Nankai University, directly under the Ministry of Education, is established at the deputy ministerial level. In fact, Nankai University was a private university at the beginning of its establishment, which was made out of private money.
Nankai University was founded by Zhang Boling and Yen Hsiu.
Zhang Boling, a native of Tianjin, was born in 1876. When I was a child, because my family was poor, I didn't have the money to take the imperial examination and entered Tianjin Beiyang Naval Academy. At that time, the headmaster of Beiyang Naval Academy was Yan Fu. Yan Fu is very concerned about the growth of Zhang Boling, which has a great influence on his future development.
From 65438 to 0894, Zhang Boling was assigned to practice in Beiyang Navy. The Sino-Japanese War broke out in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and the Beiyang Navy was completely annihilated. From then on, Zhang Boling gradually realized that only by setting up education can we cultivate talents and realize self-improvement.
1898, Zhang Boling met Yen Hsiu. Yen Hsiu is also a native of Tianjin, born in 1860, older than Zhang Boling 16 years old. Although there is a big age gap, they hit it off and became good friends.
Yen Hsiu was born in the late Qing Dynasty and was a bachelor of Hanlin. He has served as an editor of the Hanlin Academy, an assistant editor of the National History Museum, a detailed school official of the Huidian Museum, a political scholar in Guizhou, and an assistant minister of the department. When Yen Hsiu was studying politics in Guizhou, he suggested to Emperor Guangxu to set up an "economic college", which caused a sensation. After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Empress Dowager Cixi abolished the "Special Economic Section". However, during the implementation of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi resumed the "Special Economic Section".
After meeting Yen Hsiu, Zhang Boling devoted himself to promoting the new education in China. First of all, they opened a strict home now. As an experimental base, Zhang Boling teaches new knowledge such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and English.
1903, Zhang Boling and Yen Hsiu visited Japan for education. They witnessed the grand occasion of implementing new education after the Meiji Restoration in Japan and were deeply inspired.
After Zhang Boling and Yen Hsiu returned to China in 1904, they successively established a series of new schools in Tianjin, including Nankai Middle School in 1904, Nankai University in19/9, Nankai Girls' Middle School in 1923 and1923.
Why is it called Nankai School? This is because this series of new schools were located in the southern depression of Tianjin at that time and were called "Nankai" by the people. It belongs to barren land, with low price and low operating cost. After the popularization of Nankai school, this area became lively and later became Nankai District.
Among a series of Nankai schools founded by Zhang Boling and Yen Hsiu, Nankai University is of course the most influential. Nankai University was founded as a private school. The state didn't invest in running schools, but Zhang Boling and Yen Hsiu did.
1923, the Rockefeller Foundation of the United States donated125,000 yuan, and Yuan Shuzhi, a Henan entrepreneur, donated 70,000 yuan. 1927, Hubei entrepreneur Lu Muzhai donated 65,438+10,000 yuan. Relying on these fund groups and private donations, Nankai University has gradually expanded its school scale and improved its school facilities. However, due to the limited strength of private education, the scale of Nankai University is always small. By 1937, Nankai University had only 427 students.
1937 after the full-scale outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Nankai University moved to Kunming, Yunnan Province after several twists and turns, and formed Southwest Associated University with Peking University and Tsinghua University. In The National SouthWest Associated University, only Nankai University is a private university. This shows that the quality of Nankai University is very high.
But Nankai University's joining The National SouthWest Associated University is also a turning point in the fate of this school.
As we all know, Nankai University's funding has been very tight. Since 1930, the National Government has supported Nankai University for many times. 1938, Zhang Boling turned to the national government for help, and was allocated 80,000 school funds, which solved the urgent need. 1945 After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Nankai University will move back to Tianjin, and the resumption of studies will require a lot of money, which Zhang Boling simply cannot afford. In addition to the relocation funds, the National Government generously gave Nankai University 800 million yuan (654.38 billion yuan for Peking University and 654.38 billion yuan for Tsinghua).
However, the national government did not give such a large sum of money in vain, but wanted to turn Nankai University from private to national. Zhang Boling is still naive. To this end, Liang Jisheng, a professor at Nankai University and an expert on the history of Nankai University and local history, has a classic comment: "Zhang Boling has made various efforts, but in the end it failed to realize the private wish of Nankai University. The naive ideal of educators is not as good as the clever' operation' of politicians. "
1946, Nankai University moved back to Tianjin from Kunming, Yunnan, and changed its name to "National Nankai University". Since then, there has never been a "private Nankai University" in the world.