By Prof. Zheng Daochuan; edited by Prof. Zheng Qiwu
From “Discover Xiamen University” by Bill Brown & Robin Feifei
Dr. Sa Bendong, XMU’s first president after it became a state university, was a famous physist, an international engine expert, a preeminent educationalist, and at 35-year-old China’s youngest university president-but the Anti-Japanese War broke out across China the day after he became president.
Dr. Sa shouldered the burden of moving XMU several hundred miles from the coast of Fujian to mountainous Changting, in Fujian’s far west. Once faculty, students and workers were settled, he labored to lead the university forward under very trying conditions, and by early 1940,our exiled XMU had already won praise as “the most prosperous university east of Calcutta, India”. XMU owed its great progress to Sa Bendong, who paid for it with his life. He literally worked himself to death, dying in 1949 at age 47.
From 1940 to 1944, I studied in the Economics Department of Changting XMU. My love for literature brought me into frequent contact with the dramatist Wang Meng’ou, the president’s secretary. Wang told me about Sa’s overwork, and I saw with my own eyes that Sa stayed in his office very late. Clearly, Mr. Sa worked for the University with all his heart and all his strength. I was deeply moved by ten aspects of Dr. Sa’s character:
1. An Official Who Never Put on Airs Although the Kuomingtang government was thoroughly corrupt at that time, President Sa was an official of integrity. He never put on airs at government meetings or during university speeches. He was a “brief appointment officer” of the second rank under the Kuomingtang civil servant system. This system included special appointment officers (first rank), brief appointment officers (second rank), recommendatory appointment officers (third rank) and commissioned officers (last rank). Mr. Sa was also the central government supervisor for the Three Pioneers League. In other words, he was a high official, but he was amiable, easy-going ad approachable.
President Sa lived a frugal life. He always wore an old gray suit and a pair of out-of-fashion shoes. He was humble and well liked. Whenever and wherever students asked hi questions, he always gave a reasonable answer without thinking twice. I remember that Mr. Sa lived in a simple cottage with a tilted roof. His cottage had no glass window panes, and were hung with odd ragged cloths. His wife did all of the housework for the family of four.
A narrow alley and pebbled path led from his home to his office. I frequently saw him hurrying out early and returning home very late. Though the university authorized him an old car, he said the maintenance would be too costly and that he would set an example by savng every penny he could for the university. Later, Dr. Sa dismantled the car, removed the enginee, studied it closely with other technicians, and successfully converted it into an electric generator. Only because of President Sa did Changting XMU finally enjoyed electricity, and students were able to study at night in brightly lit classrooms.
2. Make XMU in South China as Excellent as Qinghua University in North China XMU’s retreat to Changting presented President Sa with many difficulties. Buildings were in disrepair, ad the remote mountainous location was accessible only by bumpy, narrow village paths. But Mr. Sa did not lose heart. On the contrary, as he explained in a clear and passionate letter to one of his closest teachers, he made it his life goal to improve the situation as quickly as possible and make Xiamen University as excellent as Qinghua University in north China.
Sa adopted two measures to reach this goal. One: recruit first-rate teachers. Two: establish a strict management system with clear rules and regulations in plain words. His philosophy required a first-rate university be strict in 6 areas: strict enforcement of rules and regulations; strict in teaching orders; strict student grade promotions; strict teacher promotions; strict distribution of scholarships, and strict with charity and relief funds.
To make sure every new term begun on schedule, he stipulated one strict and effective enrolment rule: late enrolment was never tolerated. Students late even 5 minutes were required to wait until the following year to register. With his draconian but effective requirement, it took only one day for each new semester to get under away in proper order.
President Sa also invented a new “time signal system”, inspired by sailors’ navigation at sea. A large bell rung sharply on the hour insured that even teachers and students without watches could always begin and end classed on time. This bell-clock system was very popular among both teachers and students and was used in Xiamen University right up until 1949.
To prevent university leaders’ relatives from intervening in university administrative affairs, President Sa made a strict rule that “husband and wife are not allowed to both work at XMU at the same time.” For example, when the well-known professor Fu Ying was dean of XMU, his wife, Professor Zhang was not able to teach at XMU even though she was more than qualified. She taught instead at Yong’an, over 100 miles away from her husband Fu Ying. This rule affected President Sa himself. His wife, Lady Huang, who was a female javelin champion in the 1930s, was allowed to teach PE only for a few months as a substitute during an emergency. After XMU hired a new sports teacher, Lady Huang had to give up the job.
President Sa also focused on improving staff efficiency and simplifying the university organization. The president’s office had but 4 staff: a secretary, a stenographer, a clerk and a janitor. The teaching affairs office employed only 5 people: a dean, who also had other duties, an enrolment director, two clerks in charge of teaching affairs, and a janitor. Even key departments such has the university library had only a dozen staff members. The number of staff strictly paralleled institution’s size. There was no extra staff during the busy enrolment period; the dean of enrolment had to register students himself. There were no overstaffed offices. Every person overworked, and with high efficiency, largely because of President Sa’s excellent management.
Under the leadership of President Sa, the technology department developed into the technology institute, and XMU set up the departments of literature, law, business, science and technology, more or less paralleling North China’s Qinghua University. Even then, XMU had already become a unique and large public university in South China’s Fujian Province.