1898 - Education

Education

Central Hindu College is founded at Benares by English reformer Annie Besant, now 51, who embraced theosophy in 1889 and has been campaigning for nationalism in India.

Exhortation to Learning (Quan Xue Pian, or Chüan-hsüeh pien) by Chinese scholar and provincial official Zhang Zhidong (Chang Chih-tung), 60, reaffirms its author's faith in Confucianism but urges his compatriots to study abroad, read foreign newspapers, acquire Western knowledge, and establish a school system. Zhang will establish schools, newspapers, and translation bureaus in Hupei Province and send some students abroad (see 1904).

Beijing (Peking) University has its beginnings in the Capital College established in December by the emperor Guangxu (Kuang-hsü); the imperial government will make the college responsible for devising regulations for a national school system in 1904, and by 1908 Hupei Province alone will be supporting 475 students in Japan and 103 in Western countries. The college will be renamed Beijing University in 1911 and by 1920 will have become a major center for progressive thinking (see 1952; Yanjing University, 1922).