Statement on the Founding of the
Hunan Self-Study University
(August 1921)

Hunanese have recently founded a "Self-Study University," the primary aim of
which is to adopt the form of the old-style academies and infuse it with the
content of the modern schools, in the hope that all of the students enrolled will
read on their own and study together. In the midst of China's present tide of
"university mania," this may be considered the most practical system of education. This school has recently issued a statement explaining the principles underlying its establishment:

Man cannot but seek learning, and the search for learning requires both a
place and an organization. In the past, the place to pursue learning was the
academies. When the academies were abolished and turned into schools, everyone strove to censure the academies and praise the schools. In fact, there are
things about both the academies and the schools that may be censured and things
about both that may be praised. What the academies should be censured for is the
fact that the content of their studies was wrong: it consisted of such instruments
of official employment as the "eight-legged essay."² These were merely play-

This manifesto was first published in Dongfang zazhi Vol. 20, No. 6, March 1923. Our
translation has been made from the version in Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 1, pp. 81-84, where it is
dated April 17, 1921. Chinese sources, including the Nianpu, confirm that Mao actually
drafted this document in August 1921.
1. Academies, or shuyuan, which had first appeared in the tenth century, remained the
most important institutions of higher education in China down to the early twentieth
century. Supported by the gentry and the officials, they existed at various levels, mainly in
xian and prefectural seats. Following the Reform Movement of 1895, Western learning
came to occupy a small place in their curriculum, but their focus remained essentially, as
Mao indicates in this passage, on preparing young scholars for official careers. They lost
their raison d'être with the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905.
2. The stereotyped form of writing required for all imperial examinations from the
Chenghua reign (1465-87) in the mid-Ming to the abolition of the system in the late Qing.
As the term suggests, the essays had to be written according to a rigid eight-part schema.
Bagu, or eight-legged essays, remained a favorite target of Mao's, and a synonym for all
sorts of pedantry, to the end of his life. The most celebrated instance is no doubt his second
keynote speech of February 8, 1942, for the Rectification Campaign, attacking dang bagu
or "Party formalism."

things; how can they be regarded as genuine learning? If we base ourselves on
this point, we may say that the academies were greatly in error. But the academies had their extremely good points. If we want to understand the good points
of the academies, we must first understand the bad points of the schools. As a
matter of fact, the schools have many good points, but they also have not a few
bad points. The first bad point of the schools is that there is no personal
relationship between teachers and students. The teachers mainly think
about making money and the students think mainly about getting a diploma.
The exchange is made and they leave, each getting what he is after, so that
the giving and receiving of learning becomes nothing more than a commercial transaction.³ The second bad point of the schools is a kind of mechanical
uniformity of teaching methods and management methods that is destructive to
human life. Each person has different qualities. They differ in their abilities and
understanding, but the schools ignore these aspects totally and know only how to
stuff the same thing down everyone's throat. If human beings are to respect the
personality, we must not say that someone "administers" someone else. Carrying
on the legacy of the despotic emperors, the schools ignore the personality of the
students and openly "administer" them. Because the faculty treat everyone the
same way, the human nature of the students is not fulfilled; because the students
are administered mechanically, their personalities are not fulfilled. This is the
gravest defect of the schools, and one that persons concerned about education
must absolutely not overlook. The third bad point of the schools is that there are
too many hours and a complicated curriculum so that students' heads are buried
in class all day long, and no one knows that there is also a world outside of the
classroom. The students' spirits are so exhausted they cannot think, and they are
totally unable to apply their minds to spontaneous self-motivated study. In generalizing about these bad points, we do not mean, of course, that all schools are
like this, and where these faults do exist there is usually still hope that they may
be reformed in the future. But in general it is like this, and there is no way to
conceal it, even if you wanted to. The general root of this problem is that the
students are put in a passive position, where their personalities are ground down
and their spirits annihilated, where the weak sink or swim as usual and the
talented are hobbled. If we take another look at the academies, although their
form also has its bad points, it has none of the bad points of the schools listed
above. First, the teachers and students have strong feelings for each other. Second, there is no faculty management but rather a spirit of communication and
free research. Third, the curriculum is simple, the research and study are thorough, and it is possible to relax and enjoy life. Thus, in regard to the "form of
study," the academies are far superior to the schools. The modern schools do,
however, have one especially strong point, which is that their "study content" is

3. The passage in bold is emphasized in the Chinese by the use of dots next to the
characters.

entirely scientific, or that they use the scientific method to study philosophy and
literature. On this point, the academies are inferior to the schools. What makes
the Self-Study University a new type of system is that it adopts the form of the
old-style academies and fills them with the content of the modern schools, so
that it is a special kind of organization that is suited to human nature and
facilitates study.

Above, we have discussed the various strengths and weaknesses of the academies versus the schools and the fact that the Self-Study University borrows from
the strengths of each and discards their weaknesses. Now let us speak of an
advantage that is unique to the Self-Study University and a defect shared by the
academies and the schools: democratic versus undemocratic. First, the academies and the official universities all demand very strict qualifications, and it goes
without saying that those who do not meet these qualifications cannot enroll.
Someone who in fact is qualified but for some reason does not meet the qualifications, that is, someone who is really highly talented but misses out on the
entrance examination, is thereupon cut off from the road to learning. Today there
are indeed quite a few ambitious young people who have not had a chance to
seek learning, and this is truly a shame. Second, the academies and official
universities treat academic studies as excessively mysterious. They think that
only a very small group of very special people can come to study, that the great
majority of the common people are by nature unable to participate in learning.
As a result, learning is monopolized by a small number of "academic lords" and
becomes widely separated from the society of ordinary people, thus giving rise to
that strange phenomenon of the intellectual class enslaving the class of ordinary
people. Third, poor people cannot enter the academies. Unless your family is
rich, it is even more impossible to attend the official universities. In order to
graduate from an official university it takes over one thousand and up to two
thousand yuan. For a person without money, the university is truly a case of "the
wild cat dreaming of eating the flesh of the swan." The Self-Study University
makes every effort to overcome these defects. First of all, while considerations
of space make it necessary to place some slight limitation on the number of
students residing at the university, anyone residing elsewhere who is dedicated to
learning may enroll. Secondly, learning is treated like a simple homemade meal
that you eat when you are hungry. We will strive to smash the mystery of
learning and to make it open and public so that everyone can get a portion.

4. Pingminzhuyi, literally "common people-ism," one of the terms then used for democracy.
5. Xuefa. The character fa, which meant originally a classification according to rank,
also has the sense of a powerful person, and has been used since the 1920s primarily in the
expression junfa, "warlord." It also occurs in the compound caifa, "financial magnate." In
the present context, xuefa might also be translated "scholar clique," but that would not
convey the emphasis on oppressive individuals. Decades later, during the Cultural Revolution, Mao used this term to castigate the intellectuals who opposed him.
Thirdly, although in this present age in which "money is life," the Self-Study
University cannot make it possible for every member of the so-called "proletariat" to attain a high level of education, in our hearts we cherish the goal of
striving to change the situation in the direction of "it does not require a lot of
money to get an education." The students of the Self-Study University can come
to the school to study, or they can study at home, or they can also study in the
shops, in groups, in public institutions, making it much more convenient than the
official universities, and naturally less expensive.

The Self-Study University is, as stated above, a democratic university. What,
then, is the content of the Self-Study University like? Let us now make some
general points: First, the main idea of education for students of the Self-Study
University is "to read and think on one's own." The "library" within the Self-Study University is set up solely for this purpose. Second, aside from reading
and thinking on their own, the students of the Self-Study University also "discuss
and study together." Various research groups are set up specifically for this
purpose. Third, although the Self-Study University does not want teachers who
stuff learning down the students' throats, it does want those who can give guidance at any time and assist the students with their self-study. Fourth, the Self-Study University takes fields of study as the unit. Students may study a single
field of study or they may also study in several fields. The time and scope of
each field is determined according to the student's own wishes and level. Fifth,
the students of the Self-Study University are not only engaged in studying. They
should also have the desire to perfect themselves, to develop a strong personality, and to wash away bad habits, in order to prepare for reforming society.

Finally, we want to say something about the need for a Self-Study University
in Hunan. Gentlemen, has not Hunan been until now without a single institution
of higher learning? The reasons for the fact that a provincial university could not
be founded in the most recent years, and that if it had, it would simply have been
an official-type university, are clearly understood by everyone. But how are the
thirty million Hunanese people living in the regions washed by the Xiang, Yuan,
Zi, and Li Rivers to express and develop their spiritual needs and cultural
instincts? Even though the Hunan people are as outstanding and full of vitality as
the just-risen sun, and even though they are full of hope, unless there is a way for
them to satisfy their spiritual needs and develop their cultural instincts, how can
being Hunanese be meaningful? At this point, we feel that a great task has fallen
on the shoulders of the Hunanese people. What responsibility? That of themselves perfecting, developing, and creating their individual and collective natures

6. The fact that Mao put quotation marks around the Chinese term for proletariat,
wuchanjieji, underscores the fact that he was still not very clear about what it meant in
Marxist terms. As in his writings of the May Fourth era, he appears to have in mind
something like the literal meaning of the Chinese, "propertyless class."
7. The Xiang, Yuan, Zi, and Li are all rivers in Hunan, flowing in a north-easterly
direction and emptying into Lake Dongting.