This essay proposes that, during the XX century, the concept of «Chinese university» was radically transformed. That inflexion point demarks the before and after in the superior education system of the country. It is proposed as a central conjecture that this breaking point is based in two historical facts: the foundation of the Beijing University, as a modernization program, and then, the great reforms of the Popular Republic of China and its communist system. The great tear of the XXth century separates the classical confucian education from the university system influenced by foreign elements.