page_title: Shanxi University
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Shanxi University / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photo of Timothy Richard, a Welsh Baptist missionary to China
context_page_description: Shanxi University is a public university located in the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China. Its historic names include Shansi Imperial University, and Shansi University. It is the oldest and largest university in Shanxi province. Its nationwide academic ranking is about 85th among more than 1000 Chinese universities.
  Shanxi University is one of the fourteen national key universities in China. A national base of Chinese Language and Culture Education was designated by the State Council for Shanxi University. There are about 11000 undergraduates and 2200 postgraduates registered. The school has three campuses: Wucheng, Dongguan, Dongshan, covering a total area of nearly 2600 acres, with the construction area of 120 square meters. The library of Shanxi University has a collection of 3 million 617 thousand volumes, 4300 electronic books, teaching and research equipment worth nearly a billion yuan. From its founding day around the Wenying lake at the foot of Twin Towers, Shanxi University continuously strives for progress in arts and sciences, and the integration of Chinese and Western cultures.
context_section_description: Situated in the city of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province. Shanxi University is the successor of the academy schools in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which can be traced back to Jinyang Lingde hall college.
  The Shansi Imperial University (山西大学堂) was the predecessor of the Shanxi University, which was alternatively romanized as the Shansi University. The Shansi Imperial University was prepared in 1901 by Cen Chunxuan, then-governor of Shanxi, and on May 8, 1902, the Shansi Imperial University officially added the College of Western Studies, which was headed by the Welsh Baptist missionary Timothy Richard, focusing on teaching western technologies. 1902 was recognized as the official founding year of Shanxi University. Other than the Chinese government funding, one of the early funding sources of Shanxi University was the returned money from the British government with the Boxer Indemnity of Taiyuan massacre after Boxer Protocol, which was used to support the College of Western Studies.
  Along with two other contemporary pioneer universities that started teaching western technologies in China: the Metropolitan Grand School (the predecessor of Peking University) and the Northern Grand School (the Predecessor of Tianjin University), the three universities together inaugurated a new era of modern Chinese higher education.
  In 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution，Shansi Imperial University (山西大学堂) was renamed "Shanxi University". Its name was changed to "National Shanxi University" (simplified Chinese: 国立山西大学 traditional Chinese: 國立山西大學; pinyin: GuoLi ShanXi DaXue) in 1918, and changed back to "Shanxi University" in 1931. In 1937, because of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which is part of World War II, Shanxi University was moved away from Taiyuan. The school of law was moved to Pingyao, the college of liberal arts was moved to Yuncheng, the department of engineering and physics and the office of president was moved to Linfen. Later, Japanese army occupied not only Taiyuan, but Pingyao, Yuncheng and Linfen as well. Shanxi University thus stopped teaching until 1938 it was rebuilt in Sanyuan, Shaan'xi (陕西) in 1938, and later it was moved again to Yichuan. In 1943, because of the typhus epidemic in Yichuan, Shanxi University was moved back to Shanxi(山西） province, at Jixian Nancun, which was the wartime temporary capital of Shanxi province, and the location was renamed as KeNanPo, literally meaning that "overcoming the suffering". Shanxi University finally moved back Taiyuan in 1946, after the Chinese victory over Japan of the second world war.
  In 1952, with order of the Ministry of Education of the People 's Republic of China, the Department of Liberal Arts and the Department of Science were combined to form Shanxi Normal College, the School of law was integrated to Renmin University of China in Beijing. The Department of Engineering was dismantled, and party absorbed into University of Science and Technology Beijing, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Taiyuan University of Technology. In 1959, Shanxi university was rebuilt at Taiyuan Wucheng Street. In 1998, Shanxi University became a key university in Shanxi province.
  Shanxi University celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a congratulatory letter to the University of Shanxi for its support to the United Nations.
  In May 2005, Shanxi University was co-established by the state Ministry of Education and the People's government of Shanxi province.
  Shanxi University is currently the sole comprehensive university in Shanxi Province with all academic fields covering philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, medicine and management. Its education programs extend to 69 specialties for undergraduates and 18 specialties for the double bachelor's degree. At present, it has 137 general Master of Arts/Master of Science (MA/MS) programs, 6 specialized MA/MS programs, 48 doctorate programs and 9 centers for post-doctoral studies. Among these many programs, philosophy of Science and Technology and Quan
caption: Timothy Richard
exif: {}