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.