Hunan University

Hunan University (HNU) is a national key comprehensive university in the Yuelu District of Changsha, Hunan Province, China, and is directly administered by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.湖南大学（简称湖大）是中国湖南省长沙市岳麓区的教育部直属全国重点综合性大学。

Its educational lineage reaches back to Yuelu Academy, founded in 976 during the Northern Song dynasty, while the modern institution took its present name in 1926, making it the Chinese university with the longest record of continuous teaching at a single site.其办学渊源可追溯至北宋开宝九年即公元 976 年创建的岳麓书院，而学校于 1926 年定名湖南大学，是中国同址办学时间最长的高等学府。

HNU is a Double First-Class university that was formerly part of Project 211 and Project 985, ranks 477th in the 2027 QS World University Rankings and enrols more than 41,000 full-time students, of whom over 23,000 are undergraduates.湖南大学是“双一流”建设高校，曾入选 211 工程与 985 工程，在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中位列第 477，现有全日制在校学生逾 41,000 人，其中本科生逾 23,000 人。

History

• The teaching tradition of the site reaches back to 268, when a Buddhist temple was founded on Yuelu Mountain, and later to Tang and Five Dynasties scholars who built study halls among the hills.此地办学传统可追溯至公元 268 年岳麓山上创建的一座佛寺，其后唐代与五代的僧人学者又在山间筑舍办学。

• In 976 Zhu Dong, the prefect of Tanzhou, formally established Yuelu Academy at the foot of Yuelu Mountain, and it grew into one of the four great academies of ancient China.公元 976 年，潭州太守朱洞在岳麓山下正式创建岳麓书院，此后它发展为中国古代四大书院之一。

• The academy was destroyed and rebuilt seven times across the dynasties, and its surviving buildings are chiefly Ming and Qing structures that together form the largest extant academy complex in China.岳麓书院历代历经七毁七建，现存建筑主要为明清遗构，是中国现存规模最大的书院建筑群。

• In 1897 the reformist Shiwu Academy was founded in Changsha, and in 1903 it was merged with the reformed Yuelu Academy to form the Hunan Institute of Higher Education, which occupied the old academy site.1897 年，维新派的时务学堂在长沙创办；1903 年岳麓书院改制，与时务学堂合并组成湖南高等学堂，仍以书院旧址为校址。

• In 1912 the Hunan Institute of Higher Education was closed under the new republican school system, and in 1917 the Hunan Public Industrial College moved onto the site and inherited the academy's property and part of its teaching staff.1912 年，湖南高等学堂在新的壬子学制下停办；1917 年，湖南公立工业专门学校迁入旧址，继承书院的全部校产与部分师资。

• In 1917 the president of the Hunan Public Industrial College, Bin Bucheng, had the words Shishi Qiushi, meaning seeking truth from facts, inscribed on a plaque and hung beneath the eaves of the Yuelu Academy lecture hall.1917 年，湖南公立工业专门学校校长宾步程手书“实事求是”匾额，悬挂于岳麓书院讲堂檐下。

• On 1 February 1926 the provincial industrial, commercial and law colleges were merged to create Provincial Hunan University, and Lei Zhuhuan became its first president in August of that year.1926 年 2 月 1 日，湖南公立工业、商业、法政三所专门学校合并成立省立湖南大学，同年 8 月，雷铸寰出任首任校长。

• In 1927 the provincial government renamed the institution Hunan Engineering University and transferred its law and commerce faculties elsewhere, and in 1928 the name Hunan University was restored with Ren Kainan as president.1927 年，湖南省政府将学校改名为湖南工科大学，并将法、商两科并入他校；1928 年恢复湖南大学之名，任凯南出任校长。

• Between 1933 and 1935 the metallurgist Hu Shuhua served as president and petitioned the national government for national status, arguing that Hunan University was then the strongest of China's provincial universities.1933 至 1935 年，冶金学家胡庶华任校长，以学校实力居全国省立大学之首为由，向国民政府申请改为国立。

• In July 1937 the Ministry of Education formally converted it into the National Hunan University, one of only sixteen national universities in China at the time.1937 年 7 月，教育部正式将其改为国立湖南大学，为当时全国十六所国立大学之一。

• On 10 April 1938 Japanese bombers struck the campus and destroyed the library and the science hall, and in October the university moved west to Chenxi in western Hunan, where staff built timber classrooms using local stone and wood.1938 年 4 月 10 日，日军飞机轰炸校园，图书馆与科学馆被毁；同年 10 月，学校西迁湘西辰溪，师生就地取材，以石块为基、木板为墙搭起校舍。

• After Japan surrendered in 1945 the university returned to Yuelu Mountain in October of that year, and in 1949 it absorbed several local colleges to become the largest university in central China, with seven colleges and twenty-five departments.1945 年日本投降后，学校于同年 10 月迁回岳麓山；1949 年又并入多所院校，设 7 个学院 25 个系，成为当时华中地区规模最大的大学。

• In 1949 the philosopher Li Da, a principal founder of the Communist Party of China, became its first president after the People's Republic was founded, and in 1950 Mao Zedong inscribed the name Hunan University by hand.1949 年新中国成立后，中共主要创始人之一、哲学家李达出任首任校长；1950 年毛泽东亲笔题写“湖南大学”校名。

• The nationwide restructuring of 1953 abolished the National Hunan University and distributed its departments to institutions such as Central South University and Hunan Normal University, while the Central South College of Civil Engineering and Architecture was set up on the original site.1953 年全国院系调整撤销了国立湖南大学，各系科分别调往中南矿冶学院（今中南大学）、湖南师范学院（今湖南师范大学）等校，中南土木建筑学院在原址成立。

• In 1958 the Central South College of Civil Engineering and Architecture added engineering departments and was renamed Hunan Engineering College, and in 1959 it recovered the name Hunan University and set up twelve departments with a view to becoming a comprehensive university.1958 年，中南土木建筑学院增设机械、电机、化工三系，更名湖南工学院；1959 年复名湖南大学，设十二个系，重新朝文理工综合性大学发展。

• In 1963 the automotive programme of the Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering and departments of the Xiangtan Electrical Engineering College were merged into the university, which was then placed under the First Ministry of Machinery Industry.1963 年，上海机械学院汽车专业、湘潭电机学院等并入，学校改由第一机械工业部主管。

• From 1966 to 1971 no new students were admitted during the Cultural Revolution, and regular recruitment resumed only in 1972 with worker, peasant and soldier students.1966 至 1971 年正值“文革”，学校未招收新生；1972 年起恢复招生，开始招收工农兵学员。

• In 1978 the university regained its status as one of the eighty-eight national key universities, and it then strengthened its science and humanities disciplines while retaining its established engineering strength.1978 年，学校被重新确定为全国 88 所重点大学之一，其后在保持工科优势的同时加强理科与文科建设。

• In 1996 Hunan University joined Project 211, in 2000 it joined Project 985 and merged with the Hunan College of Finance and Economics, and in 2002 the Hunan Higher College of Computer Science was also merged into it.1996 年湖南大学入选 211 工程，2000 年入选 985 工程并与湖南财经学院合并，2002 年湖南省计算机高等专科学校又并入该校。

• In November 2010 the National Supercomputing Center in Changsha was built on campus as China's third such centre, and in September 2026 the university's new Kechuanggang campus opened as the first new campus completed under the national Two Heavy construction programme for Double First-Class universities.2010 年 11 月，国家超级计算长沙中心在校内建成，为全国第三家国家超级计算中心；2026 年 9 月，学校新校区科创港校区投入使用，成为国家“两重”建设支持的首个建成投用的“双一流”高校新校区。

• In 2017 the university was named in the Double First-Class construction plan, and on 17 September 2020 Xi Jinping visited the campus and described Yuelu Academy as the birthplace of the Party's ideological line of seeking truth from facts.2017 年学校入选“双一流”建设名单；2020 年 9 月 17 日习近平来校考察，指出岳麓书院是党的实事求是思想路线的策源地。

Academics

• Hunan University is organised into about forty teaching and research units, including a graduate school and Yuelu Academy itself, which now functions as one of the university's constituent colleges.湖南大学现设约 40 个教学科研机构，包括研究生院与岳麓书院，岳麓书院如今作为学校的二级学院运行。

• Its programmes span thirteen broad discipline categories, covering philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, management, medicine, agriculture, art and interdisciplinary studies.学校的学科专业涵盖哲学、经济学、法学、教育学、文学、历史学、理学、工学、管理学、医学、农学、艺术学与交叉学科等 13 大门类。

• The university offers 88 undergraduate programmes, holds first-level doctoral authority in 36 fields and first-level master's authority in 40 fields, and runs 30 postdoctoral research stations.学校设有本科专业 88 个，拥有博士学位授权一级学科 36 个、硕士学位授权一级学科 40 个，建有博士后科研流动站 30 个。

• It was authorised to review and award its own degrees, and chemistry, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are the three disciplines selected for China's world first-class discipline construction.学校获批学位授权自主审核单位，化学、机械工程、电气工程三个学科入选“世界一流学科”建设行列。

• Five disciplines rank among the global top one per thousand in the Essential Science Indicators, and engineering reaches the top one per ten thousand worldwide.有 5 个学科进入基本科学指标数据库 ESI 全球前千分之一，工程学更进入全球前万分之一。

• The university hosts seven national key laboratories including jointly built ones, two national engineering technology research centres, one national engineering research centre and thirteen key laboratories of the Ministry of Education.学校拥有全国重点实验室 7 个（含共建）、国家工程技术研究中心 2 个、国家工程研究中心 1 个，以及教育部重点实验室和工程研究中心 13 个。

• The National Supercomputing Center in Changsha, operated by the university, was China's third national supercomputing centre, and its Tianhe system remains among the country's leading supercomputers.由学校运营管理的国家超级计算长沙中心是全国第三家国家超级计算中心，其“天河”新一代超级计算机系统算力居国内领先。

• The university employs 4,270 staff, of whom 2,403 are full-time teachers, and its faculty includes six full-time members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.学校现有教职工 4,270 人，其中专任教师 2,403 人，教师队伍中有全职两院院士 6 人。

• More than four hundred national high-level talent titles and nearly three hundred awards for young high-level researchers have been conferred on its faculty, together with five winners of the National Outstanding Teacher Award.教师队伍累计获国家级高层次人才称号 403 人次、四青人才称号 298 人次，并有 5 位国家级教学名师。

• It enrols over 41,000 full-time students, including more than 23,000 undergraduates and about 17,000 postgraduate students, and began admitting international students in the 1990s.学校全日制在校学生逾 41,000 人，其中本科生逾 23,000 人、研究生约 17,000 人，自 20 世纪 90 年代起开始招收国际学生。

• Its teaching quality has been recognised with 54 national first-class undergraduate programmes, 94 national first-class courses and sixteen national teaching achievement awards in 2022, a total tied for fifth nationwide.学校建有国家级一流本科专业建设点 54 个、国家级一流本科课程 94 门，2022 年获国家级教学成果奖 16 项，并列全国第 5 位。

• Two bases of the Ministry of Education's Top Students Training Programme 2.0 and four national experimental teaching demonstration centres support undergraduate education, and the university is a National Excellent Engineer College.学校建有 2 个教育部基础学科拔尖学生培养计划 2.0 基地与 4 个国家级实验教学示范中心，并入选国家卓越工程师学院建设高校。

• Among its strongest schools are the College of Civil Engineering, the College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, the College of Electrical and Information Engineering, the College of Architecture and Planning and the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.学校的土木工程学院、机械与运载工程学院、电气与信息工程学院、建筑与规划学院与化学化工学院均为传统优势院系。

• The university has established cooperation with more than two hundred overseas universities and institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.学校与加州大学伯克利分校、新加坡南洋理工大学等境外 200 余所高校和机构建立了合作关系。

• Fifty members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering have emerged among its teachers and graduates, a record summed up in the old saying that Chu produces the finest talent.师生中先后走出 50 位学部委员与“两院”院士，“惟楚有材，于斯为盛”正是其人才辈出的写照。

• Research has produced first-of-their-kind technologies such as ultra-low-frequency underwater acoustic radar, eddy-current dampers, gas dynamic bearings and three-dimensional five-axis laser machining equipment.学校研发了超低频水下声波雷达技术与装备、电涡流阻尼器、气体动压轴承技术、三维五轴联动激光加工装备等首台首套技术。

Campus

• The main campus stands at the foot of Yuelu Mountain and on the west bank of the Xiang River in Changsha, within the Yuelu Mountain and Orange Isle national 5A scenic area.主校区位于长沙市岳麓山下、湘江西岸，置身岳麓山—橘子洲国家 5A 级旅游景区之内。

• The university now runs three campuses, namely the main south campus, the Finance and Economics campus and the Kechuanggang campus that opened in September 2026.学校现设主校区、财院校区与科创港校区三个校区，其中科创港校区于 2026 年 9 月投入使用。

• Together the campuses cover about 261,000 square metres, or some 3,915 mu, a scale that stretches from Yuelu Mountain eastward toward the river.三个校区合计占地约 261 万平方米，合 3,915 亩，校园自岳麓山一路向东延展至湘江之滨。

• Yuelu Academy occupies a walled complex of about 21,000 square metres whose axis runs through the gate houses, the lecture hall and the imperial library, flanked by dormitories and ancestral shrines.岳麓书院占地约 21,000 平方米，中轴线上依次为头门、大门、二门、讲堂与御书楼，两侧分布斋舍与祭祀专祠。

• The university's early twentieth-century buildings include the old library, the Great Hall and the Science Hall, all designed by the architect Liu Shiying and marked by his curved forms, and five of them are listed as protected modern buildings in Changsha.学校二十世纪初的建筑包括老图书馆、大礼堂与科学馆，均由建筑学家柳士英设计，以其弧形造型著称，其中 5 处被列为长沙市近现代保护建筑。

• The Yuelu Academy's Imperial Library, or Yushu Lou, was the academy's book repository, and today the university library and Hunan University Press continue that scholarly publishing tradition.岳麓书院的御书楼曾是书院的藏书之所，如今学校图书馆与湖南大学出版社延续着这一学术出版传统。

• The campus has no perimeter wall and blends into the surrounding city, a feature often noted in Chinese media, and the National Supercomputing Center in Changsha also occupies a site within it.这座校园向城市敞开、不设围墙，这一特点常为中国媒体所称道；国家超级计算长沙中心也坐落于校园之内。

Reputation

• In the 2027 QS World University Rankings Hunan University is placed 477th, one of the ranking's Chinese entries in that band.在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中，湖南大学位列第 477。^[1]

• In the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings it stands in a tied position around 263rd, and in the 2026-2027 U.S. News Best Global Universities it is placed 115th.在 2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名中，该校处于并列约第 263 的位置；在 2026 至 2027 年度 US News 全球最佳大学排名中位列第 115。

• In the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities it lies in the 151-200 band, having been placed 151st in the 2025 edition of the same ranking.在 2026 年世界大学学术排名中，该校处于 151 至 200 区间，在 2025 年该榜单中则位列第 151。^[2]

• In the 2026 Nature Index Research Leaders, which tracks papers in 145 leading science journals, Hunan University ranks 37th among academic institutions worldwide and 29th in the Asia-Pacific region.在衡量 145 种高水平科学期刊论文的 2026 年自然指数科研领导者榜单中，湖南大学在全球学术机构中位列第 37、亚太地区第 29。

• In the 2025 CWTS Leiden Ranking the university is placed 89th globally, and in the 2024 Leiden Ranking Open Edition it ranks 7th worldwide for the share of its publications among the top ten per cent most cited and first in the world for those among the top fifty per cent.在 2025 年 CWTS 莱顿排名中，该校位居全球第 89；在 2024 年莱顿排名开放版中，其进入各领域被引前 10% 的论文占比居全球第 7，进入前 50% 的占比居全球第 1。

• Hunan University's engineering programmes are ranked 12th in the world in the 2025 U.S. News subject rankings, reflecting its long-standing strength in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.在 2025 年 US News 学科排名中，湖南大学的工程学位居全球第 12，反映其土木、机械与电气工程的传统实力。

• Since 2019 the university has led fourteen National Science and Technology Awards, including a first prize for technological invention, and has led thirty-two awards of the Ministry of Education's humanities and social sciences prizes.2019 年以来，学校牵头获国家科学技术奖 14 项（含技术发明奖一等奖 1 项），并牵头获教育部人文社科奖 32 项。

• In 2016 the university ranked 14th worldwide in the Nature Index Rising Stars, and in 2018 the journal Nature selected it as one of sixteen Movers and Shakers in world science.2016 年，该校在自然指数“崛起之星”榜单中位居全球第 14；2018 年，《自然》杂志将其选为全球 16 家“变革者”机构之一。

• Fifty academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering have emerged from the university, and five of its disciplines stand in the global top one per thousand of the Essential Science Indicators.学校师生中先后走出 50 位“两院”院士，并有 5 个学科进入 ESI 全球前千分之一。

Student life

• The university's motto is Seeking Truth from Facts and Daring to Be First, adopted in 2001 after a university-wide discussion, and its spirit draws on the plaque that hangs in the Yuelu Academy lecture hall.学校的校训是“实事求是、敢为人先”，于 2001 年经全校师生大讨论后确定，其精神源自岳麓书院讲堂所悬的“实事求是”匾额。

• An earlier motto used in the 1930s took the academy's inscriptions Loyalty, Filial Piety, Integrity and Honesty together with Orderliness and Solemnity.1930 年代学校曾以岳麓书院讲堂碑刻“忠孝廉节，整齐严肃”作为校训。

• The school ethos is summarised in the four words Broad Learning, Wise Reflection, Diligence and Attainment of Knowledge, drawn from the classic text The Doctrine of the Mean.校风概括为“博学、睿思、勤勉、致知”，由《礼记·中庸》的治学之道提炼而来。

• The university song dates from the 1930s national period, with lyrics by Hu Shuhua, who served three times as president, and music by the composer Xiao Youmei.湖南大学校歌诞生于 1930 年代国立时期，由三度出任校长的胡庶华作词、音乐家萧友梅谱曲。

• The present emblem was designed in 1986 to mark the 1,010th anniversary of Yuelu Academy and the 60th anniversary of the university's naming, by the design student Chang Sha under the guidance of Cheng Tao.现行校徽由 83 级造型设计学生常沙在成涛老师指导下于 1986 年设计，以纪念岳麓书院诞辰 1010 周年与湖南大学定名 60 周年。

• The emblem carries the numbers 976 and 1926, the founding year of the academy and the naming year of the university, and fourteen maple leaves recalling the fourteen departments of 1986.校徽上铸有“976”与“1926”两组数字，分别代表书院创建与大学定名的年份，两侧十四瓣枫叶则代表 1986 年学校设立的 14 个系。

• The academy hosts an annual memorial ceremony for Confucius and an ongoing Yuelu Forum lecture series, while the university anniversary is celebrated through both the founding of Yuelu Academy and the naming of Hunan University.书院每年举行祭孔大典并长年举办岳麓讲坛系列讲座；校庆则以岳麓书院创建与湖南大学定名两个时间节点共同纪念。

• The university alumni association is based within the academy grounds, and the university marked the 1,050th anniversary of Yuelu Academy together with its own centenary in 2026.湖南大学校友会设于书院院内；2026 年，学校同时迎来岳麓书院创建 1050 周年与湖南大学定名 100 周年。

Notable people

• Li Da, the philosopher and principal founder of the Communist Party of China, became the university's first president after 1949 and had earlier served as an academic supervisor in its law faculty in 1926.哲学家、中国共产党主要创始人之一李达于 1949 年后出任学校首任校长，早在 1926 年即担任法科学监。

• Hu Shuhua, a metallurgist and president of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, served three times as president and wrote the lyrics of the university song.冶金学家、中国工程师学会会长胡庶华曾三度出任校长，并为校歌作词。

• Bin Bucheng, president of the Hunan Public Industrial College, wrote the plaque Seeking Truth from Facts that was hung in 1917 and remains a symbol of the university.湖南公立工业专门学校校长宾步程手书“实事求是”匾额，于 1917 年悬挂，至今仍是学校的精神象征。

• Yang Changji, the educator who became the father-in-law of Mao Zedong, first proposed founding a Hunan University and petitioned the provincial government in 1917.教育家杨昌济是毛泽东的岳父，他最早倡议创办湖南大学，并于 1917 年向湖南省政府呈文。

• Among early scholarly figures associated with the academy and university are the philosopher Wang Fuzhi, the reformist thinker Wei Yuan and the Qing statesmen Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang.与书院和学校渊源深厚的早期学人包括哲学家王夫之、改革思想家魏源，以及晚清名臣曾国藩、左宗棠。

• Cai E, who led the campaign to defend the Republic, and the reformer Tan Sitong were among the academy's late Qing and early republican students.发动护国运动的蔡锷与维新志士谭嗣同，都曾是书院晚清至民国初年的学子。

• Mao Zedong lodged at Yuelu Academy in his youth, and the academy's Seeking Truth from Facts plaque is widely said to have influenced his thinking.毛泽东青年时期曾寄居于岳麓书院，书院“实事求是”匾额被认为对他的思想产生了影响。

• Ci Yungui, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who graduated from the electrical engineering department, was the chief designer of China's Yinhe supercomputer.毕业于电机系的中国科学院院士慈云桂，是中国“银河”巨型计算机的总设计师。

• Yu Ruqin and Yao Shouzhuo, both chemists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, taught at the university, while Yu Ruqin also served as its president.中国科学院院士、化学家俞汝勤与姚守拙都曾在校任教，其中俞汝勤还曾任校长。

• Zhong Zhihua, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in vehicle engineering, and the materials scientist Cheng Huiming, also an academy member, graduated from the university.车辆工程专家、中国工程院院士钟志华与材料学家、中国科学院院士成会明均为该校毕业生。

• Xiong Xiaoge, a graduate of the foreign languages department, became global vice president and Asia president of International Data Group, while Xiao Gang, who studied at the former Hunan College of Finance and Economics, chaired the China Securities Regulatory Commission.外语系毕业生熊晓鸽出任 IDG 集团全球副总裁兼亚洲区总裁；毕业于原湖南财经学院的肖钢曾任中国证监会主席。