In 1932, with the help of the Rhodes Trust, Fairbank entered Tsinghua University in Peking as an auditing student. Under the guidance of history department chairman Chiang Yen-hsi, Fairbank used the National Palace Museum's collection of Ching dynasty documents to research modern Chinese history.
一九三二年，費正清在「羅茲基金」（Rhodes Trust）獎助下，進入北平清華大學做旁聽生，在當時歷史系主任蔣廷黻的指導下，利用故宮「清季檔案」研究中國近代史。