The End Of The Classical Academies And Its Influences On Modern Chinese Universities

As a self-grown educational organization form in Chinese civilization, the classical academies in China were an integrated co-existence with Chinese classical civilization. With the social, economical, political and cultural development of modern China, plus the invasion from the western countries with armed forces and savageness, the classical academies were gradually revealing its disadvantages and weakness, and heading towards its ending. The ending not only indicated that the classical academies were terminated because they were out of date, but philosophically implicated the "congregation"of energies the classical academies had possessed as an educational organization form, as well as the "transformation " and "reincarnation" of the energies in the new educational reforms. The spirits of general education conveyed by the classical academies were not only the guiding media of the creation of the new education, but also the constitutive elements of the new educational spirits which were transformed through the creative spiritual transformation. Within the educational narratives of the classical academies, we came up with the Classical Chinese Academy Views, which took the classical Chinese academy as an higher education institution that held the recreation of spirits through civilization as its core, with the academy’s regulations and rules as its basic institutional frame, holding civilization inheritance, enlightenment of common people, social criticism, and academic researches, and unifying teaching with scientific research as its multi-functions. While clarifying its basic ideological system, the classical academies unfolded the reasons and conditions of its inevitable transformation. Concerning the reasons, the classical academies emphasized the cultivation and development of morality and humanistic spirits, with its curricula consisting of six classic arts, Classic of Poetry. Classic of history, Classic of Rites, Classic of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals. To cultivate the administrative politicians who would offer their services to royal regimes, the classical academies was totally different from the education of modern universities which were based on the industrial society and democracy. Corresponding to the professional divisions in the society, the curricula in modern universities were divided into three categories, humanities, society and nature, with the cultivation of various qualified personnel needed for the society as its goals. The industrial character of the society made the modern universities focusing on the development of the talents who were good at practical science and technology, or on management, which eventually marginalized the courses of humanities and moral education. The transformation of the classical academies became an inevitable choice. Concerning the conditions of its transformation, classical academies had accumulated massive educational energies during the long standing history of civilizations, and under the guidance of the theory of Chinese learning for fundamentals, western learning for practical application, these energies had to follow the inertia of civilization, within or outside its systems, to realize the transformation of new education. For historical and practical reasons, the Chinese classical academies chose the direction of modern universities, and kept on going on this way.No matter conceptually, institutionally or spiritually concerned, the modern universities were primarily the result of learning and borrowing from the European and American university models. This was decided by the fact that universities, as an important form of human civilization, had the general characters that surpassed nations. But, the homoorganicity between a nation’s education and its civilization decided that the borrowings of the modern Chinese universities from the European and American universities had to be in harmoniousness with the Classical Chinese Academy Views, which led to its effectiveness and desirableness. In term of concept, Zhang Boling concluded the educational concepts as the real spirits of Confucius and Mencius. He developed the humanistic pragmatism in Chinese cultural education and the traditions of political critique in classical academies, proposed the concepts that the universities should face the Chinese problems and experiences, accommodate fairness and capabilities, offer the services to the construction of democrat society. Cai Yuanpei inherited the fine traditions of classical academies which united teaching with researches, and contributed to the construction of nation’s new civilization. He defined the academic researches as the basic nature of a university, and built the reconstruction of civilization on the solid bases of academic researches and scientific inventions. Mei Yiqi took the fundamental task of universities as to cultivate the first-class industrial leaders. He re-elaborated the classical Chinese Way of Great Learning, and boiled down to the leading of the great masters both in ideology and academics, which established the ideological system of the general education in universities. Far beyond this, the three gentlemen emphasized the necessities of universities to cultivate the holistic personality of students, inherited in a deeper level the humanistic and moral traditions in Chinese classical civilization, as well as the cultural and educational philosophy of reaching for the highest excellence. In term of institution, Zhang Boling advocated the university board system which based on gentry society, Cai Yuanpei set up the regulations that universities should be administered by professors and should enjoy the academic autonomy, and Mei Yiqi introduced the general education in Tsinghua University. All these efforts were permeated with the spiritual traditions of Chinese classical academies. The charisma revealed in these gentlemen as the leaders of universities were the modern transformation of the authoritarian personality of Chinese classical academies. Though Chinese classical academy had failed in the seeking both within and outside the university system, its organizational purpose of studying profound knowledge, its student-teacher relationships in which students followed their teachers traveling for education, its curriculum provisions ranging from extensive general education courses to intensive professional courses, its teaching methods as questioning and answering, all had deep influences on the relevant systems of academic and scientific researches in modern Chinese universities. In term of spirit, modern Chinese universities transformed the traditional poetic education of classical academies, advocating the new literary education to enlighten common people, infusing the sense of democracy and the spirit of science into heart of the nation. By philosophizing the Neo-Confucianism, the moral and humanistic spirits in Chinese classical civilization had been successfully reborn in the university mechanism. The personality as a man natured by the political critique from the traditional intellectuals also became the potential resources for the intellectuals to accept the senses and spirits of independence and freedom. Hence, by melting the historical and recent spirits both from China and the West, modern Chinese universities brought a unique spiritual character into being, a new spirit of university that unified the traditional spirit from Confucianism and Monism, the spirit of freedom from the personality of the gentry in British universities, the spirit of science from the profound studying in German and French universities, as well as the spirit of democracy from the social service in American universities.On the one hand, the conflicts and compromises between the classical academies and universities unintentionally pointed to a new form of civilization, a knowledge society with kindheartedness as its core, independence and freedom as its ground, democracy and science as its characteristics. Inside this new form of civilization, it was clearly revealed that the intellectuals from the modern Chinese universities had inherited and developed the spirits and traditions of Chinese culture and education, with the reconstruction of society and the prosperities of the country based on profound academic researches as one goal, and establishing a advanced knowledge society as a buffer zone between the universities and the government as the other goal. Not only the flourishing of academic researches was guaranteed, but a sound foundation of knowledge society for the politics was provided, therefore, a virtuous circle relationship between the academic and the politics was established. On the other hand, three self-born contradictions were brought to modern Chinese universities, the contradiction between the Chinese classical civilizations and the university organizations, the contradiction between the academic and politics, the contradiction between the needs of individuals and the universities. These triple contradictions and tenses always influenced the development of modern Chinese universities, and quietly changed the single nature of the universities as the advanced academic research organizations. The universities gradually manifested a more inclusive and diversified nature which could be put as academic, professional, civilized and humanistic. Then, the universities possessed the particularities and styles of Chinese civilization and became Chinese universities, integrated with a new forthcoming civilization originated from and developed in China.