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Editor's note:
Beida (Peking University) and Tsinghua University are two of the most prestigious universities in Beijing. Both have greatly influenced the shape of twentieth-century Chinese history. In his newly published book entitled Tsinghua No. 1, Beida No. 2, young scholar Xu Jinru, a graduate of the Dept. of Chinese Language & Literature, Peking University, makes an interesting comparison between Beida and Tsinghua in terms of sharply contrasting views of student freedom. According to Xu, Beida and Tsinghua students' diametrically opposed opinions on freedom are based on long-standing traditions.
Neighboring Beida (Peking University) and Tsinghua University, two of the most prestigious Beijing-based universities, have impacted greatly on China's history over the past 80 years. The political affairs and academic research of China during the last century have maintained countless ties with the two universities.
Actually, there are very few universities in the world like Beida and Tsinghua that have had such decisive influence on the destiny and future of a nation.
Between 1915 and 1919 a campaign of cultural enlightenment called the New Culture Movement broke out in Beijing. This was to herald a political and cultural movement against imperialism and feudalism that occurred in Beijing in 1919 called the May 4th Movement. Since this influential time, students of Beida have played the role of enlightened and social reformers in China.
Meanwhile, Tsinghua produced a different type of intellectual elite living in "ivory towers." Included among them were Pan Guangdan (1899-1967), a primary exponent of eugenics in China and translator of the works of the British sexologist Havelock Ellis; Liang Shiqiu (1903-1987), a prominent essayist and translator who translated the works of Shakespeare into Chinese; and Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998), a modern writer and classical Chinese literature expert and well-known to the West through his only novel, Fortress Besieged.
Tsinghua was molded into a polytechnic institution that focused on engineering, in a nationwide restructuring of universities and colleges in 1952 that further increased intrinsic discrepancies between the two universities.
In the late 1990s, with the re-establishment of departments in science, economics and the humanities, Tsinghua reasserted itself as a comprehensive university. Nonetheless, the long-standing traditions of Beida and Tsinghua, which are poles apart, have played a direct and incisive role in shaping the students as distinct individuals.
Radicals vs. Conservatives
The most striking distinction between the two universities' students is that Beida students are considered radical while those in Tsinghua conservative. During the New Culture Movement, Beida produced two notable critics of feudal China: Lu Xun (1881-1936), also known as Lu Hsun, a Chinese writer, thinker and revolutionary; and Chen Duxiu (1879-1942), also known as Ch'en Tu-hsiu, a founding member and first general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who was expelled from the CPC in 1929. Both men were openly critical of feudal conventions and categorically rejected traditional Confucian doctrine which was the orthodox thought of feudal China.
Meanwhile, in the 1920s, Tsinghua produced a batch of scholars who held culturally conservative views, including Wang Guowei (1877-1927), renowned ci poet and scholar and Chen Yinque (1890-1969), widely recognized as the most influential academic historian of twentieth-century China.
The dividing line of radicalism vs. conservatism between Beida and Tsinghua has continued up to the present. When former US President Bill Clinton visited Beida in 1998, Ma Nan, a female student from the Department of Chinese Language & Literature, regarded the US as a foe and reproached America relentlessly at the press conference. Interestingly, three years later, during his Tsinghua tour, President George W. Bush was faced with questions of a much milder tone.
Beginning with the New Culture Movement, Peking University took the lead in almost all student movements that broke out in China. In her 100-odd-year history, Beida has served as political forum more than academic institute. Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940), also known as Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei, was an outstanding scientist, educationalist and democratic revolutionary who took up Beida's presidency in 1917 and played an active role in its reform and development. He was generally acclaimed as a "perfect man" by Beida people. However, as a member of the Tongmenghui -- Chinese Revolutionary League established by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1905, bookish Cai joined, in person, the Revolution of 1911 that eventually overthrew the Qing Dynasty.
So, to some degree, it is not an overstatement to define Beida as one of the world's most radical universities, with its characteristic revolutionary tendencies.
Lu Xun once commented that the Beida spirit was renewed constantly. Historically, rebellion has remained the favorite lifestyle of the radical Beida students. At Beida, it's usual to see long-haired cynical youngsters, with guitars, strolling through campus. Nobody can know whether or not they stick to anything, behind such a mask of rebellion and individualism.
In reality, Beida student radicalism has often been based on the cultural habits of the student body rather than belief. Consequently, the "anti-US" Ma Nan, who challenged Clinton, claimed right after the press conference that her favorite country was the United States. After graduation she indeed married an American.
In contrast, according to Xu Jinru, conservative Tsinghua students seem to be stricter in what they say and do. In public opinion, they have been characterized as men of action. Tsinghua students who are not good at empty talk possess the spirit of doing solid work. Compared with Beida students who like to challenge established practices, Tsinghua students appear to understand more clearly the importance of respecting rules.
Beyond all doubt, Beida's radicalism and Tsinghua's conservatism stem from their respective traditions. Cai Yuanpei can be regarded as the founder of the Beida tradition. In his early years Cai studied in Germany. When holding the post of President of Peking University, Cai engaged many returned students from Japan as professors. However, in the 1920s and 1930s, nearly all teachers at Tsinghua were returned students from the US, of whom a typical representative was Mei Yiqi (1889-1962). Acting as Tsinghua's president from 1931 to 1948, Mei who graduated from Washington University ushered in the golden age of Tsinghua University and rendered laudable service for the creation of the Tsinghua tradition.
So, the comparison between Beida's radicalism and Tsinghua's conservatism reflects conflicting opinions on freedom between those returned students from Germany and Japan and those studying in Britain and the US in the 1920s and 1930s, Xu wrote in his book.
Different Freedoms
Beida and Tsinghua people are poles apart in their opinions of freedom. Almost every Beida student holds the apparently naive impression that they have the makings to be the country's Premier. In these terms, liberty means to participate freely in the deliberation and administration of state affairs. However, for Tsinghua students who have less enthusiasm for politics, freedom is merely the synonym of accepting the restraint of law and rules.
According to Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992), history presents two conflicting traditions of freedom: one originating in Britain and the US, the other one stemming from Continental Europe represented by France and Germany. This partition coincides with distinctions found in Beida and Tsinghua.
Established in 1911, initially as a preparatory school for students who were to be sent to study in the US by the government, Tsinghua naturally inherited British-American ideas of freedom, Xu said. This tradition which holds the natural order in high esteem advocates reform but opposes revolution. Generally speaking, etatist views (state-directed economics) held by such people as Pan Guangdan, stand for Tsinghua's moderate positions on political issues.
From Cai Yuanpei and teachers who studied in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, Beida students fully and uncritically accepted German opinions of freedom, Xu said. If Tsinghua students are used to keeping in line with public convention, as British and Americans do, Beida people, like the Germans, are proud of their individuality.
Actually, every Beida student wishes he or she be different from the ordinary. In their opinion, only those social rules based on rational selection deserve respect. They look down on any extant rules unapproved by rational knowledge. For instance, when a high school student from Wuhan, Hubei Province failed not long ago in trying to be exempt from the entrance exam to the Department of Chinese Language & Literature, Peking University by means of a published novel, Kong Qingdong, a professor from that very department, not only showed deep sympathy for the student but called the rationality of the present university entrance examination system into question.
Renowned historian Qian Mu (1895-1990) once sighed, "Since I came to Beida, I've got myself entangled in a dispute." According to Xu, it is an indisputable fact that twentieth-century China has been mainly under the influence of Beida people's view of freedom. As for Tsinghua-styled freedom, it never struck a sympathetic chord outside the Chinese intelligentsia.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, September 11, 2003)
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