Tsinghua University’s Fangtang Institute was established in 2024. Building on Tsinghua’s multidisciplinary strengths and the distinctive character of its humanities and social sciences, the Institute is committed to becoming a globally influential source of original innovation and a world-leading hub for cross-disciplinary research at the intersection of science and humanistic thought.
The name “Fangtang” comes from Reflections on Reading, a poem by the renowned Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi: “A half-acre square pond (Fangtang), like a mirror newly opened— / sky light and cloud shadows linger and drift. / Ask how it stays so clear: / because fresh, living water flows in from the source.” Taking this as its inspiration, the Fangtang Institute sets as its mission—and guiding direction—“to persist in exploring and communicating the intellectual premises, cultural dynamics, and educational principles through which world-class innovative talent is cultivated and major original breakthroughs are made.” Through sustained effort, the Institute hopes to bring more “fresh, living water from the source” into academic inquiry.
From its inception, the Fangtang Institute has embraced the responsibility of becoming a place for intellectual exploration and the emergence of new ideas. With a spirit of reform and openness, it actively nurtures a culture of innovation, enriches the foundations that support it, and promotes deep, cross-field intellectual exchange. The Institute will follow “aesthetic appreciation for people, problems, and methods in scholarship” as a connective thread to bring together leading scholars worldwide who uphold rigorous academic ideals and relentlessly pursue first-rate theoretical achievements. In doing so, it seeks to build a new academic ecosystem, advance breakthrough progress at the frontiers of both the humanities and the sciences, and offer intellectual guidance as humanity enters the age of generative artificial intelligence.