Its predecessor was Fudan Public School founded by 1905 in Shanghai, and 19 17 was renamed as private Fudan University. 1937 after the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the school moved to Chongqing. 1942 was renamed as National Fudan University. Fudan's westward movement contributed to supporting the national war of resistance and promoted the development of culture and education in the wartime capital and southwest China.

Shortly after the July 7th Incident, Nanjing National Central University, National Dental College and Jinling University took the lead in moving westward to Sichuan and settled in Chongqing and Chengdu respectively. During the period from 1938 to 1939, Fudan University, private Zhonghua University in Wuchang, Soochow University Law School, National Theatre Academy, National Pharmacy College, Wuchang Wenhua Library Science College, private Liangjiang Women's Sports Institute, Wusong Merchant Shipping College, National Conservatory of Music and Nankai University Economic Research Institute were relocated one after another. 194 1 At the end of the year, the Pacific War finally broke out, and the southeast and south China were in jeopardy. Universities that had originally moved into the Shanghai Concession and southeast provinces had to move to the southwest one after another. National chiao tung university, Hujiang University and Lixin Accounting College in Shanghai moved to Chongqing, Sichuan. Yenching university was run by the American Church and was forcibly dissolved by the Japanese army after the Pearl Harbor incident. The separated teachers and students came all the way to Chengdu, Sichuan, to teach in Huamei Girls' Middle School in Shaanxi Street and the teaching building of West China University.

During the Anti-Japanese War, 36 institutions of higher learning moved to Chongqing, which preserved the national blood of education in China, made education in the rear area flourish, changed the unreasonable layout and structure of higher education before the war, and accumulated valuable experience in academic, scientific research, teaching and management systems. The inward-moving colleges and universities have also enlivened the academic atmosphere in Chongqing, and the cultural and educational undertakings in Chongqing have flourished since then, and its influence still exists today.