Beijing University, founded in 1898, is the product of the Reform Movement of 1898, and also the result of the Chinese nation's efforts to save the nation from national subjugation and prosper its studies. It was originally named Jingshi University Hall, the first national comprehensive university in China in modern times. After the Revolution of 1911, it was renamed in 1912.

In the long course of civilization, ancient China founded the highest institutions of learning in the country, such as Imperial College, Guozi School and imperial academy, which had an important influence in the history of education in China and the world. Peking University's "inheriting the imperial orthodoxy and establishing the ancestral home of the university" is not only the inheritor of the Chinese context and educational tradition, but also marks the beginning of modern higher education in China. At the beginning of its establishment, it was also the highest educational administrative organ of the country, and made an important historical contribution to the establishment of China's modern academic system.

As the center of the New Culture Movement and the birthplace of the May 4th Movement, as the birthplace of China's earliest dissemination of Marxism and democratic scientific thoughts, and as the initial important activity base of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Peking University has made outstanding contributions to the rejuvenation and liberation of the nation, the construction and development of the country, and the civilization and progress of the society, and has played an important vanguard role in the process of China's modernization. The spirit of patriotism, progress, democracy and science and the study style of diligence, preciseness, truth-seeking and innovation are endless and passed down from generation to generation here.