The Academic Culture before Cai Yuanpei's Appointment

This chapter explores the evolution of the academic culture from late Qing to early Republic of China, and the academic state of Peking University (PKU) before 1917, as well as Cai Yuanpei&s;s educational concepts. It notes three driving tensions of the academic changes in the Qing Dynasty: truth vs. practical learning, state vs. private academies, and old vs. new learning. Since the 1905 imperial examination abolition, intellectuals fragmented, and education focused on primary/secondary schools, with no strong academic center. The chapter then analyzes the two phases of PKU&s;s evolution before 1917. In the late Qing Dynasty, it followed Japan&s;s model with “Chinese learning as the base, Western learning for application” and tied to politics. In the early Republic, it leaned Western but lacked real research capacity. Cai Yuanpei, influenced by German universities, formed the ideas of “saving the nation by education” and “academic supremacy,” laying groundwork for his later PKU reform.