The Research Into Mottoes Of Well-known Christian Universities Of China

Christian Universities are some kinds of higher education institutions set up by western Missions in China with the invasion of imperialism and the formation of aegis of some unfair treaties. From the late 19^th century to early 20^th century, missions established 16 Christian universities in China, among which St. John's University, Nanking University and Yenching University are the most famous. The writer chooses these three universities as the researching subjects, discloses the meaning and the origin of the mottoes, describes the process of mottoes' establishment, discusses their functions in the midst of university-establishing, analyzes the educational thoughts of the motto-establishers, and finally gives the justified assessment of mottoes. The writer adopts a special method, trying to find some important points from the trivial. Specifically speaking, on the one hand, according to the time order, considering the social background at that time and the motto-establishers' educational concepts, the writer states the process of the establishment of mottoes. On the other hand, the writer analyzes the content of the mottoes, exploring the origin of the thoughts from the practical aspect.Besides introduction and conclusion, there are five parts in this thesis.Part One discloses the meaning and origin of mottoes according to different explanations in the west and in China.Part Two indicates the process of mottoes' establishment chronologically, taking into account the social background of China.Part Three introduces the achievements after the establishment of mottoes in these three famous universities, aiming at the illustration, from the practical aspect, of their historical functions.Part Four discusses educational thoughts of the establishers respectively via mottoes' meanings.Part Five makes an objective assessment on mottoes.