Shanxi University

The Shansi Imperial University (山西大学堂) was the predecessor of the Shanxi University, which was alternatively romanized as the Shansi University. The Shansi Imperial University was prepared in 1901 by Cen Chunxuan, then-governor of Shanxi, and on May 8, 1902, the Shansi Imperial University officially added the College of Western Studies, which was headed by the Welsh Baptist missionary Timothy Richard, focusing on teaching western technologies. 1902 was recognized as the official founding year of Shanxi University. Other than the Chinese government funding, one of the early funding sources of Shanxi University was the returned money from the British government with the Boxer Indemnity of Taiyuan massacre after Boxer Protocol, which was used to support the College of Western Studies.

Along with two other contemporary pioneer universities that started teaching western technologies in China: the Metropolitan Grand School (the predecessor of Peking University) and the Northern Grand School (the Predecessor of Tianjin University), the three universities together inaugurated a new era of modern Chinese higher education.

In 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution，Shansi Imperial University (山西大学堂) was renamed "Shanxi University". Its name was changed to "National Shanxi University" (simplified Chinese: 国立山西大学 traditional Chinese: 國立山西大學; pinyin: GuoLi ShanXi DaXue) in 1918, and changed back to "Shanxi University" in 1931. In 1937, because of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which is part of World War II, Shanxi University was moved away from Taiyuan. The school of law was moved to Pingyao, the college of liberal arts was moved to Yuncheng, the department of engineering and physics and the office of president was moved to Linfen. Later, Japanese army occupied not only Taiyuan, but Pingyao, Yuncheng and Linfen as well. Shanxi University thus stopped teaching until 1938 it was rebuilt in Sanyuan, Shaan'xi (陕西) in 1938, and later it was moved again to Yichuan. In 1943, because of the typhus epidemic in Yichuan, Shanxi University was moved back to Shanxi(山西） province, at Jixian Nancun, which was the wartime temporary capital of Shanxi province, and the location was renamed as KeNanPo, literally meaning that "overcoming the suffering". Shanxi University finally moved back Taiyuan in 1946, after the Chinese victory over Japan of the second world war.

In 1952, by order of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the Department of Liberal Arts and the Department of Science were combined to form Shanxi Normal College, the School of Law was integrated into Renmin University of China in Beijing. The Department of Engineering was dismantled, and fragments absorbed into University of Science and Technology Beijing, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Taiyuan University of Technology. In 1959, Shanxi University was rebuilt on Taiyuan's Wucheng Street. By 1998, Shanxi University was considered a key university in Shanxi province.

In May 2005, Shanxi University was co-established by the state Ministry of Education and the People's government of Shanxi province.

The west gate (new gate) of the university is locked all the year except a few days when welcoming officials and new students, causing great trouble to students.

Since the second semester of 2021, Shanxi University has been constantly under lockdown, while the majority of universities in China has unlocked from covid-19 pandemic. However, many people that are not domestic students can go in and out the campus freely.

On march 22, 2021, without any beforehand notice, Shanxi university began to cut off student dorms' electricity supply during the daylight in order to "prevent potential risk of catching fire", which was widely criticized by students.