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Cai Yuanpei and Sun Yat-sen University
Joint programs
From Guangdong University to Sun Yat-sen
University
Cai Yuanpei and Sun Yat-sen University
Cai Yuanpei, the famous
educator of the country, once had deep friendship with Sun
Yat-sen University.
When the National Guangdong University founded by Dr. Sun
Yat-sen was renamed Sun Yat-sen University, Cai Yuanpei was
specially invited to be a member of the Preparatory Committee.
Not long after, he was added as a member to the special regional
committee of Sun Yat-sen University of the Chinese Kuomintang.
During February 1928, The
Division of Learning (later changed to the Ministry of Education),
with Cai Yuanpei as director and Yang Xingfo as deputy director
(invited as member of the preparatory committee of National
Guangdong University) made the decision that all the universities
named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen must be altered to the name of
the local place, except the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou
founded by him for commemoration, since many universities
had been all over the country to commemorate Dr. Sun Yat-sen
after his death, which not only lose the meaning in commemoration,
but cause confusion in international academic exchange. Hence,
Sun Yat-sen University became the only famous university named
after him and was also founded by him until today, which is
the most treasured aspect that deserved our pride since the
founding of Sun Yat-sen University.
The Research Institute of
Language and History, prepared by Professor Fu Sinian, director
of the department of literature and history (later changed
to Department of Liberal Arts and School of Literature), in
August 1927, and founded in January 1928, was selected by
Cai Yuanpei, director of Central Research Academy under preparation
(formally founded on June 9,1928) as the base for the Research
Institute of History and Language under preparation. He appointed
Professor Fu Sinian and Professor Gu Jiegang, Yang Zhensheng
as members of the Preparatory Committee. The same people were
organized under two signs. The Research Institute of history
and language was founded at Bo Yuan, No. 35 Xueguyuan Street,
Dongshan District, Guangzhou in October 1928, then moved to
Yangxinzai, Beihai, Beiping in March 1929. Professor Fu Sinian
also went to Beiping as director of the institute, while at
the same time was invited to be adviser of the Research Institute
of History and Language by Sun Yat-sen University. This academic
institute attached to Sun Yat-sen University was thus divided
into two institutes, one growing into a national academic
organization, the other continuing to develop, which laid
the foundation for Sun Yat-sen University become one of the
three national universities to set up research institutes
in 1935.
When the Japanese imperialists
staged the ??9.18?? event to occupy the northeast of our country
with armed forces, patriotic teachers and students of Sun
Yat-sen University at the southern door of the country raised
resistance against Japan promptly to save the nation from
extinction. They set up the "Executive Committee to fight
the Japanese and save the nation in Sun Yat-sen University",
which composed of 21 representative of teachers and students
including the Acting President, Professor Xu Chongqing, to
lead the campaign. The Committee published "Special Anti-Japanese
Issues" to broaden the propaganda of resistance against
Japan and to start a campaign against Japanese goods, and
held a publicity week of national sufferings from October
5, inviting celebrities to make speeches calling on people
to fight the Japanese.
The speakers on the first
day of the week of national sufferings on October 5 were Cai
Yuanpei and Zhang Boquan (Zhang Ji). All the students, as
well as President Xu Chongqing and the members of the Anti-Japanese
Committee attended the meeting in the auditorium in Sun Yat-sen
University. Cai Yuanpei made the first speech which was carried
on the Sun Yat-sen Universtiy Daily on October 8,1931.
Cai Yuanpei??s speech focused
on mobilizing people to resist the Japanese aggression. Though
he did not attack the non-resistance police of Jiang Kaishek
directly, he was obvious singing a different tune from Jiang
Kaishek??s policy of compromise and surrender. The speech
demonstrated that Cai Yuanpei hated the Japanese aggressors,
that he was a patriot advocating resistance against the Japanese
imperialism. The contents of his speech are as follows:
At the beginning, Cai Yuanpei
said: "Today, you have just return from an anti-Japanese
demonstration and must be very tired, but you have to listen
to my speech. I am sorry I don??t have much to say, but at
your hearty invitation, I have to say something."
After some polite greetings,
he concentrated on the issue of anti-Japanese and saving the
nation, which is matter of all concern. He said, "It
is a matter of unanimous agreement to fight the Japanese.
They invade the three provinces in the northeast, occupy our
territory, kill our people, all the Chinese people, no matter
how far away they are, are deeply concerned. He asked the
audience, ??Why are the Japanese so rude and violent? Why
don??t they dare to invade Britain, France or the US, but
come to the three provinces in the northeast? He answered
the problem directly: ??This is because they know that our
forces can not be compared with those in Britain, France or
the US." He mentioned a historical lesson by saying "The
Japanese and Russians had been engaged in war, yet the battlefield
was within the Chinese boundary. Then the Chinese troops should
have been engaged too, but the Japanese didn??t allow us to
intervene, so we had to remain neutral. Wasn??t it a shame!
If all people in the nation had noticed the dangers in the
northeast after this battle, and had trained our army, how
did the Japanese dare to invade our country?"
He then analyzed the excuses
the Japanese used for invading China, "The Japanese often
say that they have too little land and too much population,
while in Manchuria it is the opposite. They stimulate the
people by encouraging them to go live in the northeast in
China. At this, he talked about another historical lesson,
"There is a lot of uncultivated wasteland in the northeast,
a lot of mines that are not developed. Why didn??t we move
our people there?"
All these have been over,
what we must solve urgently is to fight the Japanese. Therefore,
he has talked about two solutions:
"First of all, all the people in the nation should be
united, no matter whether the resistance force is strong enough,
we must fight to the last moment. We won??t allow the tragedy
of the Romans killing the Cathes to be repeated."
"Second, the Japanese
outrage this time is completely a barbarian warlord move,
?? so far we have not yet declared war on Japan, This problem,
may be temporarily solved with diplomatic actions. But we
must not forget the shame; and we may face more dangers. If
we don??t defend ourselves, our nation will be wiped out.
We should carry on the responsibility of military service;
replace the volunteer military service with the hired soldier
system. If our military needs and economic needs can be self-sufficient,
we don??t need not depend on foreign country."
At the end of his speech,
Cai Yuanpei placed great hope on the students of Sun Yat-sen
University. He said: "You young people will take more
responsibilities than we do. In university you learn a lot
of knowledge. I hope that you will study the better ways of
solving the problems and lead the people to fight the Japanese."
Afterwards, Cai Yuanpei
advocated actively for resistance against the Japanese, opposed
to Jiang Kaishek??s non-resistance policy. In December 1932,
he started the Chinese Civil Rights Guarantee Alliance with
Song Qingling, Lu Xun, etc. and took the position of vice
chairman. In 1937 after the War of Resistance Against Japan
broken out and Shanghai fell into the hands of the Japanese
army, he moves to Hong Kong. He died of illness in Hong Kong
on March 5,1940. When the news of his death reached Sun Yat-sen
University which had moved to Yunnan province because of the
war of resistance against the Japanese, the Sun Yat-sen University
Daily carried the news on March 13,1940. Zou Lu, the president
of the university who was recuperating in Chongqing extended
his condolences to his family members on behalf of teachers
and students, expressing their heartfelt mourning for his
death.
From Guangdong University to Sun Yat-sen University
Sun Yat-sen University was
originally called National Guangdong University, founded by
Dr. Sun Yat-sen on February 4,1924. Dr. Sun Yat-sen paid much
attention to the preparation work, and he not only staged
revolutionary campaigns from the National Guangdong Normal
School, one of the three predecessors of Guangdong University,
so as to increase its influence, but also issued orders frequently
in the name of generalissimo to solve specific problems in
preparing and running the university. As a result, the National
Guangdong University quickly became a multi-disciplinary institution
of high education in South China which was the first one founded
by a Chinese compatriot. After the death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
the National Government which was set up during the first
cooperation between the Communists and Nationalists formally
decreed to change its name to Sun Yat-sen University to commemorate,
inherit, and develop the great revolutionary spirit of Dr.
Sun Yat-sen on July 17,1926.
I.Founded Guangdong University
In March 1923, Dr. Sun Yat-sen
established the generalissimo residence again in Guangzhou
and took the post of generalissimo. At that time, the political
situation is Guangdong was in turmoil, he still bore in mind
the development of higher education. The twists and turns
in the democratic revolutionary struggle in China and the
successful experience of the October revolution in Russia
made him realize that talent training was of vital importance
to the great cause of saving the nation and the people, while
in order to train talents with the spirit of the time, we
had to run new-type schools of our own. To meet the demands
for talents by the quickly developing revolutionary situation
in Guangdong and the country after the establishment of the
cooperation between the Communists and the Nationalists in
the early 1920s, Dr. Sun Yat-sen gave orders to set up the
??Marshal School?? the Academy of Army Officers on January
24,1924, which was afterwards called the Huangpu Military
School. On February 4 of the same year, he promulgated two
orders of the generalissimo, appointing Zou Lu director of
the preparatory committee of Guangdong University, merging
and restructuring the National Guangdong Normal School and
the Guangdong College of Law, which were established in 1905,
as well as the Guangdong Agricultural School, which was established
in 1909, to form the "School of Literature and Arts"
National Guangdong University, which was afterwards renamed
Sun Yat-sen University.
The preparatory committee
was formed in the month when Dr. Sun Yat-sen promulgated his
order of the generalissimo, which consisted of Zou Lu, senior
statesman from Kuomintang as director and 35important members
from Kuomintang central, provincial and municipal governments
as well as Communists such as Hu Hanmin, Wang Jingwei, Liao
Zhongkai, Wu Chaoshu, Ma Junwu, Sun Ke, Li Dazhao, Xu Chongqing,
Hu Shi, Chen Shuren, Xiong Xiling,etc. At the first meeting
of the preparatory committee held On March 3 the charter of
Guangdong University was adopted. According to the charter,
the Normal School was reorganized into the departments of
natural sciences and liberal arts in Guangdong University,
the Law School was reorganized into the Department of Law,
the Agriculture College was reorganized into departments of
agriculture, the department of engineering and preparatory
school were established, and a normal school was set up later.
The preparatory committee also formulated rules and regulations
one after another, of which "the University Regulations"
and "the National Guangdong University donation articles"
were announced in the name of the generalissimo.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen appointed
Zou Lu the first president of the National Guangdong University
on June 9,1924. In the summer of the same year, the university
enrolled its first batch of 372 students in the pre-school,
and a ceremony for the founding of the National Guangdong
University was held on November 11. President Zou Lu presided
over the ceremony, Hu Hanmin, Liao Zhongkai, Wang Jingwei
and other important Kuomintang politicians attended the meeting
and delivered speeches. Dr. Sun Yat-sen didn??t attend the
meeting because he had to prepare for his trip north to meet
Feng Yuxiang, but he entrusted Hu Hanmin, governor of Guangdong
Province to represent him and deliver a speech of congratulation.
He also wrote the inscription of "study extensively,
enquire accurately, reflect carefully, discriminate clearly
and practise earnestly" for the university.
The National Guangdong University
was a top multi-disciplinary institution of higher education
in South China, which "takes it as its purposes to instill
and research advanced theory and technology and try hard to
popularize its application according to national conditions,"
(Regulations of the National Guangdong University) The University
was located in four places in Guangzhou, and the site of the
original Normal School at Wenming Road (now the Guangzhou
Zhongshan library) was the main division of the university.
There is a hall on the campus where Dr. Sun Yat-sen presided
over the first conference of the Chinese Kuomintang and re-interpreted
his Three People's Principles, a big clock tower that served
as the landmark of Guangdong University. Even since the beginning,
the university tried to employ scholars with specialties,
and many teachers had profound learning in the profession.
The University had invited a batch of famous personage to
teach, among them were Yang Shouchang, Chen Gongbo, Guo Moruo,
Yu Dafu, Cheng Fangwu, etc. Famous educator Xu Teli, Liao
Zhongkai, standing member of the Central Committee of Kuomintang,
as well as Mao Zedong, Wu Yuzhang, Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi
of the Communist Party had been to the university to lecture
or to deliver a speech.
The Big Clock Tower, Emblem
and School Anthem use in that time
II.Renamed Sun Yat-sen University
On March 12,1925, Dr. Sun
Yat-sen dies of illness in Beijing. To commemorate the founder
of the National Guangdong University, Liao Zhongkai suggested
to rename the National Guangdong University to National Zhongshan
University at the 71st session of first Central Executive
Committee of Kuomintang on June 19,1926. The National Government
approved to set up the preparatory committee for the National
Ssun Yat-sen University consisting of 40 people such as Zhu
Minyi, Chen Shuren, Song Ziwen, Chen Gongbo, Jiang Kaishih,
Xu Haoqing, Guo Moruo, Deng Zhiyi, etc. Other members of the
Committee included 30 people such as Lin Boqu, Ssun Ke, Cai
Yuanppei, Wu Zhihui, Gu Mengyu, Li Shizeng, and Jiang Mengling.
On August 17, the National Government issued order to formally
rename the National Guangdong University as National Zhongshan
university, with Dai Jitao as president. The standard English
translation of the name of Zhongshan university is "Sun
Yatssen University", with November 11 as its anniversary
day.
III.Change the University
Day
On November 3, 1951, the
university made the announcement of "the Decision to
make Dr. Sun Yat-sen??s birthday the University Day",
posted it on campus and carried it on the campus newspaper
People??s Zhongda.
The university sent a cable
to Song Qingling, vice chairman of the Central People's Government
in Beijing in the name of President Xu Chongqing and Vice
President Feng Naichao on November 11, which reads as follows:
Our university is the only
one that commemorates Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the country. In order
to stress the meaning commemorating Dr. Sun Yat-sen, we decided
to change the University Day to November 12 (Dr.Sun Yat-sen??s
birthday) starting from this yea. In addition to holding a
celebration meeting and an entertainment evening party on
the University Day this year, there will also be exhibition
of natural sciences, exhibition of cultural relics of minorities
and ball games simultaneously. We send the cable to inform
you about the change and express our courtesy.
Xu Chongqing, president
Feng Naichao, vice president
November 11.
Madame Song Qingling replied quickly:
Presidaent Xu and Vice President
Feng: I am pleased to receive your cable and to learn that
your university has changed the University Day to Dr. Sun
Yat-sen??s birthday, which is really meaning. I Hope that
you may inherit the revolutionary spirit of Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
strengthen the sport of the War to Resist US Aggression and
Aid Korea under the wise leadership of Chairman Mao, train
talents for the construction vigorously, and struggle to build
a prosperous and beautiful new China.
Sincerely yours,
Song Qingling
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