The Nationalism Orientation Of Modern University

At the beginning of the20th century, under the impact of the western nation-state system, China began the process of evolution from Dynasty Country to Nation-state. With the special international environment and the collapse of Qing Dynasty, so this period brought out the Nation-state as the dominated feature. To save the nation from subjugation by national education, to construct Nation-state by national education, and to realize the progressiveness by national education, which all had become the consensus of political elite and intellectual elite. Germany and Japan, because of the education, especially higher education and the rise of modern myth, also stimulated the nerve of the elite. Therefore, it was a primary option of elite to construct the national education system and the modern university system. Moreover, it was also inevitable for modern university to become nationalism orientation. The nationalism orientation of Sichuan University was fully demonstrated in the aim to serve for the nation, the process of nationalization and the construction of rear area in the Anti-Japanese War.In1902, Sichuan Provincial Institute of Higher Learning(the predecessor of Sichuan University) was founded. Hu Jun, who was a Hanlin Editor (Imperial Academy Editor) from Jinshi (Former Third Degree Candidate in the Imperial Examination), was elected as the first president. Realizing his sacred mission, he knew the importance of Sichuan University to the Southwest area and the whole country. He pointed out that order and disorder of a nation depended on the ups and downs of the elite and national education, and that the Institute of Higher Learning should contribute to the country and make generalists. Therefore, Modern Universities, founded by Hu Jun who represented the Sichuan Government and gentry, were aimed to deal with the order and disorder of the nation through national education to make national elite, just like the words in the Doctrine of University put forward by Cai Yuanpei that the university must cultivate scholars to meet the nation’s needs."Nationalization" process of Sichuan University was a part of the national unification movement in the20s and30s."Nationalization" is not only the embodiment of the national unification in the field of higher education, but also a means and symbol of unity. It shows the power relations and the evolution process of central and local governments produced by around the "country", the deep symbolic thing in a specific space, and it enlightens us to think the nationalism orientation characteristics of modern universities. At the same time, the problem of how to deal with the power between the central and local governments for the universities broke through the boundary of the narrow educational field, and revealed the subtle interactive relations between academic and politics in that period.With the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the teachers and students in Sichuan University, like those in migrant universities, suffered everything silently and worked harder than ever for the fundamental interests of the nation. They saved the seeds of scholarship and hope for the survival and revival of the nation. At the same time, the Central Government strengthened the control of universities thoroughly, which left a broader space for us to think the complexity of the nationalism orientation and time stamp of modern university in the process of the Nation-state.This article attempts to take the development of higher education of Sichuan University in the late Qing Dynasty as a case study to make a concrete analysis of modern Chinese nationalism orientation, so as to take on the nationalism orientation course in modern China universities and the characteristics and time stamp under the orientation, and also to reflect on the modern trend and value of the nationalism orientation to inspire the contemporary university as a reference.