Chapter 69 second quarter

A good university, roughly speaking, outstanding teachers is the condition, excellent graduates are the proof. Opening the roster of teachers of Southwest Associated University, the luxurious lineup is jaw-dropping.Leaving aside those who only enjoy great names in academia, let’s just talk about those who are well-known to the general public today, including: Chen Yinke, Zhu Guangqian, Zhu Ziqing, Wen Yiduo, Qian Mu, Qian Zhongshu, Wu Mi, Wu Han, Feng Youlan , Tang Yongtong, Jin Yuelin, Xiong Shili, Zhang Xiruo, Pan Guangdan, Fei Xiaotong, Shen Congwen, Wu Youxun, Rao Yuqin, Ye Qisun, Wu Dayou, Hua Luogeng, Zhou Peiyuan, Chen Shengshen...

The main campus of Southwest Associated University is only more than 120 mu, which is equivalent to a middle school today.In that small campus, how many bright minds are walking; the best scholars in China, the leading figures of various disciplines, are everywhere there.Apart from Southwest Associated University, which other school has such excellent teachers? Let’s look at some of these names and schools: Nobel Prize winners Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning graduated from Southwest Associated University; Deng Jiaxian, Zhao Jiuzhang, and Zhu Guangya, winners of the Two Bombs and One Satellite Merit Award, graduated from Southwest Associated University; famous writers Wang Zengqi, graduated from Southwest Associated University; famous thinker Yin Haiguang, graduated from Southwest Associated University; famous translator Wang Zuoliang, graduated from Southwest Associated University; famous English educator Xu Guozhang, graduated from Southwest Associated University; famous philosopher Ren Jiyu, graduated from Southwest Associated University Zhu Dexi, a famous linguist, graduated from Southwest Associated University; Huang Kun and Liu Dongsheng, winners of the highest national science and technology award, graduated from Southwest Associated University; national leaders Song Ping, Wang Hanbin, and Peng Peiyun graduated from Southwest Associated University Big……

In 1940 and 1943, the Tsinghua University Examination for Studying in the U.S., 17 out of 17 candidates received public funding, and Southwest Associated University graduates accounted for 11 out of them. In 1948, among the 81 academicians of the first Academia Sinica, twenty-six were members of the Southwest Associated University; the three youngest among the academicians, Chen Shiingshen, Xu Baolu, and Hua Luogeng, were all teachers and students of the Southwest Associated University; Senior Professor Jiang Lifu, the first five-digit academician of the Academia Sinica, four of which were held by the Southwest Associated University.

The first batch of five Chinese-Americans elected to the US National Academy of Sciences were Chen Shiingshen, Lin Jiaqiao, Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao and Wu Jianxiong. Except for Wu Jianxiong from Central University, the first four were all teachers and students of Southwestern Union. Among the teachers and students of the United Nations, 171 people later became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. ... This Southwestern Associated University has only existed for eight years; in just eight years, it has swayed such brilliant stars into the sky of China.

On July 7, 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in an all-round way. The Japanese invaded wildly, and large areas of the country were lost.The land that is moaning in the flames of war can no longer accommodate a peaceful desk; colleges and universities that have fallen into the hands of the enemy can only become the enlightenment tools of the invaders.Moreover, the aggressors hated the universities with the strongest national consciousness and the most prominent promotion of resistance against Japanese aggression, such as Nankai University, which was bombed to the point where only one building remained.

In the national crisis, the peaceful universities have been severely tested. Most of the universities have adopted the countermeasure of relocation, and there are more than 70 universities that have moved to the rear.The teachers and students who moved later traveled through wind and rain, together with books, instruments and other school equipment, to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing and other western provinces where the invaders could not enter. The national government expressed its determination to persist in running schools during the war, and Chiang Kai-shek summarized the education policy as: "Wartime should be viewed as normal."

After the fall of Beiping and Tianjin, according to the decision of the Ministry of Education of the National Government, three universities in the Pingjin area—National Peking University, National Tsinghua University and Private Nankai University—relocated to Changsha, Hunan, and jointly established Changsha Temporary University. The old national university, Peking University, formerly known as the preparatory school for studying in the United States, the foreign-style Tsinghua University, and the model private university Nankai. On November 1, 1937, Changsha Temporary University opened, and this day became the anniversary of the later Southwest Associated University.There were 148 teachers and 1,452 students in the three schools that moved to Changsha.

At the end of 1937, Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, fell, Wuhan was in an emergency, and Changsha was hit by air raids. In the smoke of national disaster, the temporary university began to look for a new school in the rear of the Southwest. The merger and relocation of the three famous schools made Hunan overjoyed. Now that the temporary university is about to move out, Hunan Provincial Chairman Zhang Zhizhong tried his best to persuade him to stay. He said that Changsha is absolutely safe. Even if it is not safe, he can find another school in Hunan.When Guangxi learned that the three schools were going to move to the southwest, they actively contacted them immediately, hoping to move the school to Guangxi, either in Nanning or Guilin, and the Guangxi local government also strongly supported it.

In January 1938, the final agreed location was Kunming, Yunnan, which is located in the rear, with good weather and a railway leading to foreign countries. It was the best place to run a school in wartime. I bid farewell to Hunan and declined to Guangxi. In mid-February, the school relocation began.Excluding the students who joined the army, dropped out of school to return to their hometowns, and went to Yan’an, a total of 875 students volunteered to enter Yunnan. Together with the faculty and staff, they entered Yunnan in two routes: the first route was for girls, weak teachers, students, staff and family members, and they took the train. Went to Hong Kong via the Guangdong-Han Railway, and arrived in Kunming via Vietnam; on the other side, more than 250 people (including 244 students) formed the "Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan Tour Group", and a lieutenant general was sent by Hunan Provincial Chairman Zhang Zhizhong Escorted by the head of the regiment, he crossed three provinces on foot and arrived in Kunming sixty-eight days later.

On April 2, 1838, the school officially changed its name to National Southwest Associated University; on May 4, classes officially started. The Southwest Associated University, which had just arrived in Kunming, rented classrooms from local technical secondary schools. The colleges were scattered all over the city, and even Mengzi in southern Yunnan. In July, the United Nations University purchased 124 acres of land on the east side of Kunming West Railway Station to establish the school headquarters. In April 1939, the new campus of Southwest Associated University was completed.There are thirty-six student dormitory buildings, all of which are earth-walled thatched roof structures; fifty-six classrooms, offices, and laboratories are all earth-walled and iron-roofed structures; two canteen buildings, and one library building is a brick-wood structure.The designer of these buildings is Liang Sicheng. Due to the extreme shortage of funds, they can only be designed and constructed according to the simplest and most economical principles. This master architect deeply regrets this.

Yunnan Province has given strong support to Southwest Associated University, helping to solve the school building problem time and time again; provincial chairman Long Yun vacated part of his mansion on Weiyuan Street for the General Office of the University, and he also specially allocated a Ford car For use by Jiang Menglin, one of the three members of the Standing Committee of the UNGA. Southwest Associated University, a famous school that will always be recorded in the annals of Chinese education history, started its glorious journey in southern Xinjiang.