Scholarship in the Occupied Territories Under the Wang Jingwei Regime

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南京國立中央大學大門

The front gate to Nanjing Central University. (Source: Nanjing University website)

Bearing the label of a “treasonous traitor,” Wang Jingwei left Chongqing’s anti-Japanese camp and returned to Nanjing. One of his greatest contributions to the two hundred million fellow citizens was resuming school, providing young people in the occupied areas a place to study. School names, locations and numbers remained as before. As I know, speaking of Zhongda (Central University), the quality of the professors was first-rate. No matter how he is vilified afterwards, people in the occupied areas needed, welcomed and supported him. The deans and professors of all five colleges were renowned for their expertise.YANG PENG, Witnessing A Life 《見證一生》

While the topic of scholarship in the Japanese-occupied territories may seem impractical, Wang Jingwei’s Nanjing Reorganized National Government, established in 1940, focused on reviving education. Scholarship became a means to restore people’s quality of life, with higher learning as a priority.

Education had always been a primary concern of Wang Jingwei. After the Xinhai Revolution and the Republic was founded, he left all government posts for France with the goal to further his studies. During this time, Wang joined the Movement for Education. In a letter to overseas Chinese, he writes that he had spent too much time running around and in prison, away from his ambition to dedicate himself to the improvement of people’s thinking and thus further happiness of fellow citizens. Determined to take advantage of leaving the past behind before “old habits are established,” he traveled to Europe in order to focus on learning for himself, as well as contributing to educational reform. (Read Wang Jingwei’s Political Discourse, page 59.)

Between 1912 and 1917 Wang Jingwei traveled between France and China several times, and joined the Diligent-Work-Frugal-Study Movement, establishing the Société Franco-Chinoise d’Education with Cai Yuanpei, Li Shizeng, Wu Zhihui and others. Later, they founded the Institut Franco-Chinois de Lyon. (Click here to read more.) Until July 1, 1925 when he was elected chairman of Nationalist Government’s standing and military committees, the only position Wang Jingwei would accept after his return from France in April, 1921 was as head of the education department in Guangdong province.

When the 1937 Sino-Japanese War broke out, the students of Nanjing Central University and Jinling University were forced to move west to Chongqing, carrying their books and laboratory equipment with them. (Read Cloud, Smoke, Scattered Memories—the Memoir of Ho Mang Hang pages 158-168). Higher education in Nanjing became non-existent. Wang Jingwei spoke about their difficulties and determination in a speech on March 30, 1941 (See Wang Jingwei’s Political Discourse page 610-611):

In the midst of war, the greatest casualty is higher education. Returning to school without classrooms or materials is not easy. Still, from public and private schools everywhere, middle school graduates sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. Students need a place to further their studies. In order for the nation to nurture special skills, the restoration of higher education becomes urgent.WANG JINGWEI

After returning to Nanjing on March 30, 1940, the first priority was reopening the Zhongyang (Central) University. In April, the government established the Zhongyang University Reopening Committee, and classes resumed on July 25 in the university’s original location in six colleges: literature, law, business, education, agriculture and medicine. By August, University recruited students in Nanjing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Beiping, etc. As scholar Marks S. Eykholt observes:

With Zhongyang University as a center, student life in Nanjing recovered much of its pre-war vitality.…Students at Zhongyang University also developed a variety of clubs, cultural outings, and sports competitions. There were movies, plays, and operas to enjoy. Student life in Nanjing did not stagnate during the war. Rather, led by the students at Zhongyang University, students in Nanjing led a multi-faceted life and discussed the challenges facing China in the 1940s.MARK S. EYKHOLT
At the same time, cultural organizations were founded, such as the Central Library, which amassed documents and acted as a hub for social education as well. Also established was the National Institute for Compilation and Translation, which produced many publications on evolution theory, literature, French sociology, etc., consolidating academic research. In a study on academic research and intellectuals in the wartime occupied territories, using Nanjing in 1940-1945 as a case study, the scholar Cui Wei remarks that the best scholars and intellectuals experts in literature, law, education, history, biology and remarked were all gathered together here:
Highly accomplished, these scholars who published profusely, occupy very important positions in history of academia of China.CUI WEI
At the end of the war in 1945, many of these scholars were imprisoned for their role in the Wang Jingwei government. At one time, the prison was filled with the sound of reading. Their writings are now shared in Prison Writings by Members of the Wang Jingwei Regime.
References

崔巍，〈抗戰時期淪陷區的學術研究及知識分子狀況述論——以 1940至 1945年南京市為例〉，《民國檔案》2007年第3期。

Eykholt, M. S. (1998). Living the limits of occupation in Nanjing, China, 1937-1945. In UMI eBooks. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA47206400?l=en

何孟恆，《何孟恆雲煙散憶》（台北：華漢，2024）。

楊鵬，《見證一生》（台北：華岩出版社，2018），頁49-50。

汪精衛，〈致南洋同志書〉，《汪精衛政治論述》增訂本上冊（台北：華漢，2024），頁98。

汪精衛，〈國民政府還都一年〉，《汪精衛政治論述》增訂本下冊（台北：華漢，2024），頁610-611。

〈中央大學入學考試〉，《南華日報》（香港），1940年8月3日，頁3。