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The aim of this article is two-fold. First, it offers a unique account of San Min, the prototype of the current Chinese educational principle proposed by Yan Fu (1854–1921) that aimed at improving people’s physical, intellectual and moral capacities. This system of educational thinking has received only marginal attention in Anglophone research literature. Second, given the influence of Yan Fu’s interpretation and promulgation of Herbert Spencer’s educational philosophy during that period, it investigates the extent to which San Min is derived from Spencer’s educational thought (the “Spencerian Triad”). This article focusses on how Yan Fu adapted the ideas of San Min from Spencer’s account.

This article considers Yan Fu’s principle of San Min in relation to Spencer’s educational triad through a close reading and comparison of key primary texts (including Yan Fu’s original writing). It explores the similarities and differences between each account of education’s goals and its proposed means of attainment.

Yan Fu’s principle of San Min is shown to have been adapted from the Spencerian Triad. However, using the theory of Social Organism, Yan Fu re-interpreted Spencer’s individual liberty as liberty for the nation. While Spencer’s goal was to empower individuals, Yan Fu aimed to serve collective independence, wealth and power.

This article addresses oversights concerning San Min’s Western origins in the Spencerian Triad and its influence on Chinese education under Yan Fu’s sway. It is significant because San Min is still at the core of the current Chinese educational policy.

Robots are widely used in industrial manufacturing and service industries around the world. However, most of the previous studies on industrial robots use data at the national or industry level in the context of developed countries. This study examines the impact of imported industrial robots on firm innovation at the firm level in China.

Drawing on a large dataset of more than three million records in China, including non-publicly traded small and medium firms, the authors adopt a difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact and channels of industrial robots on firm innovation.

The authors find that the application of industrial robots increases firm innovation. Two possible channels are identified through which robots promote innovation: alleviation of financial constraints and the improvement of human capital. Further analysis shows that the effect of robots on innovation is more pronounced for firms that are highly dependent on external financing, belong to high-tech industries, import high-end robots, have insufficient supply of skilled labor and private firms (non-SOEs). The authors also find that industrial robots increase the firms' innovation quality and the marginal contribution of innovation to firms' total factor productivity.

This study provides big data evidence of the unintended positive consequences of industrial robots on firm innovation. The results are helpful to clarify the controversy of industrial robots. It also has important implications for government industrial policy making, firm innovation and human resource management.

The rapid development and high penetration of digitalization have triggered profound changes in the energy sector. The purpose of this study is to integrate the government digital transformation into the analysis framework and discuss its impact on urban energy efficiency and its realization mechanism.

Using the “Information Benefit Pilot City” (IBC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and drawing on data from 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2019, this paper discusses how digital government affects urban energy efficiency by using difference-in-differences (DID).

The results show that digital governance significantly improves energy efficiency, and this conclusion remains reliable even after a series of robustness tests, endogeneity processing and sensitivity analysis. Heterogeneity results show that resource-based, eastern, high economic development level and high urbanization rate city digital government construction are more conducive to improving energy efficiency. The mediating effect shows that the influence mechanism of digital government on energy efficiency mainly includes reducing carbon emission, promoting green technology innovation and attracting talents.

(1) From the perspective of government digital transformation, this study supplements the way to improve energy efficiency and also expands the social dividend of government governance transformation. (2) Through quasi-experimental analysis of IBC policy, this paper solves the problem of difficulty in quantifying the government's digital transformation indicators. (3) The impact heterogeneity and realization mechanism are further discussed and the specific ways of digital government's impact on energy efficiency are revealed.