Biography in English

Chang Po-ling (1876-1951), prominent Christian educator, founded the Nankai Schools and established Nankai University at Tientsin in 1919, serving as its president until 1948. Deputy speaker of the People's Political Council during the Sino-Japanese war, he served as president of the Examination Yuan at Nanking in 1948. He retired in 1949 to live in Tientsin. Born in Tientsin, Chang Po-ling was the first son of a talented and scholarly family of that area. His father, a bon vivant as well as a scholar, had dissipated the family fortune through his propensity for good living. He was reduced to earning a living by tutoring. Considering his own life a failure, he determined to give his son both an education and discipline. Thanks to his father's training and supervision, Chang Po-ling successfully passed the matriculation examination for the Peiyang Naval Academy when he was but 13.

An industrious lad who combined a sturdy physique with a good mind, Chang climbed to the top of his class during his five-year period of study at the academy. Among his teachers were such versatile scholars as Yen Fu (q.v.) and Wu Kuang-ch'ien, who later gained renown for their efforts in introducing Western ideas to China. Chang's final year as a cadet at the Peiyang Naval Academy was the year of the first Sino-Japanese war, in which the Chinese navy was disastrously defeated by the Japanese navy. Since the entire Peiyang fleet was virtually destroyed, Chang had to wait for a year after graduation before he could join his training ship, the Tung-chi. This ship was ordered to participate in the transfer of the important port of Wei-hai-wei in Shantung province from Japanese occupation to British control. That transfer took place in July 1898, when China was forced to lease Wei-hai-wei to Great Britain as a naval base. Depressed by the humiliation of his country, Chang Po-ling resigned his naval commission and returned to Tientsin. He determined to devote his energies to the field of modern education as a means of reforming China and of checking her decline. Chang began his career as an educator by teaching in a private school which held its classes in the home of Yen Hsiu, a prominent Tientsin scholar and public-spirited citizen. Known as the Yen-kuan, or Yen's school, it offered a small laboratory for experimentation in modern educational methods. In addition to English, mathematics, and the elements of natural science, Chang Po-ling taught physical education. He designed and had a local carpenter produce wooden Indian clubs and dumbbells such as he had used as a naval academy cadet. He also followed the practice, almost unheard of in China at that time, of playing games with his students. His interest in science and physical education and his emphasis on a freely democratic association between teacher and pupils were unmistakable marks of one of the founders of modern education in China. Three years later, in 1 90 1 , Chang also began to conduct classes at another private school, the Wang-kuan, held in the home of Wang Kuei-ch'ang, another prominent and prosperous Tientsin citizen.

From these modest beginnings the educational enterprise associated with the name of Nankai gradually developed. An important element in the founding of the Nankai schools was the close friendship between Chang Po-ling and Yen Hsiu. Scholar, bibliophile, and patriot, Yen Hsiu viewed the new Western learning with an open mind and a receptive spirit. He had great personal prestige in Tientsin and throughout north China and was an unfailing financial patron. Chang Po-ling, in turn, had youth, administrative ability, and dedication. In 1903 the two men traveled together to Japan to study the educational system in that country. In 1904, they decided to expand the Yen Hsiu private school at Tientsin into a modern middle school. The new venture, which began with an enrollment of some 70 pupils, was called the First Private Middle School. Two years later, when friends donated about two acres of land, the school moved to a site in an area known as Nankai and changed its name to the Nankai Middle School. To acquaint himself with modern Western educational concepts and methods, Chang Po-ling made a trip to the United States and Europe in 1908.

The Nankai objective was "to reform old habits of life and to train youth for the salvation of the country." The credo summarized China's major shortcomings: physical weakness and poor health; superstition and lack of scientific knowledge; poverty; deplorable lack of social conscience and social reform; and selfishness. To correct these national defects, Chang Po-ling proposed and implemented a five-point program of educational reform: (1) to improve physical fitness, (2) to train youth in the methods and achievements of modern science, (3) to organize students to participate in group activity and team work, (4) to give them moral training, and (5) to cultivate in students both the will and the capacity to work for China. Chang Po-ling's early career as an educator was influenced by his interest and activity in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association in north China. When Chang was still a student at the Peiyang Naval Academy, an American YMCA secretary, D. Willard Lyon, had organized the first Chinese municipal YMCA at Tientsin in 1895. By the time Chang established his first school, he was already acquainted with several American YMCA secretaries, including two outstanding athletes who were then serving in north China : Robert Gailey, an Ail-American football center from Princeton, and C. H. Robertson, a high jumper from Purdue. Robertson, who conducted a weekly Bible class in Tientsin, had a direct personal influence on Chang Po-ling by introducing him to Christianity as a force for social reform. Through his association with these and other American YMCA representatives, including Roscoe M. Hersey, the father of John Hersey, and through his own observations, during his trip abroad in 1908, of social and civil programs which were religiously motivated, Chang developed sufficient personal interest to become a Christian in 1909. Because he was one of the very few intellectuals in China to make such a commitment at that time, Chang attracted notice by making this decision. Partly through his YMCA connections, Chang Po-ling soon gained a reputation as an active promoter of amateur athletics and physical education programs. In 1909 the first north China track and field meet was held, with Chang Po-ling's assistance, on the campus of the Nankai Middle School. In the absence of other sponsors, the national association of the YMCA in China, at Chang's urging, took the lead in organizing China's first national athletic meet in October 1910, in connection with a national industrial exposition. In later years, Chang, who was known for his emphasis on good sportsmanship and on the highest standards of amateur athletic competition, was continually in demand to serve as an official at regional and national tournaments. And, at a very early date, Nankai was outstanding among the non-missionary schools in China for producing winning teams and individuals in athletic competition.

Chang had long cherished the ambition of establishing a model private university on his campus. To prepare for this task, he visited the United States in 1917 and attended courses at Teachers College, Columbia University. Chang's dream was realized in 1919, when Nankai University was inaugurated at Tientsin. It had three colleges: liberal arts, science, and business. In 1 920, a college of mining was added. Chang Po-ling's contributions to Chinese education were recognized in 1919, when St. John's University at Shanghai awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. A more unusual token of respect for his work was that of Li Ch'un, a prominent Peiyang general of the Chihli faction and a native of Tientsin : when he committed suicide in October 1920, Li Ch'un bequeathed to Nankai a substantial amount of money, which did much to underwrite the continued progress of Chang Po-ling's work. The Nankai establishment expanded steadily. In 1923 a middle school for girls was established, and in 1928 an experimental primary school was set up. To provide post-graduate work, the Nankai Institute of Economics was founded in 1931, and the next year the Nankai Institute of Chemistry came into being. Although a relative newcomer in the field of higher education in north China, Nankai under Chang Poling's direction soon established itself as a leading private university.

Part of Chang Po-ling's success as an educator was due to his administrative ability. He was able to find leading younger scholars to staff academic posts at Nankai and to trust them implicitly once they had been employed. With such men on its faculty as Hsu Mo (q.v.), who was to achieve fame as a jurist, and T. F. Tsiang (Chiang T'ing-fu, q.v.), then an active historian, Nankai's liberal arts college became one of the best in north China. Since Tientsin was a leading industrial city, the establishment of an economic research center was a natural step in the service of both academic and community interests. Under the direction of such economists as Franklin L. Ho (Ho Lien) and H. D. Fong (Fang Hsien-t'ing), the Nankai Institute of Economic Research undertook pioneering work in compiling cost-of-living indices, studying factory conditions, and investigating foreign trade returns. The institute gradually came to be recognized as a center of authoritative research on the Chinese economy, and its publications became known throughout the world. As Nankai developed and expanded, Chang Po-ling was able to secure financial support not only from government and private institutions in China but also from educational and philanthropic bodies outside the country. These included the China Foundation, the Sino-British Boxer Indemnity Commission, and the Rockefeller Foundation. During the 1920's and 1930's, Nankai acquired more than 200 acres of land and built an impressive campus to house a student body numbering some 3,000. As part of his program for moral and civic education at Nankai, Chang Po-ling held convocations of the entire school each Wednesday, at which he would discuss problems of student life as well as broader issues of national and international affairs. He knew many of the Nankai students by name and devoted much time to personal counseling. Chang also took a leading part in establishing in Tientsin a nonsectarian Protestant church, independent of all missionary bodies, which became a model for similar congregations in other major cities of China. Since he believed the YMCA to be the most indigenous Christian group in China, he devoted a significant part of his time and energies to its work. He became a member of the board of directors of the Tientsin YMCA and served as its president for many years. Even when the financing of Nankai presented problems, Chang worked unstintingly to raise funds for the Tientsin YMCA.

Years earlier, when he had been a naval cadet at the time of the first Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95, Chang Po-ling had become aware of the threat to China posed by Japanese expansion. In 1927 he made a trip to Manchuria, and on his return to Tientsin he enjoined both faculty and students at Nankai to hold a special forum to study the problems of the Northeastern provinces. After the Mukden Incident of September 1931, Japanese military influence came to bear directly on the Tientsin area of north China, where Nankai was located. In the recurrent student demonstrations directed against Japanese imperialism the Nankai students played a key role, thus antagonizing the Japanese military commanders in north China. Since the Nankai campus lay very near the barracks of the Japanese garrison, Chang Poling had no alternative but to live with a potentially explosive situation. Shortly after the Japanese attack in north China on 7 July 1937, low-flying Japanese bombers struck Nankai on two consecutive days (29-30 July) and reduced the campus to rubble.

Chang Po-ling was at Nanking when the news of the disaster reached him. When he reported to Chiang Kai-shek that his schools had been destroyed by the enemy, Chiang, noting that Nankai had been sacrificed for China, pledged that "as long as China lives, Nankai will live." Never active in politics, Chang Po-ling had not been close to Chiang Kai-shek during the Nationalist decade from 1928 to 1937. However, they had appeared together in 1934 at the graduation exercises held at the Central Aviation Academy on the outskirts of Hangchow. Chiang Kai-shek was there as titular president of the institution; Chang Po-ling attended because his fourth son, Chang Hsi-hu, was being graduated. Both men made fervent addresses to the cadets on that occasion. Shortly after the destruction of the Nankai campus in 1937, Chang Po-ling suffered another tragedy: his son's plane crashed during a bombing mission. As the tempo of Japanese aggression had increased during the mid-1930's, Chang Po-ling had visited Szechwan province with the intention of finding a suitable site to establish a school in the interior. On the eve of the Sino- Japanese war in 1937, he had been successful in obtaining land near Chungking and in establishing the Nanyu Middle School. In 1938, pursuant to a decision by the Nankai Alumni Association, the school was renamed the Nankai Middle School in Chungking. During the war years, it served as an important educational institution in west China, maintaining the high standards and traditions of its forerunners in Tientsin.

When north China was engulfed by the war, Nankai University was forced to move to safety. It first was merged with Peking and Tsinghua universities to form a provisional university at Changsha, Hunan, in 1938, and later moved with them to Kunming in Yunnan province to form Southwest Associated University. An executive committee of three senior educational administrators supervised the refugee institution. Chang Po-ling represented Nankai, Mei Yi-ch'i (q.v.) represented Tsinghua, and Chiang Monlin (Chiang Meng-lin, q.v.) represented Peking University. Chang Po-ling, however, spent most of his time in the wartime capital of Chungking, where his political duties in connection with the People's Political Council absorbed much of his attention and energy.

Although Chang Po-ling had been offered senior government posts during his educational career, he was not drafted for active service until the war years. When the People's Political Council was formed in 1938, Chang was named its deputy speaker. A quasi-democratic body, the People's Political Council included representatives of diverse political parties and groups; it was designed to serve as a forum for public opinion. Chang Po-ling discharged his duties faithfully and discreetly. He was consistently loyal to Chiang Kai-shek because he saw Chiang as the symbol of Chinese national resistance to Japanese invasion. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chang Po-ling began preparations to return Nankai to its former campus, which had been decimated by the war. The National Government, in order to fulfill Chiang Kai-shek's 1937 promise that Nankai would survive, issued a mandate to make it a national university as of 1946 and appointed Chang Po-ling to continue as its president. The change of status was a welcome relief to the elderly educator, since the soliciting of funds to keep the Nankai enterprise going had been a difficult and onerous task. J. Leighton Stuart, the president of Yenching University at Peking, also a private institution, commended Chang Po-ling for his long service to higher education in China. Stuart observed that while Chang had always had "a potential constituency in the United States, which was accustomed to responding to educational and religious appeals," he had been a notable pioneer in China, where education traditionally had been a matter for the state.

In 1946 Chang Po-ling was honored by Columbia University, which conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. Chang made his third and final visit to the United States to be present at that ceremony. The citation, read by Frank M. Fackenthal of Columbia, lauded Chang as "educator; founder and president of Nankai University; of nationwide influence and world-wide recognition as builder of educational institutions and builder of men; a personality dedicated through nearly fifty years of unshatterable faith and unwavering devotion to the regeneration of China through the education of her youth ; a symbol of national confidence." To commemorate Chang Po-ling's halfcentury of service to the cause of modern Chinese education, some of his many Chinese and American friends contributed articles to a book entitled There Is Another China. The allusion was to the fact that behind the tumultuous political and military events there was another China, humane and progressive, that was vital and significant. Interwoven through the essays in the book are the biography of Chang Po-ling, his major accomplishments, and related aspects of modern Chinese history. The essays were written by Hu Shih, J. Leighton Stuart, Arthur W. Hummel, and others.

Although Chang Po-ling had been nonpartisan throughout most of his public career, he joined the Kuomintang after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937 and gained membership on the Central Supervisory Committee at the Sixth National Congress in 1945. Although over 70, he consented to serve as president of the Examination Yuan after the promulgation of the new constitution in 1948. When the Chinese Communist forces occupied Tientsin in the winter of 1948, Chang remained in that city. He died there of apoplexy on 23 February 1951, at the age of 76 sui. A tall northern Chinese, Chang Po-ling towered over most of his compatriots. He was fond of strenuous exercise and participated in many of the games that his students played. An eloquent and persuasive public speaker, he was a master in the art of charging simple moral truths with dynamic emotion. Always generous in spending for his schools, he nevertheless demonstrated an exemplary frugality in his personal life. He laid great emphasis on the position of the YMCA as an interpreter of applied Christianity and did much to enhance the prestige of the YMCA as an agency of cooperation between Christian and non-Christian groups in promoting the moral soundness of Chinese society. Recognizing the dangers of imported sectarianism, Chang encouraged forms of Protestant organization that reflected Chinese thought and practice.

Chang was survived by several children and by his younger brother, P. C. Chang (Chang P'eng-ch'un). His eldest son, Chang Hsi-lu, studied mathematics at the University of Chicago and later became a professor in China. P. C. Chang, after studying literature and drama in the United States at Columbia University, returned to Tientsin to assist Chang Po-ling and to direct the theater program at Nankai. He was particularly interested in the dramatic arts and attracted considerable notice in China for his excellent staging at Nankai of some of the well-known plays of the Western theater. He was also keenly interested in the traditional Chinese theater. When Mei Lan-fang (q.v.) made his trip to the United States in 1930, P. C. Chang voluntarily served as impresario and press agent to assist in explaining the productions of Mei's troupe to American audiences, who were completely unfamiliar with Chinese stage traditions and techniques. P. C. Chang later entered the diplomatic service and served as Chinese minister to Chile and Cuba. He retired in the United States, where he made his home in Nutley, New Jersey. He died of a heart ailment on 19 July 1957, at the age of 65.

Biography in Chinese

 

张伯苓
字:寿春
张伯苓(1876—1951),著名的基督教徒教育家,1919年在天津创办南开学堂,成立南开大学,并担任校长之职一直到1948年。中日战争期间,任国民参政会副议长,1948年在南京任考试院长,1949年退休后住在天津。
张伯苓出生在天津一个颇有才学的家庭,他是长子。他父亲是一个纨绔公子,也是一个学者,他因贪图享乐而耗尽家财,败落到只能以授课谋生。他父亲有鉴于自己的失败,决心教育培植他的儿子。张伯苓由于他父亲的教育和督促,十三岁时便考入北洋水师学堂。
张伯苓是一个体魄健壮、秉赋聪颖、勤奋好学的孩子,在水师学堂五年中,他名列前茅。他的老师中有博学的严复、伍光建,以后他们以介绍西学而知名。张伯苓在北洋水师学堂当士官生的最后一年,恰好是中日战争的那一年,中国海军在这次战争中为日本海军所打败,全部北洋海军消灭殆尽,因此,张伯苓在毕业后等了一年才能到“通济”舰上见习。1898年7月,该舰奉命参加山东的重要港口威海卫从日本占领军手中转交给英国控制的移交工作,那时英国强迫中国租借威海卫为英国海军基地。张伯苓因国家耻辱心灰意懒,离开海军职位回到天津。
他决心尽其精力从事近代教育事业,希望由此改造中国免于衰亡。天津的一个知名学者、热心公益的严修创办了一所在其家中开课的私学,张伯苓就在那里教书,从此张伯苓开始了他作为教育家的经历。人们称之为“严馆”或严氏家学,可算是近代教育的一个小小试验场地,除了教英语、数学、自然科学常识外,还有张伯苓教的体育。他亲自设计并由当地木工制成曲棍、哑铃,那是他在水师学堂时习用过的。他还亲自参加学生的比赛,那是在当时中国所从未听闻过的。他注重科学、体育教育,他主张师生自由平等地交往,这些都是他作为中国近代教育创始人之一的确实例证。三年后,即1901年,他又在另一个私人学堂“王馆”中开课。王馆设在另一个有名的天津富翁王桂昌的家里。
从这样平凡的开端中,以南开为名的教育事业逐渐发展起来了。建立南开学堂的一个重要因素是张伯苓和严修的交情。严修是一个学者、藏书家、爱国者,他对西方新知识抱着虚心接受的态度。他在天津和华北德声望很高,是张伯苓经济上的靠山。张伯苓则青年有为,富于献身精神。严张二人曾于1903年同去日本考察该国的教育事业。
1904年,他们决定扩充天津的严修私立学堂为一所近代中学,称为第一私立中学,招生七十名。两年后,朋友们捐出了二亩地,第一私立中学就搬到这个名为南开的地区,校名也改为南开中学。为了熟悉近代教育理论和教学方法,张伯苓于1908年去美国、欧洲游历。
南开的目的是“革除旧习,培植青年,拯救国家”。中国的弊端可以归纳如下;体格虚弱,迷信而缺少科学知识,贫穷,缺乏社会公德和社会革新,自私。纠正这些缺点,张伯苓提出了改革教育的五点方案并予以实施:1.增强休质;2.以近代科学方法和科学成就培养青年;3.组织青年参加团体活动和集体事业;4.施以德育训练;5.培养学生为国效力的意志和能力。
张伯苓早期的教育家生涯,受到他所爱好参加的华北基督教青年会活动的影响。张伯苓在北洋水师学堂时,有一个美国青年会秘书华伦·里昂在1895年于天津设立了中国第一个市区青年会。当时,正是张伯苓创办第一所学校的时候,他已经结识了几个美国青年会的秘书,其中有在华北工作的两名著名运动员,一个是罗勃特•盖利,他是普林斯顿全美足球队中锋,还有一个是C·H•罗勃逊。罗勃逊是杜柏的跳高运动员,每周在天津圣经班讲道,对张伯苓有直接的影响,向张宣传基督教是改革社会的一种力量。张伯苓通过这些人和其他美国青年会代表人物,其中包括约翰•郝西的父亲罗斯科·M·郝西,又通过他1908年出国考察所得的个人经验,看到宗教的力量可以推动社会公共事业。他对基督教的信仰逐渐加深,在1909年成为一个基督教徒了。当时,国内的士大夫中投身于此的为数极少,他的决定入教极其引人注意。
也许由于他和青年会的关系,张伯苓当时拥有业余体育运动教育革新家的声誉。1909年,经张伯苓的赞助,第一届华北田径赛在南开中学举行。中国的第一次运动会,因为乏人创导,经张伯苓敦促,由全国基督教青年会主办,在1910年10月举行,同时还主办了全国工业展览会。此后几年中,由于张伯苓重视比赛风格和业余运动竞赛水平,他经常被邀参加区域性和全国性的比赛的工作。南开很早以来就是非教会学校中拥有优秀球队和运动员的著名学校。
张伯苓早有雄心创办一所模范的私立大学。他为此而作准备,1917年去美国入哥伦比亚大学教育学院选习教育课程。他的梦想终于在1919年实现,在天津创办了南开大学,包括文理商三个学院,1920年又增设矿业学院。他对中国教育事业的贡献,在1919年获得了公认,那年,上海圣约翰大学授以名誉文学博士学位。他的工作又意外地获得了天津人直系北洋军阀李纯的崇敬。1920年10月,李纯自杀身死,他给南开遗赠了一笔款子,这对张伯苓此后事业的继续发展很有用处。
南开的建设稳步发展,1923年设立了女子中学,1928年又设立了实验小学,1931年设立了南开经济研究所,第二年又设立了南开化学研究所。南开在华北高等教育界虽是后起者,但它在张伯苓主持下很快就成了一个首屈一指的私立大学。
张伯苓作为一个教育家而取得的成功,也由于他的行政才能。他物色出众的青年学者充实南开的学术岗位,他们一旦就任,就一心加以信托。在他罗致的教职员中,有如法律学家徐谟、名史学家蒋廷黻,南开文学院成为华北优秀学院中的一个。天津是一个重要工业城市,从学术和社会需要来说,设立一个经济研究中心是一个理所当然的步骤。何廉、方显廷等经济学家主持下的南开经济研究所首先编纂生活指数,研究工厂条件,调查外贸利润。研究所渐渐成为中国经济研究的权威中心,其出版物为全世界所周知。南开的发展和扩充,使张伯苓在经济上不仅可以从政府和国内私人研究机构得到支持,而且可以从国外的教育慈善机关得到支持,其中包括中华基金、中英庚款、洛克菲勒基金。从二十年代到三十年代,南开用地二百亩,建起了像样的校舍,有可供三千学生之用的房屋设备。
张伯苓在南开每星期三召集全校学生进行称为“修身班”的活动,以学生生活和国内外大事为广泛主题加以议论,这是他的公民道德教育的一部分。他知道很多南开学生的姓名,还和他们作个别交谈。他还在天津首创了一个不属于任何教派的新教教堂,以后为许多主要城市所仿效。张伯苓认为青年会是最适合中国的风土人情的基督教团体,所以他花了很多时间和精力从事这项工作。他是天津青年会的理事,又当了多年总干事。他即使在南开经济上发生问题时,仍不倦地为天津青年会募捐。
张伯苓在1894—95年中日战争期间当水师士官时,早就感到日本的扩张对中国的威胁。1927年他去东北游历,回天津后,他责成南开师生举办研讨东北各省问题的座谈会。1931年9月沈阳事变后,日本的军事势力直接影响南开所在的华北天津地区。在继续不断的反对日本帝国主义的学生示威游行中,南开学生起了关键作用,因此引起华北日军司令部的仇视。南开校舍接近日军警卫队军营,张伯苓别无选择的办法,只能处在一触即发的严重形势之中。1987年7月7日,日军袭击华北后,日机即连续两天(七月廿九、卅日),对南开低飞轰炸,南开校舍化为一片瓦砾。
南开被毁的消息传到张伯苓处,当时他在南京,他为此向蒋介石报告,蒋指出南开为中国而牺牲,“只要有中国,就有南开”。张伯苓在政治上并不活跃,国民政府1928—1937年的十年期间,他和蒋介石并无亲密来往,只是在1934年杭州中央航空学校学生毕业典礼时同时在场,蒋介石是航校的名誉校长,张伯苓之所以出席,是因为他的四子张锡祜是那一届毕业生。蒋介石和张伯苓都作了热情的讲话。1937年南开校舍被毁后不久,他的儿子架机出击轰炸失事,张又遇到另一场悲剧。
三十年代中,日军加紧侵略,张伯苓曾去四川,准备在内地为南开找到一处校址。1937年中日战争前夕,他在重庆附近辟地建立了一所南育中学,1938年经南开同学会之请,改名为重庆南开中学。战时几年之中,这所学校成为华西的一个重要教育机构,它保持了天津前驱者的高水平和传统。
华北陷入战火之中,南开大学被迫迁往安全地区,和北大、清华于1938年先行迁到湖南长沙而合并为临时大学,以后又迁往云南昆明改为西南联合大学。三个最高行政领导人组成校务委员,张伯苓代表南开,梅贻琦代表清华,蒋梦麟代表北大。张伯苓大部分时间都在战时首都重庆,他在国民参政会的政治事务中花了不少精力。
张伯苓在从事教育事业的经历中,政府曾授予高级职位,但一直到战争爆发之前,他迄未积极参与。1938年国民参政会成立,他任副议长。这是一个半民意机构,有各党派代表参加,原来的用意是反映群众舆论。张伯苓忠于职守,勤勤恳恳,他一贯忠于蒋介石,把他看作是全国抗日的象征。
1945年日本投降,张伯苓计划把南开迁回原址,那里的校舍已被战火毁坏殆尽。国民政府为了实践蒋介石1937年“就有南开”的诺言,下令自1946年改为国立,张伯苓仍任校长。这个地位的改变,对年迈的教育家虽是一种宽慰,但是筹措南开事业继续发展所需的经费却是一件困难而麻烦的事。燕京大学校长司徒雷登对张伯苓长期从事中国高等教育大为赞扬,他认为张伯苓“在美国具有潜在的拥护者,因为美国对兴办教育宗教事业的呼吁总会给以响应”,张伯苓是中国的一个出色的拓荒人,把教育当作国家的事业,这是中国的传统。
1946年,哥伦比亚大学授予张伯苓名誉文学博士学位,他第三次也是最后一次去美国出席典礼。由哥伦比亚大学法兰克•M·法肯索尔宣读的荣誉状中赞扬:张伯苓是“教育家,南开大学创始人和校长,是具有全国影响而为世界所公认的教育机构的缔造者、人才的培育者,是一位五十年来以坚强的信念、一贯的忠诚献身于教育青年复兴中国的伟人,他是民族自信心的一个象征”。
为了纪念张伯苓半个世纪从事近代中国教育事业,他在国内和在美国的友人撰文编了一本名为《另一个中国》的纪念集。纪念集指出这样一个事实:在混乱的政治军事事件后面,还存在着另一个中国,富于人情而趋向进步,那才是活生生的重要事实。在这本纪念集的一些文章中谈到了张伯苓的传略、他的主要成就以及与他有关的一些近代中国历史的片段。这些文章是由胡适、司徒雷登、恒慕义等人撰写的。
他从事许多公共事务,是一个无党派人士,直到1937年中日战争爆发后才加入国民党,而在1945年国民党第六次全国代表大会中选为中央监察委员。他年过七十岁,在1948年新宪法公布后他还同意任考试院院长。1948年冬,共产党军队进占天津时,他仍在天津。1951年2月23日在天津中风去世,年七十六岁。
张伯苓是一个身材高大的北方人,他比一般人都要高。他嗜爱体育锻炼,常常参加学生的比赛。他是一位雄辩的演说家,是一个能够生动感人地阐述普通的道德信念的能手。他经常为学校慷慨解囊,而私人生活的节俭又可引为表率。他很重视基督教青年会的地位,认为它阐明了实用基督教,因此他竭力设法提高它的声誉,认为它是基督徒和非基督徒合力提高中国社会道德正义的一个机构。张伯苓认识到各种教派传入的危险性,因此提倡建立反映中国思想和实际的新教组织形式。
张伯苓遗有几个儿子,还有他的幼弟张彭春。他的长子张锡陆,曾在芝加哥大学学数学,后在国内当教授。张彭春在美国哥伦比亚大学学文学戏剧,回国后在天津协助张伯苓工作,在南开导演戏剧节目。他特别喜爱戏剧艺术,曾在南开登台扮演过西方戏剧著名剧目中的角色而引人注意。1930年梅兰芳去美国演出时,张彭春自荐充为领班和新闻代表,为梅兰芳戏班的演出节目给美国观众作讲解,他们对中国的舞台传统和演出技巧是完全陌生的。张彭春后来进入外交界,曾任中国驻智利、古巴公使,他退休后住在美国,新泽西、纳特莱有他的寓所,1957年7月19日因心脏病去世,年六十五岁。

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