Sochow University is the first western-made university in China, which is now Suzhou University. It was founded by the American Christian Supervisory Council in 1900. Boxi Academy, Gongxiang Academy and Shanghai Zhongxi Academy in Suzhou are the predecessors of Soochow University. Soochow University was the first university to carry out professional education in law (English and American law). It is the first university in China to carry out postgraduate education and award master's degrees. It can award doctoral degrees and is also the first university to establish a journal. The first principal was Sun Lewen (American). In 1927, Yang Yongqing was elected as the first Chinese principal.
The early days of its founding
Soviet University
After the mid-19th century, the Qing court was defeated by Britain, France, Russia, Japan and other countries and was forced to sign several unequal treaties. The repeated defeats of wars have caused the government and the people to lose confidence, and the society’s calls for reform and learning from the strengths of the great powers are increasing day by day. Against this backdrop, the American Christian Church came to China to start an education cause. The Methodist Episcopal Church (South) is one of the important Christian guilds in the United States. It was established in 1846 and is located in Tennessee. Since 1879, the association has successively founded the Buffington Institute and Kung Hang School in Suzhou, and founded the Anglo-Chinese College in Shanghai.Before the 1920s, Soochow University's graduate education involved chemistry, biology and liberal arts majors. It was the first school among existing universities in China to carry out postgraduate education and award master's degrees. In 1926, Soochow Law began to offer one-year research institute courses, making Soochow University the first university in China to offer postgraduate education in law. [1]
Solochow University first has an English motto, and then a Chinese motto. The English school motto "Unto a full –grown Man" comes from Ephesians Chapter 4, verse 13 of the New Testament. The reason why the words in the Bible are used as the school motto is actually related to the fact that the school was created by missionaries. In 1929, the school ministry meeting passed the 60th bill, accepting the proposal of Yang Yongqing, the first Chinese principal at that time, to take "fostering the righteousness of heaven and earth, and perfecting the law in ancient and modern times" as the Chinese school motto. The original text comes from the calligraphy of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the founding father in January 1923.
merged with the three academies
The predecessor of Soochow University
is based on Gongxiang Academy and is expanded into a university at the former site of Tianci Zhuang Boxi Academy in Suzhou. In December 1900, the school board of directors was formulated, and Mr. Young J. Allen (founder of the Wanguo Gazette) was appointed as the chairman and Mr. David L. Anderson was appointed as the principal. Soochow University, the first private university in China, was officially born in the early 20th century. When Soochow University was founded, in addition to professors from the United States, Chinese teachers also hired Chinese teachers to teach Chinese culture. In order to attract talents, Chairman Lin Lezhi and President Sun Lewen prepared "teaching houses" (professor residences) for the professors, which can be said to be the first creation of Soochow University. [2]In the 26th year of the founding of Soochow University, it has gone through three American presidents, David L. Anderson, John W. Cline and W. B. Nance. The school funding during this period mainly comes from donations and tuition fees. The teaching buildings on campus, such as Lintang, Suntang, Getang and teaching student dormitories, have been built one after another, and the campus scale is becoming increasingly complete. The discipline development includes liberal arts, science, medicine, theology and law (on Kunshan Road, Shanghai), and there are four affiliated middle schools, twenty affiliated primary schools, Huihan Primary School, Wuyu School, etc. to form a complete Soochow education system. In addition to outstanding performance in academic research, various disciplines have also cultivated countless professional talents for the society. The school uses the motto of "Unto a Full-grown Man" to emphasize the cultivation of students' personality.
1915, based on Soochow University, it established the "Soochow University Law School" in Shanghai. The college’s teaching highlights the content of “Anti-American Law” and focuses on teaching “comparative Law”. Its scientific training goals and distinctive teaching characteristics made the legal education of Soochow University famous both at home and abroad at that time, and was sometimes known as “Southern Eastern Wu and North Chaoyang”. A large number of famous modern and contemporary law experts have been trained, such as Esen, Wang Chonghui, Wu Jingxiong, Ni Zhengyi, Li Haopei, Pan Handian, Yang Tie (Muliang), etc., which are praised by people as "the first-class and most famous law school in South China."
After the May Fourth Movement,
School Flag
During the May Fourth Movement, Soochow students organized a student union, and general student clubs were mainly academic research, debate and sports activities. In the early days of Soochow University, with the efforts of the three principals, laid a good foundation for the future development of school affairs.May Fourth Movement inspired the patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese intellectuals. In order to adapt to the trend of Chinese society, Soochow University gradually carried out The process of sinicization. In 1926, the compulsory religious courses were abolished, and the liturgy was also changed to students to participate freely. The school board was then reorganized, and two-thirds of the members were replaced by Chinese. In 1927, Mr. Yang Yongqing was elected as the first Chinese president and established the Chinese motto of "raising the righteousness of heaven and earth, and perfecting the law of ancient and modern times". In 1929, the Nanjing National Government officially approved the registration and filing of Soochow University in the National Government.
school song
in the next ten years The school had three colleges, arts, science and law, and twelve departments in 1930. It actively raised funds to promote academic research, strengthened the faculty to improve teaching quality, and promoted teachers and students to serve the society with their professionalism. The main building facilities on the campus were completed or started at this stage. In 1930, the number of students reached 755, the highest among Christian universities in the country.The War of Resistance Against Japan broke out in 1937. In the following eight years, the two campuses of Soochow University, Suzhou and Shanghai were affected by the war and moved During this period, as the war evolved, the two campuses either moved to schools or jointly run schools with other schools. Although the war was raging, the teaching activities did not stop. Until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, teachers and students of Soochow University returned to Shanghai and Suzhou campuses from all over the country to carry out the arduous work of resuming the school.
After the founding of New China, Soochow University
Before the founding of New China, there were 13 Christian church universities in China, namely Yenching University (Yenching) University, Shantung Christian University, Soochow University, St. John's University, Hangchou Christian College, West China Union University, Huachung University, University of Nanking, Fukien Christian University, Hwa Nan College, Jinling Women's Arts and Sciences College (Ginling) College, University of Shanghai, Lingnan University, etc. Although the number is not large, the starting point is very high. Under the historical conditions at that time, especially after the 1920s, church universities played a certain exemplary and guiding role in the modernization of Chinese education. Because it directly introduced the modern Western education model in many aspects such as institutions, institutions, plans, curriculum, methods, and even rules and regulations, thus having a profound impact on the education community and society. It can be seen that the history of church universities is an indispensable and important chapter in the history of modern Chinese education. Church universities have made indelible contributions to China's higher education.reference
1. Postgraduate education of Soochow University [citation date 2018-07-06]
2. Huang Moses and Zhang Taiyan at Soochow University [citation date 2018-11-12]
This article was edited by Toutiao Encyclopedia users Running in the Wild Wang, wyq2665, and a little peach a.
