Peking University: Chinese Scholarship and Intellectuals, 1898-1937 (S U N Y Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

Peking University, founded in 1898, was at the center of the major intellectual movements of twentieth-century China. In this institutional and intellectual history, author Xiaoqing Diana Lin shows how the university reflected and shaped Chinese intellectual culture in an era of great change, one that saw both a surge of nationalism and an interest in Western concepts such as democracy, science, and Marxism. Lin discusses Peking University's spirit of openness and how the school both encouraged the synthesis of Chinese and Western knowledge and promoted Western learning for the national good. The work covers the introduction of modern academic disciplines, the shift from integrative learning to specialized learning, and the reinterpretation of Confucianism for contemporary times. Peking University, founded in 1898 as the Imperial Peking University, was China's first modern state university and was at the center of the country's major intellectual movements in the twentieth century: the introduction of Western learning, a revived interest in Buddhism, and a reinterpretation of Confucian and other branches of Chinese learning. The work covers the introduction of modern academic disciplines, the shift from integrative learning to specialized learning, and the reinterpretation of Confucianism for contemporary times."--Jacket