As many people know, the origin of modern higher education in China can be traced back to the period of Western-style education from 1861 to 1895. Founded in 1895, the predecessor of Tianjin University, Beiyang University Hall, was the first modern university in China and opened a precedent for modern higher education in China.
In 1900, that is, in the 26th year of Guangxu, Peiyang University Hall awarded a batch of university diplomas to the first batch of graduates. Among them, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, Yulu, personally generalized"Qinzi No. 1 Examination".Awarded to Wang Chonghui, the first student in the law department. (See image below).
"Qinzi No. 1 Examination" is the first university diploma in Chinese history. Directly above it is written the words "Kaojiao", and on the right side of the book is the words "Qin Zi No. 1". At the beginning of the main text of the diploma, there is "The Minister of the Imperial Mission handles the trade affairs of Beiyang, and the Governor of Zhili is the ...... of the Ministry of Tang Yu (Lu).and so on. The diploma introduces the introduction of Peiyang University, the introduction and appraisal of Wang Chonghui, and the courses taken by Wang Chonghui. There are even names of Wang Chonghui's great-grandfather, grandfather, and father. Today, the "Qinzi No. 1 Examination" is treasured in Tianjin University.
After talking about the Peiyang University Hall, let's talk about the Beijing Normal University Hall. Beijing Normal University Hall is the predecessor of Peking University. As one of the "New Deals" of the Pentecostal Reform, the school was founded in 1898It is the first national university in modern China. What is more special is that Jingshi University was not only the highest institution of learning in the country at that time, but also the highest educational administrative organ of the country at the beginning, exercising management functions and governing the education of the whole country.
The diploma of the Beijing Normal University Hall pictured above was issued in the first year of Xuantong in the late Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1909. The first of the graduation diplomas is Cixi, which has more than 800 words"Yizhi"；The middle school introduces the age, place of origin, subject results and graduation examination results of the students (named Bu Qingyang). On the left, the chief superintendent of the Beijing Normal University Hall, Liu (Tingchen) and the date of issuance"May 27 of the first year of Xuantong"。Note that the word "overseer" here means "principal".
Driven by famous institutions such as Peiyang University Hall and Beijing Normal University Hall, there has been an upsurge of higher education in various places. Next, let's take a look at a university diploma from a local university. This diploma is from the Hunan Higher Industrial School, which is the common predecessor of the current Central South University and Hunan University.
This diploma of "Hunan Higher Industrial School" is now in the Hunan Provincial Archives. **A bit vague, only a small part of the text is legible. Above is the "Divine Decree", which is sprinkled with joy, and it is estimated that there are as many as seven or eight hundred words; Below is the "Diploma", which indicates the name of the school, the student's information, and the grades of each subject. Judging from the payment, the time when this diploma was issued was the 33rd year of Guangxu, that is, in 1907.
Words written at the back:
Judging from the above three university diplomas in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there should have been a large amount of text in the diplomas at that time. Based on this, it can be assumed that the paper used for the diploma at that time should have been larger, and it is estimated that it is about the same size as the current certificate. In addition, the university diplomas in the last years of the Qing Dynasty were almost filled with a strong feudal "atmosphere", and the meaning of the emperor's grace was full of words, with a strong sense of history and the times.