The Former Site of Shanghai University: Shanghai for Letters, Whampoa for Arms

Basic information

It began with a lane school

On 23 October 1922 the newspapers carried a "Notice concerning Shanghai University":

"The school was originally named the South-Eastern Higher Normal School; because the two characters 'South-Eastern' were the same as those of the National South-Eastern University, the reorganisation meeting has resolved to change the school system, fixing the name as Shanghai University, and unanimously electing Mr Yu Youren president of the university."

"From that day, this obscure lane school turned a vivid page in the history of the Chinese revolution."

"An obscure lane school" — this beginning is very Shanghai. It was not a famous school being upgraded, but an ordinary lane school that changed its name, brought in a group of people, and was never the same again.

Why it matters so much

One: it was a product of Kuomintang–Communist cooperation

Shanghai University was a result of the Kuomintang–Communist cooperation of 1922 — founded by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party together, in order to train revolutionary cadres.

Its roster of teachers looks, today, like a "dream team":

One school gathered together both Kuomintang elders and early CCP leaders. This is the most vivid picture of the "first Kuomintang–Communist cooperation".

Two: it was the cradle of the May Thirtieth Movement

As the school grew:

• in 1924 it moved to Seymour Road (today Shaanxi North Road), with a branch in Shiying Lane just across the way;
• the Shanghai University site on Seymour Road was also a cradle of the May Thirtieth Movement;
• after the May Thirtieth Movement, Yu Youren stepped forward to rent 15 houses at Shishou Fang, and hung at the lane entrance a wooden board inscribed in his own hand: "Shanghai University Temporary Premises".

Three: it trained a great many revolutionary talents

"The early CCP leaders Qu Qiubai, Li Dazhao and others all taught at the school, training a great many outstanding communist fighters, who played a major part in the May Thirtieth Movement." (360 Baike)

Four: that widely circulated line

Among the revolutionary youth of the day a saying circulated:

"For letters, Shangda; for arms, Whampoa."

It means: for things of the pen, there is Shanghai University; for things of the sword, there is the Whampoa Military Academy. One in the lanes of Shanghai, one on Changzhou Island in Guangzhou, together known as the "twin jades of the pen and the sword".

Its relation to Zhabei

Shanghai University's original site was at Qingyun Lane, Qingyun Road — in today's Baoshan Road sub-district.

The street Qingyun Road has appeared many times in this book:

• Qingyun Lane, Qingyun Road: the original site of Shanghai University;
• Qingyun Road Square (Qingyun Road at West Baoxing Road): the venue of the 500,000-strong citizens' meeting on 23 March 1927; and of the General Trade Union's mass meeting on 13 April 1927;
• 600 Qingyun Road: the office of the Baoshan Road sub-district government;
• Qingyun Middle School and Lane 435, Qingyun Road: place names of this area today.

A single Qingyun Road strings together Shanghai University, two historic mass gatherings, and a present-day sub-district office.

The end: forcibly closed

In the spring of 1927 the Shanghai University buildings at Jiangwan were completed. But it was in that year that Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 coup in Shanghai and forcibly closed the university.

"Shanghai University left behind an undying red gene and a revolutionary spirit handed down from generation to generation."

Five years. From 1922 to 1927, Shanghai University existed for only five years, and yet in the history of the Chinese revolution and of Chinese education it left behind those four words: "For letters, Shangda".

Its relation to today's "Shanghai University"

One point needs to be made: today's Shanghai University (formed in 1994) has no direct line of succession from old Shanghai University; it is a same-named school founded anew later.

But the spirit of old Shanghai University is inherited by today's Shanghai University as an important source of its school history — this is the common practice of scholars and the university alike.

How to see it today

• towards Qingyun Lane, Qingyun Road: the location of Shanghai University's original site (the building no longer exists);
• Jing'an District has related commemorative displays (the Sanzeng Lane memorial includes a "Shanghai University" scene, telling the history of this red university of the East);
• Seymour Road (today Shaanxi North Road): in Jing'an District (the former Jing'an part), you can look at it by comparison on the way; it is the old site of the cradle of the May Thirtieth Movement.

One suggestion

Read the Shanghai University site together with these few places and you will form a complete impression of Zhabei in the 1920s:

Zhabei's role in the 1920s, in one sentence: this was the Chinese Communist Party's "workspace" in the city.

Sources: Shanghai University's institutional history follows the Shanghai Party History website's The Finest Hour of "Sanzeng Lane", The Paper's "Four Histories" Study and Education: Nine Important Places Here in Jing'an, material reproduced on Fudan University's "Shanghai red resources" website, and relevant entries in 360 Baike (grade C, cross-checked). The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.