Fan Yuan-lien (1875-23 December 1927), a pioneer in the modernization of Chinese education, held such offices as minister of education (1912; 1916-17; 1920-21), president of Peking Normal University (1923-24), and director of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture.

A native of Hsiangyin, Hunan, Fan Yuan-lien was orphaned at an early age. His early education was supervised by his maternal uncle. In 1898 Fan was admitted to the Shih-wu hsueht'ang [academy of current affairs] at Changsha, which had been established the year before under the auspices of Ch'en Pao-chen, the governor of Hunan. Ts'ai O (q.v.) was also a student at the academy, and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (q.v.) was its dean of studies. Liang and his colleagues sought to imbue the students with such political concepts as constitutional monarchy and popular sovereignty. The teaching of such concepts aroused a storm of protest from conservative scholars in Hunan. Liang became ill in the spring of 1898 and left for Shanghai. When the Hundred Days Reform collapsed in the early autumn of 1898 and its leaders were either executed or forced into exile, the Shih-wu hsueh-t'ang closed its doors. Of its 40-odd students, 11, including Fan Yuan-lien, left for Japan, where Liang Ch'i-ch'ao had sought refuge.

In Japan, Fan Yuan-lien attended the Tat'ung School, established in 1899 by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and Chinese merchants in Tokyo. Fan later matriculated at the Tokyo Higher Normal School. He noticed that the number of Chinese students in Japan was increasing rapidly, but that many of these students lacked the requisite academic training to be admitted to Japanese schools. Fan suggested to Kano Jigoro, the principal of the Tokyo Higher Normal School, that a special school for Chinese students be established. As a result, the Kobun Academy was established in 1902. The school immediately became popular, for a knowledge ofJapanese was not required and it was possible to obtain an education diploma in six months and a law diploma in eighteen months. As one of the interpreters for the Japanese teachers in the institution, Fan Yuan-lien gained the respect of many of the Chinese students, who helped to make his name known throughout China.

In 1904 Fan returned to Hunan to urge that girls be sent to study in Japan; shortly thereafter, he organized a group of female students and accompanied them on their voyage to Tokyo. In 1905 he was appointed to a minor post as secretary in the ministry of education at Peking, where he was assigned to assist a visiting Japanese scholar in the administration of a new law school. The following year. Fan founded the Chih-pien hsueh-t'ang, a school for the training of Chinese youths for frontier settlement and administration. About 100 students enrolled in the school, which offered courses in Mongolian and Tibetan as well as courses in subjects related to frontier life. In 1910 Fan became a councillor in the ministry of education. He was assigned to devise a system of standard education for China. During the 1911 revolution he served as a mediator between the government and the republican revolutionaries. After the overthrow of the imperial government. Fan joined the Kuo-min hsieh-chin hui [national advancement association], one of the many small political parties that sprang up in China. It later merged with several other small parties to form the Kung-ho-tang, which in turn became the Chinpu-tang [progressive party] in 1913. Fan was affiliated with the moderates, headed by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, who had advocated a constitutional monarchy under the imperial regime and who were willing to cooperate with the Peiyang generals after 1912. In March 1912 Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei, the minister of education in the republican government, appointed Fan Yuanlien vice minister of education. When Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei resigned in June 1912, Lu Chenghsiang appointed Fan minister of education. Because he disagreed with government policies. Fan resigned in January 1913. He then accepted an offer from the Chung-hua Book Company to head its editorial department.

In the autumn of 1915 Fan joined Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and Ts'ai O in the campaign against Yuan Shih-k'ai. When the anti-Yuan forces established a military council at Chaoch'ing, Kwangtung, in 1916, Fan was appointed its representative in Shanghai.

After the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai, Fan Yuanhen became minister of education in the Tuan Ch'i-jui cabinet. His term of office lasted from July 1916 to June 1917. He also served as minister of interior from January to June 1917. Fan brought Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei back from Europe to be chancellor of Peking University. In May 1917, together with Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and others, Fan founded the Chung-hua chih-yeh chiao-yü she [China vocational education association] .

In 1918 Fan Yuan-lien went to the United States. He and Yen Hsiu, the founder of the Nankai School at Tientsin, toured America to study its educational system. In the wake of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, Fan joined such men as Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Lin Ch'ang-min, and Chang Tung-sun in organizing the Shangchih hsueh-hui [aspiration society]. Its leading members arranged for prominent Western scholars, including John Dewey and Bertrand Russell, to visit China. They also sponsored the publication of Chinese translations of Western philosophic works.

In August 1920 Fan Yuan-lien was appointed minister of education for the third time. He resigned in May 1921 and took up biological studies. In the spring of 1922 he made a visit to the United States to study rural education. In November 1922 the ministry of education decided to expand the Peking Higher Normal School into a university, and Fan accepted an invitation to assume the presidency of the new institution in February 1923. Before his inauguration. Fan went to England to discuss with the British government the possibility of remitting to China the British Boxer Indemnity Fund for educational purposes. It was not until his return from Europe in November 1923 that he assumed the duties of his new post. In the year that he was president, such prominent men as Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Chiang Fang-chen, and Huang Fu lectured at the university. Fan refused the post of minister of education when it was offered to him for the fourth time in 1924.

In September 1924 the Peking government named Fan Yuan-lien to the board of directors of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, which was financed by the American Boxer Indemnity Fund. From 1926 to 1927 he served as the head of the China Foundation. He was also a trustee of Nankai University. He served as a member of the board of managers and then as acting director of the Metropolitan Library of Peking. Fan died at Tientsin on 23 December 1927, at the age of 52 sui. In October 1928 the Shang-chih hsueh-hui and the China Foundation jointly established the Ching-sheng sheng-wu yenchiu-so [Fan memorial institute of biology] at Peking to commemorate Fan's contributions to modern education in China.