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{{Short description|Chinese educator and statesman (1868–1940)}}
{{family name hatnote|[[Cai (surname)|Cai]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Cai Yuanpei
| order               = President of the [[Control Yuan]]
| native_name         = {{normal|蔡元培}}
| native_name_lang    = zh
| image               = Cai Yuanpei-loc-nodate-crop.jpg
| predecessor         = ''Office established''
| successor           = {{ill|Zhao Daiwen|lt=Zhao Daiwen|zh|赵戴文}}
| term                = 1928–1929
| birth_date          = {{birth-date|11 January 1868}}
| birth_place         = [[Shaoxing]], [[Zhejiang]], [[Qing dynasty]]
| death_date          = {{death-date and age|5 March 1940|11 January 1868}}
| death_place         = [[British Hong Kong]]
| spouse              = {{ubl|{{marriage|Wang Zhao|1889|1900|end=d.}}|{{marriage|Huang Zhongyu|1902|end=d.}}|{{marriage|Zhou Jun|1923|1940}}}}
| children            = 7 (including [[Cai Weilian]])
| parents             = Cai Guang (father)
| occupation          = Philosopher, politician
| successor1          = [[Zhu Jiahua]]
| office1             = President of the [[Academia Sinica]]
| predecessor1        = ''Office established''
| module              = {{Infobox Chinese
| child    = yes
| c        = 蔡元培
| p        = Cài Yuánpéi
| gr       = Tsay Yuanpeir
| w        = {{tonesup|Ts'ai4 Yüan2-p'ei2}}
| mi       = {{IPAc-cmn|c|ai|4|-|yuan|2|p|ei|2}}
| altname  = [[Courtesy name]]
| t2       = 鶴卿
| s2       = 鹤卿
| p2       = Hèqīng
| gr2      = Hehching
| w2       = Ho-ch'ing
| altname2 = [[Art name|Sobriquet]]
| c3       = 孑民
| p3       = Jiémín
| gr3      = Jyemin
| w3       = Chieh-min
| l3       = Lone Citizen
}}
| education           = [[Leipzig University]]<br />[[University of Hamburg]]
}}
'''Cai Yuanpei''' ({{zh|c=蔡元培}}; 1868–1940) was a Chinese philosopher and politician who was an influential figure in the history of Chinese modern education. He made contributions to education reform with his own education ideology. He was the president of [[Peking University]], and founder of the [[Academia Sinica]]. He was known for his critical evaluation of [[Chinese culture]] and synthesis of Chinese and Western thinking, including [[anarchism]]. He got involved in the [[New Culture]], [[May Fourth Movement|May Fourth]] Movements, and the [[feminist movement]]. His works involve aesthetic education, politics, and [[Education in China|education reform]].

== Biography ==
[[File:Shaoxing Cai Yuanpei Guju 2017.12.09 14-23-22.jpg|thumb|The [[Former Residence of Cai Yuanpei]] in Shaoxing]]
Born in Shanyin County, [[Shaoxing]], [[Zhejiang]], Cai was appointed to the [[Hanlin Academy]] at 26. In 1898, he became involved in administering institutes and became:
* Superintendent of Shaoxing Chinese-Western School (紹興中西學堂監督)
* Head of Sheng District Shanshan College (嵊縣剡山書院院長)
* Director-Teacher of the Special Class (特班總敎習) of Nanyang Public School (predecessor of [[Shanghai Jiao Tong University]])

He established [[Guangfuhui]] in 1904 and joined [[Tongmenghui]] in Paris the next year, and became a member of the [[Chinese anarchist]] group led by [[Wu Zhihui]], and [[Li Shizeng]]. He studied [[philosophy]], [[psychology]], and [[art history]] in the [[Universität Leipzig]] of Germany in 1907 under [[Karl Lamprecht]] and [[Wilhelm Wundt]].<ref>Gao Zhipeng [http://www.discourseunit.com/arcp10/China%20III%20293-307.pdf The Emergence of Modern Psychology in China, 1876 – 1922] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107114550/http://www.discourseunit.com/arcp10/China%20III%20293-307.pdf |date=2013-11-07 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jing |first1=Qicheng |last2=Fu |first2=Xiaolan |year=2001 |title=Modern Chinese psychology: Its indigenous roots and international influences |journal=International Journal of Psychology |volume=36 |issue=6 |pages=408–418 |doi=10.1080/00207590143000234 |issn=0020-7594}}</ref>

He became Minister of Education in the new Republic of China in 1912.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duiker |first=William J. |year=1971 |title=Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei and the Confucian Heritage |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=207–226 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00004029 |jstor=311700 |s2cid=143558374}}</ref> As Minister of Education, Cai advocated that [[Cinema of China|film]] should be used to support public education.

Cai returned to China in 1916 and served as the President of [[Peking University]] the following year. There he resumed his support, begun in his Paris years with Li Shizeng, for the [[Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement]], which sent worker-students to France.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Linden |first=Allen B. |year=1968 |title=Politics and Education in Nationalist China: The Case of the University Council, 1927–1928 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=763–776 |doi=10.2307/2051578 |issn=0021-9118 |jstor=2051578 |s2cid=154280190}}</ref> It was during his tenure at Peking University that he recruited such famous thinkers to the school as future [[Chinese Communist Party]] leaders [[Chen Duxiu]] and [[Li Dazhao]], as well as thinkers like [[Hu Shih]], a close friend, [[Liang Shuming]] and the painter [[Xu Beihong]].<ref name="brown">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1444396323 |title=A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture |publisher=Wiley |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-444-39632-4 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Rebecca M. |location=Chicester |page=553 |editor-last2=Hutton |editor-first2=Deborah S.}}</ref>

In 1919, after the student leaders of the [[May Fourth Movement|May Fourth]] demonstrators were jailed, Cai resigned in protest (returning to office in September). Meanwhile, he and Xu Beihong wrote regularly for the ''Daily University of Peking University'' that dealt with broader issues than just campus politics. Xu addressed issues of Art and Art History and in 1920 a university art journal called ''Painting Miscellany'' was published.<ref name="brown" /> After resigning again in 1922, he spent a period of withdrawal in France. Returning in 1926, he supported his fellow-provincial [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and the [[Kuomintang]]'s efforts to unite the country. Along with [[Wu Zhihui]], [[Li Shizeng]], and [[Zhang Renjie]], he was known as one of the "Four Elders" of the Party, and a staunch anti-communist. He was appointed president of the [[Control Yuan]], but soon resigned.{{sfn|Boorman|1970|pp=297–298}}

Cai was frustrated in his efforts to remodel the national system of education to resemble the French system,<ref name=":3" /> but in 1927, he co-founded the National College of Music, which later became the [[Shanghai Conservatory of Music]], and in April 1928, he helped to found and became the first president of the [[Academia Sinica]]. He and a wide circle of colleagues founded the [[China League for Civil Rights]] which criticized the national government and Chiang Kai-shek for abuse of power. The situation worsened, however; the League could not attain the release from jail of [[Chen Duxiu]], Cai's former dean at Peking University, for instance. In June 1933, the Academia Sinica's academic administrator and co-founder of the League, [[Yang Quan]], was shot and killed in the street in front of the League's Shanghai offices. After a period of shock and reflection, Cai retired from public view in a statement denouncing the political repression of the Nanjing government.{{sfn|Boorman|1970|p=298}}

After the outbreak of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] in 1937, partly because of declining health, instead of accompanying the national government to [[Sichuan]], Cai moved to [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]]. He lived there in seclusion until his death in March 1940 at the age of 72.{{sfn|Boorman|1970|p=299}}
[[File:Cai Yuanpei with Students from Peking University styding abroad.jpg|thumb|Cai with students from Peking University studying abroad]]

== Contributions to education ==
Under Cai's influence, and with his support for literati and educators in New China, Peking University became important for the development of Chinese education and culture.<ref name=":3" /> Cai established the Ministry of Education in 1927, modelled after the French education system.<ref name=":3" />

=== Aesthetic education ===
Cai was an advocator and implementer of Chinese aesthetic education. He promoted the development of Chinese aesthetic education.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Ban |year=2020 |title=Aesthetics, Morality, and the Modern Community: Wang Guowei, Cai Yuanpei, and Lu Xun |journal=Critical Inquiry |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=496–514 |doi=10.1086/708078 |issn=0093-1896 |s2cid=216315686}}</ref> He had his own unique insights into aesthetics which he associated aesthetics with Chinese traditional virtues. He connected aesthetics with education and politics, which is influenced by his experiences. He emphasized the importance of aesthetics for social stability and development.<ref name=":0" /> Besides, he proposed that aesthetics is beneficial to the formation of "public morality and civic virtue".<ref name=":0" />

=== Women's education ===
Cai not only improved women's equity in the education system, such as the first women's admission in 1920 and [[mixed-sex education]], but he also advocated feminism to change the traditional Chinese concept of women. Cai successively invited several feminists to teach at Peking University, including Chen Duxiu and [[Hu Shih]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Yuen Ting |year=2007 |title=Active or Passive Initiator: Cai Yuanpei's Admission of Women to Beijing University (1919-20) |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=279–299 |doi=10.1017/S1356186307007250 |issn=1356-1863 |jstor=25188734 |s2cid=163049290}}</ref> They played an important role in Cai's reform of women's education at Peking University, which was a breakthrough in the [[History of education in China|history of Chinese education]].<ref name=":1" />

== Pedagogy ==

=== Education independence ===
In the journal ''New Education'' (新教育), Cai proposed that education must be independent of the government. He tried to protect the University Council from direct control by the government.<ref name=":3" />

=== Liberality and democracy ===
Cai raised the traditional virtue of “righteousness (义), reciprocity (恕) and humanity (仁)” based on the Western ideas of "Freedom, equity, fraternity".<ref name=":3" /> He was committed to establishing [[academic freedom]] and a pure research atmosphere at Peking University. He also tried to protect the freedom of educators and students, in education reform.<ref name=":3" /> Among the teaching staff at Peking University, there were many representatives of the new cultural movement such as Li Dazhao, Hu Shih, and Chen Duxiu. He also assembled notable conservative and old-fashioned scholars such as [[Gu Hongming]] and [[Liu Shipei]] to teaching at Peking University.<ref name=":1" />

=== Five types of education ===
Cai advocated practising five types of education in the education system. The five types of education refer to [[Military education and training in China|military education for citizen]] (军国民教育), utilitarian education (实利主义教育), [[civic education]] (公民道德教育), education for a world view (世界观教育), and aesthetic education (美感学教育).<ref name=":3" />

== Other thought ==

=== Women ===
Cai's perspectives on women combined both traditionalism and modernism.<ref name=":1" /> He believed in the subordinate, Confucian, relationship between husband and wife, holding that men rule outside the house, and women inside it (男主外女主内).<ref name=":1" /> His views on women's virtues were also conventional, including, for example, the idea that mothers should be the educators of their children. He held that an unmarried woman was not a virtuous one.<ref name=":1" /> Cai Yuanpei was a proponent of women's right to divorce and remarry. He strongly opposed [[foot binding]] and concubinage, both of which were widely practiced in China at the time.<ref name=":1" /> He also advocated education equity as well as physical education for women.<ref name=":1" />

=== Political thoughts ===
He advocated anarchism about anti-oppression to re-establish human civilization. But he emphasized the importance of “a complete state”, which is partly influenced by Western Anarchism's views on the state and the family.<ref name=":2" /> Cai Yuanpei's view on anarchism mainly targets to abolish the colonial oppression China suffered.<ref name=":2" /> He studied [[anarcho-communism]] and was influenced by [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], [[Mikhail Bakunin]], and [[Peter Kropotkin]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Godwin-Grimm |first=H. |year=1923 |title=The Anarchist Movement in China |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/h-godwin-grimm-the-anarchist-movement-in-china-1 |website=Cultura Obrera via The Anarchist Library}}</ref>

== May Fourth movement ==
[[File:蔡元培雕像.JPG|thumb|The statue of Cai Yuanpei in the campus of Peking University]]

=== New Civil Religion ===
Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shih put forward their own views on social values and were committed to solving the impact of the Revolution of 1911 on social systems and beliefs during the May Fourth Movement.<ref name=":4" /> Cai Yuanpei proposed that the formation of a new civil religion can be achieved by cultivating the Chinese to learn aesthetics, democracy, and science.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Zarrow |first=Peter |year=2019 |title=A Question of Civil Religion: Three Case Studies in the Intellectual History of "May Fourth" |journal=Twentieth-Century China |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=150–160 |doi=10.1353/tcc.2019.0016 |issn=1940-5065 |s2cid=151134281}}</ref>

Consistent with the [[New Culture Movement]], Cai contended that divine authorities and superstitions should be overthrown.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Tu |first=Hang |title=Sentimental Republic: Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |year=2025 |isbn=9780674297579}}</ref>{{Rp|page=61}} He also viewed religious aesthetics as containing major potential for achieving transcendence through appreciation of beauty.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=61}}

=== Linguistics ===
Just as Cai recommended the teaching of the non-state international language [[Esperanto]] in China,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Esperantujo_China Interreta Informa Centro |url=http://esperanto.china.org.cn/world/shi-window/kiu_e_k/20.htm |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=esperanto.china.org.cn}}</ref> he also defended the written use of the spoken language (''[[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]]'', in which he himself also had written a novel (新年梦) <ref>(fr) M. Raibaud, in: André Lévy (dir.), Dictionnaire de littérature chinoise, Presses universitaires de France, coll. «Quadrige», 1994, 2nd ed. 2000, p. 22-23.</ref>) to replace the [[classical Chinese]] language of the early 20th century. This was one of the main demands of the May 4th Movement (1919).{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

== Representative works ==

=== "New Year's Dream" ===
"New Year's Dream" (新年梦) is a short story based on Cai's own life, reflecting his ideal society. It is influenced by [[Liang Qichao]]’s [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|utopian stories]]. The writing style is "painful, even violent, and struggle".<ref name=":2" /> The story revolves around the protagonist, a Chinese citizen, telling about China's 20th-century revolution.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Li |first=Guangyi |year=2013 |title=A Chinese Anarcho-cosmopolitan Utopia: A Chinese Anarcho-cosmopolitan Utopia |journal=Utopian Studies |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=89–104 |doi=10.5325/utopianstudies.24.1.0089 |issn=1045-991X |jstor=10.5325/utopianstudies.24.1.0089 |s2cid=142749024}}</ref> Cai wrote the story while China was suffering from the war with Japan, and was also influenced by the [[Russo-Japanese War]].<ref name=":2" />

== See also ==
* [[Chinese Education Improving Institute]]
* [[Anarchism in China]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cai Jianguo |title=Cai Yuanpei: Gelehrter und Mittler zwischen Ost und West |year=1998 |location=Münster |language=de |translator-last=Stichler, Hans Christian}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wang Peili |title=Wilhelm von Humboldt und Cai Yuanpei: eine vergleichende Analyse zweier klassischer Bildungskonzepte in der deutschen Aufklärung und in der ersten chinesischen Republik |publisher=Waxmann |year=1996 |location=Münster |language=de}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=1970 |title=Biographical Dictionary of Republican China |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3AJFusMHJwC&q=Yuan-p%27ei |last=Boorman |first=Howard L. |volume=III |pages=295–299 |isbn=0-231-04558-1 |chapter=T'sai Yuan-p'ei}}
* {{Cite book |last=Weston |first=Timothy Bergmann |title=The power of position: Beijing university, intellectuals, and Chinese political culture, 1898-1929 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-520-23767-4 |location=Berkeley}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Cai Yuanpei}}
* [http://www.thechinastory.org/ritp/tsai-yuan-pei-cai-yuanpei-%E8%94%A1%E5%85%83%E5%9F%B9/ Tsai Yuan-pei (Cai Yuanpei) 蔡元培] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328013241/https://www.thechinastory.org/ritp/tsai-yuan-pei-cai-yuanpei-%e8%94%a1%e5%85%83%e5%9f%b9/ |date=2019-03-28 }} from ''Biographies of Prominent Chinese'' c.1925.
Les Jean Jacques Rousseau en Chine : Cai Yuan Pei et John Dewey (French Edition): 9781493536009: de Shazer, Marie-Laure

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{{s-bef|before=Position created}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of presidents of the Control Yuan|President]] of [[Control Yuan]]|years=1928—1929}}
{{s-aft|after=Zhao Daiwen}}
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{{Portal bar|China|Anarchism|Biography}}
{{Presidents of the Control Yuan}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cai, Yuanpei}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Chinese philosophers]]
[[Category:20th-century anarchists]]
[[Category:20th-century Chinese philosophers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Peking University]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Shanghai Jiao Tong University]]
[[Category:Anarcho-communists]]
[[Category:Chinese anarchists]]
[[Category:Chinese Esperantists]]
[[Category:Chinese expatriates in France]]
[[Category:Educators from Shaoxing]]
[[Category:Leipzig University alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Kuomintang]]
[[Category:Philosophers from Zhejiang]]
[[Category:Politicians from Shaoxing]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Control Yuan]]
[[Category:Presidents of Peking University]]
[[Category:Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang]]
[[Category:Tongmenghui members]]
[[Category:Unity Party (China) politicians]]