Research Conditions at Nanjing University

Abstract

The present Nanjing University (Nanda) was established in the summer of 1952 out of the former Jinling University and the humanities division of the former Zhongyang University. Today Nanda is comprised of seven colleges: humanities, law, education, engineering, natural sciences, medicine, and agriculture. The History Department, located within tho College of Humanities, at present enrolls more than 200 undergraduates and 31 graduate students. Undergraduate training consists of four years of coursework, while the graduate program-inaugurated in 1979-is a twoyear curriculum of seminars and individual research. (A small percentage of outstanding graduate students will be selected at the completion of their program for an additional two years of advanced training.) The History Department also includes this year some thirty foreign students and several visiting American scholars. The faculty, about seventy members strong, is divided into four fields of teaching and research: ancient Chinese history, modern and contemporary Chinese history, world history, and archeology. One of the benefits of Nanda's heritage as the descendent of Jinling and Zhongyang universities is a rich library collection, especially strong on pre-Liberation publications. The main library contains some 2,700,000 books and periodicals (1,300,000 Chinese books, 550,000 books in foreign languages, and 850,000 periodicals). For the MingQing period in particular, the library houses an outstanding collection of rare books and local gazetteers. Although the Cultural Revolution years wreaked havoc on the order and cataloging of much of the li-