Shanxi University, established in 1902, is in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, which has a history of 2,500 years. The school itself can be traced back to Sanli College, of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and Jinyang College and Lingde College, of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In its early period, the school worked on integrating Chinese culture and Western culture and the arts and sciences. It had great flexibility in its management and advanced educational ideas, and was a cradle of higher education in China and a crucial center of culture, science, and education in Shanxi province for more than 100 years. 

It has key State-level laboratories, Education Ministry laboratories, Education Ministry humanities and social sciences research bases, and an Education Ministry approved engineering research center, giving it a solid academic and scientific research foundation. It also handles important national 973 Projects, national 863 Projects, and projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, and the Social Science Foundation, 16 of which have won awards, including a national Natural Science award, national Technological Innovation award, national Scientific and Technological Progress award, Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities award from the Education Ministry, a Social Sciences award for Chinese Higher Education Institutions, and an Education Ministry Natural Science award. 

The school has also increased international exchanges and has relations with more than 60 universities and institutions in the United States, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and elsewhere and it has worked with Yerevan State Linguistic University, Armenia and Pfeiffer University, in the US, in setting up Confucius Institutes there. It provides more opportunities for Chinese students to continue their tertiary education abroad and for international students to study here in China. 

Now, as the school faces new opportunities and challenges, it is making every effort to overcome difficulties and improve itself overall in hopes of becoming an exemplary research-oriented university with special regional characteristics.