quality:correction, linguistic:translation, stylistic:style_transfer
Establishment

Following China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, intellectuals - including Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Yan Fu - called for reforms to the country's education system. In June 1896, Minister Li Duanfen proposed to create a university in the capital. On 11 June 1898, the Guangxu Emperor, as part of the Hundred Days' Reform, authorised the creation of the Imperial University of Peking (Chinese: 京師大學堂; pinyin: Jīngshī Dàxuétáng; lit. ' Capital Grand Study Hall '). The Imperial University was formally established on 3 July 1898 when the emperor approved the royal charter written by Liang. Minister Sun Jianai was charged with the implementation. IUP served as the country's foremost institute for higher learning, but also as its highest educational authority. William Alexander Parsons Martin was appointed as the first president. Most of the reforms were abolished when the conservative Empress Dowager Cixi seized power on 21 September. The university survived with altered objectives and reduced scope. It opened on 31 December with 160 students, instead of the planned 500.

In 1900, the university was paralyzed by the Boxer Rebellion, later in the year, the "Eight-Power Allied Forces" (八国联军) entered Beijing and the university's operation was continually suspended. In 1902, "Jingshi Tongwenguan", a school established by the Qing court in 1862 for foreign language learning was incorporated into the Imperial University of Peking. In 1904, the university sent 47 students to study abroad, which marked the first time for Chinese higher education institution to send students to foreign countries.

Following the Xinhai Revolution, the Imperial University of Peking was renamed "Government University of Peking" in 1912 and then "National University of Peking" in 1919 (simplified Chinese: 国立北京大学; traditional Chinese: 國立北京大學; pinyin: Guólì Běijīng Dàxué).