Yan Xiu (; 12 April 1860 – 15 March 1929), also known as Yan Fansun, was a Chinese educator who, with

Zhang Boling Chang Po-ling (; April 5, 1876 – February 23, 1951) was a Chinese educator who, with Yan Xiu, founded Nankai University and the Nankai system of schools. Biography Chang Po-ling was born in Tianjin in 1876 during the last years of the Qin ...

, founded

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 ...

and the Nankai system of schools.

Early life

Yan Xiu was born on 12 April 1860 into a salt merchant family in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

during 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 ...

Early career

Despite belonging to a merchant family, he also belonged to the ranks of

scholar-gentry The "gentry", or "landed gentry" in China was the elite who held privileged status through passing the Imperial exams, which made them eligible to hold office. These literati, or scholar-officials, (''shenshi'' 紳士 or ''jinshen'' 縉紳), al ...

. He was a controversial figure whose reformist ideas made him an outcast of Beijing politics and earned him criticism from fellow scholar-officials. As the educational commissioner of

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

, he proposed an essay-based special examination (''jingji teke'') as an alternative to the

Chinese imperial examinations The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

. Following the failure of his proposal and the

Hundred Days' Reform The Hundred Days' Reform or Wuxu Reform () was a failed 103-day national, cultural, political, and educational reform movement that occurred from 11 June to 22 September 1898 during the late Qing dynasty. It was undertaken by the young Guangxu E ...

, he was rejected from the scholarly circles by anti-reform court officials of the Qing government.

Career in Tianjin

He returned to Tianjin in 1898 to work for the Yan household's salt trade monopoly of the Sanhe district. The wealth from the salt trade allowed Yan Xiu to continue his life as an educator, establishing a household school. He hired

to oversee the school's organization and curriculum. Zhang Boling was trained in Western knowledge, graduating in 1894 from the

Beiyang Naval Academy The Beiyang Fleet (Pei-yang Fleet; , alternatively Northern Seas Fleet) was one of the four modernized Chinese navies in the late Qing dynasty. Among the four, the Beiyang Fleet was particularly sponsored by Li Hongzhang, one of the most trust ...

in Tianjin, organized by

Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...

. Despite the events of the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

, a violent uprising against foreign influence in China, Yan Xiu retained his reformist aspirations for Chinese education and later traveled to Japan in August–November 1902 to observe its education system. The Yan household school eventually merged with that of another merchant family, which later led to the formation of Nankai Primary School and Nankai Middle School in 1904 and eventually

in 1919. In 1905, Yan established the ''Zhili Education Official Gazette'', which was the earliest education official gazette in China.

Death

Yan Xiu died on 15 March 1929 in Tianjin.

Gallery

File:严范孙.jpg, File:YanFansun.jpg, Statue of Yan Xiu in Nan Kai school in Tianjin, China

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xiu, Yan 1860 births 1929 deaths Educators from Tianjin