ducation thus open to
them, so that in time we may have many who will be competent to help us
in the stupendous task of putting our country on a level with the
strongest of the western powers." It was not wisdom the young man was
after for the sake of wisdom, but he wanted knowledge because knowledge
was power, and at that time it was the particular kind of power that
was necessary to save China from utter destruction.

On the 26th of the same month he censured the princes and ministers who
were lax in reporting upon this edict, and ordered them to do so at
once, and it was not long until a favourable report was given and, for
the first time in the history of the empire, a great university was
launched by the government, destined, may we not hope, to accomplish
the end the ambitious boy Emperor had in view.

Kuang Hsu was aware that a single institution was not sufficient to
accomplish that end. On July 10th therefore he ordered that "schools
and colleges be established in all the provincial capitals,
prefectoral, departmental and district cities, and allowed the viceroys
and governors but two months to report upon the number of colleges and
free schools within their provinces," saying that "all must be changed
into practical schools for the teaching of Chinese literature, and
Western learning and become feeders to the Peking Imperial University."
He ordered further that all memorial and other temples that had been
erected by the people but which were not recorded in the list of the
Board of Rites or of Sacrificial Worship, were to be turned into
schools and colleges for the propagation of Western learning, a thought
which was quite in harmony with that advocated by Chang Chih-tung. The
funds for carrying on this work, and the establishment of these
schools, were to be provided for by the China Merchants' Steamship
Company, the Telegraph Company and the Lottery at Canton.

On August 4th he ordered that numerous preparatory schools be
established in Peking as special feeders to the university; and on the
9th appointed Dr. W. A. P. Martin as Head of the Faculty and approved
the site suggested for the university by Sun Chia-nai, the president.
On the 16th he authorized the establishment of a Bureau for
"translating into Chinese Western works on science, arts and
literature, and textbooks for use in schools and colleges"; and on the
19th he abolished the "Palace examinations for Hanlins as useless,
superficial and obsole