Peking University has never had a clear motto, but there are two popular mottos. The first is known as "freedom of thought and tolerance", and the second is "patriotism, progress, democracy and science". Peking University, founded in 1898, was the first national comprehensive university in China and the highest educational administrative organ in China at that time. It was renamed as 19 12 after the Revolution of 1911.

After the founding of New China, 1952 national colleges and universities were reorganized, and Peking University became a comprehensive university focusing on basic teaching and research of arts and sciences, which trained a large number of talents for the country. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 400 alumni and teachers in Peking University, and a considerable number of influential people in the field of humanities and social sciences in China are also from Peking University.

In recent years, with the support of "2 1 1 Project" and "985 Project", Peking University has entered a new historical development stage, and has made remarkable achievements in discipline construction, personnel training, faculty building, teaching and scientific research, laying a solid foundation for building Peking University into a world-class university. Today, Peking University has become the cradle of cultivating high-quality innovative talents, the frontier of scientific research, an important base for knowledge innovation and an important bridge and window for international exchanges.