The Academic Code of New Asia College: Philosophy and Principles

The philosophy and spirit of the New Asia College are presented in its essentials as follows. Students are to study the statements and reflect upon the teachings and their implications.

  1. While pursuing knowledge, also learn how to cultivate your moral character.  The two goals are to be achieved as an integrated whole.
  2. While learning lays the foundation for cultivating your moral character, attaining personal integrity is what motivates you to study.
  3. The core of learning, whether to become knowledgeable or to become a person of integrity, is comprised of love — love for family, love for teachers and friends, love for country and people, and love for humanity in general. The efforts of learning are for the purpose of acquiring a good understanding of human civilization and contributing to the well-being of our society.
  4. Discard petty calculations about self-interest, and dispel the shallow notion that schooling is but a means for seeking qualifications for employment.
  5. A job may satisfy personal needs, but a career is aimed at serving people. Determined to work for the noble cause of serving, you will not find yourself out of a job; being determined merely to seek a job will not necessarily help you achieve success in serving a cause or building a career.
  6. To excel in work and serving a cause or building a career, you must first perform well in your studies.
  7. The highest state of mind behind any achievement in learning and at work is never to fail in your love for nature and humanity, for the world and its civilization, for culture and its history, for all forms of knowledge, for all who pass on such knowledge to you, and for your own self in embarking on such a course through learning and work.
  8. A steadfast devotion to and a broad range of knowledge are the prerequisites to contributing to humanity by taking up and passing on the heritage of noble causes and great learning.
  9. Acquire a broad base in general knowledge and then choose to specialize in fields that match your inclinations and interests. Be a person with a wide range of interests before trying to become a specialist.
  10. All efforts to learn and to serve are directed towards the good of the whole of human culture, and your efforts to learn and accomplish are enhanced by your capabilities and personality.
  11. By examining yourself in the broad context of humanity, you will learn of your obligations and responsibilities; by examining the qualities with which you are endowed, you will come to recognize your inclinations and talents.
  12. Those who command a wide range of interests are at their best only when they also excel in special areas of expertise. Those who wish to focus exclusively on one particular discipline will fall short of embracing the wide range of knowledge.
  13. Classes and course credits are fragmentary and arbitrary units; but teachers offer themselves as models of what a full and living human being is. Know what you are seeking, turn your attention away from the lists of classes and emulate the achievements of your individual teachers.
  14. Unlike the Song Dynasty (960-1279) when academies focused education on individuals, colleges in contemporary time are mostly curriculum-oriented. The New Asia College dearly upholds the philosophy of providing individualized training through offerings of diverse courses, highlighting individual figures of note and their contributions to humanity, to bring individuals to a perfection of their own virtues.
  15. An ideal individual shows a competent command of the knowledge he or she is to deliver. An ideal body of knowledge serves as means to help an individual to cultivate his or her moral integrity.
  16. A complete and vital person should possess knowledge of diverse dimensions; but the possession of such knowledge does not make a complete and vital person. You must seek to refine your moral character through learning, without ever forgetting or forgoing your true self while pursuing knowledge merely for its own sake.
  17. From your teachers, you will learn about the great scholars in the past; from the classes you take, you will learn about the many important achievements in civilization throughout history.
  18. Self-improvement is to be achieved through efforts of learning and good deeds.
  19. A wholesome life should include interests in labor, as well as in arts and crafts.
  20. You must integrate schoolwork as part of your daily life, and spiritual cultivation as part of your academic pursuit.
  21. Life in school will prepare you for your aspirations, and the spiritual cultivation at school will contribute to what you are to become.
  22. While you learn from examining your behaviors in sadness and joy, in anger and happiness, what you do as part of your daily life routine prepares you for the course you will take in the future.
  23. Strengthen your will through trials of hardship and refine your temperament through efforts of retrospection. Your will and your temperament will bear significantly on how you do in your studies and what you will achieve with your future endeavors.
  24. Your will and resolution inform the school regulations; your personality and temperament define the character of your school. Your studies and the future course you are to embark on begin with the life here at school and the spirit it instills in you. Revere your school, respect your teachers, love your studies, and embrace your integrity. And, with that knowledge and integrity you possess, make good contributions to the country and people you love, to the humanity and civilization that you hold dear to your heart.