MA Junwu

The Great Master

The First President —— In October 1928, with the ambition of cultivating and conveying talents for the Guangxi region, Dr. Ma Junwu and his fellows founded Guangxi University (GXU). From then on, Guangxi started its course of higher education. Dr. Ma made outstanding contributions to the founding and development of GXU, and served as the president twice (1928.10-1936.07; 1939.09-1940.08).

Ma Junwu (1881-1940) was born in Gongcheng county, Guilin, in 1881, whose original name was Daoning, also went by the aliases “Gui master” and “Junwu”. He was a famous educator, scientist and democratic revolutionary. Besides this, Dr. Ma was the first Chinese doctor of engineering to reside in Germany, one of the first members of the Chinese League, the first president of Shanghai Chinese Public School, Daxia University and GXU, the secretary-general of the Executive Department of the League, the Governor of Guangxi, the President of Beijing University of Technology, among other titles. He was known as the Great Master and “North Cai and South Ma” (Cai: Mr. Cai Yuanpei, the old president of Peiking University).

Dr. Ma studied hard since childhood and later was admitted to Guangxi New-type (Tiyong) School. In 1901, he went to Japan to study at his own expense, and at first ran the New People's Daily with Liang Qichao, and then followed Sun Yat-sen in the course of revolution. In 1903, he studied applied chemistry in Kyoto University in Japan. In 1905, Ma Junwu was selected as one of the first members of the Chinese League, and participated in drafting the constitution of the League, and was elected as the chief secretary of the executive department, and served as the chief league in Guangxi. In the next year, he returned to Shanghai to found Shanghai Chinese Public School. Later, Dr. Ma furthered his course in revolution and education. In 1921, he became the secretary-general of the presidential office, and in the same year he became the governor of Guangxi. However, in the following year he was attacked by the "autonomous army", where his wife Peng Wenchan was shot and killed, and then Dr. Ma resigned from the governorship of Guangxi.

In 1924, Dr. Ma served as the president of Shanghai Daxia University. In the following year, he was invited by Feng Yuxiang and Duan Qirui to Beijing with Sun Yat-sen to discuss national issues, and was also employed as the president of Beijing Institute of Technology. In March 1926, Duan Qirui's government shot and killed the students who were peacefully petitioning, resulting in "March 18 tragedy". Dr. Ma was extremely angry at this, so he resigned and returned to Daxia University as the president.

In 1928, at the invitation of Guangxi government authorities, he returned to Guangxi to found GXU and became the university’s first president. In 1937, with the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he became the senator of the Supreme National Defense Conference and the senator of the first National Council of Government. In 1939, Dr. Ma was reappointed as the President of National Guangxi University, and passed away in his office during the following year. When the sad news broke, it shocked the senior management and the academic field mourned. The CPC leaders, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Peng Dehuai. sent elegiac scrolls in order to show their respects. The academic celebrities Weng Wenhao, Zhu Kezhen, Sa Bentong and Shanghai Daxia University also sent messages of condolence.

Dr. Ma was a famous scientist who has translated a lot of books during his life. These include: On the Origin of Species, Darwin, Discourse on Political Economy and the Social Contact, Treatise on Taxation, Mineralogy, etc.

Dr. Ma was also a poet, writing “the Ma Junwu Poetry Manuscript". His poems, characterized by the advocacy of the new literature thought of thought and patriotism, were always filled with optimism and brightness. For example, at the beginning of the Republic of China (1912), he wrote "Early Spring in Peking" to express his ambition:

Mountains are deep and snowy in March,

Forests are dense and cold at night.

Books suddenly enlighten me,

Thoughts are so vague, and no end.

A hundred years from now,

who will be the most ambitious,

so just be optimistic about everything.

If I want to enlighten the world with my own,

I must make waves on the flat ground.