University: the institutional guarantee of free scholarship

Wu Guosheng

The university as a higher education institution has not appeared in the academic prosperous ancient Greece, also did not appear in the cultural and educational prosperous China, but appeared in the medieval Europe. This historical fact itself should cause us to think. What is a university? Many Chinese may think that, as the name implies, universities are higher education institutions that continue to be primary and secondary. In fact, however, almost all Chinese university freshmen will find that high schools and universities seem to be completely different educational institutions. What Chinese students feel most deeply is that high school and college life can not be a continuous transition, whether it is learning style or lifestyle there is a jump, so that the new students will have a period of adaptation. What's the reason? Because China's primary and secondary education is more or less a continuation of Chinese tradition, and the university's institutional framework is the result of learning from the west. In Western countries, there is no such jump between middle school and university.

Chinese universities, though they are the result of learning the West, are still deeply influenced by local culture, forming a very different way of running schools than Western universities. Today, there are more and more problems in Chinese universities. The first step in solving these problems should be to retrace the original meaning of the university. In fact, in the history of the construction of universities in modern China, many times we have only seen certain aspects of university functions, such as cultivating talents, producing and disseminating scientific knowledge and promoting technological progress, without seeing the fundamental aspect of the system of free scholarship. It can also be said that we seize the end, ignoring the origin. Why did the university that appeared in the Middle Ages become a system of free academic protection? Why in the so-called dark medieval, so-called Christian hoodwink of the historical conditions, it would be for free academic to create such institutional arrangements?

Of course, the reason for this is that we have some deep-rooted misconceptions and prejudices about Christianity. For example, we often say that the dark Middle Ages, but nearly 100 years of historical research shows that the real dark is only 500 years in the early Middle Ages, and since 11th century, Europe began to translate the Greek academic books, began the first academic revival. For example, we often think that Christianity will be like the emperor of ancient China to pursue ideological autocracy, not pagan scholarship, in fact, most of the time the church pursues the "Jerusalem to Jerusalem, Athens to Athens", sacred doctrine and secular academic policy in parallel. In addition, in China, because of years of ideological propaganda, people probably think that religion is the enemy of science, Christianity to the pioneers of modern science Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno has been brutally persecuted, in fact, modern science in the vast expanse of Christianity, the pioneers of modern science are Christians, If religion is the enemy of science, how can science emerge and grow stronger? The priest, Copernicus, had never been persecuted by the church because of his Japanese heart astronomy. Bruno was burnt to death not because of his propaganda of Copernicus, but because of his religious beliefs. Bruno died in 1600, and the Roman Catholic Church issued a ban on Copernicus ' writings for 1616 years. Galileo had indeed been sentenced to life imprisonment and banned writings in 1633 for the dissemination of the Copernicus doctrine, but this was a special case involving the church, the kingship and the complex interpersonal relationship, which could not be regarded as evidence that the Christian churches were always hostile to science. Part of Galileo's writings were lifted in 1718 and all the writings of 1853 were lifted, and in 1992 Pope Paul II publicly admitted that the verdict on Galileo was wrong.

Christianity is a religion stretching almost 2000 years, in this long history, the relationship between religion and science, the attitude of the Church towards science is changing, generally speaking, religion is the enemy of science is certainly problematic. In addition, as a very unfamiliar to the religion of the Chinese people also need to pay special attention, whether you are positive or negative evaluation of the impact of Christianity on European civilization, you can not deny and neglect this long and far-reaching impact itself. In the absence of Christianity, it is impossible to understand the history and culture of the West, just as it is impossible to truly understand Chinese culture without Confucian thought.

Christianity was born in the Roman Empire, began as the religion of the poor people, and was brutally persecuted by the Roman rulers. Christian universalism advocates equality, emphasizing that Jesus is not only the savior of the Jews, but the savior of all mankind. Whether the poor or the rich, the free people or the slaves, the men or the women, as long as you believe in Jesus, you will be saved and have eternal life. At the time of the turbulent and mentally desperate Roman Empire, Christianity soon attracted tens of thousands of believers, especially those in the weak and marginalized groups of society. The Roman Empire had been adopting a repressive policy against Christianity until the 313, when Constantine declared that Christians were no longer pagans. In order to survive and develop, Christianity has experienced long and arduous efforts. As a special study of the medieval Science historian Grant (Edward Grant, 1926-), one notable feature of Christianity compared to Islam is that it is slow to preach. For more than hundreds of years, it has accumulated extensive experience in dealing with pagan cultures and secular cultures. On the one hand, it adapts to pagan scholarship and makes its own adjustment, on the other hand, it also influences the content and development direction of secular scholarship. Because of the slowness of missionary work, Christianity had time to absorb pagan scholarship and to form a situation of coexistence with the pagan academic ecology.

The New Testament was written in Greek, so Christianity began with traces of a combination of two Hivenming (Hebrew and Greek). The New Testament, which records Jesus and the Acts of the Apostles, was completed in the first century of A.D. and formally established in Fourth century. During this period, countless learned Christian apologetics were committed to clarifying doctrines, answering questions, coping with many of the problems and dilemmas of the Greek philosophy, and establishing an ecological symbiosis between Christianity and pagan scholarship. On the one hand, the early fathers had a clear derogatory attitude towards Greek scholarship, and believed that Greek science could only provide probability knowledge, far from certainty, and that many propositions and ideas of Greek science were wrong and harmful. On the other hand, the fathers are usually educated and nurtured in the Greek-Roman culture, and pagan scholarship has become a part of their knowledge, so the demeaning attitude towards Greek science is not and cannot go to extreme refusal, instead, they gradually accept the so-called "servant Theory", The pagan academics, though not receiving the revelation of God, cannot reach the truth, but they can prepare for a higher form of knowledge close to Christian theology and thus be exploited as maids. The maid's doctrine of belittling but not rejecting Greek science became the standard attitude of Christianity towards secular scholarship in Roman times.

This attitude to peaceful coexistence with pagan academics is also related to the attitude of the state in Christian doctrine. Christianity believes in "Jesus Christ, Caesar's return to Caesar", that is, the divine power and kingship are independent of each other. Although in the course of its subsequent history, the pope had always stressed that the right to teach was higher than the throne and that the pope was above the king, he had never appointed a bishop as king.

More importantly, Christianity inherited and everbright the legal tradition of Rome, making the European society become a legal society in the fundamental sense. The famous jurist Berman (Harold J. Berman, 1918-2007), in his book "Law and Revolution", said: "This movement in the so-called Gregorian Reform and the authority of the dispute (1075-1122) reached the apex, leading to the first Western modern legal system, namely Roman Catholicism ' The formation of the New Church law ' (jus novum), and eventually also led to the formation of royal, Urban and other new secular legal systems. [1] He called the Reform movement, initiated by Pope Gregorian VII (JN. 1020-1085), as the papal revolution, and believed that it was the papal revolution that laid the legal foundation for Christian Europe. Through the papal revolution, the power boundary between the church and secular regime was clarified, and the spiritual authority and the secular authority were independent, and set an example for other aspects of European social life. We see that Christianity actually inherits the Greek Liberal scholarship as well as the Roman legal spirit.

From the beginning of 11th century, in addition to the divine right to worship and the secular kingship, Europe has emerged a new social force, that is the city. In Chinese history, cities, whether they originate from strategic locations or originate in commercial centers, ultimately belong to the emperor and usually become the center of administrative Power of one party. Modern Chinese people in the mind of the city is relative to the country, often only see its densely populated, industrial and commercial prosperity side, did not think of the European Middle Ages rise of the city's biggest feature is its autonomy characteristics. These autonomous regimes of free people, formed by businessmen and craftsmen, flourished in a politically fragmented Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Usually they obtain concessions from the king and enjoy the right to autonomy. Citizens are no longer constrained by feudals and feudal laws. The autonomous development of European cities, independent self-government is a beautiful scenery in the Middle Ages, so the industry and commerce have gained great space for free development. This new political power, which is contained in cities, has never existed in other parts of the world.

Citizens living in autonomous cities also form a variety of autonomous organizations to regulate industry behavior and uphold the legitimate rights of their peers. For example, the leather Craftsmen Guild, the Tailor Guild, the Pottery Guild, the Wine Guild, etc., become the autonomous organization in the city. These guilds or associations are called Universitas. In the process of urban development, there are a group of people and their constituent autonomous groups are particularly noticeable, that is, the student union, teachers union or teachers and Students Union. This is the university.

1, the university is an autonomous institution

The great translation movement, which began in 11th century and the ensuing academic renaissance, has led many cities to open a wide variety of Gakkan (Studium) to meet the growing interest and enthusiasm for Greek academic and Roman law. The key sign of the transformation from Gakkan to university is not the enlargement of teaching scale, nor the ownership of real estate, but the self-governing federation formed by teachers and students with legal significance. Among the many guilds, associations and federations in the city, the Federation of Teachers and students was the most stable and lasting, with the result that in 13th century, Universitas was the only word that became a proper noun. This is the origin of the term "university" (university) today.

Among the first two universities, the University of Bologna is more of a student university, while the University of Paris is mainly a teacher's university. Within the university, the Association of Associations and boarding schools are two groups that play a major role. At the University of Bologna, the president was elected by several student associations. University presidents are held by students, and even teachers are sworn allegiance to their principals. The history of European universities writes: "Like all legal entities in the Middle Ages, universities are, in a way, divided according to the privileges they enjoy (or, as they say," Freedom and Immunity "). Among these privileges, the first and foremost is the right to autonomy, in which the university, as a body corporate, has the right to deal with external relations, to supervise the recruitment of members (whether teachers or students), to enact its own statutes and to enforce it through a degree of internal jurisdiction, while other privileges are enjoyed by members of the Body Corporate. Teachers and students have the same personal status. These situations arose in 12th century and were stereotyped in 13th century. "[2]

The university is an autonomous organization with legal status formed by the students or teachers, and the city authorities establish self-protection treaties and defend their own rights and interests. For example, students can ask the city authorities to enjoy the privileges of the priest, duty-free, exemption from military service, personal property not to be seized by local authorities, not to accept charges from local citizens ' courts, to be subject to church courts, and sometimes not even to be charged by local religious courts, but by their own teachers to set up referees. For example, universities require the city authorities not to arbitrarily raise rents and not to use judicial power against foreign students. In 1155, the Holy Roman Emperor, Barbarossa Philip Terey, enacted the Safe Residence Act in Bologna, which allowed teachers and students to move freely, forcing their nationals not to default on foreign student debt, and providing various legal protections for foreign students as a model of the university's quest for rights from secular administrations.

Student universities and teachers also have a treaty on self-protection, "at the University of Bologna, where the Student Guild, at the beginning of the hiring of professors, was fined to supervise whether the Professor performed his teaching duties properly, whether he was on time for class, whether he had enough classes, to pay the penalty, The professors must deposit a sum of money in advance to pay the deposit. [3] On the contrary, teachers ' universities, which are made up of teachers, also have rules governing students, such as paying tuition fees in a timely manner.

The law and institutionalization of universities include many aspects. It is to obtain a concession from the pope or the king or Feudals, and to become an autonomous organization of legal status. It wants to enter into a self-protection treaty with the city authorities, including the privileges of university teachers and students, tax exemption, and limited prices. It should also have its own charter to regulate the problems that arise in teaching, such as the selection of teachers ' qualifications, the rights and duties of teachers, the setting of subjects and courses, the choice of teaching materials, the formulation of educational plans and the awarding of degrees. Thanks to the papal legal revolution, universities have become one of the most dynamic emerging political forces in the rule of law in Europe. Between the right of teaching and the royal power, develop and strengthen themselves. With the help of the Pope's charter, the university asked its members to enjoy the privileges of the clergy to secular local administrations. With the support of the emperor, the university demanded academic freedom from the church. Some university teachers enjoy the salary of the church and the privileges of priests, but do not engage in church work, not the obligation of the Church. It was in the special historical conditions of European medieval teaching power and kingship that the university grew into the third largest political force in Europe.

2, the university provides universal learning standards for the Christian world

In addition to the autonomous Association of Students and teachers, another important criterion established by the university is the recognition of the pope or the authority of the century, thereby gaining legal independence. It is the charter of the Pope or the king that distinguishes the university from other schools in the same era, such as Bishop's school, city School, the school of the Dervish and the private law school.

The pope's charter for the University was originally designed to establish a unified theological teacher's teaching license in the Christian world, permitting the teaching of theology at a university, which meant that all universities had the qualifications to be taught, equivalent to a uniform teacher's certificate. The Pope granted the university a concession to make the university a universal pan-European institution. In this special place of the university, young people from different parts of Europe come together to learn knowledge and to explore academia, and to form a universal learning standard.

As a follow-up to the Pope's legal revolution, the study and study of Roman law is becoming a craze. The Baltic region began to appear in the half of the 11th century, the law school, 1180-90 years of Student Organizations Association of Associations to become universities, in 1219 the pope decided to issue a teaching permit, 1252 to establish a university charter, which stipulates that students themselves hire teachers, the provision of teacher salaries. In terms of its teaching content, the University of Bologna is primarily a law university, while the University of Paris is primarily a theological university. In 1200, the King of France allowed students to enjoy the privileges of priests. The Pope conferred the university Charter in 1215-1231. The university is composed of four associations formed in 1220, and the President was elected by the teachers in 1240.

In addition to the pope's concession, there is another factor that allows universities to provide universal standards of learning, which is the university's degree system. Schools in ancient Greece and Rome never had the tradition of awarding diplomas and diplomas. It is the nature of the University's Guild to award degrees to its own students. As a guild of students and teachers, the basic function of the university is to set up the industry threshold, industry standard, and provide the product standard. The difference with other industries is that universities, because they are institutions of knowledge transfer, enjoy the universal character inherent in knowledge itself. The standard of the product that the university maintains is the academic standard. Obtaining a university degree means having experienced qualified academic training and thus enjoying a corresponding academic position. A university degree is recognised throughout the Christian world, just as a university's qualifications are common in other universities. Today, universities are admitting credits, diplomas, and professors flowing between universities, all from this tradition.

Early universities usually have four faculties: the Academy of Arts (Faculty of Arts), the Theological Seminary (Faculty of Theology), the Law school (Faculty of Laws), and the Medical School (Faculty of Medicine). The Faculty of Arts can earn a bachelor's degree in 2-3 years, and a master's degree in another 2-3 years. After obtaining a master's degree, you will be obliged to teach at the academy for two years, after which you can go on to a doctorate in three other professional colleges. Obtaining a doctorate means being qualified to teach at a professional college.

Students with a degree can wear specially designed costumes to attend the ceremony. The burqa-style degree garments used in China today have been passed down from the Middle Ages. Its prototype is the priest costume.

3, the University to teach freedom of art as the basic

Although the University of Bologna is dominated by jurisprudence, the University of Paris is dominated by theology, but as a university, it is based on an art institute that teaches freedom of art (liberal arts). There are many translations in the Chinese language, such as the College of Arts, Humanities, liberal arts, and undergraduate colleges, there is a certain truth. In order to emphasize that it teaches freedom of art, translation into the Academy of Arts.

The so-called freedom of art, is the spread of freedom from Rome, seven arts, refers to the free people should be accepted seven basic courses. The Chinese Three arts (Trivium) namely grammar, rhetoric and logic, Mathematics Four Arts (quadrivium) namely arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, collectively called Seven Arts (seven liberal arts). Free Seven Arts is the foundation of Western Humanities Education, so some Chinese scholars have liberal arts into humanities seven subjects and translated liberal education into humanistic education. The seven arts of freedom are all from Greece, a kind of dilution of Greek scholarship. But it is one of the two great cultural treasures left to the Middle Ages by Roman civilization, and the other great wealth is Roman law.

The seven arts spread to the dark ages of early medieval times, the knowledge content is very limited. Chinese three art is almost only Latin reading and writing training, mathematics four art has become a little superficial abacus, Church calendar, hymn practice and some practical geometry. Since the 12th century academic renaissance, many new materials have been added to the seven art. Aristotle's works of natural philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and political science were introduced into the teaching of the Academy of Arts. By the middle of the 13th century, the course system of the Academy of Arts was no longer seven, but was divided into three philosophical branches of natural philosophy, ethics and metaphysics. Logic and rhetoric became the main subjects in the three arts, while natural philosophy replaced the four art. Rhetoric becomes a preparatory subject for law, while logic and natural philosophy are the preparatory section of medicine.

The art of Freedom is the foundation of college study, which is the inheritance of medieval universities to the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. The university, which grew up in the urban business environment, had to face "the main battlefield of economic construction" and "train talents" for the church and the country, but the Latin Europeans were not shortsighted enough to turn the university into a vocational training institution, so that the university had no difference from that of the General Guild of Industry. In contrast to the art of freedom, the Middle Ages also saw the mechanical of mechanical arts (arts, Latin Artes Mechanicae). As early as 9th century Eliugenner (Johannes Scotus Eriugena) that city, has proposed the following seven arts: Clothing (Vestiaria), agronomy (Agricultura), Architecture (Architectura), Soldier Art (Militia and Venatoria), Commerce (Mercatura), Cooking (Coquinaria), Metallurgy (Metallaria), the expression of human low-level needs. Later, Saint Victor's Hugh (Hugh of Saint Victor, 1096-1141) used navigation (navigation), medicine (medicine), Drama (Theatrical arts) to replace trade, agronomy and cooking, respectively, The status of machinery Seven has risen. However, we have seen that medieval universities did not use mechanical art as a major discipline, because they believed that these mechanical arts were not to be studied in universities, and that universities, as universities, were the first to learn the art of freedom. All machinery seven in art, only medicine was protruding out, the establishment of a separate medical school.

The three professional colleges of theology, law and medicine do not recruit students from the "incumbent" and quickly cultivate senior professionals directly, but ploy college to receive graduates. This great university tradition has been passed on to today's developed countries in Europe and America. Like Harvard Law School, Management College, medical school positioning as a professional college, can not recruit their own undergraduates. Their students are graduates of the liberal arts college (College of Arts and Sciences). Unlike today's China, today's Peking University, those liberal arts of the college entrance examinations are running to read the school of Management. Today's College of Arts and Sciences is the Art Institute of the year. The college is the basic School of college, and it is the fundamental mode of university.

Today's authentic college students are called "undergraduate" students, but people do not go into the true meaning of the "undergraduate" two words, also do not know the Chinese "undergraduate" two words from where, do not understand why undergraduate was translated into "undergraduate". The term "undergraduate" was invented by Mr. Cai Yuanpei, who wanted to express the idea that liberal arts and science were the "basic subjects" of the university. Cai Yuanpei put forward the concept of "undergraduate", which inherits the tradition of "art college" of European universities. In "My experience at Peking University", he said: "I had an ideal at that time, that the text, the two subjects, is the agricultural, industrial, medical, medicine, law, business and other applied science, and these scientific research period, still have to belong to the text, the rationale for two subjects." Therefore, the two subjects must have a variety of research institutes, and the teachers and graduates of these two subjects will have to work for a lifetime in the institute, as teachers, rather than in other institutions. Therefore, the complete university, of course, each branch and set up, there are interrelated convenience. If you do not have this ability, you may wish to have a university office of Arts and Sciences, known as undergraduate, and other applications of various branches, can do specialized colleges and universities, such as Germany, France and other countries precedent, in order to express the difference between learning and surgery. Because the school buildings and funds in Peking University have never put together the possibility of applying various kinds of applied science, they want to divide the law and make it into undergraduate university, but have not achieved the purpose. Cai principal clearly distinguishes between "learning" and "technique", "undergraduate" and "specialty", and tries to make PKU a true "undergraduate". However, today, we have completely forgotten the meaning of "undergraduate", actually cultivated a large number of medical undergraduates, law undergraduates, management undergraduates and other conceptual confusion, contradictory education products.

The university is based on the art of teaching freedom, indicating that despite the dark ages, European universities continue to follow the spirit of free scholarship in Greece and become a strong bastion of free scholarship in the new social and historical conditions.

4, university with free debate as the main teaching method

The medieval university formed a very normative and stable teaching content and teaching form. There are two basic teaching methods, one is the lecture (lectio) and the other is the debate (Disputatio). Lectures are taught by teachers with the goal of familiarizing students with the knowledge content of the textbook. The debate is conducted under the auspices of a teacher, between students and students, with teachers and students, with the goal of allowing students to apply what they have learned.

The basic way of "lectures" is to read the classic text first, then explain the key concepts and terminology, and then explain and further analyze the main points in the text. This kind of lectures is basically similar to teaching methods around the world. However, the medieval university developed a unique way of lectures, that is, in the text analysis, highlighting the issue of "problem", under the guidance of "problem" to the text analysis and critical interpretation. Through this kind of lecture pattern, the medieval university teacher created a kind of important academic literature, namely "the problem literature". The literature was taught again in the university class, which fostered the students ' critical spirit and "problem consciousness". "Problem consciousness" is the beginning of academic research. The reason why Chinese students lack scientific research ability is the lack of "problem consciousness". In our university class, the knowledge transfer is more than the training of "problem consciousness". This is the fundamental gap between us and the world's leading universities.

"Debate" is a unique way of teaching in medieval universities. In the traditional education mode of our country, we attach importance to reciting classics, memorize, and students ' own understanding and acceptance, which is seldom the link of this debate. Today, in our college classrooms, students are still content to listen carefully to take notes, without asking the habit. At present, only on the level of graduate students to open a "discussion class" course to encourage students to participate in the discussion. The curriculum at the undergraduate level is also mainly taught by teachers.

In the Middle Ages debates in the university, usually by the teacher presided over, introduced the question, attends the curriculum the student and the teacher divides the positive and negative two sides to carry on the debate. The teacher in charge finally synthesized the debate between the two sides and reached a conclusion. In this class, students not only train their own expressive ability, but also participate in the production process of knowledge. In addition to the usual debating class, the College of Arts and Crafts also offers free debate classes. The course may last for several days, and is still chaired by a teacher, who is composed of students and teachers who ask questions and host teachers for answers and comments. What is special about this course is that the audience can ask any questions, including the most devastating theological and political problems of the time. Of course, teachers usually do not have the right to the theological and political answers and conclusions, but in the question session, the university students enjoy a high degree of academic freedom.

Debating this collective way of intellectual training is the creative contribution of medieval universities to European education. Today our degree system has been implemented in the thesis defense system, in the university education advocated by the discussion class teaching methods, are from the tradition of medieval universities. The free exploration is the legal privilege of the university, because of this, the university becomes the system guarantee of the free academic.

[1] Berman: Law and Revolution, China Encyclopedia Publishing House 2002 edition, 2nd page.

[2] German-Simmons editor: The History of European universities, page 120th, Hebei University Press, published in 2008.

[3] German-Simmons editor: The History of European universities, volume 23rd.

University: the institutional guarantee of free scholarship