The NCTU seal first appeared during the 1920s. At the time, the seal only contained the school’s Chinese and English names, the motto, the gear, and the outer ring. After 1926, when the motto was eliminated and the anvil, hammer, rings, books, and founding date of the school were added, the general form of the seal was largely fixed. Later on, only slight changes of the outer ring, the number of teeth in the gear, the shapes, and the school’s name on top were added. The changes of the meanings of the seal are explained in detail below.
Ｉ. Current NCTU Seal Meanings of the current NCTU standard seal
1. Anvil in the middle with Chinese and Western books above
|One must thoroughly study China and the West.|
2. Three Alphabets:
|The three major areas taught at our school.|
3. Three iron rings hanging from the pointed end of the anvil
|We are interlinked and indivisible with sincere harmony.|
4. A hammer leaning diagonally across the front of the anvil
|Theory and practice receive equal emphasis.|
5. The date 1896
|The date that the school was founded.|
|6. The 60 teeth of the gear|
The number means a cycle of 60 years. The circular shape with the teeth represents the “heavenly stems and earthly branches.” And the entire gear implies the ancient proverb, “the movement of heaven is full of power, so the superior man makes himself strong and untiring.”
II、Re-establishment in Taiwan
1. 24-tooth gear and no name or outer ring
2. Put above the School Flag
III、NCTU Shanghai Campus periods
A. The version of 1920s
1. The center was inscribed with eight Chinese characters containing an abbreviated version of the motto in use at the time: “Diligence, sincerity, decisiveness, magnanimity”.
2. The gear had 50 teeth that were pointed, not blunt.
B. The version announced in 1926
1. On January 23, 1926, Hung-Hsun Ling, President of the school, announced the new school seal.
2. The anvil and hammer together with the Chinese and Western books indicate the equal importance of theoretical and practical training in engineering education.
3. The year 1896, written in Arabic numerals on the base of the anvil, indicated the year of the school’s founding.
4. The 60-tooth gear circling the anvil and the outer rim, resembling a wheel, suggested the concepts of engineering and transportation.
5. In the top half of the space between the gear and the outer rim, the four Chinese characters for NanyangUniversity were written in regular script; the English name was provided in the lower half.
C. The version of 1930s
1. The school motto was replaced by the anvil, hammer, rings, books, and the year 1896. The gear had 60 flat teeth. From this time, the seal’s general form was settled.
2. The school’s Chinese name was written in regular characters, and the school’s name in English is “Nanyang University”.
D. The version of 1940s
1. The Chinese and English names are the same as on the seal of the 1920s, and the compositional elements inside the gear are the same as those of the seal of the 1930s.
2. The 46-tooth gear distinguishes this version from the others.