Established in 1912, the Philosophy Department of Peking University was the earliest Philosophy Department in China's universities. The first name of the department was “the Division of Philosophy”, and in 1919 it was renamed as “the Department of Philosophy”.

In its history, many famous scholars used to teach in the Philosophy Department of Peking University, including Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi (right), Jiang Menglin, Xiong Shili, Tang Yue, Deng Yizhe, Tang Yongtong, Liang Shuming, Jin Yuelin, Feng Youlan (Yu-lan Fung, below), Zong Baihua, Zhu Guangqian, Feng Ding, Chen Kang, He Lin, Shen Youding, Hong Qian (Tscha Hung), Zhang Dainian, Hu Shihua, etc. They trained generations of best Chinese philosophers and made the department the cradle of Modern Chinese Philosophy.

In the past 90 years, more than 900 students graduated from the Philosophy Department, among whom there are leading scholars (such as Zhang Shenfu, Feng Youlan, Sun Benwen, Luo Changpei, Gu Jiegang, Yang Hui, Pan Shu, Zhu Qianzhi, Mou Zongsan, He Qifang, Hu Shihua), revolutionaries (just like Deng Zhongxia), and backbones of various professions.

Currently, the department has 9 teaching and researching fields including “Marxist Philosophy”, “Chinese Philosophy”, “Foreign Philosophy”, “Logics”, “Ethics”, “Aesthetics”, “Christianity and Theories of Religious Studies”, “Buddhism and Taoism”, “Philosophy of Science and Technology”, 2 leading research bases appointed by the Ministry of Education: “Foreign Philosophy Research Institute, “Aesthetics and Esthetic Education Research Center”, 12 research centers including “Research Institute of Chinese Philosophy and Culture”, “Research Center of Marxism Philology”, “Research Institute of Religion”, etc, and the Codification Center of Ru Zang (Complete Collection of Confucius works).

Philosophy Department has a strong faculty group. We have 67 in-service teachers (43 professors, 22 associate professors and 2 lecturers), and some of them are well-known leaders in their fields. Now we have 194 undergraduates, 147 double-degree students, 163 graduates, and 242 PhD students. The department had set up 3 majors for the undergraduates, 8 graduate specialties, 8 doctoral specialties and 1 postdoctoral mobile research station. It was the first education institute of humanities and social sciences sanctioned by the Ministry of Education.

Nowadays, More than 200 dissertations and 20 books are published by the faculty every year. In the past five years, the faculty of the Philosophy Department undertook dozens of national and provincial or ministerial level scientific research projects, won more than 30 academic awards above provincial and ministerial level.

For more details of Department of Philosophy, and of Religious Studies, please refer to: http://www.hist.pku.edu.cn