Yan Xiu
Yan Xiu (; 12 April 1860 – 15 March 1929), also known as Yan Fansun, was a Chinese educator who, with Zhang Boling, founded Nankai University and the Nankai system of schools. Early life Yan Xiu was born on 12 April 1860 into a salt merchant family in Tianjin during the Qing Dynasty. Early career Despite belonging to a merchant family, he also belonged to the ranks of scholar-gentry. 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, he proposed an essay-based special examination (jingji teke) as an alternative to the Chinese imperial examinations. Following the failure of his proposal and the Hundred Days' Reform, 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 Zhang Boling to oversee the school's organization and curriculum. Zhang Boling was trained in Western knowledge, graduating