In the early years of the Republic of China, Tianjin, as the most important modern industrial and commercial city in China, showed great vitality.

Zhang Boling was keenly aware that the development of society required highly educated talents, so he determined to do his best to establish a university and provide conditions for outstanding graduates of Nankai School to continue their studies.

Looking at the country, there are either national universities like Peking University or church universities developed with the support of foreign churches. There are no relatively complete and very successful private universities for reference.

To this end, he traveled across the ocean and went to the United States to study higher education at Columbia University Teachers College in August 1917.

Famous educators such as Dewey, Kerberk, and Thorndike guided Zhang Boling in courses on pedagogy, educational philosophy, psychology, and educational administration.

Zhang Boling also visited some education experts, such as Professor Kyle Baldry, who had in-depth discussions on Sino-US education and other issues.

Professor Kyle Baldry believes that Chinese schools should instill some political ideas and thoughts into students to establish democratic concepts and public consciousness, and offset the influence of long-term feudal ideas.

These words made Zhang Boling think for a long time.

After returning to China, he vigorously and resolutely organized the Nankai University Preparatory Committee, which was responsible for planning and designing the campus, dormitories, teaching buildings and other specific matters. He also began to travel around to raise funds for the establishment of the university.

In the autumn of 1919, Zhang Boling's efforts finally bore fruit - Nankai University was officially established.

Since the founding of the school, Zhang Boling has shown a strong pioneering spirit and sense of service.

The discipline setting of Nankai University has reflected Zhang Boling’s educational philosophy from the beginning, which is to pursue practicality and serve the society.

Taking Nankai University of Liberal Arts as an example, it "takes political economy as the main body, and is supplemented by the three departments of history, philosophy and educational psychology. In this way, students can focus on what they have learned and achieve practical results."

This is not only Zhang Boling’s careful consideration based on his own financial resources and school scale, but also a concrete manifestation of Nankai University’s consideration of cultivating students to actively adapt to society in terms of subject setting.

As early as when he was studying education in the United States, Zhang Boling began to pay attention to identifying teaching talents for Nankai University among Chinese international students.

Many Chinese students come directly to Nankai to teach after graduating and returning to China.

Not long after Nankai University was established, around Zhang Boling, a group of outstanding teachers who dedicated themselves to the development of Nankai University gradually gathered.

Zhang Boling respects every teacher. When every new teacher arrives at school, he always holds a welcome tea party and is allocated a dormitory by the school with all kinds of furniture and supplies. Special personnel are also assigned to clean it every day, making people feel like they are at home.

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In terms of cultivating teaching and scientific research talents, Zhang Boling is trying every means to provide opportunities for potential teachers to further their studies.

Professor Yang Shixian from the Department of Chemistry had outstanding performance after arriving at Nankai University, so Zhang Boling used the American Roche Foundation to send him to the United States to continue his Ph.D.

After Yang Shixian received his doctorate, he declined a high-paying offer from Germany and returned to teach at Nankai University, becoming one of the founders of the School of Science at Nankai University.

Perhaps Wu Dayou's words best express the teachers' unanimous sentiments: President Zhang Boling used Bo Le's ability to identify talents to hire young scholars for research and teaching even though his prestige, scale, and treatment were not as good as those of other universities.

The environment allows it to continue to grow and achieve great success.

This is much more rare and valuable than a school hiring famous people with established reputations, facilities and high salaries.

The former is to cultivate talents, while the latter is to recruit ready-made talents.

From this point of view, Nankai University has achieved extremely high achievements.

The stone rolled rounder and rounder. By 1934, the total value of the entire Nankai School was approximately more than three million silver dollars, including more than one million silver dollars for the school building and more than 700,000 silver dollars for the land.

Compared with twenty private universities in the same period, Nankai University ranked second only to the amount of state subsidies received by Sino-French University.

The social donations it receives are also at the forefront of private universities.

To achieve such impressive results, Zhang Boling's "alchemy to promote education" is indispensable.

Nankai adopts a principal responsibility system under the school board of directors.

In 1932, the school board of directors consisted of nine directors: Yan Zhiyi, Yan Huiqing, Tao Menghe, Hu Shi, Li Zushen, Li Qinxiang, Bian Chucheng, Wang Bingzhe, and Ding Wenjiang.

It can be seen from the list that most of those who can be elected as Nankai school directors are Nankai's "financial owners", and these financial owners must not only raise a certain amount of donations for Nankai, but also have high social reputation.

For Nankai, the board of directors is a substantial intervention of social forces and plays a certain supervisory role for Nankai.

From Zhang Boling’s words and deeds, we can have a better understanding of the difficulties of starting a business: “For more than forty years, I have been like a stone, rolling forward on a rugged road, not daring to stop for a moment. A stone

As long as you keep rolling forward, at least there will be no moss or mold on it. I firmly believe that the stone will become rounder and rounder, and the road will become wider and wider." Zhang Boling earned millions for Nankai and never messed with himself.

Not a penny spent.

He refused to take a car, but used a rickshaw, which was not exclusive to him and could be shared with him by all Nankai colleagues.

Some naughty classmates broke the tailgate of the rickshaw, but Zhang Boling refused to replace it with a new one and always made do with it.

When attending meetings in Tianjin, he often walks instead of driving.

At the end of a meeting, a waiter asked Zhang Boling what his car number was, and he casually replied: "No. 11."