National Northwest United UniversityCity Gukao College Headquarters Screen Wall
Xu Songming
■Yao Yuan
Editor's note
When it comes to the process of Chinese higher education since the 20th century, some names are shining enough, such as Cai Yuanpei, the father of education in the Republic of China, and Southwest Associated University, which cultivated a large number of academic giants such as Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao, and Zhao Jiuzhang... However, some names are not as eye-catching as the former, but they use their own efforts and persistence to write historical achievements that are also enough to go down in history. The representative of this is the Northwest United University established at the same time as Southwest Associated University.
Since its establishment in 1938 and its reorganization into the "National Northwest Five Schools" in 1939, Northwest Associated University has not lasted for a long time in the history of Chinese higher education, but it was this short period of time, together with its previous and subsequent developments, that has produced sufficient historical significance for the formation of my country's higher education in Northwest China and even the overall higher education pattern in contemporary my country. Only when we look back on its history can we get the most real feeling.
Today, let us re-understand the Northwest Associated University, which we may not have been familiar with before in this recollection of history.
On the left side of the auditorium of the old campus of Northwestern University , there is a small stone tablet. On the black stele, several lines of large characters written by Zhang Xueliang, the old president of Northeastern University, were engraved on the black stele. The school was established in Shenyang, and it was difficult to start; until September 18th, it was tragically destroyed; it was displaced in Yan City and moved to Chang'an ; Xu Er Duoshi restored my country and mountains.
The place where this stone tablet stands was the first to be the predecessor of Shaanxi Agricultural Science and Technology of Northwest University in the late Qing Dynasty. From September 1937 to March 1938, it became the site of the National Northeastern University School of Engineering and the National Xi'an Temporary University Second College. In the auditorium behind it, there were water conservancy master Li Yizhi , geologist Zhang Bosheng , and Chinese pioneer Li Yan (Li Lezhi), a pioneer in the discipline of history of science in my country, and also provided generous speeches. There were also great scholars such as Ding Ling, Tian Han , and He Luting who communicated with Xi'an Lin college students on campus. From 1938 to 1946, this place was the resident of the "Fourth Regiment of the Wartime Cadre Training Corps". Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling were taught in the auditorium. In addition, there were also historical celebrities such as He Yingqin , Bai Chongxi, Li Zongren, Yu Youren , Gu Weijun , Cheng Tianfang, Hu Shi and other historical celebrities spoke here. Lian Zhan’s father Lian Zhendong also serves as an instructor here.
This auditorium is the school site of the first exiled university in my country during the war, Northeastern University and one of the two largest universities in the war, Linda-Northwest Associated University. It is a place where the Chinese higher education storm has been held for three generations of the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. It witnessed two major changes in China's higher education during the local War of Resistance against the September 18th Incident in 1931 to the July 7th Incident in 1937, and also witnessed the touching stories of several generations of Chinese higher education students not afraid of hardships and dangers during the national crisis and sowed the spark of Chinese higher education in the western desert.
scattered in the western land
Let us replay time to that war-torn national disaster.
After the September 18th Incident in 1931 and the subsequent Lugou Bridge Incident, the Chinese nation faced a crisis of life and death. The most fundamental cultural context of our country - higher education, also faces unprecedented disasters of national destruction and destruction of the school and foundation. Especially, the number of universities is close to half of the country and college students account for more than 2/3 of the country's national security, the three places facing the most serious dangers. During this period, Northeastern University first had displaced from northeast to Beiping and Xi'an, and then there was an unprecedented catastrophe from Ping and Tianjin universities.
Based on this current situation, on September 10, 1937, the Ministry of Education of the National Government Order No. 16696: Taking the faculty of Peking University , Tsinghua University , Nankai University and Central Research Institute as the foundation, Changsha Temporary University ; taking the faculty of Peking University , Peking Normal University, Beiyang Institute of Technology and Peking Research Institute as the foundation, Xi'an Temporary University was established, and in September 1937 it was reorganized into Hebei Provincial Women's Normal University . These two "temporary universities" have also become the predecessors of Southwest Associated University and Northwest Associated University, which will dig into the history of Chinese education in the future.
At that time, the National Xi'an Temporary University had 1,472 students, divided into 6 colleges and 24 departments, and divided into three major courtyards, which were divided into three departments in Xi'an: the school headquarters, the Chinese Department, History Department, Foreign Language Department, and Housekeeping Department in Xi'an City, the back street of Chenghuangmiao in Xi'an; the Department of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Physics Department of the Second College, and the School of Engineering and the National Northeastern University School of Engineering; the Department of Law and Business School of Law and Business, the Department of Agricultural School, the Department of Medicine, the Department of Education, the Department of Biology, and the Department of Geography of Northeastern University are in Tongjifang, North Street.
In the spring of 1938, the Japanese invaders arrived at Fenglingdu, 130 kilometers east of Xi'an. The National Xi'an Temporary University was forced to move south to Hanzhong area where , Shaanxi and were run. In April of that year, under the same order, the Changsha Temporary University in Kunming was changed to the National Southwest United University, and the Xi'an Temporary University in southern Shaanxi was changed to the National Northwest United University. The departments are still distributed in three counties and six places in southern Shaanxi.
Although the "starting point" is the same, the fates of the two universities are very different after that - in the following ten years, Southwest Associated University has adhered to the southwest of the motherland and taught people. However, after a brief merger, Northwest Associated University began a arduous journey of growing branches and leaves on the vast land of the northwest, writing a magnificent chapter in China's higher education.
On July 27, 1938, after Northwest Associated University just gained a foothold in southern Shaanxi, the Ministry of Education ordered that the National Northwest United University School of Engineering (including the National Peking University School of Engineering and the National Beiyang Institute of Technology) and the National Northeastern University School of Engineering and the Private Jiaozuo Institute of Technology were combined to form National Northwest Institute of Technology ; the National Northwest United University School of Agricultural (i.e., the National Peking University School of Agricultural (i.e., the National Peking University School of Agricultural) and the National Northwest Agricultural College were combined to form the National Northwest Agricultural College. By August 8, 1939, the National Northwest United University was changed to National Northwest University , National Northwest Medical College and National Northwest Normal College . It is known in history as the "Five National Northwest Schools".
By the end of 1944, the National Northwest Normal University, among the five schools, moved to Lanzhou, Gansu to run a school. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1946, the National Peking Normal University, the National Beiyang Institute of Technology, the Hebei Provincial Women's Normal University, the National Northeastern University, and the Private Jiaozuo Institute of Technology, which once formed Northwest Associated University, were re-educated in Peking, Tianjin, Shenyang, Luoyang and other places respectively. The National Northwest Medical College was merged into the National Northwest University and returned to Xi'an, while the National Northwest Institute of Technology returned to , Xianyang and Xi'an.
In this way, in the pattern of higher education in my country, Beijing Normal University (National Peking Normal University), Tianjin University (National Beiyang Institute of Technology), Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Medicine (National Northwest Medical College), Northwest Polytechnical University (National Northwest Institute of Technology), Northwest University (National Northwest University), Northwest Normal University (National Northwest Normal University), Hebei Normal University (Hebei Provincial Women's Normal University), Northeastern University (National Northeastern University), China University of Mining and Technology and Henan University of Technology (Private Jiaozuo Institute of Technology), as well as more than 30 universities connected to it, including the School of Medicine of Peking University, China Agricultural University, Xi'an University of Architecture and Science and Technology, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, , Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xichang University, etc.
The formation of this higher education pattern has great historical significance for the development of higher education in my country.
Since modern times, my country's higher education has always been distributed along the river, coast or railway lines in the form of "points" and "lines". However, Northwest Associated University and its back-aged schools have been distributed on the northwest "surface" of the motherland, thus achieving a historic turning point in the layout of higher education from point and line layout to surface layout, and also initially breaking the "heavy bed and house" distribution of higher education in cities such as Ping, Tianjin, and Shanghai.
As the "maternal machine" of higher education in the northwest region, Northwest Associated University has nurtured more than 30 universities, created the earliest liberal arts, science, social sciences, agricultural sciences, medicine and other universities in northwest my country, and also gave birth to the modern academic system in northwest my country, completely ending the history of feudal education.
Northwest Associated University played an important role in carrying the cultural context of the Chinese nation and participated in the great historical process of a complete higher education system in the northwest of the motherland. In this process, this education system covering various types of arts, science, industry, agriculture, medicine, and normal schools, as well as a education system that covers all levels of correspondence, social education, preschool, primary schools, middle schools, preparatory courses, junior colleges, undergraduates, and graduate students has appeared in the northwest. It also brings the streams, canals and rivers of higher education that already existed in the northwest into a big river, and flows into the "river, lake and sea" of Chinese nation's education.
is responsible for the historical responsibility of education
In the 1930s, Beijing-Tianjin universities that moved to Xi'an under Japanese artillery fire returned to their old places after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, but one school left itself in the Northwest forever. This is the National Peking University. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the school divided the School of Arts and Sciences into the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and together with the School of Law and Business, formed the National Northwest University. The School of Engineering, Agricultural College, and Medical College became part of the National Northwest Institute of Technology, the National Northwest Agricultural College, or the entire National Northwest Medical College. These colleges eventually became the new "maternal machine" of higher education in western my country, and reproduction or absorption of new universities again.
The reason why National Peking University can make such an important contribution is inseparable from Xu Songming, the president of National Peking University and the member of the Standing Committee of National Northwest United University. He made important contributions to the realization of the development of higher education in Northwest China, and also gave the earliest explanation of the mission of Northwest Associated University and the "National Northwest Five Schools" to spread the northwest and educate the party, serving the local culture and social economy.
In 1938, after Xi'an Linda moved south to Hanzhong , Xu Songming and Chen Jianchong, who was also a member of the school's standing committee, rushed to Hankou to meet with Chen Lifu, Minister of Education of the National Government, to report on his work and request instructions for future work. He originally had the idea of continuing to move to Sichuan, but Chen Lifu pointed out: "Northwest United University was approved by the Supreme Council and was particularly responsible for Northwest Culture. Jun thought that it was better not to leave the Northwest when it was absolutely necessary."
When summarizing the key points of this trip, Xu Songming said in particular, "Any school location should have rapid contact with the cultural center and economic center." Later, there was a saying that "Guanzhong was the first ancient capital of our country, and Nanzheng was also the birthplace of the Han Dynasty. He remembered the virtues of the ancestors, and looked forward to the future. Meng and Jin became more powerful and vowed to expel Japanese pirates and restore the rivers and mountains." "This War of Resistance was the foundation of national rejuvenation, which was of great significance and was inequality. We were born in this great world, and we should make timely progress and make contributions." That is, we should actively integrate into the local area, become an organic part of the regional culture of Guanzhong or Hanzhong, and assume the responsibility of educating the party.
In December 1935, when the university's westward migration had not yet been implemented on a large scale, Xu Songming had already "committed detailed measures to gradually carry out" with Shao Lizi, Chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Government. He also arranged for Liu Yunchou, Dean of the Agricultural College of Peking University, to go to Xi'an for inspection. Therefore, Shao Lizi has achieved "the material construction achievements have gradually emerged since the development of the central government, but the education end is still behind. Since the total population of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qingxin and other provinces have a total population of more than 20 million, no university has been trained in advanced training, which is not enough to meet the actual needs", and it is exempted from important suggestions such as "the deformity and seriousness of school districts across the country".Therefore, although "to develop northwest higher education and improve the culture of border provinces, it is planned to gradually move the school (Northwest Associated University) to the northwest Shaanxi-Gansu area" is a national strategy, the most core or main figure in implementing and realizing this strategy is Xu Songming.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Peking University brought by Xu Songming remained in the northwest forever. National Peking Normal University also left behind the National Northwest Normal University for the Northwest. Although the National Beiyang Institute of Technology, Northeast University School of Engineering, and the Private Jiaozuo Institute of Technology were demobilized, they also left behind a complete engineering education institution for the Northwest. Northwest Associated University and its successor colleges went west, and eventually ended at the edge of the northwest desert and the southwest ancient Qiongdu Daliangshan (referring to Li Shutian , Wei Shoukun, Lei Zuowen, Zeng Jiong and others brought the spirit of Northwest Associated University to Xikang , and created Xikang Skills College, which is now Xichang College), and promoted the system and concepts of modern higher education thousands of kilometers to the northwest and southwest, greatly accelerating the modernization of western society and becoming a typical case of higher education participating in the world anti-fascist national liberation movement.
Explanation of the spirit of the university with strong learning
From the establishment of the mother body and child body of Northwest Associated University to the relocation and resumption of school on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China or staying in the northwest to the development process of a higher education community rooted in the northwest, divided and integrated, and connected by the mother and child blood. The arduous schooling process of its mother and child in the Northwest has formed a team of teachers including 705 professors, associate professors and 2,169 faculty members, and trained 9,015 students. As of June 2016, 202 members of the academic department and academicians of the two academies emerged from the teachers and students of 10 directly related universities, and made more than 70 major discoveries in the fields of humanities and science, becoming one of the most dazzling chapters in the history of modern and contemporary higher education in China.
Northwest Associated University and its successor colleges have also achieved remarkable results in cultivating people. As early as 1949, among the school’s graduates, Shen Jian, Deputy Minister of the United Nations General Office, Ambassador to Cuba and India, Yang Shouzheng, Ambassador to the Soviet Union, famous writer Liu Qing , Chairman of the National Student Federation Zheng Daigong, announcer of the founding ceremony Qi Yue and other outstanding talents.
By 1949, among the professors and students jointly recruited by National Northwest University and National Northwest Normal University, 10 academicians, including the father of Chinese pinyin, Li Jinxi, , Shen Zhiyuan, , comrade Mao Zedong, comrade Mao Zedong, Tian Zaiyi, the discoverer of Daqing Oilfield, and 10 other academicians; in the field of science, 10 teachers and students of the then Northwest Institute of Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2019. 13 academicians including Shi Changxu, the winner of the National Science and Technology Award, Wei Shoukun, the founder of Metallurgical Physics, Zhang Peilin, the founder of my country's nuclear fuel industry, Gao Jingde, the first to receive a doctorate degree in the Soviet Union and serve as the president of Tsinghua University; teachers and students of the National Northwest Agricultural College have emerged from Yu Hongzheng, who founded soil thermodynamics, Lin Rong, who laid the foundation for the taxonomy of the Asteraceae family, Hou Guangjiong, who founded the soil viscosity and toughness determination method, and Sheng Tongsheng, a famous veterinary scientist. In medicine, Comrade Mao Zedong's health care doctor in 1943, later Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health, Academician Jiang Sichang, a health care doctor in his later years, were graduates of the National Peking University School of Medicine-Northwest Associated University Medical College.
In addition to cultivating outstanding talents, Northwest Associated University and its blood-related colleges also play an important role in the formation and development of my country's higher education system.
For example, the earliest higher education guidance system in my country was first established here. In 1939, the system was promoted nationwide at the Third National Education Conference of the National Government held in Chongqing. In this year, Northwest Associated University also inherited the traditions of Beijing Higher Normal School and Beiyang Institute of Technology, and added a normal institute and an engineering institute (divided into three groups: mining, metallurgy, and applied geology), and recruited graduate students. This also became the beginning of the earliest normal graduate and mining and metallurgy education in my country.
In terms of discipline construction, in May 1938, Northwest Associated University established an Archaeology Committee to preside over the excavation and maintenance of Zhang Qian’s tomb, which marked the birth and important development of the archaeology discipline of Northwest Associated University-Northwestern University. It thus established the first university archaeology discipline rooted in Northwest my country, and cultivated the earliest batch of scientific archaeology talents in the Northwest region. Five years later, in 1943, the Ministry of Education approved the formal establishment of the Border Political Science Department of the National Northwest University, which made the school and the National Central University the earliest national university to establish a Border Political Science Department in the country. At that time, graduates also became the earliest frontier cadres in the Northwest region to receive higher education.
In addition, Northwest United University and its blood-related colleges also carried out the earliest electronic education education in northern my country. In 1945, during his visit to the United States, Yuan Dunli, a professor at Northwest Normal University, specially hired Professor Ge Ze, an expert in telecommunication education, and purchased electronic chemical equipment and videos. He also established an electronic chemical education committee at Peking Normal University, set up an electronic chemical education room, and applied for call signs, wavelengths, and frequency, and specially set up an educational radio station.
It is worth mentioning that in 1945, my country's first International Olympic Committee member Wang Zhengting , together with two famous sports educators of Northwest Associated University and Northwest Normal University, Professors Yuan Dunli and Dong Shouyi, at the Second Supervisory Board of the All-China Sports Association, proposed the "The 15th World Games (1952) held in my country" at the Second Supervisory Board of Directors and Supervisors of the All-China Sports Association. This is also the first time that my country has put forward the requirement to bid for the Olympics. At the same time, the school also has Guo Yubin, the first international middle and long-distance running champion in China who won honor for the country in early modern times, and Wang Yaodong, an athlete who won the first international basketball championship.
At present, the academic community has gradually formed a consensus on its historical contribution to Northwest Associated University. As Zhou Yuanqing, former vice minister of the Ministry of Education and former president of the Chinese Higher Education Society, believed that if the history of Northwest Associated University is lacking, the history of modern and contemporary higher education in China is an incomplete history. Li Jiajun, former president of Tianjin University, said that Northwest Associated University is a school-running consortium formed in a special historical period. In that era of blood and fire, hard work and constant strings have made outstanding contributions to the country and the nation. "Its difficult journey fully interprets the university spirit of promoting education and strengthening the country, reflects the national demands rooted in anti-aggression and oppression, and is an embodiment of the Chinese nation's indomitable spirit in university culture. It also reflects the basic concept of modern universities defending the truth and adhering to justice, and the sense of social responsibility and mission generated by rooting in the land of China."
The world's famous universities have gradually won the world reputation by relying on the continuous accumulation of culture and the unique university spirit. Over the past 80 years, these major achievements and contributions made by Northwest Associated University and its subsequent colleges have in most cases been much more difficult than the environment we are in today, especially during the War of Resistance Against Japan, it is indeed not easy to get. Because of this, it has also become our precious asset. Studying the background, foundation and mechanism of its formation and inheriting these excellent traditions is obviously of great significance to the "Double First-Class" construction of current and future universities.
(The author is the Secretary-General of the Northwest Associated University Alliance, Director of the Northwest Associated University Institute of Northwest Associated University, and Professor of the Institute of History of Science of Northwest University)
