PEKING UNIVERSITY

Chinese (WadeGiles) Pei-ching Ta-hseh, (Pinyin) Beijing Daxue, byname Pei-ta, or Beida in Peking, one of the oldest and most important institutions of higher learning in China. It originated as the Capital College, which was founded in 1898 by the emperor Kuang-hs as part of his short-lived program to modernize and reform China's institutions. This school languished after the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi's coup d'tat of the same year. After the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in 1911, the school was renamed Peking University. It was subsequently reinvigorated, and by 1920 it had become a centre for the most progressive currents among China's intelligentsia and students. During the 1920s two founders of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Dazhao and Chen Duziu, were on the university's faculty, and the young Mao Zedong began studying Marxism in 1918 under their influence, while he worked in the university's library. The noted writer Lu Hsn lectured on Chinese literature at Peking University in the 1920s. Student demonstrations at the university in 1919 marked the start of the influential May Fourth Movement. During the Japanese invasion of China (193745), the university was temporarily relocated to K'un-ming in Yunnan province. In 1952 the university was reorganized and merged with Yen-ch'ing (Yanjing) University, which had been founded by American Methodist missionaries in 1922. Peking University relocated to Yen-ch'ing's more spacious campus, on the northwestern outskirts of Peking. The first disturbances of the Cultural Revolution began at Peking University in 1966. Education there ceased from 1966 to 1970 and did not regain a firm basis until after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Peking University has since reasserted its position as the foremost nontechnical university in China. Students who score the highest in nationwide competitive examinations are admitted to it. The university has about 25 academic departments and several research institutes. It also has the largest university library in China. All Peking University students live in dormitories and receive a government stipend for food. Tuition, books, equipment, and medical care are free.