Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/448

444 a member of the board which drew up the plan of a national system of education. For example, the course of study prescribed for students of mining is exactly that of the University of Kyoto as given on p. 251 of this Journal for March.

The plan of organization for the Imperial University at Peking, as translated by F. Hawkes Pott, is as follows:

 1. Faculty of Classics; 10 courses, among which are: (a) The Book of Changes; (b) The Book of Annals; (c) The Book of Poetry; (d) Spring and Autumn Annals; (e) Rites; (f) Confucian Analects, and the Books of Mencius, with commentaries; (g) Philosophy. 2. Faculty of Jurisprudence; 2 courses: (a) Administration; (b) Legislation. 3. Faculty of Arts; 9 courses: (a) History of China; (b) Universal history; (c) General geography; (d) Geography of China; (e) Geography of England; (f) Geography of France; (g) Geography of Germany; (h) Geography of Russia; (i) Geography of Japan. 4. Faculty of Medicine; 2 courses: (a) Medicine; (b) Pharmacy. 5. Faculty of Science; 6 courses: (a) Mathematics; (b) Astronomy; (c) Physics; (d) Chemistry; (e) Natural history; (f) Geology. 6. Faculty of Agronomy; 4 courses: (a) Agriculture; (b) Chemistry relating to agriculture; (c) Forestry; (d) Veterinary science. 7. Faculty of Engineering; 6 courses: (a) Civil engineering; (b) Mechanical engineering; (c) Electrical engineering; (d) Architecture; (e) Industrial chemistry; (f) Mining engineering and metallurgy. 8. Faculty of Commerce; 3 courses: (a) Banking and insurance; (b) Commerce and transportation; (c) Customs.

All these courses are expected to be covered in 3 years, except medicine and law, for which 4 years is allowed. It is allowable for provinces to establish universities, which must conform to this scheme. At the Pei-Yang University, of Chili Province, the courses 2(a), 7(a), and 7(f) have been organized and in other provinces more or less effective universities have been founded. The University at Peking is still in course of development and I do not know the exact stage reached at the date of writing. It is evident that Faculty 1 and Faculty 3 are sops thrown to the former literati of the old school. The best work under this scheme has been done by the Pei-Yang University, referred to again later, which has for some years had an adequate staff of American professors.

So much for the plan; what of its fulfillment? From the viewpoint of the difficulty of the task it is remarkable that so much has already been done, in the face of so many unfavorable circumstances as have developed. The progress in Chihli province is shown by the following figures, taken from the report of the provincial board of education for 1907. If later reports were at hand they would undoubtedly show a