The Sinology Institute, jointly established by Harvard University and yenching university, has its headquarters in Harvard University and its Beiping office in yenching university. The establishment of Harvard Yanjing Society should start from Si Tuleideng.

During his tenure in yenching university, Si Tuleideng returned to the United States almost every year to raise funds for running a school. By chance, he learned that Charles Martin Hal (Charles Martin Hal 1863- 19 14) had donated a huge legacy to the education fund, and it was stated in his will that part of it would be used to study China culture. Hull's fascination with China culture is due to the good impression left by two China students when he was young. Therefore, before his death, he made the above arrangement in his will, and proposed to choose a university in the United States and a university in China to jointly form an institution to carry out a plan to study China culture. Hull died in the year when World War I broke out, and his will was put into practice a few years later. Si Tuleideng wanted to win the selection of Yanda University to China University to get the money, but in the end, because Yanda University has just been established and its reputation is far less than that of Peking University, the executor chose Harvard University in the United States and Peking University in China, which frustrated Si Tuleideng's wishful thinking. However, what happened next was a godsend for Si Tuleideng.

After receiving the donation from Hull, Harvard University began to implement the Sinology Research Program. 1924, Harvard University sent Warner, an American who had lived in Shanghai for a long time, to the Thousand Buddha Cave in Dunhuang for "archaeology". After Warner arrived in Dunhuang, he bought the temple with 70 taels of silver "incense money" and stripped off some murals of the Thousand Buddha Cave and shipped them back to China, which caused great indignation among the local people. The following year, Harvard University sent Werner to organize a small "Dunhuang Archaeological Team" to China, and invited Peking University to accompany him to Dunhuang "Archaeology". In view of Werner's previous behavior, the local people were polite to the "archaeological team", but they found various excuses and restrictions in many aspects. On a whim, Warner and others were disappointed and only took some photos to take back to work. The Dunhuang archaeological team was also disbanded.

A student in yenching university once worked as a translator in Warner. After the Dunhuang archaeological team was dissolved, the student returned to school. Si Tuleideng made a fuss when he learned that the archaeological cooperation between Warner and Peking University had failed. He told Qin Fen, Vice Minister of Education of China, and then the Ministry of Education informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to protest against Warner's violation of international law. Although things were perfunctory by the American government, Harvard University felt too embarrassed, angry with Warner and dissatisfied with Peking University. Si Tuleideng took this opportunity to be active and 1926 returned to the United States. He negotiated and cooperated with Harvard University to study China culture in the name of yenching university, and the result was a great success. 1928 Spring, Harvard Yanjing Society was formally established here.

The Beijing office of Harvard Yanjing Society has an executive director, who is succeeded by Fu, an American born in China. Fu used to be a senior in liberal arts, a professor and the head of philosophy department in yenching university. 1939, Fu stepped down and was succeeded by Hong, Si, Nie Chongqi, who was responsible for supervising the use and distribution of funds. 194 1 The Pacific War broke out, Beiping was occupied by Japanese invaders, and yenching university was forced to move to Chengdu, Sichuan in 1942, and Harvard Yanjing Society continued its activities in Chengdu. After the Japanese surrender, yenching university moved back and learned to restore the Beiping office. After the founding of New China, yenching university was changed to public in the spring of 195 1 and merged into Peking University in the following year, and the Beijing office of Harvard Yanjing Society was also cancelled, which lasted for 23 spring and autumn.

In order to train talents in Sinology, the Institute recruits graduate students from yenching university and Harvard University at the same time, and the two universities cooperate to train them. A graduate student from the Department of Oriental Languages at Harvard University was sent to China for further study during the preparation of his doctoral thesis, and returned to China two years later to submit his thesis before being awarded the doctorate in Oriental Studies. Yenching university began to recruit graduate students from 1928. After two years of study, he wrote a paper, and the expert group hired by the Beiping office of the Society became an interview committee. After the interview, he was a "master graduate student" and was awarded a degree when he graduated. In addition, there are international students. The first person sent to Harvard University to study was a history graduate. Four years later, he returned to China and obtained a doctorate in Oriental Studies from Harvard University. In order to shorten the life span of international students in the United States, the institute stipulates that all personnel sent to Harvard University must obtain a master's degree in China.

Buy books and materials. In order to cooperate with the research, the Society established the "Hanhe Library" at Harvard University, which specializes in collecting Chinese and Japanese books. By the end of 1940s, the collection of books had reached100000, which provided sufficient literature guarantee for sinology research. In yenching university, since 1928, the society has allocated funds to buy books every year, ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. The collection objects are mainly thread-bound ancient books, and some oriental books and periodicals in Japanese and western languages are all collected in yenching university Library. According to the survey, at the beginning of the establishment of Yanda Library, there were only 30,000 to 40,000 books. Because this is a missionary school, its books are mainly in western languages. Since 1928, China ancient books have been continuously supplemented. By the 1950 s, there were about 400,000 books (excluding newspapers and periodicals), three quarters of which were purchased with this fund. Nie Chongqi, former executive director of the Beiping office of the agency, recalled that the books purchased at that time were mainly practical, and expensive ancient books of Song Yuanming were rarely purchased. After years of accumulation, practical ancient books have been basically used, and the balance is only slightly lower than that of rare books, and the number is limited. As for 1950, I spent12.5 million yuan to buy Ming Hong's The West Chamber, because the book balance in that year was still sufficient, and if it was returned, the book budget for the next year would be cut, so the above-mentioned "heroic move" was made.

The Society has also made outstanding achievements in publishing books and periodicals. Harvard University published the Harvard Journal of Asian Studies and a special issue of the United States. Since 1935, Chinese-English dictionaries have been compiled. First of all, with the help of yenching university, I copied the words in China rhymes and dictionaries such as Kangxi Dictionary and Pei Fu on cards and sent them to Harvard University. Then it was translated into English by Harvard University. In the process of translation, Harvard University found that there were many discrepancies between the quotations in China's dictionary and the original text, so it sent some cards back to China and asked people to check them one by one. According to Nie Chongqi's recollection, "By the spring of 195 1 2008, only one kind of Pei Yunwen Fu had not been investigated". Although the compilation of the Chinese-English Dictionary is progressing slowly, it is far away, but the Harvard Yanjing Society has become famous and has become the focus of American Orientalism research. The Yanjing Society, which was founded and published in yenching university, is even more famous.

The Beijing office of Harvard Yanjing Society finally completed its journey with yenching university. Half a century has passed, and the dust of the years can't erase the track it left in the cultural history of China. The academic community headquarters of Harvard University continues to this day. It is reported that Peking University plans to hold the first international sinology conference on the occasion of the centenary of Peking University. Among the invited international sinology research institutions and experts, "Harvard Yanjing Society of Harvard University" stands out.