Friendship Beile Mansion: Fu Ren University

Author: Sun Banghua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Founded by several Chinese Catholic figures and scholars, Fu Ren University was established in an old royal mansion in Beijing. The Beile Mansion aimed to "unite through literature" and "support benevolence through friendship," seeking to "take the strengths and discard the weaknesses of Eastern and Western cultures without bias."
Excerpt: The Origin and Foundation
Fu Ren University is a Catholic university. Catholicism is not a native religion of China but was introduced by missionaries from the West. It is one of the major branches of Western Christianity. Christianity underwent significant splits due to the division of the ancient Roman Empire and the modern European Reformation movement, resulting in three major branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. These three branches were often in conflict with each other. In China, Catholicism is also known as Christianity or the religion of Jesus. Christianity was introduced into China twice before its split. The first time was in the Tang Dynasty (7th century), known as the Nestorian Church. The second time was in the Yuan Dynasty (13th century), known as the Franciscan Church. These two waves of Christianity's eastward spread had a minimal impact on China's cultural and educational activities.
With the opening of new sea routes and the expansion of overseas colonial activities, in the late Ming Dynasty (16th century), Catholic missionaries followed the routes of early overseas colonizers and arrived in China to engage in missionary work. They translated Western books and introduced Western knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, biology, geography, history, education, and painting, significantly influencing the cultural, intellectual, and scientific developments of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Later, due to the "Rites Controversy" between the Roman Curia and the Qing government, by the 18th century, Emperor Yongzheng issued an edict prohibiting Catholicism, and the Qing government implemented a policy of "closing the country to the outside world." As a result, the influence of Catholicism in China temporarily declined.
In 1807, British missionary Robert Morrison arrived in China, marking the beginning of Protestantism's spread in modern China. After the Opium Wars, the signing of unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Nanjing, the Treaty of Wanghia, the Treaty of, and the Treaty of Tientsin granted Western missionaries the right to freely preach and establish schools in China. From then on, wave after wave of Protestant and Catholic missionaries flooded into various parts of China, engaging in preaching, establishing schools, translating books, and publishing newspapers. The founding of schools by churches in modern China was first initiated by Protestant missionaries, such as the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca, established by Morrison's assistant W. Milne in 1818 in Southeast Asia. In 1835, Mrs. Gutzlaff founded a girls' school in Macau, the first church school established in China. The Jesuits, in 1850, founded Xujiahui College in Shanghai, marking the beginning of Catholicism's educational efforts in modern China.
Whether Protestant or Catholic schools, they all underwent a developmental process in China, from primary to secondary to higher education. In the second half of the 19th century, they primarily focused on primary and secondary education. Statistics show that in 1875, there were approximately 800 church schools in China, with about 93% being of primary education level. By 1900, the number of church schools had increased to 2,000, with 40,000 students, 90% of whom were at the primary level. However, by the late 19th century, while Protestant missionaries continued to establish primary and secondary schools, they also made higher education a priority for church education in China. In 1882, at least one Protestant church school had higher education programs, and by 1894, there were four such schools. By the early 20th century, there were over ten. Meanwhile, Catholic missionaries continued to focus on primary education, so by the early 20th century, the number of Catholic schools in China far exceeded those of Protestant schools. For example, in 1914, there were 8,034 Catholic schools and 4,100 Protestant schools, with the latter accounting for only half of the former. At that time, there was only one Catholic university in China—Shanghai's Zhen Dan University, founded by the elderly Chinese Catholic leader Ma Xiangbo in 1903.
The reason for the delay in establishing a Catholic university in China was fundamentally tied to the conservative mindset of the French Missionary Conference, which controlled the Chinese Catholic Church. Since the mid-19th century, the Chinese Catholic Church was not directly managed by the Vatican but was granted the right of protection by the French Church, which acted as its administrator. The French Church adhered to a policy of preaching to the lower strata of Chinese society or the poor and uneducated, limiting its educational efforts to primary and catechetical schools. Unlike the Protestants, it did not recognize the importance of establishing higher education in China to cultivate advanced intellectuals. In 1898, when the Qing government established the Imperial University of Peking, it invited Joseph Martial Mouly, the Bishop of Beijing, to lead it, but he declined, and the position was instead offered to the Protestant W. A. P. Martin as the chief instructor.
Fu Ren University was also established in Beijing in the 1920s after years of persistent efforts, activities, and preparations by two prominent Chinese Catholics, Ying Lianzhi and Ma Xiangbo. Compared to other church universities, Fu Ren University, though founded later (1927) and with a shorter existence (only 23 years), was a gathering place for distinguished scholars and attracted students from all over the country. It had its own unique educational characteristics and produced many outstanding talents.