The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, July 1884, No. 10Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, July 1884, No. 10
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
This, then, is the Imperial College at Peking. What does it do? What
is taught there, and what are the influences of its training? While in
Peking this summer I was fortunate enough to visit it, to see something
of its working, and to gain some familiarity with its purposes and
plans. The learned president, Dr. Martin, courteously showed me over
the buildings, and told me of the work they were doing. The college
buildings adjoin the foreign office or Tsungli Yamên. They are in no
sense imposing, being ordinary Chinese structures of one story, without
attempt at adornment or splendor of any sort whatever. The rooms are
small and plain, containing nothing that is not needed for the immediate
work of teaching. The room of the president is a very plain one for
so high an officer. The departments of chemistry and physics are well
supplied with the instruments and chemicals needed for their work. The
professor of astronomy, who is also professor of mathematics, showed me
a fine equatorial telescope just arrived from Grubb, one of the most
celebrated makers in Europe. The rooms of the language professors are
in keeping with the rest, small and bare, but sufficiently well adapted
for the purposes to which they are put. The languages taught are four,
English, French, German, and Russian, the English receiving far more
attention than the others. The full course extends over a period of eight
years, and in that time the students are led from “reading, writing
and speaking,” through all the intermediate departments to “astronomy,
geology and mineralogy, political economy and the translation of books.”
After completing the course, those so disposed may remain in the college
or be sent abroad, at the option of the government, for the pursuit of
special studies, with a view to professional use. Many so remain. Last
year one man left who had been in attendance for eighteen years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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