ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 explores and explains how the mentality of Chinese exceptionalism has shaped the fundamental function of Chinese higher education, as both the state’s diplomatic tool and a working mechanism for the state’s domestic legitimacy. The mentality is reflected in Confucius’s (1980) assertion that the goals of higher learning (Da Xue, The Great Learning) are ‘cultivating oneself’, ‘governing the country’, and ‘ensuring security all under heaven’ (xiusheng qijia zhiguo ping tianxia). Modern Chinese higher education has continued to serve the state, and to manage the relationship between domestic and foreign affairs, and between the state and citizens. Throughout Chinese history, the visions and missions of Chinese higher education have been shaped by Chinese rulers’ worldviews characterised by a set of distinctive binaries – Tianxia/boundary, Zhong/Xi, tradition/modernity, civil/modernity, friend/enemy, China/world.
