan kai-she chiao-yü-pu an” (“A Proposal for Abolition of the University Council and Establishment of a Ministry of Education”), Hui-i chi-lu, p. 289.Google Scholar

35 Ching Heng-i, Ibid., p. 291.

36 United States State Department Archives, 893.42/240, Shanghai, , september 18, 1928.Google Scholar

37 THYKP, I (september, 1928), 51–53.Google Scholar

38 Ti-i-tz'u chiao-yü nien-chien, I, 8.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., I, 16.

40 Ibid.

41 Chiao-yü-pu, , Chiao-yü-pu kung-pao [Bulletin of the Ministry of Education], I (november, 1929), “Hsing-cheng hsün-ling,” 13–14Google Scholar. For a full treatment of this episode see Grieder, Jerome Bailey, “Hu Shih and Liberalism; A Chapter in the Intellectual Modernization of China, 1917–1930” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, History Dept., Harvard University, 1963), pp. 334–37.Google Scholar