Founded in 1911, the

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

is located on the site of

Tsinghua Garden Tsinghua Garden () is an extensive garden in Haidian District, Beijing, China. Constructed during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) in the Qing dynasty, it was originally named "Xichun Garden" (). Later, it was divided i ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, the former residence of Prince Yinzhi, the third son of the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to 1 ...

of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. In 1909, the indemnity payment to the United States from the

Boxer Protocol The Boxer Protocol was signed on September 7, 1901, between the Qing Empire of China and the Eight-Nation Alliance that had provided military forces (including Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the Unit ...

was reduced by US$10.8 million by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

's administration. The Qing imperial court used the difference to create the

Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program The Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program () was a scholarship program for Chinese students to be educated in the United States, funded by the . In 1908, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to return to China the excess of Boxer Indemnity, amounting to ...

me and established the

China Institute China Institute in America is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution in New York City. It teaches an American audience about Chinese culture and history through talks, business initiatives, language immersion programs and gallery exhib ...

along with a preparatory school. The school was later renamed ''Tsinghua School'' and expanded in 1925 with the addition of a college department.

Origins

The history of Tsinghua originated in the

signed in 1901. The

had to pay war reparations amounting to US$333 million with a four percent annual interest rate in

tael Tael (),"Tael" entry
at the

Eight-Nation Alliance The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove fo ...

, in which the United States had a share of US$24,440,778.81. With difficulties in settling the debt, the Chinese

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

instructed the Chinese ambassador

Liang Cheng Liang Cheng (November 30, 1864 – February 3, 1917), courtesy name Liang Chentung, also known as Liang Pi Yuk, and later as Chentung Liang Cheng, was a Chinese ambassador to the United States during the Qing dynasty. He was primarily respons ...

to negotiate with United States. On 5 December, Liang had the first meeting with

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

John Hay John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was Un ...

, in which Hay proposed that the reparations exceeded the original demand from the United States, and the reduction of payment was settled. With approval from the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

, President

authorised the further reduction of the reparation down to US$13,655,492.69. The remaining difference was to be returned to China, gradually starting in January 1909 for educational programmes, and to create scholarship programmes for Chinese students to study in the United States. To honour Theodore Roosevelt for his contributions to the founding of Tsinghua University, a gymnasium on the Tsinghua campus was named ''Roosevelt Memorial Gymnasium''. On 11 July 1908, the document for reduction of reparation was delivered to the Qing imperial court by

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

William Woodville Rockhill William Woodville Rockhill (April 1, 1854 – December 8, 1914) was a United States diplomat, best known as the author of the U.S.'s Open Door Policy for China, the first American to learn to speak Tibetan, and one of the West's leading exper ...

Prince Qing Prince Qing of the First Rank (Manchu: ; ''hošoi fengšen cin wang''), or simply Prince Qing, was the title of a princely peerage used in China during the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1636–1912). It was also one of the 12 "iron-cap" princely pee ...

responded to the United States government as follows:

Tang Shaoyi Tang Shaoyi (; 2 January 1862 – 30 September 1938), also spelled Tong Shao Yi, courtesy name Shaochuan (), was a Chinese statesman who briefly served as the first Premier of the Republic of China in 1912. In 1938, he was assassinated by the ...

was dispatched to the United States to deliver the official letter from the Qing imperial court. The letter says: The First Group of Students to study in the USA from China in 1909

The First Group of Students to study in the USA from China in 1909

The United States government begin to remit the difference in 1909. In May, Tenney Charles Daniel was assigned to represent the United States government in the study programme. The selection of students was finalised after a series of discussion in June, and the proposal received the imperial approval on 10 July. The office for the study programme was officially set up on 17 July.It is said that the office was established during June and July, or on the fourth day of the sixth month, but according to '' Submission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Office of the Study in the United States of America to Report the Annual Expenses for the First Year of Xuan Tong'', it should be "the first day of the sixth month (in

Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar ��曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar ��曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar ��曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...

)", that is, July 17, 1909. On 25 August,

Zhou Ziqi Zhou Ziqi () (17 November 1869 – 21 October 1923) was a Chinese educator and politician in the late Qing dynasty and early republican period. During the early part of the Republic, he served multiple roles: first in multiple ministry positio ...

周自齐在1909年初授外务部右参议，署（“代理”之意）左参议，5月补任左参议，8月署右丞，不久改为署左丞。8月25日，兼任学部丞参上行走并出任游美学务处总办。此时，其职位有四：外务部署左丞、外务部左参议、学部丞参上行走、游美学务处总办，官品为候补三四品京堂。后于1922年代行中华民国北京政府总统。 and Tang Guo'an were appointed to the board of directors to run the office operations. Tsinghua Garden was transferred to the study programme office to establish the preparatory school. TsingHuaYuan Board

Republican era

Tsinghua received a charter from the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(ROC) in 1928 and became a

national university A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...

. At the onset of

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

, Tsinghua,

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

and

Nankai University Nankai University (NKU or Nankai; ) is a national public research university located in Tianjin, China. It is a prestigious Chinese state Class A Double First Class University approved by the central government of China, and a member of the fo ...

moved to

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, an ...

and formed the National Changsha Provisional University. The combined school relocated to

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

in 1938 and was renamed as

National Southwest Associated University When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha and later National Southwestern Associated Univ ...

. Tsinghua was restored in 1946 at Tsinghua Garden. It became one of the

National Key Universities National Key Universities () previously referred to universities recognized as prestigious and which received a high level of support from the central government of the People's Republic of China. The term is no longer in official use by 1990s. The ...

of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

following education policy reforms starting in 1952. The

National Tsing Hua University National Tsing Hua University (NTHU; ) is a public research university in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. National Tsing Hua University was first founded in Beijing. After the Chinese Civil War, the then-president of the university, Mei Yiqi, and other ...

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

was formed in 1956 by Tsinghua academics who fled the

communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stage ...

During the Cultural Revolution

Early Cultural Revolution

The

Tsinghua University High School Tsinghua University High School (), or Tsinghua High School for short (), is a high school in China, located in Beijing. Based on its current status, a more precise translation should be 'The secondary school affiliated to Tsinghua University'. In ...

was the cradle for the Cultural Revolution's

Red Guard Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

movement. Beginning in the early 1960s, the attached high school's cadres promoted the ideology of

class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

based in familial pride. At the beginning of May 1966, some students, under the influence of the 5-16 Circular, posted a big character poster stating "participate in this class struggle in the most positive and self-aware way", receiving resistance from the school authorities. On the night of May 29, a handful of upper-grade students, after group deliberations at the

Old Summer Palace The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...

ruins, decided to name their movement the "Red Guards", meaning "

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

's Red Guards". On June the 2nd, they posted the big character poster "Pledge our lives to defend

Mao Zedong thought Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...

, pledge our lives to defend the

dictatorship of the proletariat In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...

" in response to

Nie Yuanzi Nie Yuanzi (5 April 1921 – 28 August 2019) was a Chinese academic administrator at Peking University, known for writing a big-character poster criticising the university for being controlled by the bourgeoisie, which is considered to have be ...

's big-character poster at

, attracting students from surrounding secondary schools to sign their names in support. Between June 24 and July 27, the Tsinghua University High School posted three big character posters, the ensemble of which was entitled "long live the proletariat class's revolutionary spirit of rebellion!" The first two portions were passed on to

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

, who responded with support on August 1. The contents of the big character posters were carried in full by the

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...

and Red Flag magazine. On 8 occasions, Mao Zedong met the Red Guards in person, pushing the Red Guard movement into the milieu of university students and the general public. The Red Guards began campaigns such as destroying the

Four Olds The Four Olds or the Four Old Things () was a term used during the Cultural Revolution by the student-led Red Guards in the People's Republic of China in reference to the pre-communist elements of Chinese culture they attempted to destroy. The Fou ...

and promoting the "right to link up". On the afternoon of August 24, 1966, the historical secondary gate to the university was pulled down by the Red Guards to symbolize their opposition to feudalism and capitalism and their support for Marxist–Leninist revisionism. On the same site, a giant sculpture of Mao Zedong was raised on May 4, 1967, reported in the ''People's Daily'' as a "spectacular event", inciting a wave of construction of similar sculptures across the country. On June 8, 1966, a task force led by Ye Lin with participation from Chinese President

Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966 and C ...

and his wife

Wang Guangmei Wang Guangmei (; 26 September 1921 – 13 October 2006) was a Chinese politician, philanthropist and the wife of Liu Shaoqi, who served as the President of the People's Republic of China from 1959 to 1968. Life Early years Wang Guangmei was b ...

entered Tsinghua University, attacking principal Jiang Nanyu and other cadres as " capitalist roaders", "counterrevolutionary academic authorities", and "cow demons and snake spirits", took over the Tsinghua party committee, and criticized rebellious students. Radical students like Peng Dafu from the university's engineering chemistry faculty resisted. On June 21, in what has since been called the "June 21st incident", Peng lambasted the task force, claiming that it did not represent the revolution, and demanded to seize power. The taskforce criticized Peng, revoked his party credentials, and detained him for 18 days. At least 50 people were condemned for being sympathetic to Peng; 500 people were implicated, and several attempted suicides occurred, causing two deaths. In July,

returned to Beijing, condemned the task force, supported the radicals, and hinted at disagreements with Liu Shaoqi. In late August, several large-character posters condemning Liu were posted in the

. In October, a large-character poster exclaiming "defeat Liu Shaoqi" was posted in the same garden. On December 19, 1966, under commands from the "proletariat headquarters", the "Tsinghua University Jinggangshan Corps", Tsinghua's largest Red Guard organization with defeating Liu Shaoqi as its purpose, was established. Peng Dafu became its leader and was nicknamed "commander Peng". On December 25, commanded by the

Cultural Revolution Group The (Central) Cultural Revolution Group (CRG or CCRG; ) was formed in May 1966 as a replacement organisation to the Central Committee Secretariat and the "Five Man Group", and was initially directly responsible to the Standing Committee of the Po ...

, the Tsinghua University Jinggangshan Corps' 5000 members led a protest against President Liu Shaoqi and

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...

, spreading the Cultural Revolution into the entirety of

. On January 6, 1967, Peng Dafu and others implemented the so-called "strategically seize Wang Guangmei" plan, using the supposed injury of Liu Shaoqi's daughter Liu Pingping as bait to lure wife

out and detain her. On April 10, with the agreement of the "proletariat headquarters", the "Jinggangshan corps" rallied tens of thousands of people for the public denunciation of Wang Guangmei. More than 300 radical organizations participated in the event. On April 14, 1967, due to internal disputes over major issues in the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, the Jinggangshan Red Guards split into the "Corps headquarters" and the "414 faction". The two parties had rather large-scale disputes over the representatives who were to make up the revolutionary committee. The "headquarters" and "414 faction", on the radical and conservative sides of the Red Guard movement respectively, both declared themselves to be the proper representatives of the proletariat. The two factions had disputes over three core issues: how should the "Cultural Revolution" be understood? How should the first ten years of the Cultural Revolution be seen? How should cadres be treated? In the winter of 1967, to prevent chaos, the Chinese government demanded that all students return to school to engage in "revolution in the classroom". In March 1968, following the "Yang, Yu, Bo incident", the

launched a campaign against "rightist inclinations". Tensions between the two factions at Tsinghua again began to rise, leading to incessant small-scale clashes. Between April 23 and July 27 in 1968, the opposing Red Guard factions erupted into the "100-day clashes", the most severe clashes to occur during the Cultural Revolution in Beijing. Red Guards used batons, stones, landmines, grenades, improvised guns, improvised cannons, toxic arrows, semiautomatic weapons, Molotov cocktails, and improvised armored vehicles. They occupied and looted the grand auditorium and other important buildings. The clashes caused 18 deaths and more than 1100 injuries, and rendered 30 people disabled for life. Direct economic loses reached at least ten million. At the end of the skirmishes, the "414 faction" was forced to surrender by the "headquarters faction". On July 27, the Chinese Central Committee, seeking to stop the clashes in higher-education schools, placed the Ministry of Education under military control. On the same day, a 30,000-strong Mao Zedong thought propaganda team led by

61889 Regiment The Central Guard Corps (; The People's Liberation Army 61889 Corps) is a military protective service agency under the Central Military Commission charged with protecting Chinese political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or ...

deputy regimental commander Zhang Rongwen entered Tsinghua. The "headquarters faction" Red Guards refused to surrender and publicly resisted the propaganda team, using spears, grenades, and rifles to attack its members. 5 propaganda team members were killed and 731 injured in an incident that astonished the city of Beijing. The "July 27th incident" directly led to Mao Zedong finally ordering the end of public clashes. On 3:00 AM Beijing Time on the following day, Mao Zedong and

Lin Biao ) , serviceyears = 1925–1971 , branch = People's Liberation Army , rank = Marshal of the People's Republic of China Lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China , commands ...

held an emergency meeting with the "five important leaders" of the Red Guards, including Peng Dafu, demanding an end to armed clashes and the welcoming of the propaganda team into Tsinghua.

Mid-to-Late Cultural Revolution

In August 1968, the propaganda team began to "re-educate" the students at the school. Students were sent ''en masse'' to countryside farms and factories. Beginning in the end of 1968, the propaganda team launched the "every man must line up, every level must get down to earth" campaign, leading to numerous suicides or suicidal attempts, causing approximately 16 "irregular deaths".According to estimates, the irregular death count at Tsinghua during the Cultural Revolution reached 52. In 1969, the school constructed a model farm in

Nanchang County Nanchang County () is a county of Jiangxi Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nanchang, the provincial capital. The population in 1999 was . Administration Nanchang County has 11 towns and 7 township ...

and sent down 2821 educational staff to engage in labour. In that year, 747 people contracted confirmed cases of

schistosomiasis Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody s ...

and 1111 people were suspected of having contracted the disease. In the following year, the number of confirmed schistosomiasis patients surpassed one thousand people; the medical department of Tsinghua University had to continue to treat and examine schistosomiasis patients until 1997. One person remarked that "at the model farm, labour was seen as the punishment for academics; only those who completely obeyed the propaganda team were seen as having been completely reeducated. It was pure enslavement." Beginning in 1970, Tsinghua engaged in an "educational revolution" based on

that lasted until the end of the Cultural Revolution. The "educational revolution" consisted of the following facets. Firstly, the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

was to direct all activities; the propaganda team, party committee, and revolutionary committee were to hold power. Secondly, the current faculty was to be reformed while also performing their duties. Thirdly, the school was to engage in industrial activities and faculty and students were to fully commit to industrial production (which, in reality, disrupted education and research). Fourthly,

Worker-Peasant-Soldier student Worker-Peasant-Soldier students () were Chinese students who entered colleges between 1970 and 1976, during the later part of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). They were accepted not for their academic qualifications, but rather for their wo ...

s were to be enrolled. Fifthly, the old curriculum and educational materials were to be replaced with new proletariat educational material based on educational material from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Finally, the institution was to follow the path of the people and uphold the Cultural Revolution's new educational method, which, in practice, meant public denunciations. Between 1970 and 1975, Tsinghua University made large-scale changes to its organization. In 1970, the school planned to put in place three factories, the experimental chemistry factory, automotive factory, and the precise instrument and machine tool factory. The school now had seven majors: electrical engineering, industrial automation, chemical engineering, infrastructure engineering, hydraulic works engineering, engineering physics, and engineering mechanics mathematics. There was a mechanical repair military company and also basic university courses. The school had two "branch campuses": the

Mianyang Mianyang (; formerly known as Mienchow) is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and thre ...

campus and the

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

campus (the model farm at Nanchang). In 1972, a rural campus was established in Daxing and a hydraulics works facility was established in

Sanmenxia Sanmenxia (; postal: Sanmenhsia) is a prefecture-level city in the west of Henan Province, China. The westernmost prefecture-level city in Henan, Sanmenxia borders Luoyang to the east, Nanyang to the southeast, Shaanxi Province to the west and Sh ...

. The school opened further education courses for industrial workers, professional further studies courses, short-term training courses, part-time courses, and local sites to offer education to worker-peasant-soldier students outside major campuses. On June 27, 1970, after a four-year-long hiatus in normal admissions,

worker-peasant-soldier student Worker-Peasant-Soldier students () were Chinese students who entered colleges between 1970 and 1976, during the later part of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). They were accepted not for their academic qualifications, but rather for their wo ...

s began to be admitted. Mao Zedong directed the school to shorten the length of its education to three years. Student recruitment was done through recommendation by the general public, approval by cadres, and examination by the school. After graduation, students were to be returned to their original working units. After October 15, similar schemes were implemented at other institutes of higher education. The last class of worker-peasant-soldier students graduated in 1981. In 1975,

's power in the country's government increased. In August and October, vice general secretaries of Tsinghua's party committee Liu Bing, Liu Yi'an and Hui Xianjun as well as political work department director Lu Fangzheng wrote letters passed on through Deng Xiaoping to Mao Zedong expressing their strong dislike of the ''de facto'' leaders of Tsinghua, Chi Qun and Xie Jingyi from the propaganda team. Mao saw this as a form of rebellion against the Cultural Revolution and began criticizing Liu Bing and other cadres who wrote the letter and Deng Xiaoping. By mid-November, this became a large debate about the "educational revolution". In December, it evolved into the nationwide

Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend (), later known as Criticize Deng, Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend (), was a Chinese political campaign launched by Mao Zedong in November 1975 against ...

movement. In this final mass movement of the Cultural Revolution, under the leadership of Chi Qun, Tsinghua University practically ceased its normal educational activities in order to "condemn Deng" and invite cadres and citizens from across the world to "study at" and "visit" Tsinghua. Within a period of ten months, hundreds of thousands of big-character posters were posted and Liu Bing was subjected to criticism and denunciation 214 times. On March 31, 1976, after the death of

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 J ...

, Chi Qun demanded that "Tsinghua must not send a single flower wreath to

Tiananmen The Tiananmen (also Tian'anmen (天安门), Tienanmen, T’ien-an Men; ), or the Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification, is a monumental gate in the city center of Beijing, China, the front gate of the Imperial City of Beijing, located near the ci ...

". On April 3, some students sent white flowers to the

Monument to the People's Heroes The Monument to the People's Heroes () is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the southern part of Tiananmen Square in ...

, becoming part of the Tiananmen Incident, known in Chinese as the April 5th movement. On the night of the 6th, Chi Qun referred to the movement as an "organized, purposeful, planned, sequential counterrevolutionary assault". Being defined as such, the movement was subjected to the arrests of "counterrevolutionaries" and the censorship of "counterrevolutionary political rumours". By June 10, more than 100 people had been investigated, 38 had been subjected to school-level isolation, and one person had been arrested. In October 1976, the

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...

was toppled and the Cultural Revolution ended. On October 16, the Communist Party committee in Beijing began efforts to restore the University. The revolutionary committee system was abolished the following year.

1990s

Tsinghua joined

Project 211 Project 211 () was an abolished project of developing comprehensive universities and colleges initiated in 1995 by the Ministry of Education of China, with the intent of raising the research standards of comprehensive universities and cultivat ...

and

Project 985 Project 985 () was a terminated project that was first announced by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin at the 100th anniversary of Peking University on May 4, 1998, to promote the development and reputation of the Ch ...

that aimed to improve

higher education in China Higher education in China is the largest in the world. By the end of 2021, there were over 3,000 colleges and universities, with over 44.3 million students enrolled in mainland China and 240 million Chinese citizens having received high educati ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Official website of the Tsinghua University

Official website of the Tsinghua University
{{Tsinghua University

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...