The School of Combined Learning, or the Tongwen Guan () was a government school for teaching Western languages (and later scientific subjects), founded at Peking (

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

), China in 1862 during the late-

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 ...

, right after the conclusion of the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire#Britain's imperial ...

, as part of the

Self-Strengthening Movement The Self-Strengthening Movement, also known as the Westernization or Western Affairs Movement (–1895), was a period of radical institutional reforms initiated in China during the late Qing dynasty following the military disasters of the Opium ...

. Its establishment was intimately linked to the establishment of the Zongli Yamen, the Qing office of foreign affairs.

Background

Small, specialized government foreign language schools have long existed in China since the Ming dynasty. As early as 1407, China had an Office for the Languages of Nations of Four Directions (四夷舘/四夷馆 sì yí guǎn), for the purposes of translating documents from minority and nomadic groups including the Mongols, Jurchens, Hui, and Burmese, who delivered tribute to the court. This office was under the

Hanlin Academy The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed se ...

, and selected students from the Guozijian. These students were made translation officials after graduating, and were to be re-evaluated every three years in order to stay on or be dismissed. In the Qing Dynasty, the Office for the Languages of Nations of Four Directions also had an affiliated Interpreter's Institute (會同舘/会同馆 Huitongguan). Hanlin Academy#Bureau of Translators The Eluosi Wenguan (俄羅斯文舘 "Russian College") was set up by the Qing Dynasty

Lifan Yuan The Lifan Yuan (; ; Mongolian: Гадаад Монголын төрийг засах явдлын яам, ''γadaγadu mongγul un törü-yi jasaqu yabudal-un yamun'') was an agency in the government of the Qing dynasty of China which administered ...

in 1708, due to the importance of Russia as a security threat to Qing-dynasty China's north-west border. Its students were selected from the Eight Banners. There were twenty-four students for each grade level, and they were examined every five years. The Russian college was merged into the Tongwen Guan in 1863.

Establishment and Organization

In 1860, Qing China was defeated by Britain and France in the

. This event, which led to the invasion of the capital of Beijing and the fleeing of the Xianfeng Emperor to

Chengde Chengde, formerly known as Jehol and Rehe, is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, situated about 225 km northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, a vast imperial garden and palace formerly used by ...

and his subsequent death, as well as the burning of the grand symbols of imperial glory, the

Summer Palace The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarte ...

and

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. ...

, created an urgent sense of crisis amongst the Chinese elite. A powerful faction of Chinese reformers began to call for political and educational change, calling for the shedding of old educational ways and an increase of dealing with and learning from the West in order to reform and save China. Following the

Convention of Peking The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amo ...

which concluded the Second Opium War, the Qing Empire created Zongli Yamen, the first Qing office for foreign affairs, in 1861, and one year later, founded the Tongwen Guan to supply the language skills required for the Zongli Yamen.

History

When the college was first started in 1862, it only had ten students and only English instruction under John S. Burdon, a British missionary. By 1866, astronomy and mathematics were added and enrollment was up to the tens. In 1869, Dr. Willian Alexander Parsons Martin, a famed American missionary and translator in China, was appointed the first dean of studies. By 1877, the school had expanded to teach English, French, German, Russian and Japanese, as well as chemistry, medicine, machine-making, astronomy, mathematics, geography and international law, and enrollment was over one hundred. Similar colleges were later set up at

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

. Tongwen Guan published several influential works introducing Western knowledge into China. The college's operations were interrupted by war in 1900.

Legacy

The Tongwen Guan became an important founding component of the Imperial University of Peking (now

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 charte ...

) after 1902. Its language programs were the direct predecessors for Peking University's various language programs.

Tongwen Guan staff

* John Shaw Burdon (包爾騰) - English (1861-1863) and head instructor (1862-1869) * William Alexander Parsons Martin (丁韙良) - English (1864-1867) and head instructor (1869-1900) * (傅蘭雅) - English (1863-1864) * M. J. O'Brien (額布廉/額伯連) - English (1867-1874) * J. P. Cowles (柯里士) - English (1874-1878) *

Hosea Ballou Morse Hosea Ballou Morse (18 July 1855 – 13 February 1934) was a Canadian-born American British customs official and historian of China. He served in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Custom Service from 1874 to 1908, but is best known for his scholarly p ...

(馬士) - English (1878-1879) * Charles Henry Oliver (歐禮斐) - English (1879-1884) *

Anatole Billequin Anatole may refer to: People * Anatole (given name), a French masculine given name * Anatole (dancer) (19th century), French ballet dancer * Alex Anatole (born 1948), Russian-American Taoist priest * Anatole France (born 1844), a French poet, ...

(畢利幹) - chemistry * "Baron" Johannes von Gumpach (方根拔) - astronomy and mathematics *

Hermann Fritsche Hermann or Herrmann may refer to: * Hermann (name), list of people with this name * Arminius, chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe in the 1st century, known as Hermann in the German language * Éditions Hermann, French publisher * Hermann, Miss ...

(費禮飭) - astronomy (1877-1879) * Li Shanlan (李善蘭) - mathematics started 1869

Notes

References

*Biggerstaff, Knight. ''The earliest modern government schools in China'', Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1961. *Evans, Nancy. "The Banner-School Background of the Canton T'ung-Wen Kuan." ''Papers on China'' 22a (1969): 89–103. *'' Zhongguo da baike quanshu''. First Edition. Beijing; Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe. 1980–1993. * 《漢俄合璧韻編》掌院修士巴第遺篇，1888年，北京同文舘 (Chinese-Russian Dictionary by Archimandrite Palladius, 1888, Tungwen Guan
Volume 1
https://books.google.com/books/about/漢俄合璧韻編.html?id=yRo-PwAACAAJ
Volume 2
https://books.google.com/books?id=GYpPAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Pavel+Stepanovich+Popov%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DHJ9VKerK4HlsATroIDADg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
1896 edition
* Hao, Ping (2012). Peking University and the Origins of Higher Education in China. Translated by Shen, Yuping. Peking University Press. . {{refend Education in Beijing Defunct universities and colleges in China Qing dynasty culture Educational institutions established in 1862 1862 establishments in China