TS'AI YAN-P'EI

born January 1863, Shanyin, Chekiang province, China died March 5, 1940, Hong Kong Pinyin Cai Yuanpei educator and revolutionary who served as head of Peking University from 1916 to 1926 during the critical period when that institution played a major role in the development of a new spirit of nationalism and social reform in China. Ts'ai passed the highest level of his civil-service examination in 1890, becoming one of the youngest successful candidates in the history of the imperial examination system. In 1904 he helped organize and became the first president of the Restoration Society (Kuang-fu hui), a revolutionary group dedicated to the overthrow of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty. Most of this group later became affiliated with the United League (T'ung-meng hui), formed in 1905 by the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, and Ts'ai became head of the party's Shanghai branch. As provisional president of the Chinese republic, Sun Yat-sen appointed Ts'ai minister of education in January 1912, following the overthrow of the 2,000-year-old Chinese imperial system. Six months later, shortly after the presidency passed to the military dictator Yan Shih-k'ai, Ts'ai resigned his post and went to Europe, where he remained, except for a brief interval in 1913, until late in 1916. During this period, Ts'ai organized a work-study program in which more than 2,000 Chinese students and labourers traveled to France to study in the schools and work in the factories. Many future Chinese leaders were trained in this program, including Zhou Enlai, who helped organize one of the first Chinese Communist cells while in Paris. In 1916, after first declining a position as governor of the central Chinese province of Chekiang, Ts'ai was made chancellor of the most prestigious school in China, Peking University. The university served as a centre of the May Fourth Movement, which began in 1919 as a student demonstration against imperialist exploitation of China and ended as a nationwide movement. Most of the future leaders of Chinaincluding the young Mao Zedong, who was employed as a clerk in the librarywere associated with the university at this time. In 1926 Ts'ai left Peking to participate in revolutionary activities against Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition to unify China. After the failure of these efforts, Ts'ai continued to work for the cause of higher education, accepting positions in Chiang Kai-shek's government. In 1928 he helped found and served as the first president of the Academia Sinica, China's highest institution of academic study and research. In 1935 Ts'ai resigned all official posts and retired to Shanghai.