The Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning


In 1925, the Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning was established at Tsinghua School, which invited the four luminaries Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Chen Yinke, and Zhao Yuanren to be mentors not only in supervising specialized research but also in managing the Academy. Many famous scholars, such as Li Ji, Ma Heng, Zhao Wanli, Ding Wenjiang, and Lin Zhijun were invited to be lecturers in specific disciplines. In a short period of four years, more than seventy students enrolled in the Academy, with more than fifty among them attaining prominent achievement in the fields of modern “Chinese learning,” which is considered as a legend in the history of Chinese modern education. To build a first-class academic platform and to continue the excellent academic tradition and brilliant history of the old Academy, in November 2009 the Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning was rebuilt as an interdisciplinary research institution which is directly under the THU.

According to the principles that emphasize the selection of highly advanced scholars, Professor Chen Lai and Professor Liu Dong preside over the faculty, while Professor Liu Yingsheng, Yao Dali and Li Bozhong are appointed as distinguished professors, they’ve organized a core research team specializing in the fields of ancient Chinese philosophy, aesthetics (comparative literature), history of the Mongols and Yuan Dynasty (borderland history ), economic history of ancient China and so on. Meanwhile, in order to support scholarship on a more extensive scale and to engage some researchers of humanities from Tsinghua and other qualified universities, the Academy has established a program for visiting scholars as well as a research group for postdoctoral fellows.

At present, the Academy is cooperating with the School of Humanities with the purpose of cultivating a rich cultural environment and promoting liberal arts research on the Tsinghua campus. Therefore, the Academy has initiated several lecture series (e.g. the Academy of Chinese Learning “Workshop,” “Forum,” and “Lectures”) which are led by renowned scholars from China and around the world and open to both the campus community and the general public. Among these, the core series are the Liang Qichao Lectures, the Wang Guowei Lectures, and the Chen Yinke Lectures, which were established in memory of the three masters who provided the foundations for the humanities at Tsinghua University. Each of these three series of lectures is to be delivered once a year, by world-class scholars in the fields of philosophy, literature and history. At the same time, the invited lecturers will also engage in scholarship exchange on the specific theme of the lectures with colleagues in China. The contents of the lectures, including relevant dialogues and debates, will be eventually published as part of the seriesBooks of Tsinghua Lectures on Chinese Learning.

From the beginning of rebuilding, the Academy has stressed on pondering its history and holding academic activities, such as the projects of “Tsinghua Corpus on Chinese Learning” and “Tsinghua Research on Chinese Learning”. The Corpus on Chinese Learning is intended for compiling a collection for each member of the original Academy, as a permanent tribute and memorial, presenting their great contribution to modern Chinese humanities, in this way the series will show the former Academy’s contribution to the humanities in a short four years in the 1920s The content of the latter series will include discussions of Chinese Learning, intellectual histories of the original Academy, biographies of the former humanities masters from Tsinghua, as well as published research by Academy appointed and affiliated faculty, visiting scholars, postdoctoral fellows, as well as from other Academy-sponsored research projects.

The Academy has launched three academic journals. The bulletin of the Academy isZhongguo xueshu(China Scholarship), which aims at elevating the research level in the humanities and social sciences in China, improving the academic progress of Chinese world, strengthening the cohesion of cultural China, advancing deeper academic exchange between China and abroad, promoting Chinese to be a language for international academic work. At present,Zhongguo Xueshuis a first-class, authoritative journal with international renown in the field of Chinese culture research. TsinghuaYuan Shi(The History of Yuan Dynasty of Tsinghua), which tries to further the combination and cooperation among the fields of ancient Chinese history and anthropology, mainly publishes research papers not only on the history of Mongolia and Yuan Dynasty, but also referring to borderland history and geographic studies.Guoxue wenzhai(The Digest of Chinese Learning) highlights the most recent academic works in Chinese in order to reflect new developments in academic research.

Address:the Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Postal code:100084

Tel:86-10-6279 2831