Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education [1 ed.] 9789004263161, 9789004263154

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Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education

Brill’s Series on Chinese Education Edited by

Gerard A. Postiglione, The University of Hong Kong Editorial Board

Kai-ming Cheng, The University of Hong Kong Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto Jin Lin, University of Maryland Julia Kwong, University of Manitoba Heidi Ross, Indiana University

VOLUME 1

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsce

Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education By

Gu Mingyuan Translated by

Wang Juefei, Yao Zhenjun, Teng Jun, and Zhu Yun

Leiden • boston 2014

This book is the result of a co-publication agreement between Higher Education Press Limited Company and Koninklijke Brill NV. This book was translated into English from the original 《中国教育的文化基础》   (Zhongguo jiaoyu de wenhua jichu), which was first published by Shanxi Education Publishing House, with financial support from China Classics International and China Book International. Cover illustration: Gu Mingyuan. On December 28, 2011, Professor Gu Mingyuan met the delegation of Soka Gakkai from Japan at Beijing Normal University. Photographed by Soka Gakkai.

This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2212-7437 ISBN 978-90-04-26315-4 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26316-1 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Contents Series Editor Foreword ................................................................................... ix Gerard A. Postiglione Foreword ............................................................................................................ xi Ruth Hayhoe Preface for the English Edition .................................................................... xv Gu Mingyuan Translators’ Note .............................................................................................. xvii Chapter One Education and Culture ..................................................... 1. Definitions of Culture and Characteristics of Culture ............... 2. Education as a Component of Culture ........................................... 3. Cultural Functions of Education ......................................................

1 2 16 22

Chapter Two Chinese Culture and Its Characteristics ..................... 1. Formation and Evolution of Chinese Culture .............................. 2. Fundamental Characteristics of Chinese Traditional Culture .

27 27 40

Chapter Three Categories, Characters, and Cardinal Spirit of Chinese Traditional Culture .................................................................... 1. Categories and Characters of Chinese Traditional Culture ...... 2. Cardinal Vitalities of Chinese Traditional Culture ...................... 3. Negative Elements in Chinese Traditional Culture ....................

45 46 54 66

Chapter Four Traditions of Chinese Education and Their Fundamental Characteristics .................................................................. 1. Evolution and Formation of Chinese Education Traditions ..... 2. Fundamental Characteristics of Chinese Education Traditions .................................................................................................

73 73 83

Chapter Five Influence of Traditional Chinese Culture on Chinese Education ...................................................................................... 89 1. Traditional Chinese Culture Shapes Chinese Education .......... 89 2. Impacts of the Imperial Civil Service Examinations .................. 103 3. Shuyuan, Institution of Classic Learning, and Its Influence on Chinese Education .......................................................................... 108

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4. The Wealth of Traditional Chinese Education ............................. 114 5. On Learning—A Shining Treasure in the Legacy of the Traditional Chinese Education ......................................................... 120 Chapter Six Dissemination of Western Learning to the East and the Modernization of Chinese Education .................................. 1. Dissemination of Western Learning to the East and Its Impact on Traditional Chinese Culture ......................................... 2. The Emergence of Missionary Schools and the Birth of Modern Education in China .............................................................. 3. Influences on the Modernization of Chinese Education Exerted by the Dissemination of Western Learning ..................

129 129 136 143

Chapter Seven Influences on Chinese Education Exerted by Western Education Systems and Philosophies .................................. 151 1. The Establishment of the New Chinese Education System ..... 151 2. The Spread of Western Education Theories ................................. 166 Chapter Eight The Spreading of Marxism and the Establishment of Marxist Educational Thoughts in China ......................................... 1. The Spreading of Marxism in China and the Foundation of Chinese New Culture ...................................................................... 2. The Spreading of Marxist Educational Thoughts in China ...... 3. The Practice and Tradition of Education in Revolutionary Bases .......................................................................................................... 4. The Forming of New Democratic Education Thought .............. Chapter Nine Influences on Chinese Education Exerted by Soviet Education ......................................................................................... 1. The Spreading of Soviet Education Theories in China .............. 2. Characteristics of Soviet Education Theories and Their Impacts on the Chinese Circles of Educational Theories ......... 3. Impacts of Soviet Education on Chinese Education Practices ................................................................................................... 4. Criticism of Soviet Education and Localization of Soviet Educational Experiences .....................................................................

175 175 178 184 191 195 196 202 207 214



contents

Chapter Ten Reforms, Open Door Policies, and Diversification of Educational Thoughts .......................................................................... 1. Reflection on Education and Introduction of Educational Thoughts from Other Countries ....................................................... 2. Major Reforms and Development in Education, and Major Shifts in Perspectives on Education ................................................ 3. Challenges of the Internet Culture to Traditional Education . Chapter Eleven Conclusion: Explore Modernization of Chinese Education ...................................................................................................... 1. Balancing Tradition and Modernization in Education .............. 2. Adopt a More Open Attitude Towards Foreign Educational Thinking and Experiences .................................................................. 3. Conduct Institutional Innovation and Establish National Modern Education System .................................................................

vii 217 217 228 243 251 254 261 263

References .......................................................................................................... 269 Appendices  Names in English and Chinese ............................................................... 277  Glossary .......................................................................................................... 285  Biography of Gu Mingyuan ...................................................................... 289 Index .................................................................................................................... 293

Series Editor Foreword Thirty-five years after launching its economic reform and opening to the outside world, China finds itself inching closer to becoming the world’s largest economy. Education has played a key role. China already has the largest system of higher education, and more scientific publications than any other country except the USA. Students in China’s largest city outperformed those in the 60 countries involved in the Program for International Student Assessment of mathematics and science achievement. Yet, there is less known about influential Chinese thinkers in the field of education. It is common to credit those of the classical era, such as Confucius and Mencius, and perhaps Sunzi, Mozi, and later Wang Yangming and Zhu Xi. Regarding modern Chinese educational theorists, Hu Shi is perhaps best known. This has been less the case with Liang Shuming, Ye Yangchu, Mei Yiqi, and Jiang Bailing. The rise of Peking University had helped increase an understanding of Cai Yuanpei who studied in Germany and later become an early president of that university. The same may be true of Yan Fu who composed astute comparisons of Western and Chinese learning. The connection to John Dewey is partly responsible for the visibility of Tao Xingzhi in educational circles outside of China. The sociologist Pan Guangdan wrote widely about humanistic educational thought and was also influential during the modern era of China’s educational development. When Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought become the ruling ideology that guided educational discourse in China, educational slogans abounded and had enormous influence, such Deng’s Xiaoping’s “education must face modernization, the world and the future.” Even while educational theory was and remains hemmed in by the limits of Marxism, the contemporary era also produced educational thinkers such as Gu Mingyuan, who stressed the higher ideals of education, and Pan Maoyuan who wrote widely reform in higher education. Both were influenced during their youth by ideas from the Soviet Union, but become scholars of comparative education who connected more with the international educational scene. Most influential educational thinkers of China’s modern and contemporary eras remain relatively unknown outside of the country, except perhaps to Historians and Sinologists of education. Thus, this book series aims to provide translations of their selected works

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which influenced thinking about China’s educational development during its transition from a developing country to an emerging global economy. Each volume has an introductory foreword by an eminent scholar familiar with the work of each Chinese educational theorist. Gerard A. Postiglione The University of Hong Kong

Foreword It is a pleasure and honor for me to write a few words in celebration of this important volume of Professor Gu Mingyuan’s scholarship appearing in English. Since the volume has been so carefully prepared, with a preface in which Professor Gu himself has explained his purpose in writing, and a biography in the Appendix, I will confine myself to some personal remarks in this foreword. It has been my privilege to work closely with Professor Gu over a long period of time and observe his life as a scholar and educator. So I would like to begin by sharing some of the lessons I learned from him over the period from 1986 to 1995, when I shared in the leadership of a Canada-China joint doctoral program in education, supported by the Canadian International Development Agency. Those were difficult times, in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, when Chinese universities were recovering and establishing new programs that would enable them to reconnect with the wider world. Given Professor Gu’s already established reputation in comparative education and teacher education he was chosen to lead this project from the Chinese side, and we began to meet as early as 1987 to design the project proposal jointly, finally receiving confirmation in April of 1989 that we had been awarded a grant of close to half a million Canadian dollars for a six-year period. It was a difficult time to launch such a program, with the well known events of June 1989 greatly affecting the climate and relationships between the governments of China and Canada. However, I was deeply touched by Professor Gu’s commitment and persistence, also by the values he displayed in his guidance of this collaboration. First of all, he was committed to mutual learning and enrichment and resonated with our wish to make this a genuine exchange—with 22 Chinese doctoral students and visiting scholars coming to Canada and 12 OISE doctoral students, also about 10 OISE professors, going to China. Secondly, he wanted to ensure the project was widely inclusive, in terms of both gender and region. Thus a total of nine women students and scholars came to Canada, three of them from Beijing Normal University, in a time when women were a genuine minority among doctoral students of education in China. He further gave great importance to ensuring that normal universities in more remote regions of China—Southwest Normal in Chongqing, Northwest Normal in Lanzhou and Northeast Normal

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in Changchun—were fully involved, and sent a considerable number of doctoral students and visiting scholars. The long term result was that a strong cohort of educational leaders was formed over those years, who are now serving as professors, department chairs, deans, vice-presidents and presidents of key educational institutions in many parts of the country. I thus had the opportunity of experiencing Professor Gu not only as an outstanding scholar of education but as a leader committed to nurturing a younger generation and having a vision for the nation as a whole. My next experience with Professor Gu came in the years when I was based in Hong Kong as Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education after Hong Kong’s historic return to China in 1997. This fledgling institution had much to learn from normal universities in China and under Gu’s tutelage I had been able to build close linkages with normal universities in most regions of the country. He was thus an inspiring and supportive mentor to this new university-level institute for teachers, visiting us on several occasions and encouraging us in building links in citizen education with Northeast Normal, in rural teacher education with Northwest Normal and in the teaching of Putonghua with several universities in different regions. During these years, I found time to visit all of the scholars in different regions, who had served as doctoral supervisors in the early years after the Cultural Revolution and had been mentors to both Chinese and Canadian doctoral students under our collaborative project. Listening to their life stories and their reflections on educational change in different arenas over the century, I was greatly enriched and decided to write a collection of Portraits of Influential Chinese Educators, which was published some years after I returned to Canada (Hayhoe, 2006). Gu Mingyuan’s life story constitutes one of these portraits, (Hayhoe, 2006, 261–291) but in addition I had the pleasure of working on the first edition of his writings in English, Education in China and Abroad: Perspectives on a Lifetime in Comparative Education (Gu, 2001) over these years in Hong Kong. In writing the introduction to this volume and reading and commenting on each of the 19 essays that appeared in it, I came to understand the trajectory of Professor Gu’s scholarly life and the important ways in which his thinking had influenced the dramatic series of reforms that unfolded after Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978. The first essay, “Modern Production and Modern Education,” (Gu, 2001, 28–51) was a paper he had written in this crucial beginning of the reform period, which suggested that theories of human capital were as important to socialist as to capitalist societies and drew on classical ideas from Marx to support this point of view. The paper had been such a success that it was



foreword

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presented on over forty different occasions, and as we look back thirty five years later we can see the dramatic results of the Chinese decision to invest heavily in education for modern development. Other important papers in this volume trace the impact of Gu’s research on the development of crucial educational legislation at many levels, also a range of important policies. As I was reading, reflecting and commenting on his work, I noticed an interesting trajectory of development. From classical Marxist analysis, rooted in the important years he spent as a student in Moscow, from 1951 to 1956, his thinking moved more and more towards culture and the importance of culture in shaping educational thought and systems differently around the world. The essays that struck me as most fascinating in this collection were one on “National Cultural Traditions and their Transformations” (Gu, 2001, 162–181) and another entitled “Modernisation and Education in China’s Cultural Traditions.” (Gu, 2001, 101–110) In the latter, Gu made the point that there were many aspects of the Confucian value system that supported China’s modernization, and then went on to make the striking conclusion that a general theory of modernization, which could supersede the then dominant Euro-centric one, would not be possible until China carried forward its modernization process in a self-conscious and self-analytic way, and shared with the wider global community the contribution its rich civilization could make to global well being. It may have been for this reason that Gu dedicated himself to study and reflection on these cultural traditions for many years, and finally published the Chinese version of The Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education in 2004. When I was invited by some of his doctoral students to write a celebratory note on the occasion of Professor Gu’s eightieth birthday in 2008, here is how I commented on this important volume: This landmark publication demonstrates the strengths of the cultural approach to Comparative Education which Gu has nurtured throughout his long career in education. It begins with anthropological reflections on the relationship between education and culture, and proceeds to analyse the educational dimensions of traditional Chinese culture in such a way that China’s interaction with the Western world and adoption of a series of Western educational models can be understood at the deep level of the interface of differing educational values. Through this kind of research and writing, Professor Gu has encouraged Chinese education scholars to probe the cultural foundations of their own educational patterns, and learn to identify and articulate some of the strengths of their own cultural heritage. As China now moves more and more into a global arena, and attracts increasing attention internationally, the ability to explain its achievements and aspirations

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foreword in cultural terms is more and more urgently felt. Professor Gu Mingyuan has dedicated himself to nurturing a younger generation of scholars that know their own roots and are capable of taking up the contemporary challenge of dialogue among civilizations. (Hayhoe, 2008, 23)

Professor Gu has received many honors, including the first honorary doctorate in education conferred by the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002), all of which are highly deserved. I believe this volume will make available to readers of English around the world an understanding of some of the treasures of China’s educational civilization and of what they could potentially contribute to a world where China now plays the role of a leading global power and has huge responsibilities for the well being of the global community. Ruth Hayhoe Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto References Gu Mingyuan (2001) Education in China and Abroad: Perspectives from a Lifetime in Comparative Education (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong). Ruth Hayhoe (2006) Portraits of Influential Chinese Educators (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong). —— (2008) 来自远方的敬意：写在顾明远教授八十华诞之际 [Laizi yuanfang de jingyi:xiezai Gu Mingyuan jiaoshou bashi huadan zhiji—A Salute to Professor Gu Ming­ yuan in Celebration of his 80th Birthday] in Bijiao jiaoyu yanjiu No. 9, 20–23.

Preface for the English Edition Education is linked to various aspects of any society, but it is most closely intertwined with culture. Education is the main conduit for inheriting cultural traditions and creating new culture. As a comparative education scholar, I often feel that it is difficult to fully understand another nation’s educational ideologies and practices without a full understanding of their cultural traditions. In the process of the modernization of Chinese education, there are many important issues to consider. The Chinese modern educational system was derived from the West—we first learned from Japan, who learned from the West, and then directly from the West. Therefore, there necessarily must be some western cultural elements in our educational traditions. Despite the western influence, however, it is Chinese traditional culture that lies at the heart of the Chinese people and their education ideologies. On the way to the modernization of Chinese education, Chinese educators must address the following questions: How to absorb the excellent achievements of foreign (esp. the western) culture properly? How to inherit and promote our own traditional culture? How to integrate them and then create a new one? Therefore, I decided to explore the cultural foundations of Chinese education, hoping to find out what cultures and elements have influenced the development of Chinese education. With a comprehensive understanding of this topic, I believe that the path of future development of Chinese education modernization will become much clearer. This inquiry requires intensive knowledge of both Chinese traditional culture and various Western cultures. I spent ten years researching and studying this topic, and I finally finished this book in 2004 (the Chinese version was published by Shanxi Education Press). Nevertheless, I still think it is just a plain sketch of the development of Chinese education. Prof. Wang Juefei read my book when he was teaching Chinese culture in the University of Vermont in the United States. He felt that my book is helpful for foreign scholars who are studying Chinese education because not only does it introduce the process of the modernization of Chinese education, it is concise and easy to understand. Therefore, he undertook the task of translating the book into English. I really appreciate the work of Prof. Wang and his translation team—they did a wonderful job. Special

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thanks also go to Higher Education Press, which has exclusive publishing rights of the English version of this book, and Brill Academic Press. They also actively promote its overseas publication, which has a great significance for both China and the West because until very recently, there has been a large disparity in cultural and educational exchange and cooperation between China and the West. China has translated and published numerous western educational books, while few of the Chinese educational books are translated into western languages. Consequently, foreign scholars know little about China’s educational development and reforms. This unbalanced situation has restricted our communication and cooperation. I believe that the publication of this English edition will help foreign scholars and friends learn more about Chinese education and contribute to our exchange, cooperation and friendship. Gu Mingyuan

Translators’ Note With great respect and excitement, we completed the translation of Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education by Professor Gu Mingyuan. Our respect goes to Professor Gu. As a leading educator in China, Prof. Gu has worked in education for more than 60 years. He began teaching in Beijing in the 1950s after he returned from his study in the former Soviet Union, and he has held various posts in administration and management in education. Since the economic reforms initiated in 1978, he has participated in all debates in Chinese education, and played important roles in policy-making on all fronts of education and in all educational reforms during the last three decades. His students are all over China and in many countries. Prof. Gu is a renowned scholar in China. He was one of the first educators who, in the late 1970s, raised the issue of the relationship between teaching knowledge and developing student skills. He was the first scholar who clarified the relationship between modern production and modern education in the early 1980s. In the 1990s, he was the first author who argued that efforts should be directed towards developing a learning society rather than a society of academic degrees. He was among the first educators who, in the first decade of this century, became devoted to reducing student academic burdens, increasing their free time and changing the traditional instruction and examination system, a task undertaken for the advancement of the country and for the betterment of the students. These are only a few of the most well-known accomplishments of Prof. Gu. This book is another major accomplishment of Prof. Gu. There have been publications in Chinese culture that touch on the roles of education, and there have been books on Chinese education that mention the influences of the culture. However, before Prof. Gu’s book was published in China in 2004, there had been no publication on the analysis of the cultural foundations of Chinese education. Prof. Gu is the first scholar to analyze the evolution of education against the background of cultural evolution, point out the impacts of cultural elements at different times on Chinese education, and note the counter-impacts of education on the development of Chinese culture. Reading this book will enable the reader to understand how Chinese education started, how it evolved, what happened at any given time in Chinese education due to cultural changes,

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why Chinese education is in its current format, structure and approaches, and what philosophies, Chinese or foreign, have influenced Chinese education. To translate this book into English was an idea discussed during a telephone conversation between Prof. Gu and Wang Juefei in 2010. Having used segments of this book in his class, Wang Juefei mentioned in the conversation that the book should be translated into English. Prof. Gu agreed, and in several days, he had identified a publisher, the Publishing House of Higher Education in Beijing. Once the translation work began, however, we were both excited and nervous for the same reason: this book is just so important that we would need to ensure the quality of our translation. Despite our busy schedules, we created several approaches to guarantee the quality of this translated version of Prof. Gu’s book. The first challenge we encountered is the translation of classic Chinese into English. Classic Chinese, or Wenyan Wen, is much different from modern Chinese, or Baihua Wen. Classic Chinese is intellectual, concise, and literary. Several characters in Wenyan Wen can be translated into a long sentence in Baihua Wen, and many characters can be understood in different ways. Only educated people in old times could read the language. It was not until the beginning of the 1900s that Wenyan Wen was gradually changed to Baihua Wen, largely due to the New Culture Movement at the time of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. In contemporary Chinese schools, students learn to translate from Wenyan Wen to Baihua Wen. Due to the long history of China, Prof. Gu quoted many Chinese classics to analyze the relationship between Chinese culture and Chinese education. To translate these into English, we used many Chinese dictionaries in order to identify the exact meaning of each classical word and sentence. We have also used specific approaches to maintain the original meaning of the classic language. For example, for those terminologies that have special meanings, we have translated the original sound of the words, added definitions of the words, and used the sounds as the terminology. Take Shuyuan for instance. When the word first appears in the text in Chapter Five, we have defined it as an institution for classic learning, and used Shuyuan throughout the text, because Shuyuan was a school, but not a school as it is commonly understood today. Similar examples are the names of ancient schools in Chapter Four. It is important to note that due to the large amounts of quotes from Confucius in the book, we have used the translation of The Analects of



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Confucius (Lun Yu) by Chichung Huang published by Oxford Press in New York in 1997 for the accuracy and consistency of the translation. It needs to be noted that quoting Chinese classics in Chinese writing is to have the original source in brackets immediately after the quote. We have kept that format, and whenever possible, we have a note to explain the original source. We also need to mention the Translator’s Notes in the book. The book is rich in content. Many individuals are mentioned or quoted and many events are described in this book that covers the history of China for thousands of years and Chinese culture in multiple aspects. For Chinese readers, those names and events might be common knowledge, yet for international readers, they might be difficult to understand. For the convenience of all readers, whenever and wherever there is a name or an event in the text, we have a footnote in addition to Prof. Gu’s original notes. All those noted by us are listed at the bottom of the page as Translator’s Notes. Wang Juefei is Professor of Education Emeritus of the University of Vermont and Program Director of the Freeman Foundation in the United States. He translated the Preface, Chapters One to Five, and Chapter Ten. Yao Zhenjun is the professor of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, and he translated Chapters Six to Nine. Teng Jun is an assistant professor of Beijing Normal University in Beijing. She reviewed and edited Chapters Six to Nine. Zhu Yun is a professional translator in Kunming, Yunnan Province. She translated Chapters Ten and Eleven. Wang Juefei reviewed the entire text. All four of are grateful for the opportunity to work on the translation of this book. Wang Juefei and Teng Jun are especially grateful for this opportunity as they were graduate students of Prof. Gu’s. Throughout the process of the translation, leaders of the Publishing House of Higher Education have lent strong support to us, and listed the translation of this book as a national priority project. We appreciate their support and understanding. Li Haifeng, Editor of the Publishing House of Higher Education, has been responsible for the process of publication. Her encouragement, patience and coordination have helped us overcome many difficulties during the last year. Prof. Gu has lent us the strongest support with detailed guidance. Many times he stopped other work to help us understand the content of the book. His vision and wisdom will forever inspire us as they have inspired many Chinese educators.

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We hope researchers, university faculty, graduate students, and the general public will find this book significant for understanding Chinese education, Chinese culture, and China as a nation. Because of the limited time and large amount of work, there will be improvements to be made in the book once it is presented in readers’ hands. We welcome comments and suggestions for better editions in the future. Wang Juefei, Yao Zhenjun, Teng Jun, and Zhu Yun

Chapter One

Education and Culture The study of education must involve the study of its cultural foundations. Michael Sadler (1861–1943), a British Comparative Educator at the beginning of the twentieth century, believed that the study of education must pay attention to the cultural background of educational practices, rather than isolating the field of education from its cultural contexts. Friedrich Schneider (1881–1974) of Germany and Nicholas Hans (1888–1969) of the United Kingdom created the element analysis approach for comparative education, noting that elements such as the characteristics of a nation, geographic location, culture, the economy, and science can have significant impacts on education. Hans further categorized the elements impacting education in various countries thusly: natural elements, including racial, linguistic, geographic, and economic elements; religious elements, including Christian, Anglican, and Puritan traditions; and secular elements, including humanism, socialism, nationalism, and democracy.1 While these categories are aligned with western civilizations and are not necessarily scientific, this scholarship raises questions regarding the complexity of the elements that affect educational structures and practices. If we analyze education in context of these fundamental social arrangements, we can find that political, economic and most significantly, cultural, elements provide the foundation for education in these societies. This comparative frame of analysis also provides evidence that with changes in politics and economic structures, little change may occur in the education system, particularly in the perceptions on education. Therefore, only by studying the cultural elements of a type of education can we understand the nature of that type of education. At present, as we are studying the socialist education system with Chinese characteristics, including a theoretical system, we need to study the cultural foundation on which Chinese education was originated and developed.

1 Wang Chengxu and Gu Mingyuan, Comparative Education, Third Edition, (Beijing: People’s Education Press).

2

chapter one 1. Definitions of Culture and Characteristics of Culture Definitions of Culture

To clarify the relationship between education and culture, we must first clarify what we are referring to when we talk about culture and also how we come to understand how culture works. Culture is a concept with many and varied definitions; it is estimated that there are more than 200 scholarly definitions of the term. Some regard culture as a condition of life. Some note that culture is the totality of the materials and spiritual accomplishments made by human beings while others argue that culture only refers to the spiritual accomplishments of humans. Liang Suming once said: “What is culture? It is no more than the life style of a particular people.”2 However, he also stated: “Culture is everything that we depend on for our lives.”3 Qian Mu indicated in Culture and Life that “culture must begin with human life. There is no culture without people’s lives. Culture is the totality of the life of human beings and it integrates every aspect of the life of human beings.”4 In Research Methodology of Chinese History, he explained that culture is the whole of the complete history . . . in other words, culture is life. This life is not the life lived by individuals. Rather, it means the entire life of large groups, including every aspect and every institution of human life, inclusive of material and spiritual elements, and that is the whole of a large group life.5

This is to say that the totality of a large group’s life which includes all the wealth created by the people of the group is counted as culture. However, in Introduction of Chinese Cultural History, he separated culture and civilization. He noted that generally speaking, both culture and civilization are referred to human beings’ group life. Civilization refers to the external side of that life and it belongs to the material domain. Culture is internal and it belongs to the spiritual domain. Therefore, civilization can be spread outward and it can be received, yet culture can only be generated from spiritual accumulation from inside of the group. 2 Liang Suming, “Cultures of the East and the West and Their Philosophies,” in Modern Chinese Academic Classics, Volume of Liang Suming, (Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1996): 33. 3 Ibid., 237. 4 Qian Mu, Culture and Life, (Taiwan: The Letian Publisher, 1963). 5 Qian Mu, Research Methodologies for Chinese History: Life, Reading, New Knowledge, (Beijing: Sanlian Publisher, 2001).



education and culture

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He also pointed out that “culture can lead to the birth of civilization, yet civilization does not necessarily generate culture.”6 Here, he regards culture solely in terms of spiritual ­accomplishments. It is clear that Qian Mu and Liang Suming each had conflicts in their own thinking. However, Qian Mu regarded culture as the totality of human life, while Liang Suming believed that culture is everything on which human life depended. Zhao Yabo, a Taiwanese scholar, believed that: The essence of culture is to change nature and to change the primitive conditions of the self, and to create new conditions. More specifically, it is to utilize one’s own capacity, i.e., reason, willpower, and sense organs, to bring existing potentials in oneself or in nature to reality, and with the purpose to enable the human to change into the condition different from the primitive, so that one self can be in the conditions better than the primitive.7

This change can be understood as including both material and spiritual components. The above definitions attempt to elaborate culture as a complicated concept and while they are not the same, the commonality among them is that they all regard culture as human activities and results of those activities. While the previous definitions are useful, the definition of culture by Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan in their book Debates on Chinese Culture and Cultural Thoughts seems to be the most comprehensive: Culture is the modes through which humans conduct spiritual activities and practical activities when they manage their relationships with the world and the totality of material and spiritual accomplishments created in those activities, and it is a dialectical unity of the modes of activities and results of activities.8

This definition emphasizes the unity between the mode of human activities (in dynamic state) and the accomplishments of those activities (in static state); the inclusiveness of both material and spiritual accomplishments of those activities; the two types of modes for spiritual and material activities respectively; and the modes of activities themselves being part of culture beyond the results of the activities.

6 Qian Mu, Introductions to Chinese Cultural History, (Taiwan: The Business Press, 1993), 5. 7 Zhao Yabo, Chinese Culture and Modernization. (Taibei: Liming Cultural Affairs Company, 1992), 1. 8 Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan Chinese Culture and Cultural Debates, (Beijing: The Chinese People’s University Press, 1990), 3–4.

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chapter one Characteristics of Culture

Culture is a process full of constant creation and development because it is a temporal process. Qian Mu categorized culture into nomadic culture, agricultural culture, and commercial culture. Although his categories and explanations may not always be scientific or accurate, he was correct in one point, i.e., culture changes with the time and the development of the society. Nomadic, agricultural and industrial societies each developed their corresponding cultures. We are now entering the information era, and therefore, culture will also enter a new era. Those changes have occurred while human beings conduct spiritual activities and practical activities. On the one hand, human activities are the moving forces and origins for the evolution of culture; on the other hand, the evolution of culture or creation of culture takes place on the foundation of the existing culture or traditional culture. A new culture cannot be separated from the traditional culture and be created from nothing. New culture can advance and transfer what is useful in the old culture and discard what is not, but it simply cannot depart from the foundation of the old culture. It is very much like the new life of any biological object. The object leaves the body of the mother and it might not look like the mother, yet it carries the genetic elements of the mother. Because human spiritual and practical activities are conducted in the existing cultural environment, humans cannot live in a vacuum without culture, and a new culture cannot be created in that vacuum. Culture has the characteristics of inheritance and change, and that is why we are so enthusiastic about the study of culture. Culture has the characteristics of nationality. Culture is always created by a nationality or race, and the uniqueness of a nationality and race is usually represented in its culture. This is what Liang Suming meant by “the life style of a nation.”9 Therefore, cultural tradition and national cultural tradition can be regarded as synonyms. Different nationalities have created different cultures because they are in different historical stages, their natural and social conditions are not the same, and their knowledge and understanding of various phenomena in the nature and society differ. In ancient society, there were five major civilizations: Egyptian, Indian, Babylon Greek, and Chinese. Over thousands of years, certain civilizations fell due to historical changes, wars, and other reasons. The Greek 9 Liang Suming, “Cultures of the East and the West and Their Philosophies,” In Modern Chinese Academic Classics, Volume of Liang Suming, (Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1996), 33.



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c­ ivilization became the origin of Western cultures, while the Chinese civilization in the East has continued until today. As nations and countries appeared, national characteristics have become increasingly distinct. In a class society, due to the existence of social classes and stratums, the culture of that nationality cannot be unitary within a nation. Lenin believed that in every national culture there were two cultures. He said that inside the culture of each nationality there are certain cultural elements of democracy and socialism, although they might not be well developed. That is because in every nationality there are working masses and the exploited masses, and from their living conditions thoughts of socialism and communism will inevitably emerge. However, in every nationality there is capitalist culture (in most nationalities there are also sinister and ultramontane cultures), and that cannot be regarded as ‘elements,’ rather, it is indeed a dominant culture.10

Within a particular national culture, there are different cultural elements, and so therefore, each national culture has unique aspects. Therefore, inside a national culture there are mainstream culture and subcultures, and in multi-nationality countries there are multiple cultures. However, even accounting for these different cultures, there still remains a mainstream culture that represents the entire culture of a nationality or nation. Culture is characterized by its relationships to time and nationality. As time moves forward, so must culture and so we can call this the changing nature of culture. Culture is dynamic; it needs to change as the economy, politics, science and technology in the society evolve, so that the demand of the time can be met. Due to this changing nature, culture can advance constantly and move forward with time. If a national culture cannot maintain its pace with time, it will weaken or even disappear. Certain civilizations among the five major ancient civilizations disappeared because of external invasions or incapability to keep up with the time, and eventually they were replaced by other cultures. Culture also involves stability and continuity, which is why it is also characterized with nationality. This relative solidification demonstrates that it would not be easy to change a culture because it is due to the stability and continuity that national cultural traditions take shape. However, change is absolute, and stability is relative. Only by changing as time changes can national culture maintain its vitality and culture maintain its characteristics.

10 Central Compilation & Translation Bureau, Complete Works of Lenin, First Edition, (Beijing, The People’s Press, 1958), 6.

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There are two kinds of changes in culture: gradual and sudden. Gradual changes of culture usually take place from within. They might be caused by the changes in lifestyles due to the improvement of productivity, or due to the absorption of cultural elements of other cultures in the process of trading. Sudden changes usually occur with dramatic historical shifts in society. Examples of this type of sudden change include: the Renaissance in Europe that overthrew the religious culture of the Middle Ages, restored ancient civilizations, and prepared for industrial culture; the War for Independence in the United States that reversed certain European cultural traditions, and gradually developed American culture; and the New Democratic Revolution in China that overturned the semi-feudal and semi-colonial cultural traditions, and began the process of developing a new socialist culture. However, none of those changes completely abandoned the traditions of the previous national culture. American culture still shares aspects of continuity with European cultures, and the new socialist culture in China still maintains Chinese cultural traditions. Therefore, national culture has a certain level of solidification. Sometimes certain cultural elements which seem to have disappeared amidst dramatic social changes may come back to life when conditions become appropriate. For example, the Eastern Orthodox Church seemed to be disappeared after the October Revolution, after the fall of the Soviet Union; however, it was soon revived. In the long process of history, cultural changes take place at a gradual pace. Some of these changes take place through trade and other interactions among different cultural groups, and some happen through wars between nations. These changes also reflect conflict and integration between different cultures. Through trade with Europe on the Silk Road, China introduced the “Four Inventions”11 to Europe, and in turn, took back elements from European civilizations. The many wars in ancient Europe also helped spread Roman culture to the rest of that continent. The motivating forces for changes in national culture can come from external pressures as well as internal reasons. For instance, the ancient Egyptian civilization ceased to exist due to the Roman invasion. In the mid-seventh century, Egypt was conquered by the Muslims, and Muslim culture in Egypt was developed over time. In that process, however, advanced scientific and technological knowledge as well as magnificent literature and arts have been passed down, and they are still treasures

11 The Four Inventions are: the compass, gunpowder, paper-making and printing of ancient China.



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of human heritage. In China, the spread of Western learning to the East was not a gradual process; it happened quite suddenly with the advent of the Opium Wars with England. Prior to the Opium War, China absorbed elements of other cultures, yet the scope was small, and the nature of Chinese culture was not touched. After the Opium War, the Westernization Movement,12 Constitution reform and modernization all had to face the challenges of western cultures, which therefore led to severe conflicts between Chinese and western cultures. In those conflicts, no matter what approach was adopted—the strategy of using Chinese learning as the base and Western learning for application or using foreign knowledge in order to surpass foreign countries—transformation of Chinese culture was unavoidable. Other motivating forces for cultural change comes from within, which are usually the changes caused by the need of a national culture to maintain its synchroncity with the forward movement of time. For instance, the original written language in ancient Egyptian was cunei­ form. Because of the advancement of science and technology and the needs in life and production, this form of writing was gradually replaced by a phonetic language, and that change furthered the progress of Egyptian culture. The development of human society from nomadic culture to the present industrial culture and information culture was also due to the motivating forces within cultures. The changes in modern Chinese culture have also been the results of the constant internal pressure. Although those changes might have been compelled by external foreign powers, they took place mainly to meet China’s own demand to pursue modernization. From this example, a conclusion can be drawn that changes of a national culture are always based on internal forces even though the conditions are provided by external forces. The characteristics of culture evolving with time are a commonality among all human cultures, and the national characteristics of culture reflect the uniqueness of individual cultures. Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan note: To the final analysis, the time character and the nationality character of a culture are the relationship between generalization and particularity. Different cultures in the same age share the commonalities of that age, that is generalization; and the cultures of different nationalities in the same age have their uniqueness respectively, and that is particularity. A nationality 12 The Westernization Movement was initiated mainly by Qing bureaucrats in the latter half of the nineteenth century to introduce the techniques of capitalist production for the purpose of propping up the tottering Qing government.

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chapter one in a given age has its common culture to reflect a common psychological condition, that is generalization; and a nationality in a given age has two cultures to represent different psychological conditions of different classes and different political parties, and that is particularity.13

Against the background of globalization of the economy, internationalization of information, and increasingly intensive international exchange of personnel, international and national conflicts among cultures will surely occur. On the one hand, cultures of different nationalities integrate with and influence each other; on other hand, every nationality tries to maintain the uniqueness of its culture and prevent the dilution effects of integrating with other cultures. Smaller and weaker nationalities are particularly vulnerable to the influence of strong cultures. Through the spaces provided by the globalization of the economy, certain mighty powers spare no effort to promote cultural hegemony, forcing others to accept their values while portraying western lifestyles as being the most advanced. This type of cultural hegemony has not only been strongly resisted by the cultures of various nationalities, but it has also been detrimental to real internationalization. The internationalization of cultures should not entail the replacement of all other cultures with one culture; rather, it should facilitate the interactions and learning among all cultures, so that each individual culture can continue to prosper and develop further. The culture of each nationality has its own strength and weakness, and all cultures should learn from the strengths of others to enrich their own cultures, so that the world culture becomes luxuriant and colorful. Today, the stronger a national culture becomes, the more international it becomes. That means that each person lives in his or her culture, yet the person would want to learn about other cultures. For example, when foreign friends come to China, they would want to see the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, and the Terracotta Soldiers and Horses because they are special features of Chinese culture, whereas the World Park is not. Certainly the unique features of a national culture are understood within its own context, but they should not be understood as valuable only to that culture. Because of that reason, UNESCO has listed the Pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China as the World Cultural Heritages.

13 Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan, Chinese Culture and Cultural Debates. (Beijing: The Chinese People’s University Press, 1990), 12.



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Inheritance and Evolution of Culture The inheritance and evolution of culture involves a complicated process. There are three theories on the inheritance and evolution of culture: the theory of evolution, the theory of spreading, and the theory of ­embodiment. The theory of cultural evolution posits that the development of culture is through gradual accumulation and constant development from simple to complex, and from lower levels to higher levels. This theory emphasizes the time factor in the inheritance and evolution of culture, and it is a general and historic principle for cultural development. The theory of spreading means that culture spreads and develops through the interactions and contacts such as trade, wars, and migration. This theory emphasizes the space factor of the cultural heritage and cultural evolution, and it is a principle for regional development of culture. The theory of embodiment indicates the fact that a culture does not develop on its own. Rather, it interacts with other cultures; through conflicts and integration, changes occur in both parties and with conscious or subconscious selection and adjustment, a new culture emerges. This is also a general pattern for cultural development. Due to different perspectives on cultural inheritance and evolution, various schools of thoughts appeared. The Evolutionists, represented by Edward Taylor of Great Britain and Lewis Morgan of the United States, stress the consistency of the human nature and how it creates consistency in cultural development. It is also called “Unitary Evolution” (Classic Evolution). In the 1950s, “Neo­Evolutionism,” also named “Multiple Evolutionism,” came into being, and it does not believe in consistency and general patterns in the development of various human cultures. The “Cultural Spreading Theory,” represented by Fredrick Lardier and Frees Gribrunie of Germany, argues for the “Theory of the Cultural Ring.” They regard the ring of culture as a substance, and they believe that the substance is centered at its point of origin and spreads to the other parts of the world. It seems that this school of thought has overemphasized the transformation of culture over the space. The Sociologists, represented by Emile Durkheim and Marce Mauss of France, indicate that the roots for the origination of human cultures lie within society and social environment. Culture is the society’s collective perspective, and therefore, to study culture, the sociological methodology of concrete evidence should be applied.

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The Historians, represented by Franz Bolls of the United States, stress the historic and dynamic research on cultures. They argue for the independence of culture; i.e., every culture is impacted by biological, geographical, historical, and economic forces that are all critical but not soley independent elements for the development of the culture, and therefore, the development of human cultures does not have any pattern to follow. The “Cultural Relativity” or “Theory of Values” position regards all national cultures as equal in values, and does not believe that there are absolute assessment criteria that can be applied to all societies. The Functionalists, represented by Bronislaw Malinowski of Great Britain, see culture as a complete entity that is composed with different components, and each component plays its unique roles and has its ­functions. In addition to those listed above, there are other theories of culture including Structuralism and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis and cultural psychology.14 All those schools of thought develop various perspectives,on culture, but the general pattern is that all cultures inherit and develop with the process of evolution, spread, and embodiment. Even so, various cultures experience different development processes and have their own experiences of evolution and uniqueness. The above theories have affected people’s knowledge of education and their understanding of the relationship between education and culture. Fundamental Links in Cultural Development As complex as it is, the development of culture includes the four processes: transferring, selecting, finding, and making. Transferring is the extension of the existing cultural products with time and space, so that the culture is maintained in the future and its influence spreads in different regions. Vertical transfer through time is the most direct way to shape the traditions of a national culture, and horizontal transfer through cultural interactions and exchange among different cultures and regions enriches all national cultures. Transfer itself is not creation, yet the process of transfer is not rigid, mechanical movement either. The content of the transfer is certainly affected by the subject of the transfer and the environment, and certain content might be added or 14 Shanghai Classics Publishing House (ed.), Three Hundred Themes of Chinese Cultural History, (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1987).



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lost in the process. Transfer can also be categorized in the following ways: the subject of the host culture takes the initiative to spread outwards, and the subject of the guest culture takes it and spreads it to its own regions. The expansion of Christian culture, for example, was through the ­initiative of Christian missionaries (the subject of a host culture) with the goal of spreading the religion to all parts of the world. The four inventions of China and techniques such as pottery and raising Chinese silkworms were introduced to Europe through two approaches; some were taken by Chinese businessmen (the subject of a host culture), and some were taken by European businessmen (the subject of a guest culture). No matter what approach is taken, the transfer of culture is always related to the selection of culture. Selecting is process through which the subject of a culture emphasizes or adds certain elements, demotes or abandons certain other elements according to the demand of the time or its own needs in the process of transferring the existing culture or absorbing elements form a different culture. Transfer and selection are inseparable because the process of transferring certainly involves selection. For example, Confucian teaching differs greatly from its original source since the selection by Dong ­Zhongshu15 and explanations of Zhu Xi.16 In another example, the discussions among Chinese politicians and scholars during the period when Western learning was spread to the East demonstrate the process of selection. At the present time, we are making efforts to enhance the fine cultural traditions of China, and this indeed is a selection process of the national cultural traditions; as it is said we are “discarding the dross and assimilating the essence,” so that the splendid parts can be further developed. The selection of culture is always restricted by the political and economic conditions of a given time. Beyond material products of the culture, cultural forms such as systems and ideology that belong to the superstructure of the society are certainly conditioned by the economic base. The ruling class of a given time would also select the system and ideology beneficial to the consolidation of its governance. Those elements that fit the needs of the ruling class would be maintained and even enhanced, and those do not would be abandoned. The incident of burning books and the ­burying

15 Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC), formerly translated as Tung Chung-shu, was a Chinese philosopher of the Western Han Dynasty. 16 Zhu Xi (1130–1200), formerly translated as Chu His, was a philosopher and scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty.

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alive of Confucian scholars by the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty17 and the stipulation of sole respect to the Confucian teaching by Dong Zhongshu were all selections of culture; the compilation of the Complete Library of Four Branches of Literature compiled between 1772 and 1782 at the order of Emperor Qianlong18 also involved a great deal of selection. Even the material forms of a culture face the issues of selection. Due to the advancement of productivity of different times, people have various demands on material products, and they so they will select and eliminate among the original products. There are two kinds of cultural selections. One is the selection of one’s own cultural elements, and this involves critical inheritance and development. The other is the selection of elements of other cultures, and this involves introduction and integration. There are also two approaches for selection. One is a top-down approach in which the ruling group issues orders to prohibit or advocate for promoting certain cultural elements, such as the policy of utilizing every Chinese element adopted by the Mongols and Manchurians after they entered China proper. The other approach is a bottom-up process in which cultural elements spread among the people, then gradually affect the upper classes, ending with the eventual acceptance by the whole society. For example, when the Western learning was spreading to the East, missionaries began to introduce Western cultural elements among the people, and that introduction gradually entered the Imperial Court. It can be said that if there is no selection, there is no spread and development of a culture. Finding is the process of discovering and utilizing existing yet ignored cultural elements. Finding includes two categories. The first is organized through time; the ways in which cultural elements from the past are brought into the present. For example, the School of Classics of the Han Dynasty became a field of study in Ancient China because a large collection of literature and other materials of the Periods of Spring and Autumn and Warring States were found inside the walls of Confucius residence. Archaeological excavation is also the process of discovery of cultures. Many fields of studies today, including the Dunhuang Studies,19

17 The First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, sometimes translated as Qin Shi Huangdi, was Ying Zheng (259–210 BC) who unified China for the first time in history. 18 Emperor Qianlong (1711–1799), formerly translated as Emperor Ch’ien Lung, was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty. His reign was from to 1736 to 1795. 19 Dunhuang is a place in Gansu Province in west China where there are grottoes which contain Buddhist status, frescoes, and scriptures dating back to 366 AD. The Dunhuang Studies usually focus on Buddhism and cultural and social changes evidenced with those in the graottoes.



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the ­Studies of Dreams in Red Mansions,20 and Lu Xun Studies,21 are examples of finding culture. These discoveries can enable the culture to shine with dazzling splendor and develop further. The Renaissance in Europe was also originated from excavation of ancient Greek culture, and which eventually formed the foundation of the ideological and cultural traditions of European bourgeoisie. The other category of cultural finding is organized in terms of space, i.e., the finding and absorption of elements of other cultures. There are two possibilities here: the active search and incorporation of new elements or the passive acceptance of the new elements. An example of the former is spread of Buddhism to the East and its absorption by China while an example of the latter is the Western cannons and ships that made the Chinese realize the advanced level of Western cultures at that time. Cultural finding is a process that is related to cultural selection. Creation is the process of establishing a new culture and it is the highest level of cultural development. It includes both original creation and recreation upon a particular cultural foundation. For both original creation and re-creation, the foundation is the previous culture. The subject of the creation lives in a certain cultural environment, and it cannot make a new culture in a cultural vacuum and without the original cultural foundation. After the October Revolution, Lenin criticized the Proletariat Culturists who attempted to deny the necessity of drawing upon the previous cultural heritage when the proletariats created and built a socialist culture. He said that Marxism as a revolutionary proletariat system of thoughts has historic significance in the world because it did not discard the most valuable accomplishments of the bourgeois era. Rather, it absorbed and transformed everything valuable from the ideological and cultural development of human beings during the more than 2,000 years.22

In the case of China, Chinese culture was created and its foundation laid during the pre-Qin era. According to archeological evidence, as early as 7000 to 2300 BC multiple cultural groups such as Huaxia, East Yi, and Southern Man appeared, and they created relatively advanced material civilizations with rich cultures and thoughts. During the Zhou Dynasty, patriarchal clan system and norms of etiquette were established, and 20 Dreams in Red Mansions, also called The Stories of the Stone, is a novel written by Cao Xueqin and published in the early Qing Dynasty in about 1790. 21  Lu Xun, formerly translated as Lu Hsun, pen name for Zhou Shuren (1881–1936), was a Chinese writer, thinker, and revolutionary. 22 Lenin, Complete Works, 283.

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lasted for thousands of years in China. During the periods of Spring and Autumn and Warring States, various schools of thought and their proponents flourished, so there was much contention over many philosophical and social issues. These debates symbolized a splendid creation period for Chinese culture, and they helped set the general direction for Chinese culture. From the evolution of Chinese culture, it can be seen that the formation of a national culture requires creative work. Of course, creation is needed not only in the period of laying the foundation for the culture, but also in the process of further development. The Chinese nation has many ethnicities and cultures. Chinese culture is developed through the process of constant absorption and integration of the outstanding elements of various ethnic groups and cultures. A Chinese folk music orchestra includes instruments of different nationalities; and the Qipao, a popular traditional dress for Chinese women, was the original outfit for Manchurian women. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese culture has integrated many elements of Western cultures due to the influences of those cultures. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the guidance of Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought over Chinese culture has been established, therefore, a new Chinese national culture characterized by scientific socialism has been created through the absorption and transformation of all the valuable cultural accomplishments made by the people of China and across the world. Since the economic reforms and adoption of open-door policies, the new socialist culture with Chinese characteristics has become even more splendid. To summarize, creation is always the most important link in the development of national cultures. If transfer and selection are two processes of maintaining culture, then finding and creation are the processes of producing culture. The four processes are essential to the development of a culture, although they do not take place in any certain order and they may overlap with each other. Content and Composition of Culture The content of culture is rich and complex. Every culture is composed of science, arts, religions, morality, laws, academic learning, thoughts, customs, habits, and systems. The composition of culture can be defined in several ways. Two of the definitions are as follows: culture is formed through the interaction of two spheres i.e., spiritual culture and material culture, or mentality and material substance, or explicit and implicit strands; culture is formed through the interaction of three spheres, i.e., culture is composed of materials, spirit and system, or materials, mentality and relationships. The material culture is what is created in the ­process



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of human practical activities of producing materials for life—it is the accomplishment of human efforts to conquer nature. The relational culture refers to the social relationships humans develop or are involved with in the process of creation, e.g., production relations, trade relations, relations between the public and the private, international relations, racial relations, and power relations. The mentality culture refers to social cultural psychology, historic cultural traditions, national cultural characteristics, philosophical thoughts, conceptual theories, cultural ideals, literature and arts, religious beliefs, and ethical norms that have taken shape over a long period of time.23 Another definition of culture includes a fourth tier of composition: the tier of material culture, the tier of system culture, the tier of behavioral culture, and the tier of psychological culture.24 Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan took the three-way approach. They write: to us, culture is composed of three tiers. The first includes thoughts, ideology, and mentality. Among those the most important are two aspects, i.e., values and the ways of thinking. The second is the real material objects, i.e., the objects that can demonstrate the culture. They include objects such as publications by philosophers, literature, and artwork, and the materialized objects created through science and technology, i.e., the materials re-made by humans. The third includes system and customs which are regulations and rules generated from the embodiment of thoughts and perspectives.25

Pang Pu also differentiates culture into three tiers: the material tier, the mind tier (psychological tier), and the intermediate tier that integrates both. However, his explanations of the three tiers are different from that of Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan. Pang Pu uses watching movies as an example. He calls the hardware or facilities to show movies as the “material tier” of culture; the ideas and themes of the movies and the management system of movie theaters as another tier of the culture because they are the “integration of the mind and materials”; and the emotions and perspectives with appreciation of aesthetics and value judgment at the third tier, i.e., “the tier of the mind.”26 (Note 4, P28) The four-way approach takes customs and habits out of system culture and assigns them to a new category,

23 Jin Dakai: Chinese Cultural History. Taiwan: The Tunqing Book Publishing House, 1994. 24 Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli, Overview of Chinese Culture. (Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1994), 5–6. 25 Zhang and Cheng, Chinese Culture Debates, 4. 26 Pang Pu, The Nationality and Time Characters of Cultures. (Beijing: The Chinese Peace Press, 1988), 71–72.

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b­ ehavioral ­culture. Culture can also be differentiated into refined and popular culture by making judgements about the quality and components of the culture. I believe that no matter what is included in culture and how the composition of culture is analyzed, one issue deserves special attention, i.e., the humanitarian dimension of culture. Culture is created by humans, and culture produces humans. Humans grow and develop within a particular cultural environment. Therefore, a great deal of emphasis should be placed on the humanitarian spirit of culture; the results of creation without humanitarian spirit should not be regarded as cultural accomplishments, and at most be regarded as “cultural garbage” and “cultural residue.” Examples of these are weapons, gambling devices, and publications that glorify violence and pornography. In the later parts of this chapter, the discussion will focus on the tiers of ideology and perception of culture. It will also touch on system culture, because the ideology and perceptions aspects of culture have the closest relation to education. This is not to say that material culture and system culture are not important and not influential on the development of ­education but rather that because ideological and perceptual culture have the deepest and longest impacts on education and therefore deserve serious study. 2. Education as a Component of Culture Education is an important social and cultural activity of humans. The definition of culture by Zhao Yabo mentioned in earlier is very much like a definition of education. The nature of education is to bring out the potential in people by applying their own capacities, thereby changing their primitive conditions so that they can live in better conditions. Education is an activity that passes to the younger generation not only experiences in life, production but cultural heritages as well. It also promotes their intellectual development so that they change from natural beings into social beings. What education creates are mainly spiritual products that are contained both within the people being prepared and within the knowledge materialized from spiritual products and created by human beings. Education both spreads and creates culture through preparing people, because preparing people is the main task of education. While education spreads and creates culture, it is also dependent on culture. Education is always conducted within a certain cultural environment and is conditioned by all the cultural traditions. For example, ancient



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Chinese education grew out of the ancient feudal culture of China. The long lasting Imperial Examination System in Chinese history took shape in the feudal system and was a component of the feudal culture. Integrating school education and the selection of personnel, this Imperial Examination System impacted Chinese education for as long as 1,300 years. As a component of culture, education is the product of the political and economic development of a certain period, conditioned by the political and economic systems and the level of production, and influenced by a certain culture. Compared with political and economic development, ­culture has even greater and longer-lasting impacts on education. The four basic elements of education—the educators, the receivers of education, the content of education, and the approaches of education—are all under the deep and long impacts of culture. In particular, the impacts of culture in the forms of ideology, perception, and perspectives are integrated into the values of education, perceptions of personnel, perspectives on instruction as well as the relationships between teacher and students. Culture also affects the establishment of educational values, objectives, content and the entire creation of the educational system. Impacts of Culture on Education The impacts of culture on education include several areas. Fundamentally, the orientation of cultural values determines the educational values. For example, the most fundamental orientation of value in American cultural tradition is individualism. This is the result of the evolution of American history. As a country of immigrants, the people in the United States are from all parts of the world. They have to depend on their individual efforts and creativity for their existence and development after they arrive in the United States and therefore, individualism is embedded inside each American and exercises a major influence on American education. The orientation of values in Great Britain is different from that of the U.S.; English national culture values traditions because traditions in Britain have never suffered from sharp criticism or complete abrogation. The British tend to be more conservative, and many ancient traditions and perceptions are still popular in that country even today. Their educational values are also more conservative, and the objective of British education continues to be the maintenance of its aristocratic system. Chinese culture, in contrast, is an ethical culture that seeks the improvement and perfection of personality. Because of that, it has always emphasized that ethical development is the forefront task for Chinese education, including enabling the student

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to become a wise person. Education should enable students to conduct themselves with integrity, treat their parents with filial respect, and eventually be loyal to the country. The policies for cultural affairs and education of a certain country inevitably affect its educational system and conte. Various countries have certain policies for cultural affairs and education at any given time, and those policies usually are conditioned by the political and economic systems of the time. The Meiji Restoration27 in Japan adopted the policy of comprehensive westernization for its cultural affairs and education and led to fundamental changes in its modern education. The Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) the cultural policy of “Sole Advocation of Confucian Teachings” affected the system and content of education in China for more than 2,000 years. As a system culture, the Imperial Examination System also exercised influences on Chinese education for more than 1,300 years. When we discuss the cultural foundations of Chinese education later in this book we will further address those issues. The mode of production and the presentation of cultural products, including material products and spiritual products, have impacts on the content, methods, and organization of education. The emergence and evolution of language has not only affected the development of culture, but also education. School education did not come into being until there was a certain wealth of material products; the creation and popularization of printing techniques enabled the spread and maintenance of ancient classics, and schools began to have textbooks and other printed materials as a result. Classroom instruction, as a way to organize teaching and learning, was also established at the beginning stage of capitalist production. The books written by the philosophers, thinkers and writers of various dynasties are spiritual products of culture, and all those have impacts on the educational perceptions, content and methods. The fast advancement of science and technology in contemporary society has brought about even more changes to the content, methods and approaches in school education. I have indicated before that modern education is a product of modern production, but indeed, modern education is also a product of modern culture.

27 Meiji Restoration took place in Japan between 1868 and 1912.



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Primary Characteristics of Education Education is a component of culture, and therefore it has the same characteristics of a particular culture, i.e., the national character and the time character. Any educational traditions of a nation (or a country) have their own special features, similar to its cultural traditions. They are shaped by that nation’s (or that country’s) political, economic, scientific and technological systems and development levels, suited to the cultural traditions of that nation, and they take shape under the influence of those cultural traditions. In the Preface of National Cultural Tradition and Modernization of Education, I indicated that we have found that the research during the first two phases28 focused more on analysis of the political and economic elements impacting education, and less attention was given to the analysis of the cultural elements impacting education. It is difficult to explain the educational systems and facts in various countries with only political and economic elements in consideration. Even while these are important elements, the analysis failed to reach the root of the matter. For example, the United States, France and Germany are all capitalist countries with developed economies, yet their educational systems and management of educational affairs are quite different—even France and Germany as European nations, differ in their educational practices. In contrast, Eastern countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea that have different social systems display similarities in their education traditions. Why is that? This leads to questions about the relationships between national cultural traditions and the development of education. Educational traditions carry the marks of the national culture which in turn creates special features of national education. Those features cannot be regarded as positive or negative in any simple way, because they are shaped within the political, economic, scientific and technological system and development level of that particular nation and as such, are uniquely situated within its cultural traditions, even while these features would not necessarily suit any other nation or country. That is the national character of education. Education also involves a time character, or rather, its nature is to change. It changes and develops as the time advances. Similar to culture, 28 Author’s note: The first two phases here are referred to the research in comparative education conducted prior to and during the “Seventh Five Year Plans” the “Eighth Five Year Plans” for research of philosophy and social sciences.

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education changes through forces located both outside and internal to the educational system. The external forces are the changes in political and economic systems and advancement of science and technology. Presently, the fast development of science and technology has given rise to ­different educational demands for the new workforce. Education must meet the demands of its present moment through reforms and modernization. The internal forces, which include the advancement of educational ­science and new educational practices, also promote changes in education. The demand for education and the changes in the structure of education due to development also require constant change and improvement. Education is both a component of culture and relatively independent of culture. In fact, other components of culture such as literature, arts, and architecture all enjoy relative independence, and education is no exception. The objects of education are human beings, especially young people. Human growth and development follows certain patterns, particularly in childhood and adolescence. Education is not only shaped by politics, the economy and culture; it also needs to follow the patterns of childhood development and youth development. Working against those patterns would result in depressed human potentials and ruined human talents. Therefore, education not only needs to be characterized by the culture in which it is embedded, but it also needs to be scientific. That is why certain scholars regard education as an art as well as a field of science. Although some scholars say that pedagogy rather than education is a science, they are actually referring to the divisions of academic disciplines. I indicate that education is science is in order to emphasize that education must follow the scientific patterns of human development. Science is characterized with general applications. This method of general applications is in conflict with the character of nation, yet the two can also be integrated. Education is a science, and therefore it is also characterized with general applications. It is because of that character that there are similarities in education among different countries and nationalities. These similarities provide common ground so that they can learn from each other, serve as references for each other, and so that certain systems, content and methods can even be transplanted. The modern education system in China was transplanted from Western countries. Japan and South Korea also transplanted their systems from Western countries. It is an inarguable fact that those systems did not emerge from their own countries. Certainly, this kind of transplant requires comprehensive considerations of the cultural traditions and educational traditions of the country where the transplant occurs. And once transplanted, the system grows out of the soil of the



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culture of is adopted country, and therefore it will have the features of national education once the transplant succeeds. At that time, the character of science and character of nationality are integrated into one unity. Modern education is also characterized by its international aspects. Modern education is an international phenomenon, and it presents intellectual and scientific achievements of other nations while also offering avenues of collaboration and discussion. With the advancement of science and technology, the contacts at the international level have become increasingly convenient; the Internet has enabled information exchange to be increasingly fast and easy. The world is becoming smaller and smaller. A measure taken in the education reforms in a certain country can be quickly known throughout the world. Large numbers of overseas students, experts and advisors working in countries other than their own, international conferences held in different parts of the world, correspondence between scholars, and material exchange, all promote international exchange in cultural affairs and education, and in doing so, they further the efforts of internationalization of education. The international character of education is also a manifestation of the time character of education, which is not in conflict with the national character of education. The international character does not exclude the national character; rather, because of the national character of education, there is a need for international exchange. Currently, some people are advocating for the integration of Chinese education with education of other countries. That would lead to the conflict with the national character. There is no unified education system in the world, and there is no single way for education. There is only education in various countries and different nations, and there is no way to integrate Chinese education with education of other countries. Due to the increasing level of internationalization of education and ever growing numbers of international students, there is a growing recognition of the need to standardize educational levels and academic degrees among countries. However this process would also would require international contracts or bilateral agreements. One point to note is that between national cultural traditions and ­modernization of education, there are elements of mutual conflict and opposition, as well as interdependence and mutual promotion. National cultural traditions composed of particular high quality elements of the culture through the accumulations of time and history, but they still wield major influences on the present. They contain much old content, especially in the area of traditional culture. When a cultural tradition took shape, it was a new culture and represented the direction of the ­development of

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the culture, yet to a modern society, it is an old culture. Although its content constantly develops and adds new elements, there is still a great deal of old content. It is certain that some old cultural traditions are good and some are bad, and for that reason, cultural traditions must be discerned, selected and transformed in the process of modernizing education. The interdependence and mutual promotion between national cultural traditions and the modernization of education manifest in two ways: first, cultural traditions are the foundation and premise of modernization of education as we have discussed in detail earlier in this book; and second, national cultural traditions, as the special features of a nation, hold an essence that reflects the characters of the nation and the people, represents the directions for national development and human advancement, and promotes modernization of education. 3. Cultural Functions of Education Education is under the deep and long lasting influence of culture, and culture is dependent on education to be disseminated to younger generations. Although the spread of culture depends on other spheres as well, education is the main place where culture can be inherited and developed. This is particularly true for cultures that have rich and ancient written archives; obviously, the inheritance and perpetuation of these cultures depend on the literacy and scientific education that schools provide to the young people. In general, the cultural functions of education are embodied in the processes for cultural development; education has a critical function in selection, spread, and creation of culture. The ruling group at any particular historical moment must conduct a process of elimination and retention of the existing cultural products based on the needs of the time, the society, and the understanding of the culture. Elimination and retention usually are conducted through education. It has been discussed earlier in this book that culture develops as time moves forward, and this development includes not only creation, but also elimination and retention. At the level of systems and perceptions, culture belongs to the superstructure which is conditioned by the economic basis. When the production mode changes, the superstructure also changes. The ruling class of every historical period will select the system and perceptions beneficial to the enhancement of its governance by retaining and building on the cultural elements that meet its needs and eliminating those do not fit. For example, the First Emperor of the Qin



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Dynasty burned books and buried Confucian scholars and Dong Zhongshu banished other schools of thought and established sole worship of Confucianism. The former took administrative actions to make cultural selection which resulted in damaging the culture, while the latter took both administrative actions and education measures by limiting the content of education to Confucian teachings for as long as more than 2,000 years. Selection also exists in material culture. This process of selection occurs through natural choices of maintaining high quality material products and eliminating the deficient ones in social life, or through educational measures by introducing advanced productive techniques and knowledge and criticizing and discarding the old. It has been mentioned earlier in this chapter that there are two types of cultural selection, the selection of one’s own culture elements, and the selection of the elements of other cultures. Our education should advance our own fine cultural traditions and also absorb all the worthy cultural traditions in the world. This requires serous analysis of our own cultural traditions and those of other countries in order to discard what is not valuable and keep the essence, which is at the center of making careful selections. In termso of our own national culture, we oppose the nihilist perspective that holds that traditional Chinese cultural is feudal culture, and nothing should be inherited from that; and we also oppose the doctrine of “back to the ancients” that believes in the necessity of governing the country by using approaches described in the Analects of Confucius. We believe that there is both excellent essence and feudal dross in Chinese national cultural traditions. The only approach we can take is to follow the demand of the time, eliminate the false and retain the true, discard the dross and retain the refined, so as to establish modern values and fulfill the purpose of selection. Material culture, including architecture, fashion, and artistic decorations are all developed through selection processes. Only through constant selection can the excellent culture of the Chinese nation be enhanced. For cultures from other countries, we oppose the closed-door attitude that regards any culture from other countries as unfitting to the conditions of China and stops it at our country’s doorway. We also oppose the perspective of complete westernization that regards Western countries as the only source of advanced cultures and intends to import these cultures to take over Chinese culture. We believe that any culture includes essence and dross, and that particular contents of that culture would only be fitting for that nation but not any other nation. Therefore, we must undergo a selection process for other cultures which may be brought into our own. Cultural selection is especially

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important to the weaker nations, because their own cultures would be eroded and face the danger of being lost if the stronger cultures from outside are not carefully selected. Education plays an extremely important role in absorbing cultures from the outside. Education is an important approach for spreading culture, and the main task for school education is to pass on the materialized knowledge retained in older and ancient sources. School education should also pass on values and behavior norms through various policies and regulations inside the school and as as through the role models of teachers so that national culture can be inherited generation by generation. If vertical transmission is the approach for passing on our own national culture, international exchange and exchange of students with other countries can be called horizontal transmission. Spreading culture through education cannot take place without selection. In the process of spreading culture through education, selection must occur. The subjects of spreading culture, including governments and teachers, usually emphasize and add certain content and criticize and discard certain other content, according to the demand of the time and their own needs. When the government develops plans for instruction and syllabi for teaching, or creates curriculum standards and compiles nationally unified textbooks, it is making cultural selections with the purpose to select appropriate cultural content of education according to the requirements of the objectives of education and the developmental needs of children. The selected aspects of culture passed on through education is not culture in the original sense, and that enables education to play the role of creating culture. For example, the Confucian teaching defined and explained by Dong Zhongshu and Zhu Xi is not the original Confucianism any longer. The classics in the ancient Chinese language and in the modern Chinese language all involve different explanation of the Confucian teaching, and those explanations are actually a selection of the Confucian culture, and so therefore, they are a creation of culture. The Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song (960–1279) and Ming (1368–1644) Dynasties integrated the concept of Buddhist Chan or Zen with Confucianism, thus making more creative contributions to the Confucian culture. Education plays a significant role in creating culture. The tasks of the school include fostering competent personnel and creating knowledge. In the process of preparing competent personnel, activities such as academic discussions and scientific research can help create new knowledge and



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new ways of thinking, and therefore enrich and further develop human culture. The Shuyuan in ancient China and universities in Europe in the Middle Age all played invauable roles in the history of human ­civilization.29 Modern institutions are the origins of knowledge, because many kinds of scientific and technological innovations first emerged in laboratories in schools. Institutions have prepared large numbers of innovative and creative personnel who have continuously created new material and spiritual civilization for the society.

29 Shuyuan, institutions for classic learning in ancient China.

Chapter Two

Chinese Culture and Its Characteristics 1. Formation and Evolution of Chinese Culture China is an ancient civilization with a long history and long established culture. It is impossible give a full picture of the development of Chinese culture in a short chapter of this book. However, a short discussion is necessary so that we can explain the formation of Chinese education traditions. Therefore, this chapter presents my reflections upon reading and studying the material below. China is a country with multiple nationalities each of which has its own cultural traditions; therefore, Chinese cultural traditions form a large system that contains the cultures of many nationalities. The formation of this system is the result of conflicts, interactions, and integrations among various nationalities during the last thousands of years. The Han1 culture has been in a dominant position in this system. Many contemporary scholars have studied the history of Chinese culture. In his book On Major Trends of Intellectual Thoughts in China, Liang Qichao divides the ­development stages of Chinese intellectual thoughts in history: the embryo stage, between the Yellow Emperor2 to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC–476 BC); the zenith stage, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Pre-Qin time (prior to 221 BC); the stage of unified Confucianism; the stage of Laoxue; the stage of Buddhism; and the stage of contemporary time from the end of Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) to the present. This division of stages includes the horizontal periods and the vertical crossing of intellectual thoughts. Two books published recently have created different stage divisions. The Outlines for Chinese Cultural History edited by Wu Xiaoru adopted the conventional three stages: the ancient time, the middle ancient time from the third century to the ninth century, and recent antiquity from the tenth century to the middle of the nineteenth ­century,

1  Han is the majority nationality of China. The Hans now make up more than 90% of the country’s population. 2 The Yellow Emperor, or Huangdi, was a legendary ruler and ancestor of the Chinese nation.

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or from the Song Dynasty (960–1279) to the Opium War,3 He argues that the ancient time period covers the long history before Qin and Han Dynasties when Chinese culture emerged and its foundations were laid. During the middle ancient time, two major cultural phenomena occurred. One was the further development of the scholar-official culture, and the other was the interactions and integrations among different nationalities. Recent antiquity covers the Song (960–1279), Yuan (1279–1368), Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties when Chinese culture was in transition.4 The Introduction of Chinese Culture compiled by Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli does not include a general division of development stages. Rather, it describes nine historic courses: 1.) the Ancient Time, emergence of Chinese culture; 2.) Yin,5 Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties, the Godorientation transferred to human-orientation; 3.) the Period of Spring and Autumn and the Period of Warring States, the “Axis Era” of Chinese culture; 4.) the Qinand Han Dynasties, a unified empire and an integrated culture; 5.) the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, multiple directions for the development culture in a chaotic time; 6.) Sui and Tang Dynasties, a prosperous time for the culture; 7.) the Southern Song and Northern song Dynasties, reflections on the culture and refining of the culture leading to the thriving of small town cultures; 8.) the Liao, Xia, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the conflicts and integration of nomadic culture and agricultural culture; and 9.) Ming and Qing Dynasties, accumulations and innovations.6 Both books end the division of periods of cultural development before the occurrence of Western learning spreading to the East and do not mention the development and evolution of the culture in contemporary and modern times. In other words, they only focus ancient Chinese culture and therefore, they fail to cover the entire development process of Chinese national culture. Although the contemporary and modern culture differs substantially from the traditional culture, it is a component of Chinese culture, and it has had great impacts on Chinese education. Chinese contemporary and modern culture must be included in the discussion on the cultural foundations of Chinese ­education. ­Therefore, I offer 3 The First Opium War was due to British aggression against China between 1840 and 1842. The Second Opium War was launched by Britain and France against China between 1856 and 1860. 4 Wu Xiaoru, Outlines of Chinese Cultural History (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2001). 5 For the dynasties indicated in this part of the text, see A Brief Chronology of Chinese History attached to the book. 6 Zhang and Fang, Overview of Chinese Culture.



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the ­following brief descriptions of the formation and evolution of Chinese culture based my study of this theme. The Emergence and Beginning of the Huaxia Culture Archeological evidence indicates that three large cultural groups of Huaxia, Dongyi, and Nanman emerged as early as 7000 BC to 2300 BC in our country. In the vast areas at the border region of today’s Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi Provinces and along the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River appeared the Yangshao Culture; along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and on the central plain of today’s Shandong, Henan, and Jiangsu Provinces emerged the Longshan Culture. More recent evidence verifies the existence of the Liangzhu Culture in today’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces and the Sanxingdui relic unearthed near Chengdu several years ago indicates that the Bashu Culture 3,000 years ago had close ties with the culture in the central plain region. The recent archaeological discoveries in Southern and Northern China have dated the history of Chinese culture earlier by several thousand years. As early as 7,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Chinese nation created splendid cultures on the land of China. The inscriptions on bones, tortoise shells and other relics discovered at the Yin Ruins (ruins of the capital city of the late Shang Dynasty near Xiaotun Village, Anyang City, Henan Province) indicate that a relatively high level material civilization with relatively rich cultural thoughts was formed during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. At the beginning of Huaxia the culture was one with clan systems. Evidence also shows that the Yangshao Culture existed at the time of matrilineal commune with the clan system, and the Longshan Culture existed at the time of patrilineal clan commune. Materially, primitive cultures were characterized with the making and utilization of stone, wood, bone and pottery objects; spiritually they were characterized by primitive religious ancestor and totem worship evidenced by totem drawings such as the dragon and phoenix by Chinese ancestors. The Establishment of the Patriarchal Clan System of the Zhou Dynasty The cultural evolution of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties was the first major change in Chinese cultural history. Introductions of Chinese Culture and Outlines of Chinese Cultural History both regard this period as a time of transition from God-orientation to human-orientation. As for the social system, this period witnessed the gradual move from the primitive clan commune society to a society with patriarchal clan system characterized

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by systems of nobility and slavery. By the Zhou Dynasty, the government based on the patriarchal clan system had taken its initial shape. As the Classic of Poetry indicates, “the Zhou remained the same as a country, yet it was missioned to reform.” The reforms in the Zhou Dynasty were mainly in the establishment of the patriarchal clan system. The core of that system dictated that the oldest son would take over power, and the other sons were inherited hereditary titles and territories. The maintainance of that system required a complete set of protocol, including sacrifice offerings to coordinate interpersonal relations. A system of etiquette, or, the Confucian ethical code, was created. This system of etiquette was inherited and further developed by the Confucians in later years, affecting Chinese culture for thousands of years. The Conflict among Numerous Schools of Thought in the Period of Spring and Autumn and the Period of the Warring States During this period, China transitioned from wood farming tools to metal farming tools in its agricultural production. In terms of the political system, the patriarchal clan system that combined the royal family and the state power collapsed and the systems of management by the county and centralized monarchy dictatorship were gradually established. Rival principalities had torn the feudal state apart, and the country was in a divided condition. In terms of the economy, the Jingtian System7 was changed to a land system of individual private ownership. In terms of academic affairs, various schools of thought emerged in large numbers like trees in a forest. Sima Tan, a historian of the beginning period of Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–25 AD), categorizes six schools of thoughts: the School of Yin and Yang, Confucianism, Mohism, School of Logicians, School of Legalists, and Taoism. Liu Xin of the late Western Han Dynasty listed ten schools of thought: Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, School of Logicians, School of Legalists, the School of Yin and Yang, the School of Agriculturalists, School of Political Strategists, School of Eclecticism, and School of Novelists. Actually, the major schools of thought were: Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, and the School of Yin and Yang. Why is there a difference between these historians’ categories about the schools of thought

7 The Jingtian System, also called the nine-square system. It was a land ownership system in the slave society in China with one large square of land divided into nine small ones like the Chinese character 井. The eight outer ones were allocated to slave families who had to cultivate the central square for the slave owner.



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during the Period of the Spring and Autumn and the Period of the Warring States? The answer to this lies both within the transformation of the society and political system at the time and in the accumulation of the internal forces within the academic fields. Many historians have ­examined this question. Liang Qichao names seven reasons for the contention of the schools of thoughts: abandoned accumulation of intellectual thoughts; social change and the collapse of the patriarchal clan system that resulted in “schools controlled by the nobles and officials being scattered to the circle of the ordinary people”; freedom of speech and thinking due to the fact that “the Zhou Dynasty could not govern the country any longer, the power became scattered, traveling scholars all claimed that their approaches could help establish power, and they would leave a place to serve others if their ideas were not accepted”; more accessible transportation; the attention to talents; the simplified written language; and the popularity of teaching and learning among scholars and their students.8 The contention of various schools of thought eventually led to learning from each other, complementing each other, and further advancement of intellectual thoughts. As Liang Qichao noted: When the different schools of thoughts first appeared, they all had their ideas and refused to have any mixture with others; later, they began to debate among themselves exercise influence on each other, and that usually helped them find conflicts in the ideas of each individual school, and that was the time they started to learn from other schools to make their own more comprehensive.

As a magnificent time for Chinese culture, the contention of various schools of thought in the Period of the Spring and Autumn and the Period of the Warring States dramatically advanced Chinese culture, and the general direction for the development of Chinese culture began to take shape. The Establishment of Confucianism as the Mainstream Culture After many years of warfare, Emperor Ying Zheng (250–210 BC) of the Qin Kingdom finally unified China. Along with political reforms, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty issued a series of policies for cultural affairs, and throughout the country, a unified language, currency, and system for measurement of length, weight, and height were applied. Meanwhile, a 8 Ling Qichao, “On the Trends of Changes in Chinese Intellectual Thoughts,” in Modern Chinese Academic Classics, Volume of Liang Qichao, (Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1996), 51.

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cultural dictatorship was implemented. The First Emperor of Qin Dynasty adopted the recommendation by Li Si9 about “burning any documentation not recorded by the Qin.” The First Emperor therefore ordered the burning of books and the prohibition of private conversations. More than 460 scholars were buried alive due to violation of the orders. This is the shocking incident of burning books and the burying of Confucian scholars alive. The tyrannical ruling of the Qin regime led to its self-destruction soon after its establishment. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the new rulers learned from the fall of the Qin Dynasty, and implemented policies of more freedom in order to allow the people to take a breath. Different schools of thoughts showed signs of reinvigoration. However, the political unity of the Han Dynasty required a unity in ideology. During the Hanwu Emperor’s regime, Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC) submitted three proposals at the Emperor’s request. In “Three Policies for Governance of the Heaven and the People,” he recommended the policy of “banning all other schools of thought and paying supreme tribute to Confucianism” and he remodeled conventional Confucianism into a series of feudal ethical codes centered around the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues.10 These policies established the unified traditional Chinese culture guided by Confucian thoughts. This cultural tradition continued for more than 2,000 years, and its nature never changed until the May Fourth Movement in 1919.11 Certainly, Chinese culture is not limited to Confucianism. It is the integration of many national cultures. Even the Han culture at the time was permeated with the traditions of Taoism and Legalism, and at a later time Buddhist traditions were added. It cannot be denied, however, Confucian culture has been in a dominant position in the Chinese traditional culture. Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan observed that Confucian thoughts and Confucian culture cannot be said to be the representation of the entire Chinese traditional culture, however, it is the best representation of that culture . . . The fundamental ideas of Chinese traditional culture are mainly reflected in Confucian teachings, and the basic

  9 Li Si (?–208 BC) was a Legalist scholar and prime minister (221–208 BC) of the Qin Dynasty. 10 The Three Cardinal Guides are: ruler guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides wife. The Five Constant Virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity. 11  The May Fourth Movement (1919) was a political and cultural movement against imperialism and feudalism.



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difference between Chinese culture and Western cultures is also due to Confucianism.12

Those observations are accurate. After the establishment of dominant status of Confucianism in Chinese culture, there were several other major instances of cultural conflicts and integration, but until the May Fourth Movement in 1919, none of those brought about any sufficiently significant change in the Han culture centered on Confucianism. Rather, the Han culture absorbed and integrated the content of many other nationalities thereby enabling itself to become even more splendid and colorful. The Challenges of Xuanxue or, Dark Learning, a Metaphysical Sect in the Wei (220–265) and Jin (265–420) Dynasties that Tried to Integrate Taoist and Confucian Doctrine and Buddhism to Confucianism This was the first major conflict in Chinese culture after the Qin and Han Dynasties. The classics of Xuanxue include Laozi (Lao-tzu), Book of Master Zhuang, and The Book of Change. Since the Hanwu Emperor adopted the policy of banning all other schools of thought and paying supreme tribute to Confucianism, the thought of Taoism fell from its height of influence. Until the end of Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220), the society was chaotic and unstable. China returned to divided territories for more than three hundred years between the Three Kingdoms (220–280) (the Three Kingdoms were Wei (220–265), Shu Han (221–263), and Wu (222–280)) and the unification of the country by the Suiyang Emperor of the Sui Dynasty (581–618) Confucianism was not able to maintain its status of the sole supreme tribute, and other schools of thought revitalized. Xuanxue enjoyed the status of the primary modality for thoughts among the scholar class. During those years, dynasties and regimes changed frequently, the ordinary people suffered in all aspects of their lives. The families of influence, families of many long-standing generations standing and landlords, tried all means to grasp resources by force while initiating fights and warfare among themselves. These historical and social circumstances caused scholars to feel pessimistic, disappointed and as a result, they became negative and dissipated. To seek spiritual sustenance, pursued Xuanxue, the Dark Learning and acted recklessly. Xuanxue therefore became popular by attacking the Confucian moral concepts, values and rules of etiquette. The development of Xuanxue challenged Confucianism not only 12 Author’s note: Zhang and Cheng, Chinese Cultural Debates, 128–129.

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in philosophical concepts, but also in literature and arts. For example, Xuanxue’s advocacy of nature and freedom was an important challenge to Confucianism. In Introductions of Chinese Culture, Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli indicate that Xuanxue was originated from the philosophies of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. This is the origin of Chinese intellectuals’ distance from politics and material pursuits. The values of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi of paying little attention to human relations but concentrating on the nature entered the souls of Chinese scholars in an unprecedented scope, thus casting the temperament and taste of living black and mysterious, unreachable, aloof, and imaginary lives of the scholars at the time.

During the Wei (220–265) and Jin (265–420) Dynasties and Northern and Southern Dynasties (386–589), Confucianism also continued to expand and entered a new historical development stage. This stage was characterized by the study of Confucian classics during the Wei and Jin Dynasties and took place despite the popularity of Xuanxue and the spreading of Buddhism. Meanwhile, Buddhism spread throughout China. Originating in India, Buddhism was introduced into China during the Han Dynasty (206 BC– 220 AD). It spread during the chaotic times of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. This period witnessed a large range of integrations among various nationalities. Due to natural disasters and wars, minority groups in the north had begun to move to the border regions of the central plain since the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). They became increasingly Hanhua by adopting the customs and life styles of the Hans. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, this trend further developed, and the northern minority groups entered the central plain to found their own kingdoms and countries. To strengthen their governance, they all advocated Hanhua. The Northern Wei (386–534), founded by the Tuobaxianbei, united all countries in the north, moved its capital to Luoyang in what is today the Henan Province during the regime of Xiaowen Emperor. They implemented Hanhua reforms in a comprehensive way, dramatically promoting the integration between the northern nationalities and the Han people. In that process, it was not only the minority groups who adopted the Han styles and customs. The Hans also absorbed many excellent aspects of the minority cultures, thus forming the traditions of Chinese culture.



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Cultural Exchange between the East and the West during the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) Dynasties The Sui and Tang Dynasties reigned over the expansion of territories and the establishment of a large empire in China. The prosperity of Sui and Tang was caused a result of the dramatic changes in the society. The impact of the hereditary families of influence with generations’ standing declined at a fast rate, the Imperial Examination System was established, and scholars with middle and lower social status started careers as government officials. These phenomena enabled ordinary, poor scholars without influential family background to participate in political affairs and encouraged them to stand up to the secular landlord class. “Because of those developments, the Tang culture resembled a time spirit of brightness, aloofness, vigorousness and enthusiasm.” The Tang Dynasty was the most active time for poetry writing this period made major contributions to Chinese literature. Painting and calligraphy during that dynasty also flourished. The Tang culture reflected the tremendous atmosphere of the prosperous dynasty. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the western regions of China developed quickly. Soon after the Tang Dynasty began its governance, major efforts were made to develop the border regions in the north and the west. The once heroic Tujue (Turk) government declined and collapsed. The Tang regimes stationed soldiers and placed government agencies in the western regions, ensuring the smooth operation of the transportation systems and prosperity along the routes between China and Western countries. Chinese and Western cultures interacted through the Silk Road, and the Han eagerly learned much about Western cultures. The Tang Dynasty and its capital, Xian, were well-known as an international municipality. During the Tang Dynasty, the Roman Empire sent its representatives to China at least seven times. Western traders covered many southern cities of China like Yangzhou. At the same time, paper and textile making techniques, gunpowder, and metallurgy were invented in China. They were introduced first to the Arabic Empire and then into Europe. In addition to frequent interactions with Western countries, China also developed close ties with Eastern countries. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam sent their representatives to China multiple times. However, these interactions resulted in the spread of Chinese culture within those countries. It can be said that the Tang and Sui Dynasties inherited the interactive development among multiple cultures and multiple nationalities of the Wei and Jin Dynasties,

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and absorbed cultures of various nationalities with open attitudes and a scope of integration and inclusion. These accomplishments are of significance to the development of Chinese culture. The Formation of Idealism of Song (960–1279) and Ming (1368–1644) Dynasties The Song Dynasty was a period of major advancement in Chinese culture. After Emperor Taizu created the Song Dynasty, he actively sought and implemented the policy of “emphasizing literature and downplaying military affairs.” Giving up military careers and instead practicing literature became popular in the society, and scholars and officials all paid close attention to the study of knowledge. Therefore, philosophy, literature, painting and technology all advanced during the Song Dynasty. However, cultural styles of this dynasty differ from those of Tang. The Tang culture was bright, enthusiastic and vigorous, while the Song culture was soft, quiet, graceful, and relatively closed. Throughout Song and Ming Dynasties, the event most important to Chinese cultural development was the formation of Song and Ming Idealism which influenced the development of later Chinese feudal society. Song and Ming Idealism was the result of the combination of and the conflicts between the three belief systems of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Since the Hanwu Emperor, traditional Confucianism enjoyed its supreme status in the Chinese society, even while it was challenged constantly by Xuanxue and Buddhism. The Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty created Idealism by taking bold actions to absorb the essence of Buddhism and Taoism in order to reinvent Confucianism. Initiated by Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, and Cheng Hao of Northern Song (960–1127), Idealism focused on “seeking truth to its roots and exploring human nature to the extreme.” These philosophers believed that “there is only one truth for all objects and all beings.” Zhu Xi explored those ideas to the fullest level, and he believed that within the universe there were Li (the foundamental law of the whole universe) and Qi (the energy air), and “any Li is followed with Qi, yet Li is the foundation.” He advocated for “maintaining the heavenly rationale and abolishing human desires.” Liu Jiuyuan of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) and Wang Shouren of the Mind Dynasty (1368–1644) regarded “heart” as the origin of all beings in the universe, and they emphasized that cultivating the heart was seeking the truth, and therefore more attention should be paid to internal cultivation in order to “integrate into one entity with the Heaven, the Earth,



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and all other beings.” Song and Ming Idealism transformed Confucianism by making it more philosophical. The political and ethical codes like the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues advocated by Confucianism were the supreme truth given by Heaven. These changes enabled the ruling feudal political ideals to be guideded by philosophical concepts. (The Three Cardinal Guides: ruler guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides wife; and the Five Constant Virtues: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity.) Song and Ming Idealism transformed Confucianism into its highest development point. Zhu Xi has been regarded as the scholar who epitomized Confucianism. Regarded as the most authentic, the Confucian classics he compiled and annotated served as the foundation for the Imperial Examination System and they have been the must-read for Chinese readers. However, when anything reaches and extreme, it then turns into its own opposite. Song and Ming Idealism constricted people’s thinking, distanced Confucianism from its dynamism and vitality, and Chinese society gradually declined. The Conflicts and Integrations among Nationalities during the Liao (916–1125), Jin (1115–1234), and Yuan (1279–1368) Dynasties After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, major conflicts and integrations took place during the Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties. During that period, northern minority groups such as Qidan (Khitan), Nuzhen (later addressed as Manchu), and Mongols constantly invaded the central plain area, conquering all of China and for the first time creating non-Han regimes. However, traditional Chinese culture did not cease to exist. Rather, it was further developed because the northern minority groups still operated in a slavery system and when they became rulers of the central plain regions, they accelerated the process of feudalization of their own groups by implementing cultural and education policies to adopt the lifestyles and cultural costumes of the Han people with the focus on respecting Confucius and worshiping Confucianism. This promoted the unification and integration of the Chinese nation. As the Chinese border expanded outwards, the Confuciast Han culture spread to the south, the west, and the north. While adopting Han styles and customs, the minority groups also tried to maintain their own cultural traditions. As the conflicts between nationalities continued, Han culture also took in many aspects of different minority cultures, including the northern groups’ emphasis on military affairs, and minority dance, music, and instruments. These cultural integrations continued into the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). After the

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Rulers of the Qing Dynasty entered Shanhaiguan and unified China, they regarded themselves as the heirs of Chinese feudal legacies and therefore spared no effort to promote Han styles and customs and integrated their own culture within Han culture. Therefore, the Liao, Jin, Yuan and Quing Dynasties experienced the great unification of Confucian culture and the great integration of aspects of Chinese culture. At this time, the development of Chinese national culture entered a new stage. The Challenges of Western Learning Spread to the East to Chinese Culture Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Western missionaries began to conduct missionary work in the East. During the Wanli Regime (1573–1620) of the Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), an Italian missionary of the Catholic Society of Jesus, Didaco de Pantoja, a missionary from Spain, and other missionaries conducted missionary work in Macao and Guangdong Province and later, in Beijing. Their religious activities introduced Western learning in order to pave the way for their missionary work and they concentrated on rooting Catholicism in China. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, rudiments of capitalist relations of production began to take shape. Certain advanced intellectuals began to criticize feudal ethical codes and called for attention to practical knowledge to administer the country. A large number of Chinese intellectuals were attracted to the Western knowledge introduced by Ricci and others. For example, Xu Guanqi admired the content in Ricci’s Mountains, Oceans, and Maps and started to learn astronomy and the calendar system. He cooperated with Ricci in the translation of six volumes of Principals of Geometry. In addition to astronomy and the calendar system, the missionaries also introduced other fields of modern science. The Physical Conditions of the Taixi People by Jean Terrenz (1576–1630), a German missionary, was the first book on human anatomy introduced into China. Written by Giulio Aleni (1582–1649), Overview of Western Education introduced the systems of education in Western countries with particular descriptions of the programs, curriculum, process of instruction, and examinations in European universities. Comprehensive Introduction of European Education described schools in different Western countries, including their physical structures, sizes, years of study, curriculum, examinations, and teacher qualifications. These two books pioneered the spread of knowledge about Western education in China. These Western missionaries and books not only brought modern science to the East, but also challenged the world outlook, values, and ways



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of thinking of traditional Chinese culture. Thinkers of Enlightenment such as Huang Zongxi and Yan Yuan opposed the separation of practice from learning and the idealist concepts full of empty ideas on disposition and ethical codes. Instead, they advocated applying sound scholarship and practical knowledge to managing the country. They criticized the Confucian traditional perspective of “being not bound with skills and techniques, not willing to discuss them, and not intending to learn them” as well as the Imperial Examination System. They argued for preparing people who would know the strategies of ordering and regulating affairs of the state. However, due to many political and economic reasons, there was a tendency to return to feudal practices in managing the country during the reigns of Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722) (Kangxi, second emperor of the Qing Dynasty) and Emperor Qianlong (1711–1799) (Qianlong, the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty) of the Qing Dynasty. Traditional Chinese cultural forces remained strong, and the Western knowledge was not able to shake the foundations of Chinese traditional culture. The May Fourth Movement and the Collapse of Chinese Traditional Culture The most fundamental change in Chinese culture began after the Opium War in 1894. In 1919, the May Fourth movement manifested the opposition against Chinese feudal culture. The destruction of feudal culture did not take place until the triumph of the New Democratic Revolution between the Zhou Dynasties (1046 BC–221 BC) and the Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206 BC). Before the Opium War, China was a feudal society with feudal characteristics pervading the culture, politics and economy. After the Opium War, elements of capitalism emerged gradually in China, and China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and its culture also reflected these elements. Therefore, traditional feudal culture in China declined after the Opium War. Due to the continued existence of the Qing Dynasty, however, feudal Confucian culture was still the dominant Chinese culture before the 1911 Revolution. Under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, the May Fourth Movement thoroughly opposed imperialism and feudalism. In the initial stage of the movement, the participating intellectuals hailed from many different backgrounds. Mao Zedong writes: “At its beginning, the May Fourth Movement was a revolutionary movement with the united front of Communist intellectuals, revolutionary petty bourgeois intellectuals, and bourgeois ­intellectuals, the last being the right-wings of the movement.” Influenced by the October Revolution in Russia, radical intellectuals such as Li Dazhao and Chen

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Duxiu introduced Marxism into China. As the Chinese Communist Party was founded, the New Cultural Movement became a component of the New Democratic Revolution. It was not until then that the revolution succeeded, the feudal traditional culture in China fell apart and a new cultural system was established. However, as indicated in the last chapter of this book, culture, especially on the ideological level, becomes fossilized. Changes in the social system can shake the foundation of the old culture and destroy its systems, but perspectives of the old culture might survive, and the building of the new culture requires efforts across generations. Even today we are still in the process of building a new socialist culture. The change in Chinese culture since the May Fourth Movement was a fundamental transformation in the nature of that culture. As for the challenges and impacts of Western cultures, only a brief discussion is presented here as these issues are addressed in a later chapter. The evolution of Chinese culture indicates development occurs through conflicts and integration. Every time there is a conflict of integration, cultural selections and creations are made. In the evolutionary process, the fine aspects of the original culture remain and are enhanced after being reinvented for that historical time period. The inferior elements would be abandoned, yet certain elements of that kind would stay in people’s minds. Vertically speaking, Chinese culture has transformed its nature after the major changes; horizontally speaking, Chinese culture has its own special features which differ from the cultures of other countries and nations. It is these special features that account for the nostalgia for China among the Chinese in various parts of the world who are united to strive wholeheartedly for the restoration of Chinese culture. 2. Fundamental Characteristics of Chinese Traditional Culture Chinese culture is a wonderful treasure that the Chinese people contribute to world culture. After thousands of years of evolution, Chinese culture offers a high level of cultural attainment for both its national and international characteristics. I believe Chinese culture has the following unique characteristics: First, Chinese culture is full of creativity. Although it has experienced many transformations over thousands of years, Chinese culture has continued to flourish and still presents brilliant radiance due to its creativity. Recent



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archeological evidence indicates that our ancestors were ­imaginative and skilled at creating new inventions. In 1998, I visited the Tombs of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The underground corridor into the tomb was about 100 meters long, one meter wide, and two meters high. The straight corridor walls were lined up with such precision that even today’s experts were surprised. In 2000, I visited the Sanxingdui Tombs in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The bronze masks and golden bird totems were expertly crafted and offer evidence of rich creativies. These examples show that ancient Chinese people were extremely creative and mastered fine techniques. The four ancient inventions are certainly the most outstanding contributions to the world civilization. In addition to inventions in material culture, Chinese culture also includes many innovations in systems and concepts, including the following ideas in the Book of Change that represent dialectical thinking: master the simple to manage the complex, constant changes in the universe, the unchanged nature of certain principle, and the Eight Trigrams (eight combinations of three whole or broken lines formerly used in divination) representing eight natural phenomena. The Imperial Examination System was a pioneer civil examination system. Confucian culture was also developed through constant creation, and it reached its peak with the Song and Ming Idealism. Despite the decline since the Qing Dynasty which was induced by the Chinese people closing the country to the outside world and feeling conceited and self-satisfied, the Chinese people overthrew the oppression of imperialism and feudalism and founded the new Chinese social system. The Chinese revitalized their culture and it once again again has been reinvigorated with new technological and creative advancements. Second, Chinese culture has a strong ethos of inclusiveness. Chinese culture absorbs heterogeneous cultures and integrates them within itself. Historically, most outside cultures that entered China all gradually adopted Chinese styles and customs and eventually became components of Chinese culture. As Liang Qichao notes: Whenever China takes anything from the outside, it has the capacity to absorb all essences as its own nutrition, and it changes their nature and utilizes their applications to make them into new elements of our civilization, similar to the way that black comes out of blue yet is darker than blue, and ice comes out of water yet colder than water.

As mentioned earlier, the spread of Buddhism to the East is a vivid example of this process. Originating in India, Buddhism has been maintained, developed and enhanced. The principles of Buddhism were in conflict with

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the Chinese concepts of patriarchal clan. Buddhism believes in renouncing human society while Chinese culture encourages entering human society. Buddhism believes in the future life while Chinese culture focuses on the present life. Buddhist principles were also inconsistent with patriarchal clan concepts such as loyalty and filial piety. However, through transformation and absorption processes over several hundred years, Buddhism has become a Chinese religion, as exemplified by the Chan (Zen) sect of Buddhism, and its incorporation in the Song and Ming Idealism. Many cultures in the world were decimated, or made extinct due to external invasions. There are many examples of this phenomenon. Indian culture became aryanized due to the invasion of Aryans. Egyptian culture adopted Greek customs due to the invasion of Alexandra, then it was Romanized due to Caesar’s conquest, and then became Islamic due to the influence Arabic culture. Roman culture in Greece was disrupted for almost a thousand years due to the invasion of Germanic groups. In contrast, the cultures of the northern nationalities that entered and governed the central plain regions with military forces assimilated themselves to the already existing Chinese culture. Certainly, this is related to the development level of cultures. Chinese culture was founded on agricultural production while the northern nationalities had nomadic cultures. In order to shift from a nomadic culture into an agricultural one, the northern tribes had to learn from Han culture. After the Qing Dynasty was established and the regime set the goal of a unifed China, the government spared no efforts to promote Han culture and required all Manchurian misters and high rank officials to study Chinese classics. Emperor Kangxi oversaw the compilation of the Kangxi Dictionary, Emperor Qianlong ordered the compilation of the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature (completed in 1772–1782) and Manchu culture was completely integrated into Han culture. However, the Manchurian language continues to decline and it is facing a crisis of disappearance because of its lack of readers. Han culture incorporated essences from minority cultures and added many new elements to itself, thus enriching Chinese culture. Third, Chinese culture has an enormous power of integration. The ancient culture in China included a multi-component system of Qi Lu, Jing Chu, Wu Yue, and Ling Nan cultures. Located in different regions of the country, these cultures differ from each other in content, characteristics, and development levels, yet they share the common characteristics that enable them to become one entity and to share major traditions. Even today this characteristic of Chinese culture is still obvious. Chinese people all over the world, no matter where they are located, share similar



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values. There are many reasons for this cultural consistency. China has been a unified country for a long time. All of its regions, even with their differences, have been under the same social system and mode of production, and they have regarded Confucian culture as their mainstream culture. This cultural integration is also related to language. Local dialects exist, but the entire country has one unified written language. All minority nationalities learned the Chinese language after they joined the Chinese nation, and only by using the same language is Confucian culture maintained. In this regard, education’s role is invaluable. Fourth, Chinese culture is composed of multiple aspects. China is a country with 56 nationalities within its borders. Although Han culture is the mainstream culture, each nationality has its own cultural traditions and maintains them, thus forming the multi-aspect character of Chinese culture. Even for the Han nationality that makes up 95% of the total population, there are regional cultural differences. The Qi Lu culture differs greatly from the Ling Nan culture. The Hans in the south have different living conditions, architecture styles, customs and habits from those in the north. There are eight major schools of culinary styles in China with different materials and cooking techniques, yet they also share many commonalities which is what makes it possible to distinguish between the Chinese culinary culture and those in the Western countries. Therefore, Chinese culture is varied, rich, and splendid as well as unified through its fundamental spirit. There are few national cultural traditions that have both the richness of variety and unified spirit. The relationship among the cultural characters of multi-aspect, inclusiveness, and integration is a dialectical unity. The inclusiveness character enables the culture to have multiple aspects; because the culture has multiple aspects, there is a need for tolerance and integration so that these aspects can become unified. Fifth, Chinese culture is secular. Compared with western religions that encourage people to remain apart from society and stay independent, Chinese culture encourages an ethos of entering human society. In The Analects, Confucius made comments on devils and spirits: “The meaning of managing the people is to help them respect the spirits and stay afar from them, and he who is able to do that is knowledgeable.” (The Analects · Yongye) “If I cannot serve the secular society, how can I serve the religious one?”13 Confucius did not deny the existence of supernatural beings, but he

13 Lun Yu, or The Analects of Confucius, or The Analects, are collections of teachings compiled by Confucius and some were compiled by his disciples after Confucius passed

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did not focus on them either. This attitude has impacted the secular cultural tradition. Meanwhile, the dominant Confucian teaching in Chinese culture encourages the spirit of entering the human society by “cultivating oneself, managing the family, governing the country, and bringing peace under Heaven.” It also supports the sense of responsibility for society by teaching that earthly affairs are one’s own duty. These fundamental characteristics of Chinese culture have enabled the culture to last for thousands of years and allowed it to continuously enhance and develop.

away. “Yongye” is the title of the chapter where the quote can be found. In The Analects, chapters are titled with the first two Chinese characters in that chapter. When The Analects is quoted in this book, the source is indicated immediately after the quote with the title of the chapter following the word The Analects.

Chapter Three

Categories, Characters, and Cardinal Spirit of Chinese Traditional Culture Chinese traditional culture is defined as the ancient culture in China—the culture before China began its process of modernization. As mentioned in the last chapter, China started its process of modernization during the Westernization Movement after the Opium War. However, modernization is a process and it cannot be completed overnight. Between the Westernization Movement and the May Fourth Movement in 1919, modern culture in China had not yet taken shape. Ancient culture in China lost its social foundations when the 1911 Revolution succeeded and the feudal dynasty collapsed. However, cultural elements at the level of ideology do not disappear immediately after a change in social system. This is particularly true of feudal reactionary forces which attempted to return to power after the 1911 Revolution by mobilizing the rotten elements in the old culture. For that reason, certain people believe that the 1911 Revolution was a failure. Meanwhile, modern culture in China had to be developed upon the foundation of the ancient culture by retaining and developing its positive and fine elements. We define traditional culture in China as the ancient culture because the traditional culture came into being and evolved in the feudal society of China. We cannot regard that culture as a feudal culture, yet it is a product of the feudal society and it is fundamentally different from modern Chinese culture. Meanwhile, despite the fact that the traditional culture originated and took shape in the Chinese feudal society, it is the cultural pinnacle of the Chinese nation—it is full of rich meanings and national spirit and it is the foundation with which we have created a new and modern culture. In creating and building a socialist new culture, we must reassess the traditional culture of China and absorb its essences. Therefore, careful analysis of the traditional culture is necessary so that we can distinguish between the Chinese nation’s long-lasting valuable elements from the backward dross prohibiting the development of the Chinese society. As Mao Zedong noted, we should “assimilate the essence and discard the dross.” This work is particularly important to education. As indicated in Chapter One, education’s functions are spreading, selecting, and transforming the culture. In order to pass on the traditional

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culture to the younger generations, educators must select and transform the elements of the traditional culture. It is a selection process of differentiating between the fine and inferior elements, and it is the creation of a new culture if the fine elements assume the content appropriate for the time and are further developed. For that purpose, we need to analyze the categories and characters of the traditional culture of China. 1. Categories and Characters of Chinese Traditional Culture The origination and evolution of any culture cannot be separated from the natural environment and the social and historical conditions of that culture. In terms of its natural environment, China occupies the inland of the Asian continent with an ocean to the east and mountains in the west. In ancient times when transportation was underdeveloped, China was in a semi-closed state. Although China began to interact with its neighboring countries by opening the Silk Road leading to Europe, interactions with the outside were extremely difficult and extremely limited. Chinese traditional culture is basically a semi-closed continental culture. In terms of the mode of production for materials, for many years, China was an agricultural society characterized by a small peasant economy and its commercial economy was underdeveloped. Although the commercial economy in certain regions in the country developed at a fast pace during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) as illustrated in the well known scroll of painting entitled “The Festival of Pure Brightness on the River,” dynastic policies always focused on agriculture and neglected commercial business and handicraft industry. Commercial business did not receive much attention and did not advance, and so the society was based on the self-sufficient small peasant economy. In terms of the organization of the society, in ancient times China was a feudal dictatorship whose social order was maintained through the patriarchal clan system based on consanguinity. On the land of 9.60 million square kilometers, dozens of nationalities united and formed a nation of great unity that has continued for more than 2,000 years. No other nation in the world can claim this extraordinary fact. It is in this type of society that Chinese traditional culture originated and developed, and in turn the culture ensured the establishment, continuation and reinforcement of this society. These characteristics are unique to the Chinese traditional culture and reinforce the difference between the Chinese traditional culture and all other cultures in the world.

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 47 Chinese Traditional Culture as an Ethical Culture Overall, Chinese traditional culture is an ethical culture. This is the most representative feature of the culture, and it has been commonly accepted by scholars who have generalized that Western cultures are intellectual cultures and Chinese culture is an ethical culture. Throughout its historical development, the Chinese nation constructed a complete set of mature ethical values, formed a system of ethical codes that include personal, family, national, and universal ethics, and developed an entire set of theories for ethical education. This is the primary content of the Chinese cultural traditions. However, traditional Chinese culture certainly did not neglect knowledge in favor of ethics. Rather, it emphasized the combination of ethics and intelligence. Ethics was primary, and intelligence should serve ethics. The very first sentence of The Great Learning states: “The path for the Great Learning is to explain the obvious ethics in clear ways, so that it can reach the people, and so that they stop the pursuit for their own benefits and conduct benevolent acts.” The study of knowledge is to seek complete ethical development. In the Analects · Xue’er (On Learning), it states that “one should study knowledge when he has spare time from traveling and conducting other work.” This indicates that the study of knowledge should be secondary. Confucians even include Heaven, Earth, and Nature in ethics. Zhang Zai, a philosopher of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), provides explicit evidence of this. He states: The Heaven should be regarded as my father, and the Earth my mother; if given human looks, they are integrated. I take the objects between them as their bodies and the ­patterns of their activities as their personalities. The people are my brothers, and other beings are my friends. (Zheng Meng Chapter Qiang Cheng)

He humanized all of Nature; he saw the Heaven as his father and the Earth his mother, and he called people his brothers and all things in existence his friends. Other scholars believe that Western cultures are truth-seeking cultures while Chinese culture is a benevolence-seeking culture, which is also a valid perspective. The institutional motto of Harvard University in the United States is “Truth” (or “Veritas” in Latin). In contrast, Chinese university mottos usually mention ethics first. The motto of Tsinghua University is: “Strive unceasingly to become stronger and great virtues lead to the established doctrines.” The orientation of values between Harvard’s motto and Tsinghua’s motto differ greatly.

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Ethical relations include human interpersonal relations, particularly within family relations. Liang Suming wrote in The Essence of Chinese ­Culture that China was a society with ethics of domination. Among ethical principles, family was the most important. “Ethics begins with the family and reaches beyond . . . Ethical relations are sentimental relations, and therefore are voluntary relations with commitment to each other.” He also noted that “all kinds of social relations are presented and represented in the family, and that makes the relations among people close and loyalty to each other emphasized.” These relationships are related to the patriarchal clan system based on blood ties in the Chinese society. This will be discussed in more detail later in the text. The ethical culture in China differs from the religious cultures in the West. In Western societies, religion is an indispensible part of most ­people’s lives. It can be said, therefore, religious culture is the dominant type of Western cultures. The Western religious cultures are God-worship cultures, while the Chinese ethical culture is one that focuses on secular, human relations. Due to this secular ethical culture, the Chinese usually do not have the need for religions. Gu Hongming (1857–1928), a scholar at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China who is nicknamed a “Cultural Geek” or “a talent in cultural studies in an abnormal way,” wrote a book entitled The Spirits of the Chinese People. The book is also titled The Meanings of Spring and Autumn and of Origins of Chinese Culture. Written in English, the book was translated into French, German and Japanese before it was translated into Chinese in 1996. The book is full of strange perspectives, yet the author’s explanations for the reasons behind Chinese secularism makes a great deal of sense. He argues that the “Chinese do not have the need for religions because they have a complete set of Confucian philosophy and ethics, and it is the Confucian teaching, a combination of the human society and civilization, that has replaced religions.” He further explains that religions give people senses of security and eternity. Confucianism takes the place of religion because within it there are elements that also give people the same sense of security and eternity. This is precisely the content of The Spring and Autumn compiled by Confucius. Gu Hongming analyzed the differences between Confucianism and European religions and noted that European religions taught people to be good and honest individuals, while Confucianism taught people to be good and honest citizens: “Confucianism believes that the main purpose of life is to become a filial son and a good and honest citizen.” He explained that according to the teaching of Confucius, beyond the basic considerations of motivation based on advantage and disadvantage, there was a more ethi-

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 49 cal foundation of behavior: social responsibilities. To provide a ­foundation for such responsibilities, Confucius proposed the concept of “social status,” or “the cardinal principles of righteousness on social status.” In the conclusion of his book, Gu Hongming emphasized that if a Chinese, especially an educated Chinese, neglects the cardinal principles of righteousness of social status of the Confucian state religion by betraying family fames and ethical codes and discarding the principles of loyalty to the Emperor, this Chinese who has lost the national spirit and racial spirit is not longer a Chinese.

Gu Hoingming’s insights are profound. He not only gives explicit explanations regarding secular-religious function of the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues of Confucian ethics, but he also clearly articulates the feudal ethical spirit of the traditional culture of China founded upon Confucianism. The Chinese described in his book are those in the feudal society, and he argues that the primary spirits of loyalty and filial piety are the spirits of the Chinese people and the basic spirits of the feudal culture. For him, the cardinal principles of righteousness on social status were of special importance to the foundation of Chinese ethics. Where did the cardinal principles of righteousness come from? They originate from the hierarchy and concepts of the feudal patriarchal clan system and the ethical code “San Gang Wu Chang”1 maintained in the feudal society. Above all other scholarship, Gu Hongming’s explication of the negative aspects of the Chinese ethical culture is the clearest. These passive and rotten ethical concepts are exactly what we need to criticize and abandon. However, Gu Hongming did not master the content of the real essences of the Chinese ethical culture. There must be positive aspects of the Chinese ethical culture because it lasted for thousands of years. The statement that the Chinese ethical culture is a passive culture is not accurate. The Chinese traditional culture put special emphasis on the enhancement of the human subjective ethical spirit and the pursuit of the human spiritual state. Ethics has an extremely important role in strengthening national cohesion, stimulating the national spirit, integrating group values, and coordinating social orders. Ethics, as it fulfilled all these roles, enabled the forward development of Chinese society. The following ideas illustrate the concepts for 1 Translator’s note: “San Gang Wu Chang” means the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues as specified in the feudal ethical code; the Three Cardinal Guides (ruler guides subject, father guides son and husband guides wife) and Five Constant Virtues (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge and sincerity), which functions as a principle of feudal moral conduct.

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c­ oordinating the relations between individuals and the state and individuals and the nation: “The fall and rise of the country lies in every ordinary man;” “Show concerns about the society before everyone else under the Heaven, and enjoy happiness after everyone else on the Earth.” The concept that describes family relations is: “Father be kind, and son filial; older brother be nice, and younger brother courteous; and husband be respectful, and wife obedient.” Ethical concepts of self-cultivation are represented by this idea: “Wealth and nobility cannot move my will, authoritarian and violent forces cannot press me down, and poor and low status cannot change my mind.” In addition, benevolence, love, filial piety, fraternal love, modesty, politeness, honesty and loyalty form the essence of Chinese ethical culture. Virtues that hold a great deal of practical significance for the socialist modernization in present day China are: unselfish devotion to the public interest, maintenance of honor and integrity alongside financial profits; and loyalty and affection for the nation. The Patriarchal Clan System as Social Foundation of Chinese Ethical Culture The organizational structure of ancient Chinese society was the patriarchal clan system. The original foundation of Chinese society was the small peasant economy which is a production mode based on the family. China entered class society before blood relations completely became completely dysfunctional. The patriarchal clan system was more important than the family, and in the shift from the family to the clan and from the clan to the nation, the organizational structure of the unity of family and nation took shape. The kinship of blood ties and the concept of family are extremely important to the Chinese people who prioritize attachments to place, responsibility and obligations inside the family. This is because Chinese culture regards family as the primary unit and emphasizes each person’s responsibilities and obligations, whereas Western cultures regard the individual as the primary unit and emphasizes individual freedom and rights. Chen Duxiu indicates in the article he published in The New Youth that “Western nations take the individual as the primary unit, and Eastern nations take the family as the primary unit.” He also notes that in a patriarchal clan society the head of the household is respected and social class is emphasized, and therefore people are taught to be filial . . . The organization of the country is very much like a family with the person on the top respected and social classes stressed, and therefore people are taught to be

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 51 loyal. Loyalty and filial piety are ethical principles in patriarchal clan societies, and they are the consistent spirit of the semi-civilized Eastern nations.

In ancient China, people of several generations lived in the same large family, sharing all resources. No family member was economically independent and all depended on the common resources for living. Maintenance of family order rested these family ethical principles: father be kind, and son filial; older brother be nice, and younger brother courteous; and husband be respectful, and wife obedient. Among them all, filial piety is the core principle. The Book of Filial Piety regards filial piety as “the principal of the Heaven, the meaning of the Earth, and the action of the people,” and further expands filial piety as the origin for all virtues by indicating that “filial piety is the stem of all virtues.” Among ordinary people, there are also sayings such as “filial piety takes the lead of all good deeds” and “the best way to take one’s responsibility is to be filial.” This is why scholars such as Qian Mu believe that Chinese culture is a culture of filial piety. In his book Filial Piety and Chinese Culture, Xie Youwei observes that to a certain extent, Chinese culture can be called the culture of filial piety. Within Chinese culture, filial piety enjoys such high status and importance that anyone who talks about Chinese culture without mentioning filial piety does not really know the culture. In the family, the father has the highest status, the son needs to be absolutely obedient to the father; this is filial piety. The Chinese system of ethics began with the family, then extended to the clan, and further extended to the nation, forming one continuous line. Inside the family filial piety was entails filial loyalty to the head of the household and the head of the clan; at the national level, this entails loyalty to the monarch who is the head of the country. As the Book of Filial Piety concludes, a person should have “filial piety to his parents when he is young, be loyal to the Emperor when he becomes an adult, and realize his value as a human being when he is old.” From this idea derived all principles for managing interpersonal relations. An important characteristic of the Chinese system of ethics is the emphasis on family, group and obligations and the devaluation of the individual, person and rights. As the patriarchal clan system dissolved, the traditional Chinese ethical virtues lost their social foundations. However, some of these cultural virtues have continued in the form of concepts and perspectives. The family concept is still influential in China today. In Western families, when children become adults, usually when they are eighteen years old, they leave their families to become independent. Chinese families, on the contrary, regard living together as happiness, and the older generation cares for

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their grandchildren after raising their own children. The idea of “have a son to prepare for life in old age, and save grains to prepare for hunger” still exists in many people’s minds. The positive side of this concept is that the Chinese pay much attention to respecting older people by exercising filial piety to the older generation and by expecting their children to support them. The negative side of this concept is that the Chinese usually regard their children as their private property, they do not respect the independence of their children and do not pay sufficient attention to developing the children’s personalities and independence. The Humane Spirit of Chinese Traditional Culture A major characteristic of traditional Chinese culture is the human orientation, or humanism. This is fundamentally different from Western cultures. Western cultures are “God-oriented” with the belief that the sky, the earth, and all beings are creations of God. Chinese culture believes that “humans are the soul of all beings” humans are the center of the universe. Generally speaking, thinkers of ancient China doubted the existence of devils and spirits. Confucius once said that “the meaning of managing the people is to help them respect the spirits and stay afar from them, and he who is able to do that is knowledgeable.” (The Analects · Yongye) When his students asked him if they could do anything for the ghosts and spirits, he answered: “If I cannot serve the humans, how can I serve the devils?” Confucianism always paid close attention to the life issues in the existing society, and focused on humanity rather than the Way of Heaven by observing humans in certain ethical and political relations and emphasizing the practice of virtues. The core of the teaching of Confucius can be summarized as one word: benevolence. There are many definitions of benevolence but the most important meaning of benevolence is restraining oneself and loving others. “Benevolence means exercising selfconstraint and returning to the propriety of the rites of the Zhou Dynasty. Self-constraint means the constraining of oneself with the social system; “Do not look at, listen to, speak on and act on anything that is inconsistent with the rites.” “Benevolence means to love people.” (The Analects · Yan Yuan) “To love people” means to treat people with proprieties. “Wishing to establish oneself, wishing to make achievements,” (The Analects · Yongye) “Do not impose on others what you would not like others to impose on you.” (The Analects · Weiling gong) Under Dong Zhongshu’s transformation, the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues were con-

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 53 structed with a more intense focus on human ethical relations. Although Dong Zhongshu constructed a concept of the interactions between man and Heaven, his theoretical foundation was composed of human ethical relations such as those between the Emperor and his subordinate, the father and his son, and the husband and his wife. The Song and Ming Idealism tried to see the ultimate truth and give full scope to one’s individuality and it developed the concept of the universe as the reasoningoriented combination of Heaven and humans. It also regarded the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues as the ethos of Heaven, and therefore it was still rooted in human ethical relations. Idealism elevated human’s ethical cultivation, opposed the idea of eternal souls, denied the existence of ghosts and spirits, and stressed the initiative of humans. It should be noted that the transformation of Confucianism by the Confucians of the Han Dynasty and the new explanations of Confucianism by Song and Ming Idealism misinterpreted the original tenets of Confucianism. The original emphasis on human relations was intended to serve the feudal ruling class of the time, which depressed the development of human nature and deviated from human spirit. The humane spirit of Chinese culture is also reflected in issues related to religions. Western Christian beliefs center on the concept of original sin. People need to constantly confess, do good deeds, and atone for their crimes, so that they can go to Heaven after death. Buddhist cultures are also about the future. People do good deeds during the present life in order to become Buddha in their future life. Chinese culture is about the reality of present life and it works to resolve issues in the present life through human efforts. Religious beliefs are usually exclusive because the belief in one religion excludes the belief in any other religion. On the contrary, Chinese people usually do not have the concept of a sole religion. They may hold superstitions, or worship not only the Buddha but also the immortals. They not only believe in Mazu as a God but also Guan Gong, a general in the period of the Three Kingdoms. Their religious practices are pragmatic insofar as they only pay tribute to the Gods when they have wishes; for instance, they pay tribute to the God of Wealth when they wish to become rich, and they visit the Goddess of Mercy when they want to have children. They do not believe in any religion in their daily lives, however. This humanistic spirit of the Chinese traditional culture is critical to enhancing people’s initiatives, developing the human spirit, and encouraging people to improve themselves with ceaseless striving.

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chapter three 2. Cardinal Vitalities of Chinese Traditional Culture

No matter how colorful its manifestations are, any national culture has its cardinal vitalities, or national vitalities. National vitalities are a nationality’s relatively stable and long-lasting common spiritual state and psychological character that take shape through social practices over a long duration of time. They are the deepest and most dynamic core of the nationality’s culture. They influence and enhance the development of the culture, and they are the motivating forces for the development of the culture. Therefore, we simply cannot study the culture of a nationality without studying its vitalities. Without knowing the cardinal vitalities of a nationality, there is no way to understand its culture. The vitalities of the national culture penetrate every aspect of that culture in the forms of ideology and national values. The thoughts and publications of a nationality’s thinkers and philosophers reflect its ideology, values and customs. The social norms of conduct also reflect a nationality’s vitalities. Even within material culture are embedded national vitalities. For instance, the antiques unearthed in China are mainly bronze and pottery items while most ancient archeological discoveries are usually stone statues and carvings. The paintings and carved archeological relics of China have completely different meaning and symbols from those in other countries. The origins of Chinese traditional culture are traced back to ancient times. This culture is extensive and profound because it contains a wealth of material and spiritual civilization. These civilizational accomplishments were achieved through practices and innovations over thousands of years. In terms of the structure of the culture, there are material, systemic, and ideological tiers. The cardinal vitality of Chinese traditional culture mainly refers to the level of ideology, including thinking, consciousness, values, and the modes of thought. All cultures have positive and negative aspects. Here, the vitalities of Chinese traditional culture we discuss are the positive aspects of the culture. The ideology and values which have proved to be positive through long-term practices of the Chinese nationality have been generalized and refined by thinkers. They have guided the lives and conduct of the Chinese people and promoted social development. In short, they are the concentration of the fine essences of Chinese traditional culture. Scholars have offered various perspectives on the cardinal vitalities of Chinese traditional culture. In their book Chinese Culture and the Debate on the Culture, Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan generalize the cardinal vitalities of Chinese culture into four categories: being vigorous and

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 55 promising; being harmonious and balanced; being respectful of virtues for applications in life; being in harmonization with Heaven and humans. In their book Introductions to Chinese Culture, Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli categorizes the vitalities as: the combination of Heaven and humans; the humanist orientation; being vigorous and full of promise. In Overview of Chinese Culture, Li Chonggui lists eight categories of vitalities: constant improvement of oneself; uprightness and honesty; harmony and maintenance of balance; people as the heart of the nation; equality; pursuit of truth and practicality; openness and optimism; control of desires with ethical codes. There should be a criterion for the exploration of the cardinal vitalities of the Chinese traditional culture: the examination of the relationships between human beings and nature, between people and society, between an individual and others, and between individuals and themselves. With those four relationships alongside the perspectives of education, the cardinal vitalities of the Chinese traditional culture could include the following categories: harmonization between Heaven and human beings; unceasing improvement of oneself; emphasis on harmony and maintenance of balance; pledged love for the nation; respect for the aged and cherishment of the young; honesty with and credibility for others: industriousness and thriftiness; self-cultivation and restrained conduct. All these aspects have influenced the thinking, conduct and habits of generation after generation of Chinese people, and have had great impacts on the education traditions of China. The following text will present a detailed analysis of these aspects. Harmonization between the Heaven and Human Beings When discussing the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, many scholars note the discrepancy in the understanding of the relationship between human beings and Nature. In his speeches, John Dewey pointed out that Western cultures conquered Nature, while Eastern cultures integrated with the Nature. During the May Fourth Movement Li Dazhao said: “The fundamental difference between Eastern and Western cultures is that the former advocate calmness and the latter promote dynamism.” He argued that the geographical differences between the East and West led to cultural differences. The perspective on “dynamism” and “calmness” was not limited to the relationship between humans and Nature. I would also apply this to the Western and Eastern world and life views. Writing about the Nature specifically, Li Dazhao commented that in Eastern cultures, “the Nature rules humans,” and in Western cultures,

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“humans conquer nature.” If we examine the issues closely, we would find that all the above comments are somewhat extreme. In fact, human beings have continuously utilized and changed Nature for their development and evolution, in both the East and the West. Instead of passively accepting Nature’s limitations and obstacles, humans have constantly tried to conquer and change Nature to advance their own existence and development. Is it true that that the conditions for advanced human society have been ruined due to the unlimited exploitation of Nature by humans? The discussion about the relationship between humans and Nature here is limited to the attitudes, values and world outlook of Eastern and Western cultures. Many Chinese scholars regard the combination of Heaven and humans as a cardinal vitality of Chinese culture. Even though they might vary in their understandings of the concept and provide diversified explanations, they have reached a basic consensus that this vitality means there is a unity of the nature of Heaven and the nature of humans. Chinese people have also realized the importance of harmonious coexistence between humans and Nature. However according to Confucian teaching the unity of Heaven and humans does not refer to the human’s attitude toward Nature. Rather, it is a component of Confucian ethics, and it is a way of explaining the paths of humans and Heaven, and how the latter serves the former. In his doctoral dissertation, Shi Zhongying analyzes the understanding of Heaven in ancient Chinese philosophies through three modalities; Heaven in relation to Nature, Heaven as a religious concept, and relation between ethics and Heaven. He notes that most discussions on the relationships between Heaven and humans and the combination of Heaven and humans in ancient China rarely involved their significance in nature or in religion, but in most cases the discussions involved their ethical significance . . . The relationship between Heaven and humans is basically the highest ethical criterion.

I am in total agreement with him on this. The work of many scholars across many dynasties supports this conclusion. Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty proposed the concept of interactions between Heaven and humans. He believed that Heaven was a God with purpose and the Emperor’s power was authorized by Heaven. This idealistic concept served Emperor Hanwu’s unity of power. Zhang Zai of the Song Dynasty proposed the concept of the combination of Heaven and humans because he believed that humans, formed with the energy of the great void, were integral parts of nature and vice versa. He believed

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 57 that Confucians “accomplish sincerity from understanding, accomplish deeper understanding from sincerity, and reach the level of the combination of Heaven and humans. Learning leads people to become sages who understand Heaven without abandoning people” (Zhengmeng Qianheng). Thinkers in later times also confuse the paths of Heaven and humans. When discussing the universe’s pattern, instead of addressing the patterns of natural evolution, they usedthe universe’s pattern to explain the human’s one. Although many thinkers explored the evolutionary patterns of the universe, yet were bound by Chinese traditional concepts of social status and generational respect so that they could only explain human relations by saying that it was Heaven’s will. Harmonization between Heaven and humans is a cardinal vitality of Chinese traditional culture. It removed the constrictions of the feudal ethical codes, and it also refers to ancient China’s naïve idea about the harmony between humans and Nature. Chinese classics refer to this idea. For instance, The Book of Change of the Zhou Dynasty stated: “There are Heaven and Earth before all beings, there are all beings before men and women, and there are men and women before husbands and wives” (Xu Gua). Regarding the role of Nature, this book teaches: “Bringing various kinds of people to life, putting useful resources in reserve, stimulating the prosperity of all beings, yet having no concerns of the sages, what grand ethical accomplishments can compare with that!” These statements indicate that human beings are components of Nature, Nature produces all beings including those without any feelings or consciousness, and Nature does not evolve according to the will of wise or powerful people. This is the true meaning of the harmony between humans and Heaven, and it does not support later scholar’s definition of the unity of Heaven and human will. However, it should be recognized that the concept of the combination of Heaven and humans was always a prominent theme for ancient Chinese scholars and has eventually became a dominant issue in Chinese culture. It played unified people’s thinking and provided coherence to Chinese national ideology. Studying this concept is also important to our present time, which is why we regard it as a vitality of Chinese traditional culture. Unceasing Improvement of Oneself The concept of constant improvement of oneself in order to cultivate vigor and promise is a basic precept of both Chinese traditional culture and Chinese culture as a whole. Confucius, explained this idea to the ­fullest:

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chapter three Be resolute, steadfast, honest and frank, you are close to benevolence” (The Analects · Zi Lu). “The army can proceed without a marshal, but an ordinary man cannot succeed without determination.” (The Analects · Zi Han) “A gentleman cannot accomplish without resolution and fortitude.” (The Analects · Taibo) “One should make such determined efforts as to forget meals, enjoy it so much as to forget worries, and even have no knowledge of becoming older.” (The Analects · Shu’er)

These thoughts encourage people to resolve to work towards their own betterment by studying hard, working industriously, and staying strong willed. Record of Change · Yuanzhuan includes classical descriptions of the spirit of determination, vigor and promise. It states that “Heaven operates with vigor, and a gentleman must pursue unceasing improvement.” The universe operates with unceasing vigor and people should emulate the universe in their own activities and improve themselves with determination, vigor, and promise. The book also teaches: “Be vigorous and stay civilized, that is a response to the Heaven and the secular society.” “To be vigorous, balanced, and upright is the essence for one’s cultivation.” Vigor, civilized conduct, resolution, balance and integrity are the noblest character traits of human beings. These ideas were further developed in later times. If the concept of the combination of Heaven and humans has been the major concern of Chinese intellectuals, the spirit of betterment of oneself through continuous efforts has been rooted among the ordinary people. The spirit of betterment of oneself through unceasing efforts is one of indomitability, advancement, self-reliance, unity and dedication. It is this spirit that has motivated the continuous development of the ­Chinese society and has been demonstrated in the struggles with Nature. Our self-­reliant ancestors fought with floods and wild animals and fostered the spirits of “The Great Yu Managing Floods,” “Jingwei Filling the Sea,” and “The Foolish Man Moving Mountains.” When the Chinese nation was in danger, this spirit stimulated national morale in order to fight against oppression, defy brutal forces, and overcome difficulties. When the country became strong and prosperous, the spirit encouraged people to continue with their pursuit of innovation. In the current construction of socialist modernization, this spirit is particularly needed. For instance, in the recent successful battle against SARS, this spirit played an invaluable role. Emphasis on Harmony and Maintenance of Balance A cardinal vitality of Chinese traditional culture is the emphasis on harmony and the maintenance of balance. Harmony refers to the peaceful coexistence of differences while maintaining balance means the avoid-

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 59 ance of extremes and the cultivation of a holistic perspective. Near the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC) Shi Bo had realized that the unity of various matters and objects could lead to harmonious effects. For instance, reasonable mixtures of flavors can produce delicious food and the composition of different tunes can produce beautiful music. Shi Bo believed that the balance achieved through coordination of different aspects and objects was harmony and through harmony new aspects and objects can be produced. When objects of the same kind are put together they often reject one another and therefore, things do not move forward. Shi Bo’s analysis is full of dialectical thinking on the unity of the opposites. Yan Ying of Kingdom Qi during the late Period of Spring and Autumn also commented on the difference between harmony and commonality in order to explain the complimentary relations between the emperor and his ministers to Emperor Qi Zhaogong. He said to the Emperor: Harmony is like making a sauce. It needs water, fire, paste, vinegar, salt, and plum. The chief puts fish or meat in it, and adds more wood to the fire. The chief stirs it, puts spices in it, if a flavor is too strong, he makes it weaker; if a flavor is not enough, he puts more spices into it. The gentleman eats it, finds it delicious, and feels good. The same applies to the Emperor and his ministers. If the Emperor thinks that certain things can be done but there are disadvantages, the ministers should present fully on what the disadvantages are, so that those things can be done; if the Emperor does not think certain things should be done but there are advantages in them, the ministers should present fully what those advantages are, so that they might override the disadvantages. That will make the administration peaceful and smooth without conflicts, and that will make people do not compete with each other. Zuo Zhuan The Twentieth Year of Shaogong

Confucius also advocated harmony and balance. He said: “Among the applications of the rites, harmony is the most precious” (The Analects · Xue’er). He also said: “The gentleman can have harmony with their differences remaining, but the small men can be the same without harmony” (The Analects · Zi Lu). Confucius establishes harmony as a criterion for gentlemen. Confucius related harmony to balance as opposed extremes, and taught that only by keeping balance could harmony be reached. The criterion for balance is the social system. He said: Among the applications of the rites, harmony is the most precious. The way of the previous emperors was so excellent; however, many important matters in that way have been neglected without implementation. Harmony for the sake of harmony without following the rites cannot be implemented (The Analects · Xue’er).

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The Doctrine of the Mean focused on Confucius’s ideas about maintaining balance. Zhu Xi of the Song Dynasty explained: “maintaining balance means not to lean toward any side, not to go over and not to stop before reaching it, and stay modest.” Zhu Xi also regarded the maintenance of balance as the fundamental principle of the world: “Balance is the central principle under Heaven; harmony is the crucial approach on the Earth. By reaching the balance and harmony, Heaven and Earth stay in their places, and all beings become prosperous.” He also established the maintenance of balance as the highest criterion for human ethics: “How difficult is it to maintain the balance? Few people can maintain it long!” Harmony and balance are connected with courtesy and modesty. The Chinese always uphold modest attitudes toward others and strive to be tolerant and magnanimous. The thoughts on harmony and balance have enabled China to absorb cultures of various nationalities and integrate them into the great Chinese nation—like the ocean taking in water from hundreds of rivers. As a cardinal vitality of the Chinese traditional culture, the concept of harmony and balance has been accepted by the entire nation and has become the criterion for coordinating various relations among people. With these fundamental principles that place high value on the pursuit of harmony and stability, the Chinese people have created a great unity among different nationalities in the country and they also facilitate friendly interactions with people in other countries of the world. At the Wanlong Meeting, Premier Zhou Enlai proposed to “seek common ground with different perspectives remaining” and at present, China has proposed to rise peacefully and share prosperity with other countries in the world. I believe these are examples of the Chinese concept of harmony and balance being brought to and further developed in international relations. The maintenance of balance also has its negative side. To maintain balance and harmony, one must have stability and avoid conflict. Stability and conflict avoidance are not always beneficial to innovations and advancement, and they do not necessarily fit the competitive conditions in the world today. However, the positive sides of this concept outweigh the negatives. Pledged Love for the Nation Loving the nation is a cardinal vitality of Chinese traditional culture and a major aspect of the traditional ethics of the Chinese nation. In the ethical system of the Chinese people, whether or not a person loves

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 61 the nation has been, and continues to be, a crucial and even the most essential criterion by which people are evaluated. Lenin said: “Patriotism is the deepest feeling toward the motherland consolidated over thousands of years.” This feeling “is the basic guarantee to the existence and development of the country and the nation.” Every nation cultivates and inspires patriotism and national affection. For the Chinese nation, patriotism is of special significance because during the One Hundred Years War after the Opium War, China was repeatedly invaded by foreign powers and the Chinese people were oppressed. Patriotism has always been the force that has encouraged the Chinese people to fight against invaders and to work towards advancement. In terms of Chinese traditional culture, Chinese society was dominated by the patriarchal clan system so the family and the nation were combined and loyalty and filial piety were the most fundamental ethical concepts. Confucius’s purpose in compiling Spring and Autumn was to regulate the principles of social status with the ritual standards of the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC). The most important principle was ­loyalty—the absolute obedience of the people and officials to the monarch. When Lu Ding Gong asked about the relations between the monarch and ministers, Confucius answered: “The monarch should manage ministers with rites, and the ministers should serve the monarch with loyalty” (The Analects · Ba Yi). The feudal system’s centralized dictatorship was founded on the ethical codes of “Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues” written by Dong Zhongsu of the Western Han Dynasty. These affected the values of the Chinese people for more than 2,000 years. The first guide stressed the absolute obedience of the people and officials to the monarch. Because these beliefs served the feudal social structure and prohibited social development in China for a long time, they deserve criticism should be abandoned. However, loyalty to and love of the country has been a longstanding a virtue of the Chinese people. For thousands of years, the Chinese people have placed their homeland and nation as their highest priority, as evidenced by the many patriotic heroes and heroines and their great deeds. Ancient Chinese thinkers expressed substantial ideas and concerns about the nationa, thereby fostering the patriotic spirit of the Chinese people. The Confucian classic The Book of Rites · Confucian Conduct indicates that people should “do everything beneficial for the country not for the sake of wealth and high status.” Zuo Zhuan’s First Year of Zhao Gong also pointed out that “facing disasters without forgetting the country is loyalty.” Many patriotic sayings have been recited and memorized by

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the people. These include such classics as: “Be concerned with state affairs before others, but enjoy oneself after everyone else has done so” by Fan Zhongyan; “No one lives forever; let me die with loyal heart shining in the pages of history” by Wen Tianxiang; and “Every individual must hold himself responsible for the prosperity and decline of his country.” It is this patriotic spirit that has inspired Chinese people to defy brutal forces, resist against the invasion and oppression of foreign powers, and win the victories of the Anti-Japanese War and the New Democratic Revolution. It is also this patriotic spirit that has encouraged our students to sacrifice and devote themselves to the socialist construction of the prosperity and strength of their motherland. Their love of their nation will forever be the motivating force for Chinese advancement. For the Chinese people, patriotism also has historical meanings. China is a country with multiple nationalities. Before China was united into one country, there were frequent conflicts and warfare between and among various nationalities and kingdoms. At that time, patriotism was was loyalty to one’s own nationality or kingdom, such as the loyalty of Qu Yuan to Kingdom Chu and the loyalty of Yue Fei to to the Song Dynasty. However, since the unification of China, patriotism is directed towards the great unity of the Chinese nation, the unification of the country’s territory, and the recognition and acceptance of Chinese culture. Respect for the Aged and Cherishment for the Young Because the society in ancient China was organized with the patriarchal clan system, family and blood ties are extremely important to the Chinese people who pay close attention to the individual’s responsibilities in the family. The ethical codes that apply to family include: “The father should be kindhearted, and the son filial; the older brother should be friendly, and the younger one courteous; and the husband should be respectful, and the wife obedient.” Filial piety is at the core of these codes. Confucian culture attached great importance to filial piety and regarded it as the most primary ethical code. The Book of Filial Piety includes systematic descriptions of filial piety and teaches that the world should be organized and managed through this principle. Because it is the most important aspect that governs people’s behavior “filial piety is the principle of the Heaven, the justification of the Earth, and the conduct of people.” Confucius believed that filial piety is mainly reflected in respect. He said: “Today people think that filial piety means to provide for their parents. Providing for can be applied to dogs and horses. If there is no respect, how can we distinguish the two kinds

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 63 of providing for?” (The Analects · Weizheng (on governance)). Mencius also said: “The best a filial son can do is to respect his parents” (Mencius · Wan Zhang First Volume). In ancient Chinese culture, filial piety disciplined people’s conduct, although to a certain extent, its other passive valences prohibited the progress of society. However, the longstanding tradition of respecting the elderly and honoring relatives has become a fine virtue in China and still has positive significance because it is rooted in people’s hearts. On the one hand, older people have made contributions to the development of the society and they deserve respect; on the other hand, they are a weak group and they need society’s attention and care. Respect for the elderly is usually related to the cherishment of the younger generations. Young children are the future of the nation yet they need the protection and care of their parents because they are unable to provide and care for themselves. In ancient China, the idea of “the father should be kindhearted” and “the older brother should be friendly” focused on loving and protecting young children. Respect for elders and ­protection of the young is not limited to the family. It was extended to the entire society and became a virtue for people. “Respect the older ­generations of my own and others and love my own children and others”—this well-known quote of Mencius has become a motto of Chinese traditional virtue. Honesty and Credibility An essential criterion for coordinating interpersonal relations in ancient China was honesty and credibility. An ancient saying goes: “He who wants to establish himself must have credibility, knowledge and courage.” Honesty and credibility are not only the primary basis for any person’s establishment, but also the foundation of existence for any nationality and any country. As indicated in Zuo Zhuan’s The Twenty-Second Year of Xiang Gong, “He who has lost his credibility cannot get established.” If a person does not have credibility, that person cannot establish himself or herself and build the country. It is a traditional virtue in China to be honest and credible in dealing with other people. Confucian teaching paid a great deal of attention to honesty and honor. Dong Zhongshu listed it as one of the Five Constant Virtues—benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and honor. Confucius said: “Making friends requires a person to honor his words.” Zang Zi commented: “I reflect on these three questions everyday: Do I think too much about strategies in interpersonal relations without much loyalty? Do I dishonor myself with friends? Do I forget to practice

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the learning passed on to me?” (The Analects · Weizheng). Confucius also indicated: “If a person does not have credibility, I do not know what he can do. That would be like horse carts that do not have joints and nails. How can carts move without those?” Many stories in Chinese history tell about people who sacrificed in order to maintain their credibility and honor. Honesty and credibility are roots out of which people establish themselves. The ruler must establish credibility with the people before they hold him in high esteem. Friends must trust each other in order to have longlasting friendships. The older people must have credibility with younger ones and teachers must establish it with their students in order to teach them to be honest and honorable people. “Be true in word and resolute in deed” has been commonly accepted as life philosophy and code among the Chinese people. Therefore, treating people with honesty should be included in the cardinal vitalities of the Chinese traditional culture. Honesty and credibility are even more critical for modern society. In order to ethically govern, one must govern with honesty and credibility. Society can only be stable, united, and advanced if there is a foundation of trust among people. Industriousness and Thriftiness Industriousness and thriftiness are traditional virtues of the Chinese nationality and a foundation for the creation of the splendid civilization of China. Zuo Zhuan wrote that “the life of people lies in industriousness which prevents insufficiency” (The Twelfth Year of Xuan Gong). Mozi said: “Thrift and saving lead to prosperity, and excessiveness and waste result in decline” (Ci Guo). Li Shangyin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote the following line in his poem “A Chant of History”: “Among all the men of virtue, kingdoms and families so far, those that succeeded were industrious and frugal, and those that fell were extravagant and dissipated.” These famous sayings all agree on a single truth: industriousness can help bring wealth, but a person’s lifestyle needs to be thrifty and frugal. Working hard without a thrifty lifestyle cannot build lasting wealth. A poem well known to all goes: “Hoeing crops with the noontime sun in the sky, my sweat drops into the soil under the plants. I wish all know that every piece of grain in the plate comes with hard work” (Li Shen “Sympathy to Farmers”). This poem has often been quoted to teach younger generations to be industrious and thrifty. As applied to learning, industriousness means studying hard which is another Chinese tradition. In Explanations of Learning, educators of the Tang Dynasty encouraged young people to cultivate a determination to

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 65 study with these remarks that are also well-known to Chinese people: “Learning is perfected through diligence and lapses by neglect, and success comes from forethought while thoughtlessness leads to failure.” Therefore, industriousness is required for both work and learning. In the modern society, industriousness and frugality are still necessary, because only by working hard can wealth be created and only through thrift can resources be saved. Certain people believe that the market economy seeks commercial activities and the expansion of spending can result in increased production. However, the resources on Earth are limited. If we do not look for new resources through industrious work, if we do not practice a frugal style of life, the economy will not continue to develop and our younger generations will suffer. Therefore, the vitality of industriousness and thriftiness of the Chinese traditional culture should be cultivated and developed. Self-cultivation and Cautious Conduct Self-cultivation is the highest stage of ethics for the Chinese people. Self-cultivation refers to the imperative of following ethical codes solely because it is the right thing to do, and not because others are holding you accountable. The Book of Rites · Great Learning teaches: “Honesty manifests in attentiveness to daily work, yet it presents itself on the surface, and therefore a gentleman must be cautious about his conduct when he is all by himself.” In order to have self-respect, one must always value one’s own dignity above all else. Self-respect is related to both self-confidence and a commitment to constant self-improvement, which leads to achievement. One must exercise self-discipline and stay away from the evil influences of fame and money. The Chinese people have a high regard for moral integrity which is also a manifestation of self-cultivation and selfrespect: “Not to be corrupted with riches or honors, not to depart from principles despite poverty or humble origin, and not to submit to force or threat.” (Mencius · Tengwen Gong Second Volume). This attitude represents the moral integrity of the Chinese people. Those with integrity are respected by others, and those without self-respect are held in contempt. People must have a positive attitude about themselves and the setbacks they might encounter, never give up and constantly work towards their goals with determination, appreciate the honors and recognitions they might receive, be on guard against arrogance and rashness, and cultivate modesty. Self-cultivation and self-respect are the highest spiritual and represent personal integrity of the highest level.

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Above are my understandings of the cardinal vitalities of Chinese traditional culture that have influenced Chinese thinking and conduct for generations. From a standpoint of ethical cultivation, there are many more virtues. The vitalities discussed here are those related to the relations between humans and Nature, humans and the nation, individuals and others, and individual self-cultivation. This theme is so broad that it can cover both macro and micro issues, and the few addressed here might give people the impression that the discussion is somewhat unbalanced. However, spiritually, these vitalities are equally powerful, and they have exerted great influences on the Chinese people’s world and life views, values and ethics. These influences have been strong and longlasting. 3. Negative Elements in Chinese Traditional Culture The Chinese traditional culture is the product of the feudal times. It took shape in the Pre-Qin period and did not change much for over 2,000 years. Chinese traditional culture united Chinese nationalities, enabled cultural progression, and its cardinal vitalities have had longlasting influences on the thinking, values and conduct of the Chinese people. Contemporary historical analysis indicates that there are both positive and negative sides to Chinese traditional culture in the same way that any culture involves both positive and negative elements. The advancement of a culture requires the process of incorporating and enhancing its positive elements and abandoning and eliminating the rotten elements. However, even through the process of selection, certain rotten elements would remain. The social foundation of the Chinese traditional culture was feudalism and dictatorship. For a long historical period, the Chinese traditional culture was the most advanced of all cultures in the world. In modern times, however, China gradually lagged behind, which leads us to ask why this happened. What function did the Chinese traditional culture play in this? For almost a hundred years, many Chinese intellectuals spared no efforts to investigate the reasons for China’s fall, and many scholars and schools of thought expressed their perspectives and understandings, especially after the May Fourth Movement. Many scholars believe that over the last few hundred years Western countries overtook China because of its backward culture, and in particular, the backward perceptions involved with the culture. Chen Duxiu noted that in order for China to catch up with the Western civilizations, the Chinese people would need two kinds of awareness: political or civic awareness and ethical awareness. He wrote:

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 67 Since the Western civilizations were introduced into our country, academic learning was the first that raised the awareness level of our people . . . then politics came as the second. As the evidence of the last years indicates, Chinese politics sticks to the old-fashioned ideas and refuses to change. From the past to the present, one issue that our people have had suspicion is the issue of ethics. If there is no ethical awareness, the awareness in the areas mentioned before is not thorough awareness. The current situation in this regard is like a person with unclean and blurred mind. I can state this with certainty: the ethical awareness is the last awareness that our people have.

Liang Suming is in agreement with Chen Duxiu. He describes the way that Chinese people were fascinated by Western cannons, armored vehicles, sounds, lights, chemicals, and electricity. It was not until the SinoJapanese War of 1894–1895 that people began to realize that cannons, armored vehicles, sounds, lights, chemicals and electricity simply could be just taken over. However, behind these inventions is something more fundamental, and this recognition led to the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Gengzi Incident. However, Western political systems still could not be implemented in China because Western and Eastern cultures are fundamentally different cultures. Liang Suming believed that differences in cultures were manifested in daily approaches to living and problem solving. He described three tendencies: 1. The tendency for the future—striving to obtain desired objects, and trying by every means to satisfy one’s own desires and demands. In other words, this is an attitude of fighting and struggling. 2. The tendency of being satisfied with the status quo, and not solving the problems or changing situations. 3. The tendency of encountering and then eliminating the problem or demand. All human beings generally live their lives with these three tendencies: 1. Forward looking; 2. Changing, coordinating, and seeking balance of one’s meanings; and 3. Turning around and demanding something from someone else. Liang Suming argued that Chinese culture has taken selfcultivation, compromise, and maintenance of balance as its fundamental spirit, and therefore it had to be changed. He also noted: I can comment with certainty that China would remain completely closed without any interaction with the outside if the West did not contact us, and there would be no such items as ships, trains, airplanes, scientific methodologies and the spirit of ‘democracy’ even three hundred years, five hundred years, and a thousand years later.

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This absolute denial of the cardinal vitalities of Chinese traditional culture is worthy of discussion. The cardinal vitalities of Chinese traditional culture include positive and promising aspects; this is proven by the Chinese culture’s absorbance and inclusiveness of multiple cultures of various nationalities. History is progressing, and the rotten elements of a culture will cease to exist when they reach a certain level of deterioration. Changes and advances in productivity eventually lead to changes in relations of production. The advancement of the Chinese society was inevitable. According to the Marxist perspective, external factors can only function through internal factors. Inside Chinese society forces were accumulating and they eventually broke through the constrictions of feudal dictatorships. Certainly, the three tendencies of life described by Liang Suming deserve our attention. During the 1920s, many scholars discussed the issue of national character. The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun is an influential novella which explores Chinese national character. According to Xu Shoutang, he and Lu Xun had frequent discussions on this subject: We usually talked about three interrelated questions: First, what are the ideal human characteristics? Second, what are the deficiencies of the Chinese nation? Third, what are the roots of the deficiencies? About the first, because the issue had been explored by many thinkers in China and abroad and there were diversified perspectives on it, we did not discuss much and only ­followed the most commonly accepted ideas. About the second, we thought that our nation was deficient in honesty and love . . . As for the root of the third, we turned to history. We found many reasons, yet the most important and deepest root for the deficiencies was the conquest of our nation by outside groups. When people became slaves of those groups, how could they talk about honesty and love . . . The only solution was making revolution.

Lu Xun strongly believed in order for the revolution to succeed, the national character needed to change alongside an ideological revolution; otherwise, the labels might be new yet the goods would remain the same, slogans might be new yet the internal content would remain old. Lu Xun also noted that “in terms of reforms in China, the first step should certainly be getting rid of the old obstacles, so that a mechanism for a new life could be created.” These old obstacles include feudal slavery ideology with the “Three Guides and Five Constant Virtues” as the main content, and the corrupt elements of ignorance, conservatism, obedience, selfcomplacency. Corrupt customs are viewed as the inherent weakness of the Chinese nation, the dross of Chinese traditional culture. When Lu Xun describes the weakness of the Chinese nation, he injects a bit of artistic exaggeration, but this is motivated by a genuine anxiety about the nation’s

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 69 future. He never outright rejected the cardinal vitalities of Chinese traditional culture; rather, he offered his critique because he wanted to raise people’s awareness and stimulate the vitalities of the nation. In his book The Outlines of Chinese Culture, Liang Suming generalized the Chinese national character into ten categories: selfish; industrious and thrifty; polite; peaceful, gentle, and weak; self-contented and self-satisfied; conservative; careless and unclear; determined and cruel; tough and flexible; skillful and thoughtful. His perspectives seem to stress too much on the negatives. In their book Chinese Culture and Cultural Debates, Zhang Dainian and Cheng Yishan noted two major deficiencies in Chinese culture: the lack of ­science and the lack of democratic tradition during the May Fourth ­Movement. The two deficiencies are closely related to the social foundations of ­Chinese traditional culture. The foundations of Chinese ancient society were the small peasant economy and the patriarchal clan system of dictatorship. These two deficiencies along with backwards cultural elements constrained the fine qualities of the Chinese traditional culture. Recognizing the weaknesses of Chinese traditional culture helps us to both expose and condemn the backward elements and enhance the fine cardinal vitalities. Sticking to the Old Ways In the feudal society, the natural economy was dominant. Closed economic activities require people to follow traditions, guard the family property, and establish themselves, but they do not encourage a pioneering or creative spirit. An ancient Chinese maxim teaches that children should stay with their parents: “No trip afar when parents are alive.” This teaching had a large impact on educational values and the preparation of personnel. During the thousands of years of feudal society, the ruling class needed to prepare obedient slaves and servants. This system required slaves and servants to have absolute loyalty to their masters without their own independent thinking. Ordinary working people under feudal rule and the natural economy only educated their children to stay on the land and keep the family property—they could not teach their children to open up new horizons. Emphasizing Status and Ranks In the feudal society with the patriarchal clan system, people occupied a particular status within the social hierarchy. This hierarchy differentiated between the old and the young, and between the upper and lower

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ranks. A core concept of Confucian thoughts centers on the social regulations and ethical codes of the ranking systems in the slavery and feudal societies, or otherwise known as the rites. Originally, this term referred to the objects and ceremonies for offering sacrifices to the Gods. During the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC), rites were separated from sacrificial ceremonies. Rites were based on the patriarchal clan system of blood relations and every life station followed its own codes—the monarch follows the rules for monarchs, the ministers follow the rules for ministers, the father follows the rules for fathers, and the son follow the rules for sons. Chinese traditional culture had always regarded the rites as ethical codes. Confucius said: “Do not look at, listen to, speak on, and act on anything that does not follow the rites” (The Analects · Yan Yuan). This concept has had an extraordinary impact on the thinking of the Chinese people: they take official status as the criterion for judging a person’s social worth, they pay attention to officials but neglect ordinary people, and they revere power but ignore responsibilities. Even the present personnel system in China still applies these hierarchies. Ranks not only exist in administrative agencies, but also in organizations and businesses. Even educational institutions are categorized as at the deputy minister’s level or at the division director’s level. When people interact, they also address each other with official titles and certain people still call local leaders “Parent Officials.” All benefits are based on administrative ranks. There is a story about a deputy director of a bureau in a province who ordered his business cards for his visit abroad and requested that the title after his name indicate that he is at the bureau director’s level. This business card made foreigners laugh because it seemed a little absurd that a university president’s business card was printed with indication of his rank being at the deputy minister’s level. In China, every single profession is categorized with titles, which is an example Chinese people’s focus on status and rank. This focus is not consistent with modern civilization unless it is discarded there can be no democracy and equity. Judgments about people’s social worth based solely on their official status is a guiding principle for Chinese conduct. This principle has also influenced our younger generations. An article that I recently read from the Digest of New Papers and Magazines is a good example of this problem. On the weekend, my son returned home from school. I found that he was not wearing his armband that showed his position as a team leader in the Young Pioneers. The boy told me the reason with reluctance. Because he played with his pencil sharpener, his teacher ordered him to take down the armband and give it to his little friend at the next seat who was attentive in class.

categories, characters, and cardinal spirit of chinese culture 71 I became lost in thought. I remember that when I was young, my teacher told us that it would be the greatest pride to be the class monitor. Whoever was obedient and well-behaved might become the monitor . . . By the time I graduated for the primary school, I was still not the monitor. Years later I found that the classmate who was the monitor lived a depressing life and did not really do well in his job. I had always felt that what I experienced happened in an abnormal time, yet that is still continuing with our younger generation. Noticing my silence, my son thought I was upset, and he shook my arms and said: It really does not matter that much! My teacher has said that if I am obedient to teachers, I can still become a team leader. Stop worrying, I will get the armband back by next week for sure! The official culture has lasted in China for thousands of years. Compared with that culture, the inspiration, pride, and forging of the soul that we try to implant into our children are like fragile fruits. That makes me feel sad. September 10, 2003

Stressing Ethics and Neglecting Technology Chinese traditional culture founded on Confucian teachings pays all its attention to ethics but not to science and technology. In The Book of Rites, it states: “Those who use skills to serve other people should not be regarded as soldiers,” and “Those who make indulging sounds, extraordinary clothing, and dissimilar objects and show strange skills should be killed” (The Book of Rites · The Monarch System). Confucius never spoke about technology or even farming. The School of Logicians paid attention to science and technology but they were not dominant schools of thought. Since Emperor Hanwu’s policy about the sole worship of Confucianism, those two schools have lost even more ground. A small number of intellectuals conducted scientific exploration. For example, Ge Hong, a Taoist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317–420) studied medicine, military affairs and astronomy; Li Shizhen of the Mong Dynasty (1368–1644) studied Chinese pharmacology, compiled Compendium of Materia Medica, and greatly influenced Chinese herb medication; Xu Xiake of the late Mong Dynasty made major contributions to geography. However, these are only a limited number of intellectuals and the neglect of technology was the dominant trend. This type of thinking is the main reason why modern science did not begin in China. Paying Attention to Totality but Neglecting Locality, and Stressing Induction but Neglecting Deduction In terms of cognitive modalities, Chinese traditional culture emphasized totality but neglected analysis, and emphasized induction but neglected

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deduction. In a very valid sense, paying attention to totality is reasonable because it objects are seen holistically and it helps to overcome onesidedness and provinciality. This is the difference between Chinese and Western medicine. Doctors of Chinese medicine pay attention to the total conditions of their patients and give them holistic treatment, while doctors of Western medicine pay attention to the symptoms in specific areas and use medication to treat only those symptoms. However, analysis that stresses totality but neglects locality can lead to an unclear understanding of particular objects and therefore it is unable to scientifically and quantitatively understand the nature of the object. Another manifestation of the way of thinking of Chinese traditional culture is the emphasis on induction and the neglect of deduction. The truths stated by ancient Chinese thinkers usually only involves a conclusion without demonstration or proof. Confucius’s teachings in the Analects are all conclusions and their proofs and explanations are not provided. For example: “He who can gain new insights by reviewing old materials can be a teacher;” “Learning without thinking leads to confusion, and thinking without learning results in exhaustion.” These teachings are of deep significance but there is no explanation of the reasoning behind the conclusions. This is very different from the Socratic Method developed by Socrates (469–399 BC) an ancient Creek philosopher. The Socratic Method involves questions and answers that expose the contradictions or inconsistencies in the comments of the other party in the conversation, so that the each party could refine his thinking step-by-step and reveal the nature of the object. In ancient Chinese education, young children read The Four Books and The Five Classics without any active engagement, thus fostering a student learning style of superficial understanding. This way of thinking severely inhibits the advancement of science and the development of scientific attitudes. It cannot be denied that it is a deficiency of Chinese traditional culture and it needs to be changed in the process of modernization. To summarize, because Chinese traditional culture took form in the feudal society with the patriarchal clan system it contains many feudal and backward elements. These elements require analysis and subsequent removal when we study Chinese traditional culture.

Chapter Four

Traditions of Chinese Education and Their Fundamental Characteristics 1. Evolution and Formation of Chinese Education Traditions Education is a component of a culture. Chinese education is an important component of Chinese culture. On the one hand, Chinese education serves as a tool for the selection, dissemination, and processes of change in the culture; on the other hand, Chinese education has developed its own traditions on the foundation of Chinese culture. Chinese education traditions have undergone a development process in their formation because historical periods involve certain cultural and educational traditions. Theoretically speaking, educational traditions and cultural traditions develop concurrently. In reality, however, that is not always the case because the development of education is relatively independent from that of the culture. Sometimes education lags behind the development of the overall culture, such as the period between the late Ming Dynasty (1368– 1644) and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) when scientific knowledge was spread among scholar officials but was not reflected in school education. At other times education might surpass the development of the overall culture, such as the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China (1912–1949) when Western school systems were introduced into education yet the overall culture was semi-feudal and semi-colonial. Education traditions are formed within the political, economical, and cultural influences of its historical context and, at the same time, they reflect the inheritance and advancement of previous educational traditions. For example, after the introduction of modern school systems into China, many changes took place in the school systems, structures, and teaching content and methodologies, yet the educational values, the perspectives on educated personnel and many teaching methods retained the deep influences of traditional Chinese education. One conceptual issue must be noted here regarding education traditions and traditional education. Education traditions refer to the system of education with its distinctive qualities that has evolved in a country, region, or ethnic group over a long period of time. These traditions include

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educational thoughts, systems, and models of education. Traditional education refers to the educational systems with particular characteristics that have developed in the past. Traditional education systems are the systems of the past that have been inherited by the present. Expressed in language tenses, education traditions are in the present tense, and traditional education is in the past tense. Education traditions are developed on the foundation of traditional education, and they advance traditional education. Therefore, there is no conflict between traditional education and education traditions. Some people regard traditional education as conservative and outdated but this generalization is incorrect. Traditional education does reflect a conservative feature because of its long evolution; however, it is not static and it develops and changes. The excellent and valuable content of traditional education can be passed on and built upon while the content that is outdated and inappropriate will be discarded. Therefore, today’s education tradition can only be developed by both inheriting and criticizing traditional education. Critique is not necessarily negation and rejection; rather, it facilitates selection and reformation. In other words, education is not only facing the challenges of selection and reformation of cultural element, but it is also facing the challenges of selfselection and self-reformation. The development of education traditions in China is a process of constant self-selection and self-reformation. Based on the above rationale, education traditions in China have experienced a process of formation and development, and the process includes the following major stages: Primitive Education in Remote Antiquity Primitive society is the first human society in human evolution. In primitive society, productivity was low, tools were limited to stone artifacts and wood bows and arrows, food and drink only included raw animal meat, nuts and berries and water. It was not until later that humans learned to make pottery, use fire, and to consume cooked food, and even later that they learned to plant crops and to pasture animals. According to The Ancient Society by Morgan, human society went through uncivilized, savage, and civilized stages. Primitive society covered the uncivilized and savage stages, and it lasted for about one million years. During that time, human beings needed to pass on experiences and knowledge to younger generations for the sake of survival. Education therefore emerged. Primitive educational activities were conducted and completed in collective activities such as working in groups and offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors.



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Chinese archeologists studied the ruins left from the Old Stone Age including the sites for the Yuanmo Man, Liantian Man, and Beijing Man. Their studies are of major significance to the exploration of the origins of Chinese education. In Chinese classics, there are records of using fire, farming, and breeding livestock. For example, Bai Hu Tong (the White Tiger Documentation) documented that “teaching others to cook food with fire can help them improve their physique and adjust their mood.” Shi Zi also recorded that “at the time of the Miyi, there were all kinds of animals, and therefore hunting was taught . . . During the time of the Sui, there were all kinds of waters, and therefore fishing was taught.” The chapter of Xici in the Book of Change indicates that “after Baoyi was gone, Shennong began to work on cutting wood with axe to make farming tools, rubbing wood sticks to make handles for the tools, and teaching others about using the tools.” These documentations indicate that in primitive society education was integrated with people’s labor, like farming. In Chinese classics, there are also records of worshiping totems and offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors. These activities were all passed on generation after generation. During and until the end of clan society home schools emerged as a form of school education and were controlled by the powerful people in the clans. Emergence of the Chinese Written Language and the Birth and Development of Schools The emergence of the Chinese written language promoted the appearance and development of schools. Through written language, human experiences in production and life can be recorded. This provides written documentation of human cultures which can also be used as teaching materials. According to ancient legend, the Chinese written language was created by Cang Jie. However, the language was actually created by the working people and then summarized, modified, and refined by officials responsible for historical records before it spread out among the people. The earliest discovered written language was carved on tortoise shelves and animal bones, and it is called Jiagu, or the Oracle Bone Inscriptions by archaeologists. Jiagu seemed to be a quite developed language, and this fact leads to the assumption that there might be an earlier historical period with more primitive written forms. Later, the language was carved onto bronze wares and it was called Inscriptions on Ancient Bronze Objects. In recent years, twenty-seven pieces of bronze wares were unearthed in Mixian County, Shaanxi Province. They were engraved with 3,500 characters recording the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC).

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The ancient traces and remains of written language enables us to understand the ancient history of China. In later times, the written language was carved into bamboo or wood slips or written into cloth and silk. During the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220), Cai Lun refined and improved paper making techniques and paper began to be produced in large quantities. The invention and use of paper played important roles in inheriting and developing human cultures. This is particularly true for education because paper became the primary writing accessory and it allowed people to preserve and disseminate information. Another great contribution of the Chinese people to human cultures is print technology. In the fifth century, stone tablet carving appeared in China, and it was not until the eleventh century that Bi Sheng invented the technology of moveable-type printing. The invention of print technology was of crucial importance to the spreading of culture and the broad use of textbooks. Paper and print technology enhanced the development of school education through providing convenient modes for instruction. Schools existed in ancient China. According to ancient classics, the earliest schools were called Yang, Xu, and Xiao. The chapter “Teng Wen Gong” in Mencius noted that Yang, Xu and Siao were founded to conduct instruction. Yang means fostering, Xiao means teaching, and Xu means shooting. In the Xia Dynasty (2070 BC–1600 BC), the institutions were called Xiao; in the Yin Dynasty (1600 BC– 1046 BC), Xu; and in the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–476 BC), Yang. In all these institutions, three generations of teachers and students worked together.

This timeline verifies that schools in China emerged in the later part of the clan society and earlier times of the slave society. When human beings entered the class society schools became controlled by the ruling class. The content of education focused on strategies to manage people, like the rites of the rulers and military affairs. The content of education in ancient China reflected the needs of this class society: worshiping military affairs and respecting rites of the slavery kingdoms. In this society, the Six Arts were taught: i.e., rites, music, shooting, riding horse pulling carts, classics, and mathematics. Private Schools Initiated by Confucius Private schools first emerged during the Spring and Autumn Period. In Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals Liwei, there are stories of Deng Xi conducting private instruction in the Zheng Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC–476 BC). However, it is commonly believed



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that Confucius was the first person to start private schools. He opened a school in Qufu of the Lu Kingdom and taught his students poetry, classics, rites, and music. He also traveled with his students to different kingdoms. His school was the largest organization for private instruction in the late Spring and Autumn. Mozi (468 BC–376 BC) claimed that he himself had 3,000 students. In the period of Warring States (475 BC–221 BC), many scholars of different schools of philosophies established their own schools to teach their beliefs. Students could also choose their teachers. For a time, a wonderful phenomenon occurred in which one hundred schools of philosophy flourished and many talents emerged in succession. During the Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206 BC), private schools were prohibited, yet they never disappeared. When the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220) came into being, instruction by masters of Confucian classics became popular once again. These masters set up Jingshe, or “Schools of Essence of ­Confucian beliefs,” and Jinglu, or “Schools for Excellence in learning the Confucian teachings.” The largest of those institutions may have had as many as several thousand or even tens of thousands of students. During the Wei (220–265), Jin (265–420), and Southern and Northern (368–589) Dynasties, society was chaotic and government schools came into and out of existence, thus assisting the development of private schools. During those times, there were not only secular private schools, but also those focusing on religious education in Buddhism and Taoism. During the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) Dynasties, more types of private schools came into being, including family schools, schools of Confucian classics, free schools, private schools, and village schools. This led to the widespread occurance of ordinary people learning in schools. In the late Tang Dynasty, academies for classical learning began to appear. They were expanded in the Song Dynasty (960–1279), and eventually were turned into government institutions. In summary, private education enjoys an important status in the history of Chinese education. Its contributions to the spread and development of Chinese culture cannot be underestimated. “Sole Reverence of Confucianism” and the Establishment of Feudal Education During the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–25 AD) the Taoist beliefs of Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor, and Lao-tzu were dominant and the policies of “opportunities of recovery and restoration for the people” and “governance with inaction” were enacted. After Emperor Wu took over the regime, he adopted Dong Zhongshu’s cultural and educational policy

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recommendations; therefore, all other schools of thought were banished and the people were to revere only Confucianism. Emporer Wu did this so that he could consolidate the feudal system and seek great political unity. In the Fifth Year of Jianyuan, he instituted the Masters of the Five Confucian Classics, abolished all other schools of beliefs, and recognized the Confucian classics as the official government doctrine. Since then, the Confucian classics became the primary content for schools in feudal China, and traditional Chinese education began to take form. The Han Dynasty modified original Confucianism into the official Confucian doctrines that would meet the society’s governance needs. San Gang Wu Chang, or the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues1 became the core principles, thereby enhancing the authority of the emperor and the father. The cultural and educational policy of Sole Reverence of Confucianism was honored and continued by all rulers of all succeeding dynasties. Sole Reverence of Confucianism had extremely significant impacts on Chinese education. First, it brought the phenomenon of a hundred schools of thought to an end and made Confucianism the dominant content of education. The debate between contemporary classics and ancient classics in the Han Dynasty completed the mission of creating unified perspectives on Confucianism; however, Confucian studies was modified and changed, and it was not the Confucianism of the past. The Imperial Examination System created in the Sui and Tang Dynasties integrated education with personnel selection, and the content of the examinations was mainly the modified Confucian classics. This examination system has had far-reaching impacts on Chinese education. Second, Sole Reverence of Confucianism promoted the combination of morality and politics in Chinese education. Confucian scholars have always argued for cultivation, morality, and benevolence in governance. They have also paid close attention to the political roles of education in the society. The promotion of Sole Reverence of Confucianism implied the acceptance of Confucian benevolent governance, i.e., “when cultivation is established, craftiness and evil are stopped” and it further politicized the Confucian practices in education, so that education could better serve the feudal governance. The politicization of education has since then been a tradition of Chinese education. 1 San Gang Wu Chang, or the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, are the core of the Confucian teaching. The Three Cardinal Guides are the relationships between the ruler and the subject, the father and the son and the husband and the wife. The Five Constant Virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity.



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Even though multiple dynasties ascended to and left power since the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), there was no fundamental change in the primary traditions of feudal education until the eve of the Opium War (1840–1842). Those traditions were not challenged until contemporary times. The Emergence of the Imperial Civil Examinations and the Integration of Education with Personnel Selection Started in the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and enhanced in the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the selection of personnel through examinations gradually became an Imperial Examination System. This had a large impact on Chinese education because it merged education into an examination system. On the one hand, the children of ordinary people could become officials through the Imperial Examinations which therefore strongly motivated ordinary people to study and helped to develop the Chinese tradition of emphasizing education; on the other hand, it made education subordinate to examinations, and therefore reinforced a type of scholastic learning that is irrelevant to practice. It is worth noting that in the Ming Dynasty, the prescribed eight-part essay was adopted for the Imperial Civil Examinations, which in turn led to more rigid practices in education. The Imperial Civil Examinations have created serious negative impacts on Chinese educational values, perspectives on personnel, and teaching philosophies. These formal schools have become a tradition of Chinese education. This will be discussed further in later parts of this book. The Shocks to Chinese Traditional Education by the Westernization Movement and the Constitutional Reform and Modernization (1898) Chinese traditional education had never encountered any major upheavals since the Western Han Dynasty (205 BC–25 AD). In the late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), Western ideas and technology were introduced into China, yet their impacts on Chinese education were limited. After the Opium War (1840–1842), China was opened up, and certain bureaucrats inside the feudal ruling class came to the conclusion that China was behind Western powers in military affairs, the economy, and education. Represented by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong, a group of Yangwu Pai (officials in the management of foreign affairs) advocated learning from the West. Yangwu refers to all affairs with foreign countries, including industry, business, diplomatic relations, and education. The ideas of the Westernization

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Movement in education were well explained by Zhang Zhidong’s phrase: “Chinese learning as the base, and Western learning for practical application.” This means that we should regard the feudal San Gang Wu Chang, or the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, as the foundation for Chinese culture; but we should learn foreign technology and skills in order to gain power over foreign people and economies. To build China into a strong nation with a strong military force, certain Western, capitalistic natural sciences and technology could be introduced and accepted and certain factories, schools, newspapers could be established, but all under the condition that the feudal dictatorship and the feudal ethical codes were not changed. As advocated in the Westernization Movement, for the first time China set up schools with foreign approaches, and sent students to study abroad. The first schools with foreign approaches were mainly foreign language, industrial and military schools; for example, the Beijing (Jingshi) Translation School, Shanghai Foreign Language School, Guangzhou Translation School, Fujian Ship Building School, Tianjin Navy School, and South China (Jiangnan) Navy School. The Constitutional Reform and Modernization was initiated by a group of intellectuals who believed in bourgeois reformism. They criticized the eight-part examinations for selecting personnel and advocated abolishing the Imperial Civil Examinations, reforming the traditional education models, establishing modern new schools, learning western science and technology, and preparing personnel with practical skills. The Westernization Movement and the Constitutional Reform and Modernization were two different initiatives. The former included ideas on reforms of education initiated within the ruling class, while the latter involved the “New Learning” initiated by bourgeois reformers. Although the two initiatives had different background and content, they both took place in the late Qing Dynasty, and they both brought about shocks to the feudal traditions of Chinese education. The Westernization Movement preferred to maintain the core of feudalism while setting up Western schools. The Constitutional Reform and Modernization tried to change the political system of feudal dictatorship and learn from Western cultures for the purpose of developing capitalism. Although the Constitutional Reform and Modernization failed as an initiative, in its process feudal education was criticized, feudal ethical codes and norms began to vacillate, and the feudal education system started to collapse. The two political initiatives resulted in the abolishment of the Imperial Civil Examinations and opening of western style schools. In 1905, the Imperial Civil Examinations that existed in China for 1,300 years were repealed, and Western systems of



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education and the advanced and scientific content of education became popular. The 1911 Revolution2 further shook the traditions of feudal education. Among the criticism of the feudal thoughts of education, a strong voice was that of Cai Yuanpei’s3 who proposed that the purpose of education should reflect the bourgeois idea of harmonious development of the human being. Because the 1911 Revolution failed, Cai’s thoughts on education did not have the opportunity to be materialized. Challenges of the May Fourth Movement (1919) to Traditional Education It was mentioned in the last chapter of this book that the May Fourth Movement criticized the traditional culture of China. It also criticized the old educational thoughts and practices. The slogans of the May Fourth Movement about science and democracy were also a strong attack on the feudal traditions in education. In schools, the sole learning and reverence of Confucian doctrines was abolished. Influenced by the literature revolution, schools used vernacular Chinese in instruction in order to bring education closer to the reality of people’s lives therefore providing conditions to make education universal. The campaign of education for ordinary people was initiated and equal opportunities for men and women were sought. Scientific content and educational approaches were promoted. These developments changed the nature of the traditions of Chinese education and eventually led to the complete collapse of the system of feudal education. The most important accomplishment is the popularization of Marxism in China, which was discussed in the previous chapter. The influences of Marxism on Chinese education include Marxist scientific knowledge and ways of thinking. Chinese educators began to master the tools for criticizing feudal and capitalist education they laid foundations for the creation of a new ideological system of education and a new school system of education in New China. Written by Yang Xianjiang, New Guidelines for Education was the first book that systematically elaborated theories of education with Marxist perspectives.

2 The 1911 Revolution was led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. It overthrew the Qing Dynasty. 3 Cai Yuanpei, or formerly translated as Ts’ai Yuan-p’ei, 1868–1940, educator, and President of Peking University, 1916–1927.

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The Triumph of the Chinese People’s Revolutionary and the Formation of the New Education Traditions in China During the worker and peasant revolution, new educational strategies were developed in the revolutionary bases and through the preparation of cadres. The purpose of education needed to serve the new democracy. In the Soviet new democracy, the purpose of Soviet culture and education was “to educate the toiling masses with the communist spirit, to make culture and education serve revolutionary wars and class struggle, to combine education with physical labor, and to enable the broad masses of China to become the people who enjoy civilization and happiness.”4 The victories of the Liberation War completely overthrew the ruling of feudalism and imperialism, and therefore feudal traditions of education lost its political foundations. After Liberation (1949), the Common Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative conference stated in Article 41 that “feudal, comprador, and Fascist thoughts must be eliminated,” and the national, scientific, and popularized education of new democracy must be established. The feudal aspects of the Chinese education system collapsed after the education reforms in the years immediately after the Liberation in 1949. However, even though the system of feudal education collapsed, vestiges of the feudal educational thoughts continue to exist and are still quite present in the minds of some Chinese people. After the founding the People’s Republic of China (1949), Chinese education has experienced many reforms. Since the economic reforms in 1978, Chinese education has entered a new stage of development and new education traditions with Chinese characteristics are taking shape. From the previous descriptions of the evolution and formation of Chinese education traditions, it is clear that education is impacted by the politics, economy and culture of its particular historical time period. In particular, the impacts of culture are deep, far-reaching and difficult to change. Therefore, alongside the study of old and new Chinese education traditions the study of the cultural foundations of Chinese education must also be conducted. This means that one must understand the evolution of Chinese culture and its impacts on education as well as the influence of Western cultures (including Western education) on Chinese education. At the same time, it should be noted that education has its own patterns of development. The education traditions of a certain period develop out of the inherited foundations of Chinese education, the modification of those 4 Mao Zedong, On Educational Work, (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1958), 15.



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traditions and the influence of education traditions from abroad. For instance, contemporary Chinese education involves the following ­factors: 1. Traditional Chinese education that has developed over thousands of years, including both advanced educational philosophies and remnants of feudal educational system and ideas; 2. Scientific, democratic, and advanced educational philosophies and ideas; 3. The experiences and traditions developed in the liberated areas (between 1945 and 1949, in contrast to the areas controlled by the KMT); 4. The educational ideas, systems, and approaches learned from the former Soviet Union after the founding of the People’s Republic (1949); 5. The influences of Western education since the Economic Reforms (1978). These elements are not isolated or disconnected. Rather, they are very much interconnected. Many advanced ideas and philosophies of education as well as vestiges of old, outdated perspectives are embedded in these traditions. However, these elements do not play equal roles in Chinese education and some play more dominant roles than the others. Since the founding of the People’s Republic (1949) we have been striving to establish modern systems and traditions of education with Chinese characteristics under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theories and the Theories of Three Representations. However, the new education traditions are in the still in the process of taking shape. Clearly, in the traditions of Chinese education there are still backward, outdated elements. These perspectives need to be updated and educational reform should continue, which is the only way that traditional Chinese education can adapt to the needs of the new age. 2. Fundamental Characteristics of Chinese Education Traditions The several thousand-year long Chinese education traditions can be divided into two major stages. The very long first stage ranges from ancient times to the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In this period, education was basically feudal in nature. For the most part, education traditions were not highly developed in China, with the exceptions of the Primitive Society and the Slave society between remote ­antiquity and the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC–476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475 BC–221 BC). Between the Opium War (1940–1942) and the

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Liberation (1949), China experienced a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in which the feudal system of education gradually collapsed. In this period, education ideas and approaches were general feudalist, or semi-feudal and semi-colonial with dominant feudal influence. It was not until the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1949) that the nature of the Chinese education traditions underwent a fundamental change into popularized, scientific, democratic and socialist traditions. These two stages did not really have a clear cut in time division. After the May Fourth Movement (1919) the popularized, scientific, and democratic educational approaches began to emerge and were implemented to certain extent in the Liberated Areas. Since the Liberation (1949), feudalist ideas about education have been thoroughly criticized and the feudal education system has long since collapsed. However, certain ideas from feudal education remain in some people’s minds and are still influential today. Also, the education traditions of the two stages are not totally disconnected; rather, the later stage was developed through the process of criticizing and inheriting the earlier stage. From the vertical perspective of historical development and similar to Chinese cultural traditions, the nature of Chinese education traditions changed between the two stages. From the horizontal perspective of comparing Chinese education with other national education traditions, Chinese education traditions are characterized by a successive relationship between the earlier stage and the later stage which is typical of the evolution of the Chinese nation. Chinese education traditions are under the influence of Chinese culture. Their uniqueness can be summarized as following: First, Chinese Education Has the Tradition of Integration of Government and Education Throughout Chinese history, government schools were quite advanced. Records clearly indicate that government schools existed as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC). Those administered and managed by the imperial government were called central government schools, Imperial Colleges or Imperial Schools. Examples include: the Guoxue in the Western Zhou; the Taixue, Guandi Xue, and Hongdumen Xue in the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), and the Guozi Jian, Tai Xue, and Simen Xue in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Those administered and managed by regional governments in various dynasties were called local official schools. In these imperial or government schools, teachers were the officials of the Imperial Court and had the titles of Sue Guan, or Officials of Instruction. The titles for teachers recorded in the Book of Rites included Da Siyue,



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Da Yuezheng, and Xiao Yuezheng. In the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), teachers were given titles such as Wujing Boshi and Boshi Jijiu; in the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and Tang Dynasty (618–907) teachers were called Jijiu, the person with overall instructional responsibilities, or Siye, the person assisting the Jijiu; the Song Dynasty (960–1279) created an agency of Division of Instructional and Selection Affairs; the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) created positions for Officials for School Supervision; the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) had Supervisors for School Administration. In all the dynasties, officials were supported by the Imperial Court. The governmental Imperial Civil Examinations combined education and personnel selection. These examinations, a system for personnel selection in which unified examinations were given at various administrative levels, selected personnel based on exam performance and those selected were appointed to different government positions based on that performance. Although the content of the examinations varied from dynasty to dynasty, the core always consisted of The Four Books and The Five ­Classics.5 Under these circumstances, education meant that the student would recite and interpret these classics during their exam preparation. The integration of government and schools was also a feature of revolutionary bases in China. During this time, the purpose of education was to train cadres, and students were cadres of various levels who also enjoyed all the benefits of civil servants at the same time. All teachers were also cadres. Both the purpose and content of education served the revolutionary struggles. Even after the Liberation in 1949, college students continued to enjoy political privileges for becoming cadres. In this tradition, education is a tool for class or political struggle. Second, Chinese Education Has the Tradition of Emphasizing Ethics and Morality Chinese culture is a culture of ethics, and therefore, Chinese education emphasizes the individual’s ethical cultivation. In Origin of Chinese Characters,6 it is stated that “teaching (jiao) is the model erected by the

5 Both The Four Books and The Five Classics and collections of Confucian classics. The Four Books are the Great Learning (大学), the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸), the Analects of Confucius (论语), and Mencius (孟子). The Five Books are the Book of Change (易), Collection of Ancient Text (书), the Book of Songs (诗), The Rites (礼), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋). 6 Origin of Chinese Characters, the earliest Chinese dictionary by Xu Shen (许慎, c. 58– c. 147) of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220).

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superiors and followed by the followers,” and “fostering (yu) is to enable children to have good deeds.”7 On Learning8 also states that “education is to enhance the good behavior and rescue the misbehavior.” These statements focus on the individual’s ethical cultivation, and they are reflections of the needs of the feudal ruling class during its long historical period. Confucius and Mencius both stressed the relationships among people and between people and the society. As a result of their teachings, “cultivating yourself, putting your family in order, managing the local government well, and bringing peace to the entire country” became the highest ideals of Chinese education. This tradition involves a relatively high level of humanism. In the present time, this ethical tradition is understood to mean that we must pay attention to the education of the person, and realize that preparing students to be good citizens of China is the first priority of education. This also means that political and ideological education should be the highest priority in the curriculum and students should be taught patriotism, collectivism, and socialism, so that they will develop the correct worldviews and values. Third, Chinese Education Has the Tradition of Valuing Classics and Devaluing Technology This feature is connected to the emphasis on Confucian classics. Schools in China have always taught students the skills to manage the government, but seldom offered them skills for production. Confucius offered the “Six Arts,” i.e., Rites, Music, Shooting, Riding on Horse Carts, Literature, and Mathematics, and included the three components of moral education, cultural knowledge, and skills development. However, the three parts were not equally regarded, and ethical and moral education was on the top, serving as the core of the three, while shooting and riding horse carts were actually military skills for that time, not skills for production. After Confucius, the schools in different dynasties all taught the

7 Translator’s Note: The Chinese word for education consists of two characters, jiao 教 and yu育. The author here is explaining the meaning of the two with quotes from the earliest possible and the most authoritative sources. 8 On Learning, the very first book on education in China. Written in the late Warring States Period (475 BC–221 BC). The book is a comprehensive description of the purpose of education; the system, principles, and approaches for education and instruction; the roles of the teacher in education; and the relationships between eh teacher and the student and among students.



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­Confucian ­classics for the Imperial Civil Examinations and never taught students skills for productive labor. This tradition of Chinese education values Confucian classics and devalues technology and it has directly impacted the advancement of science and technology in China. Even today, this tradition is affecting the development of vocational and technical education in the country. Fourth, Chinese Education Has the Tradition of Emphasizing the Teaching of Basic Knowledge with Scholarly Methodologies Education in China has always begun with recognizing Chinese characters. In ancient times, children began learning with books of characters, and continued with The Four Books and The Five Classics as well as various scholarly explanations. Pedagogically speaking, the teacher would read the original book without making connections between and among different parts of the content, and the students would recite the books without real understanding. Recitation and memorization have always been emphasized in Chinese education. This approach is beneficial for learning and consolidating knowledge, but it does not help with developing student independent thinking and creativity. After the Liberation in 1949, China learned from Soviet education which stressed learning systematic knowledge with refined lectures and repeated practices. This practice was consistent with the ancient traditions of Chinese education, and it gradually evolved into the present focus on teaching basic knowledge and developing basic skills while neglecting the fostering of creativity and practical skills. Fifth, Chinese Education Has the Tradition of Respecting the Teacher, Paying Attention to Education, and Maintaining Dignity of the Teaching Profession Education has always been a high priority in China, for two reasons. On the one hand, the ruling class of various dynasties always regarded themselves as pursuing ethical governance and providing education for the people. On the other hand, the Imperial Civil Examination system did not take student family background into consideration, thus enabling ordinary people to participate in the examinations. Although few passed the examinations and were selected to be officials, the practice did give people the hope that if student worked and studied hard, sooner or later he would make it. Therefore, the ideas of “he who studies well becomes an official” and “study to be an official” were common among the people.

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In China, as far as conditions permit, the Imperial family, the official’s family, and an ordinary family all want their children to study in schools. Because education is valued, teachers are honored. The tradition in China of “once you are his teacher, you are his father for your life” gives the teacher a status equal to that of the student’s parents. This tradition is still very strong today due to Chinese cultural and educational values. Chinese education traditions have many special features. The general statements here are only macro descriptions of those features and they should not be regarded as completely positive or entirely negative. Their impacts on the modernization of Chinese education can also be positive or negative, and therefore, we must provide detailed and specific analysis of these impacts. This point will be further discussed in the later ­chapters.

Chapter Five

Influence of Traditional Chinese Culture on Chinese Education 1. Traditional Chinese Culture Shapes Chinese Education Traditional Chinese education is aligned with traditional Chinese culture because both evolved at the same time and because education is itself a component of culture. Traditional Chinese education was fired and molded in the furnace of traditional Chinese culture. Since traditional Chinese culture holds Confucian culture at its core, Confucianism influences every aspect of traditional Chinese education, from educational philosophies and values to educational content and methodologies of education. It is safe to say that traditional Chinese education functions to pass on Confucian culture. In this section we will discuss the impacts of traditional Chinese culture on traditional Chinese education. Emphasis on Education and Education as Primary Element in Building the Nation and Developing a People Historically, education has been highly valued and regarded as critical to the existence, stability and survival of the nation. This is why the early Chinese state oversaw and developed a state education system—it was believed that the development of education should be the first priority for building the country. Education was valued at the times of Huangi, Yao, and Shun. During Shun’s reign, specialized educational institutions appeared. According to Shangshu, Emperor Shun once said: “Kui, I give you the order to teach classical music to official’s sons.”1 This also shows that specialized government employees were educating children from noble families. In the chapter “Original Records of the Five Emperors” in Historical Record,2 there are documentations of similar activities, and one paragraph even mentions the education of ordinary people: “Qi, the 1  Kui, a person’s name, and in legend he was an official in charge of music during the time of Emperors Yao and Shun. 2 Historical Records, by Sima Qian (145 or 135 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–25 AD).

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o­ rdinary people do not get along with each other and their conduct is not appropriate. You are the Situ, and if you teach them the Five Teachings, the tension would be loosened.”3 The Five Teachings here refer to the ethics of the family with consanguinity, including righteousness of the father, kindness of the mother, friendliness of the older brother to younger brothers, respect of the younger brothers to the older brother, and filial respect of sons toward the parents. These are the ethics of the consanguineous family, and they were required in the education of the ordinary people. During this time, China was still in its primitive communal society stage, and the relationship between the emperor and his subordinates was not mentioned because China had not yet transitioned into a monarchy. As society continued to change and productivity continued to develop, education became increasingly more important. According to Chinese classics, schools were in existence in the Yu (the last dynasty of the Five Legendary dynasties between 2600 BC to 2070 BC), Xia (2070 BC– 1600 BC), Shang (1600 BC–1046 BC) and Zhou (1046 BC–771 BC) Dynasties. Up until the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC), the slave society had become quite extensive and complex, and various levels of schools appeared and were divided into imperial and local schools. The imperial schools were created for the children of higher class and noble families, while local schools for children of the ordinary people.4 The Historical Records On Learning indicate that “in ancient times, there were Shu at the family level; Yang at the Dang level, a community of 500 households; Xu at the Shu level, a region of 12,500 households; and Xue at the national level.” Therefore in the Western Zhou period, a comprehensive educational system was in place. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC–476 BC), Confucius founded private schools. Representatives of various schools of thoughts also opened schools and recruited students. A culture of learning took shape in society. The Confucian culture paid close attention to the roles of education in building a country. In its opening lines, On Learning5 acknowledges that in order “to build a country and to govern a people, instruction and learning are first priorities,” and it regards education as the

3 Qi, a person’s name. Situ, Minister of Land and People. 4 Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun, ed. Comprehensive History of Chinese Education, Book I, (Jinan: Shandong Education Press, 1985). 5 See section V of this chapter for detailed descriptions of On Learning.



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most critical aspect of creating a nation. Many Confucian thinkers advocated the importance of education; they hoped that through education rulers would become emperors with wise minds and brilliant thoughts, and his subordinates and the ordinary people could “be educated” so that they would become good, obedient people through education. Youzi, a student of Confucius once said, “Those who are filial to their parents and obedient to their elder brothers but are apt to defy their superiors are rare indeed; those who are not apt to defy their superiors, but are apt to stir up a rebellion simply do not exist.” (The Analects · Xue’er) If people received education and learned rites and protocol, they would not work against those in upper positions and or rebel against the government. In the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) Dynasties, the Imperial Civil Service Examination System was created to select scholars. This system provided a way for ordinary people to change their fates and social status by studying the classics and succeeding in the examinations. The Imperial Civil Service Examination System dramatically increased the enthusiasm of the common people toward education. Many people could say and practice these beliefs: “He who studies well governs,” and “In books you find gold mansions, and in books you find beautiful women.” Therefore, the Chinese people have had a strong tradition of paying close attention to education. All people, whether from a background of nobility or commoners, would save every penny possible and try their utmost to send their children to school. Few countries in the world reached the advanced level of the government schools and private schools in ancient China. Why did education receive so much attention in ancient China? Quite simply, the Chinese people realized that education was the most fundamental element in building a country and developing a people. The Great Learning6 explains this relation: He who wants to promote ethics on Earth must govern the country first. He who wants to govern the country must manage his family first. He who wants to manage his family must cultivate himself first. He who wants to cultivate himself must straighten his mind first. He who wants to straighten his mind must become sincere first. He who wants to become sincere must learn knowledge first. Being knowledgeable is to learn the ultimate truth of various matters. Knowing that truth makes a person knowledgeable, then he can become sincere; being sincere leads him straighten his mind; a straightened mind helps with self cultivation; self cultivation leads to a man-

6 Daxue, The Great Learning, one of the four Confucian classics.

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chapter five aged family; a managed family leads to a well governed nation; and a well governed nation leads to peace under Heaven. From the Son of the Heaven7 to the ordinary people, the fundamental task is self cultivation.

The purpose of education was to gain the truth and become knowledgeable, thereby developing the mind and cultivating oneself, so that a person could govern the country and manage the world. Therefore, the individual’s The Analects includes education as linked to the fortune of the nation is a tradition of Chinese education. Although that tradition was focused on the ruling class, Chinese intellectuals of many generations have regarded it as the ultimate purpose of education. These values of education are influential even today. The concepts of “Studying to save the country” and “Studying to build the nation” are integral to the Chinese people’s value system. All Chinese pay great attention to their children’s education and value years of higher education. This is evident in the intensive competition for moving up to a higher level of education and the attitudes of the general public toward education. In first generation of Chinese immigrants, many hardly have any schooling, yet once they have saved money, they raise funds to build and create Chinese schools and they make donations for schools in their motherland. However, a negative element exists in those values of education— education is regarded as a way to improve an individual’s social status. In the present society, this perception is not necessarily wrong. However, the concepts generated from this, such as “He who studies well becomes a government official” and “Studying is for official positions,” have led to the low status of physical exercise and the pursuit of vanity, both of which negatively affect the physical and mental health of the students. Moreover, this perception creates a major distortion of the understandings of talents in the modern society, and it is not beneficial to the preparation of multiple types of personnel and the implementation of quality ­education. Ethical Morality as the Core for the Values of Education From its very beginning, education in ancient China was connected with the society and the nation. The purposes of education were to cultivate oneself, manage the family, govern the country, and manage the world. This society built on the foundation of a patriarchal clan system paid close attention to feudal human relations and ethics. As early as the Wudi or

7 The Son of the Heaven refers to the sovereign or the emperor in ancient China.



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the Five Emperors Period,8 education on the Wuchang or Five Cardinal Virtues (i.e., benevolence (ren 仁), justice (yi 义), propriety (li 礼), wisdom (zhi 智), and honor (xin 信)) was highly valued. Later, when Confucian culture emerged, it fit well alongside the emphasis on human relations and ethics. Confucian scholars upheld the political concept of “exercising governance with ethics” and emphasized the roles of ethics and ethical education in managing the country and reassuring the people. Confucianism became the tie that bound individuals, the family, the clan, and the country. Therefore, it is not a coincidence that Dong Zhongshu9 at the time of Emperor Han Wu (Reign 140–88 BC) submitted to the emperor a written policy recommendation on “paying extreme tribute to Confucianism” because it served the needs of feudal national unity. To implement the sole worship of Confucianism, Dong Zhongshu transformed the original Confucian concepts and created San Gang Wu Chang, or the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, the core of Neo-Confucianism.10 Ethics became the center of educational values throughout feudal China. In the Song (960–1279) and Ming (1368–1644) Dynasties the Confucian school of idealist philosophy paid even more attention to ethical education and self-cultivation. Emphasizing ethics and humanistic studies while ignoring utility and natural science gradually took shape as one of the traditions in ancient Chinese education. Certain schools of philosophy, such as the Mohists and the Agriculturalists, had argued that teaching agriculture would generate wealth which would in turn have great benefits for the people. However, since Emperor Han Wu banned all schools of thought except for Confucianism, the impact of their perspective on education was minimized. The School of Real Learning in the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) took the approach of paying attention to the practical knowledge of managing state affairs. In addition to the study of Confucian classics, students learned Little Learning,11 historiography, astronomy, water conservancy,   8 Wudi, or the five legend rulers in pre-historic China: Huangdi 黄帝, Zhuanxu 顓頊, Di Ku 帝喾, Tang Yao 唐尧, and Yu Shun 虞顺. 9 Dong Zhongshu, formerly translated as Tung Chung-shu, 179–104 BC, philosopher of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–25 AD). 10  San Gang Wu Chang, or the Three Cardinal Guides (ruler guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides wife) and Five Constant Virtues (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and fidelity), were the feudal ethical code. 11 Little Learning, the study of the etymology, semantics and phonology of classical Chinese.

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and inscriptions on ancient bronzes and tablets. However, this educational strategy was not recognized by the Imperial Court and the larger society. For the vast majority of students, ancient Chinese education up to the Opium War only taught students to conduct themselves ethically and to follow the path of virtue but the practical matters of management or the higher ideal of seeking truth. This path of virtue was based on the constant and unchangeable hierarchy of seniority in feudal ethics and human relationships. This type of education in ethics reached the level of significance of education-in-itself. Children of noble families went to school to study the rites of the ruling group so that they could inherit the officials’ stipends; children of ordinary families went to school to study the rites stipulated by the ruling group so that they could move up to a higher class, serve the feudal Imperial Court, manage the country, while changing the family status and bringing honor to their ancestors. These educational values have both positive and negative sides. Ethical education has always been an important component of Chinese education; the primary purposes of obtaining knowledge are learning good conduct, cultivating oneself ethically and nurturing high ethical standards. The values attached to ethics have also influenced the national character, psychological aspects, customs and habits of the Chinese nation. The Chinese have always valued righteousness over profit and the group over individuals. Maxims such as “Treat others with generosity, and manage oneself with discipline;” “Seek one’s personal edification, and refuse the evil influences;” and “Every individual must hold himself responsible for the prosperity or decline of his country” have become mottos in the daily lives of Chinese people. The negative influences of these educational values are also obvious. First, they constrict people within family and clan ethical relations, and therefore, people’s thinking is similarly confined. They had to follow doctrines such as “Do not think about, listen to, look at and act on anything that does not conform to the rituals” which led to a conformist culture of human development. Some scholars have commented, rightly, that one word could summarize Chinese education over thousands of years: obedience. Overemphasis on obedience means that students dared not think, speak, or explore any new path. They lacked a pioneering and innovative spirit, thus prohibiting the progress of the modern society of China. Second, the neglect of scientific knowledge impacted the advancement of modern science in China. Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, a British scholar who studied the Chinese history of science and technology, raised the following question: why did China



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excel and have such advanced science, technology and economic development throughout history, but it lagged far behind the scientific and technological knowledge of other nations in modern times? The answer to this question is complicated that would involve factors of political changes and economic structure, but it cannot be denied that there were innumerable links between this phenomenon and the values of the Chinese traditional education, specifically the emphasis on ethics and the neglect of science and technology. Preparing “Sages and Gentlemen”: Objectives of Education In ancient China, sages and men of virtue exemplified the highest ideals of human development. Confucius regarded Yao, Shun, and Yu12 as ideal sages and they were known as the Emperors of All Sages. An emperor is the external manifestation of power, while a sage reflects an internal cultivation of character. An emperor of virtue is a person who manifests this internal cultivation. Therefore, for Confucians, the highest goal for education was to prepare students to be internal sages and external emperors. Mencius said: “Everyone can become Shun and Yao” (Mencius · Gao Zi Second Volume).13 This means that anyone cultivate his mind and develop his character in order to reach the state of sage. What is a sage? Confucians have many definitions. Xunzi14 noted: “A sage is one who fulfills all his obligations and responsibilities in human relations in terms of ethics” (Xunzi · Removing Blinders) and he also explained that “A sage is a person who accumulates his virtues to the supreme level” (Xunzi · Evil Nature). Dong Zhongshu stated: “The orders of Heaven are Mandates, and Mandates can only be implemented by sages” (Strategies for Promoting the Virtues and the Competent Chapter Three). In Baihutong Sages, sages also seem to undergo a process of deification: What are the sages? Sages know everything, they know all ways, they know all sounds, their ways reach everywhere, their lights shine on everything, they know situations by listening to the sounds, they share the virtues with the Heaven and the Earth, they share the lights with the Sun and the 12 Yao, Shun, and Yu were legendary rulers of China in pre-history time. 13 The Book of Mencius is one of the four great texts of Confucianism. In this book, quotes from ancient Chinese classics have their sources listed immediately in the sentences, the first name being the title of the book, and the second being the title of the chapter. 14 Xunzi formerly translated as Hsuntzu, c. 313–238 BC, philosopher and educator of the late Warring States Period.

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chapter five Moon, they fit in the orders of all four seasons, and they tackle ghosts, spirits, and good and ill fortunes.

Until the time of Song and Ming Idealism, the purposes of education were to pursue the heavenly principles, extinguish human desires, and to prepare sages for the highest ethical stage and the highest ideal of life. Simply put, due to their unparalleled brilliance, virtues and ability, sages have the highest prestige among gentlemen in Chinese society. “Gentleman” was a general way to address persons of nobility during the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC) and the Period of Spring and Autumn (770 BC–476 BC). “A gentleman is devoted to managing state affairs with intelligences, and everyman is devoted to taking his or her own job with physical strengths” (Guoyu · Wuyu Shang). The ruling ­nobility were gentlemen, and the slaves engaged in manual labor were small men. Toward the late Spring and Autumn Period, “gentleman” and “small man” gradually became the ways to address a “man with virtue” and “man without virtue” respectively. Confucius divided people into gentlemen who had virtue and small men who had no virtue. Confucius said: “Gentleman cherishes virtue, and small man cherishes land” (The Analects · Liren). He also said that “A gentleman considers righteousness his major principle: he practices it in accordance with rituals, utters it in modest terms, and fulfills it with truthfulness. A gentleman indeed!” (The Analects · Weiling gong). “Gentlemen” as a word appeared 107 times in the Analectic, and it is the most frequently used word in the book. “Gentlemen” was used in the very first section of the very first chapter of the Analects: “Not worrying about men not knowing you, isn’t that a gentleman’s conduct? If people do not know you, and you do not get upset, isn’t that a gentleman?” (The Analects · Xue’er). Who is a gentleman? Confucius had many definitions which were differentiated depending upon the different people and his various teaching methods. When Zi Gong and Sima Niu asked Confucius about how a person could become a gentleman, Confucius answered first, “A gentleman is all embracing and not partial; a small man is partial and not all embracing” (The Analects · Weizheng) and then, “The gentleman is free from anxiety and fear” (The Analects · Yan Yuan). Confucius also said: “The gentleman helps others achieve their good ends; he does not help them achieve their evil ends. The small man does the opposite” (The Analects · Yan Yuan). Confucius always compared the gentleman with the small man in order to draw a sharp contrast between the two. A gentleman should reach the stage of benevolence, term which also appeared as many as 104 times in the Analects. Confucius connected benevolence to



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rites, and believed that exercising self-restraint and observing the rites of Zhou (1046–771 BC) was benevolence. Benevolence serves rites and those who observed the rites of Zhou would be the most benevolent and ethical. We will not discuss the Confucian teaching of benevolence any further in chapter. In short, a gentleman is a person who has a high sense of propriety, righteousness and honesty, and who exemplifies the highest ethical cultivation of both virtue and ability. Mencius further developed Confucius’ thoughts, and he believed that the process of preparing gentlemen is a process common to all human nature because “human nature is good at its origin.” He also said that “Compassion is human nature; shamefulness of evil conduct is human nature; respectfulness is human nature; and sense of truth and falsehood is human nature” (Mencius · Gongsun Chou First Volume). Everyone has the capacity to cultivate the four extremities: compassion was the ­extremity of benevolence; shamefulness of evil conduct was the extremity of righteousness; modesty and politeness were the extremity of propriety; the sense of truth and falsehood was the extremity of wisdom. To reach the four extremities, education teaches the four virtues: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. This is why “Everyone can become Yao and Shun” (Mencius · Gao Zi Second Volume). Mencius advocated education so that people would learn good conduct and eventually become highly ethical and virtuous gentlemen. Mencius believed that only by cultivating benevolence and righteousness could a person become an “Emperor of All Sages” and obtain state power, thus integrating the gentleman with the monarch and defining the meaning of “internal sages and external emperors.” Xunzi, another succuessor of Confucius, also advocated the eduation and training of gentlemen. Differing from Mencius, he believed in the evil nature of humans: If we look at human nature, we find that humans are born for seeking profit, and if that evolves on its own, people would fight for life but leave death to others; humans are born with evil, and if that evolves on its own, people would be brutal and leave loyalty and honesty on the side; humans are born for desires for their ears and eyes, and they are born with the desire for sexuality, and if that evolves on its own, licentious conduct would proliferate and propriety, righteousness, gentleness and reasoning would be left on the side. (Xunzi · Evil Nature)

Although humans naturally gravitate to evil conduct, they could also be corrected through education which would cultivate one’s character and

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eliminate one’s falsehood. Xunzi thought that education could function in many ways: Is it possible for me to change from being low to lofty, from being foolish to wise, from being poor to rich? The answer is: yes, but you need to learn! If a person learns and practices, he is a Shi;15 if a Shi can put that in thinking, he is a gentleman; if a gentleman continues to learn, he becomes a sage. Learning can make a person be a sage, or at least be a Shi or gentleman, why not learn?” (Xunzi · Confucian Practices).

According to Xunzi, education enable a person to transition from being low to noble, from being foolish to wise, and from being poor to wealthy, from a Shi to a gentleman and eventually to a sage. Shi, gentleman and sage were the three ranks within the feudal ruling class, and they were the objectives for education at the time. With its highest objectives being preparation of scholar-officials, gentlemen and sages, education was actually intended to produce personnel for the ruling class. Although both ethics and ability were mentioned in the preparation of personnel, virtues were emphasized, and the ability and skills were limited to those necessary for ruling the country. These educational goals fully served the system of feudal rule. They stressed the virtues that feudal society valued; however, this education system was devoid of humanistic principles and it totally ignored the differing skills and personalities of students. Therefore, the feudal education system was one that produced servility, which is why Lu Xun summarized feudal traditional education in China as “devouring humans.” This Confucian tradition of education took ideal human dignity as its objective, emphasized that ethical cultivation should be the self-conscious choice and practice of every member of the society, and sought the perfection of human ethics. This tradition has also produced many people who concerned themselves with their country and their people, and it has also had enormous impacts on the national character and spirit of the Chinese people. If we transform it with historical materialism and remove the content of feudal education (fostering of servility), this educational tradition would be very positive. We should inherit and advance the following aspects of Confucian education traditions: pursuing the ideal and perfect human nature through “educating people for good conduct” and “combining ethics and ability.”

15 Shi was a social stratum between senior officials and the common people in ancient China.



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The Four Books and The Five Classics as the Content of Learning The content of ancient Chinese education was rich. In the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–771 BC) the Imperial College offered six subjects which were called “Six Classical Arts” i.e., propriety, music, archery, riding, writing, and arithmetic. Propriety was a subject on political ethics, including the ethical codes and rites of the slavery society. Music was a general title for all artistic pursuits like music, poetry, and dancing. Archery and riding were military training subjects, with the former teaching shooting skills, and the latter teaching the operation of horse carts. All students first started with the foundational subjects of writing and arithmetic and then progressed to the more advanced content of propriety, music, archery, and riding. Among these, propriety was the core subject. The people in ancient times began to attend school when they were eight years old, and they study junior level skills and follow rules on minor matters. When they were old enough to tie up their hair,16 they learn advanced skills and study cardinal principles (The Dadai Book of Rituals · Baofu).

Representing the development level of education at the high point of the slavery society in China, the content of education integrated both cultural and military subjects with a clear division of different levels of learning. However, during the time of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–25 AD), the content of education became limited to classical Confucianism, most likely due to the policy of Sole Reverence of Confucianism proposed by Dong Zhongshu during the Emperor Hanwu. This policy of sole Confucian influence of cultural and educational affairs not only banished hundreds of schools of thought such as Mohism which advocated education about knowledge of production and and ended the conflict between these schools, but it also promoted an emphasis on political ethics and the Confucian classics of feudal rules of etiquette and governance of people. In their book Complete History of Chinese Education, Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun wrote: After Emperor Hanwu’s policy on Paying Supreme Tribute to Confucianism while banning all other schools of thought, rulers began to use Confucian classics to manage state affairs, and Confucian classics were also used as important criteria and basic content for ­educating students in schools and selecting officials by the Imperial Court.17 16 Tying up a boy’s hair at the age of fifteen during a ceremony was a symbol of his adulthood. 17  Author’s note: Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun, General History of Chinese Education, (Jinan: Shandong Education Publisher, 1985), 5.

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This phenomenon further intensified after the emergence of the Imperial Examination System which selected Confucian classics as its content. In the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), all examination topics were required to be selected form the four major Confucian classics (The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius, and Mencius) and to use the Collections of Comments on The Four Books by Zhu Zi as the criteria for evaluation. The content of examinations has always served as the guide for the content of education throughout the nation and it can be imagined how standardized and uniform ancient China’s education content became. From ancient China, a wealth of teaching materials has been passed on for generations, and the content of those materials mainly focuses on ethical education. When we compiled the Great Dictionary of Chinese Education, we collected 262 articles/books that were used as teaching materials, and 252 articles/books that were used as reading materials. In terms of the content, these materials can be categorized in several ways. First, there are children’s primers. These can be divided thusly: materials for learning the Chinese language with common knowledge about history, nature, life, and production such as the popular Thousand Characters Reader,18 Book of Family Names, and Three-Character Textbook for Beginners;19 materials that provide moral instruction in cultural activities and etiquette such as the Disciple’s Codes of Conduct and the Daughter’s Scriptures; and materials that teach about scholarly honors and official ranks such as The Four Books and The Five Classics. There were as few as a dozen of books on natural science, such as the Ten Mathematical Manuals, The Nine Chapters of Mathematical Art,20 The Shen Nong’s Materia Medica,21 and Compendium of Materia Medica.22 Certain readers were not used as formal textbooks. Although there was a mathematics examination in the Imperial ­Examinations, it was only offered for a few years and was only developed for the selection of personnel who would specialize in the calculation of 18  Thousand Characters Reader, from the sixth century by Zhou Xingsi is written in rhymed sentences of four characters each. 19 The Three-Character Textbook for Beginners, compiled by Wang Yinglin of the Southern Song Dynasty. 20  The Nine Chapters of Mathematical Art, one of China’s early writings on mathematics completed in the first century. 21 The Shen Nong’s Materia Medica, compiled by people of the Qin and Han Dynasties in the name of Shen Nong who was a legendary ruler in ancient China who was supposed to have introduced agriculture and herbal medicine. He was also called Yandi or Red Emperor. 22 Compendium of Materia Medica, written by Li Shizhen in 1578.



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solar and lunar periods, calendars, and the imperial and dynastic successions in conformity with the movements of the heavenly bodies. The neglect of natural science and applied technology in the content of ancient Chinese education has had severe impacts on the country’s development of modern science. The consequences of this neglect have not only prohibited the development of modern science in China, but also enabled students to develop negative psychological tendencies which include: separation of learning from practice, seeking vanity, ignoring science, and having too high an opinion of themselves. It also produces students who emphasize eloquence but not actual evidence. All of these consquences became severe obstacles for the progress and development of Chinese society. The Teaching Methodology of Scholasticism Teaching methodologies in ancient China were very diverse. In the Analects of Confucius, we can discover that Confucius used the elicitation method and discussion method. He once said: “No vexation, no enlightenment; no anxiety, no illumination. If I have brought up one corner and he does not return with the other three, I will not repeat” (The Analects · Shu’er). The book On Learning also emphasizes the elicitation method: “When a gentleman teaches, he uses Analogy.” Analogy here means giving explicit instruction and explanation in order to stimulate and guide learning. On Learning also indicates: When a gentleman teaches, he is good at giving explicit instructions without forcing students to learn, so that his students understand the truth. He is rigorous to students, but he does not restrain the development of their personalities. He enlightens them, yet he does not easily provide conclusions.

A good teacher guides students in their learning, opens their minds, and does not restrain their thinking or quickly provide them with the conclusion. The teacher should know each student’s learning style: The teacher must understand that it is easy for the learner to make four kinds of mistakes. When people learn, they might be greedy for the amount of knowledge without thorough understanding, they might be satisfied with the little knowledge they have learned, they might think the content is too easy for them to be serious, and they might stop learning as soon as they find it difficult.

The teacher should prevent student from learning too much without thorough understanding, from learning too little without sufficient knowledge, from regarding learning as too easy, and from lacking confidence and

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courage. In ancient academies of classic learning, there were academic discussions. Zhu Xi administered the Bailu Cave Academy and compiled the Introduction of Bailu Cave Academy. According to the Introduction, instruction methods included students learning on their own, questions and answers on difficult points between teachers and students, lectures, writing sessions, and poetry sessions. These methods were used in the advanced educational and research institutions which combined teaching and research. As for private schools and schools that prepared students for honors and status through the Imperial examinations, the major pedagogical method was the mechanical memorization or rote learning of Confucian classics and the explanations of the classics. Once the “Bagu Essays” were implemented, the eight-part essay prescribed for the Imperial Civil Service Examinations known for its rigidity of form and paucity of ideas, students stopped seeking the truth and knowledge contained in the content they were learning. In his novel Wu Chang Hui, Lu Xun describes how his father made him read Brief Review of History, and criticized the teaching method of the old education incisively. He wrote: I remember that it was said that reading the Brief Review of History would be more useful than reading the Thousand Character Reader and the Book of Family Names, because it would tell the outline of all the major events from ancient times till today. Knowing this would certainly be good, yet I did not understand a single word of it. “Ever since Pan Gu”23 was “ever since Pan Gu,” read on, memorize it, Oh “ever since Pan Gu”! Oh “born on the remotest wildness”!24

I also had similar experiences. At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War (1937–1945), the Japanese army destroyed my school, and I could not find another one. I had to study in an old-style tutoring school. I was reading the Great Learning at the time. Today I can only remember sentences such as “The way of the Great Learning is to demonstrate the highest virtue, to be close to the people, and not to stop learning until the supreme virtue is reached.” Back then, I did not understand what this meant. In the Chinese class of junior secondary school, I studied Mencius, and I only learned it by memorization because I did not understand it. This was already in the Republic period25 the pedagogical methods were more advanced than previous eras. 23 Pan Gu, creator of the universe in Chinese mythology. 24 Zhao Hua Xi Shi, Comprehensive Collections of Lu Xun, Volume Two. (Beijing: The People’s Literature Publisher, 1973). 25 The Republic of China was founded in 1912.



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One other feature of Chinese traditional education is that it instilled the result of the knowledge into students, but did not explain the process of gaining the knowledge. In other words, students could only learn the precise content, but they could not learn how it was and why it was. In addition to reading The Four Books and The Five Classics proficiently, students had to recite the explanations of them. Writing was also limited to explaining Confucian classics without any study of practical issues. Tao Xingzhi calls this “dead” education: “The teacher teaches dead books in dying ways to death; and students read the dead books in dying ways to death.”26 The teaching methods of Scholasticism have had long-lasting impacts on Chinese education, so much so that even today’s educational practices are still in its shadow. There certainly have been various perspectives on reciting. Zhu Xi once commented that the Confucian classics should be read carefully and repeatedly, and after that understanding would occur. At present there some education scholars argue that reading a certain amount of classics at young age would be good for children. Yang ­Zhenning27 has also noted that reading the Confucius Analects and Mencius when he was young was beneficial to him. I believe that at young age children have good memories, and it would be good if they can recite certain ancient poems and Chinese mottos of virtue. This would not only develop their literary taste, but also improve their quality of thinking. However, this recitation should take place on the foundation of understanding, and rote learning should not be advocated as a learning method. Scholasticism and sole memorization will only constrain student personality and develop servility; it cannot produce talents with innovative spirit and practical skills. 2. Impacts of the Imperial Civil Service Examinations The Imperial Civil Service Examination System was an important feature of Chinese traditional culture. The system was originally designed for the Imperial Court’s selection of officials from scholars. However, it has had an incalculable impact on the tradition of Chinese education.

26 Dong Baoliang, Selected Publications of Tao Xingzhi, (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1991), 395. 27 Yang Zhenning, Nobel Prize winner in physics, now professor at Tsinghua University, China.

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The Imperial Civil Service Examination System can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty (581–618). In the Second Year of Daye (606) of Emperor Sui Yang, Jinshi, a system of advanced examination for selection of officials, was established. This was the beginning of the Imperial Examination System. It was further developed during the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and gradually became a comprehensive examination system. According to the New Records of the Tang: The Tang system for selection of candidates of officials followed the previous practices of the Sui. There were three major procedures. The examinations given in village schools were called Shengtu, and the examinations given at the prefecture and county levels were called Xianggong, and those who passed would move on to the next level of examinations, and those who did not pass would return to their original levels. . . . Those examinations were held annually. The examinations overseen by the Emperor himself were called Imperial Examinations and they were for talented candidates.

The examination procedures included the provincial examinations at the Ministry of Rites every winter after government schools at the central and local levels selected candidates through examinations. As the New Records of the Tang documented, every winter, prefectures, counties, and schools of different types selected successful candidates and sent them to the Ministry of Culture and Education. Many subjects were covered in the examinations, but the most common ones were these six subjects: Xiucai, or the junior scholar examination; examination on Confucian classics; Jinshi, or the advanced scholar examination; legal affairs; writing; and arithmetic. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279), the Tang examination system was adopted with several changes. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there were many subjects in the examinations. After the reforms initiated by Wang Anshi,28 examinations on subjects such as classics were abolished, and the only subjects remaining were the advanced scholar examination on the meaning and significance of Confucian classics and the strategies for state affairs. When Sima Guang became emperor, the examination was divided into two subjects: meaning and significance of Confucian classics, and poetry, verse and descriptive prose. The examinations were held at three levels: prefecture, province, and the Imperial Palace. Those who 28 Wang Anshi, formerly translated as Wang Anshih, 1021–1086, writer, philosopher and statesman of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). When he was the prime minister between 1070 and 1076, he initiated reforms to resolve social conflicts and financial crisis.



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succeeded in the provincial examinations were called Jinshi, or advanced scholars. Those who passed the the Palace examinations were given official positions immediately and divided into three ranks: the top Jinshi, the appointed Jinshi, and the prepared Jinshi. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), the content of the examinations was based on The Four Books (The Book of Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius, and Mencius) and the scoring criteria were based on the ­Collections of Comments on The Four Books compiled by Zhu Xi, thus making the examinations even more standardized than before. After the reign of Emperor Xianzong (1465–1488) of the Ming Dynasty, the examinations began to be formatted in Bagu Style, the eight-part essay. In this style, the exam question wording was drawn from the original words or sentences from The Four Books and The Five Classics and the answers were required to be drawn from the comments made by the scholars such as Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi29 of the Idealist School of Confucianism. There were rigid requirements for the format, structure and style of student answers, i.e. the definition of the title of the examination, expansion of the meaning of the title, transition into argument, initial argument, the first argument, the second argument, the third argument, and conclusion. This describes the Bagu Style of writing. It was not until the thirty-first year of Emperor Guanxu’s regime (1905) that the government of the Qing Dynasty ordered that the Imperial Civil Service Examinations be abolished. The Imperial Civil Service Examination System functioned in the feudal society of China for more than 1,300 years and therefore, it has had immeasurable impacts on Chinese education. As a system for the selection of personnel and officials in civil service, the Imperial Civil Service Examination System was invented in China. Its emergence was not happenstance; rather, it was created to meet the demands and needs of feudal society and its development. Many scholars believe that the British civil service examination system was introduced to Great Britain from China. Compared with the hereditary system, the examination system was quite socially progressive. It helped overcome the bad habits associated with nepotism such as laziness, degeneration, and corruption. More importantly, it weakened the autocratic authority of the nobility, strengthened the imperial authority, and delegated to the central government the power of personnel selection and management.

29 Cheng Yi, Confucian philosopher and educator, considered one of the founders of the Idealist School of Confucianism.

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At the same time, it opened opportunities for commoners to enter the government circle, thus constraining the autocracy of the rich, powerful, and noble families and stabilizing and motivating the numerous landlords of the common clans who were at the middle and lower levels of the ruling class. These students from landlord families who studied hard to pass the examinations would earn high positions and salaries, participate in government affairs, and rise to the rank of rulers. Therefore, the Imperial Civil Service Examination System was strongly opposed by the nobility and there were many obstacles to its implementation. A large number of talented officials emerged from the imperial examinations, yet as the system evolved, many abuses of power for personal gain occurred. After the Bagu Style was implemented in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the examinations became rigid and fossilized, which eventually led to their end. In terms of education, the Imperial Civil Service Examinations System instilled the pursuit of education as an integral education value. The Imperial Civil Service Examination System was the only path for children of the middle and lower landlord class to become officials and achieve the attendant glory and wealth. Therefore, in Chinese society, people believed wholeheartedly in the sayings: “study to become official” and “be an official and get wealthy” and “All matters are inferior, and only reading and studying are elegant.” Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty (920–1279) wrote a poem entitled “Advice on Studying.” There is no need to buy land to make the family rich, for there are tons of grains in books. There is no need to set the frame to build a house, for there are golden palaces in the books. There is no need to feel sorry for lack of matchmakers for marriage, for there are jade-like beauties in the books. There is no need to worry about having no followers, for there are carriages and horses in the books. To fulfill his life ambition, men should bend over to the Confucian classics in front of the window.

The novel The Scholars is a literary depiction of Fan Jin’s selection as an official due to his success in the Imperial Civil Service Examination, and it vividly illustrates the fanaticism and rigidity of the Imperial Examination System. The expectation of high educational attainment continues today, as evidenced by the popularity of the sayings “study to become officials” and “there are golden palaces and beauties in books.” Competition for school promotions, emphasis on basic education, pursuit of excellence in educa-



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tion, and the devaluation of vocational education—all of these features are quite similar to the values of the Imperial Civil Service Examination System? How similar are the entrance examinations to high schools and colleges to the Imperial Civil Service Examinations? The imperial examinations divided intellectuals into two categories: those who succeeded with honors and fame and then rose to superiority over others including members of the ruling class; and those who failed and then fell into the lowest status in society and were ruled by others. Similarly, those who pass the entrance examinations to high schools and colleges will rise above others and find good jobs, and those who fail may live at the bottom of the society. Certainly, there is no overt differentiation between the dignity of people who work in superior and and inferior jobs, but it remains the case that the high status jobs are also much more highly paid. While people have different abilities and some people will succeed and others will not, the results should be based on equal competition between different people and their abilities. Currently, competition in the entrance examinations determines the life fortunes for the candidates, but the examination content and approaches cannot reflect the students’ abilities and potentials. Entrance exam competition comes from two factors: first, the lack of resources for education which cannot balance the supply and demand, and two, the system for personnel and labor management in China. During China’s planned economy, the system for personnel and labor management used a candidate’s educational record as the only criterion for selection of personnel without considering his or her abilities. Thus, this meant that a higher level of education would mean a higher position. Today, educational records are important because they reflect the level of education a person has received. However, this should not be the sole consideration for job selection because it does not reflect the person’s abilities. The singleminded pursuit for the most prestigious educational record encourages people to seek a higher education level, generates severe competition in entrance examinations, and creates negative impacts for the improvement of the overall quality of personnel. The Imperial Civil Service Examination System has had an enormous impact on education in schools. The feudal governments used the ­examinations to select officials and schools prepared their students to be future officials. Since the students could not be awarded official positions unless they passed the imperial examinations, the schools and the Imperial Civil Service Examination System were bound together. The goals of education, content of instruction, and methods of teaching were all influenced by the imperial examinations, eventually, the schools became the

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preparatory institutions for the Imperial Civil Service Examination System. In Chinese feudal society, the objective of education was to prepare “sages and gentlemen,” the content of education solely consisted of The Four Books and The Five Classics, and the dominant pedagogical method was Scholasticism. These characteristics were due to the Imperial Civil Service Examination System. The goal of developing student servility while neglecting their personalities; the teaching methods of stressing results while neglecting the process through which the results are obtained; and the learning methods of rote learning while neglecting real understanding have all continued to influence China’s contemporary educational ethos. 3. Shuyuan, Institution of Classic Learning, and Its Influence on Chinese Education Shuyuan, or an institution of classic learning, was an organizational structure of schools unique to ancient China. Shuyuan began during the reign of Kayuan (713–742) of the mid-Tang Dynasty (618–917). According to the New Record of the Tang Dynasty, in the fifth year of he reign of Kaiyuan (717) four books were compiled in the Qianyuan Palace and placed in the Qianyuan Institute (乾元院). A year later, the Qianyuan Institute was renamed the Lizheng Institute of Book Compilation. In the thirteenth year of the Kaiyuan Reign, the Lizheng Institute of Book Compilation was renamed the Jixian Palace Shuyuan, which is how Shuyuan came into being. Shuyuan was originally an institution for book compilation, ­editing and storage and it also kept supplies of books and information for the Imperial Court. At that time, there were also Shuyuan or Jingshe for scholars who withdrew from society, lived in seclusion and studied books. Shuyuan also existed to facilitate learning for many people, for example, the Zhang Jiuzong Shuyuan in Sichuan Province, the Li Kuanzhong Xiucai30 Shuyuan in Hunan Province, and the Wutong Shuyuan, Huangliao Shuyuan, and Yimen Shuyuan in Jiangxi Province. During the period of Five Dynasties (907–960) of the late Tang Dynasty, wars took place in many locations, government schools declined, and many scholars chose to flee into mountains and forests to concentrate on their studies. Some of them selected beautiful locations to build new schools, surrounded with mountains and forests. Then, they recruited and 30 Xiucai, those who passed the imperial examinations at the county level.



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taught students. Gradually this became an organizational approach for school education. In the early Song Dynasty (960–1279), those institutions focusing on teaching received encouragement from the Imperial Court, and their regulations and systems were also improved. Well-known ­Shuyuans included the Yuelu Shuyuan, Bailu Cave Shuyuan, Haoyang Shuyuan, Weiyang Shuyuan, Shigu Shuyuan, and Maoshan Shuyuan. During the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279), Shuyuan became places not only for study, but also for activities of various schools of thought due to the popularity of Idealism. For example, famous scholar-teachers included Zhang Shi at the Yuelu Shuyuan, Zhu Xi at the Bailu Cave Shuyuan, Lu Zuqian at the Lizhang Shuyuan, and Lu Jiuyuan at the Xiangshan Shuyuan—these institutions were known for the best Four Shuyuan of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), the Imperial Court adopted a policy of active expansion and encouragement for development for Shuyuan. The number of Shuyuan dramatically increased and they expanded to more regions of the country. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Shuyuan was mostly in southern China but in the Yuan Dynasty, the gradual process of southern learning advancing to the north began. Also in the Yuan Dynasty, the Shuyuan shifted from privately-owned to government-owned. On the one hand, the Imperial Court encouraged people to donate funding and land to build Shuyuan, and on the other hand, governments at different levels allocated funding to build new Shuyuan or remodel and repair the existing Shuyuan. At the same time, the government strengthened its management and control of the Shuyuan by appointing the leaders and teachers in the Shuyuan, many of whom were government officials. Even the leaders and instructors hired privately had to receive government approval and official government appointments, and were treated as if they were government employees.31 In the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), the Ming rulers advocated and supported government schools, and therefore, the Shuyuan were neglected or officially recognized for over one hundred years. It was not until the reign of Chenghua (1465–1488) that the Shuyuan recovered and schools led by Chen Xianzhang, Wang Shouren, and Zhan Ruoshui, Shuyuan experienced prosperity. The scholars affiliated with Shuyuan argued that the

31 Author’s note: Wang Bingzhao, Shuyuan in Ancient China, (Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1998), 141.

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dependency of schools on the Imperial Civil Service Examination System should be corrected, and advocated for a system of lecturing among different schools of thought so that each would have clear guidelines, and all could consult and debate with each other on their different perspectives. The scholars at Donglin Shuyuan even advocated the teaching of real practical knowledge and specialized in satirizing the affairs high status people and the Imperial Court. The scholar Gu Xiancheng wrote this very popular couplet: “The sound of wind, the sound of rain, and the sound of reading, every sound enters my ears; the affairs of family, the affairs of the state, the affairs under the Heaven, all affairs are my concerns.” For a period of time, government officials and the general populace admired the Donglin Shuyuan so much that they revered and repeated its scholarly discussions and tried their utmost to visit the institution. Even so, the Shuyuan also made the Imperial Court angry and policies were enacted to destroy them. In the fifth year (1625) of the Tianqi reign (1621–1628), Wei Zhongxian, a high-ranking eunuch official, launched a campaign to crack down on political groups and imprison their members. In the sixth year of the Tianqi reign (1626), the emperor abolished all Shuyuan, and Donglin Shuyuan was turned into a historical relic. It was not until the first year (1628) of the Chongzhen reign (1628–1644) that Shuyuans were exonerated and rebuilt. In the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), it was ordered that Shuyuan should not increase in number; the government was concerned that they would become gathering places for students who opposed the Qing rulers and were working to restore the Ming rulers. Until the reign of Yongzheng (1723–1736), the government prohibited private Shuyuan while allocating funds to build government Shuyuan. The government first built and reopened the Shuyuan in provincial capitals, then, more Shuyuan were built by the governments of regions, prefectures, and counties. The total number of Shuyuan reached several thousand toward the late Qing Dynasty. Most Shuyuan of the Qing Dynasty were administered by the government, but a number of them were built with the private funds of government officials or donations from business people. However, the Shuyuan at this time were government schools in nature; the heads and instructors of Shuyuan were recommended or appointed by the government agencies administering and supervising schools and students were selected and admitted by government agencies. The majority of Shuyuan had evolved into institutions almost indistinguishable from the government schools that emphasized examinations and were dependent on the Imperial Civil Service Examination System.



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It was not until the reign of Jiaqing (1796–1821) that the structure of education and schools began to change. Ruan Yuan, Commissioner of Education of Zhejiang Province, established a type of school called Gujing Jingshe, (Explanation of Classics). These schools sought reform, discouraged the customs of vanity, and encouraged practical learning. The content of instruction included Little Learning (the study of etymology, semantics, and phonology of classical Chinese), astronomy, geography, and arithmetic. After the two Opium Wars, modern science began to be taught in these Shuyuan. In the twenty-seventh year (1901) of the Guanxu reign (1875–1909), the emperor ordered that Shuyuan would transform into schools, and they were abolished as the school system reforms continued. After the Republic of China was founded (1912), several Shuyuan were created, such as the Mianren Shuyuan initiated by Liang Summing in Chongqing and the Fuxing Shuyuan started by Ma Yifu in Leshan in Sichuan Province. These new Shuyuan were no Shuyuan in the original sense, although they inherited certain traditions of the ancient Shuyuan. Shuyuan was an institution that was developed upon the foundations and traditions of private schools in China. It was a unique system of education parallel to the government schools because it incorporated methods from religious teaching approaches such as those in Buddhist monasteries, as well as those from government schools. Shuyuan were the institutions of education at the highest level of a local area or a province. Developed through recruiting students who were taught by well-known scholars and famous Confucians in most cases, Shuyuan were essentially teaching at the level of higher education. Shuyuan’s thousand year ­existence, its support of flourishing intellectual studies and its historical function of preparing large numbers of talented personnel have secured its place in the world history of education. Shuyuan has greatly impacted Chinese education through the following characteristics. First, Shuyuan was basically a private institution. Although beginning in the Yuan Dynasty, the roles of the government became increasingly strong, most Shuyuan were privately founded and owned, or created and managed privately but with the encouragement or support of the Imperial Court or local governments. This support came in various forms such as allocating funding or land, and in some cases, the Shuyuan were named, given books or inscribed plaques by the government. Actually, Shuyuan and government schools complemented each other. The Shuyuan flourished when government schools declined and once government schools expanded, Shuyuan were usually neglected. This happened many times—the rise and prosperity of government schools and Shuyuan

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alternated and complemented each other. In general, the relation between between government schools and Shuyuan met the educational demands of students. Shuyuan has made incontrovertible contributions to the development of Chinese education. Second, the pedagogical methods and the content in Shuyuan stressed the explanation and the practice of meanings and significance of the teaching content. Well-known scholars and famous Confucians were often the lead instructors and these masters devote themselves to the cultivation of their hearts and souls and their intellectual studies. Most Shuyuan opposed the Imperial Civil Service Examination System, as well as the pursuit of prestige, social connections and influence peddling. Built in secluded mountains or forests, Shuyuan were determined to preserve their integrity and were proud of their distance from petty politics and material pursuits. This appproach influenced the intellectuals for generations to come. In the Qing Dynasty, most Shuyuan transitioned into government schools aligned with the Imperial Civil Service Examination System, but a few Shuyuan continued to concentrate on the history, textual research, and interpretation of the classics. Third, teaching and research were the primary activities in Shuyuan. Characteristcally, Shuyuan curriculum and instruction were much simpler and more flexible, as opposed to government schools that were complicated, rigid, and overly formalized. Shuyuan pedagogy focused on selfstudy and independent research, questions and answers, and discussions and debates. This enabled students to develop their thinking skills and enojoy academic freedom. For instance, the head of the Shuyuan would lecture with a theme for each session—this was called establishing thematic purpose. The speaker would lecture on his research accomplishments and offer his reflections while students listened and asked then questions, thus facilitating an engaging discussion. Sometimes Shuyuan would invite masters of other schools of thought to teach, and the speaker and students would debate on different perspectives. In the eighth year (1181) of the Chunxi reign (1174–1190) of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi invited Lu Jiuyuan to speak on “Gentlemen pay attention to righteousness, and small men pay attention to profits” at the Bailu Cave Shuyuan. This event set an example for different schools of thought to be taught in the same Shuyuan. Another teaching approach was joint instruction, which became quite popular. For example, Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi gave joint teaching sessions in Yuelu Shuyuan, and Zhu Xi and Liu Jiuyuan gave them in Ehu Shuyuan. Shuyuan were a predecessor to our current



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symposiums and seminars, because they alternated sponsorships and invited instructors and students from other Shuyuan to teach and learn together. Fourth, instruction in Shuyuan was open so that scholars from various regions and different schools of thought could attend and learn. Often, when a master scholar taught a session, students from all directions would arrive to listen and the audience could reach more than 1,000 people. This open instruction was beneficial to academic exchange. By emphasizing reciprocal learning between instructors and students, Shuyuan strengthened the relationship between the instructors and students. This enhanced China’s tradition of mutual respect and affection between teachers and students. Fifth, Shuyuan was originally a place for book storage and book compilation and most Shuyuan engaged in book collection, compilation, and editing. In many Shuyuan, buildings and chambers were built for book storage. Some Shuyuan even had the facilities for book publication and printing. Throughout China, Shuyuan owned the best book collections. Sixth, Shuyuan had rigorous regulations for learning due to the influence and enlightenment of Buddhist monasteries. The first systematic and comprehensive set of regulations for learning was the “Regulations of Bailu Cave Shuyuan” written by Zhu Xi, and it became an example for all Shuyuan in the later dynasties. Emphasizing the ethical cultivation of the student, the regulations focused on cultivating determination and good intentions, seeking the truth, observing details, constraining conduct, and minding interpersonal relations. Alongside the the cardinal vitalities and roles of education in feudal society, “Regulations of the Bailu Cave Shuyuan” was adopted by government schools and became the educational standard in China. Shuyuan was a product of the Chinese traditional culture and during its existence of more than 1,000 years, it experienced many changes. Although most Shuyuan eventually became aligned with Imperial Civil Service Examination System during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Shuyuan system and its traditions played very important roles in the inheritance and enhancement of Chinese civilization. The most obvious weaknesses of Shuyuan were that they neglected science and nature by teaching only classics and history, and Shuyuan served the interests of feudal society. By studying Shuyuan, we can retain its strengths, discard the useless parts and provide a historical reference for current education reforms.

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chapter five 4. The Wealth of Traditional Chinese Education

Chinese traditional education is the product of the Chinese traditional culture, or the ancient culture of China. It grew and developed in the feudal society of China, and undoubtedly carried feudal characteristics. In the same way, Chinese traditional culture made great contributions to the formation, development and prosperity of the Chinese nation. It carried the national cardinal vitalities and the essences of education which are treasures worth inheriting and enhancing. Chinese traditional education is rich in content and volumes of documents have recorded the thoughts, systems, and methods of education. This area is well researched by scholars in the field of the history of Chinese education. General History of Chinese Education compiled by Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun integrated historical facts and authorial interpretation and presented a comprehensive summary of the history of education from the ancient times to the present in China. General History of Educational Thoughts in China compiled by Wang Bingzhao and Yan Guohua and History of Chinese Educational Systems compiled by Wang Bingzhao and Li Guojun both have eight volumes and three to four million Chinese characters. These books describe the educational thoughts and educational systems in different dynasties, summarize the historical experiences, and distill the essences of the Chinese traditional education. However, due to the limitation of the styles of general history, the essences of the Chinese traditional education are scattered in various chapters on different periods or individual educators, and there has been a lack of integrated, independent and comprehensive descriptions of those fine traditions. This section will address this gap through a general and brief introduction to the essences of Chinese traditional education that are valuable to inherit and enhance. Readers will also discover how the present traditions of education have evolved through historical and cultural inheritance. Equal Opportunity in Education Regardless of Social Status The idea of equal educational opportunity was first advocated by Confucius who said: “I instruct regardless of kind” (The Analects · Weiling gong). He also said: “To anyone who spontaneously came to me with a bundle of dried pork, I have never denied instruction” (The Analects · Shu’er). Ma Rong explains that Confucius meant that “people have no difference as human beings, an education makes a difference.”32 It is educa32 Liu Baonan, Correct Understandings of the Analects, (Changsha: Yuelu Publisher, 1992).



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tion, not social status or position, that determines the true characteristics of a person. Huang Kan also comments that “people are divided into high and low social status, but we cannot refuse to teach those in lower classes. Once we educate them, they will all become kind people.”33 Zhu Xi further explicates this idea by stating that human nature is all good. People are divided into the good kind and the evil kind, but that is all because of the influence of the surrounding environment. Once a person receives education, all his good nature will return, and there is no need to talk about his evil kind.

Even though they differ in some particulars, these statements all reflect the fact that regardless of nationality, race, or social status everyone should receive education which will enable them to develop their good qualities. According to the General History of Chinese Education complied by Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun, Confucius opposed the social and class stratification of education. In the slave society, this stratification was manifested in two ways First, the Man and Yi groups (defined as barbarians at the time) were viewed as inferior and evil, and were excluded from receiving the education of the Huaxia nobility.34 Second, among the Huaxia tribes, only the ruling clans had the opportunities for education. Those belonging to slave clans were denied education—this is what was called “rites are not offered to common people” (The Book of Rites · Rules of Propriety). Confucius’ advocacy of equal opportunity in education regardless of social status was of great significance and it influenced the spread and development of Confucian teachings in later historical periods. However, it is important to note that Confucius only applied this ­concept to the internal circles of the ruling class he did not intend it to include the masses of working people who struggled for their daily subsistence. The progressive significance of this concept lies in Confucius’ argument for widening education beyond the ruling nobility of the slave society and it helped the transition from the slavery system to a feudal society. The people in later times have usually used “education regardless of social status” as a substitute for equal opportunities of education, and indeed, it is this sense that continues to be significant today. However, we need to explain this concept in light of current historical demands. First, we need to expand our educational opportunities to every citizen and improve the cultural quality of the entire nation in order to reach the goal for a comparatively comfortable national standard of living. 33 Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun, General History of Chinese Education (Jinan: Shandong Education Press, 1985). 34 Huaxia, an ancient name for China.

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Second, education needs to develop in a balanced and equitable way so that all citizens have access to education of a similar quality. Third, teachers in schools treat all students fairly and equally and refrain from putting students into ranks. Teachers should have confidence in every student and cultivate the belief that every student can become educated and ­talented. Ethics as the First Priority As discussed earlier, ethics was the highest value in Chinese traditional education therefore; ethical education was the highest priority. This meant that education’s foremost objective was to train students to conduct themselves properly and with dignity. The goal of Confucian education was to prepare gentleman, people who had both ethics and talents. The Analects are about human relations and ethics; benevolence, righteousness, propriety, faith and honor; the ethics and path of becoming a gentleman. Confucius said: “The gentleman cherishes virtue; the small man cherishes land” (The Analects · Liren) and also, “The gentleman is conversant with righteousness; the small man is conversant with profit.”35 These comments address the ethical distinction that characterizes a gentleman. The implementation of traditional ethical education occurred through a series of approaches. The first was practice. When children were young, they were taught to clean courtyards, be polite and tolerant in dealing with others behavior which gradually developed into habits. As they grew older, they read Confucian classics, history, philosophy and belles-lettres in order to understand propriety and learn the standards and methods of good conduct. For example, Wang Shouren of the Ming Dynasty wrote Rules for Teaching, and he distributed his writing to teachers in schools when he was the imperial inspector in southern Jiangxi Province. It specified the daily work and sequence of instruction: The first thing to do in the morning is to evaluate student conduct, followed by student reciting books, practicing etiquettes or course work, and student reciting books or the teacher explaining the content of books, and conclude with ­chanting poems.36

35 Ibid. 36 Gu Mingyuan, The Greater Dictionary of Education, Volume Eight, (Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press, 1991), 244.



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Many well-known figures in ancient China wrote parental instructions or family rules to educate their children. For instance, the famous “Zhu Zi Family Instructions” was written by Zhu Bailu of the Qing Dynasty. Using positive and negative examples and covering daily life and approaches of dealing with interpersonal relations, the instructions taught the children to be industrious, thrifty, and upright. Many sentences in the book well-known and popular even today: “When you have every bowl of rice, think about how difficult to plant it and process it; when you wear clothes, remember it takes efforts to gain anything,” and “Repair the house before the rain falls, and do not wait until thirst arrives before digging a well.”37 With special attention to self-discipline and self-cultivation, Chinese traditional ethical education advocated refining students by cultivating their minds and souls. Confucius said: “It is the man that can broaden the Way, not the Way that broadens the man” and “The gentleman seeks in himself; the small man seeks in others” (The Analects · Weiling gong). Zeng Shen, a student of Confucius, once said: “I daily thrice examine myself. In counseling men, have I not been wholeheartedly sincere? In associating with friends, have I not been truthful to my word? In transmitting something, have I not been proficient?” (The Analects · Xue’er). These comments all illustrate the determination and persistence required for lifelong self-cultivation. The Book of Rites · Great Learning teaches: “Loyalty needs to remain faithful, images present themselves on the surface, and therefore a gentleman must be cautious about his conduct even without others at presence.” This means that a gentleman must maintain dignity and have self-respect. Later, Zhu Xi, a Confucian scholar in the Song Dynasty, taught gentlemen to be serious and sincere at home, which references the imperative for self-discipline and self-education. Chinese traditional ethical education also placed emphasis on learning from others by using their conduct as a mirror to reflect on one’s own behavior. Confucius said: “When three men walk together, I can surely find my teachers. I choose their merits to follow and their imperfections to correct” (The Analects · Shu’er). He also said: “On seeing a worthy man, think of equaling him; on seeing an unworthy man, examine yourself inwardly” (The Analects · Liren). Confucius believed that people should learn from ­anyone with virtue and they should practice self-reflection

37 Ibid., 251.

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when encountering an evil person. Mencius advanced this idea by stating that one should engage in self-reflection during unexpected encounters: Demonstrating affection that does not result in closeness should lead to reflections on benevolence, managing others that does not reach good results should lead to reflections on wisdom, and showing propriety to others that does not receive positive response should lead to reflections on respectfulness. The time when you take certain actions but do not have the anticipated outcomes is when you should reflect on yourself. He who maintains uprightness will have the world under Heaven.

If a person demonstrates affection and politeness in his interpersonal relationships but does not receive positive responses, then that person should examine himself and see if he truly has acted with benevolence, wisdom and respectfulness. Only by making himself upright can he govern the country. Certainly this is advice directed to rulers, but it does illustrate Mencius’ understanding of ethical cultivation and self-cultivation which should be initiated from within the self. The ideals of and approaches to self-cultivation in Chinese traditional ethics were inherited and advanced in all dynasties. Chinese traditional ethics is the product of the feudal society and much of its content was infused with feudal concepts. However, it also included the essences of managing human relations and universal humanistic values. Therefore, the essences of the Chinese traditional ethics are complemented as the Chinese virtues. In addition, much of the content of traditional ethics will become important areas for building socialist spiritual civilization—using the approach of Marxist historical materialism, we will select the essence and criticize the dross of traditional ethics, transform its content, discard its limitations, and give it a new contemporary meaning. Chinese traditional education emphasized ethical education and much of this content and approach was meaningful and effective. These are valuable treasures of Chinese education. It is necessary to excavate, study, criticize and inherit them with the methodology of Marxist historical materialism, so that they become important components of the modern education of China. Teaching Students to Their Abilities as a Principle of Education In ancient Chinese education, instruction was given according to student abilities. It was not until the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) when there was a need to maintain and unify the ruling feudal system that peoples’ minds began to be confined and their personality development restrained.



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Teaching students according to their abilities as a principle of education, however, was still highly regarded in education. Progressive educators consistently used different methods to teach different students. The first person who reinvigorated the idea of teaching students according to their abilities was Confucius. Cheng Yi of the Song Dynasty said: “Confucius taught students according to their abilities and talents. To some he taught state affairs, to some he taught the language, and to some he taught ethics” (Writings of Cheng Yi of Henan Province, Volume 19). There is a section in the Analects that describes the different methods that Confucius used for different students: Zi Lu asked: “Should I practice something as soon as I hear it?’ Confucius said: “How can you practice something as soon as you hear it when your father and eldest brother are alive?” Ran You asked: “Should I practice something as soon as I hear it?” Confucius said: “Yes, practice it as soon as you hear it.” Gongxi Hua said: “When Zi Lu asked: ‘should I practice something as soon as I hear it?’ you said: ‘Your father and eldest brother are alive.’ But when Ran You asked: ‘Should I practice something as soon as hear it?’ you said: ‘Yes, practice it as soon as you hear it.’ I am puzzled. May I venture to ask why?” Confucius said: “Ran You tends to hold back, therefore, I urged him on. Zi Lu has the courage of two men; therefore, I held him back.”

Many students also asked Confucius for the definition of benevolence and Confucius gave different answers to different students in different settings. Mencius believed in the good nature of human beings. However, he also noted that different environments resulted in the differences in individual development, and therefore, different education should be offered to students according to their uniqueness and their environment. He said: A gentleman sees five types in students: he who only needs a gentle touch like rain spreading softly; he who seeks virtue; he who needs to reach wisdom; he who needs to respond to questions, and he who learns indirectly from masters” (Mencius · Jin Xin First Volume).

Mencius categorized students into five types: some who only needed enlightenment, some who focused on virtue cultivation, some who needed to develop their intelligence, some who needed guidance with questions, and some who would learn from what the teacher taught others. Although it was repressed in the feudal society, the principle of ­teaching to student abilities received much attention from progressive educators. It is an important heritage in the treasury of educational thoughts of our

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country and is still of significance today. It aligns with the pattern of individual human growth and it also accords with the theories of multiple intelligences. Teaching to student abilities and preparing various types of talent are also in line with modern society’s demand for multiple kinds of personnel. This is the opposite of the education principle of prestigious high educational attainment. Rather than assigning sole value to paper diplomas, it requires analysis of a student’s intrinsic qualities and different environments so that their wisdom and talents can be fully developed and they will become qualified personnel of varied kinds. Combination of Learning and Thinking as a Teaching Method Confucian education emphasized thinking and the understanding of the nature of objects. Confucius said: “Learning without thinking is fruitless; thinking without learning is perplexing” (The Analects · Weizheng). Learning without thinking could only make a person confused and unclear, and thinking without learning could make a person vague and general. Zi Xia, a student of Confucius commented on this: “To learn extensively and memorize tenaciously; to inquire specifically and think closely— humanity lies therein.” Therefore, Confucius instructed that one should “not be ashamed to consult his inferior” (The Analects · Gongye Chang). He also noted that “When three men walk together, I can surely find my teachers. I choose their merits to follow and their imperfections to correct” (The Analects · Shu’er). Everyone has strengths and we need to learn from all people. Related to the approach of combining learning and thinking are Confucius’ ideas of “no vexation, no enlightenment; no anxiety, no illumination,” and “review of the learned materials results in new learning.” These Confucian sayings are familiar to the Chinese people because they have been widely read and implemented for thousands of years as traditional Chinese mottos. 5. On Learning—A Shining Treasure in the Legacy of the Traditional Chinese Education On Learning is the world’s earliest systematic writing of educational theory. Completed in the late Warring State Period, it has been regarded as the product of the Si Meng School. With a comprehensive and systematic summary of the experiences and theories of Confucian education during the time prior to the Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206 BC), it came into being



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three hundred years earlier than On the Education for A Speaker by Quintilianus (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, 35–95), an educator of the ancient Rome. Although On Learning was written more than 2,000 years ago, it has had immeasurable influence on Chinese education. The development of Chinese education during the past 2,000 years essentially followed the ideas and principles of this book, and many of those ideas are still of practical and current significance. Because it is a summary of the experiences and theories of education prior to the Qin Dynasty, our analysis has covered many of these thoughts and theories in our earlier discussions, yet it is necessary to introduce and analyze this book in this separate section. For the first time in China, On Learning included comprehensive statements on the status and functions of education; the relationship between education and social politics; school systems; principles and methods of instruction; the teacher, the student, and the relationship between the teacher and student. Its major content is discussed here. Functions of Education On Learning first discussed the functions of education. For a country, education could bring about prosperity and peace, and for individuals, it could enable people to become gentlemen with virtue and talent. If a gentleman wants to edify the people and help them develop good customs and habits, he must start from education. If rulers wanted to transform people through persuasion, they must do it through education. Therefore, the sovereigns in ancient times all regarded education as the first and foremost task in building, managing and developing the country, which also helped rulers maintain their power. Just as a piece of high quality jade cannot be used as container or jade ware without carving, so a person does not know anything without learning. A piece of good jade needs shaping and carving to be a useful object or art work; likewise, if a person does not study, he will not understand the principles for his conduct, i.e., the Confucian ways of benevolence and righteousness. The roles and functions of education were confirmed completely in On Learning. Descriptions of the Ancient School System On Learning noted that in ancient times, “there were Shu at the family level; Yang at the Dang level, a community of five hundred households; Xu at the Shu level, a region of 12,500 households; and Xue at the national level.” This indicates that there was a complete school system in ancient China. On Learning also described the learning content for every age group:

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chapter five Every year schools enrolled students according to regulated ages, and the students were evaluated every other year. The evaluation for the first year was on analysis of sentences in Confucian classics and student interest in learning; for the third year, on student industriousness in learning and mutual learning with peers; for the fifth year, on broadness of knowledge, frequency of questions, and discussions with the teacher; for the seventh year, on abilities to make statements with support evidence and make friends according to the right-doings and wrong-doings being studied. The students qualified for all the above reached the level of “Xiao Cheng,” or primary accomplishments. For the ninth year, students were required to grasp a typical example and master the entire category of knowledge and draw inferences about other cases from one instance. Those who qualified reached the level of Da Cheng, or major accomplishments.

Hence, On Learning divided education (the Imperial School equivalent to higher education at the national level) into two stages: the Xiao Cheng stage, usually from 15 to 21; and the Da Cheng stage, an additional two years after Xiao Cheng.38 Patterns for Instruction On Learning indicated that teachers should understand patterns of instruction: “The gentleman who understands the reasons for the rise and fall of education can be a teacher.” The teacher should be earnest, sincere and teach students to their abilities; otherwise the goal for education could not be reached. If the teacher is not sincere, does not have good judgment about student level or readiness for learning and learning abilities, and his instruction is beyond reason and senses, the students would not feel smooth in their learning and they would follow instructions.

Teachers should know conditions of student learning, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and provide a variety of guidance for their studies. The teacher must understand that it is easy for the learner to make four kinds of mistakes. When people learn, they might be greedy for knowledge without thorough understanding, they might be satisfied with the little 38 Author’s note: On page 409 of Volume One of General History of Chinese Education by Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun, there is an interpretation of nine years: “The nine years thereafter students should become knowledgeable about various kinds of knowledge and establish their own arguments.” It also indicates that “after nine years’ learning in depth, the students would be close to 30 years old.” This understanding might not be correct. According to the text of On Learning, the issue of year should not be nine years. Rather, it should be the ninth year.



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knowledge they have learned, they might think the content is too easy to be serious, and they might stop learning as soon as they find it difficult.

Every student would have a different mindset, and only by understanding the students could the teacher help them enhance their strengths and correct their weaknesses. On Learning defines the teacher’s task as “developing and enhancing student strength and correcting their weakness and mistakes.” Students should be skillful at learning. When teachers teach those who know how to study, half of the work creates twice the result; when teachers teach those who do not know how to study, twice of the work brings half of the result. Knowing how to study depends on thinking, generating questions, and raising questions: “He who knows how to ask questions is like cutting hard wood. He starts from the soft and easy parts, gradually expands to the hard branch knots, and as the time goes, the wood is in pieces.” Students who are good at learning ask questions and work on the easy part before the hard part. Then, through constant efforts, the problem would be solved. The teacher should be good at responding to students: Responding to student questions is like striking on the bell. A gentle strike would make a soft sound, and a hard strike makes the sound much louder. A strike with a pause and a combination of gentle and hard strikes would make the sounds of the bell beautiful. Those who are not good at responding to students do just the opposite.

This metaphor describes the process of questioning and answering through which all learning content is explicitly explained. When students learn, they are open to learning at any place and time. Accordingly then, they should integrate their in-class and out-of-class learning. In higher learning, students have formal learning in school, and they should have informal learning after class. If they do not adjust the strings on their music instruments and practice on the instruments outside class, they cannot learn the instruments well in the class. If they do not spend time on rhymes outside the class, they cannot learn poetry and classics well in the class. If they do not learn how to receive people and get along with them outside the class, they cannot master the principles of propriety in the class. If they do not participate in various learning activities outside the class, they cannot enjoy the formal learning in the class. They need to keep their study in mind, demonstrate their learning on the surface, and always remember that they are learning even when they are resting or having fun, so that they can feel comfortable with their learning.

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Aren’t these patterns for teaching and learning indicated in On Learning still applicable today? The Principle of Timely Teaching Education should be conducted in a timely manner. When the opportune window is missed, not as much can be accomplished even if a student studies industriously. As On Learning explains, “Teach students when they are ready,” and “If the most appropriate time for learning is missed, not much can be obtained even much effort is made.” What is timely teaching? Teaching should not occur too early or too late—it should be conducted at the right time but not with undue haste, and it should take place gradually and systematically. “Do not go beyond student level, and follow the right order.” Teaching cannot go beyond the readiness degree of students. On Learning also stresses that teaching should proceed in systematic, gradual yet unforced manner: “Learning cannot occur beyond the learner’s level.” The content teaching sequence should be considered before teaching actually begins. While teaching should be timely and conducted according to student level of readiness, it should also be proactive by forestalling any wrongdoing on the part of the students. A teacher should prevent any evil ideas before they are put in action, and take measures prior to any undesirable behavior of students. Elicitation Method of Teaching First put forth by Confucius, elicitation was an important teaching approach for Confucian education, and it can be regarded as a principle of teaching. In its summary of Confucian education, On Learning gave the elicitation approach a significant position which in turn further advanced the approach. Although elicitation was not mentioned as a word in On ­Learning, in the 2,000+ characters of the text of On Learning it was indicated several times that teaching should stimulate student interest, enlighten their thinking and use cooperative, not forceful teaching ­methods. When a gentleman teaches, he is good at giving explicit instructions without forcing students to learn, so that his students understand the truth. He is rigorous to students, but he does not restrain the development of their personalities. He enlightens them, yet he does not easily provide conclusions. Guidance without imposition makes students feel close to the teacher, rigor without restraint helps students develop fully with freedom of advancement,



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and enlightenment without providing conclusions enables students to think independently. He who can make students feel close to the teacher and help them think independently is a teacher who gives explicit instruction.

There are three points here. First, the harmonious relationship between the teacher and students will be cultivated through the teacher’s firm but non-coercive guidance. Second, students are enabled to learn willingly and with pleasure through rigorous requirements that do not constraint or strangle the students’ zeal or initiative. Third, students will take initiative in thinking when their minds are enlightened without being given the answers or conclusions. If a teacher has harmonious relationships with students and his students enjoy learning and they think actively, then that teacher is good at explicit instruction or the elicitation method. Mutual Benefits between Teaching and Learning Mutual benefits between teaching and learning can be regarded as a principle of teaching as well as a characteristic of a student-teacher relationship. In instruction, teaching and learning occur simultaneously, and it is an interactive process between the teacher and students. In this process, they need to learn from each other and exchange ideas through discussions. The students can certainly learn from the teacher, and the teacher can improve her knowledge and teaching skills through students’ questions and responses—this is what is meant by the mutual benefits of teaching and learning. On Learning set forth that principle more than 2,000 years ago: Only after learning can one know his inadequate knowledge, and only after teaching can one discover his incomprehensive understanding. Knowing the inadequacy helps one reflect and learn harder, and knowing the incomprehensive makes one encourage himself and make determine efforts for his own betterment. That is why teaching and learning are mutually ­beneficial.

This principle of teaching fully explains the dialectical relation between teaching and learning. Regarding the relationship between the teacher and students, a debate among theorists of education has been ongoing for several hundred years: Who is the center in instruction—the teacher or the students? The correct answer was given in On Learning a long time ago. In the process of instruction, this question of who is at the center is a moot one. The responsibilities of the teacher are to “propagate cardinal principles, impart knowledge, and resolve doubts.” The responsibilities of the students are to learn the cardinal principles and knowledge taught

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by the teacher. However, in the learning process, students certainly have questions and confusions which make them feel inadequate, and therefore they will ask the teacher to assist. The teacher needs to address ­student questions and confusions, and in that process, the teacher feels that his or her own knowledge base is not sufficient, and therefore continues to learn and improve. Isn’t that how so many outstanding teachers developed professionally? This also demonstrates that this principle of teaching is in accordance with the pattern of instruction, and this kind of teachstudent relation is democratic and equal. The principle of mutual benefits between teaching and learning is exactly what needs to be advocated in modern education at the present time. In On Learning, there is a wealth of educational thoughts, and many books on the history of Chinese education have allocated chapters and sections to introduce them and review them. This book is not on the history of education, therefore only the major perspectives in On Learning are briefly introduced to illustrate that it is a valuable treasure of the traditional education of our country, and it is part of the important cultural foundations of the traditions of Chinese education. On Learning is the earliest educational theory publication. Across all Chinese dynasties, it was highly regarded as the rule of discipline for education. Although it is unavoidable that its content reflected the needs of the ruling class, the educational thoughts and teaching methods in the book align with the patterns of education. A timeless book of education, On Learning still has an important place and plays a critical role in the construction of modern Chinese education. This chapter has mainly reviewed the impacts of traditional Chinese culture on Chinese traditional education. However, two statements need to be made. The first is that these impacts are not limited to the above. Chinese traditional culture is broad in scope and deep in content. Traditional intellectual thoughts, artistic creations, and innovations in science and technology have all had major impacts on Chinese education. In addition, Chinese culture is not limited to the Confucian culture, and it includes other schools of thoughts such as Taoism and Buddhism. As indicated earlier in this chapter, due to the scope of work involved, this chapter only presents a small-scale description and it concentrates on the impacts of Confucian culture on Chinese education. Even within that limited scope, it is possible that for every item listed, many are left out. The second is that Chinese traditional education was dynamic and developing, and there were many internal changes over several thousand years.



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The ideas and theories of Chinese traditional education introduced in this book were mostly shaped prior to the Qin Dynasty, and they experienced many changes, both advancements and setbacks, during thousands of years. However, these myriad changes did not affect its principle, and its main content remained the same until the modern system of education was introduced into China, which is why this book does not offer a more in-depth study. After finishing this chapter, my general feeling is that there is much more to write about in this area.

Chapter Six

Dissemination of Western Learning to the East and the Modernization of Chinese Education Chinese education tradition not only absorbs the essence of traditional Chinese culture, but also continues to incorporate excellent cultural heritages from countries all over the world. When we talk about the influence of Western culture on Chinese education, it is more complicated than that exerted by traditional Chinese culture. Traditional Chinese culture has remained approximately the same for thousands of years. However, Western culture, which is more varied, was introduced to China through a complicated and tortuous process and it exerted different influences on Chinese education in different periods and through different channels. It was mentioned in Chapter Two that the communication between Chinese culture and Western culture can be dated back to many centuries ago— for instance, Buddhism was introduced to China from India and Arabian civilization passed into China through the Silk Road. Although they both greatly influenced Chinese education, the influence was indirect and exerted mainly through the merging of cultures. It was the dissemination of Western learning to the East beginning from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties that had a direct impact on Chinese education. Therefore, the present chapter will be devoted to this issue. 1. Dissemination of Western Learning to the East and Its Impact on Traditional Chinese Culture Western learning disseminated to the East primarily refers to European culture, science and technology. Western learning was not directly and easily accepted in China; instead it was absorbed into Chinese culture through a tortuous process and a fierce cultural conflict. Most historians believe that the dissemination of Western learning to the East lasted three hundred years, starting from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and ending in the time of the May Fourth Movement. However during this time, the dissemination has changed greatly in terms of its nature and channels, and therefore can be divided into three major periods. The first period includes the late Ming and early Qing dynasties when

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western ­missionaries evangelized in China, bringing western science and technology along with them. In this period, the Ming and Qing governments considered themselves a celestial empire and took a very arrogant attitude towards western learning. The second period was after the Opium War when China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country and forced to accept Western learning through various unequal treaties. Western missionaries preached in China with the aid of warships and guns; they also set up missionary schools which facilitated the quick spread of Western learning in China. The third period was after the May Fourth Movement when pioneer intellectuals realized the backwardness of feudal Chinese culture and the advancement of Western ones. They were determined to reform Chinese society by learning from the West. In this period, Western learning was borrowed consciously. This historical review therefore shows the dissemination of Western learning to the East has gone through a tortuous process—from the refusal to learn, to forcible learning and then deliberate and conscious learning. And of course, struggles and conflicts between Western learning and Chinese culture, as well as the merging of the two, happened in every period. The present chapter mainly focuses on the first two periods of the dissemination and their influence on Chinese education. The dissemination of Western learning to the East started from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In fact, the seed of capitalist production relations had already appeared in China in the mid-Ming Dynasty. At that time, handicraft workshops developed quickly due to flourishing business demand and the development of textile and porcelain industries was also especially striking. As a result, large and middle-sized cities began to emerge and the non-agricultural population increased dramatically. China was a closed country during the Ming Dynasty with a policy banning maritime trade; tributary trade was therefore the only legal avenue for foreign trade. However the smuggling private trade was never obliterated. During the late Ming Dynasty, private foreign trade was legalized and the imperial court opened a few ports along the coast of Fujian for exportation. The relation between China and foreign countries was then established and developed especially after Emperor Cheng-tsu (Zhu Li) of Ming Dynasty sent Zheng He to the West to enhance his influence. The West of that time mainly referred to the Indo-China Peninsula, the Malay Peninsula, Indian Ocean and the east coast of Africa. Zheng He was sent on diplomatic missions seven times and he greatly improved relationships between China and foreign countries.



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The first Europeans to come into direct contact with China were the Portuguese. Along with the development of navigational arts, European countries began their foreign expansion in the late 15th century and the earliest colonial powers were Spain and Portugal. Portugal was the first country to reach the East. In the twelfth year of Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty (1517), the king of Portugal sent diplomatic corps to China. They first arrived at Guangzhou, hoping to establish trade relationship with China. Although they were allowed to enter Beijing by bribing local officials, they did not obtain an audience with the Emperor due to the death of Emperor Wuzong (Zhu Houzhao). As a result, their first trip was not successful, but the Portguese did not drop their pursuit of trade opportunities with China. Instead, they resorted to force. In the thirty-second year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1553), the Portuguese entered Macau with the excuse of drying their wet goods. In 1557 they then settled in Macau by bribing Chinese officials stationed there. From then on, Macau became the portal for the introduction of Western learning. The dissemination of Western learning to the East began with the introduction of Catholicism. The Spanish Francisco de (Yasu Y) Xavier was the first Catholic missionary who attempted to enter China, but he died of illness before arriving into Chinese mainland. Later missionaries in Macau were mostly Portuguese. In the eleventh year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1583), Michaele Rugien was finally allowed to live in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province where he then built the first Catholic Church. He also began to learn Chinese language and wear Chinese clothes in order to be accepted by Chinese people and convert Chinese people to Catholicism. Later the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) came to preach in China and achieved great success. He not only gained Qu Taisu, whose father Qu Jingchun was an important official in the Ministry of Rites, as his first disciple in China, but also built up the second Catholic Church in Shaozhou (the present Shaoguan, Guangdong province). By the thirty-fifth year of Wanli reign (1607), he had already had as many as 800 disciples. In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli reign, Ricci came to ­Beijing and obtained permission to preach there, which is how he opened the channel through which Western learning spread in the vast territory of China. The dissemination of Western learning to the East did not happen by accident. With the development of social productive forces, the buds of capitalist production relations appeared in China, so therefore, cultural elements which could promote the new productive force were needed.

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Western sciences and technologies brought by western missionaries met this need. Besides, from the perspective of the cultural development, traditional Chinese culture began to decline in the Ming Dynasty. On one hand, the cultural tyranny was unprecedentedly intensified and on the other, early enlighteners appeared along with the budding of capitalism. They were opposed to neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming dynasties and proposed the idea of putting the learning into practice. Western sciences and technologies were simply in alignment with their demands. Although the dissemination of Western learning was not encouraged by the Imperial Court at first and even resisted, it was accepted by some intellectuals, providing the opportunity for the modernization of Chinese culture. Western Missionaries Bringing Western Science and Technology along with Them Most Western missionaries were elites among European intellectuals, who mastered modern sciences and technologies. They came to China to preach Catholicism, but got frustrated. Western Catholic culture was greatly different from traditional Chinese culture, which was based on familial culture and highlighted loyalty and filial piety. A man was supposed to be loyal to his country and fulfill his filial duties in the family. However, Catholics believe in God and held that everyone was sinful so people must atone for their sins on earth and obtain happiness in Heaven. Chinese people found this belief difficult to accept. In order to gain the trust of Chinese people, most missionaries to China learned Chinese, studied Confucianism, wore Chinese clothes, and adopted Chinese ­habits and conventions. At the same time, they also strove for the right to preach by spreading scientific knowledge and technology. They first targeted intellectuals from the upper class and caught their attention with western sciences and technologies. One representative directly influenced by Western missionaries was Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) who was the Minister of Rites and Grand Secretary of Dong Imperial Library and Wenyuan Imperial Library1 during the Chongzhen reign in the Ming Dynasty. Xu Guangqi was extremely excited after reading The Sino-European Map by Matteo Ricci; he then formed a close relationship with Ricci and converted to Catholicism. He learned astronomy and Western calendar time 1 Note: Though the official rank of Grand Secretary was not high enough, they had great power due to their works on imperial documents, almost equal to prime minister in the late Ming Dynasty.



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from Ricci and then Xu Guangqui promoted these knowledges throughout China. He also attacked Neo-Confucian scholars who were ignorant about science and other applied knowledges. Xu Guangqui’s remarkable achievements in mathematics (which he considered the foundation of natural sciences), astronomy, calendar and agriculture were invaluable. He also translated the first six chapters of Euclid’s Elements and General Principles of Measurement with Ricci, becoming the first to systematically introduce European mathematic and measurement knowledge to China. Ricci’s contemporaries included Didace de Pantoja (1571–1618), a missionary from the Spanish Society of Jesus; Emmanuel Diaz Junior (1574– 1659), a Portuguese missionary; Jean Terrenz (1576–1630), a German missionary; Giulio Aleni (1582–1649), an Italian missionary and Johann Adam Schall Von Bell (1591–1666), a German missionary. They all adopted Ricci’s approach to assimilation and conversion by learning Chinese, wearing Chinese clothes, translating books of science, making scientific instruments for the Imperial Court and pleasing Chinese rulers by carving pictures of dragons on instruments. During the Qing Dynasty, the Jesus Society under the jurisdiction of Vatican sent a large number of missionaries to China. Some of them took such positions as the imperial painter or the imperial astronomer in the Court while others made friends with Chinese scholar-officials.2 They brought Western sciences and technologies and European Renaissance music and arts into China. Giulio Aleni wrote Summary of Western Learning in order to systematically introduce Western education into China, especially European courses on literature, science, medicine and law. As a pioneer of Western education dissemination, Aleni also imported Western teaching methods and examinations. However, the Western sciences and technologies introduced by missionaries were limited to some extent because the imported knowledges did not comprise the sum total of Western civilization in the sixteenth century. Also, the missionaries, under direction of the Vatican, repressed or censored ideas that conflicted with Catholic or Papal doctrine.3 For

2 Note: Scholar-officials or scholar-bureaucrats (in Chinese, shidafu) were civil servants appointed by Chinese Emperor to perform governance from the Sui Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. They mostly came from the well-educated men who obtained Chinese ancient academic degrees by passing rigorous Imperial examinations, and played a dominating role in the politics of China at the time. 3 Liu Wei (ed.), Chinese Civilization in a New Light, (Hong Kong: Shanghai Cishu Press and The Commercial Press, 2001).

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example, the heliocentric theory was not introduced to and the only the first six chapters of Euclid’s Elements were translated into Chinese. The Impact of Western Learning on Traditional Chinese Thoughts Sciences and technologies brought by Western missionaries not only opened intellectual and scientific horizons for Chinese people but they also had great impacts on traditional Chinese thoughts, especially those about the cosmic vision and way of thinking. First of all, the myth of China as the center of the universe was shattered. Chinese emperors always considered China as the Celestial Empire and believed that China was situated in the center of the world. People from other countries were all regarded as barbarians. The missionary Ricci commented that the Chinese people were ignorant of the size of the earth and therefore were very arrogant. And Chinese people believed that China was the only country worth admiring in the whole world. They considered people from other countries as barbarians and even irrational animals without national greatness, advanced political systems and high academic reputations. In their eyes, kings, dynasties and cultures of other countries were not worthwhile at all.4

However, Ricci’s The Sino-European Map proved that there five continents on the earth and that China occupied a smaller part of the earth than the Chinese people previously believed. Ricci also made use of the sophisticated western cartography of longitude and latitude—this was a great breakthrough compared with Chinese method of Counting-in-miles and Drawing-in grids. Simultaneously, the Chinese concept that “Heaven is round and the earth is square”5 was also shattered and the characteristic Chinese arrogance was deflated. Second, Chinese intellectuals were able to broaden their intellectual horizons. In China, the emphasis on ethics and morality and the neglect of science and technology can be dated back to the ancient times. The dissemination of Western learning to the East presented Chinese intellectuals with a new vision and advanced Western technologies. After the introduction of Western learning, some open-minded scholars recognized the backwardness of Chinese sciences and technologies and considered it necessary to learn from the West, while others still refused to accept

4 He Gaoji and He Zhaowu, trans., Matteo Ricci’s Reading Notes about China (I). (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1983), 181. 5 Liu Wei (ed.), Chinese Civilization in a New Light.



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Western knowledge. The argument over Chinese and Western calendars in the late Chongzhen reign was a typical example. Emperors of every dynasty believed that the law of Heaven and humanity were consistent with each other and that as the son of Heaven, the emperor must enforce justice on behalf of Heaven. Therefore, the Chinese astronomical calendar was closely related to the rise and the fall of a country and its Imperial court. Calendar-making was a privilege of the Court and common people were forbidden to get involved. In addition, errors in the calendar could not be easily corrected for the fear of affecting the fate of a country. In the second year of the Chongzhen reign (1629), the imperial astronomer made a mistake in predicting the solar eclipse while Xu Guangqi made an exact prediction according to Western astronomy. However, Emperor Sizong (Zhu Youjian) believed that the change of the calendar would indicate the change of dynasties and therefore he was not willing to do it. After many setbacks, Emperor Sizong (Zhu Youjian) finally permitted Xu Guangqi, Nicolo Longobardi (with Chinese name of Long Huamin), Deng Yuhan, Johann Adam Schall von Bell (with Chinese name of Tang Ruowang) and Giacomo Rho (with Chinese name of Luo Yagu) to set up the Bureau of Almanac. The Chongzhen Calendar was compiled in the seventh year of the Chongzhen reign (1643), but strong resistance from conservative elements prevented its issuance until the fall of the Ming Dynasty.6 Even unpublished, the new calendar exerted great influence and Western technologies began to take an important position in minds of some Chinese scholars. Third, Western sciences provided Chinese intellectuals with a new way of thinking. In the traditional Chinese way of thinking, intuition and generalization were emphasized while reasoning and deduction were neglected. The Four Books and The Five Classics only taught content, not the reasoning behind the teachings or principles. Euclid’s Elements introduced from the West highlighted deduction and reasoning, which was very different from the traditional Chinese way of thinking. Xu Guangqi thought that the essence of Western learning was about understanding the “how” and “why” in addition to the “what” of the content. He also believed that studying Euclid’s Elements and mastering its advanced and scientific way of thinking could begin to compensate for the weakness of traditional Chinese culture.7

6 Ibid. 7 Bai Limin, The Dissemination of Western Learning to the East and the Educational Thoughts during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, (Beijing: Education & Science Press, 1989).

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Fourth, practical learning was finally developed and emphasized. In the late sixteenth century, the dominant position of Neo-Confucianism started to decline and practical learning began to rise; the introduction of Western learning sped up this trend. Xu Guangqi and other intellectuals such as Fang Yizhi, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi and Yan Yuan of the early Qing Dynasty actively immersed themselves in Western sciences and cultures and criticized inane and trivial ideas about the soul and morality in Neo-Confucianism. They also opposed the Imperial Examination System of the eight-part essay and promoted an examination system to test practical skills based on practical learning. Therefore, they advocated natural sciences and human liberation and attacked the absolute monarchy. The dissemination of Western learning to the East not only brought sciences and technologies into China, but also had great impacts on traditional Chinese culture. Unfortunately, Western learning was fiercely resisted due to the Chinese feudal autocracy and the rootedness of traditional Chinese culture. During the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, missionaries were driven out of China and the dissemination of Western learning almost halted until the Opium War when China was forced to reopen to foreign countries. Even so, the profound influences exerted by the dissemination of Western learning on Chinese culture and Chinese education could not be negated. 2. The Emergence of Missionary Schools and the Birth of Modern Education in China The dissemination of Western learning to the East was frequently interrupted, but the preaching of foreign missionaries never stopped, especially along the southern coast of China where some missionaries established schools which facilitated the beginning of modern Chinese education. According to historical documents, the earliest Western school in China was the Anglo-Chinese College founded in Malacca in 1818 by the first British Catholic missionary Robert Morrison, who came into China in 1807. After he died in 1838, missionaries in Hong Kong and other cities established the Morrison Education Association in memorium. In 1839, the American missionary S. R. Brown opened a primary school in Guangzhou, but soon afterwards, he was driven away by the local people. He then went to Macau to set up another Marrison primary school. After China was defeated in the Opium War, the Treaty of Nanjing was signed and



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foreign missionaries flocked to China and they established many religious schools. One of the earlist schools included a women’s school founded in Ningbo in 1844 by Mary Ann Aldersey who was from the British Oriental Women’s Education Promotion Institute. In the next year, another school was founded in Ningbo by the American Presbyterian Mission.8 In the second half of the nineteenth century, alongside the expansion of American colonial power, American churches also supported and funded missionary schools in China. Yi Wen Boy’s School (also known as Boy’s Academy or Hunter Corbentt Academy Tengchow) was established at Tengchow, Shandong province in 1864 and was then converted into Tengchow College in 1882 by Calvin Wilson Mateer from the American Prebyterian Mission. This school was the first middle school in China, whereas all the previous ones were primary schools. Tsingchow Boy’s Boarding School (also known as Tsingchow Kwang Teh Academy) situated in Wei County was founded by the English Baptist Missionary Society in Tsingchow in 1866 and later was combined with Tengchow College to become Guang­ wen College, which then developed into Cheeloo University in 1917. Henry Blodqet, a missionary from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, founded Yuying School which was later converted into a middle school in 1912. At the same time, Grand Bridgman, the wife of Elijah Coleman Bridgman who was a missionary from the American Episcopal Church, founded Bridgman Girls’ Schoo, which then became a middle school in 1895. During this time period, the number of missionary schools dramatically increased. According to the reports of the Chinese Catholic Missionary Conference in the years 1877 there were: 177 day schools for boys with a total of 2,991 students; 31 boarding schools for boys with a total of 647 students; 82 day schools for girls with a total of 1,307 students: 39 boarding schools for girls with a total of 794 students; and 21 church schools with a total of 236 students. The total number of schools amounted to 350 and students accommodated were as many as 5975. In 1889, the number of students reached 16,836.9 Between 1877 and 1890, the number of missionary schools doubled. 8 Note: The school was moved to Hangchow in 1867 and was called Hangchow Presbyterian Boy’s School (in Chinese 育英义塾). Later the school was upgraded to a college and was renamed Hangchow Presbyterian College (in Chinese 育英书院) in 1897 and Hangchow Christian College (in Chinese 之江大学) in 1914. It was registered with the Chinese government in 1931. The name Hangchow Univeristy (in Chinese 之江大学) was only formally adopted in 1948. 9 Chen Jingpan, A History of the Modern Chinese Education, (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1980), 73–74.

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The emergence of missionary schools occurred after the dissemination of Western learning and was a result of foreign missionaries’ work. At first, foreign missionaries mainly preached in families, churches and streets, but achieved very little because Catholicism was so drastically different from Chinese culture that it could not be accepted by the Chinese people. Robert Morrison came to China in 1807 and baptized the first convert in 1814. Eventually, the missionaries changed their strategies and began to attract young children by setting up schools. At first, students enrolled in the missionary schools were mostly orphans or from poor families. Later, these schools made considerable achievements and received nationwide attention and so the number of students increased and high tuition was charged. As a result, missionary schools changed into elite schools. As He Xiaoxia and Shi Jinghuan explain in Missionary Schools and the Modernization of Chinese Education, the emergence of missionary schools in mainland China did not originate from Chinese self-determination10 but it helped to modernize Chinese education. This text provides a detailed introduction and comments on the establishment and development of missionary schools in China. Here in this chapter, some information is borrowed from it in order to explaine the changes that missionary schools brought about in Chinese education. First, missionary schools brought the Western school system into China. Traditional Chinese education only included two levels: primary schools and academies. The primary education was usually performed in families or family schools where simple words and basic rites were learned. When children were about 15 years old, they were sent to academies to learn The Four Books and The Five Classics to prepare for the Imperial examination. In short, Chnia did not have a complete and unified school system at that time. Missionary schools imported the entire Western school system from preschool education to higher education. First, primary schools were established. According to the statistics from the sixth issue of The Holy Doctrine Magazine, from 1839 (when Morrison founded the first primary school) to 1926, there were as many as 2,048 primary schools for boys with 57,877 religious students and 10,356 non-religious ones and 568 primary schools for girls with 22,111 religious students and 5,288 nonreligious ones.

10 He Xiaoxia, Shijinghuan, Missionary Schools and the Modernization of Chinese Education, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 31.



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In the 1940s, foreign missionaries also established foundling hospitals, orphanages, and Salesian houses for adoption. While these institutions were charity programs, they were also considered part of the new educational system in China. In the 1980s, foreign churches began to establish kindergartens and preschools in the southern coast of China; the early ones were known as the School of Observation for Children. The missionary Yong John Allen explained that Western enlightening education began within kindergartens, also known as ‘school of observation.’ Children should observe things with their eyes, hands and ears, and then learn about objects’ names, structures and functions before they read books. In this way, he can then learn reading and writing with ease.11

Following, we will discuss principles and methods of preschool education, and the School of Observation for Children which marked the beginning of Chinese early and preschool education. After the second Opium War, foreign missionaries penetrated even further into the Chinese inland under the protection of unequal treaties. After gaining a foothold in China, they began to establish middle schools in addition to primary schools. However, the purpose of establishing schools was not confined to Christian evangelism and conversion; the missionaries and Western nations also intended to foster a group of pro-Western intellectuals and leaders in Chinese society. Calvin Wilson Mateer, the first chairman of the Chinese Educational Association said, The real purpose and function of missionary schools do not lie in preaching or baptizing students. They have a further vision, aiming at offering students wisdom and morality and training them to become powerful hierarchs in the church and society or to act as teachers and leaders.12

Most of the missionary middle schools were developed from primary schools. For example, Tengchow College was first Tengchow Enlightening School. ­Yuying School, Birdgman Girls’ School and Tungchow College were all among the earliest of Chinese middle schools. The rise of missionary schools also aroused the enthusiasm of the Westernization group for founding schools. The Westernization Movement 11  Young John Allen, “Of the Stress on Education,” in Missionary Schools and the Modernization of Chinese Education, edited by He Xiaoxia 何晓夏, Shi Jinghuan 史静寰 (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 137. 12 “Records of Conferences by Missionaries in China, 1890,” References of History of Modern Chinese Education (II), (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1987): 14.

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was launched after China was threatened by the military western colonial powers. Military technology like cannons and naval warships used by Western countries in the Opium War opened Chinese people’s eyes to Western learning. The appeal of Western learning increased after Western countries escalated their invasion of China. Some of the officials who promoted westernization in the Imperial Court put forward the slogan of “for the essence, western learning for practical use.” In order to promote the Westernization Movement, the Qing government began to set up western style schools because it needed a large number of western educated Chinese people. The first Qing government established western style school was the School of Combined Learning (in Chinese Tongwen Guan) founded in 1862. It was followed by 21 other schools which all adopted the modern western educational system; these western style schools were the starting point of modern Chinese education. Second, missionary schools introduced new courses, teaching organization patterns and teaching methods. Most of early missionary schools adopted the system of group or class teaching even though there were a small number of students. This was quite different from the individual instruction used in traditional Chinese education. In addition to The Four Books and the Five Classic, schools also offered such courses as foreign languages, math, geometry, physiology, geography, history and cultural studies. In 1900, the Church complied data about the courses offered in five primary missionary schools situated in the south, center, east and north of China. The courses offered included: gymnastics, music, geography, physiology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, zoology, botany, biology, human geography, history, math, geometry, English, Chinese, Taoism and hygiene. Of course, it was impossible to offer all these courses in every primary school. However among five primary schools, there were four schools offering gymnastics, music, physiology and astronomy and there were three schools offering English, chemistry and physics. Courses offered least frequently were geometry and human geography.13 Most of these courses mentioned above were new to Chinese students and student interests were also highlighted in the teaching. It is advocated that teachers should be as kind and gentle towards the students as parents are. Schools should provide a familial environment and education for students. Teachers are required to have more contact with students so that they could understand and care for each other more. Ques13 Zhu Youming, Historical References of the Chinese Modern Educational Systems (IV), (Shanghai: Huadong Normal University Press, 1993), 266.



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tions from students are always welcomed and teachers should be happy to answer questions. They should treat the students with patience and sincerity, and encourage them to think and question since asking questions is important for students to enrich their knowledge and improve their confidence.14

Third, the precedent of female education was set. In traditional Chinese culture, boys were viewed as superior to girls, so girls were excluded from traditional Chinese education. The feudal idea that “ignorance is one of women’s virtues” had dominated Chinese ideology for a long time. Though a few court officials established family schools, different types of education were offered to boys and girls. Girls were mainly taught basic reading, writing and needlework. The textbook Classics for Daughters taught girls to be filial to their parents and future parents-in-law and to obey their husbands after being married. Girls were deprived of the right to enter schools. Some special provisions were made in section ten of The Charter of Pre-schools and Family Schools Presented to Emperor which was issued in the twenty-ninth year of the Guangxu reign (1904): Girls were educated since ancient times, as recorded in classics. Their education should aim at making them better women, better wives and better mothers. In China, differences between men and women are both clear and important, so girls are not allowed to enter schools in groups or frequently show up on streets. They are not allowed to read Western books and learn foreign customs by mistake. Therefore girls should be educated at home so as to learn some simple reading and writing and some math, enough for family use. In this way, they can better fulfill duties of helping the husband and instructing children.15

This passage clearly shows the discrimination against women; however, missionary schools defied these ideas and took in girl students. At first, Chinese people had many suspicions and doubts about the schools set up by foreigners and were not willing to enter. By giving away clothes, food and medicine to poor Chinese families, Aldersey was able to change their attitudes towards foreign schools. Subsequently, the school was able to accept the first group of girl students and the next year, the number of female students increased to 15. Seven years later, there were as many as 40 female students in the school, which marked the beginning point of women’s education in China. 14 He Xiaoxia, Shijinghuan, Missionary Schools and the Modernization of Chinese Education, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 109–111. 15 Shu Xincheng, Historical References of Modern Chinese Education (II), (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1961), 387–388.

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After the second Opium War, the Chinese government was forced to open five ports for foreign trade. Missionary schools for girls developed around these five ports and from 1844 to 1860, the number of schools had increased to 11. The schools for girls included: School for Girls in Fuchow by the American missionary R. S. Maclay and his wife Spery in 1850; the Biwen Girl School founded in Shanghai by Grand, the wife of Elijah Coleman Bridgman; the Wenji Girl School established in Shanghai by the American missionary Emma Jones in 1851; the Fuchow Academy for Girls set up in 1854 by the American missionary Justus Doolittle; and the Bridgman’s Girl School set up in Beijing by Grand, the wife of Elijah Coleman Bridgman in memory of her husband. By 1877, there were as many as 2,064 students studying in missionary schools for girls.16 Classics for Daughters constituted the major content of traditional Chinese education for girls and they were taught three obediences and four virtues. However, in missionary schools, boys and the girls were taught the same content including courses in the Bible, math, geography, history, astronomy, embroidery and home-making. In the early twentieth century, missionary colleges for women were also established along with the development of modern Chinese education. For example, North China Union College for Women was founded in 1904, The Woman’s College Of South China was founded in 1908 in Fuchow, and Ginling Women’s College of Arts and Sciences was established in 1915. Foreign missionaries established schools with the primary objectives of teaching religious doctrines, winning converts to Catholicism and spreading Catholic and European culture; in many ways, this was a cultural invasion. However, these schools also had a strong impact on Chinese feudal culture and advanced the modernization of Chinese education. In addition, the establishment of schools for girls brought about a great social revolution in Chinese society. For a thousand years, Chinese women were forbidden to leave their families and deprived of the right to education and social activities. In these schools, girls would not only learn something more than three obediences and four virtues, but they would also learn new subjects as natural sciences and social history. Some of them even obtained opportunities to study abroad. How great the change was for Chinese women!

16 He Xiaoxia, Shijinghuan, Missionary Schools, 222–223.



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The emergence of missionary schools in the vast territory of China did not originate from Chinese self-determination, but it was a result of foreign invasions; hence, it was a cultural colonialism. However, it also served as a catalyst for the development of Chinese education the abolishment of the Imperial Examination System, and the establishment of new schools in the late Qing Dynasty. 3. Influences on the Modernization of Chinese Education Exerted by the Dissemination of Western Learning The term “modernization” is interpreted differently by different people, but basically it refers to the historical transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial society. Often, it is used as a synonym of industrialization. Here, we use the concept of modernization in terms of its habitual usage in the history of Chinese education. The May Fourth Movement marks the dividing line between the history of Chinese traditional education and the modern education which was inaugurated with the establishment of a new educational system. When did modern Chinese education begin? Some scholars point to the Ren-Yin-Kui-Mao Schooling System as the starting point while others believe the May Fourth Movement marks the beginning. For example, Yue Long argues in The Traditional Structure of Chinese Education and its Modernization that . . . some people consider Ren-Yin-Kui-Mao Schooling System as the starting point of new education in China and think that it reflected the basic spirit of modern education. However, a close analysis will reveal that this new system did not escape the ideological confinement of ‘Chinese learning for the essence, western learning for practical application.’ In fact the tradition is still dominating and the new time spirit is not truly reflected.17

This idea is basically correct since the so-called “new system” was not new at all. However, according to the conventions in the history of Chinese education, the new system might also be considered as an achievement in the modernization of Chinese education since it was greatly different from the Imperial Examination System. Here, we will discuss the ­influences

17 Ding Gang, ed., Between History and Reality: Toward a Theory of the Chinese Education Tradition, (Beijing: Education & Science Press, 2002), 36.

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on the modernization of Chinese education exerted by the dissemination of Western learning in this sense. The modernization of Chinese education took place through a process of external coercion. Although the beginnings of capitalist production appeared in China in the late Ming Dynasty, modern thoughts could not appear voluntarily due to the domination of the Chinese feudal system and the deep-rootedness of traditional Chinese culture. The earliest enlightened ideas did not emerge until the dissemination of Western learning to China. It was mentioned earlier that the dissemination of Western learning could be divided into different periods and influences. In the first period, the introduction of Western learning refers to the ways that missionaries imported Western advanced sciences and technologies into China through their schools. On one hand, foreign missionaries came to China to evangelize and win converts to Christanity, and they disseminated knowledge about Western sciences and technologies as a strategy to achieve this goal. On the other hand, Chinese rulers were resistant to Western learning and denied the progressiveness of Western culture. They did not realize its importance and considered Western technologies trivial. As a result, the missionary work and the dissemination of Western learning halted during the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, during this period, influences of Western learning on Chinese education modernization were not obvious or direct. However it can be said that the “stone” of western learning was dropped on the “tranquil lake” of traditional Chinese culture and consequently, the tranquility was broken and some waves (enlightened ideas) were born. Foreign missionaries attacked the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties and were opposed to the system of Imperial examination. They advocated human liberation and even directed their criticism toward Chinese feudalistic culture. Although they did not propose to abolish the system of Imperial examination or create a new educational system, their ideas and criticisms, to some extent, quickened the modernization of Chinese ­education. After the Opium War, Western missionaries came to China again. They no longer begged for the opportunity to meet the emperor as in the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty; instead, they posed as conquerors and preached religious doctrines in China openly and directly. However, they did not realize that Christianity and traditional Chinese culture were such radically different cultural systems that the former would not be easily accepted by Chinese people. Therefore, they created schools to



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attract Chinese students, and therefore, school establishment became an important strategy in their missionary and evangelical missions. Within the church, there was a violent controversy over the relationship between missionary schools and preaching. Some believed that the missionary’s sole job was to preach and minister to the people. If missionaries were engaged in education, they would neglect their proper duties; therefore, founding schools should be limited and even forbidden. Others argued that the missionary’s calling was to spread the Gospel and christianize China and therefore, the should adopt whatever means possible to accomplish this mission. Establishing schools was proving to be effective, so this strategy should be expanded and strengthened instead of being limited. This argument reached its height at the China Catholic Missionary Conference in 1877. A group of missionaries proposed to integrate school establishment within their primary preaching duties. Calvin Wilson Mateer made his famous speech, “The Relationship between Catholic Church and Education” in order to explain the relationship between education and preaching. Although schools take up an important part of the church, they are not the most important and therefore education cannot replace preaching. Preaching is unquestionably the priority of the church . . . The purpose of the army is not to kill or capture as many enemies as possible, but to defeat them . . . The same is also true to the church whose aim is not only to convert as many people to Christians as possible, but also to Christianize all the countries in the world, to demolish the castle of heresies and to liberate heathens through obeying God.

In order to achieve this goal, he demanded that the first priority of missionary schools should be to foster Christian preachers and church school teachers.18 When the second session of China Catholic Missionary Conference was held in 1890 in Shanghai, the topic surfaced yet again. F. L. Hawks Pott, the principal of Saint John’s College in Shanghai, compared church schools to West Point in the United States and considered them to be important strategic institutions of preaching Christian doctrines and defeating enemies. He stated: “If the work of the church is not based on the education of missionary schools, it will not be stable and permanent just as a house built on the sand.” He intended to train priests

18 “Records of Conferences by Missionaries in China, 1877, English Version,” in A History of the Modern Chinese Education, Chen Jingpan, (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1979), 61–62.

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and teachers through the missionary schools in order to control the future of China: “in our schools, we are training future priests and teachers in China, making them future leaders and directors who will exert the most powerful influences on future China.”19 Therefore, this period was different from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Foreign missionaries of this period intended to conquer China by using Catholic culture to supplement Western military and economic power. For this goal, missionary schools were important weapons. They also brought to China Western sciences and technologies through their schools even though religion and science are often opposed to one another. However, scientific truths cannot be denied and religions must compromise. The church also made some attempts to combine science with religion. As Calvin Wilson Mateer observed, “if sciences are not taken as the ally of religion, they will become our most dangerous enemy.”20 In this period, the attitude of Chinese people towards Western learning was quite complicated. For one thing, they were resistant to Western learning for fear of destroying traditional Chinese culture and morality. Yet they also felt the urgency of reform after being invaded by foreign powers; the warship and cannon were much more powerful than Chinese swords and wooden ships. Simultaneously, some Imperial Court officials also realized that China lagged behind Western capitalist countries in such aspects as economy, military power, culture and education. Therefore, a group of officials advocating Westernization convened and they proposed to make the country rich through self-improvement and Western knowledge, as described by the slogan “learning foreign invaders’ merits so as to defeat them.” Careful to preserve traditional Chinese culture and to retain feudal rule, they put forward the idea of “Chinese learning for the essence, western learning for practical application.” However, they were exposed to the material and technological aspects of Western learning, not its essence. Advocates of Westernization founded schools and sent Chinese students to study overseas. Schools established by Westernization Movement advocates fall into three categories. The first is foreign language schools for training translators, such as the Peking School of Combined Learning, Shanghai School of Combined Learning, Guangdong School of Combined Learning, Sinkiang Russian School. The second category is military schools for training

19  Ibid. 20 Ibid.



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­military officers, such as the Tianjin Navy School, Tianjin Armament School and Hubei Armament School. The third category includes technology schools for training technicians, such as the Fuchow Shipping School and Shanghai Cable School. In additional to Confucian classics, these schools also offered courses in foreign languages and technologies, and therefore could be considered as a starting point of Chinese modern education. The purpose of these schools was to train talents for the Westernization Movement which in turn would stabilize the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty, so it was not true modern education in essence. However, it did help to break the system of traditional Chinese education and pave the way for the modernization of Chinese education. Sending Chinese students to study overseas was another important effort of the Westernization Movement. They believed that it was not enough to establish Western style schools within China; students had to be sent abroad so that they could immerse themselves in foreign countries and cultures in order to absorb all the useful aspects. For study abroad programs, they decided to choose ambitious and modest children who were not burdened with family duties and distracted by material comforts. They also issued “Regulations on Choosing and Sending Children to Study in USA” and planned to send 30 children to study in USA every year, so the number would reach 120 in four years’ time. Fifteen years later, 30 educated young men would come back to China every year. In Shanghai, The Bureau of Foreign Education Affairs was established to carry out this project. In 1872, the first group of Chinese children was sent abroad with Chan Lanbin and Rong Hong as their supervisors. However, in 1881, the conservative supervisor Wu Zideng decided to bring most of students back to China before their graduations because he believed they were acquiring bad Western habits. As a result, only ten students were left studying in the United States. This was the first group of overseas students in Chinese modern history. Despite the small number, the first group of students brought back Western political ideas and technologies and contributed considerably to the modernization of China. In 1876, Li Hongzhang appealed again to send students to study in Europe. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 completely destroyed the new Chinese navy. The gunfire of Japanese invaders also shattered the dream of “becoming rich through self-improvement” held by Westernization Movement advocators. In a cruel way, history taught the Chinese people that Western technologies alone would not rescue the nation from poverty; the essential problem could be found in the backwards political system. Some officials and intellectuals with capitalist ideas proposed societal reforms,

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a proposal which was later developed into a political movement named Hundred Days of Reform. Kuang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Yan Fu and Tan Sitong were scholars who believed that learning from the West was the only path of reform and also the only way to save the country, and so the advocated the replacement of the old knowledge with the new Western ones. In order to promote the Hundred Days of Reform, they issued newspapers, established societies, set up schools and advocated civil rights. Leaders of Hundred Days of Reform also emphasized education, believing that the root of China’s decline laid in the backwardness of Chinese education. Liang Qichao stated: “Schools make the difference between perishing and survival, stagnancy and prosperity, stupidity and wisdom, and weakness and strengths.”21 From 1891 to 1895, Kang Youwei established the Wanmu School in Guangzhou and from 1897 to 1898, Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong set up the Shiwu School in Changsha. During the time of the Reform, Emperor Guangxu accepted the advice from reformers and planned to establish Peking Imperial University. At the same time, Sheng Xuanhuai, the customs official of the Qing Dynasty, was also influenced by reforming thoughts and set up the Chinese and Western School in Tianjin and Nan Yang Public School in Shanghai. Reform leaders demanded the collapse of feudal tyranny and incorporated Western ideas about democracy and civil rights in their quest to develop capitalism. Although Hundred Days of Reform was quickly suppressed, feudal moral principles were deeply shaken and Western ideas about democracy and civil rights were introduced. Feudal education was fiercely criticized and the feudal education system also began to collapse. The Westernization Movement and Hundred Days of Reform significantly impacted traditional Chinese education, though in different ways. The former advanced the educational idea of “Chinese learning for the essence, western learning for practical application” but they did not intend to overthrow the feudal tyranny. The latter was the movement of bourgeoisie reformists who advocated the new Western learning. However, they both destablized the feudal education system, which eventually led to the abolishment of the Imperial Examination System and the establishment of new schools. As a result, the Western educational system and advanced scientific and technological knowledge were introduced into China.

21 Liang Qichao, “Of School Studies,” Historical References of Modern Chinese Education (II), Shu Xincheng, (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1961).



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The Imperial Court of the Qing Dynasty established two new educational systems on August 15, 1902 (the twenty-eighth of the Guangxu reign) and in January of 1904 (the twenty-ninth of the Guangxu reign). In 1906, The Qing government abolished the Imperial Examination System, which had been established in China for as long as 1300 years. From this point onwards, the Western educational system was completely adopted in China.

Chapter Seven

Influences on Chinese Education Exerted by Western Education Systems and Philosophies In Chapter Six, we discussed the establishment of a new educational system in China in the nineteenth century. This system included missionary schools, western educational philosophies and western style schools founded by the Chinese Westernization Movement. However, these changes only occurred in a few specific areas, and for the most part, the entire system of Chinese school education remained almost the same as before. In this chapter, we will discuss the establishment of the Western school education system in throughtout the rest of China and the importation of Western education philosophies after the Wuxu Reform of 1898. 1. The Establishment of the New Chinese Education System The Preparatory Stage of the New Education System Schools founded by missionaries were established to fufill their own cultural and evangelical purposes, whereas Western style schools were started by the Westernization Movement advocates in order to develop talented students who would be capable of handling foreign affairs. The Westernization Movement did not intend to create a new education system; on the contrary, they were worried about Western civilization’s threat to Chinese feudal culture and autocracy. This is the reasoning behind the slogan: “Chinese learning for the essence, western learning for practical application.” In order to simultaneously protect the feudal political system and build a self-sustaining and rich nation, the new schools were based on traditional Chinese values and Confucian doctrines such as the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues while selectively implementing modern Western management and technology. The Westernization Movement believed that Chinese backwardness was only a result of China’s lack of Western technology like warships and modern weapons. In 1894, China’s defeat in the First Sino–Japanese War proved otherwise. Some of enlightened intellectuals came to realize that China’s defeat was not due to technological inferiority because the Beiyang Fleet

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was equipped with much stronger warships and even bigger displacement tonnage than the Japanese Navy. These intellectuals concluded that the old feudal autocracy was the actual problem. Therefore, they called for the Wuxu Reform of 1898. The Wuxu Reform of 1898 or Hundred Days Reform was intitiated by a group of intellectuals and officials who were influenced by bourgeois reformism ideology. The reformers believed that Western science and technology, such as advanced warships and arms, could not help the country. Liang Qichao, a chief leader of the reform, advocated political system reform with the aid of Western production skills in order to establish a political system of bourgeois democracy by learning from the West. Reformers believed in Emperor Guangxu’s willingness to carry out topdown political reform and transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. In preparation for reform, they reflected upon and critiqued traditional Chinese culture. They fiercely attacked the feudal ethics and education system which provided the foundatio of the feudal political system. Kang Youwei strongly criticized the Songming Neo-Confucian ethic of feudal education: “retain the Heavenly principle and eliminate earthly desires.” Youwei argued that the Heavenly principle did not exist, whereas earthly desires did exist and were granted by Heaven. This is what he called “heavenly desires and earthly principles.”1 However, Youwei believed that he was developing reforms by observing ancient practices and he attributed all his theoretical insights to the inheritance and development of Confucian philosophy. He believed that Confucius had also intended to reform the political system of his time by studying the Spring and Autumn Annals and restoring the rites of Zhou. Youwei felt justified in carrying out his reforms because he was following the ancient sage in order to build a stronger country. The reformers regarded education as one of the fundamental preconditions for political reform and building a stronger country. Kang Youwei observed: “Changing the world as it is and starting a new one cannot be done without education.”2 Liang Qichao stated: “The base of the reform lies in educating talents; educating talents must start with opening schools; and opening schools must start with modernizing the tradi1 Ding Gang, Between History and Reality: a Theoretical Exploration of Chinese Education Traditions, (Beijing: Education & Science Press, 2002). 2 Liang Qichao. “The Life Story of Mr. Kang of Nanhai,” in Collected Works of Yinbingshi (VI), 62 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1989).



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tional exam system.” Therefore, Youwei and Qichao offered a proposal on education reform. In 1895, The Treaty of Shimonoseki, also known as the Treaty of Maguan, was signed between the Empire of Japan and Qing Empire of China, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The humiliating treaty exposed the incompetence of the Qing government. Youwei and Qichao crafted the Joint Petition of Imperial Examination Candidates to the Emperor with the intent of pressuring Emperor Guangxun to implement reforms. In the petition, the Imperial Examination was harshly and severely critized and the urgent need for a new education system was articulated. .

Since books from recent generations were banned by the edict, being empty and shallow would inevitably become common practice; since the number of the talents selected was limited, most of the talents could only become known in their old age . . . Because the questions were tough, the talents were bothered by the blank-fillings of classics when they were young. They only knew the composition of bagu but all argumentations were neglected; because the number was limited, they only aimed at being successful in imperial civil examinations, when they were getting old. They sought wealth and ranks, while their studies were abandoned . . . I once tried to explore why the West is rich and strong, and I found the reason does not lie in the military power such as canons and soldiers but in their endeavor in reasoning and strive for learning.3

Youwei even put his theories into practice by establishing the Wanmu School in Guangzhou in order to educate talents for the reforms. Huang Zhunxian and Tan Sitong established Shiwu (current affairs) School in Changsha, with Liang Qichao as the head instructor. While the reformers were soon unfortunately defeated by the conservatives, the lasting influences of the reform were already affecting traditional Chinese culture and paving the way for the establishment of the new education system. The reform ended in failure while the Qing government was also declining. The ruling class, troubled by both foreign invasions and domestic uprisings, felt an urgent need for a “New Deal” which mainly covered the following measures. First, abolishing Bagu style and the Imperial examination. Established in CE 605 during the Sui Dynasty, the Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state’s bureaucracy. It was the core of 3 Shu Xincheng, Documents on Chinese Modern Education (vol. 2), (Beijing: People Education Press, 1961) 917–918.

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feudal education and furthermore, school education was highly restricted making it difficult to establish a new education system under the Imperial Examination System. In 1898, the emperor, under pressure from the reformers, issued an Imperial order to replace the Bagu style, essay (the Eight-Legged Essay which required an eight-part response to civil service examination questions based on Confucian philosophies) with essays on current affairs. In the August of 1905, the throne issued an edict which ordered that the old examination system be discontinued at all levels in the following year. The modern examination system for selecting civil service staff also indirectly evolved from the Imperial one, which had a 1,300 year history with only brief interruptions, e.g. at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. Second, reforming Shuyuan and establishing modern schools. In 1898, Emperor Guangxu issued an order that Shuyuan4 of all adminstrative levels should be reformed into schools where both Western and Chinese learning would be taught. The big academies in the provincial capitals should be reformed into higher education institutions, academies in cities should be reformed into secondary schools and academies in counties into elementary schools. All the charitable and private academies would also follow this edict. Specialized schools were to be built, i.e. agriculture, silk-making, railway-building, mining, medicine and foreign languages, etc. The establishment of these new schools educated a large group of talented young people who specialized in technology, skills, military affairs, translations, and foreign affairs. A magnitude of knowledge on natural science was imported from the West, providing a solid precondition for the establishment of the new Chinese education system. Teacher education in China also started at that time. The reformers emphasized teacher training because they believed that teachers should be trained before schools were built. Liang Qichao pointed out three drawbacks of schools started by the Modernization Movement reformers: 1.) there were not enough talents because of the old practice of Imperial examination; 2.) without teacher education, there were not enough

4 Shuyuan, usually known in English as Academies or Academies of Classical Learning, were a type of school in ancient China. Unlike national academies and district schools, shuyuan were usually private establishments away from cities or towns, providing a quiet environment where scholars could engage in studies and contemplation without restrictions and worldly distractions.



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teachers; 3.) with no specialized majors, there were not enough experts.5 In 1897, Nanyang Public School was founded in Shanghai and a department of teacher education was included, which marked the beginning of teacher education in China. Third, founding the Imperial University of Peking. In 1896, Li Duanfen, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Justice (Xingbu) proposed that the Imperial University of Peking should be built. In 1898, Emperor Guangxu decreed that Junjichu (Grand Council of State) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs would establish the Imperial University of Peking, in order to cultivate numerous talents and addressing practical issues. The Emperor also required that the Imperial University of Peking should be both the highest national institution for higher education and China’s central educational administration with oversight and administration power over all the schools in all the counties. However, the guiding principle was still “Chinese learning for the essence, western learning for practical application”6 and the curriculum was required to combine both Chinese and Western knowledge, neither of which could be ignored. Incoming students would start with general education and then go on with a specialized major upon graduation. In November of 1898, the Imperial University of Peking was founded, with no more than 100 students. The university was suspended because of the Boxer Rebellion (Yihetuan) in 1900 but reopened in 1902 with an official charter and with Zhang Baixi as the chief administrator. The University offered two programs: preparatory (politics and arts) and short-term (official-training and teacher training). In 1903, new colleges of officials (Jinshi), translation, and medicine were added and in 1907, one more college of natural science was added. In 1910, it became a comprehensive university which offered the seven chief majors in modern education, including classic philosophy, humanities, politics, epistemology, agriculture, industry and commerce. After the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, the Imperial University of Peking became Beijing Daxue, or Peking University. The founding of the Imperial University of Peking laid the foundation for the new system of education in China.

5 Liang Qichao, “On Teacher Education” In Selected Readings of Chinese Modern Education, Chen Xuexun, (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1980), 143. 6 Zhu Youming, History of Chinese Modern Educational Systems (Volume I), (Shanghai: Huadong Normal University Press, 1983), 602.

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Fourth, sending students to study abroad. During the Westernization Movement, a relatively small number of students were sent to European and American schools. In the period of the “New Deal,” overseas students were mainly sent to Japan in increasing numbers. At first, the government financially supported all students, and later, self-supported students were also permitted to study overseas. In 1896, there were only 13 overseas students sent to Japan by the Qing government; in 1902, the number reached 500; in 1903, the number was over 1300; from 1905 to 1906, the number drastically increased to nearly 10,000.7 Overseas students were enrolled in a variety of majors: some were natural science majors while others were social science majors; some took courses in military areas and others in teacher education. In order to meet the needs of newly opened schools in China many students majored in teacher education and became teachers when they returned to China playing an important role in the modernization of Chinese education. Ren-Yin-Kui-Mao Schooling System On the basis of the implementation of the “New Deal” and the establishment of schools mentioned above, the Qing government issued the “Imperial Charter of Schools by the Imperial Order” on July 12th (lunar) in the 28th Year of Emperor Guangxu’s Reign (August 15, 1902) which officially implemented the modern schooling system. But for many reasons, it failed to be carried out. Two years later, on November 26th (lunar) in the 29th Year of Emperor Guangxu’s Reign (January 13, 1904), the “Charter of Schools Presented to Emperor” was issued. These two systems were known as Ren-Yin and Kui-Mao because these were the names of years in the lunar calendar. It was then named the Ren-Yin-Kui-Mao schooling system (Ren-Yin: the ninth of the ten Heavenly Stems and third of the twelve Earthly Branches; Kui-Mao: the last of the ten Heavenly Stems and the fourth of the twelve Earthly Branches). Due to its own shortcomings and resistance from conservative, the Ren-Yin schooling system had not been implemented. Zhang Zhidon led the modification and revision process and the Kui-Mao schooling system was created the next year. It included 19 sections: Outline of Education Affairs; Imperial University Articles; Confucian School Articles; Higher Education Articles; Secondary Education Articles; Higher Elementary 7 Qian Manqian and Jin Linxiang, Comparative Studies on Modern Educational System, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 60.



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Education Articles; Lower Elementary Education Articles; Early and Family Education Articles; Higher Normal School Articles; Elementary Normal School Articles; Faculties for Enterprise Instructors Training Articles; Elementary Industrial, Agricultural and Business School Articles; Secondary Industrial, Agricultural and Business School Articles; Higher Industrial, Agricultural and Business School Articles; General Articles for Enterprise Schools; Translation School Articles; College of Officials (Jinshi) Articles; General Articles for School Management; Rewards Articles for Schools. This schooling system followed Japan’s example after the Japanese Meiji Reform. The Japanese schooling system was divided into three degrees and six grades from elementary school to university; and it included the ordinary schools, enterprise schools, normal schools, and other specialized schools. Kui-Mao schooling system was similar to the Japanese one, differing only in the enhanced importance of the Confucian classics. Throughout both elementary and secondary school, students were required to read selections from the Book of Filial Piety, Four Books (The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects, and Mencius), The Book of Change, The Records of the Grand Historian, The Book of Songs, The Chronicle of Zuo, The Chou Rituals and The Book of Rites. Therefore, elementary education extended for nine years and required more classes every week than the Japanese schools. Why did the educational system of Kui-Mao follow the Japanese system? The answer lies within the status of China as a nation and the direction of public opinion in China in that time. In The Spread of the Modern Western Educational Theories in China, Zhou Guping gives us the explanation in five aspects. I agree with her generally. I sum up the explanation as follows: First, before the Meiji Reform, Japan suffered just as China suffered. In 1853, the American navy invaded the Uraga Harbor, and forced the Japanese shogunate (bakufu) to open the ports. This led to a series of Western invasions of Japan. However, the bakufu was overthrown by the Meiji Restoration which set up a capitalist government based on the royal system. The reformers greatly developed education, introduced Western knowledge, and encouraged people to fully develop their abilities. Just in several decades, Japan had become a powerful country in East Asia. Therefore, both the leaders of the Westernization Movement in the Qing government and the bourgeois reformers wanted to follow the Japanese reform. Through cultivating both reforms and talented people, they hoped to save the government and resist enemies. In “Joint Petition of Imperial Examination Candidates to the Emperor” Kang Youwei stated: “Japan is

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just a small country, and because of the Meiji Reform, they can beat us and invaded the Liuqiu. We should learn from them.”8 Second, during their own process of educational modernization, the Japanese modeled their own reforms on Western systems by consulting the French and German educational systems. But after twenty years of development, they found their own style. “The Order on Education” released in 1890 by the Japanese emperor, called people to be loyal to their emperor and country and to develop the Yamato spirit (Japanese spirit), which was the fundamental purpose of education. This purpose coincided with the motto “Chinese learning for the essence, western learning for practical practical application” followed by the Westernization Movement. Therefore, we can say that the Japanese system offers a model of Eastern countries learning from the Western countries. Third, in the transition from imitation to nativization, Japanese education had selected the best elements from Western educational systems and had also finished the whole process of localization (selecting, absorbing, digesting and syncretizing). China and Japan have similar cultural backgrounds, sharing the same Confucian tradition. Therefore, by learning from the Japanese educational system and tradition, the Chinese could save time and energy and proceed in a better manner. Fourth, Japan and China were close neighbors with similar cultures and languages, so much time and money could be saved during the process of learning. The Qing Government stated: “Japan was a better destination for overeas studying than Europe. It cost less to travel to Japan, and the Japanese words were easy to understand for Chinese. Moreover, Western learning had been translated into Japanese.”9 Fifth, Western knowledge was first introduced into China by missionaries. In the late nineteenth century, Western learning was first translated into Japanese and then brought to China. Western knowledge also entered China through the study of Japanese education; Japan was just a translator for China. However, the Chinese people did not master the spirit of Japanese education reform. Whereas Japan took a capitalist direction, China used Western knowledge to protect the feudal government. Although some localization measures had been taken, Japanese reform was in accordance

8 Kang Youwei, “Petition to the Emperor (II)” (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press), 153. 9 Shu Xincheng, The History of Modern Education in China (Book II, Volume I), (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1961), 17.



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with the West, while China was not. Western learning was just a means to maintain the unstable rule of the Qing Government and a semi-feudal and semi-colonial path was set. The Chinese and Japanese school systems were similar in form, but their guiding ideology and the specific teaching content varied considerably. “The Charter of Schools Presented to Emperor” stated that any school must be based on the classics and filial loyalty in order to ensure that students were taught values in accordance with the Qing Government. Western knowledge could only play a subordinate role of enhancing students’ practical skills.10 The filial loyalty philosophy was the core foundation for determining educational policies and educational contents. In 1905, educational goals were adjusted in the “Memorial of Education Aims Presented to the Emperor”: “being loyal to the throne, respecting Confucius, studying for the public, being good at martial arts and being practical.” These goals continued to be used up through the early period of the Republic of China. In the Kui-Mao educational system, although Imperial examinations were abolished, feudal elements could be seen everywhere. Students graduating from schools of all levels were awarded with scholarly honors or official ranks. Therefore, the feudal psychology of seeking scholarly honors or official ranks existed in their studies. Reading the classics played an important role in educational content of the Kui-Mao educational system. In primary schools, the weekly time of reading classics accounted for on third of the total course hours and could reach twelve hours in elementary schools and seven in schools. Before graduating from high school, one must read ten classics. In The Outline of Education Affairs, it stressed that reading classics was the foundation of building the country It stated: Without reading classics in schools, we would lose the tradition started by King Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Emperor Wen, Wu, Master Zhou and Confucius. If three mainstays and Five Constant Virtues fell into desuetude, China would lose its foundation. Study without the basics is not a real study, just as politics losing its basics is not real politics. Losing the basics might lead to the patriotic heart and the love for the people being easily changed. If this is the case, how can we have a prosperous and strong country?11

10 Gu Mingyuan, The Great Dictionary of Education (Volume 10), (Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press, 1961), 6. 11  As cited in Chen Jingpan, History of Modern Chinese Education, (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1979), 197.

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Finally, women have no educational status in Gui-Mao educational system. All the points above lead to the fact that the new system was just new in its form and its main spirit and content wer old indeed. Furthermore, there was no natural science knowledge in the teaching content. The Outline of Educational Affairs states that Chinese expressions and words should be used and foreign terms should be strictly limited, which inevitably hindered the study of natural science. Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou Educational System In October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising was successful and the Qing Dynasty was overthrown marking the end of the 2000 year history of feudal autocracy in China. In January of 1912, the Republic of China was founded and Sun Yat Sen was elected as President of the temporary government. The new government implemented the system of Ren-Zi-KuiChou in order to carry out educational reform. It was the first bourgeois school system of China. On January 5, Cai Yuanpei, who was greatly renowned for the breadth of his knowledge in Chinese and Western cultures, was appointed the first minister of education by President Sun Yat Sen. Yuanpei studied psychology, aesthetics, philosophy and other subjects in Germany and France, and he was profoundly affected by Western education and culture. After assuming his office, he set out to reform the Chinese educational system. He published “Proposals on Educational Policies,” held a national conference, and administered the construction of the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou system (so named because it was established on September 3, 1912, the year of Ren-Zi in the lunar calendar). In August, 1913, the year of Gui-Chou, the Department of Education published rules and regulations that governed the operations and admistration of all primary, middle and secondary schools as well as normal and technical colleges and universities.Therefore, the system was named the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou Education System. Compared with education system of Kui-Mao, the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou system had several distinctive features: 1. The duration of schooling was shortened. In the Gui-Mou system, it took 22 years for a student complete an elementrary through university education, but only 18 years was needed in the new system. The new system was composed of general education, teacher education and vocational education. General education was divided into elementary, secondary and



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higher education. Elementary education required seven years—four for coeducational junior elementary schools and three for gender segregated senior elementary schools. Segregated secondary education required four years and higher education required seven—in universities, three years for preparation programs and three to four years for undergraduate studies. In specialized colleges students took a year of preparation programs, three years for undergraduate studies and four years for medical programs. Teacher education was divided into junior and senior normal schools. Vocational education included four majors: agriculture, industry, commerce and business shipping. It was also divided into two three-year programs, but it equaled senior elementary education and secondary education respectively. 2. This system changed the education goals of the late Qing Dynasty. Cai Yuanpei published A Proposal on Educational Policy for the Republic which emphasized the unity of five types of education: civil-military, practical, moral, world outlook, and aesthetic education. The proposal sought to alter the educational philosophy of the late Qing Dynasty—“being loyal to the throne, respecting Confucius, studying for the public, being good at martial arts and being practical.” In the proposal, Yuanpei states: “Being loyal to the throne is against the political system of the Republic; respecting Confucius conflicts the freedom of belief.”12 The Ministry of Education then promulgated new education goals on September 2, 1912—“to achieve moral education through aesthetic education, and to assist Moral Education with Practical and Civil-military Education.” These education objectives had strong bourgeois features and emphasized the equal and harmonious development of an individual’s virtue, wisdom, health and beauty. 3. This system abolished the classics-reading in elementary and secondary schools and canceled the classics major in universities. It stressed practical and vocational education. Textbooks required by the Ministry of Education of the Qing Dynasty were banned, which also reflected the anti-feudalism motivations of the bourgeoisie. 4. This system reflected the bourgeoisie’s pursuit of equality. The new system eliminated gender inequality and discrimination by allowing females to attend the same schools with their male counterparts. Schools catering female students could be established at all levels except the university level. In addition, the aristocratic schools of the Qing Dynasty

12 Shu Xincheng, The History of Modern Education in China (Volume II), (Beijing: The People’s Education Press, 1961), 1038.

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were abolished and the rewards for those with the Imperial examination background were also cancelled, thereby addressing feudal privileges and class inequalities. In some senses, the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou education system met needs of the bourgeoisie, but the reform was not complete because traces of the old system could still be found. After the Xinhai Revolution (also known as the Revolution of 1911), the conservative forces of feudalism collaborated with imperialism and vainly attempted to overturn the Republic for the restoration of the Imperial rule. The educational system still reflected this feudal allegiance. Though the old forms of the feudal Chinese education system were dying its ideas were still in existence. Without a thorough revolution, it is difficult to remove them. The Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou education system was in place for ten years. The Beiyang Government issued another school system reform on November 2, 1922. It was called the Ren-Xu Educational System after the lunar calendar. In order to differentiate it from the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou education system, it was also called “the new education system.” The Ren-Xu system put forward the following principles. The new educational system should adapt to social progress, develop the spirit of mass education, seek personality development, pay attention to the national economic power, stress life education, make education universal and give local administrations enough flexibility. The Ren-Xu system required six years for elementary education—four for junior elementary education and two for senior elementary education. Secondary education lasted for six years, which included three years of both junior and senior secondary education. Junior secondary schools could offer vocational subjects and senior secondary schools offered general, agricultural, commercial, teacher, and housekeeping education. Some vocational schools in the old system were changed to vocational departments in secondary schools. Higher education required four to six years (four for the bachelors degree and three for specialized schools). There was no age limit for students who wished to pursue academic and research development in graduate schools. The education system process totaled 16 to 18 years from elementary to university education. Ten years after the founding of the Republic of China, why was the educational system reformed yet again? Firstly, after World War I, Chinese national industries developed greatly, and this required workers with proper scientific and cultural knowledge, and technical and management personnel. The Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou system failed to adapt to the new industrial development. Just as Yu Jian, a pro-



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fessor at Nankai University and a great educator who graduated from and then became the president of Nankai Secondary School, once said: Tianjin is an area with developed commercial and industrial economy, and the supply of practical talents is far from meeting the need of the local economy. Although we do make the division between science and arts majors in middle schools, this however does not turn into a success either because the division is too simple or the facilities are insufficient. Nankai therefore can not escape from this suffering . . . Today, in order to educate more practical talents, it is better for Nankai to develop a new system and to offer more subjects.13

In his “Suggestions on Current Educational System Reform” Gu Shusen observed that there were many general schools, but the number of vocational schools was too limited. Secondly, there were several flaws with the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou education system from the outset. For example, the length of schooling was too long; it took as long as 18 years to finish schooling which meant that the production of talents did not happen quickly enough. Different education stages were not connected and courses provided in the last three years of primary schools overlapped with courses in middle schools. The preparatory function of elementary and secondary schools was overemphasized but the independence of each stage was overlooked. Early in 1915, some local societies and scholars criticized this educational system. In truth, the Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou Education System was created in the second year after the Republic of China was established and it was established so quickly without a thorough and deep discussion that it looked like a full copy of Japanese education system. After several years of implementation, these flaws were exposed and reform was urgently needed. Thirdly, the May Fourth New Culture Movement in 1919* also boosted this reform. This movement shook the root of traditional Chinese culture and paved the way for the ‎modernization of education. We will discuss this further in the next chapter. Fourth, many European and American education philosophies were introduced to China and many overseas students returned to China from many foreign countries, not just Japan. So it is not surprising that the RenZi-Kui-Chou education system, a carbon copy of the Japanese education system, was strongly criticized. 13 Yu Jian, “Curriculum of Nankai Secondary School,” New Education, Vol. 4, Issue 5. Cited from, Comparative Studies on Chinese Modern Education Systems, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 219.

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As is well known, in this educational system reform we learned from the American educational system of 6-3-3: six years for elementary school, three years for middle school, and three years for high school. The 6-3-3 system remained in use until the education system reform in 1951. In terms of general education, the 6-3-3 system still exerts its influence but it should be noted that we learned from, but did not exactly copy, the American education system in the Ren-Xu System. In Comparative Studies on Chinese Modern Educational Systems edited by Qian Manqian and Jin Linxiang, the authors devoted one whole chapter to disproving the contention that the Ren-Xu system was an exact copy of the American education system. They also noted that educational system reform had been widely discussed in many provinces and local governments had put forward various education reform proposals since 1915. “Guangdong Education System Research Society studied education systems in Germany, Britain, the United States, France and Japan, and compared them from five aspects: organizing principles, history, trends, society and scientific development.”14 I agree with them—many scholars did participate in the public discussion of education system reform and local governments did take many possible systems into consideration. This reform reflects many Chinese features, with many scholars’ collective wisdom, although we have to admit that we finally adopted the American system after comparison. This is the reason why the Ren-Xu System was so similar to the American one and differed so much from the systems in Germany, Britain, France and Japan. As a matter of fact, in the early 1900s, the American education system was also reformed, as they had different systems at the state level: most of the states applied the 8-4 system, there were also states practicing systems of 9-4, 7-4 and 9-3. In 1908, the American Education Association proposed the 6-3-3 system and it was adopted in the following year in Berkeley, California. After World War I, 6-3-3 and 8-4 systems were widely adopted.15 Therefore, it was natural that Chinese education system reform followed the American model in 1920’s. The shift from learning the Japanese model to following the American one was not accidental because it was a result of far-reaching social and historical backgrounds. “Chinese education was directly guided by American model during the period from 1915 to 1949, and this phenom14 Qian Manqian and Jin Linxiang, Comparative Studies on Chinese Modern Educational Systems, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 230–277. 15 Teng Dachun, The History of American Education, (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1994), 383.



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ena was extremely obvious in 1920s,” observed Zhou Guping in her book The Transmission of Modern Western Education Theories in China in which analyzed in detail what caused the shift. She gives four reasons. First, the Chinese attitude toward Japan had changed. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Japanese militarism was increasingly exposed; Japan forced China to sign unequal treaties, creating suspicion and hatred of the Japanese in the minds of the Chinese people. Second, the Chinese learned more about the United States than ever before. The 1911 Revolution overturned the empire and established the Republic of China. At that point, Chinese people realized that Japan’s constitutional monarchy was not suitable for China. However after World War I, the United States started to play a role that promoted global peace and justice. Chinese people started to advocate American models and create a close relationship with the United States. Third, the United States exerted a comprehensive influence on China. On the one hand, the United States continued to penetrate Chinese education through church schools. On the other hand, it paid much attention to Chinese educational affairs. Most importantly, the United States was the first country that returned the Boxer Indemnity16 which not only resulted in appreciation from Chinese intellectuals but also attracted a lot of Chinese overseas students. Finally, the May Fourth Movement triggered educational reforms. Scientific and democratic ideas were highly promoted whereas feudal ideology and morals were firmly criticized. During this time, utilitarianism, which was alleged to be democratic and anti-traditional by American educators, emerged and was introduced into China. The establishment of the Ren-Xu system was a turning point in Chinese educational modernization. From then on, we started to establish a modern education system so that it was comparatively consistent with Chinese conditions. We refocused Chinese education towards the modern world and strove to follow development of worldwide education.

16 Translator’s note: Gengzi peikuang, “Boxer Indemnity” in English, refers to war reparations following the Boxer Rebellion. For the loss caused to the Eight-Nation Alliance, the defeated Qing Empire was fined of 450,000,000 taels of fine silver (around £67.5 million or US$333 million at the time) with an interest of 4% per year, for 39 years, and finally needed to pay 982,238,150 taels (about 34,683 tons of silver).

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chapter seven 2. The Spread of Western Education Theories

The spread of Western education theories through China can be divided into two stages and three theories. The first stage started from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the early days of the Republic of China, with theories imported from Japan which are actually German traditional education theories; the second stage started from the May Fourth Movement until China’s liberation in 1949, when two theories were introduced to China at the same time, American Utilitarianism in education and Marxist educational theory. We will discuss Marxist educational theory in the next chapter. In this section, we will focus on the spread of Western capitalist education theories in China. The Introduction and Influence of Herbart’s Education Theory in China As mentioned above, China learned from Japan in the early stage of education reform; thus Western education theories into China via Japan in a second-hand manner because we accepted Western education theory primarily through translating Japanese works. For instance, in the Imperial University of Peking, Wang Guowei translated “Pedagogy” by Sensaburo Tatribana a Japanese professor, and published this book in Issue 9, 10 and 11 of Education World in 1901. “General Pedagogy,” the translation of Eguchi Sotaro’s lectures in Hunan Normal College, was published in issues from 58 to 60 in Xinmin News (Xinmin Congbao); the translation of Hatano Teinosuke’s “Lectures on Pedagogy” was also published in Education Journal of Zhili (Issue 1–4, 1905). According to Zhou Gupin’s statistics based on A Comprehensive Directory of Chinese Translations of Japanese Books, 76 Japanese books on education were translated into Chinese from 1896 to 1911.17 These translated books from Japanese were mainly introducing the education theory of Johann Friedrich Herbart, a great German educator whose overwhelming popularity was not coincidental. At the end of the twentieth century, Herbart’s educational theory enjoyed worldwide popularity. The education reform of the Japanese Meiji Restoration was also based on the German theory. When the large number of Japanese students who studied abroad in Germany returned to Japan, they promoted

17 Zhou Guping, The Transmission of Modern Western Education Theories in China, (Guangzhou: Guangzhou Education Press, 1996), 17.



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Herbart’s education theory. Therefore, through the translation work, the Chinese people become very familiar with Herbart’s theories. In addition, Japanese teachers and Chinese students who studied abroad also played an important role in spreading Herbart’s work. Most Japanese professors lectured on Herbart’s education theory and the earliest Chinese translations of pedagogy were based on these materials. Many Chinese students who studied in Japan also majored in pedagogy. When they returned, most of them worked in schools or education departments, thus also bringing with them Herbart’s ideas. Therefore, in late Qing Dynasty and in early Republic, Herbart’s education theory was very popular in China. The popularity of Herbart’s education theory in China was undoubtedly related to its popularity in the world. But meanwhile, another factor in its influence was the fact that Chinese intellectuals were able to accept it quite easily. Herbart’s educational theory is based on ethics and psychology. He considered the process of education as divided into three closely correlated stages: the disciplining of children, instruction, and moral education. (1) The purpose of disciplining is to constrain children’s spontaneous wild nature and blind impulses in order to provide a good precondition for instruction and moral education. This might include threats, supervision, homework, love, authority, orders, prohibition, as well as punishments (even physical ones). (2) Instruction is a basic way to realize education aims. Herbart advocated educational instruction that was based on intellectualism and he emphasized that students’ moral consciousness and behavior could only be formed once they learned and understood relative knowledge. Furthermore, he also pointed out that the primary goal for instruction was to inspire students’ interest and curriculum should be developed on that basis. (3) Moral education is a means for perfecting morality. It is believed that the highest purpose of education is cultivating individual’s perfect morality. Moral education differs from discipline in that it edifies and forms moral characters. These educational theories were easily accepted and promoted by Chinese educators because they were coincided with traditional Chinese education in their focus on moral education and discipline. They were also in accordance with educational goals from late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic. Herbart’s educational theory is based on psychology. He believed that the process of instruction was also the process of how students’ shape their concept systems. He advanced the theory of four stages instruction: (1) clarity, which corresponds to the initial encounter with new material

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and the extensive utilization of visual aids; (2) association, which establishes links between old and new presentations in the process of free discussion; (3) system, whereby the most important element is isolated and rules and laws are derived; and (4) method, or the practical application of learning during various types of exercises. Later, his student T. Ziller divided the first stage into two stages, analysis and synthesis, thus forming five stages instruction. W. Rein, a student of T. Ziller, renamed the five stages as preparation, question formation, association, generalization and application. This instruction method was also globally popular and exerted great influence in many countries. Five stage instruction was introduced into China along with the form of class teaching. The form of Chinese traditional education was primarily individual instruction with no classes. After the new education system was established, classes and grades were set and the class teaching system was adopted. Soon after, five stage instruction became popular. The development of teacher education strengthened pedagogical research. Graduates of normal colleges and universities that were research and promotion centers of five stage instruction spread this theory to all over the country. Herbart’s education theory had a significant and far-reaching influence on Chinese education. Our smooth borrowing and adoption of Soviet Union education systems after 1949 was due to the fact that they also followed Herbart’s pedagogy. Truly, teaching in China today is still not free from Herbart’s influence. The Introduction of Dewey’s Pragmatism Education Theory and Its Impact on Chinese Education Herbart’s educational theory was introduced into China together with other western theories in translated Japanese works. For example, the journal Education World edited by Wang Guowei introduced a number of Western education masterpieces, such as Comenius’s Great Didactic, Rousseau’s Emile and Pesstalozzi’s Leonard and Gertrude and so on. However, Herbart’s educational theory took a dominant position. After 1915, the situation changed greatly. The Chinese educational vision gradually turned to Europe and the United States, especially the latter, because the United States was recognized as the most developed democratic and free country in the world at that time. After the First World War, the international prestige of the United States was higher than ever, especially after the United States became the first country that



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refunded the Boxer Indemnity and designated it for establishing preparatory training schools for overseas students and sending students to study in the United States. From 1909 to 1913, about 100 students were sent to study in the United States every year, and after 1914, at least 50 students per year were sent to the United States. Part of the first refund was used to establish a preparatory school in Peking (Beijing) for Chinese graduates pursuing further studies at American universities. It was named Tsinghua College in 1911 or also known as the American Indemnity College. Cai Yuanpei made a speech when he visited Tsinghua College in 1917 and said, “The Americans have a sense of justice, and they use the indemnity payment for education; American sincerity has led me to believe that the humanitarianism can be realized soon.”18 After his speech, the number of students sent to the United States was greatly increased. And many years later, history proved that these students played important roles in Chinese politics, economy and culture after they finished their studies and came back to China. The spreading of Dewey’s pragmatism education theory in China is much different than that of Herbart’s because Dewey himself came to China and his Chinese students played active roles in spreading his theory. Dewey’s pragmatism education theory came into being at the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century when Europe and the United States were undertaking educational reforms. In the United States, it was called the Progressive Education Movement. These reforms tried to educate the workers needed in the industrial development in Europe and America. In the movement, the harmonious balance between intellectual development and physical training was emphasized. The traditional school courses were criticized and replaced with those that could meet the demands of the modern society. Student interest was taken as the starting point of teaching and teachers should endeavor to deepen student understanding of democracy and foster their social responsibility. Monotonous school activities and inflexible organizing and managing norms were also resisted. Changes were made so as to cater to the development of the society. Learning by doing was promoted in order to enhance the school’s capacity to serve the society. Dewey’s pragmatism education theory concentrates on the following points: (1) Education as growth. This means that education should

18 Gao Pingshu, Selected Readings on Education from Cai Yuanpei’s Works, (Beijing: People’s Press, 1991), 80.

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be adjusted to the growth process of children according to their natural gifts. It should promote the development of their instincts, interests, and abilities. Children should grow up in reality and external indoctrination will not lead to real education. (2) Education as reconstruction. Education is the continuous reconstruction of experience. Acquiring new experience in activities requires one to reorganize and reconstruct existing intrinsic experiences and then make the experience more meaningful. The growth of children occurs through a series of activities and continuous experience reconstructions. (3) Schools as society. Childhood development and the reconstruction of experience are embodied by social activities. Education is the process of the child’s current life, not the preparation of life. (4) Learning by doing. Children should learn through activities and instructions should start from existing experiences of learners. Dewey’s pragmatism education theory and Herbart’s theory on education are two entirely different systems. In actuality, the former is called modern eduation and the latter is called traditionalist education. Chinese education is primarily founded on Dewey’s pragmatism education theory in the 1920s and 1930s. Dewey’s entire body of work is translated into Chinese and his lectures in China make the study of pragmatism education in Chinese education very significant. Dewey was invited to give lectures in China by Peking University, Jiangsu Education Society and another three academic organizations on May 1, 1919. Before he left China on July 11, 1921, Dewey had spent two years, two months and ten days in China, traveling in Fengtian Province (present Liaoning), Zhili (present Hebei), Shanxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong and another three provinces. During this period, Dewey gave many lectures that were published in many magazines, which spread his pragmatism philosophy and education theory. Some of his lectures were collected together and then published in books, such as Five Lectures Dewey (made in Beijing), Three Lectures by Dewey (made in Nanjing), Democracy and Education,19 Education Philosophy. Dewey’s Chinese students who learned from him in America also played a major role in spreading pragmatism education theory. Hu Shi, Tao Xingzhi and Chen Heqin all graduated from Teachers College of Columbia University in America and studied under Dewey. They not only invited Dewey to come to China but also accompanied him as his interpreters

19 John Dewey, “Democracy and Education,” in Selected Works of Dewey (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1999).



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when he gave lectures. They also organized societies and established publications to spread the pragmatism education theory. For example, in 1919 the Gongjin20 Society of New Education was co-founded by Jiangsu Education Society, Peking University, Nanjing Normal University and Chinese Vocational Education Association. A journal entitled The New Education was published by the Gongjin Society, and Jiang Menglin, the chief editor, was also one of Dewey’s students. Hu Shi, Tao Xingzhi, Guo Bingwen, Jiang Qi were also in the editing board. In December 1921, the Gongjin Society merged with the Education Investigation Society, founding Chinese Education Improvement Society. Tao Xingzhi was the executive director and Dewey was the Honorary Chairman. Later on, Mass Education Society was organized by the teachers and students of Beijing Advanced Normal School and they spread Dewey’s pragmatism education theory with the publication of Civilian Education. Many other scholars in Europe and America also came to China to introduce and publicize their educational thoughts during this period. For example, in October 1920 B. Russell, the famous British philosopher and educator was invited by Jiangsu Educational Society and Chinese Vocational Education Association to give lectures in China. P. Massure, an expert in education history and the Provost of Teachers College, Columbia University, was invited by the Educational Investigation Society to investigate the reality of Chinese education development. The spread of Dewey’s pragmatism education theory in China is quite different from the introduction of Herbart’s education theory, as we have discussed earlier. Chinese educators passively accepted and copied Herbart’s theory and lacked creativity. But in receiving Dewey’s theory, things were different. Educators did not simply replicate Dewey’s theory but they improvised and adapted it to Chinese cultural and educational traditions. For example, Tao Xingzhi advocated Life Education, and Chen Heqin advanced Living Education and Mass Education.” Tao Xingzhi’s education philosophy was not derivative of John Dewey’s, as some have alleged, but much more creative and adaptive. Instead of “school as society” Tao looked at “society as school”; instead of “education as life” he saw “life as education”; and, instead of “learning by doing” he proposed “unity of teaching, learning, and reflective acting.” Tao said: If we followed the logic of “education as life” then good education is absolutely a good life, and “eight-legged” education brings “eight-legged” life. But 20 Goingjin means making progress cooperatively.

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chapter seven the philosophy of “Life as education” would solve this problem fundamentally, leading education extremely broad and free, just like a bird in a forest; while “education as life” kept education and life in a school gate, just like a bird in a cage.

“Life as education” allows the informal elements into education, making it more expansive. For example, friendships with farmers are excellent ways of learning, but it was abandoned by formal education. This principle rings true for other useful and effective means. “Life as education” leads education away from the narrow world of books to an expansive life, from literacy to practice, from visual and aural development to physical, mental and spiritual development. When explaining the meaning of “society as school” Tao said: The reason why I proposed “society as school” rather than “school as society” is that education resources in schools are so limited, while if we take the whole “society as school” there will be richer educational materials, methods, instruments and environment, as well as more students and teachers. In this case, we could act as teachers or students anywhere in the society no matter if we are in or out of school. If we insist on “school as society” things will be different: nobody will learn from an experienced farmer who is outside school, while some meaningful activities in schools couldn’t benefit those outside of schools.

From this, we can see that Tao was grounded in Chinese values, not only paying attention to the education for the masses but also stressing the role that the masses can play in education. His extensive view about receiving education in life is opposed to traditional school and text-bound education. Although Tao Xingzhi’s education philosophy came from John Dewey’s pragmatism education theory, he also further developed Dewey’s philosophy through combining it with the Chinese needs and values of his time. The Spreading of the Project Method and the Dalton Plan in China In the 1920s, child-centered teaching methods in the West were introduced to China, such as the Project Method, the Dalton Plan, Winnetka system, Grey system, and the Decroly Method. The Project Method and Dalton Plan have had a strong influence on Chinese primary and middle schools. Project Method The Project Method is a teaching method or instruction model first formulated by American Educator William Heard Kilpatrick (1871–1965) in



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1918. It attaches great importance to students’ active roles and the connection between life and education. Therefore, unlike traditional education, proponents of the Project Method abolish class instruction and abandon traditional textbooks, encouraging students to learn relative knowledge and experiences under the teacher’s guidance by solving designed interdisciplinary problems. Kilpatrick devised four procedures for the Project Method: determining the purpose, planning, implementing and evaluating. Yu Ziyi, the Chinese educator of primary education, experienced the Project Method during his visit for American education in 1913–1914. After returning to China, he led a small-scale experiment in the Primary School attached to Nanjing Normal University. In 1919, the experiment was formally launched. In 1921, the National Association of Education Societies passed “Suggestions of Promoting Project Method in Primary Schools.” The method was then adopted in some primary schools in Jiangsu Province and other places. In 1927, the Chinese Education Improvement Society invited Kilpatrick to come to China to give lectures in Nanjing and Shanghai, in order to promote and introduce the Project Method because it was very popular in China at that time. However, in the 1930s, the number of its users gradually declined. The Dalton Plan is also known as the Dalton Laboratory Plan. Ms. Helen Parkhurst, an American educator, founded a school system of individual instruction in Dalton middle school in Massachusetts in 1920. Grades and classes were abolished, and classrooms were turned into laboratories (or assignment rooms) equipped with reference books, experimental apparatuses, and teachers as consultants for each subject. Under the teacher’s guidance, individual students can learn actively and separately in labs with different teaching materials, at different speeds and at different paces. A learning pact was developed cooperatively by students and teachers according to students’ needs, interests and abilities. The faster learning student can move to the next pact sooner and even graduate in advance. The Dalton Plan was introduced into China through The Journal of Education which published papers about Dalton Plan in Issue 13 in 1921 and Issue 14 in 1922. The Chinese educator Shu Xincheng began his experiment in 1922 in Wusong Middle School where he was the headmaster. In July 1925, Ms. Pankhurst gave lectures in China under the invitation of the Chinese Education Improvement Society. In 1925, as many as 57 schools adopted the Dalton Plan in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and other places. This system was in place in eight provinces in China until 1929, but its influence gradually decreased after the 1930s.

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In this chapter, we mainly discuss how Western education systems and educational theories were imported into China and their influences on Chinese education. It is not difficult to see that this period is different from the period of Hundred Days Reform; Chinese intelligentsia was eager to learn Western culture, and their focus shifted from the material to the systematic level. Particularly after the foundation of the Republic of China, there were no systemic barriers against the Western culture entering China. Even so, the conflict between the Chinese and Western culture was very fierce. The old culture of China was still strongly rooted while the new culture of China had not been established. This is reflected in education—the old education tradition still existed and the new system had not yet been established. Through these conflicts, Chinese education struggled towards education modernization. On the whole, the feudal educational system was gradually eliminated while a democratic and scientific education system was developing. Not until the arrival and spreading of Marxist ideology in China did the Chinese find the modernized direction of education that suited actual Chinese conditions, which we will discuss in the following chapters.

Chapter Eight

The Spreading of Marxism and the Establishment of Marxist Educational Thoughts in China In the last chapter we discussed the influence of Western educational thoughts on the Chinese education and in this chapter we will talk about the spreading of Marxism. Marxism is also a part of Western culture in essence, because it was a natural product of Western political and economic development. When the capitalist mode of production coalesced and the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie was growing fierce in the West, Marx and Engel created Marxist theory by analyzing the experiences of European labor movements and critically absorbing German classical philosophy, British classical political economics and French utopian socialism. However, it is different from general Western culture because it represents the direction of human beings’ advanced culture and it belongs to the proletariat worldwide. From the May Fourth Movement in China (1919) onwards, Chinese history has been aligned with Marxism for over 80 years. Marxism became popular, took roots and blossomed in China after the Communist Party of China accepted it and combined it with the realities of Chinese revolution. Marxism guided the success of China’s New Democratic Revolution and now is still guiding the socialist revolution and construction. Marxism came to China and destroyed the roots of old Chinese cultures, thereby paving the way for new Chinese cultural development. This does not mean that we reject all traditional Chinese cultures. Instead, cultural reform in China has reached a high level during this period. Chinese people find a way to scientifically and historically criticize, select and transform Chinese ancient cultures. We may even say that the Chinese create new Chinese culture by rejecting the dross and keeping the essence of the ancient culture and while absorbing all advanced cultures in the world. 1. The Spreading of Marxism in China and the Foundation of Chinese New Culture When it comes to the spreading of Marxist educational theory, we have to say something about the spreading of Marxism in China as a whole. Early

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in the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic, scientific socialism was introduced to China, mainly through Japan. According to historical documents, Marxism was first mentioned in the pamphlet entitled The Book of World Harmony (Da-tong-xue) written by Cai Erkang. According to the selected translations by Timothy Richard, Marx, Engels and their studies of capitalism were mentioned many times. The pamphlet was published in February 1899 by The Review of Times1 run by The Christian Literature Society for China (Guangxue hui). The History of Modern Politics, written by Ariga Nagao in Japanese, was translated and published in Translated Works Series edited by Chinese students in Japan. In this book, Nagao correlated Marx with scientific socialism. However, the first translated work on Marx’s life and theories is Socialism written by Murai Tomoyoshi, the president of Japanese Socialist Society. The work was translated by Luo Dawei and published by Shanghai Kwong Chi Book Company in April 1902. Liang Qichao should be considered as the first Chinese person who introduced Marx and his theory in his article “The Introduction to Evolutionary Revolutionist Benjamin Kidd and His Theory” published in Issue 18 of Xinmin Congbao on October 16, 1902. He then published “Chinese Socialism” in Issue 46 to 48 in February 1904, which gave a brief introduction to the ideology of Marx’s socialism.2 More works followed but it was not until the October Revolution of Russia that Marxism, as the guiding ideology of Chinese revolution, was introduced to China and spread quickly. Mao Zedong said, “The thunder of guns in the October Revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism.”3 Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, pioneers of the Chinese New Culture Movement, leaders of the May Fourth Movement and chief editors of the magazine New Youth, also made great contributions in spreading Marxism. In July 1918, Li Dazhao published “The Victory of Common People” and “The Victory of Bolshevism” in the magazine New Youth which celebrated the victory of the October Revolution. In May 1919, a special edition of “The Research of Marxism” was published in the same magazine. From September to November of 1919, Li Dazhao serialized “My View of Marxism” in New Youth, which gave a systematic introduction of Marxism; in September 1920, Chen Duxiu also 1 It was edited by Young John Allen, who was an American Missionary in Shanghai from 1868 to 1907. It served for The Christian Literature Society for China and it was originally named The Church News. In 1875, it was renamed the Globe Magazine and then renamed again as The Review of Times in 1889. 2 Zhou Guping, The Transmission of Modern Western Education Theories in China, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996). 3 Mao Zedong, “On the Dictatorship of the People,” Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Volume 4), (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1991), 1471.

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 177 published the article “On Politics” in New Youth, which expressed his attitude to Marxism and explained the theory of the proletariat’s dictatorship; in 1922, he published “On Marxism” to promote Marxism in the second volume of ninth edition of New Youth. From the May Fourth Movement to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, more than 130 articles were published that introduced the October Revolution and promoted Marxism. The Weekly Review, founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, also published many articles introducing the Soviet constitution, the land law and the marriage law. However, this publication was closed down shortly after the May Fourth Movement. Communist Manifesto, The Preface of Capital, The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science and other works of Marxism were translated and published in succession after the May Fourth Movement.4 Under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, the May Fourth Movement took place in China. Mao said, “The May Fourth Movement happened at the call of the world revolution, the Russian revolution, and the call of Lenin.”5 Commenting on the historical features of Chinese cultural reforms, Mao also said, “In the battlefront of cultures and ideologies in China, May Fourth was a boundary, which divided thistory into two different historical periods.”6 Before May Fourth, the battle was between the new capitalist culture and the old feudal culture. At that time, the schools, new knowledge and Western knowledge were mainly about the sociopolitical and natural science needed by the capitalist class. At the same time, old Chinese feudal ideas still existed. After May Fourth, it was quite different. “There emerged a completely new mainstream culture in China, which was the communist ideology led by the Communist Party of China, namely, communism cosmology and social revolution theory.”7 As we have discussed in Chapter Two, in May Fourth Movement, criticism of the Chinese feudal culture was much more thorough than ever before. However, the Chinese new culture had not been established, because the feudal culture had existed for thousands of years in China and at that time, China was still a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country because the social basis of the old feudal culture had not been destroyed completely. The spread of Marxism in China laid the foundation for the new 4 Wang Bingzhao and Yan Guohua, A General History of the Chinese Educational Thoughts, (Changsha: Hunan Education Press, 1994), 365–366. 5 Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Volume 2), (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1991), 699. 6 Ibid., 696. 7 Ibid., 697.

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Chinese culture. Under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the new culture of the Chinese proletariat began to be established gradually. The new Chinese culture was thoroughly anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, and scientific—a culture that belonged to the entirety of the Chinese people. 2. The Spreading of Marxist Educational Thoughts in China Marxist educational thoughts accompanied the introduction of Marxism to China. In 1921, New Youth carried a series of articles in Issue 2, 4 and 5 of Volume 8 that introduced Russian education reforms after the October Revolution: “Soviet Mass Education” “Soviet Education”, “Russian Education Status,” “Russian Schools and Students in Revolution” and “Russian Social Education.” The early Chinese Marxists were enchanted with dawn of the revolutionary new Soviet society believed that Chinese revolution and education reforms should be modeled after the Russian example. Using Marxist revolutionary theory, the Chinese brought a Marxist world outlook to Chinese education issues. One of the fundamental issues that Marxist educational theory addresses is the nature of education. Before this, people did not have a correct understanding of the nature and role of education. Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, the first Chinese Marxists, revealed the correct relationship between education and politics or economy for the first time. Using historical matieralism and the Marxist theory of the relationship between the base and the superstructure, they explained that education, which itself had historical and class characteristics, could not separated from the development of politics and the economy. Dazhao once commented on Hu Shi’s ideology and proposed that education should discuss fewer doctrines and research more issues. In his article “Re-arguments on Doctrines and Issues” Dazhao explained: . . . according to Marxist historical materialism, the upper spiritual structure composed of law, politics, ethics etc., is superficial. Beneath these structures is the economic structure which serves as the foundation of the whole society. Changes in the economic structure will definitely lead to changes of the spiritual structure.8

8 Selected Works of Li Dazhao, 37, as cited in Tong Fuyong, and Zhang Letian, Research on the Li Dazhao’s and Chen Duxiu’s Educational Theories, (Shenyang: Liaoning Education Press, 1977), 88.

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 179 Chen Duxiu also analyzed the nature of education in terms of historical materialism. In 1921, he launched a debate with Ou Shengbai, an anarchist, about the function of education. Duxiu pointed out that nearly 99 percent of the education system was under private ownership. Even it if was government-dependend, the system would protect the bourgeoisie’s interest and traditions intentionally or unintentionally. It is difficult to believe that a societally beneficial education could be universally carried out under such a class system.9 Duxiu published “Can Education Be Independent from Politics?” in Issue 18 of The Guide in order to criticize the claim that education was independent and separate from politics. Marxist educational theory argues that education is restricted by politics and economy, which in turn affects politics and econmy. Li Dazhao explains: We proposed to reconstruct the human spirits with humanism, and to reestablish economy organizations with socialism simultaneously. It would not be successful to reconstruct human spirits without reestablishing economy organizations, and it would also not be successful to reestablish economy organizations without reconstructing human spirits. We claimed to remould both material and heart, namely the conformity of body and soul.10

After the May Fourth Movement, Dazhao focused more on education in order to prepare the common people to overthrow the reactionary government and set up a new one. Both Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu were interested in education’s role in physical and spiritual development. In 1915, in The Policy of Today’s Education, Duxiu observed that “the use of education is nothing but to develop advantages suitable for people’s physical and spiritual development, and to eliminate weaknesses that are not suitable.”11 He further explained: “The uneducated can be compared to the raw materials, while the educated can be compared to finished arts. Potential advantages of human beings could be maximally realized through education; meanwhile, weaknesses of human beings could be minimized by educating.”12 The earliest Chinese Marxist educational theorists were Yang Xianjian and Qian Yishi. Yang Xianjiang (1895–1931), also known by the first name Yingfu and the pseudonym Li Haowu, graduated from No. 1 Normal School

9 Chen Duxiu, Selected Articles of Chen Duxiu (II), (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1988), 145. 10 Li Dazhao, Selected Works of Li Dazhao, (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1992), 68. 11  Chen Duxiu, The New Youth, (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Classic Press, 1999), 58. 12 Chen Duxiu, Selected Articles of Chen Duxiu (II), (Beijing: The People’s Press, 1988), 218.

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of Zhe Jiang Province, and joined the Youth Chinese Association in 1919. He worked as an editor of Students’ Magazine at Shanghai Commercial Press in 1921. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. He taught in Shanghai University, Shanghai Jingxian Girls Middle School, and Middle School Attached to Shanghai University in succession. He also served as the part-time provost of Zhejiang Chunhui Middle School, responsible for academic affairs. He studied psychology at Fudan University (1923–1925), and then helped Hui Daiying edit Chinese Youth. After the failure of the revolution in 1927, he self-exiled to Japan. In 1929, he returned China, playing an active role in founding Social Scientists Union. He wrote a series of books entitled The Emerging Social Science. Yang Xianjiang was not only an active participant in revolutionary activities, but he also studied educational theories, translated many works on education and wrote the first book about Marxist education in China. Yang Xianjiang followed the emerging educational system and theory from the Soviet Union. He published: “Emerging General Educational Theory of Soviet Union,” “Criticism on Recent Education System Reform in Soviet Union,” “Pinkevitch’s View on Education Psychology” in the Journal of Education and “Education of Preschool Children in Soviet Union” in the Journal of Female. He translated and published “New Education in Soviet Republic” under his pseudonym Li Haowu in 1930. He also published a translated work from Japanese entitled “Emerging Education of Russia” under the name of Zhu Kang in 1931. Yang Xianjiang’s own educational writings were History of Education ABC (1929) and The New Education Outline (1930) which were among the first Marxist educational works. The publications were not only influential at that time, but they have continued to influence the development of Marxist educational theory. Educational History ABC, which was written in popular and simple language, introduces the history from education from the prehistoric clan era and the ancient slavery system in both the East and West, through the medieval feudal era and into the modern capitalism era. The book argues that that it is the production mode and interests of the ruling class that determine the form and content of any society’s educational system. Education history should keep a record of past education systems and reflect on the famous and well-renowned scholars, theories and philsophies in the field of education. Moreover, education history should clarify how the educational value or purpose evolves; why the educational system evolves and the logic behind the evolution of education philosophies; the rela-

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 181 tionship between the ruling class and the ruled class.13 At the end of this book, the author clearly shows his full confidence that a future society characterized by democratic politics, indiscriminate love, equal rights and popularized education14 will definitely come to pass. This is the first work that formulates the history of education development under the theoretical framework of Marxist historical materialism. The New Education Outline is divided into three chapters and sixteen sections. The first chapter explains the origin, impacts, functions and evolutions of education from the perspective of historical materialism. It criticizes the popular beliefs that education is sacred, beyond worldly considerations, neutral and independent. It analyzes the essence of education through Marxist class theory and argues that education is part of social superstructures with the ideology as its working object, and education develops on the foundation of social-economic structures. In classless primitive society, education belonged to all human beings and was unified. When society developed into civilization with a class structure, education was fractured into classes as well.15 Xianjang analyzes five phenomena of alienation in the education system of class society: education is separated from productive work; educational rights coincide with proprietary rights; education serves the ruling class only; education rights are in conflict between the ruling and ruled class; the inequality between male and female education. The second chapter describes the historical process of education system evolution. The third chapter analyzes the relationship between education and politics and the economy, claiming that education is dominated by but also inversely affects political and economic development, and that it is wrong to neglect or exaggerate the functions of education. The first edition of this book was published in the February of 1930, reprinted soon in September, but then it was forbidden by the Kuomintang government. It was very popular among the progressive youth; some progressive schools used it as a reference book and in the revolutionary base areas led by the Communist Party of China, it was used as a textbook in normal schools. While Yang Xianjiang’s theories seem to be too simple today, from the perspective historical materialism they should be considered extraordinary 13 Yang Xianjiang, Collections of Yang Xianjiang’s Essays on Education, (Bejing: Education & Science Publishing Company, 1982), 321. 14 Ibid., 402. 15 Ibid., 417, 419.

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works because they played an important role in the development of Marxist educational theory. In the context of Kuomintang’s “white terror” ruling, the general public was confused by the different kinds of Western educational thoughts flooding into China, and had they little access to Marxism, which could clarify the nature of education other difficult concepts. These books were incredibly powerful for Chinese educators because they gave direction to the revolutionary intellectual. Theories in these books are still of great significance even today. The spreading of Marxist educational theory in China addressed some major issues in education theory and explained the role of education in the Chinese revolution. Firstly, it offered a correct understanding on the nature of education. What is the nature of education? What are functions of education? Before the introduction of Marxism there wer many different theories that attempted to answer these questions, but all of them failed to truly describe nature of education because they separated education from politics or exaggerated the functions of education by considering education as the only solution to China’s poverty and backwardness. After the introduction of Marxism into China, educators such as Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and Yang Xianjiang, began to analyze the essence of education through historical materialism, showing that education, which has historicity and a class nature, is part of the ideology of the economic base structure and it evolves along with social evolution. Just as Yang Xianjiang once said, “One of special features of education since human civilization is that education has been contradicted between the ruling class and the ruled one, which is alienated from the essence of education.”16 These educators believed that in order to achieve the essence and unity of education, classes and class societies must be eliminated. They correctly evaluated education’s functions and role. Education is restricted by and also affects economic development. Qian Yishi, in his book Principles of Modern Education, declared that “Education, the same as politics, law, philosophy, religion and so on, is part of ideology and it is decided by social existence and evolves with social economic structure.”17 He also said that due to the essence of education, education is “a tool to help human manage social life.” The widespread influence of Marxism on China clarified the essence

16 Ibid., 393. 17 Qian Yishi, Theories of Modern Education, Zhonghua Book Company, 1934, as cited in The Spreading of Western Modern Educational Theories. Zhou Guping, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 309.

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 183 of education; it is not independent from politics and economy and it is a tool to promote social development. Theories of independence and omnipotence of education were strongly attacked. Secondly, education serves social reconstruction. The early Marxists were all leaders in the New Culture Movement and they strongly criticized feudalism, doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, and deep-rooted flaws in the Chinese national character. However, at that time they were only evolutionists with metaphysical beliefs, so they could not fully understand the root of national character and so were confused on how to reconstruct the Chinese one. After the May Fourth Movement, they accepted Marxist historical materialism and came to realize that the key issue of national character reconstruction lay within ideological revolution. China’s backwardness was caused by the long millenial history of feudal autocracy. If the national character needs to be reconstructed, the society must be reconstructed first; and in order to reconstruct the society, education should play active roles. In 1923, Yang Xianjiang, who published an essay in The Journal of Education, observed that “Chinese educators, who prefer to be above politics and worldly considerations, always disagree in their political views. In fact, this is absolutely wrong.” He continued: “To be honest, no matter what kind of view is held on education final aims, China is currently in urgent need of revolutionary education theories and revolutionary educators. Educators should not only instruct students but guide the common people to revolt.”18 Qian Yishi also pointed out that before getting rid of the fate of the semi-colony, we should concentrate on fighting with imperialism and feudalism. Anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism are two fundamental footstones of new educational theories . . . . The current goal of Chinese education is to cultivate citizens to fight for national independence and democracy.19

Marxist educational theory posits that education should not be cordoned away from real life and society. Human development must be combined with the reform and development of the real society. Today, Marxist educational theory still is of great significance; people always talk theoretically human development without reference to the real society, which makes human development a fantasy or a wonderful expectation in libraries. If we do seek this wonderful expectation, we should avoid what Yang 18 Yang Xianjiang, Collections of Yang Xianjiang’s Essays, 79–80. 19 Qian Yishi, Theories of Modern Education, (Zhonghua Book Company, 1934), as cited in The Spreading of Western Modern Educational Theories. Zhou Guping, (Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 1996), 310.

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Xianjiang calls the deterioration of education and recover the essence of education through social reconstructions. Thirdly, education should be open to the masses including workers, peasants and their children. Education should be combined with productive work. Yang Xianjiang, on one hand criticized education in class society because the workers and peasants had no right to be educated and educational rights aligned with propery rights. On the other hand, he introduces Communist Manifesto and Marxist educational theory in Critique of the Gotha Program in order to explain some major points in Marxist education theory such as: education should be combined with productive work; all children should be provided with a free public education, and technical specialized schools (focusing both on theory and practice) should exist alongside national primary schools. Xianjiang also celebrated Marxist education theory in the Soviet Union and he believed that the transformation from capitalism to socialism could not be realized in a short period of time: “We must experience a transition period called Proletarian Dictatorship Period.” During this period, class education still exists, but it is quite different from the one in capitalist society: “The education in capitalist society is aimed at cultivating dutiful servants of capitalism; while the purpose of the education during Proletarian Dictatorship Period is to train loyal proletariat fighters for future classless society.” From the points discussed above, we can see that Marxist education theory is different from Western bourgeois education theories. Education theories from Herbart and Dewey were brought into China to solve micro issues like the education methods, while Marxist education theory was primarily used to solve macro problems, like the essence and evolution of education. Only when we solve these macro problems in education philosophies can we efficiently educate the needed talents. 3. The Practice and Tradition of Education in Revolutionary Bases With the development of the Chinese revolution, Marxist education theory was gradually put into practice at CPC’s revolutionary bases. After the May Fourth Movement, the Chinese revolution moved towards the New Democratic Revolution. When Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolutionaries by carrying out large-scale massacres of suspected Communists across the country in 1927, most Communists moved from urban cities into rural areas to carry out the Land Revolution. An entirely new regime

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 185 empowered by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army of China (Red Army) was established in revolutionary bases. The “Revolutionary Base Period” can be divided into two stages: the first stage of establishing Soviet Bases (Suqu), and the second stage of the Anti-Japanese War. The Land Revolution and the Civil War took place during the first stage. In order to achieve success in the Land Revolution and to fight against five waves of besieging campaigns waged by Kuomintang (KMT), the Communist Party and the government of the Chinese Soviet Republic made a policy that all activities in Soviet Areas should serve the purpose of the revolutionary war, and education was not an exception. At the Second Session of National Congress of the Chinese Soviet Republic in January 1934, Mao Zedong proposed a general guideline for cultural and educational development in Soviet Areas: “To promote communist culture and education in the mass of workers and peasants, to service the purpose of the revolution and class war, to combine education with productive work, and to make the general public enjoy civilization and happiness.”20 The guidelines reflected the application of Marxist education theory in Chinese revolutionary bases. Under the prevailing war conditions, it was not possible to have a systematic school system in the Revolution Bases. The primary task of schools and universities was to educate and train leaders of all levels for the party, the government and the army. During this period, several schools and universities of this type were founded: the University of Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army of China in November 1933, the University of Soviet in August 1937; the Central Agriculture School in 1933 and the Gorky Drama School in 1934. In addition to setting up these universities and schools, many in-service leader training courses were provided by levels of government (central, provincial, county, and town) which trained a great number of excellent leaders for the purpose of the revolution. In addition, the education of workers, peasants and children was also stressed by the Chinese Soviet Republic. In order to eliminate illiteracy, and elevate the culture and the class-consciousness of workers and peasants, various kinds of cultural revolution movements were widely launched in revolutionary bases. Many new forms of learning organizations were founded: night schools, half-day schools, outdoor schools, Sunday schools, part-time schools and winter and summer vacation schools, literacy classes, literacy

20 Mao Zedong, Educational Theories of Mao Zedong, (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1958), 15.

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groups, the newspaper groups, clubs, Leninism rooms, library tours, seminars. Children’s education was free, compulsory and universal.—five years were needed for elementary education in Lenin schools (three for junior elementary schools, two for senior elementary schools). In order to accommodate Lenin elementary schools to rural areas, two systems were adopted: the half-day system enabling the older children who had to participate in agricultural work to attend classes and the full-time system for the younger children. In farming seasons, schools provided a maximum of 30 days off for farming. Education in Lenin schools was closely integrated with productive work and working practice was a major component of teaching programs. In 1937, the Lugouqiao Incident (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) took place, which marked the beginning of Anti-Japanese War. The Communist Party of China established anti-Japanese democratic bases in Shan-GanNing, Jin-Cha-Ji, Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu, central China, the East River and other areas. War-time Education was carried out in these bases. Mao Zedong ordered the mobilization of “all the nation’s force for victory of Anti-Japanese War” and he predicted that they would “change the old education system and curriculum, and implement the new education system with the goal of winning the war and saving the nation.”21 Thus, through the guidelines made by the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1934 the integration of Marxist education theory with the actual situation of China’s Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese Communist Party put forward a new education guideline in anti-Japanese democratic bases: to meet special needs of the long-lasting war and to combine education with production. The chief reason for changing the old education system and curriculum was that they were not suitable for wartime anti-Japanese bases. At that time, the most educational need was mass education and leader education, but even so, the basic education of children was not ignored. As “War-time Government Outline in Shan-Gun-Ning Anti-Japanese Democratic Bases” states: Measures should be taken to popularize free education for children, to teach them with the national spirit and knowledge of daily life, so as to educate them to be an excellent Chinese generation.

21 Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong (II), (Beijing: People’s Press, 1991), 353, 356.

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 187 Mass education should be exercised to eliminate illiteracy and to improve adults’ national consciousness and political level in anti-Japanese democratic bases. Education for leaders should be carried out to provide talents for the Anti-Japanese War.

Education for leaders was mainly advanced specialized education, providing military, political, economic and cultural talents for the Anti-Japanese War. During wartime, the new schooling system and the new curriculum were carried out in the form of short-term trainings, and full-time universities were not possible. Some universities were founded at that time: (1) The People’s Anti-Japanese Political and Military University of China was founded in Wayaobao, Shanbei in June 1936. It had 12 branches in Shandon province, Jin-Cha-Ji Base, the north of Anhui province (Huaibei), the north of Jiangsu province, the central part of Jiangsu province, Er-Yu-Wan Base, Taihang Mountain Base, Taiyue Mountain Base. Through 1945, more than 200,000 leaders graduated from this university. (2) Shanbei Public School, founded in July 1937, aimed at educating the young people who came to Yan’an from all over the country, and it merged with Yan’an University in 1941. (3) Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Literature was founded in April 1938, and it had three departments: drama, music and arts at first, and later the department of literature was added. It also merged with Yan’an University in April 1943. (4) Chinese Women’s University was established in Yan’an in July 1939 and then merged with Yan’an University in 1941. (5) The United University of Northern China comprised of Shanbei Public School, Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Literature, Youth Training Classes and Yan’an Worker’s School, was founded in 1939. It had four departments: Department of Social Science, Department of Literature and Art, Department of Workers and Department of Youth, which were eventually changed into three colleges: social science, literature and art, and education. In 1948 it merged with the North University and was renamed as the University of Northern China. (6) Yan’an Academy of Natural Science was established in September 1940 and had four departments including physics, chemistry, biology and mining, with a three-year system. It was the first university of science and engineering and it also merged with Yan’an University in 1943. (7) In September 1941, Yan’an University was founded by merging Shanbei Public School, Chinese Women’s University and Young Leader Training School. There were three colleges and two language departments in its founding days: College of Social Science, College of Education, College of Law, the Department of English

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and the Department of Russian. In April 1943, Yan’an University merged Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Literature, Yan’an Academy of Natural Science, College of Nationalities, and New Literature School for Leaders. In Yan’an, there were some other schools and universities, such as University of Medicine, College of Military & Administration, School of Russian and Nationality College. Teachers and students from universities, such as the People’s AntiJapanese Political and Military University of China, studied while fighting against Japan, providing large numbers of excellent leaders for the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Mao Zedong shaped the education guideline for the People’s Anti-Japanese Political and Military University of China, pointing out that “We should stick to the right political direction, insist on the style of hard work and plain living, and adopt flexible strategies and tactics.” He crafted the motto of this university: “To be united and precautious; to be serious and lively.” The guideline and motto then became the tradition of higher education in Anti-Japanese bases. All Anti-Japanese bases were located in poor and desolated areas in the northwest of China, After the establishment of Anti-Japanese bases, the government opened schools to serve the people and make education accessible to the children of peasants, which broke the thousand year tradition of education only for the propertied class. In the “Report of ShanGan-Ning District Government on the First Conference of Delegates” Lin Boqu stated: Anti-Japanese bases, though limited in terms of financial and material aids, were the first to create and carry out defense education across the country. It made education beneficial to the general public instead of only serving the minority of dominance. Education became an integrated part of real life and a powerful weapon for the Anti-Japanese War.22

According to The Shan-Gan-Ning District Elementary School Law publicized in March 1938, elementary schools should follow a five-year system: three years for junior elementary schools and two more years for senior elementary schools. Those schools with both junior and senior elementary levels were called complete elementary schools but junior elementary schools had to be operated separately. The Shan-Gan-Ning District Elementary School Rules issued in August 1939, stated that junior elementary schools must offer the following seven subjects in their curriculum 22 National Institute of Education Sciences, Documents on Education in the Old Liberated Areas (II), (Beijing: Education & Science Publishing Company, 1986), 4.

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 189 system: mandarin Chinese, arithmetic, general knowledge, fine art, manual work in schools, physical education and music. In senior elementary schools, general knowledge was upgraded to introduction to natural science, and three other subjects, politics, history and geography, were also added. Therefore, there were ten subjects in senior elementary schools. It is important to note that social activities and productive work were also part of the formal curriculum for both elementary and secondary schools. Due to the urgent need for elementary school teachers in Anti-Japanese bases, teacher training was stressed in secondary schools. Lu Xun Teacher Training School was established in March 1937. In 1938, a middle school was founded in Shan-Gan-Ning Base for the educated youth who came to Yan’an from KMT-occupied and Japanese-occupied areas. In July 1939, these two schools were merged and founded No. 1 Teachers School of Shan-Gan-Ning Base. In the following year, No. 2 and No. 3 Teachers School were also founded in Guanzhong and Dingbian. These teacher schools mainly enrolled local graduates from senior elementary schools who would be primary teachers or cultural leaders at the local level. The school system was two or more years. In addition, there were also some general and vocational middle schools. Longdong Middle School was established in Qingyang in 1940; School of Medicine was established in 1941; Vocational School of Shan-Gan-Ning Base was established in 1942. In the early stage of middle schools, various short-term training classes were offered according to the situation of the time. As democratic political power became stable, teacher schools and middle schools were started when elementary schools became popularized and developed. However, the main task of middle school was not to supply graduates for universities, but to train leaders for the Anti-Japanese War and the development of Anti-Japanese bases and to improve local leaders’ educational level. The tradition of part-time training in the Soviet Republic in the Land Revolution Period was followed and developed in Anti-Japanese bases, and various kinds of part-time educational activities were organized according to the circumstances and conditions during the Anti-Japanese War. Winter-school Campaign was the largest in scale. Since farming activities halted during seasonal coldness in the north, the winter leisure period became a prime period of organizing literacy classes and other educational activities. These activities were very successful because a continuous teaching time could be guaranteed. In 1937, the Ministry of Education in Shan-Gan-Ning Base issued “An Order on Winter-schools” which established winter-school as part of the regular education system and provided remediation for adults. This order was in important step in popularizing

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education and eliminating illiteracy because winter-schools offered uneducated men and women the anti-Japanese education by making full use of their winter leisure time. Winter-schools lasted 80 days—from the late November to early February. The curriculum included military affairs, politics and literacy. Teachers were mainly staff from party, government and mass organizations. This order required every anti-Japanese base to organize winter-schools. Organizing committees were responsible for selecting teachers from the literate staff members of the party or government. In order to meet different needs of the masses, winter-schools provided morning, noon-time and evening classes. Many women in rural areas who used to be confined to home also went to winter-schools. Later, some winter-schools even became permanent schools. Due to the great number of learners and the wide involvement of women, this Winterschool Campaign can be considered as an unprecedented mass education movement in Chinese education. Besides winter-schools there were many other kinds of education activities, such as literacy classes and newspaper reading groups.23 Education in revolutionary bases was completely new type of education. Guided by Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong. Thought, it was a national, scientific, popular, New Democratic education in its nature. A detailed introduction to New Democratic education will be discussed in the following section. It differed from traditional education in terms of education policies, systems, contents and methods. It created many new experiences, formed new traditions of education, and influenced the development of Chinese education even after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The following are some of these influences. First, the belief and tradition of education serving the struggles of reality was formed. According to Marxist education theory, education that was separated from reality could not survive; education came into being and developed with the development of society. In class societies, the ruling class tried every means to force education to serve their own governance by providing ruling talents, while the ruled class was also trying to take advantage of education in order to enlighten and cultivate fighters for revolutionary success. Education in revolutionary bases followed this principle in the fight against both the GMT siege and the Anti-Japanese War by adopting a flexible education system, contents and methods according to situations and tasks of the struggle. 23 Mao Lirui and Shen Guanqun, ed., A Complete History of Chinese Education, (Jinan: Shandong Education Press, 1985).

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 191 Second, the integration of education and production occurred. Revolutionary bases were short in resources when they were blockaded and besieged. They had to rely on their own resources to survive and win the final victory. Thus, students and teachers at all levels joined the production work, studying while working, a model of the integration of education and production. Third, the tradition of linking theory with practice was formed. In wartime, schools in revolutionary bases were not allowed discuss abstract ideals and be divorced from reality. Education in revolutionary bases solved Chinese revolution problems by facing the reality in China and combining learning with practices. The problem of abstraction and bookworship was overcome after Mao Zedong published a series of articles such as “Oppose Book Worship” (1930), and “Reform Our Study” (1941). The Yan’an Rectification Movement helped as well. Education in revolutionary bases became more practical better suited for base construction and the Anti-Japanese War. Fourth, the following attitudes and values were cultivated: an indomitable spirit in struggle, the value of plain living and hard struggle, proactive and engaged learning, and democratic and united management. Fifth, higher education in revolutionary bases emphasized leader education. Graduates from higher education institutes were all assigned jobs and treated as officials. This tradition has had a great influence on higher education after the founding of the People’s Republic of China and until the 1990s. We gained rich experiences from education in revolutionary bases and started a new tradition, which was later inherited and developed in the educational development of the People’s Republic of China. 4. The Forming of New Democratic Education Thought New Democratic education thought was a result of the spreading of Marxist theory in China and its integration with Chinese revolution. It came into being after a long period of exploration by Chinese communists in the revolution, based on experiences accumulated in revolutionary bases. It complied with the characteristics of Chinese New Democratic Revolution, and served as its educational guideline. The May Fourth Movement and the birth of the Communist Party of China changed the nature of the Chinese revolution. In On New Democracy, Mao Zedong observes: “Chinese revolution can be divided into two stages: democratic and socialist revolution respectively. The first stage was

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no longer a general democratic revolution, but democracy with Chinese characteristics, a new and special type, namely, New Democracy.” When he explained the formation of New Democracy, he said: World War I and the October Revolution in Russia, the first victory of socialist revolution, have changed the whole course of world history and led the whole world into a new era . . . Such a revolution attacked imperialism at its very roots, and therefore could not be accepted by imperialists. However, socialists and international proletariats not only welcome but also advocate it.24

New Democratic educational thought was formed in this historical background. In March 1940, the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China announced explicitly: “Basic content of national education should be New Democratic education, an education based on Marxism-Leninism theory and methodology, an education concerning national Democratic revolution and an education concerning science.”25 In short, New Democratic education is a national, scientific and mass education. New Democratic education is a national education. “It opposes imperialist oppression and upholds the dignity and independence of Chinese people. It belongs to our own nation and bears our own national characteristics.”26 It is national in that it opposes imperialist cultural aggression, insists on national independence and attaches importance to Chinese cultural heritage. While foreign experience in education is not rejected, we have made Western education beneficial to China by taking in all the advantages from various cultures worldwide, and then combined them with Chinese culture in order to serve the Chinese New Democratic Revolution. New Democratic education is scientific in that “it rejects all feudal and superstitious ideas, seeking truth from facts, pursuing objective truth and putting theory into practice.”27 It insists on Marxist materialistic dialectics, adopts a scientific attitude to reflect educational experiences from all times and nations, and educates students in scientific knowledge. New Democratic education is for the masses: “It is democratic. It serves the workers and peasants who make up more than 90 percent of the 24 Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong (II), 666–668. 25 National Institute of Education Sciences, “An Instruction on National Education in Anti-Japanese Bases,” Documents on Education in the Old Liberated Areas (I), (Beijing: Education & Science Press, 1986), 82. 26 Ibid. 27 Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong (II), 707.

the spreading of marxism and marxist educational thoughts 193 nation’s population, gradually shaping their own culture.”28 New Democratic education belongs to the people and serves as a powerful revolutionary weapon for the general public. New Democratic education is a totally new educational tradition which differs greatly from the old one, adapting to Chinese cultural development. Traditional Chinese culture was fiercely attacked after Opium War, but only after the May Fourth Movement, the establishment of the Communist Party of China and the New Democratic Revolution, did the foundation of Chinese traditional culture collapse. In On New Democracy, Mao Zedong claimed: Before the May Fourth Movement, battles on Chinese cultural fronts were all struggles between bourgeois new culture and feudal old culture, such as the struggle between modern school system and Imperial Examination System, the struggle between the new learning and the old learning and the struggle between the Western learning and Chinese learning . . . The modern schools or new learning or Western learning of that time played a revolutionary role in fighting against Chinese feudal system, and served the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution of the old period. However, because the Chinese bourgeoisie lacked strong power and the world had already entered the era of imperialism, this bourgeois ideology could only manage for a few rounds of battle and then was soon beaten by the reactionary alliance of foreign imperialism and Chinese feudalism. The new learning was soon defeated as soon as this reactionary ideological alliance started a minor attack, lowering its banners, muffling its drums, losing its soul and only retaining its physical body. The old bourgeois-democratic culture became enervated and decayed in the era of imperialism, and its failure was inevitable.29

The New Democratic Revolution destroyed the foundation of both the old Chinese old culture and education system, so that a new education tradition could be established. Education experiences in revolutionary bases paved the way for a new national education tradition. From September 21–30 1949, the first session of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was successfully held in Beijing. It passed the Common Program which discussed Chinese cultural and education policies: “The culture and education of the People’s Republic of China is New Democratic education in nature, which is also a national, scientific and mass education.” PRC’s education was based on education experiences in revolutionary bases which started a new education tradition. However, when we say

28 Ibid., 708. 29 Ibid., 696–697.

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that the New Democratic Revolution destroyed the foundation of Chinese old culture, we do not mean that all traditions are abandoned in the new education, but that the nature of education has been totally changed. If the cultural foundation of Chinese traditional education revolved around Confucianism, the New Democratic education is based on Marxism and the new education tradition is created in a process of selection and reconstruction by reflecting on and reexamining traditional Chinese culture, and rejecting its feudal dross and assimilating its democratic essence.

Chapter Nine

Influences on Chinese Education Exerted by Soviet Education After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, education can be divided into three periods as far as its cultural and ideological roots are concerned: the first stage of learning from U.S.S.R. (1949–1958), the second stage of leftist education (1958–1978) and the third stage of reform and opening-up (1978–present). The second stage can be sub-divided into three periods: the first period spans from 1958 to 1966, with the events of the education revolution and the three-year adjustment and class struggle; the second period is the period of Cultural Revolution, spanning from 1966 to 1976; and the third period covers from 1976 to 1978, a period called “bringing order out of chaos.” These periods fit within the second stage because there are no significant differences in terms of their cultural and ideological foundations. Left-wing politics and philosophy began in 1958 and eventually became very dominant in the Cultural Revolution; during the two years before the third stage of reform and opening-up, political ideas swung back to towards the center, although left-wing politics did not disappear and only after the third stage was in place did ideology swing towards the right again. Since this is not a book about education history, we will not talk about each of three stages systematically; instead, we will only focus on cultural and ideological foundations of the first and the third stage. In the first stage, influences were exerted mainly by education in USSR; in the third stage, a new wave of importation of Western educational theories and philosophies wielded a great deal of influence. In both stages, the different educational philosophies have tremendously shaped the new Chinese education tradition. The second stage of leftist education, was a cultural phenomenon which did not emerge by happenstance; it was closely related to traditional Chinese culture, with a foundation of the feudal cult of personality and a lack of democratic spirit, exerting strong negative influences on education. As a result, a generation of Chinese youth was ruined and some of misconceptions still have influences today.

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chapter nine 1. The Spreading of Soviet Education Theories in China Making the Policy of Learning from the Soviet Union in All Aspects

The introduction of Soviet education theories into China can be traced back to immediately before the May Fourth Movement. The victory of the October Revolution in Russia brought hope to progressive Chinese intellectuals. When early Marxists introduced the revolution in Russia, they also brought Soviet educational thoughts and experiences into China. However, these were soon overshadowed and replaced by American pragmatism, especially after Dewey’s visit to China in 1919. Dewey’s influence was so strong that Pragmatism dominated Chinese education for quite a while. The large-scale spread of Soviet educational thoughts began in the second half of the civil war in liberated areas in the northeast China. In the fall of 1948, most parts of northern and northeastern China were liberated and national liberation was just around the corner. Education was needed not only to supply more leaders for the war, but also to cultivate leaders who would oversee the economic redevelopment and nationbuilding after the war. Many educational conferences were held by the Northeast China Administrative Committee in liberated areas in order to discuss the formalization of secondary education and higher education reforms within that region. Because of historical reasons, many Russians lived in Luda (Lushun and Dalian) of Liaoning Province—these Russians started Soviet middle schools. In October 1948, Lushun Middle School established a formal relationship with a Soviet middle school in order to learn education experiences from the Soviet Union. During this time, the previous “cramming” or memorization practice was changed by introducing Soviet teaching methods and the five-point scoring scale. The leaders of Lushun Middle School designed a Soviet education research team to promote the cooperation between the two nations and learn Soviet educational content, ideological education, and theories of school management. In September 1948, the fourth educational conference was held by the Northeast China Administrative Committee and policy of Learning Educational Experiences from the Soviet Union formally created. On December 5, 1949, Dong Chuncai, Vice Minister of Education of the People’s Government of Northeast China, published “Learning from the Soviet Union so as to Reform Our Education” in the journal Education in Northeast China. Under the direct leadership of Dong Chuncai, there were 89 articles about Soviet educational experiences and 53 articles introducing



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new textbooks published on education in northeast China. At the same time, the Northeast Education Publishing House translated and published books on Soviet education theories including Fundamentals of Education by Nikolai K. Goncharov (Николай Кириллович Гончаров in Russian), Pedagogy and Five-point Marking and its Usage by Ivan Andreyevich Kairov (Иван Андреевич Каиров in Russian). The Ministry of Education, of the People’s Government of Northeast China also allocated manpower and financial resources to compile textbooks for middle school students, using Soviet natural science textbooks from Soviet ten-year secondary schools as their models in order to create textbooks appropriate for twoyear middle schools. Simultaneously, some experienced teachers who studied Soviet education were organized to transmit their experience all over the country.1 After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a “leaning to one side” policy in favor of the Soviet Union was established. On October 5th 1949, Liu Shaoqi gave a speech about the founding of the China-Soviet Friendship Association stating that we should take the Soviet Union as our teacher and learn Soviet people’s experiences so as to develop our country . . . The Soviet Union possesses much absolutely new scientific knowledge which cannot be found in any other place in the world, and now only from the Soviet Union, can we learn such knowledge as economics, banking, finance, business, and pedagogy.2

During December 1949, the first National Conference on Education was held in Beijing and the Soviet educational experience took center stage: “We should take education in old liberated areas as the basis for the establishment of the new education in new China, absorbing useful experiences from the old education. And it is especially important to learn advanced experiences from Soviet education developments.”3 Why should Soviet education be taken as a model in the building of Chinese education? We will discuss several historical reasons. First, the Chinese New Democratic Revolution led by the Chinese proletariat was part of the world’s proletarian revolution and also the first step of the future socialist revolution. The Soviet Union is the only 1 National Institute of Education Sciences, “The Distinguished Contribution Mr. Dong Done to the Education in the Northeast China,” in The Collection in Memory of Dong Chuncai, (Beijing: Education & Science Press, 1992), 170. 2 National Institute of Education Sciences, The Chronicle of Events in the Education of the People’s Republic of China 1949–1982, (Beijing: Education & Science Press, 1984), 4. 3 Ibid., 8.

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country in which the socialist revolution was accomplished. The Chinese New Democratic Revolution was greatly influenced by the October Revolution eventually won. Therefore, it was inevitable for China to follow in footsteps of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, these two countries both share the same ideology, Marxism-Leninism. Education is part of the social superstructure; Soviet education is guided by Marxism educational theory and is therefore socialist education. The New Democratic education in new China also belongs to socialist education in terms of the ideological system and is consistent with Soviet education in ideology and development direction. Therefore, Soviet education should be naturally taken as a model in establishing new Chinese education systems. Second, the Soviet Union has a thirty-year history of socialist construction with great achievements and a wealth of experiences. Shortly after the nation’s founding, they defeated the powerful German fascists, a victory in the Great Patriotic War, thereby attracting the attention of the whole world and winning the admiration of Chinese intellectuals. The socialist path taken by the Soviet Union was a model for the construction of Chinese New Democracy. The Soviet Union had accumulated rich experiences in reforming old education traditions and established a set of mature theories and systems in constructing socialist education. Hence, the Chinese people were able to draw upon the experiences from Soviet education in reforming the old Chinese education system and developing a new one. Third, the United States and other Western nations refused to recognize the People’s Republic of China and imposed sanctions and blockades, which compelled China to lean to one side. China formed a political alliance with the Soviets and relied on their help for economic and cultural construction. Main Channels and Ways of Learning from Soviet Education Learning from Soviet education is carried out through following channels. The first channel is scholarly translation. As mentioned above, many books on education theories and textbooks from the Soviet Union were translated into Chinese in liberated areas of northeast China. The translation work increased exponentially after the founding of New China. People’s Daily4 printed chapter twenty-one of Pedagogy by Kairov, “National 4 Note: People’s Daily is one of most important official newspapers since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China.



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Education System” on November 14, 1949, and chapter twelve “Labor Education” and section five of chapter one “Pedagogy is a Science” soon thereafter. Subsequently, in December 1950 and February 1951, Xinhua Bookstore published Pedagogy (1948) edited by Kairov and translated and divided into two volumes by Shen Ying and Nan Zhishan. It was later revised by Nan Zhishan and Chen Xia, adding a list of terms in both Chinese and Russian and then republished by People Education Press in December 1951 and it soon became very popular. I also have a copy of the 16th edition of Pedagogy published in Shanghai in April 1953, which indicated that its nationwide circulation was unprecedented. Furthermore, People’s Education Press also started a publication Translation on Education in order to introduce Soviet education theories and experiences. Below are some other important and influential works on Soviet education theories which have been translated into Chinese: Goncharov, Nikolai K. (Нико лай Кириллович Гончаров in Russian) (ed.). Guo Congzhou, et al. trans. Foundations of Education. People’s Publishing House, 1951. Esipov, Boris Petrovich (Борис Петрович Есипов in Russian) and Nikolai K. Goncharov (ed.). Yu Zhuo, Wang Jilin and etc. trans. Pedagogy. People’s Education Press, 1952–1953. Smirnov, Vasily Z. (Василий Захарович Смирнов in Russian). Chen Xia and Ding Youcheng trans. Introduction to Pedagogy. People’s Education Press, 1953. Shimbirey, Pavel Nikolayevich (Павел Николаевич Шимбирёв in Russian) and Ogorodnov, Ivan T. (Иван Трофимович Огородниов in Russian). Chen Xia, Xiong Chengdi and etc. trans. Pedagogy, People’s Education Press, 1955. Kairov as chief editor, Goncharov, Esipov and Zancoff as editors. Chen Xia and Zhu Zhixian and etc. trans. Pedagogy, People’s Education Press, 1957. Danilov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (Михаил Александрович Данилов in Russian) and Boris Petrovich Esipov (ed.). trans. by Students of foreign language department of Beijing Normal University in 1955. Teaching Methodology, People’s Education Press, 1961. Makarenko, Anton S. (Михаил Александрович Данилов in Russian). On Communist Education and Parenting Science.

Secondly, Soviet experts were invited as consultants in the Ministry of Education and Chinese schools, and also to teach in universities and schools. Shortly after the founding of the PRC in October 1949, the Soviet Delegation of Culture, Arts and Sciences headed by Fadeev visited China. Dubrovin (Дубровина in Russian), the Deputy Minister of Education of the Soviet Union shared the Soviet experiences of establishing new

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education systems with Chinese educators in Beijing and Shanghai. Soon after, many universities invited Soviet experts to give lectures. From 1950 to the end of 1952, the Ministry of Education hired five Russian experts as consultants of the Ministry of Education: Arsentv (Арсентьв in Russian), Fomin (Фомин in Russian), Lapacho (Лапачи in Russian), Kuzmin (Кузмин in Russian) and Galina (Галина in Russian). Another two Soviet Union experts at Beijing Normal University also acted as part-time consultants in the Chinese Ministry of Education who were responsible for general and early childhood education. Their duties mainly involved participating in ministry affairs meetings, ministry working meetings and professional meetings, providing information and advice, answering questions, making a variety of lectures, teaching training courses, and visiting different schools to help education officials and teachers at all levels improve their professional levels.5 Some leading colleges and universities in our country also employed Russian experts to give lectures. Beijing Normal University began to invite Russian experts to give lectures in 1950 and by 1958 the university had invited more than ten experts to teach in various departments. Among them were eight experts in education and psychology who imported Soviet courses into China. Their teaching notes as both textbooks for students and as the basis for teacher preperation materials. Each Soviet expert was assisted by a young teacher and all Chinese teachers were required to attend these lectures in order to ensure the complete absorption of the Soviet material. During this period, training courses and seminars for university teachers were offered in order to expand the experts’ influence. Almost all Chinese education theorists in the 1950s and 1960s studied with these Soviet experts. The Department of Education in Beijing Normal University also set up a translation office, in order to provide interpreters for the Soviet experits and to translate large numbers of works on Soviet education. From 1949 to 1960 when SinoSoviet alliance deteriorated and Soviet experts withdrew, Chinese education sectors and universities invited a total of 861 Soviet teaching, research and consulting experts.6 Thirdly, new schools were established according to the Soviet education pattern. On December 16, 1949, the eleventh meeting of the State Administration Council decided that The People’s University of China (now known as Renmin University of China) should be founded in

5 National Institute of Education Sciences, The Chronicle of Events in the Education of the People’s Republic of China 1949–1982, 71. 6 Ibid., 279.



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order to meet needs of national construction. The People’s University of China accepted advanced construction experiences from the Soviet Union and hired Soviet professors, with the purpose of educating and fostering government officials at all levels systematically and promoting the development of the country . . . To apply teaching and learning to the practical, to combine Soviet experience with Chinese national situation.7

The new university was built on the grounds of the University of Northern China in the old liberated areas. The first university president, Wu Yuzhang, gave a speech at the opening ceremony. He stated that the central government assigned two tasks to the People’s University of China: first, to cultivate talents and leaders who would facilitate national construction and development; second, to reform the old higher education system and establish a new university model. The university employed 36 Soviet experts whose work mainly included training teachers, instructing graduate students and helping teachers to prepare materials for courses. Soviet specialists would train and give lectures to teachers before they taught students. From 1950 to 1957, a total of 101 handouts and teaching materials were directly compiled by or written under the guidance of Russian experts, establishing a new higher education system and new teaching methods.8 On April 29, 1950, under the direction of Liu Shaoqui, the Chinese Vice President, the Ministry of Education put forward the plan of improving Harbin Institute of Technology. The plan proposed that Harbin Institute of Technology should follow the Soviet model, training engineers for developing heavy industry and providing teachers for domestic science and engineering universities, so that in the near future, China would not need to send large numbers of students to study in the Soviet Union. In order to improve the professional level of the teaching faculty in domestic universities, 150 lecturers, teaching assistants and professors were selected every year to attend training courses in Harbin Institute of Technology.9 The predecessor of Harbin Institute of Technology was the Sino-Russia Industry School, which had a small number of students, simple and crude equipment and Russian administrators and students. At first this school was administered by both nations, but it was then taken over by the Chinese Government in 1950. With support from the central government, 7 Ibid., 7. 8 Hao Weiqian and Long Zhengzhong. The History of Higher Education, (Hainan: Hainan Publishing House, 2000). 9 National Institute of Education Sciences, The Chronicle of Events, 16.

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the school was upgraded and majors were increased by adopting the model of polytechnic engineering colleges in the Soviet Union. The teaching plans, syllabi and materials of 67 professors from 26 colleges and universities in Soviet Union who were invited to teach or give lectures in Chinese univerisities also helped with this education system transition. The system of five years for undergraduate study and two years for graduate study was established. Renmin University of China and Harbin Institute of Technology were the first models of learning educational experiences from the Soviet Union, and therefore influenced the construction of other universities. Fourthly, students were sent to study in the Soviet Union. The first 375 students traveled to the Soviet Union on August 19, 1951. They studied social sciences, engineering, agriculture, medicine, finance, economics, diplomacy, and teacher training. The first students mainly enrolled in the famous universities and colleges in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. As the program expanded, at least 200 students were sent to study in Soviet Union every year, with the maximum number reaching more than 2000 students in a single year. In addition, many Chinese businesses also sent large numbers of interns to study in Soviet businesses. These overseas students brought back with them not only professional knowledge, but also Soviet culture when they returned to China, and they became the backbone of socialist construction. 2. Characteristics of Soviet Education Theories and Their Impacts on the Chinese Circles of Educational Theories The Chinese policies of national construction and education were directly modeled after those in the Soviet Union. In fact, this led to a nationwide top-down movement of learning from Soviet education theories, which tolerated no critique or dissent. At first, some intellectuals were suspicious of Soviet education theories and even challenged the Soviet experts in class. However, these intellectuals were soon attacked and made examples of in the Ideological Remolding Movement which started in 1951. From then on, nobody ventured to express different views. Thus, learning from the Soviet Union developed from an unconscious to a very conscious and proactive movement. Although Soviet education theories can be found in many articles and books, Pedagogy, published in 1948 with I. A. Kairov as the chief editor, dominated Chinese education theories. Every teacher and student in nor-



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mal colleges had a copy; they studied it chapter by chapter and section by section. Kairov’s education theory system took shape and it had a significant impact on Chinese education theories for nearly half a century, and we are still under its shadow. Therefore, we must present a simple analysis of it. Kairov’s education theory uses the methodology of MarxismLeninism to analyze the essence, function and role of education. These points are often cited by Chinese educators. 1. Education is part of the superstructure and the reflection of the economic base; therefore, education in class societies has both historical and class natures. Soviet education should serve the proletarian career and Soviet construction. In section one, chapter one of Pedagogy, Kairov discusses different educations in different societies, pointing out that “education is always related to political issues. The proletariat socialistic revolution must destroy bourgeois education which hinders the society development, and replace it with communist education.”10 2. We should emphasize the party principle of education. Kairov believes that pedagogy is a social science and Soviet education is based on the most advanced philosophical theory—Marxism-Leninism: “The Soviet communist pedagogy is the reflection of the Marxism-Leninism worldview, the worldview of the most advanced class, namely working-class in modern society. Hence, Soviet pedagogy is carrying out the policy of this advanced class and the policy of its party.11 Chinese education theorists also believed that pedagogy should be in accordance with CPC’s route and policy, which was to serve class struggle and proletarian dictatorship. 3. The concepts of education, teaching and cultivation (Образование in Russian) were introduced. According to Kairov’s explanation in Pedagogy, education is a general idea and an all-inclusive concept. He said that the scope of communist education is as follows: (1) To arm children with fundamental knowledge, capacities and skills for their future careers, to promote children’s full intellectual development, to foster children’s own views and beliefs, and to establish their scientific outlooks and behavior habits with communist moral spirit.

10 Kairov, Shen Ying, and Nan Zhishan trans. Pedagogy Part I. (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1953), 10. 11  Ibid., 29.

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(2) To discover and develop students’ hobbies, interests, talents and geniuses and to cultivate students’ qualities for Lenin-like activists in the future. (3) To foster honorable habits that are required and determined by socialist community life. (4) To take students’ health and strong physique as the top priority with the aim of making them grow as strong and happy as possible, as well as to become powerful workers and the country’s unwavering defenders in the future. Cultivation means to master the knowledge, capacities and skills, so that education will develop students’ cognitive abilities, form their scientific world outlook and fuel their ambitions to contribute their knowledge to communist social welfare. Teaching is work carried out according to the plan within schools. Teachers pass down knowledge to students and organize students’ activities, enabling them learn required knowledge, capacities and skills both consciously and actively. Alongside the active teaching, students are expected to form their personalities and qualities which will be suitable for their communist roles.12 To clarify and learn these three concepts, Wang Huanxun, professor and head of the Research Office of Pedagogy in Beijing Normal University once published an article in Guangming Daily to explain them in detail. 4. Education is achieved mainly through teaching. Kairov said, “Only after mastering scientific principles can students establish the possible communist worldviews and finally become a person with socialist education and high-standard educated accomplishments.”13 He also pointed out that teaching was the basic pathway to education.14 In the Cultural Revolution, this statement was later misunderstood and criticized as an example of prioritizing intellectual education and it became ironclad proof of revisionism in Kairov’s pedagogy. 5. Systematic knowledge is highly stressed. Kairov’s pedagogy and Soviet education as a whole particularly emphasizes this. They criticized Dewey’s Pragmatism and believed that it could not bring systematic knowledge to students. After The October Revolution and during the educational 12 Ibid., 14–15. 13 Ibid., 15. 14 Ibid., 56.



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reform in the 1920s, the Soviet Union on the one hand believed that schools should be integrated with productive labor; on the other hand, it learned Western educational experiences blindly, adopting such practices as synthesizing syllabi and project-based teaching which severely affected students’ learning. Students could not learn systematic knowledge of science and culture, nor could graduates satisfy the requirements of higher education institutes that trained qualified leaders. Therefore, the Soviet Union undertook new reforms and in the 1930s. The central committee of the Soviet communist party (Bolshevik Party) made a series of decisions to correct mistakes in the 1920s. Among these, the most famous and most frequently quoted by Chinese education theory include: “The Resolution on Elementary School and Middle School” issued on September 5, 1931; “The Resolution on Syllabus and Work-rest Schedule of Elementary School and Middle School” issued on August 25, 1932; “The Resolution on Misinterpreting Technology in the System of Ministry of People’s Education” issued on July 4, 1936. The first document was a severe critique of the failure of Soviet schools to teach students sufficient general knowledge and to develop students’ skills of understanding literature and mastering scientific thinking. It also repudiated theories on deschooling and the Project Method of teaching. The second document suggested that the Ministry of People’s Education should reformulate the curriculum of primary and middle schools to ensure that children would truly achieve a firm knowledge of science in different subjects including mathematics and writing. Meanwhile, primary and middle schools should be divided into separate classes with strict schedules teachers must perform their duties responsibly, systematically and coherently. The third document criticized the perspective of biological and social determinism, which attributed children’s talents to physiological, social and family factors. In this view, the majority of worker and peasant children were considered deficient and they were sent to special schools where they would not receive a normal education. These three documents outlined the importance for children to master systematic knowledge from different perspectives. Soviet educational practices emphasized that children should learn subject knowledge as early as possible, so there were only four years in soviet primary schools. In the fifth grade, students entered middle school and started their subject learning. This has influenced Chinese education profoundly. Since the founding of the PRC, China consistently stresses that students should master and learn both systematic knowledge and basic knowledge and skills.

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6. The teacher’s leading role is emphasized. Kairov believed that teachers played the most important and decisive role in determining the outcomes of education. Although he also claimed that study is a process through which students grasp knowledge consciously and positively, he still stressed that without teachers, students could not access the benefits of learning and pedagogy.15 The authority and role of teachers was thus paramount, and this maxim is held quite firmly by Chinese educators because it complies with the role of teachers in Chinese traditional education. 7. Chinese educators accepted the entire theoretical system of Kairov’s pedagogy. The structure of Kairov’s pedagogy is divided into four parts. (1) The general introduction explains the essence of education, the purpose and mission of schools, basic phases of children’s growth and development, and a national education system. (2) Teaching theories include the teaching process, contents, principles, and methods. (3) Educational theories refer to the tasks, content, methods and organizations of moral, physical and aesthetic education, the organization of children’s groups, extracurricular activities, and the cooperation between schools and families. (4) School administration and leadership are developed. For decades, most Chinese pedagogy textbooks did not break this four-part system. Generally speaking, Soviet pedagogy, and in particular, Kairov’s pedagogy, took Marxist dialectical materialism as its philosophical basis, critically absorbed various educational thoughts from philosophers, thinkers and educators in history in order to form a Soviet educational system. But fundamentally, this system was still impacted by Herbart’s educational philosophies, which emphasized the subject, classroom and teacher center, and opposed Dewey’s pragmatism pedagogy. Soviet pedagogy was constructed in the 1930s and criticized Dewey’s approach; therefore, under the influence of Soviet pedagogy, China did the same. In October 1950, the educational historian Cao Fu’s article “An Introduction to the Criticism on Dewey” was published in People’s Education, Volume 1, No. 6 and Volume 2, No. 1. The article argued that the criticism of Dewey was a practice of criticizing old educational thoughts. A full critique of Dewey, requires criticism of the foundation of his education thoughts, the philosophy of pragmatism which includes growth theory, progress theory, non-determinism, intelligence theory, knowledge theory and empiricism. In 1951, People’s Education Press brought these articles together and published a book. In 1956, it also published Chen Yuanhui’s “Criticism on the 15 Ibid., 58–60.



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Pragmatic Pedagogy.” Later it developed into the criticism on Tao Xingzhi’s life education and Chen Heqin’s living education. 3. Impacts of Soviet Education on Chinese Education Practices From the founding of the PRC to the era of reform and opening-up, Kairov’s education theory reigned over the field of Chinese education theory. In addition, education practices in China, including the concepts of education, the national education system, teaching contents and teaching methods, were all modeled after the Soviet system, due to the wide dissemination of Soviet knowledge and expertise. In addition to the transformation of the Chinese educational system, Soviets also influenced the Chinese centralized and unified planned economy in China. We will discuss some of these important factors. An Imitation of Soviet Education System On October 1, 1951, the State Administration Council drafted “The Resolution on National Education System Reform.” The new education system stipulated that primary education last for five years and the age for admission was seven years old. Before the foundation of the PRC, Chinese primary education spanned six years and was separated into lower primary and upper primary parts with an admission age of six. The separation of primary education into two sections prevented the children of workers and farmers from receiving a complete school education, so it was changed to the five-year system. However, the new five-year system was not successfully implemented due to poor conditions in some rural areas. Along with the development of the national economy and culture, the six-year system was later implemented in primary schools. The new education system stressed the importance of schools in cultivating leaders of the workers and peasants through compensatory schools and training classes. It not only inherited the education tradition of the old liberated areas, but also learned from Soviet experiences because the Soviet Union attached great importance to the after-work education of leaders, especially in early period of the revolution. Indeed, even before this educational system reform, the first middle schools expressly for workers and peasants were established in Beijing on April 3, 1950 and through June 1950, 12 schools of this type were built. As a result of Soviet influence, China established farmers’ and workers’ schools which were attached to universities. These schools trained leaders among the workers and farmers

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who had no opportunities or time to study because of their revolutionary work. After national liberation, leaders of workers and peasants were badly needed in every field and they needed to receive compensatory education for basic scientific knowledge in order to attend colleges and universities. That is to say, the middle schools for workers and peasants were in fact preliminary schools for colleges and universities. Students had to complete the six-year course load of in junior and senior middle schools within four years. With the increasing enrollment of worker and peasant children in middle schools, express middle schools were soon revoked in 1958. The school-department adjustment in colleges and universities was a great revolution in the higher education system of China. It took place under the influence of the Soviet higher education system, although there was a pressing need for higher education reform so as to cater to the construction of new China. But the direction and result of the schooldepartment adjustment was the formation of a Soviet higher education system in China. This adjustment was started in Beijing and Tianjin in 1952 and soon spread widely in the east, southwest, central south, northeast and northwest of China, ending in 1953. This adjustment focused on strengthening comprehensive universities, developing engineering institutes and normal colleges, and rearranging the distribution of colleges and universities among regions. The classification of colleges and universities basically imitated the Soviet model—Chinese higher education institutes could be categorized as either comprehensive universities with disciplines of arts and sciences, or specialized institutes with one discipline as its specialty, such as engineering, agriculture, medicine, teacher-training, finance and economics, politics and law, arts, language, or sports. In 1953, the second round of school-department adjustment was launched, focusing on the central south administrative areas. The main goal of school-department adjustments was to change the fact that Chinese higher education was not suitable for Chinese economic construction. Before adjustments, the total number of colleges and universities was 211, including 49 comprehensive universities with at least three different colleges or departments, 91 independent institutes and 71 specialized colleges. There were three problems with this system. First, neither the structure of higher education institutions nor their internal disciplinary boundaries was reasonable. Liberal arts were overemphasized, science and engineering education was neglected and normal schools were in great shortage. Of 211 colleges and universities, there were only 33 science and engineering institutes, accounting for 15 percent



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of the total number; and 17 agriculture and forestry institutes accounting for 8 percent. Only 12 normal universities and colleges existed at the nation’s founding, and the number increased to 32 in 1952.16 Second, the scope of each higher education institution was not large enough and the student enrollment was low, which meant that they were unable to satisfy the manpower demands of economic construction. In 1951, the number of full-time students enrolling in colleges and universities was 153,402, which meant 745 students per school. Seldom did universities and colleges enroll more than 2000 students, and every department would only enroll a few dozen. Therefore, higher education could not satisfy the manpower needs for national reconstruction and therefore, educational resources were also wasted. Third, the distribution of higher education institutions was regionally uneven; most of which were scattered in coastal areas while few existed in the west. After two school-department adjustments, colleges and universities were reduced to 182—this included 14 comprehensive universities, 39 higher science and engineering schools, 31 higher normal schools, 29 higher agriculture and forestry schools, 29 higher medicine schools, 4 higher political schools, 6 higher finance and economics schools, 15 higher art schools, 8 higher language schools, 5 higher sport schools and 2 minority colleges. However, the inequitable regional distribution was not corrected. The leadership and administration system of higher education institutions also underwent Soviet reform. First, the central ministry of higher education charged with the administration of higher education institutions (except military schools) nationwide. All higher education institutions would conform to the regulations set by the central ministry of higher education, such as construction plans, financial plans, financial systems, teaching plans, curriculum, production and practice regulations, and other important procedures, orders or instructions. Second, the central ministry of higher education and other related central ministries cooperated to manage higher education institutions. Comprehensive universities and multidisciplinary science and engineering institutes were directly managed by central ministry of higher education; specialized disciplinary institutes were managed by related central ministries; and some schools

16 Hao Weiqian and Long Zhengzhong. The History of Higher Education, (Hainan: Hainan Publishing House, 2000).

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were commissioned by a regional executive committee or local governments at the level of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.17 School-department adjustments and the imitation of the Soviet education model quickly transformed Chinese education, built up a new education system, improved the quality of higher education and cultivated a large number of professionals for new China’s socialist construction. Specialized science and engineering institutes were founded, including geological, petroleum mining, iron and steel, aviation, and telecommunications institutes which filled the lack of higher education in science and engineering and cultivated a large number of experts for Chinese industrial construction. The establishment of independent normal colleges guaranteed the development of Chinese basic education. Its historical contributions cannot be dismissed; however this reform also brought about the following problems. 1. Soviet higher education emphasized the cultivation of senior experts and specialized education. Since Chinese higher education imitated the Soviet model, liberal arts education was criticized as capitalist and created a separation of theories from practices. This specialization tendency resulted in Chinese students graduating from universities and colleges with a narrow range of knowledge. Therefore, it was hard for them to adapt to new technological developments. 2. High degrees of specialization resulted in a separation between science and engineering in higher education institutions. Comprehensive universities become liberal arts colleges, losing the comprehensive advantage, while single disciplinary institutes limited the range of knowledge. Especially in some engineering colleges, the fundamental sciences lacked support. This was not beneficial to the development of new disciplines and interdisciplinary subjects while at same time, students were less influenced by humanism. These shortcomings were exposed more clearly in the 1980s. 3. Centralization and unification were emphasized. There was one monotonous and rigid method of cultivating talent. Under unified majors, curriculum, pedagogy, content and management, local characteristics were not taken into consideration and higher education institutions lost their initiatives. The great unification model led to the rigidity of academic thoughts. It also prevented teachers from developing their profes-

17 Ibid.



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sional knowledge and obstructed the development of students’ initiative and creativity. 4. After the school-department adjustments, several famous universities were divided which decentralized academic power and scattered the faculty. Consequently, the construction of world-class universities was greatly delayed. 5. There was no nationwide coordination in terms of the management and leadership of higher education institutions. The central ministry of higher education only managed a small number of institutions, while a large number of institutions were managed by central ministries of various industries, leading to fragmentation. This situation was changed completely after the reform of the higher education system in 1999. Adopting Soviet Teaching Modes and Teaching Methods In the initial stage of the PRC, China did not only imitated the Soviet education system, but also learned and adopted their textbooks, teaching modes and teaching methods. On November 12, 1952, the Ministry of Education issued instructions to all higher education institutions which required them to translate and edit Soviet textbooks. Textbooks for basic courses in the first and second grades of Soviet higher education institutions were to be translated first, then some necessary textbooks for specialized courses, and finally textbooks for other courses. In order conduct this task systematically, on November 27 of the same year, the Ministry of Education issued a temporary provision on translating textbooks in Soviet colleges and universities, which set translation plans for each college and university. After examination and approval of the Textbook Translation and Revision Committee, translated textbooks were then published as trial textbooks recommended by Ministry of Education.18 Thus, in the initial stage of new China, all higher education textbooks were from the Soviet Union. The teaching and research system was also adopted from the Soviet Union. Teaching and research divisions in colleges, universities, primary and secondary schools were established. This was the basic unit of teaching in schools. Teaching and research divisions in higher education institutions were divided by majors; all teachers were assigned to an appropriate division according to their own major. They prepared lessons,

18 National Institute of Education Sciences, The Chronicle of Events, 68.

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wrote textbooks and discussed academic problems in their professional fields together. Teaching and research groups in primary and secondary schools were divided by subjects; teachers were also assigned to an appropriate group according to their teaching expertise. They prepared lessons together, attended each others’ lessons, and took part in various group activities in schools. This system helped to organize teachers to work collectively, guarantee education quality and provide appropriate guidance. But it also had negative effects because it not only contributed to the psychological dependence of some teachers, but also inhibited teachers’ creativity. This educational organization is still in place in most Chinese schools. Apart from lessons given by teachers in classrooms, the seminar system was also introduced. Seminar was also called class discussion or group discussion, which was not solely employed in Soviet high education institutions; seminars actually have a long history in Western colleges and universities and still enjoy a great deal of popularity in the West. However, seminars were introduced to China as a Soviet educational experience in the initial stage of new China. Seminars encourage interactions between teachers and students as well as among students themselves. In Western colleges and universities, much importance is attached to seminars. For example, in Germany, one can ignore what the teacher says, but attendance in class discussion is mandatory. If one misses too many lessons, he will not be allowed to take the test. I once taught in the University of Paris VIII, France and attended many of their lessons. Their classes last for 150 minutes, but teachers only occupy 30 minutes and the rest of the time was for discussions. When I was studying in the Soviet Union, there were also seminars in almost every class. Before the discussion, one needed to read and annotate the texts carefully. By reading the original great works and through subsequent discussion, one could gain a greater understanding of the course material. Also, through discussion, one could learn what he or she had not learned from his or her private reading. However, it is regrettable that we did not understand the essence and value of the seminar form and we did not insist on adopting this teaching form. When I returned to China, I found that Chinese students were afraid of seminars; they complained about the heavy workload, when there were actually only two seminars each week. Hence, seminars disappeared in Chinese colleges and universities soon afterwards. It must have something to do with our traditional education values, which hold that the teacher teaches students knowledge, tells students the way to live and answers student questions. The teacher is the center of the class and dominates the class



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through lectures. There was no position for students in this process of teaching and no need for discussion since learning consisted of passively receiving existing classics and knowledge. Thus, although we seem to have fully adopted Soviet teaching methods, we have actually excluded some aspects that conflict with Chinese traditional education, which illustrates the strong influence of traditional forces. The academic calendar, the three-level course structure, and graduate design were all borrowed from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union believed that the objective of higher education was to train specialized talents, so it was in oppositon to liberal arts education. As a result, higher education required five years of study and some of engineering colleges even required six years. Courses included three levels: basic courses, basic specialized courses and specialized courses. Courses on political theories dominated basic courses and students learned the history of the Soviet Communist Party, political economics, dialectical materialism and historical materialism. These courses were compulsory and would last for the whole academic year. Graduation requirements were very high because students wrote graduate papers or designs designs and took national examinations. Bachelor students did not attain a degree and only received the expert diploma. This system was kept in place until the Chinese academic degree system was established. Teaching in primary and middle schools was a complete imitation of the Soviet model. According to Soviet experiences, teaching plans, syllabi and textbooks were considered government documents, which therefore could not be changed by schools and teachers, were adopted in all primary and middle schools. This centralized method of teaching ignored the inequitable education development in different areas of China and ignored the individual characteristics of different schools. As a result, students’ individualities were not properly developed. In terms of teaching method, Pedagogy by Kairov was taken as the model and Soviet experts also supervised Chinese teachers in person. One of the most famous examples of this was the teaching method of “Red Scarf.” In 1953, graduates of Chinese Language and Literature Department, Beijing Normal University went to Number Six Girls Middle School to do field teaching practice and taught the lesson of “Red Scarf.” After listening, the Russian expert Pushkin made some comments and expressed the requirements of a good class. People’s Education then published a report that stated that Pushkin pointed out the direction of improving Chinese teaching. From then on, the teaching method of “Red Scarf ” spread all over the country and influenced not only Chinese teaching, but also all courses

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in primary and middle schools. This teaching method set a standard for classroom teaching and helped students to master basic knowledge and skills systematically. However, it also exerted some negative influences— rigid and programmatic classroom teaching can inhibit teacher creativity and student initiative. 4. Criticism of Soviet Education and Localization of Soviet Educational Experiences Soviet education exerted a great and profound influence on Chinese education. In the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the relationship between China and the Soviet Union deteriorated, so Soviet revisionism, including in the field of education, was criticized by Chinese intellectuals. Pedagogy by Kairov was criticized for its separation of education and production and its neglect of proletarian politics and the leadership of the Party. It was also criticized for being book-centered, class-centered and teachercentered. In 1960, the Cultural and Education Group of Central Government held two meetings with the secretaries in charge of culture and education affairs in different provinces. Lu Dingyi, Minister of Propaganda in the CPC’s Central Committee pointed out in the meeting that the revisionism existing in philosophy, social sciences and arts should be criticized; the roots of bourgeois thoughts in the academic community must be dug up and a revolution should be launched in the field of education. Therefore, Soviet revisionist educational thoughts were attacked and Pedagogy by Kairov was singled out as the target of the criticism. In the mid-1960s, the criticism became more or less open after the publication of the following articles in the 6th issue of People’s Education: “A Serious Issue in Socialist Education” and “Bourgeois Educational Thoughts Must Be Criticized.” In the 2nd issue in 1965, “The Fake Marxist Teaching Theory” and “Intellectual Education First Must Be Criticized” were published.19 Many believed that Kairov’s education theory was revisionist. In short, Kairov advocated that intellectual education should come first, and political and ideological education should be carried out through teaching. At the same time, Kairov’s education theory was linked with Khrushchev’s slogan “the people of the whole country educate the national party.” Chinese intellectuals believed that Soviet education denied the class nature of education,

19 Qu Baokui, “The Hundred Years of Chinese Education” in A Study of Meta-Pedagogy, (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Press, 1999), 396.



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so it therefore, it was totally revisionist. In order to destroy its roots in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, humanitarianism, maternal love education, education according to one’s abilities and systematic education were also criticized. This criticism continued to the end of the Cultural Revolution. In retrospect, we came to realize that our criticism of Soviet education was fierce but in vain, because we left crucial points untouched. The basic concepts, system, mode and teaching methods of Soviet education had been accepted completely and were further developed in China—this was not changed by the criticism of Soviet education. On the contrary, we viewed these borrowed Soviet concepts as Chinese tradition, and in this way, we finished the localization of Soviet education experiences. This seems to be a very contradictory and strange phenomenon, but a careful analysis reveals the reasons within it. First, the two countries shared the same ideology. We believed that the Soviet Union was a revisionist country, but the Soviet Union also followed Marxism-Leninism and socialism in terms of ideology. For example, political theory courses held an important position in both Chinese and Soviet colleges and universities. Both countries stressed the absolute leadership of the party over education. The Soviet Union government proposed that colleges and universities were neutral, non-partisan and non-ideological before its disintegration. Soon afterwards, Soviet socialism collapsed. Due to ideological similarity, Soviet education experiences can therefore be easily accepted by the Chinese people. Second, both countries had highly centralized political systems. The government was directly in charge of education and centralization and unification were highly emphasized. Education decisions were made administratively, lacking scientific and democratic consultations and decision-making procedures. All Chinese universities created unified majors that used the same teaching plan, syllabus, and textbooks. The organization of teaching and research activities followed Mao Zedong’s principle of building Communist Party branches. They were treated as the basic unit of both higher education development and Party construction, which was convenient for management and leadership. Third, both countries adopted the planned economic system. The Chinese education system was formed by learning Soviet education experiences under the planned economic system, which resulted in the school-department adjustments in the 1950s. It also resulted in narrow specialties and a lack of diversity in university culture and student personalities. The Soviet education system under the planned economy could therefore be easily accepted and adapted in China.

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Fourth, the Soviet education system was not originally created by the Soviet Union. As we have mentioned above, Kairov’s education theory is actually a replica of Herbart’s philosophy. Chinese education had been influenced by Herbart’s education theory because Western educational philosophies were introduced to China before the liberation. Therefore, while learning Soviet education theories was resisted by some intellectuals at first, later they realized that Soviet education theories were similar to Herbart’s and then easily accepted them. Finally, Soviet education tradition has something in common with Chinese traditional culture. For example, in Chinese classical culture and the Imperial Examination System, we stress centralization and unification, value book knowledge, and attach great importance to basic education and reception learning. All these values coincide with the Soviet education tradition which emphasized systematic knowledge, basic knowledge and basic skills. Another example is the similarity in the leading role of teachers in Soviet education and the emphasis on teacher’s dignity in Chinese traditional culture. The fact that Soviet education experiences could be easily accepted and integrated into the Chinese education system demonstrates that China prefers to accept ideas that enjoy great similarities with Chinese traditional culture, whereas it is harder to take in anything that differs significantly. For example, we could not accept seminars (classroom discussion) a widely adopted teaching method in Western universities, as an effective way of enhancing a student’s independent thinking. Therefore, it is not surprising that traces of Soviet education can still be seen everywhere even after we have undertaken so many education reforms after China’s reform and opening-up. It can be said that Chinese education today has not only inherited the essence of Chinese traditional culture, but also absorbed the tradition of Soviet education.

Chapter Ten

Reforms, Open Door Policies, and Diversification of Educational Thoughts The economic reforms and open door policies brought Chinese education into a new stage. Guided by the slogan “liberating the ways of thinking, and seeking the truth from facts” the reforms set the following goals: to seriously reflect on the construction of educational theories after the founding of the People’s Republic; to import new theories and new experiences that have emerged from the educational reforms in various countries; to create a series of socialist educational theories with Chinese characteristics; to develop new traditions for Chinese education. In this era, the development of Chinese education can be divided into two periods. The first period occurred in the 1980s when the entire field of education was engaged in the reflection and introduction of different educational thoughts and experiences of educational reforms in other countries after World War II. Educators sought out experiences that would be beneficial for the development of Chinese education. The second period occurred in the 1990s when the field of education explored modern education systems and theories during the transition from the planned economy into a market economy. 1. Reflection on Education and Introduction of Educational Thoughts from Other Countries For many people, the economic reforms and open door policies felt like opening the windows after waking up from a long sleep and finding the outside world full of colors. China lagged behind advanced countries in economy, science, technology, and education. In order to make up ground, China’s only solution was to adhere to economic construction and work toward the four modernizations. In his speech at the opening ceremony of the National Science Conference on March 18, 1978, Deng Xiaoping observed: “It is the great historic mission of the people in our country to comprehensively materialize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, science and technology, and build our country into a strong socialist nation.” He continued to say: “Among the

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modernizations, the key is the modernization of science and technology.” Xiaoping explained that science and technology was central to productivity. To materialize the four modernizations, science and technology are the key and education is the foundation. As early as May 24, 1977, in his talk “Respecting Knowledge and Respecting Personnel” Xiaoping stated: “To build the found modernizations, the key is to develop science and technology, and to do that would be impossible if education is not developed.” Education, therefore, was brought to the forefront of Chinese society, particularly when the Entrance Examinations to Colleges and Universities were reinstated. This had the effect of a spring breeze which swept away the clouded idea that reading is useless. Education needed to be restored to its normal order. The first step in reform is reflection. The Discussion on the Nature of Education and the Shift of the Perceptions of the Values of Education In 1978, Yu Guangyuan, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted in a symposium on education that while there were elements of the superstructure in the phenomenon of education education could not be wholly regarded as a component of the superstructure. His talk became the article “Attention to the Study of the Fostering of Talents” and it was published in the third issue of Academic Research in 1978. It generated an unprecedented discussion on the nature of education throughout the field of education in China; a tremendous amount of people were involved in the discussion, and they lasted for a long period. More than 300 articles were published in different newspapers and journals, with Educational Research as the main platform between 1978 and 1996.1 Most of these articles focused on the attributes of the nature of education. Many perspectives emerged, such as “education being productivity” vs. “education being a component of the superstructure.” These discussions on the nature of education were indeed a reflection on the functions of education. Between the founding of the People’s Republic and the end of the Cultural Revolution, education was regarded as the tool for proletarian dictatorship, which meant that the main function of education was to serve politics. Now that economic construction became the focus, would education have the function to serve economic development? Given the new beliefs that science and technology were

1 According to the statistics in A Hundred Years of Chinese Education by Zhai Baoquan.



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productivity, and that education was the foundation for preparing trained personnel, would education have any other functions? The decision on the reforms of the educational systems of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party clearly indicated that “education must serve socialist construction, and socialist construction must rely on education.” This set the right track for Chinese education—it was a great accomplishment of liberating thinking and a major shift in the perceptions on the values of education. After this discussion, others were addressed. Education not only has political and economic functions, but also has cultural ones. Education must serve both the material and spiritual civilization of the society. Education is an activity that prepares people, and education must address the issues of human development and help people go beyond their limitations. Only through the comprehensive development of individuals can the group be developed comprehenvely and therefore advance the progress and development of the entire society. Therefore, building the nation with science and education has become a national policy for China’s development. Reconstructing Comparative Education, Introducing Experiences of Educational Reforms from Other Countries To conduct education reforms requires learning all advanced cultural accomplishments in the world. The 1960s witnessed major development and major reforms of education in the world, and it was an important period in the process of worldwide education modernization. It was regrettable that the Chinese Cultural Revolution prevented this knowledge from reaching the Chinese people. After the economic reforms began, our horizons were broadened, and therefore we actively introduced advanced educational thoughts, content, and methodologies from other countries. The first book introduced from outside China was Learn to Exist: Today and Tomorrow of World of Education published by UNESCO in 1972 and translated by the Research Group of Foreign Education of East China Normal University. The translation was completed in 1976, yet due to intellectual resistance, it was not published in Chinese by the Shanghai Translation Publishers until 1979. The book noted that due to the social changes caused by the rapid advancement of science and technology, human society had entered the stage of the learning society, and lifelong learning became a necessity for the existence of human beings. Indeed, lifelong education is not only an educational thought, but also a development

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trend in education and it was a shame that we did not realize its importance. After this book was published, there was litte response from the field of education, and only few articles mentioned it. In contrast, developed countries responded immediately to the idea of lifelong learning and they began to change and develop policies on life learning as early as the 1970s. Why did the introduction of this book to China receive a somewhat cold response? In retrospect, this response was not so strange for the time. In the 1970s, China was still in the small farm economy stage within a planned economy. Large scale industrial production had not yet resulted in any major societal changes and therefore it was difficult to comprehend the importance of lifelong learning in a modernized society. It was not until the mid 1990s when China experienced relatively large scale industrial modernization, the planned economy began to change into the market economy, and productive technology was further advanced, that the people in the field of education began to pay attention to lifelong learning. The concept was finally included in the 1995 Chinese Law of Education. It is important to note Deng Xiaoping’s 1977 instruction regarding the introduction of advanced educational content: “Teaching materials should be introduced from other countries and beneficial approaches in foreign textbooks should be studied.” Even under the condition of having limited foreign currencies, the Central Government managed to allocate $100,000 to select and purchase textbooks from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, France and Japan, and therefore promoted the reforms to modernize the curriculum and teaching materials in China. Comparative educators played a crucial role in the efforts to introduce experiences of foreign education. Comparative education was originally a field of study in teacher colleges and universities. However, due to the imitation of the Soviet model after the liberation of 1949, it was regarded as unworthy of study and was abolished in teacher training institutions. It was not until the early 1960s that the study of education in countries beyond the former Soviet Union began. On May 12, 1964 the Leadership Group of International Studies of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Foreign Affairs Office of the State Council approved the “Report on Establishing Units for Foreign Studies in Higher Education Institutions” by the Ministry of Higher Education. Research groups that studied foreign education were created in Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, and Northeast China Normal University. With the authorization of the Department of Propaganda of



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the Party Central Committee, Beijing Normal University founded the journal Trends in Foreign Education. The guiding principal at the time was to learn about other countries in order to serve the political needs of antiimperialism and anti-revisionism. Even with this political purpose, these research groups were still criticized as fronts to distribute capitalist and revisionist ideology once the Cultural Revolution was launched. It was not until 1973 that the Research Group of Foreign Education at Beijing Normal University began to resume its research on foreign education, and it was under the slogan of anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism. Trends in Foreign Education was also published on an irregular basis with internal circulation only, and 22 issues were published up to 1979. In 1980, the journal was approved as a formal publication, and it was circulated both domestically and internationally. In 1993, the title of the journal was changed to Research on Comparative Education. In the early 1980s, References for Foreign Education was published at East China Normal University, Research on Foreign Education was published in Northeast China Normal University, and Foreign Education was published in the Central Institute of Educational Science. After the smashing of the “Gang of Four,” the Ministry of Education sponsored symposiums on textbooks for foundational science courses and foreign education, due to the great demand for learning experiences from other countries in various fields of study in higher education institutions. At the meeting on foreign education, participants discussed the research on foreign education and developed initial work plans. From July 5–15 1978, the first National Seminar on Foreign Education was held at Beijing Normal University. Attending the meeting were more than 40 researchers from Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, Jilin (Northeast China) Normal University, Hebei University and South China Normal University. The second National Seminar on Foreign Education was held in Shanghai at the end of October 1979, with more than a dozen of institutions represented and more than 90 people attending. At this meeting the Research Association of Foreign Education was established. With the encouragement and support of the Division of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, a series of books about experiences in education from other countries was published: Collections of Foreign Education (35 volumes), A Glance of Education in Six Countries, Conditions of Education in Twenty Countries, American Education Today, and Foundations of Pedagogy in America, all published by the People’s Education Press. Between March and June 1980, Beijing Normal University invited C. T. Hu, a comparative educator at Columbia University, to teach comparative

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education to undergraduate students. At the same time, the Division of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education organized a professional development program for instructors of comparative education, attended by dozens of faculty members from ten institutions. These participants, under the guidance of senior comparative educators such as Wang Chengxu, Zhu Bo and Tan Renmei, compiled Comparative Education, the first textbook of its kind for undergraduate students after 1949. These efforts helped restore the status of comparative education as a component of the education of Marxism-Leninism in higher education institutions. Soon thereafter, larger-scale plans began to be implemented for further reforms based on the experiences of foreign education. Introduction of Various Types of Educational Thoughts The study of foreign experiences in education focused on advanced countries. During this period, the selected advanced countries were: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union. In addition to the articles on education about those countries published in the journals mentioned earlier in this chapter, many newspapers and magazines allocated special columns for foreign education, creating an atmosphere of excitement. In addition to the previously mentioned Collections of Foreign Education and A Glance of Education in Six Countries by the People’s Education Press, many other scholarly books had a significant impact: “The Study of Education in Selected Countries Since WWII” in the Sixth Five-Year Plan for Philosophy and Social Sciences published by Jiangxi Education Press in 1991; Instruction and Development by Zancoff, translated by Du Diankun, published by the Cultural and Educational Publishers in 1980; A Hundred Recommendations to Teachers by Sukhomlinsky and translated by Zhou Qu, published by Tianjin Press in 1981; The Process of Education by Jerome Bruner and translated by the Research Group on Foreign Education of Shanghai Normal University, published by the Shanghai People’s Press in 1978. The most influential publications are discussed below. The Development Instructional Theory by Zancoff Zancoff (1901–1977) was a Soviet psychologist and educator and member of the Academy of Educational Science of the Soviet Union. Between 1957 and 1977, he was engaged in experimental research on the relationship between education and instruction and development. During the experiments of those 20 years, he conducted psychological experiments, cre-



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ated a systematic theory on developmental instruction, and promoted general student development by maximizing the effects of instruction. Zancoff noted that in order to develop student independence and creativity, traditional concepts of instructional theories must give way to the improvement of the general development level of students. Zancoff defined and explained general development from several different angles. In On Instruction in Primary Schools (1963) he stated that “our understanding of general development is that it is the development of the child’s personality, and the development of all aspects of the child.” Therefore, it is different from any special development of the child. Later, in Dialogs with Teachers, he further explained that “general development is not only the development of intelligence. It also refers to the development of the student’s emotions, wills, characters, personality and perspectives on collectivism.” In Instruction and Development (1975) he clarified again that general development included physical development and psychological development. Guided by general development, Zancoff proposed five principles for instruction: (1) high challenge level (2) fast pace (3) guiding theoretical knowledge (4) enabling students to understand the process of instruction (5) enabling all students to develop, including low-performing ones. Chinese teachers usually relate these principles to a theory by Vygostsky, a psychologist in the early Soviet Union—the principle of “jumping up to pick the apple” which means that in order to promote student development, instruction must be challenging so that children can master the content by making appropriate efforts. “Homonymous Education” by Sukhomlinsky Sukhomlinsky (1918–1970) was a well-known Ukrainian educator in the former Soviet Union, expert teacher of the Ukraine Republic, and Correspondence Academician of the Academy of Educational Science Russian Federation. He was the principal of the 帕夫雷什 Secondary School in rural Ukraine until his death in 1970. For many years, he explored theoretical and practical applications of education, and prepared many talents. With his focus on the harmonious development of personalities, he studied various education phenomena and established a educational system with unification among the school, family and society. He argued that harmonious education would integrate student activities in the cognitive domain (learning) with their self-realization (practice). This would bring change to the outside world, and it would harmoniously combine the

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development in character, intelligence, physiques, aesthetics, and physical labor. He advocated that schools should provide a wealth of spiritual activities to satisfy the internal needs of their students so that they could fully realize their talents, skills and creativity. He also believed that every child should be trusted in order to develop the student’s self-respect, selfconfidence and self-pride. Sukhomlinsky was not only an educational theorist but also an educational practitioner. His stories and experiences in educational practices were widespread among Chinese elementary and secondary school teachers. Chinese comparative educators translated his complete collection of publications, including individual publications such as Pavlysh Secondary School, Presenting the Entire Heart and Soul to Children, A Hundred Suggestions to Teachers. During the 1990s Sukhomlinsky’s daughter, an academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Educational Science, was invited by the Beijing Normal University to lecture on Sukhomlinsky’s educational thoughts. Sukhomlinsky is one of the most highly esteemed foreign educators and his influences are far-reaching and profound. The Structural Theory of Education and Discovery Method by Bruner Jerome Bruner (1915–) is a well-known American developmental psychologist. In 1958, the Congress of the United States passed the Act of Education for National Defense, and in September of that year, 35 scientists, scholars and educators gathered at Woodhull to discuss improving education in natural sciences. Bruner gave a concluding speech, and later the speech was included in the Process of Education. The book explains the four central themes of curriculum reform. First, in any subject, students must learn the material that will enable them to master the basic structure of that field. The basic structure refers to the primary principles, concepts, attitudes and approaches in studying that field. Second, the basic knowledge of any subject matter can be taught in appropriate ways to children of any age. Third, instruction in the past only emphasized student analytical skills, but attention should be paid to their intuitional skills as well. In the process of discovery, innovation, and problem solving, intuition guides the student to make hypotheses and analytical skills are then applied to test them. Fourth, the best motivation for learning the student’s own interest and enthusiasm for the subject and external stimulates such as awards and competition should not be overused. Bruner advocated a wide application of the discovery method. He believed that discovery is not limited to the search for unknown knowl-



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edge but that it includes all cognitive approaches to learning and applying knowledge. The objective for discovery learning is the development of creative thinking. The discovery learning process includes: selecting one or more issues; creating the context for discovery; establishing the hypothesis for solving the problem; testing and proving the hypothesis; drawing scientific conclusion; transferring to skills. Guided by Bruner’s Structuralism for Education, the United States implemented large-scale curriculum reforms in elementary and secondary schools. Professional committees of various subjects compiled new textbooks such as The New Mathematics, The New Physics, The New Chemistry and The New Biology which presented knowledge at more challenging levels. However, because these textbooks were designed to educate the elite, the textbooks were too challenging for most teachers and students and therefore they were not commonly adopted. However, they influenced curriculum reforms in other countries. After the economic reforms and open door policies, they were introduced into China where they influenced curriculum reforms in the 1980s to a certain extent. Bruner’s discovery method was not used widely due to the difficulties in implementation, yet his thoughts on developing student skills have been accepted by Chinese educators. The Theory of Instruction by Examples This theory originated in West Germany and was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Alongside Zancoff ’s theory of developmental instruction and Bruner’s structuralist theory of instruction, it is regarded as one of the most influential post-World War II instructional theories. After World War II, West Germany began to rebuild, and education was a part of this process. The standards of instruction were raised in order for the nation to regain its footing in the development of science and technology. Accordingly, educational institutions expanded teaching content and the length of daily instruction. However, this resulted in an overly complicated curriculum, an increased burden on students, the minimization of student creativity, and declining student intellectual development and quality of instruction. To resolve this situation, West German representatives from universities, teacher training institutions and other schools met in Tübingen, where they agreed that West German education was stifling student intellectual development because the textbooks were overly dense. At the meeting, they analyzed educational conditions, proposed reforms, and finally passed the Resolution of Tübingen. During the meeting H. Heimpel,

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a historian, offered a well-received proposal regarding instruction by examples. Afterwards, educators such as Martin Wagenschein, J. Deborah, W. Klafki, H. Scheuer developed this concept through various articles and publiations, thus establishing instruction by example and instructional theory school. Instruction by examples is a process through which teachers carefully select exemplary materials from textbooks for students to study so that the students learning from specific cases and then move on to draw general conclusions. This approache integrates the subject and object of learning, problem solving and systematic learning, and mastery of knowledge and development of skills. It emphasizes the essence of the content (the essential element of the subject), the foundational aspect of the subject (the level-appropriate foundation for further student development) and the exemplary nature of the content (examples are used to advance student knowledge). This instructional method was introduced to China in the 1980s. However, the responses were not as positive as those regarding Zancoff ’s developmental instruction and Bruner’s discovery method, and therefore, it has not had a wide impact on Chinese education. Mastery Learning by Bloom In education there is a conventional perspective on the distribution curve of student performance; among all students, one third can fully master the content and excel in the subject, another one third can learn the content but will perform at an average level, and the final third will not be able to master the content and will barely (if at all) pass the course. Benjamin Bloom critiqued ths perspective by noting that this expectation sacrificed the success of a large number of students by suppressing the creativity of teachers and students and reducing student enthusiasm for learning. He believed that the vast majority of the students can master the content, but the challenge for instruction was to discover the alternative methods that would work for different students. He advocated a process of teaching and learning for mastery. In Bloom’s instructional theories, objectives of education are the foundation for organization of instruction, curriculum development and evaluation of education. In Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, he divided objectives of education into three categories: cognitive, emotional, and motor skills. Each category is divided into three areas: knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, integration and evaluation. Bloom



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also proposed mastery learning strategies for teacher training, textbook design, organization of instruction, and teaching methods. In 1986, East China Normal University invited Bloom as a guest lecturer and translated his Taxonomy of Educational Objectives translated into Chinese. Chinese eductators thus learned about mastery learning and Bloom’s approach of categorizing the objectives of education. In the 1980s, many educational philosophies and approaches were introduced to China, such as instruction by suggestion, cooperative learning, and maximum optimization, and it would be impossible to mention them all. However, these different schools of thought tended to share a characteristic: systematic instruction of knowledge was not as heavily emphasized while the development of student skills became the focus of instruction. Therefore developing student skills became the popular idea for Chinese instructional improvement. Because Chinese traditional education emphasizes knowledge instruction, this concept was adapted into basic knowledge plus basic skills. It is important to note that basic skills and ability development do not refer to the same process. In elementary and secondary schools, basic skills refer to literacy, writing and arithmetic, while the word ability refers to an individual’s comprehensive psychological qualities and intelligence. Therefore, basic knowledge and basic skills cannot replace the instruction which develops student abilities. Certain trends emerged in the circle of educational theories that directly impacted the development of Chinese traditions in education: First, the emancipation of people’s thinking was successful and there were new understandings of the values of education. The discussions regarding the nature of education demonstrated that Chinese educators were thinking in proactive and creative ways, which was unprecedented since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. In addition to this single set of discussions, a whole series of educational and theoretical issues were raised in the mid-1980s, such as the values of education, the purpose of education, the educational system reform, restoration of the 6-3-3 educational system, and curriculum reforms. Second, educational theorists began to pay attention to macro issues in education. For a long period, Chinese educational theorists had only dealth with micro level issues such as education and instruction within schools, and hardly any research had been conducted in macro level issues such as the relationship between education and the development of the society. Since the economic reforms and open door policies, much attention has been paid to studying the relationship between education

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and the construction of modernization. In the 1980s, educational economics was established in China as a new field of study, and other important fields such as theories of development strategies for education and theories of higher education gradually emerged as well. Third, new initiatives introduced and absorbed educational thoughts and experiences in educational reforms from other countries. Over the last hundred years, learning from Western countries was often a coercive and one-sided process, whereas during the economic reforms and open door policies the process became more self-directed and open with the intention of incorporation. In the 1980s we regarded the still-existing Soviet Union as the source of socialist education, but instead of noncritically accepting Soviet ideas, we became more selecive and critical about how we incorporated Soviet experience. Simultaneously we introduced a large amount of Soviet education experiences and Western educational thoughts, experiences and reforms. Chinese contacts with Western countries suddenly and dramatically increased; for instance, Chinese intellectuals and leaders attended international conferences, institutions and participated in mutual exchange with other countries. They brought back aspects of Western cultures and educational traditions, thus diversifying Chinese educational thoughts, further promoting the emancipation of thinking among educators, and broadening areas for research. A number of new and interdisciplinary fields of study were introduced into the country, and China’s educational atmosphere was that of a hundred flowers blossoming. 2. Major Reforms and Development in Education, and Major Shifts in Perspectives on Education Reforms and Development of Education In the 1990s, the world changed dramatically. The Soviet Union fell and Eastern European countries experienced sudden changes as well; society entered a new era after the Cold War. Science and technology advanced rapidly and international competition became increasingly intensive particularly in the competition for talented innovators, scientists and intellectuals, which, in the final analysis, is the core measure of national strength. For that reason, many countries inititated educational reforms in the 1980s, and those reforms reached their peaks in the 1990s, preparing nations to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. In China, two changes occurred in the economy: the transition from a planned economy to the market economy, and the transition from labor-



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intensive production to knowledge-intensive production. These two transitions foregrounded the importance of knowledge and talents, making education an increasingly crucial foundation for the construction of socialist modernization in China. If education serves the construction of socialist modernization, it must have its own reforms and development. Before the National Day of 1983, Deng Xiaoping gave clear directions for Chinese educational reforms by writing words of encouragement to the Beijing Jingshan School: “Education must face the challenges of modernization, of the world, and of the future.” Between May 15 and May 20, 1985, the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party (CCCCP) and the State Council organized the first National Work Conference on Education. At this conference, they crafted a set of reforms that stipulated the implementation of nine-year compulsory education and differentiated management of local schools and responsibilities. These reforms stimulated local enthusiasm for education. In 1993, the CCCCP and the State Council issued the “Guidelines for Reforms and Development of Chinese Education” which stated that whoever masters education in the twenty-first century will be placed in a strategically positive position in international competition throughout that century. Therefore, we must have foresight and prepare for the most important and long-lasting educational matters to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

In 1997, the Chinese Communist Party had its Fifteenth National Congress. The Congress decided on the goals and tasks for the construction of socialist modernization in the transition to the next century, and stated that the strategy for development was to invigorate the nation through science and education. The Ministry of Education enacted the Action Plans for Vitalization of Education for the Twenty First Century on December 24, 1998. These plans materialized the goals and tasks of the Fifteenth Congress, implemented the strategy of national invigoration through science and education, and promoted educational reforms and development. These central series of policies and actions advanced Chinese educational reforms and development. Up until 2000, the nineyear compulsory education was implemented and illiteracy among the young and middle-aged was almost entirely eliminated. In 1999, higher education institutions began to increase their enrollment, and the gross admission rate in 2002 reached 15%, therefore meeting the quantitative criterion for mass higher education. The major development of education was a result of the reforms. Nineyear compulsory education could be largely materialized within fifteen years mainly because of the local enthusiasm that enabled townships

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and villages to play important roles in running schools. In retrospect, we realize that to delegate the responsibilities of basic education to local levels refers to the governments at the provincial, city, and county levels. It would not be appropriate to give that charge to township and village levels. In recent years, especially after the transition from fee to tax collections, townships, and particularly villages, would not have the capacity to shoulder the cost for basic education. Basic and compulsory education should still be the responsibility of the state. The major development in higher education was also due to reforms. The management system reform in higher education in the late 1990s fundamentally changed the situation of divided leadership in institutions; after the reform, institutions operated on three levels and were managed at two levels. The institutions that were formerly under various ministries and commissions, with a small number of exceptions, were handed over to the Ministry of Education and governments of provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Institutions under the Ministry of Education, wherever possible, would be managed jointly with local governments. Internally, colleges and universities underwent many reforms and expanded their management autonomy. These management reforms resulted in much enthusiasm in the local schools and institutions, which in turn led to the major development of higher education. The development and reforms challenged old traditions of education, and brought about new traditions. Promoting Quality Education on All Fronts The most striking concept in education was the promotion of quality education. As early as in 1985, Wan Li noted at the National Work Conference on Education noted: Any thought of education and any method of instruction that do not fit the construction of socialist modernization must be changed . . . The ultimate purpose of the reform on the educational system is to improve the quality of citizens and produce more talents and good talents. What are good talents? In one sentence, good talents are those needed by the new era.

Specifically analyzing traditional thoughts of education and methods of instruction, Li went on to observe: The outworn traditional thoughts of education and methods of education can be described as closed thoughts and methods. The content of education is fixed and stiff; the task of education is to input that content; a slight



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expansion on the content and questions are not allowed, much less having any suspicion of the content; and examinations only require answers with fixed content and forma and lead students to pursuit of high scores. The personnel prepared with those ideas and teaching methods will only adhere to books and only obey the upper authorities, and there is no way for them to have creativity and initiative.

Due to the unprecedented rising enthusiasm for receiving more education, the belitting of vocational education which was tied to old and backwards educational values, and the limited enrollment capacity of colleges and universities, the Entrance Examinations became overcrowded and unable to meet the demand. In seeking higher promotion rates, schools neglected student character, ethical education and student health. In the face of this situation, the central government proposed education for quality. “The Guidelines for Reforms and Development of Chinese Education” issued in 1993 clearly indicated that secondary and elementary schools should shift from education for examinations towards the comprehensive improvement of the citizen’s quality. They should meet the needs of all students and enable students to reach a new level in all aspects of education such as character and ethics, cultural awareness, science, productive labor skills, and physical and psychological development. Schools should encourage the active and energetic development of students and all schools should have their individual characteristics. From that point onwards, education for quality became a heated discussion topic among Chinese educators. The educational community disputed the meaning of quality education. Some academic theorists believe quality education lacks a clear and consistent theoretical framework. Some believe that quality in education is based on a hereditary physical and psychological predisposition that cannot be acquired or taught. Others believe that all qualities are neutral, including good and bad ones; hence it is difficult to define qualities in general. Some people question the connection between Quality education and all-around development. What is the connection between quality education and guidelines for education? Are guidelines for education going to replace quality education? If school principals and teachers focus on promoting quality education, do we still need to keep an examination system? Is examination ability part of a commitment to quality education? Some oppose the word “transition” because it implies that what we have done in the past is wrong. Before the third National Conference on Education (NCE) on June 12th 1999, the CCP Central Committee and the State Council crafted the “Decision on Intensifying Educational Reform and Promoting quality Education in An All-around Way”:

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Educational meetings were held throughout the country to implement the spirit of National Conference on Education (NCE) after the third NCE, with the focus on developing the innovative spirit and practical skills of students. Quality education cannot be accomplished in one reform because it involves the development of educational systems and thoughts. Firstly, the challenge of limited resources and education requirements restrict the implementation of quality education. Lack of educational resources affects both quantity and quality. Traditionally, Chinese people attach importance to education and parents want their children to be educated in good schools. However, senior secondary education is not universal in China and the enrollment rate is limited. College enrollment expansion has only achieved 15% gross attendance rate. Too few people can enter colleges. In order to enter higher education, students compete in examinations and school choice; hence, it is very difficult to implement quality education in such a competitive environment. Secondly, the examination system restricts the implementation of quality education. All students must pass Zhong Kao, the high school entrance examination, in order to enter high schools and pass Gao Kao, the college entrance examination, to enter college. These two exams determine young people’s futures. Every student is immersed in competition from the time he/she enters school. Therefore, quality education cannot be successfully implemented if the exam system is not changed, which is 2 Guangming Daily, June 17, 1999.



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the most difficult task because it is used to allocate limited educational resources. Examinations limit the number of selected students. Thirdly, the evaluation system constrains the implementation of quality education. Only one criterion is used to evaluate the performance of schools: the proportion of students entering schools of a higher level. This is an inflexible goal, whereas quality education is a broader objective. If a school cannot achieve a good proportion of students entering schools of a higher level, it will be criticized by the local government and fall into disfavor with parents and the larger community. Finally, outdated educational thinking restricts the implementation of quality education. It is difficult to promote quality education without support for talents, quality and teaching. Are those who are admitted to colleges the most talented? Is quality measured only by test scores? Shall we teach students how to learn, or do we pass on existing knowledge to students? These educational questions can only be resolved in connection with Chinese traditional cultures and education. As Wang Li noted in the first National Conference on Education, outdated traditional education thinking and teaching methods can only train people who blindly follow the leaders, or follow the books, instead of high-quality talents. They will lack creativity and an enterprising spirit. Discussion on Student-oriented Teaching The role of students is an important issue and is the subject of a longrunning argument in the history of education. Since the 1960s, people reiterated that developing the capacities of students is more important than passing on knowledge to them. Education Theory by Barak Ivanov (translated by Li Zizhuo and Zhao Wei) marks the first time that students were called the subject of education. It was initially published in 1976 and published in Chinese in 1979. The title of Chapter Six is “Children are the Subject and Object of Education.” I set out my views in Education Theory which was developed for secondary teacher’s schools. In Chapter Four, “Target of Education—Children” I noted that children are the target as well as subject of education. Before this book was published, I wrote an article with the same title in Jiangsu Education Journal (10th volume, 1981) in order to elaborate on studentoriented teaching, which caused debate among some academics; some people supported my stand, some did not. Those who did not support my stand believed that education should be teacher-centered because there was only one subject and teachers guided the student during the process of education. In response, I elaborated on

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student-centered education in Tradition and Change of Education,3 and explained that “guiding role of teacher” was translated from Russian and it really meant that teachers were forerunners and guides, and did not occupy the subject position. This article stirred up debate on a much wider scale. In 1991, I was invited by Qu Baokui, Chief Editor of Journal of East China Normal University, to write another article: “On the Dialectical Relationship of Teacher’s Guiding Role and Subject Position of Students.”4 This article analyzed three elements of education process; the connections among teacher, student and curriculum (impact of education). In the 1990s, the debate subsided and teachers accepted the concept of the teacher’s guiding role and the student’s subject position. Professor Pei Dina of Beijing Normal University conducted research on the subject of education and achieved good results. We still need to further develop educational thinking. Chinese traditional education has attached importance to the absolute authority of the teachers, which means that teachers have absolute authority in the teaching process and their role is to inculcate students with fixed and rigid knowledge. This teaching method is scholastic rather than critical because students only accept knowledge passively and do not even discuss, much less think critically about the material. Such education can only train people who blindly follow books and leaders and cannot understand new types of knowledge. Today, we need to train skilled people with innovative spirits and practical capacities and we must enable them to learn actively and independently. The role of the teacher is to inspire, guide and support independent student learning. Discussion around Education Industry Since the 1990s, as the planned economy was transforming into the socialist market economy, the idea of education markets and industrialization emerged, which stirred up broad debate. In addition to academic scholars, economists and entrepreneurs also joined the discussion to put forward different approaches that can be classified as follows: The first approach is the view that education is an industry to produce knowledge. It manufactures technology and talents (human capital), and therefore, education should be pushed to the market, particularly non3 Chinese Social Science, 1987 volume 4. 4 Journal of East China Normal University (Social science) 1991, volume 2.



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compulsory and higher education. In this way we can make up for inadequate government funding and extend the scope of education to meet all the learning needs of people. Domestic savings would be quite high because when people prioritize education spending a market-oriented education would expand domestic demand and promote economic development. This view regards education as labor service to provide a product with special use value, which can be exchanged in the market. Students and parents are consumers; they need to pay tuition for schooling. Establishing market-oriented education can introduce competition mechanisms and promote education reform and efficiency. The second approach is in direct conflict with the first one. It holds that education industrialization is unscientific because education cannot be industrialized, much less marketed, because it is a public service for personnel training. Education is the responsibility of the state. The government must support it financially it should not be market-oriented. Education can still be structured as hierarchical and different hierarchies and types of education contribute differently to economy. Some types of education are directly connected to economy, while others are less so. Therefore, education should not be industrialized or oriented to the market economy. China is in the primary stage of socialism and economically underdeveloped, so economic development is unbalanced in different regions. Due to the excessive wealth disparity with the majority of the population living at the subsistence level, if education is market-oriented many children will not be able to enter school at all. This would which expand educational inequality instead of promoting education equality. The third approach is that instead of thinking about education industrialization in general terms, instead, we should start by analyzing the nature of education in order to understand the connection between education and market. Education has the features of industry because education uses economic resources and affects economic activities, input-output relationship, and scale of employment. Education is paid labor service that can be regulated through the market. Education belongs to tertiary industry, but is essentially different from other tertiary industries. This is manifested in the following ways. Firstly, the output of education is varied education services, rather than competent people or human resources. Secondly, the product of education can be equated to public goods and quasi-public goods; hence, it relates to public welfare. Thirdly, teaching activities do not directly have an exchange relationship with the market. Fourthly, post-compulsory education has the feature of industry in terms of its input-output, but it

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benefits public welfare in terms of educating people. Since education has the features of industry, market mechanisms can be introduced in the non-compulsory education stage. Logistical support and transfer of scientific and technological achievements can be market-oriented. The consensus is that education is a special industry different from other industries. Most of the Chinese people do not support industrialization of education, because it is public welfare at large. However, we can expand educational resources and improve productivity through various funding and and market mechanisms. Discussions on Modernization of Education The goal of education modernization began in China as early as the Westernization Movement in the latter half of the nineteenth century. During the past one-hundred years when Western educational thoughts and systems were introduced into China, the conflict and integration between the Eastern and Western thoughts of education have been constant, and Chinese education has been in the progressive process of modernization. However, before the economic reforms and open-door policies in the late 1970s, China had poor conditions for cultural and educational affairs, and the modernization of education was only an ideal and it lacked real substance. In the 1990s, the nine-year compulsory education system became universal in the more developed regions in coastal areas, and the issue of modernizing education came to the forefront. It was first raised as a question in Jiangsu Province: when nine-year compulsory education became a reality, how would education in Jiangsu Province further develop? It should be the realization of education modernization and soon, a wave of theoretical discussions on the issue emerged. In 1993, the “Guidelines for Reforms and Development of Chinese Education” issued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council stipulated the following: By the end of this century, the overall goals for the development of education in our country include the following: the average level of education of the entire nation is noticeably improved; the pre-service and in-service training for workers in urban and rural areas is further developed; the total number of various kinds of specialized personnel basically meets the demands of the construction of modernization; the basic framework of a socialist educational system with Chinese characteristics and meeting the challenges of the 21st century takes shape. With additional efforts of several more decades, a relatively mature and comprehensive socialist system of education will be built, and the modernization of education will be realized.



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After the guidelines were issued, consultation meetings and seminars were held in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing, and the Triangle Region of the Pearl River in Guangdong Province in order to explore the characteristics, meanings, strategies and implementation measures of education modernization. Education modernization is a component of the modernization of society. The efforts of modernization first started in Western countries, and therefore people usually equate modernization and Westernization. Toward the end of the 1950s, a theory of modernization appeared in Western countries which attempted to prove the advantages and rationalizations of Western social systems, and to provide theoretical guidance and policy foundations for the social development of developing countries after the Second World War. Toward the end the 1960s many scholars criticized this theory because it reflected a Western-centric perspective. As a matter of fact, Western civilizations are the not center of world civilizations and they are only one among many types of human civilizations. In the 1960s, under the influence of this theory, certain developing countries tried to implement growth as the first priority in their development strategies and policies, yet it did not inevitably lead to the modernization of those nations. The theory of modernization was then critiqued. Modernization in China cannot follow the route of the West. We must have our own path according to our conditions. Deng Xiaoping has given us a clear direction: to build China into a rich, strong, democratic, and civilized socialist country with Chinese characteristics under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory. In other words, modernization in China must include the following aspects: politically, the improvement of socialist democracy; economically, China’s development needs to cover three stages and reach the level of medium developed countries by the midtwenty-first century; culturally and educationally, senior high school education needs to be universalized; and ideologically, the perceptions on reforms and open-door approaches need to be established. Modernization is a dynamic historical process with constant development. In the above discussions, I proposed new concepts of modernization, i.e., modernization refers to the historical process of the progressive human ability to understand, utilize and control nature (including humans themselves). In that process, broad and profound changes and reforms take place in various aspects of the society including politics, the economy, and culture. The goal of modernization is to create material civilization and spiritual civilization at a high level.5 5 Gu Mingyuan and Xu Liyin, Introductions to Comparative Education, (Beijing: People’s Education Press, 1996), 208.

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Education modernization meets the demands of societal modernization by utilizing new accomplishments in science and technology in order to improve the educational system, content and methods, ultimately promoting the modernization of human beings. Modern society includes two stages—the industrial society and the information society. Modern education is characterized by different features in the two stages. Education in the industrial society is characterized by theoretical and legal right of universal access to education; the systemization of education with various schools at different levels and internal regulations in the schools; the character of production, with the integration of education and productive labor as the general pattern; and the scientific character of the content of education, with science being a major part of school education. In addition to maintaining certain basic features of education in the industrial society, modern education has more new characteristics: First, the democratic character of education. Due to the demand for a minimum level of scientific and cultural knowledge required for workers by the machinery production of large industries, the universalized compulsory education is legislated and regulated. The most important aspect of compulsory education is the right of all members of the society, regardless of their race, nationality, sex, family status, financial and cultural background, and religious beliefs, to receive education. Therefore democracy of education was achieved, at least partially. However, this expands as modern society develops, and that expansion includes the increasing years for compulsory education and the rising popularity and universal access to higher education. To realize the modernization of education, the first and foremost tasks are to establish an education system that can meet the learning demands of the broad masses and to achieve educational equity. Second, the production character of education. The integration of education and productive labor is a general pattern of modern education. Modern education must break the walls of campuses to serve economic development and social development. Only in this way can education meet the demands of modern society and realize its own development. Since the 1980s, the integration between education and productive labor has caught popular attention in various countries. The 38th Conference of UNESCO in Geneva set the integration of education and productive labor as its theme. Cooperative education and the unity of teaching, scientific research and production have been advancing in many countries as ways to achieve this integration.



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Third, the lifelong character of education. Lifelong education as a concept became popular in the 1960s. The rapid advancement of science and technology brought about dramatic social changes, and industrialized society has been transforming gradually into an information society, which is a learning society. Only through constant learning can people meet the changing demands of production and society caused by the rapid development of science and technology. The lifelong character of education requires breaking the limitations of schools; integrating school, family and social education; integrating school education and education beyond schools; and integrating formal and information education. Meanwhile, as society progresses, learning is not the means for any one particular purpose. Rather, it is its own purpose, and it is part of people’s lives. As this change takes place, the entire society becomes one in which all people engaging in learning throughout their lives. Fourth, the individual character of education. The nature of education is to enlighten people and enable every individual to reach complete development. Human development is characterized with commonalities and individualities, and both are limited by various elements of the society. The commonalities usually reflect the demands of the society, while the individualities mainly reflect the needs of the individuals. Compared with the agricultural and feudal society, the industrial society has enabled people to enjoy freedom and emancipation, yet the people still are fettered with social divisions of labor. In addition, with the emphasis on standardization and unification, individualities cannot be fully developed. In the information society, individuality and diversification are stressed, and the popular applications of information technology have provided the possibility for individualized learning and created conditions for the development of individuality. The most important aspect of the development of individuality is the fostering of creativity. Modern education should foster the individual’s pioneering spirit and creativity for his or her own development needs. Fifth, the diversification character of education. The individual character certainly requires the diversification character of education. The diversification character is manifested as the complication and diversification of the goals of education. In the agricultural society, the goal of education was as simple as teaching classics and preparing officials for the ruling class. In the industrial society, schools have to prepare not only personnel for governance, but also personnel in science and technology and workers with education and technical skills for the sake of production. The

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information society requires schools to be the origins of information, and higher education institutions should conduct scientific research and create new knowledge and research outcomes as well as develop new values and ways of thinking. The diversification of education is also manifested as varied structures of education. Schools should integrate general education, vocational education and technical education instead of solely offering general education. Higher education should change from academic education over a long period of time to the education of various levels and different types. At the same time, education shifts the framework of traditional school education by realizing the co-existence of school education and education beyond schools, and of formal and informal education. The diversification character of education is also manifested as varied content and methods of education. The content of education might differ from person to person when classroom instruction is no longer the sole approach for instruction and modern instruction is featured with individualized learning and active student participation. Sixth, the open character of education. Modern education is an open system. Education is socialized, and the society focuses on education. Schools are no longer closed organizations; rather, they open to the entire society and unify families and the society. Various social organizations become learning organizations, thus forming a learning society in which all people are lifelong learners. Seventh, the international character of education. Modern education is an international phenomenon. Learning from each other and exchanging ideas among different countries has become extremely important and imperative. With the advancement of science and technology and the globalization of the economy, international transportation has become easy and convenient, information exchange has rapidly increased, the world becomes smaller and smaller, and the education reform efforts in a certain country spreads very quickly to other parts of the world. The internationalization of education is promoted by the large numbers of students who study abroad, the experts and advisors working beyond their home countries, international conferences held in various parts of the world, and the correspondence and material exchange among scholars of different countries. Eighth, the creative character of education. A fundamental feature of modern society is constant change and reform and therefore, education is in constant reform and innovation. The frequent education reforms in



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many nations over the last decades are reflections of the demand of a modern society. Application of information technology is also an important feature of modern education. The application of information technology refers to the process of comprehensive, in-depth utilization of information technology in education, thus promoting education reforms and development. Information technology has entered areas of human production and life, has created major impacts on education, and will generate revolutionary changes. This will be further discussed in the next chapter. Education is linked to the future. Modern education must face the challenges of the future. Traditional education usually makes people look backwards and stay with previous experiences. Modern education is forward-looking and allows people to explore new conditions, become aware of new development trends, and study new issues. The orientation of traditional education tends to passively wait for change, while the orientation of modern education actively adapts to social changes. Therefore, education has a scientific character—education reforms are the outcome of educational science research. Modern education is not based on experience only; rather, it relies on scientific decision-making, and therefore the rationality of education has been enhanced. Mistakes in decision-making usually lead to negative impacts on education and even on the development of the society and the economy. Macro level issues such as the strategies for education development and micro level issues such as changes in classroom instruction all need to be addressed through investigation, research, and scientific experiments. The scientific character of education includes the legal character of education. The law does not equal science. However, the legal system of modern society needs to be built upon the foundation of science. Once regulations in education are substantiated by scientific research and take the form of law, they have legal authorization. Modern education is education by law, and education is regulated by the national legislature. Education by law is highly rational and scientific. Modern education is manifested in all aspects of education—the thoughts, systems, content, methods, and material conditions of education. The most important manifestation of modern education is in the thoughts and perceptions of education. Only with innovative perceptions can innovations advance in the educational system, content and methods. Thought and perceptual innovations of education are closely related to the cultural traditions of our country. The many discussions and debates that took

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place in the 1990s reflect the conflict between the new culture and the old, and between the new perceptions of education and the old. Practices are always rich, and theoretical generalization is always weak. Only several major debates have been quoted in this text thus far. However, these educational discussions are continuing everywhere and every day. In the 1980s and 1990s, a grand scope of educational reforms and experiments took place in China. Those reforms and experiments were efforts to seek new perceptions of education and new models for preparing personnel. The influential efforts at that time included the experiment on comprehensive reforms of education led by Professor Lu Xingwei, a renowned educator. That experiment began during the Eighth Five-Year Plan, and it is still continuing after more than a decade. It covers more than ten provinces and municipalities with several dozens of schools participating, and it has national influence. Other experiments on new basic education involving multiple provinces and dozens of schools are led by Professor Ye Lan. Professor Pei Lina leads subject-oriented education research. Other projects include research on contextual education led by Li Jilin, as well experiments on pleasant education, and experiments on successful education. This research has created a vibrant and blossoming atmosphere of education science and reform, which has laid the foundation for establishing new traditions for modern education. The accomplishments in educational research during the twenty years since the economic reforms and open-door policies in 1978 have emerged in an endless stream. Before 1978, only one version of pedagogy appared in Chinese educational science; even when it seemed to take different forms, they were essentially the same. Since the economic reforms and open-door policies in 1978, people’s thinking was emancipated, and an atmosphere of a hundred flowers blooming has emerged. During the four Five-Year Plans, many scientific outcomes have been published. Educational science has become a group of scientific fields that includes many new fields of study and interdisciplinary fields, such as philosophies of education, economics of education, sociology of education, administration of education, anthropology of education, and ecology of education. Several hundred doctorates of education and several thousand masters of education have been awarded in higher education institutions. These dissertations and theses include many new theories and thoughts which provide theoretical foundations for building new educational traditions in our country.



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3. Challenges of the Internet Culture to Traditional Education Information Technology and the Internet Culture In the 1990s, the world entered the information age due to the advancement of information technology. The information revolution—particularly the Internet—has changed the entire world and brought about profound changes in production, life, and ways of thinking. China is no exception. In September 1993, when President Clinton of the United States proposed to build the national information infrastructure, i.e., the information highway, scholars in China discussed whether or not it would be necessary to build one in China, and whether or not China would have the sufficient financial capacity to build it. In fact, the information highway was built with a speed beyond anyone’s anticipation. In January 2000 there were 8.9 million people using the Internet, and that number reached 16.9 million in July of the same year and 68 million in July 2003. According to the China Central Television, on December 6, 2003 that number had climbed to 78 million. Information technology, with the rapid expansion of the Internet in particular, has generated changes human cognition and perception. Professor Sang Xinmin calls this the network of human intelligence: We always said that the computer was a tool for thinking and an extension of the human brain. However, individual computers have limited capacities and functions and are not comparable to the human brain that has a large reserve of potentials. The Internet, in contrast, sets up the connections among all the computers in the world, collects the entire wisdom of mankind, from the ancient times to the present, and from China to all other countries, and puts that wisdom into the huge and complicated network systems that cover the globe. That has not only extended the individual brains and their thinking activities, but also created an externalized brain of the entire mankind that is fast developing every minute!6

The advancement of information technology and the Internet have brought about revolutionary innovations in educational perceptions, content, methods, and structures. Many countries focused on the increasing use of information technology in education. For instance, in the United States plans were proposed in ensure that every school, classroom and 6 Sang Xinmin, ed., Learning in the Information Era: Theories and Practices, (Beijing: Press of the Central University of Broadcasting and Television, 2000), 9.

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library is connected to the Internet so that by eight years old every student can independently access and read items on the Internet and by twelve, every student can integrate the Internet within their study and learning. Great Britain, France, Finland, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore also developed plans to accelerate the integration of information technology in education. In China, this process began toward the end of the 1990s. On January 13, 1999, the State Council approved and distributed the Action Plans for Vitalizing Education for the Twenty First Century. Implementing modern distance-learning projects, promoting open educational networks, and constructing a lifelong learning system were listed as action items in the plans. In 2001, the Plans for the Priorities of the Development of Science, Technology, and Education during the Tenth Five-Year Plans for the National Economy and Social Development (Plans for the Development of Education) issued by the State Planning Commission and the Tenth Five-Year National Plans for Education issued by the Ministry of Education both stipulated that the construction of information technology projects in education should be a national priority. Since then, information technology in education has rapidly advanced. In economically developed areas, regional and school networks have been created, and all schools have been connected with the Internet. In less developed areas, campus networks have been set up in priority schools. Computers have been universalized in primary and secondary schools; incomplete statistics indicate that by the end of 2002, there were 5.84 million computers in primary and secondary schools, or one computer for every 35 students. The Internet has not only been popular in the educational context of schools, but also in the after-school life of young people. Internet browsing and Internet cafés have become an important component of many young people’s lives. One study indicated that out of the 68 million Internet users in the country, 17.1% were under 18 years old, and 39.1% were in the age group of 18 to 24—this means that 56.2% of the Internet users were current students in various levels of education. Internet café customers are mostly young people. Due to its special characteristics, the Internet has taken shape as a unique culture that is popular among the youth. The Internet culture is a major challenge to traditional education, and it is important to study this culture. Characteristics of the Internet Culture The Virtual Character The Internet can create a virtual world—including virtual schools, libraries, shops, banks. Internet interactions have an aspect of anonymity;



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you simply do not know if the other party is a man or a woman, old or young. People form various social groups on the Internet based on common interests, beliefs and values. However, the virtual character is not an illusory character. It actually exists. People can learn, make friends, and shop on the Internet. They can exchange information and discuss social, academic and life concerns. Because of the virtual character of the Internet, the Internet has not only created a platform for open, equal and free interactions, but also provided opportunities for illegal elements who try to deceive others. Therefore, honesty and integrity is imperative as one conducts his or her online activities. The Cross-Cultural Character Traditional cultures develop within groups of unique nationalities, countries and regions; therefore, traditional cultures usually have a particular national and regional character. Interactions among traditional cultures need to overcome the limitation of space, and especially the space between and among nations. The interactions of the Internet culture, on the contrary, are conducted in the space of networks. Computer networks cover the entire globe, and the Internet gives people access to information about different nationalities and cultures; people can tour the whole world while sitting in their own homes. The Internet has broken the limitations of space, regions, and countries, shortening the distances among people. It is certainly true that 90% of the information on the Internet is from Western countries, forming a cultural hegemony. When Chinese people use the Internet, we need to focus on learning from the best cultures in the world and avoid ones that would have negative effects on the fine traditions of the Chinese nation. The Open Character Internet culture has created an unprecedented, vast, open realm of time and space. Internet interactions are not limiated by time or space; anyone can enter a new world freely without any privilege or discrimination due to the person’s race, economic status, cultural background or religious belief. People enjoy freedom of expression without constraints. However, due to this openness, certain irresponsible people distribute dark and pornographic information to confuse and corrupt public opinion and disturb the societal stability. Therefore, the Internet culture requires people to have higher sense of responsibility and ethical character and to be on guard against that kind of information.

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The Interactive Character The most fundamental characteristics of the Internet are interaction and communication. Information technology enables real-time information exchange. Except for the telephone, traditional media have been used for one-way communication. On the Internet, communication is most often two-way or multiple-ways with a large number of people. Internet users are information consumers as well as producers and providers of information. Internet users can browse news and read publications, provide news, publish their own writings, make comments on current events and others’ writings, and discuss academic issues and other concerns with teachers, students and friends. The Individual Character The Internet culture has provided a platform for the development of personality. Individuals can choose the content and pace of learning based on their interest, and select partners for communication. The Internet is like an ocean and allows you to swim and surf freely. However, storms and bad currents do occur, and Internet users should focus on selecting directions, routes, and strategies. Impacts of the Internet Culture on Traditional Education The application of information technology, particularly multimedia and the Internet, has promoted the utilization of information in education and is generating a new revolution in education. It has not only improved the efficiency and quality of education, but also caused changes in perceptions and patterns of education. Utilization of information in education is an extremely complicated process of social system engineering. It includes application of information technology to macro education planning, information management, micro-learning environments, learning modules and evaluation modules— all which count in social system engineering. Information technology challlenges traditional education through new educational patterns and perceptions. First, the Internet has provided students with a completely new learning environment and a varied and colorful learning platform. Students have begun to change from passive receivers of knowledge to active explorers of knowledge, and therefore their interest in learning and their learning capacity and efficiency have been improved.



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Second, the Internet has changed the roles of the teacher and fundamentally transformed the traditional teacher-student relationship and the mode of interactions between them. The teacher is no longer the only carrier of knowledge and his or her teaching is no longer limited to knowledge only familiar to himself or herself. Rather, the teacher partners with students in learning, and guides students to take initiatives in learning. The teacher’s leading role is to guide students towards the correct routes and strategies for learning, so that they do not get lost in the sea of information. Third, the Internet has promoted sharing resources for education. Information technology applications can promote integration of high quality resources within areas that lack those resources. Through distance learning, high quality resources in one school can be shared with another school, despite regional distance. By eliminating space and time constraints, distance learning has played important roles in continuing education and various professional training programs. Fourth, the Internet has expanded the field of education and provided a good environment for the lifelong learning of all people. The Internet has broken the walls of campuses, discarded the time and space limits of classrooms, dramatically expanded the field of education, maximally satisfied people’s demands for learning, and created conditions for building a learning society. Fifth, the transformation in educational patterns promoted by information technology is reflected in the following areas: 1. Students have different cognitive processes in the process of teaching and learning. The traditional process of teaching and learning is composed of this sequence: learning the materials, understanding the materials, consolidating knowledge, and applying the knowledge. Information technology has this sequence into one. Education through multimedia and the Internet involves both images and sounds so students can explore and be exposed to the nature and internal relations of various things they are learning. With information technology, students can see the micro and macro world and the patterns of movement of many things that they usually cannot see otherwise. This makes it easier for them to understand and grasp the nature of various things which enhances the development of their thinking skills. 2. Several principles of teaching have been changed. The traditional process of teaching and learning emphasizes that teaching should organize and present content in the following sequence: from objects close by to those far away, from easier to more challenging content,

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and from concrete to more abstract knowledge. Information technology has changed this sequence because it can present faraway objects to the students, turn complicated matters into easy ones, and make abstract knowledge concrete. It can expand and shrink both time and space. The application of information technology offers many benefits for student cognition. 3. Teaching content and the presentation of teaching materials are different. Through information technology, new science and technology content that was once too challenging to be included in teaching can now be added, modernizing the content. The teaching units compiled with information technology integrate sounds, images and written language, and can be artistically stimulating. 4. Assessment approaches are different. The information society requires personnel to shift from knowledge orientation to an orientation that integrates knowledge, skills and personality development. This has resulted in a series of changes and development in assessment and evaluation techniques. This is typically reflected in response technology that assesses people’s knowledge and skills rather than using the classical reference-standard approach. Adaptation and efficiency assessment have emerged as new approaches for evaluation. 5. The teacher-student relationship has changed, as discussed earlier in this chapter. To meet all those changes, people’s perceptions of education must be updated. The desire for greater education needs to be established. The vision of teachers and parents should move beyond the school walls and classrooms and fall on society. Today, the information that students receive is not limited to schools and classrooms; family and society are sources of information, and the Internet is an even richer source of information. The information that the students receive from their homes, society and the Internet certainly affects their classroom learning. If teachers and parents still limit their perceptions to the schools and classrooms, they will not be able to prepare the personnel required by the twenty-first century which is characterized by advanced technology and intensive competition. Teachers should fully utilize the characteristics and advantages of the Internet, integrate information technology and classroom instruction, and further promote student development. At the same time, we must realize that everything is two-sided, and Internet culture is no exception. The Internet has collected and gathered the knowledge and wisdom of all mankind. It has given us access to



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vibrant essences of human cultures, yet it has also presented the dross of various cultures. First, the presence of pornography, violence and degenerate ways of life on the Internet has negative impacts on young students’ life outlooks and values. The increased youth crime rate in recent years is closely related to the rotten cultural elements distributed through the Internet. Second, many students neglect their education and go astray by indulging in Internet games. There are recent cases in which girls were hurt by men that they came to know in Internet chat rooms. Some students impair their health by their constant presence in Internet cafés. A recent report is shocking: two students were so tired due to the time spent in an Internet bar that on their way home they fell asleep on train tracks, leading to a terrible tragedy. Third, human-computer dialogue over long periods of time affects the physical and mental health of young students. Living in the virtual world of the Internet for long periods of time also affects their understanding of and adaptation to real society and harms their social development. Fourth, using the computer in learning for long periods of time reduces student language ability and calculative skills. Many Internet usages of the Chinese language have emerged and they have affected the regulatory, standard utilization of the language—this is detrimental to the construction of a new Chinese culture. In summary, as a new cultural phenomenon, Internet culture is mainly positive in its development. However, educators have to pay attention to the negative undercurrent alongside the popularity of the Internet culture.

Chapter Eleven

Conclusion: Explore Modernization of Chinese Education In the preceding chapters, we have analyzed various factors affecting the traditions of Chinese education and its complex and varied foundation. The core foundation of Chinese education is traditional Chinese culture; however, modern Chinese education was introduced from the West, so it inevitably has Western characteristics. While Chinese and Western culture are both heterogeneous, China was forced to accept Western cultural practices during some historical periods, therefore the process of integration of the two cultural traditions has produced conflict and has been painful and drawn out. In his article “Wakefulness of My Fellow Compatriots” Chen Duxiu contends that the importation of Western culture contributed to many changes in Chinese people’s practices and created an emerging awareness. At times, Western culture has been hostile to the nature of Chinese culture; hence, several centuries of cultural conflict have produced some societal instability. In order to resolve the conflict, Chinese people have achieved a proper awareness and appreciation of the value of cultural exchange. Before the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the Chinese people had experienced six stages of awareness: the first stage was in the middle of Ming Dynasty when Western education and goods were initially introduced to China. At that time, few people were even aware of the new cultural imports. The second stage was in early Qing Dynasty when firearms and the solar calendar were introduced to China, even though these things were criticized by conservative Confucian scholars. This stage was the beginning of argument between new and traditional forces. The third stage occurred after the Opium War in the middle of Qing Dynasty. The Chinese people were shocked by Western military power and the Westernization Movement and Western learning came into being. Scholars and officials had many debates, for instance, about whether a railway should be built or over the correctness of the round-earth theory. The fourth stage came in the last stage of Qing Dynasty, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 when China was defeated and had to cede territory. As a result, the 1898 Reform Movement was launched, new ideas were expanded and

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the Movement turned from reform of the administrative system towards more critical political issues. The fifth stage occurred after the Revolution of 1911 founded the Republic of China. The sixth stage occurred during the restoration and anti-restoration of a dethroned monarch. Chen Duxiu said, “Wise men of China broke out to defend the Republic since they detested and opposed dictatorial system” but he also concedes by adding: “Has the Republic been consolidated from this time forth? Can constitutional politics be implemented without hindrance? In my opinion, such essential political issues rely on ultimate wakefulness of my fellow compatriots. That is the seventh stage, namely constitutional era in Republic of China.”1 Duxiu believed that it was difficult to achieve wakefulness because at that time, few people understood constitutionalism. Most of people thought constitutionalism had nothing to do with their benefits.2 Chen Duxiu hoped for ultimate wakefulness in young people and put forward three points for them: 1. Political consciousness. Firstly, young people should be aware that the country is public property, and a human being is an innate political animal. Secondly, if China wishes to survive in the world, the country must abandon the dictatorial political system which had lasted for thousands of years and replace it with free and autonomous civil politics. Thirdly, a constitutional republic must build on the consciousness and will of majorities; otherwise it is a façade of a republic and constitutionalism is simply political decoration. 2. Ethical consciousness. The caste system of Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues as specified in the feudal ethical code is irreconcilable with the ideology of freedom, equality and independence in the West. Ethical consciousness requires its abolishment. Duxui believed that ethical consciousness is the ultimate wakefulness of ultimate wakefulness. 3. Western countries are governed by law and based on actual benefits, Eastern countries are based on affection and dead letters.3

1  No. 6 Volume 1 New Youth. 2 No. 6 Volume 1 New Youth. 3 No. 6 Volume 1 New Youth.



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Chen Duxiu wrote this article in an early stage. He did not analyze the relationship between Western and Eastern culture from the perspective of Marxist historical materialism. Instead he upheld Europeanization (Westernization) by advocating the replacement of Chinese political doctrine with the ideals of the Republic (freedom, equality and independence). Even so, he clearly acknowledged the context of conflict between Chinese and Western culture. China was initially forced to learn from West, but then later China learned from the West on its own initiative. Western practical and cultural developments were initially introduced to China (firearms and solar calendar) followed by Western ideological culture (freedom, equality and independence). According to Chen Duxiu, ideological culture is of greater importance, as the “ultimate wakefulness of ultimate wakefulness.” However, adopting a new ideological framework is the most difficult part. It is not the same as institutional culture and it can only be integrated into another culture through acculturation—the incorporation of new cultural elements into local culture, thereby creating an evolved culture with local characteristics. Modern Chinese culture followed this road as did Chinese modern education. We can conclude from the preceding chapters that the traditions of modern Chinese education, namely educational thoughts, systems, contents and approaches were formed within the political and economic context after the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC) by inheriting and adapting traditional education traditions as well as absorbing foreign education traditions. The traditions of modern Chinese education consist of the following elements: 1. Thousands of years of traditional cultural thinking including some outdated feudal and some excellent surviving educational ideas; 2. Scientific and democratic educational ideas introduced after May Fourth Movement in 1919; 3. Educational traditions of the liberated area (in civil war period), including educational thoughts and system, particularly after founding of PRC, these educational thoughts and systems during the cadre training have significantly affected Chinese education; 4. The influence of Western educational ideas, systems and approaches of the past one hundred years, including particular developments in recent decades; 5. Impact of Soviet Union education system after the founding of PRC.

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These factors are interrelated, sometimes conflicting and at other times reconciled. The factors consist of both outdated feudal and excellent surviving educational ideas and systems. After the founding of PRC, our educational thoughts were generally guided forward by Marxism, Maoism, and Deng Xiaoping Theory, but there were also traditional ideas that survived or re-emerged. Chinese modern educational thinking is continuing to evolve so all practitioners in the education field can still contribute to the development of new more scientific and democratic Chinese educational practices. 1. Balancing Tradition and Modernization in Education Chinese education has been developed within its particular cultural context. The core foundation of Chinese education is traditional Chinese cultural practices which means that we need to understand how to deal with traditional cultural practices in the process of education modernization. We need to maintain and promote good traditional cultural practices and critically assess and abandon outdated and ineffective ideas. We do not support national nihilism, in which all Chinese cultural practices are considered backward as well as inferior to Western culture. There are some backward elements in traditional Chinese cultures. China has lagged behind, particularly in modern times, but there are fine elements in Chinese cultures that exhibit the Chinese people defying brutal suppression, sticking to self-discipline, overcoming natural calamities and man-made misfortunes, and marching towards victory. Nowadays, such ethos inspire 1.3 billion people to march into a new era and advance towards the modern world. We also oppose populism, which uncritically believes that Chinese culture is the best culture and so it is unnecessary to learn from others. This is marked by a refusal to accept new ideas and experiences. A nation, like a person, begins to fall behind if she can’t perceive her weakness. China has lagged behind the world in modern times due to its self-complacency and closed-door policy. We should always remember this profound lesson. In Section 2 of Chapter 4, we discussed the fundamental values of traditional Chinese culture. In Section 3 of Chapter 5, we explored the valuable features in traditional education. These fine traditions are valuable educational resources we should promote by mixing ancient and modern elements to achieve the modernization of education. However, needless to say, Chinese traditional education also includes negative elements that are incompatible with modernization, particularly



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outdated educational values and views concerning human capital that are hindering educational modernization and the promotion of quality education. Both people and cultures should be open to fresh ideas. Therefore, we need education innovations in order to achieve modernization of education. The most important task is the removal of decadent thoughts hindering the progress of modernization of education. 1. Change Narrow-Minded Educational Values and Build All-Around Education Values The common objectives of ancient approaches to education were to serve the ruling class and train qualified personnel for governance. Education that adheres to and serves a feudal political system and ideological system based on a narrow Confucian ethical code results in narrow-minded education values: serving hierarchy, autocracy, and centralization of power. In short, serving politics or the belief that a good scholar will make an official. For a long time, people viewed education simply as a tool. Politicians regard education as tool for governance; economists view education as a tool promoting economic growth; most parents deem education a pathway to a good career. Some scholars have noted that Chinese traditions of education (traditional education) lack democracy and human rights.4 Without doubt, in any society and country, education cannot break away from politics, even in socialist education. Education contributes to the consolidation of the socialist system, but this is only one of the social functions of education. Education undertakes other social functions, such as the development of material production, cultural and ideological progress, namely economic and cultural functions. The nature of education leads to the development of people. In other words, the nature of education is educating and improving people’s quality. We need to attach importance to the nature of education instead of its instrumental function. The instrumental function of education is realized through educating people, in other words, through the nature of education. Once the qualities of people have been improved, they can provide better service to the society; moreover, people can develop and improve themselves during the process of serving the society.

4 Ding Gang, History and Reality: Exploring Tradition of Chinese education, (Beijing: Education & Science Publishing House, 2002), 17.

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2. Changing the Conventional View on Talent and Establish Modern View on Talent In feudal society, a closed natural economy dominated. The closed economy required learners to observe traditional knowledge and crafts and maintain family businesses, instead of encouraging learners to explore new knowledge or innovation. This view regarding talent was connected to narrow-minded education values. Over thousands of years, the feudal governing class required education to train obedient servants for the owners, rather than people with independent thinking. In the context of feudal government and a closed natural economy, working people only knew to ask their children to support the families and establish business, and tie the children to the land rather than encouraging them to discover new ground. Though feudal society is gone from our lives, the residues of traditional thinking are not, and still exert influence upon contemporary education. The manifestation of a conventional view on talent includes: using a monotonous model to educate all students; requiring students to regard rigid information in textbooks as classics; blindly following teacher authority rather than respecting the individuality and independent thinking of the students. Certainly, such a view on talent is incompatible with modern society. In a knowledge-based economy, new scientific and technological results are achieved everyday. Education must train talents with pioneering and innovative spirits who will create new knowledge and explore new areas for the prosperity of the nation and triumph over opponents in international competition. In the traditional view, only those who achieved eminence in his profession were regarded as talents. This view is influenced by the idea that a good scholar will make an official. However, today the structure of talents and vocational development are diversified and those who work hard with sense of duty and contribute to the society are viewed as skilled. In 1985, the decision issued by the Central Committee of Communist Party of China on educational system reform stated that their goal was to: To train hundreds of millions of educated, skilled and technical laborers for industry, farming and business etc; train millions factory mangers, business managers, engineers, agro-technician, economists, accountants, statisticians and other business and technical staff bearing modern science, technology and business management skills; train millions of practitioners adapted to science and culture development and technological renovation, in the field of education, science, medical care, theory development, culture, news, edit-



conclusion: explore modernization of chinese education 257 ing and publishing, law, foreign affairs, military affairs, party and government administration.

Such classification of occupations is quite general. According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), professions are classified into 8 major groups with 83 sub-major and 284 minor groups and 1,506 unit groups which can be classified into over 10,000 professions. Society cannot function well without any one of the professions. Certainly, all parents wish their children to have a promising, high income and decent job, but people are different in terms of talents, capacities, interests, hobbies, specialties and opportunities in their life, hence, they will undertake different professions. Studious people involved in each profession can achieve good results and be respected by others. In changing times, nobody will be tied to one profession for a lifetime and no school can ensure such a thing. It is important for school education to lay a good foundation for students and equip students with fine qualities. Students can study further and have plenty opportunities to change their profession if they are willing to learn new things. The characteristics of the view on talent in modern education should be: 1. Universality of talent. If only a few people can access education, there will only be a few talents in society. In modern society, secondary education is almost universal and higher education has become very popular. More and more people can receive education and training. 2. Diversified talents. Modern society requires various talents. We need to change the traditional way of training talents with a monotonous model. We should teach students according to their aptitude and give full scope to talents. Society needs ordinary talents as well as outstanding ones. Modern education must provide conditions in which individuals can develop and give individuals freedom for individualized development. 3. All-around development. Modern society needs talents of all-around development which includes moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetics and labor education. Besides profound knowledge, people must have communication, interpersonal and organizational skills as well as moral qualities and sentiments. 4. Prospective talents. The cycle of training talents is time-consuming but they can serve the society for a long time. Due to this long-term character, we should view education for talents from a prospective and

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dynamic perspective. We should pay attention to existing and future demand for talants, as well as people’s potentials and prospects. 3. Change the Idea of Valuing Scholarship and Devaluing Technical Skills In the feudal society, the education system was closely connected with the talent selection mechanism. Students enrolled in schools in order to become an official after passing the Imperial examination. They were immersed in study and out of touch with society and production, and they despised all types of technical professions and labor. Such ideas still have widespread influence. Among other factors, this idea contributed to underdeveloped vocational education in China. The traditional idea that a good scholar will make an official entailed that a good scholar did not want to become a craftsman, farmer or businessman. Top students worked towards further study in senior high schools and leading universities rather than vocational schools. If this idea is not changed, people will not value vocational schools; as a consequence, the cultural and technical qualities of laborers cannot be improved, which will in turn impede productivity improvements. We should not underestimate the impact of Imperial Examination System. As an approach to select talents, it is superior to a hereditary system. However, education that overvalues scholarship and devalues technical skills so that examinations become the focus of education, results in a rigid education model that impedes educational reform and development To change this situation, we need to change the examination system and traditional educational thoughts, understand the training of talents in a broader context, and think outside the box of the motto that a good scholar will make an official. The charateristics of Eastern cultures include valuing scholarship and devaluing technical skills, and pursuing advanced academic degrees in leading universities. The enrollment in higher education in Japan and the Republic of Korea is quite high but the competition is still quite fierce because most students strive to study at these prestigious institutions. If the children of a respectable family fail to enter a prestigious university, their parents will feel ashamed. However, this is not the case for Western society. Children have freedom to determine their educational and career paths. This is the choice of the child. Parents give them advice, but children will usually make the final decision. This is a cultural difference between Western and Eastern cultures. We should draw on the Western experience because it tends to be more reasonable, democratic and advanced.



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If we do not change our ideas and approaches, we will not solve issues caused by examination competition, such as poor innovation, devaluing technical skills and a shortage of technicians, even though rich educational resources and advanced higher education are available. 4. Establish Appropriate Value for Teaching and Teaching Quality Teaching is an interactional process between teachers and students but conventional education will often turn it into one-way communication. The teacher dominates by talking and lecturing while students simply listen passively. For students, the teaching process is learning. Confucius said, “Learning without thinking is in vain.” Without thinking, students will not understand, remember or even apply knowledge. The difference between a heuristic and implanting teaching method is whether the teacher can facilitate student’s active thinking. The implanting teaching method is results-oriented and focuses on passing existing knowledge to the students, rather than the process of teaching. It does not require students to think, much less encourage them to ask questions. Such a teaching method is not helpful for developing the innovative spirit or the practical ability of students. We need to adopt a more student-centered method in order to build the capacity of students, bring initiative into play in the teaching process, and give opportunities for self-directed learning. A new round of curriculum reform attaches importance to student-centered learning and promotes inquiry learning. If the teacher’s approach to teaching is not changed, the curriculum reform will not succeed. What is quality education? Does more knowledge and higher academic scores equate to better education quality? Modern education focuses on building student’s capacities of identifying and resolving problems, as well as developing student learning, communication, interpersonal and organizational skills. In the 1960s, the American psychologist Jerome S. Bruner, wrote in his book The Process of Education:5 “We may take as perhaps the most general objective of education that it cultivates excellence; but it should be clear in what sense this phrase is used. It here refers not only to schooling the better student but also to helping each student achieve his optimum intellectual development.”

5 Jerome S. Bruner, The Process of Education, (New York: Vintage Books, 1960), 9.

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Currently, science and technology are advancing by leaps and bounds and knowledge is updated daily. Schools cannot and simply do not need to pass on all the knowledge discovered in human history to students in just several years. It is more important to teach students how to learn. The quality of education is measured by the intellectual development of the students. A comprehensive view on educational quality requires implementation of educational policies and promoting students’ all-around development including moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic aspects. All-around development does not require students to excel in all subjects; such a goal does not conform to human development because people are different from each other. If a student is asked to excel in all subjects, his/her special interests and talents will inevitably be suppressed. We cannot train exceptional talents by imposing such standards. 5. Change the Idea of a Finite Education and Establish Lifelong Learning In the past, we thought learning meant school education aimed at people of certain ages (ages 6–7 through 24–25) and that once people have learned enough from school they will benefit throughout their life. However, the rapid advancement of modern science and technology makes such an idea impossible. People must learn new things in order to keep up with the times. School education is not pre-vocational training; instead, it serves the purpose of continuing education, career shifting and leisure education. Modern education has incorporated school education into a lifelong education system that provides learning opportunities for people of all ages. Education extends beyond schooling. Previously, people went to university to receive education, but now people can access knowledge through various channels, most especially through the Internet which offers information to everyone in a quick and convenient way, making education more accessible for a greater number of people. The purpose of education is not only vocational training or cultivating qualified people for building a society with high material standards. It also can contribute to improving people’s scientific and cultural understandings as well as ideological and ethical standards. Therefore, education should involve all sectors of the society, not just teachers. Only by developing an understanding of lifelong education, education for all and education of all forms and for all ages, can we remove smallscale production ideology and perceive education in the broad system of



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social development, and establish the primary and global strategic position of education. 2. Adopt a More Open Attitude Towards Foreign Educational Thinking and Experiences Modern Chinese education has incorporated elements of Western cultures because it was developed by learning from Western educational systems. In the past one hundred years, we have incorporated various schools of Western education, particularly the influx of various educational thinking in the most recent twenty years. We need to attach importance to the process of identifying, incorporating, localizing and internalizing Western culture into our education traditions. We oppose Western-centrism which holds that modernization equals Westernization and believes that wholesale Westernization is only way forward. History has shown that this is not the way for China. The only way to achieve modernization in the interests of Chinese is to consider Chinese conditions and blaze our own trail. Advanced foreign educational systems and mechanisms must be incorporated into Chinese education in order to have influence. We also oppose Eastern-centrism. Presently, Western cultural hegemony is widely influential and some Eastern scholars have become reactionary, resulting in a turn towards cultural purity. Both perspectives have developed through the experiences of colonialism. Retreating into cultural isolation is passive and a sign of weakness. The positive attitude is to learn and incorporate all the fine elements in human civilization. We can achieve localization of educational traditions by drawing on educational operation and management mechanisms and incorporate new cultural elements into our practices. For several years, educational and social science research have been exploring internalization and localization. Cultural diffusion and academic communication will lead to the contrast and integration of different cultures. Contrast and integration is an interactive process. China was scientifically and technologically backward in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Colonial powers forced China to open the door, unilaterally bringing in advanced science and technology. The imported cultures were different in essence from local cultures. Therefore, we entered endless debates on whether and how to incorporate these elements. Chinese people were not comfortable with the cultures

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brought in by force, but they could not easily refuse them either. To ease acceptance, leaders and scholars urged people to use Chinese learning for fundamental principles and Western learning for practical uses and to surpass foreigners by learning from them. Some Chinese authorities simply claimed that the new elements were old ones that had been in existence since ancient times. Eastern-centrism also developed in the context of colonial cultures. In fact, human cultures and civilizations have always developed through cultural interactions, including migration, trade and war. During the recent colonial period, culture exchange was one-way since the colonists forced people to accept their cultures and often attempted to eradicate local cultures. Therefore it is understandable that the colonized countries and people were resistant to them. It is foolish and harmful to reject all foreign cultures due to concerns of colonization. Luxun’s taking-in principle addresses the necessity and rewards of cultural integration. This principle takes three steps First, take initiative to get the new elements rather than wait for people to bring it to you. It is different from sending, but if others send things to you, you do not have to refuse them. Second, select the things you want carefully, taking useful things instead of decadent ones. Adopt the same attitude to things people sent to you. Third, adapt what you take into useful things for yourself. Internationalization can be interpreted as taking in things from other countries; localization is adapting what we take into useful things for ourselves. Cultural and educational globalization is inevitable in the context of economic globalization. We need to combine globalization with localization to create new Chinese cultures. Chinese education also needs to strengthen reform and opening-up. It should pay close attention to trends of global education development, take in all excellent achievements in civilization, and draw on advanced educational operation and management mechanisms in order to promote education modernization. We need to identify and adapt foreign education theories and systems, namely localization. In recent years, we have brought in Constructivism, Postmodernism, multiple intelligences, neo-institutional economics and other business administration theories. Certainly these theories have enriched Chinese educational theories, but we have not thoroughly analyzed some of these theories and or created new words, making it difficult for teachers to comprehend. Only when most of the teachers competently understand and practice the theories can they become educationally powerful and form new Chinese education traditions.



conclusion: explore modernization of chinese education 263 3. Conduct Institutional Innovation and Establish National Modern Education System

On the celebration ceremony of 100th Anniversary of Beijing Normal University, Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out that the “key to educational innovation is to strengthen reform and improve the educational system in line with socialist modernization.” He requested us to remove institutional barriers hindering education development, improve utilization of educational resources, optimize educational structure, and expand educational resources to adequately meet the lifelong learning needs of people. What systems hinder education development? How do we remove these barriers and establish a lifelong education system for a learning society? We need to conduct an in-depth investigation to listen to the opinions of practitioners and specialists, and put forward a few policy suggestions. I would like to put forward my own limited view. 1. Innovate Educational Investment System The tension between insufficient educational resources and soaring educational needs is a major issue for the development of education. Insufficient educational resources are manifested in following ways. In terms of quantity, the admission quota of higher schools is limited, hence schools cannot meet the needs of numerous students. In terms of quality, an acute shortage of quality education results in students competing for high quality educational resources since primary school, greatly obstructing the implementation of education for all-around development. To improve this situation, the government needs to strengthen spending on education. In recent years, the Chinese government has significantly increased education spending, but it still does not equal the global average for government education spending as a percentage of GDP, much less that of developed countries. Chinese government spending on education has not achieved the 1993 goal of 4% of GDP set in the Outline for reform and Development of Education in China. A false idea existed in the 1990s, namely, that compulsory education should not necessarily be free. This idea is wrong. All the countries that have committed to provide compulsory education do not charge any fees. Compulsory education requires the parents to send their children to schools, and the government should enable the student’s legal right to access education. In some countries, free buses and lunches are offered to students in order to realize the goal of education for all.

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How can we force parents to send their children to schools if the education is not free? In the early 1990s, the idea that the general public should finance the people’s education mobilized the masses, particularly in rural areas. Compulsory education made remarkable progress in developed provinces in China. But it was the last resort and could not hold out long, especially for underdeveloped provinces. In 2000, the Central Government created a policy of transforming administrative fees into taxes in rural areas because education in rural areas was mired in difficulties. The Central Government had to announce that the government should cover the cost of compulsory education, and launched an education transfer payment but the spending was insufficient. Is it possible for the Central Government to increase spending in education? The answer is yes. In 1996, spending by the Central Government accounted for 11.69% of GDP, education spending accounted for 2.46% of GDP, accounting for 21.06% of spending by Central. In 2002, spending by the Central Government accounted for 21.56% of GDP, education spending accounted for 3.41% of GDP, accounting for 16.13% of spending by the Central Government. The ratio and actual account of government spending on education as a percentage of GDP has increased, although its percentage in spending by Central Government was reduced. The Central Government has different priorities for spending each year, but if the government recognizes the primary status of education for socialist modernization and realizes that the already set goal of spending on education (by GDP) has not been achieved, the government should and can increase spending on education. We often say China is popularizing education with limited resources. Since we are in the stage of allaround construction of a materially comfortable society, we cannot use this as an excuse any longer. Secondly, we should be more efficient with the resources that we have available by increasing revenue and reducing expenditures. Reducing expenditures means improving the effective utilization of educational resources. On one hand, educational resources are limited; on the other hand, the resources are wasted extravagantly. Schools are built redundantly and resources are not shared even in the same region. Some primary and secondary schools are luxurious instead of being practical, covering dozens of acres; some schools have four tennis courts that are rarely used and some spend hundreds of thousands of Yuan, even over a million Yuan, to build a school gate. These are examples of needless extravagance and waste and it affects the balanced development of the region. Even worse, this corrupts people’s minds and local government



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and schools will compete with each other. Increasing revenue means multi-channel fundraising. We need to free our thinking and solve the contradiction between supply and demand in a creative way. First, we can promote the development of non-government funded education, particularly non-compulsory education, and the government can focus on financing compulsory education. Non-government funded education (NGFE) in China has achieved its initial development. The Law of Promoting Non-government Funded Education has recognized the status of NGFE. The Law is not well implemented or consistent, hence the operation of non-governmental schools (NGS) has been quite difficult. Some local education departments are concerned that NGS will become exclusive and profit-driven. The answer to this is to monitor, manage and standardize the operation of the schools. The government needs to strengthen management of NGS as it does with state-run schools, punish profit-driven schools that do not make reference to quality. Even with adequate policies and standardized management in place, the schools will not operate effectively without coordination. Second, it is possible to restructure weak state-run schools by admitting private funding to improve conditions for operating schools. We can improve efficiency and avoid waste by utilizing private mechanisms and modern enterprise management techniques to operate the schools. Third, we can reform the school personnel system and implement a teaching post appointment system. At present, the teachers cannot transfer to other schools. A teaching post appointment system should be well implemented to encourage the teachers to transfer to other schools according to an objective and responsible system. 2. Innovate School Operation System The school operation system has been innovated through practice. Besides the establishment of NGS twenty years ago, there are other school-operating systems, such as state-owned school with private investment and charges for choosing schools, government-subsidized school, pilot school of structural reform, shareholding system school, school voucher, private school affiliated to prestigious school, subordinate college of university. These school-operating systems should be researched and coordinated. However, some education administration departments have not recognized the challenges of the present situation and are quite rigid in their thinking. For them, education should be either state-run or NGS. Are there other school operation models, such as public-private joint school with

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a mixed economy joint school operations? I think these models can be piloted, especially under the circumstances of insufficient governmental spending on education. Raising funds in different channels will inevitably lead to various school operation models. After China joined the WTO, foreign educational organizations cooperated with domestic organizations to operate schools. Operating schools in various models and systems is an inexorable trend, and it will exert significant influence on Chinese education traditions. This issue is worth thorough researching by educational practitioners. 3. Change the Role of Government in Education Administration to Strengthen the Capacity of Schools to Operate Independently Education laws of PRC have defined the roles and responsibilities of education administration departments at all levels, but they lack detail. Therefore, education administration departments manage the schools over-zealously and have weakened their capacity for independent operation. From the legal standpoint, public schools are run by the government and the administration department manages the school on behalf of the government. The principal is the manager as well as the legal head of the school. Schools should design majors and employ teachers according its strengths and societal needs. At present, public higher education institutions are not authorized to create majors except for six universities with special permission. China is a vast country and regional development is unbalanced, hence it is unreasonable to set nationwide majors. Moreover, school education will have its own characteristics by having sufficient autonomy. We can further discuss the autonomy of schools. Intermediary agencies can be set up to mobilize social resources in order to support education administration departments in managing schools: for example, educational evaluation agencies and the certification authority of NGS. Education administration departments can focus on research for decision-making and providing holistic guidance to the schools. 4. Establish Democratic Modern School Management System Democratic management will support the ability of teachers and students to become involved in the management of schools. Higher education institutions should establish committees of professors or accreditation mech-



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anisms under the leadership of the party committee. School governing committees should include the representatives of students and parents. At present, the mainstay of schools—teachers and students—have little voice in school business. Many schools have a Teacher’s Representative Assembly, but the assembly only pays attention to the welfare of staff. The teachers are best qualified to speak on teaching and research. In a certain way, students and teachers are clients of education services and they have the right to learn about the education service and its quality. In many countries, the schools have established Parents Committees, but few Chinese schools have such committees. Furthermore, parents are good social resources that can help the schools solve many problems, and they can connect the school with the society and families. 5. Create a Universal Learning and Lifelong Learning Society The 16th National Conference of Community Party of China put forward as one of the objectives of all-around construction of a well-off society is the building of a universal the lifelong learning society that promotes overall development of its people. A learning society strives for development through learning, and it connects to lifelong education—the essential feature of modern education. In 1972, the report published by the International Commission on the Development of Education of UNESCO, “Learning To Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow,” quoted the work of Faure, Herrera, Rahnema, and Petrovsky in order to describe learning society: Education is no longer the privilege of an elite or the concomitant of a particular age: to an increasing extent, it is reaching out to embrace the whole of society and the entire lifespan of the individual. In this light, tomorrow’s education must form a co-coordinated totality in which all sectors of society are structurally integrated. It will be universalized and continual.

That is to say, in future society, everyone is a learner and all social organizations should work towards this goal. In the future, lifelong education is not only for changing professions or making a living; rather, it is part of our lives, an important approach to improving our lives. As noted in the report “Learning—The Treasure Within” published by the International on Education for the Twenty-first Century of UNESCO: “education has a fundamental role to play in personal and social development . . . in the future, people will be learning throughout life, and each kind of knowledge will affect and enrich other knowledge.”

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A learning society should be created in order to meet the needs of lifelong education—turning learning into a social behavior and creating a learning society and an integrated education system. In a learning society, all the citizens are center of education. They have broad and equal opportunities to education. To create a learning society, we need to: 1. Connect various schools and break down barriers between ordinary schools and vocational education schools, allowing students to change studies according to social demand and personal interests. Different schools should mutually recognize credits. Change of studies and credit recognition should be regulated. We should break credentials and integrate formal schools with alternative educational institutions, link formal education with informal education, and attach importance to informal education. Modern society values practical skills, hence various learning opportunities should be provided to students based on their strengths, rather than keeping them bound to certain schools or studies. Only in this way, can we motivate the people to learn. Moreover, not all students need to join the fierce competition in the college entrance examinations. 2. School education, social education and family education should be connected to establish a community education system. School education is the core of community education. The schools should be open to the society. School resources, particularly intellectual resources, should be serving the communities. The impact of schools should be expanded to the communities, and community resources can be utilized to promote the development of schools to achieve the goal of resource-sharing and common development. 3. Make all the social organizations learning organizations—various social organizations should incorporate staff training and continuing learning into organizational development and management, promoting innovation through learning, and promoting development through innovation. Learning is an approach for self-transformation. A learning society will connect education to society, and provide better conditions for the overall development of people and the enhancement of people’s quality.

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APPENDICES

Names in English and Chinese Aldersey 爱尔德赛 Aleksandrovich, Danilov Mikhail 达尼洛夫 Allen, Yong John 林乐知 Anton S. Makarenko 马卡连科 Arsentv 阿尔辛节夫 Bai Limin 白利民 Ban Gu 班固 Barak Ivanov 巴拉诺夫 Bell, Jean Adam Schall Von 汤若望 Blodqet, Henry 柏亨利 Bloom, Benjamin 布鲁姆 Bolls, Franz 弗朗兹•博厄斯 Brown, S. R. 布朗 Bruner, Jerome 布鲁纳 C. T. Hu 胡昌度 Cai Erkang 蔡尔康 Cai Lun 蔡伦 Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 Cang Jie 仓颉 Chen Duxiu 陈独秀 Chen Heqin 陈鹤琴 Chen Jingpan 陈景磐 Chen Xianzhang 陈献章 Chen Xia 陈侠 Chen Xuexun 陈学恂 Chen Yuanhui 陈元晖 Cheng Hao 程颢 Cheng Yishan 程宜山 Cheng Yi 程颐 Comenius, Johann Amos 夸美纽斯 Confucius 孔子 Deborah, J. 德博拉夫 Deng Xiaoping 邓小平 Deng Xi 邓析 Dewey, John 杜威

278

names in english and chinese

Di Ku 帝喾 Ding Gang 丁钢 Ding Youcheng 丁酉成 Dong Baoliang 董宝良 Dong Chuncai 董纯才 Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 Du Diankun 杜殿坤 Dubrovin 杜伯洛维娜 Durkheim, Emile 埃米尔•涂尔干 Engels, Friedrich Von 恩格斯 Esipov, Boris Petrovich 叶希波夫 Fadeev 法捷耶夫 Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 Fang Keli 方克立 Faure, Edgar 埃德加•富勒 Fomin 福民 Galina 戈林娜 Gao Pingshu 高平叔 Gao Shiliang 高时良 Ge Hong 葛洪 Giulio Aleni 艾略儒 Goncharov, Nikolai K. 冈察洛夫 Gongxi Hua 公西华 Grand 格兰德 Gribrunie, Frees 弗里兹•格雷布内 Gu Hongming 辜鸿铭 Gu Shusen 顾树森 Gu Xiancheng 顾宪成 Gu Yanwu 顾炎武 Guo Bingwen 郭秉文 Guo Congzhou 郭从周 Han Yu 韩愈 Hans, Nicholas 汉斯 Hao Weiqian 郝维谦 He Xiaoxia 何晓夏 Heimpel, H. 姆佩尔 Herbart, Johann Friedrich 赫尔巴特 Hu Shi 胡适 Huang Ji 黄济



names in english and chinese

Huang Kai 黄侃 Huang Zongxi 黄宗羲 Huang Zunxian 黄遵宪 Hutchins, Robert Maynard 赫钦斯 Jean Terrenz 邓玉函 Jiang Menglin 蒋梦麟 Jiang Qi 姜琦 Jin Linxiang 金林祥 Jones, Emma 琼司 Junior, Emmanuel Diaz 阳玛诺 Kairov, Ivan Andreyevich 凯洛夫 Kang Youwei 康有为 Kilpatrick, William Heard 基尔帕特里克 Klafki, W. 克拉夫基 Kuzmin 顾思明 Lapacho 达拉巴金 Lardier, Fredrick 弗里德里希•拉第尔 Lenin 列宁 Li Chonggui 李崇桂 Li Dazhou 李大钊 Li Duanfen 李端棻 Li Guojun 李国钧 Li Haowu 李浩吾 Li Hongzhang 李鸿章 Li Kuanzhong 李宽中 Li Shangyin 李商隐 Li Shen 李绅 Li Shizhen 李时珍 Li Si 李斯 Li Zizhuo 李子卓 Liang Qichao 梁启超 Liang Suming 梁漱溟 Lin Boqu 林伯渠 Liu Baonan 刘宝楠 Liu Shaoqi 刘少奇 Liu Xin 刘歆 Locke, John 洛克 Long Zhengzhong 龙正中 Longobardi, Nicolo 龙华民

279

280

names in english and chinese

Lu Gongming 庐公明 Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊 Lu Xun 鲁迅 Lü Da 吕达 Lü Zuqian 吕祖谦 Luo Dawei 罗大维 Ma Rong 马融 Ma Yifu 马一浮 Maclay, R. S. 麦利 Maheu, René 勒内•马厄 Malinowski, Bronislaw 布罗尼斯拉夫•马林诺斯基 Mao Lirui 毛礼锐 Mao Zedong 毛泽东 Marx, Karl Heinrich 马克思 Mateer, Calvin Wilson 狄考文 Mauss, Marce 马歇尔•莫斯 Mencius 孟子 Meng Xiancheng 孟宪承 Monroe, P. 孟禄 Morgan, Louis 路易斯•摩尔根 Morrison, Robert 玛利逊，在文中有两种翻译，马礼逊 Mozi 墨子 Nagao, Ariga 有贺长雄 Nan Zhishan 南致善 Needham, Joseph Terence Montgomery 李约瑟 Ogorodnov, Ivan T. 奥哥洛德尼柯夫 Pan Maoyuan 潘懋元 Pang Pu 庞朴 Pantoja, Didaco de 庞迪我 Parkhurst, Helen 柏克赫斯特 Pavlysh 帕夫雷什 Pestalozzi, Johann Heinrich 裴斯塔洛齐 Pott, F. L. Hawks 卜舫济 Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeyevich 普希金 Qian Manqian 钱曼倩 Qian Mu 钱穆 Qian Yishi 钱亦石 Qu Baokui 瞿葆奎 Qu Jingchun 瞿景淳



names in english and chinese

Qu Taisu 瞿太素 Qu Yuan 屈原 Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius 昆体良 Ran You 冉有 Rho, Giacomo 罗雅谷 Ricci, Matteo 利玛窦 Richard, Timothy 李提摩太节 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 卢梭 Ruan Yuan 阮元 Rugien, Michaele 罗明坚 Russell, B. 罗素 Sadler, Michael 萨德勒 Sang Xinmin 桑新民 Scheuer, H. 朔塑伊尔 Schneider, Friedrich 施奈德 Shen Guanqun 沈灌群 Shen Ying 沈颖 Sheng Xuanhuai 盛宣怀 Shi Jinghuan 史静寰 Shimbirey, Pavel Nikolayevich 申比廖夫 Shu Xincheng 舒新城 Si Maniu 司马牛 Si Matan 司马谈 Smirnov, Vasily Z. 斯米尔诺夫 Sotaro, Eguchi 江口辰太郎 Spery 斯佩里 Sukhomlinsky, B. A. 苏霍姆林斯基 Tan Renmei 檀仁梅 Tan Sitong 谭嗣同 Tao Xingzhi 陶行知 Tatribana, Sensaburo 立花铣三郎 Taylor, Edward 爱德华•泰勒 Teinosuke, Hatano 波多野贞之助 Teng Dachun 滕大春 Tomoyoshi, Murai 村井知至 Tong Fuyong 童富勇 Tübingen 蒂宾根 Volikova 沃莉科娃 Vygostsky 维果斯基

281

282

names in english and chinese

Wagenschein, Martin 瓦根舍因 Wang Anshi 王安石 Wang Bingzhao 王炳照 Wang Chenxu 王承绪 Wang Guowei 王国维 Wang Shouren 王守仁 Wei Zhongxian 魏忠贤 Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 Wu Xiaoru 吴小如 Wu Yuzhang 吴玉章 Xavier, Francisco de (Yasu Y) 方济各•沙勿略 Xie Youwei 谢幼伟 Xiong Chengdi 熊承涤 Xu Guangqi 徐光启 Xu Shoushang 许寿裳 Xu Xiake 徐霞客 Xunzi 荀子 Yan Fu 严复 Yan Guohua 阎国华 Yan Yuan 颜元 Yang Xianjiang 杨贤江 Yu Guangyuan 于光远 Yu Jianzeng 喻鉴曾 Yu Ziyi 俞子夷 Yue Fei 岳飞 Zancoff 赞科夫 Zeng Guofan 曾国藩 Zhan Ruoshui 湛若水 Zhang Dainian 张岱年 Zhang Jiuzong 张九宗 Zhang Shi 张栻 Zhang Zai 张载 Zhang Zhidong 张之洞 Zhao Kuangyin 赵匡胤 Zhao Wei 赵玮 Zhao Yabo 赵雅博 Zhou Dunyi 周敦颐 Zhou Enlai 周恩来 Zhou Guping 周谷平



names in english and chinese

Zhou Qu 周蕖 Zhu Bolu 朱伯庐 Zhu Bo 朱勃 Zhu Kang 祝康 Zhu Xi 朱熹 Zhu Youhuan 朱有瓛 Zhu Zhixian 朱智贤 Zi Lu 子路 Zi Xia 子夏 Zuo Zongtang 左宗堂

283

Glossary 生长说 concept of growth 白板说 blank slate 实用主义经验论 pragmatic empiricism 说文解字 Origin of Chinese Characters 教育现象学 educational phenomenology 教育认识学 educational epistemology 应试教育 education for examinations 因素分析法 factor analysis approach 欧洲文艺复兴 Renaissance in Europe 西学东渐 spread of Western learning to the East 鸦片战争 Opium War 洋务运动 Westernization Movement 维新变法 Constitution reform and modernization 中学为体，西学为用 Western learning for practical application 师夷长技以制夷 using foreign knowledge in order to surpass foreign countries 进化学派 Evolutionists 单线进化论 Unitary Evolution 多线进化论 Multiple Evolutionism 播化学派 Cultural Spreading Theory 文化圈理论 Theory of the Cultural Ring 文化独立论 independence of culture 文化相对论 Cultural Relativity 功能学派 Functionalists 结构主义学派 Structuralism 焚书坑儒 incident of burning books and the burying alive of Confucian scholars by the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty 敦煌学 Dunhuang Studies 红学 Studies of Dreams in Red Mansions 鲁迅学 Lu Xun Studies 华夏 an ancient name for China 东夷 East Yi 南蛮 Southern Man 宗法制度 patriarchal clan system 礼制 norms of etiquette

286

glossary

百家争鸣 various schools of thought and their proponents flourished 春秋战国时期 periods of Spring and Autumn and Warring States 明治维新 Meiji Restoration; the Meiji Reform 独尊儒学 Sole Advocation of Confucian Teachings 班级授课制 classroom instruction 中原文化 culture in the central plain region 阴阳 School of Yin and Yang 墨 Mohism 名 School of Logicians 法 School of Legalists 道 Taoism 纵横学派 School of Political Strategists 杂学派 School of Eclecticism 三纲五常 Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues 罢黜百家，独尊儒术 banning all other schools of thought and paying supreme tribute to Confucianism 封建伦理道德 a series of feudal ethical codes 玄学 Xuanxue, or Dark Learning 门阀士族地主 families of influence, families of many long-standing generations standing and landlords 科举制度 Imperial Examination System 宋明理学 Idealism of Song (960–1279) and Ming (1368–1644) Dynasties 重文轻武 emphasizing literature and downplaying military affairs 儒释道 Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism 经世致用 practical knowledge to administer the country 五四运动 The May Fourth Movement 封建文化 Chinese feudal culture 新民主主义革命 New Democratic Revolution 辛亥革命 1911 Revolution 易经 Book of Change 八卦 Eight Trigrams (eight combinations of three whole or broken lines formerly used in divination) 禅宗 Chan (Zen) sect of Buddhism 丝绸之路 Silk Road 孝经 Book of Filial Piety 天人合一 combination of Heaven and humans 中庸 The Doctrine of the Mean 甲午之役 Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 戊戌变法 Reform Movement of 1898 庚子事变 Gengzi Incident



glossary

287

德先生，赛先生 “Democracy and Science” 名分 status 产婆术 the Socratic Method developed by Socrates 庠 Yang (Yang means fostering) 序 Xu (Xu means shooting) 无为而治 governance with inaction 与民休息 opportunities of recovery and restoration for the people 今文经学 contemporary classics 古文经学 ancient classics 解放战争 the Liberation War 三个代表理论 Theories of Three Representations 太学 Taixue 官邸学 Guandi Xue 鸿都门学 Hongdumen Xue 国子监 Guozi Jian 四门学 Simen Xue 五经博士 Wujing Boshi 博士祭酒 Boshi Jijiu 司业 Siye 四书 The Four Books 五经 The Five Classics 礼乐射御书数 rites, music, shooting, riding on horse carts, literature, and mathematics 五教 Five Teachings 化民成俗 help the subjects be educated 学而优则仕 he who studies well governs; he who studies well becomes a government official; he who studies well becomes an official 圣人君子 Sages and Gentlemen 六艺 six subjects 经院主义 Scholasticism 八股文 Bagu Essays 秀才 Xiucai, or the junior scholar examination 明经 examination on Confucian classics 进士 Jinshi, or the advanced scholar examination 明法 legal affairs 明字 writing 明算 arithmetic 书院 Shuyuan, or an institution of classic learning 诂经精舍 Gujing (Explanation of Classics) Jingshe 白鹿洞规 Regulations of Bailu Cave Shuyuan

288

glossary

有教无类 education regardless of social status 学记 On Learning 塾 Shu 教学相长 mutual benefits of teaching and learning 实学 practical learning 女儿经 Classics for Daughters 三从四德 three obediences and four virtues 壬寅—癸卯学制 Ren-Yin-Kui-Mao Schooling System 壬子癸丑学制 Ren-Zi-Gui-Chou Educational System 壬戌学制 Ren-Xu Educational System 五段教授法 five stages instruction 实用主义教育理论 pragmatism education theory 设计教学法 Project Method 道尔顿制 Dalton Plan 革命根据地教育 Education in Revolutionary Bases 土地革命 Land Revolution 卢沟桥事变 Lugouqiao Incident (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) 抗大 People’s Anti-Japanese Political and Military University of China 反对本本主义 Oppose Book Worship 新民主主义教育 New Democratic education 文化大革命 Cultural Revolution 填鸭式教学法 “cramming” or memorization practice 习明纳尔制度 seminar system 红领巾教学法 teaching method of “Red Scarf ” 四个现代化 four modernizations 和谐教育 Homonymous education 结构主义教育理论 the structural theory of education 发现法 Discovery Method 范例教学理论 theory of instruction by examples 掌握学习理论 Mastery Learning 素质教育 education for quality 教育产业化 education industry 闲暇教育 leisure education 全时空教育 education of all forms and for all ages 拿来主义 taking-in principle 建构主义理论 Constructivism 后现代主义理论 Postmodernism 多元智力理论 multiple intelligences 新制度经济学理论 neo-institutional economics 混合经济 mixed economy

Biography of Gu Mingyuan Author of Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education (English Edition) Gu Mingyuan is the President of the Chinese Education Society, Senior Professor of Education, and Advisor for Doctoral Students. He graduated from the Department of Education, the National Lenin Teachers College of Moscow in the former Soviet Union in 1956. His research covers areas of international comparisons of education and educational theories. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Comparative Education Research, Chinese Journal of Pedagogies, Research on Education and Teachers, and Frontiers of Education in China, an English journal jointly published with Brill Academic Publishers. He has served as the Vice President of Beijing Normal University, Co-President of the World Council of Comparative Education Society, Member of the Academic Committee of the State Council (ACSC), and Coordinator of the ACSC Sub-Committee of Education. Prof. Gu has been engaged in teaching, research and management in education for more than 60 years, and has published over 600 articles and 30 books (single authored, co-authored, and translations). His major accomplishments and contributions include the following: 1. Contributions in Educational Philosophy and Practice Professor Gu has taken the lead in advancing Chinese educational philosophy and practice during the last thirty years. In the 1970s, he argued that education and instruction should emphasize both skill development and knowledge delivery; in the 1980s, he analyzed the relationships and interactions between modern production and modern education and proposed further professionalization of teacher training institutions; in the early 1990s, he advocated for building a learning society and preventing problems brought about by the sole pursuit of academic degrees; in the late 1990s, he supported the idea of preparing students to become creative personnel; and in the 2000s, he argued that modernization of education did not imply Westernization of education. Prof. Gu’s vision of education has laid the theoretical foundations for Chinese education to open to the world and advance to the future.

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biography of gu mingyuan 2. Contributions in Policy Development

Prof. Gu has actively participated in research, writing and consulting work for the development of important national policies for Chinese education. Those policies include the Decision on Reforms of the Education System of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1985, the Compulsory Education Law in 1986, the national reforms in curriculum since 2001, and the National Plans for the Development and Reforms of Education (2010–2020) in 2010. 3. Contributions in Building the Disciplines of Educational Science Prof. Gu is a leader in the disciplinary building of education science in China. He was one of the founders of the field Comparative Education when it was introduced into China as a discipline in the late 1970s. Along with other scholars, he strongly supported the creation of master’s programs for teachers and he worked to ensure the rational distribution of graduate programs in education throughout the country when he served as the Coordinator of the ACSC Sub-Committee of Education, a government agency responsible for all affairs of graduate education of China. He has also published numerous books in various fields of education such as comparative education, teacher education, and Chinese national culture and education. Many of his books have laid the foundation for those fields and have received national or regional awards for their contributions to educational science. 4. Contributions to International Cultural and Education Exchange Prof. Gu is one of the pioneers who helped China open its doors for educational exchange with other countries. Thirty years ago, advocated for and sought out international exchange opportunities for Chinese universities and for the fields of comparative education in China. He has attended and spoken at the World Conference of Comparative Education several times as well as taught, conducted research and made presentations at numerous well-known universities in Asia, Europe, and North America. A well-known international scholar, he was elected Vice president and Co-President of the World Comparative Education Society.



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Prof. Gu is the recipient of the following prestigious intellectual honors: • 2001, The Inaugural Honorary Doctor’s Degree of Education, the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong • 2008, The first recipient of the title Honorary Professor, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, U.S.A. • 2009, Honorary Doctorate Degree, Macao University, Macao • 2009, Honorary Doctorate Degree, Soka University, Japan 5. Major Publications Prof. Gu has published extensively in comparative education and in other fields of educational science. A selected list of his publications includes the following: • Wang, Chenxu; Zhu, Bo; and Gu, Mingyuan (1982): Comparative Education. Beijing: People’s Education Press. Two additional editions in 1985 and 1999. • Gu, Mingyuan (1989): Lessons of the Development of World Education. Chengdu: Sichuan Education Publishing House. • Gu, Mingyuan (eds.) (1990/1991/1992): The Cyclopaedia of Education. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press. Second edition, 1998. • Gu, Mingyuan (1991): Education in the USSR after the World War II. Nanchang: Jiangxi Education Publishing House. • Gu, Mingyuan (eds.) (1993): Supervision of Education in Selected Countries. Beijing: People’s Education Press. Second edition, 2002. • Gu, Mingyuan (eds.) (1994): Collected Classics and Documentations of Chinese Education. Changchun: Jilin Education Press. Second edition, 2002. • Gu, Mingyuan, and Xue, Liyin (1996): Introduction to Comparative Education. Beijing: People’s Education Press. Second edition, 1998. • Gu, Mingyuan (eds.) (1998): National Cultural Traditions and Modernization of Education. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. • Gu, Mingyuan, and Liang, Zhongyi (eds.) (2000): Collected Classics and Documentations of World Education. Changchun: Jilin Education Press. • Gu, Mingyuan, and Meng, Fanhua (2001): New Trends in International Education. Haikou: Hainan Publishing House. Revised version, 2003– 2004; Second edition, 2006.

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• Gu, Mingyuan (2001): Education in China and Abroad: Perspectives from a Lifetime in Comparative Education. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong. • Gu, Mingyuan (2003): The Mission of Comparative Education in China in the Era of the Knowledge Economy, in Policy Futures in Education, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 225–233. • Gu, Mingyuan (2004): Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education. Taiyuan: Shanxi Education Publishing House. • Gu, Mingyuan (2004): Education: Traditions and Innovations. Beijing: People’s Education Press. • Gu, Mingyuan (2006): Analysis of the Impacts of Traditional Chinese Culture on Chinese Education, in Frontiers of Education in China, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 169–190. • Gu Mingyuan (eds.) (2008): Facts of Chinese Education during 30 years From Reform and Open. Beijing: People Press. • Gu Mingyuan and Shi Zhongying (2010): Lifelong Learning: Research on Learning Society in China. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. • Gu Mingyuan (eds.) (2010): Interpretation to the National Outline of Medium and Long-term Planning of Education Reform and Development (2010–2020). Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. • Gu Mingyuan, Li Minyi and Teng Jun (2012): Oral History of GU Mingyuan’s Education Experiences. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. • Gu Mingyuan (2013): Educational Thoughts in Luxun’s Works. Fuzhou: Fujian Education Press. • Gu Mingyuan (eds.) (2013): Chinese Encyclopedia of Education (Four Volumes). Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press.

INDEX A series of feudal ethical codes 封建伦理 道德 32 Aldersey 爱尔德赛 137, 141 Aleksandrovich, Danilov Mikhail 达尼洛夫 199 Aleni, Giulio 艾略儒 38, 133 Allen, Yong John 林乐知 139, 176 n. 1 ancient name for China 华夏 (Huaxia)  13, 29, 115 n. 34 Analects 23, 43, 47, 52, 58–59, 61, 63–64, 70, 72, 91–92, 96, 100–101, 103, 105, 114, 116–117, 119–120, 157 ancient classics 古文经学 18, 76, 78 Anton S. Makarenko 马卡连科 199 arithmetic 明字 99, 104, 111, 189, 227 Arsentv 阿尔辛节夫 200 Bagu Essays 八股文 102 Bai Limin 白利民 135 n. 7 Barak Ivanov 巴拉诺夫 233 Bell, Johann Adam Schall Von 汤若望  133, 135 Blodqet, Henry 柏亨利 137 Bloom, Benjamin 布鲁姆 226–227 Bolls, Franz 弗朗兹•博厄斯 10 Book of Change 易经 33, 41, 57, 75, 85 n. 5, 157 Book of Filial Piety 孝经 51, 62, 157 Boshi Jijiu 博士祭酒 85 Brown, S. R. 布朗 136 Bruner, Jerome 布鲁纳  222, 224–226, 259 Buddhism 12 n. 19, 13, 27, 34, 36, 41–42, 77, 126, 129 C. T. Hu 胡昌度 221 Cai Erkang 蔡尔康 176 Cai Lun 蔡伦 76 Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 81, 160–161, 169, 277 Cang Jie 仓颉 75 Chan (Zen) sect of Buddhism 禅宗 42 Chen Duxiu 陈独秀 39–40, 50, 66–67, 176–179, 182, 251–253 Chen Heqin 陈鹤琴 170–171, 207 Chen Jingpan 陈景磐 137 n. 9, 145 n. 18, 159 n. 11 Chen Xia 陈侠 199 Chen Xianzhang 陈献章 109

Chen Xuexun 陈学恂 155 n. 5 Chen Yuanhui 陈元晖 206 Cheng Hao 程颢 36 Cheng Yi 程颐 36, 105, 119 Cheng Yishan 程宜山 3, 7, 15, 32, 54, 69 Chinese feudal culture 封建文化 39, 130, 142, 151, 177 Chinese learning for the essence, Western learning for practical application 中 学为体, 西学为用 143, 146, 148, 151, 155, 158 Classics for Daughters 女儿经 141–142 classroom instruction 班级授课制 18, 240–241, 248 combination of Heaven and humans 天人 合一 53, 55–58 Comenius, Johann Amos 夸美纽斯 168 Confucianism 23–24, 27, 30–34, 36–37, 48–49, 52–53, 71, 77–78, 89, 93, 95 n. 13, 99, 105, 132, 194, 286 Confucius 孔子 12, 23, 37, 43, 48–49, 52, 57, 59–64, 70–72, 76–77, 86, 90–91, 95–97, 101, 114–117, 119–120, 124, 152, 159, 161, 183, 259 Constitution reform and modernization 维新变法 7, 80 Constructivism 建构主义理论 262 contemporary classics 今文经学 78 cramming or memorization practice 填鸭 式教学法 196 Cultural Relativity 文化相对论 10 Cultural Revolution 文化大革命 185, 195, 204, 215, 218–219, 221 Cultural Spreading Theory 播化学派  9 culture in the central plain region 中原文化 29 Dalton Plan 道尔顿制 172–173 Deborah, J. 德博拉夫 226 Deng Xi 邓析 76 Deng Xiaoping 邓小平 83, 217–218, 220, 229, 237, 254 Dewey, John 杜威 55, 168–172, 184, 196, 204, 206 Di Ku 帝喾 93 n. 8 Ding Gang 丁钢 143 n. 17, 152 n. 1, 255 n. 4, 278 Ding Youcheng 丁酉成 199

294

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Discovery Method 发现法 224–226 Doctrine of the Mean 中庸 60, 85 n. 5, 100, 105, 157 Dong Baoliang 董宝良 103 n. 26 Dong Chuncai 董纯才 196 Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 11–12, 23–24, 32, 52–53, 56, 63, 77, 93, 95, 99 Du Diankun 杜殿坤 222 Dubrovin 杜伯洛维娜 199 Dunhuang Studies 敦煌学 12 Durkheim, Emile 埃米尔•涂尔干 9 East Yi 东夷 13 education for examinations 应试教 育 231 education for quality 素质教育 231 Education in Revolutionary Bases 革命根 据地教育 184–185, 190–191 education industry 教育产业化 234 education of all forms and for all ages 全时空教育 260 education regardless of social status 有教 无类 114–115 Eight Trigrams (eight combinations of three whole or broken lines formerly used in divination) 八卦 41 emphasizing literature and downplaying military affairs 重文轻武 36 Engels, Friedrich Von 恩格斯 176 Esipov, Boris Petrovich 叶希波夫 199 Evolutionists 进化学派 9, 183 Fadeev 法捷耶夫 199 families of influence, families of many long-standing generations standing and landlords 门阀士族地主 33, 35 Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 62 Fang Keli 方克立 28, 34, 55 Faure, Edgar 埃德加·富勒 267 five stages instruction 五段教授法 168 Five Teachings 五教 90 Fomin 福民 200 fostering (Yang 庠) 76, 86–87, 98, 201, 239 four modernizations 四个现代化  217–218 Functionalists 功能学派 10 Galina 戈林娜 200 Gao Pingshu 高平叔 169 n. 18 Ge Hong 葛洪 71 Gengzi Incident 庚子事变 67

Goncharov, Nikolai K. 冈察洛夫 197, 199 Gongxi Hua 公西华 119 governance with inaction 无为而治 77 Grand 格兰德 142 Gribrunie, Frees 弗里兹•格雷布内 9 Gu Hongming 辜鸿铭 48–49 Gu Shusen 顾树森 163 Gu Xiancheng 顾宪成 110 Gu Yanwu 顾炎武 136 Guandi Xue 官邸学 84 Gujing (Explanation of Classics) Jingshe 诂经精舍 111 Guo Bingwen 郭秉文 171 Guo Congzhou 郭从周 199 Guozi Jian 国子监 84 Hans, Nicholas 汉斯 1 he who studies well governs; he who studies well becomes a government official; he who studies well becomes an official 学而优则仕 87, 91–92 He Xiaoxia 何晓夏 138, 139 n. 11, 141 n. 14 Heimpel, H. 姆佩尔 225 Herbart, Johann Friedrich 赫尔巴特 166–171, 184, 206, 216 Homonymous education 和谐教育  223 Hongdumen Xue 鸿都门学 84 Hu Shi 胡适 170–171, 178 Huang Zongxi 黄宗羲 39, 136 Imperial Examination System 科举制度 17–18, 35, 37, 39, 41, 78–79, 87, 91, 100, 103–108, 110, 112–113, 136, 143–144, 148–149, 153, 193, 216 incident of burning books and the burying alive of Confucian scholars by the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty 焚书坑儒 32 independence of culture 文化独立论 10 Jiang Menglin 蒋梦麟 171 Jiang Qi 姜琦 171 Jin Linxiang 金林祥 164 Jinshi, or the advanced scholar examination 进士 104–105, 155, 158 Jones, Emma 琼司 142 Junior, Emmanuel Diaz 阳玛诺 133 Kairov, Ivan Andreyevich 凯洛夫   197–199, 202–204, 206, 213–214, 216 Kang Youwei 康有为 148, 152–153, 157



index

Kilpatrick, William Heard 基尔帕特里克 172–173 Klafki, W. 克拉夫基 226 Kuzmin 顾思明 200 Land Revolution 土地革命 184–185, 189 Lapacho 达拉巴金 200 Lardier, Fredrick 弗里德里希•拉第尔 9 legal affairs 明法 104 leisure education 闲暇教育 260 Lenin 列宁 5, 13, 61, 177, 186 Li Chonggui 李崇桂 55 Li Duanfen 李端棻 155 Li Guojun 李国钧 114 Li Haowu 李浩吾 179–180 Li Hongzhang 李鸿章 79, 147 Li Shangyin 李商隐 64 Li Shizhen 李时珍 71, 100 n. 22 Li Si 李斯 32 Li Zizhuo 李子卓 233 Liang Qichao 梁启超 27, 31, 41, 148, 152–154, 176 Liang Suming 梁漱溟  2–4, 48, 67–69 Liberation War 解放战争 82 Lin Boqu 林伯渠 188 Liu Baonan 刘宝楠 114 n. 32 Liu Shaoqi 刘少奇 197 Liu Xin 刘歆 30 Long Zhengzhong 龙正中 201 n. 8, 209 n. 16 Longobardi, Nicolo 龙华民 135 Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊 36, 109, 112 Lu Xun 鲁迅 13, 68, 98, 102 Lu Xun Studies 鲁迅学 13 Lü Zuqian 吕祖谦 109 Lugouqiao Incident (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) 卢沟桥事变 186 Luo Dawei 罗大维 176 Ma Rong 马融 114 Ma Yifu 马一浮 111 Maclay, R. S. 麦利 142 Malinowski, Bronislaw 布罗尼斯拉夫• 马林诺斯基 10 Mao Lirui 毛礼锐 90 n. 4, 99, 114–115, 122 n. 38, 190 n. 23 Mao Zedong 毛泽东 14, 39, 45, 82 n. 4, 83, 176, 185–186, 188, 190–191, 193, 215 Marx, Karl Heinrich 马克思 175–176 Mastery Learning 掌握学习理论  226–227 Mateer, Calvin Wilson 狄考文 137, 139, 145–146

295

Mauss, Marce 马歇尔•莫斯 9 May Fourth Movement 五四运动  32–33, 39–40, 45, 55, 66, 69, 81, 84, 129–130, 143, 163, 165–166, 175–177, 179, 183–184, 191, 193, 196, 251, 253 Meiji Restoration; Meiji Reform 明治维新  18, 157–158, 166 Mencius 孟子 63, 65, 86, 95, 97, 102, 118–119, 183 Ming Dynasty 27–28, 36, 38, 73, 79, 85, 93, 100, 105–106, 109, 116, 130–132, 135, 144, 251 mixed economy 混合经济 266 Mohism 墨 30, 99 Morgan, Lewis 路易斯•摩尔根 9, 74 Morrison, Robert 玛利逊, 在文中有两种 翻译, 马礼逊 136, 138 Mozi 墨子 64, 77 Multiple Evolutionism 多线进化论 9 multiple intelligences 多元智力理论 120, 262 mutual benefits of teaching and learning 教学相长 125–126, 288 Nagao, Ariga 有贺长雄 176 Nan Zhishan 南致善 199 Needham, Joseph Terence Montgomery 李约瑟 94 neo-institutional economics 新制度经济 学理论 262 New Democratic education 新民主主义 教育 190–194, 198 New Democratic Revolution 新民主主义 革命 6, 39–40, 62, 175, 184, 191–194, 197–198 norms of etiquette 礼制 13 Ogorodnov, Ivan T. 奥哥洛德尼柯夫  199 On Learning 学记 47, 86, 90, 101, 120–126 Opium War 鸦片战争 7, 28, 39, 45, 61, 79, 83, 94, 111, 130, 136, 139–140, 142, 144, 193, 251 opportunities of recovery and restoration for the people 与民休息 77 Oppose Book Worship 反对本本主义  191 Origin of Chinese Characters 说文解字  85 Pang Pu 庞朴 15 Pantoja, Didaco de 庞迪我 38, 133

296

index

Parkhurst, Helen 柏克赫斯特  173 patriarchal clan system 宗法制度 13, 29–31, 46, 48–51, 61–62, 69–70, 72, 92 Pavlysh 帕夫雷什 224 People’s Anti-Japanese Political and Military University of China 抗大 187–188 periods of Spring and Autumn and Warring States 春秋战国时期 12, 14, 28 Postmodernism 后现代主义理论 262 Pott, F. L. Hawks 卜舫济 145 practical knowledge to administer the country 经世致用 38 practical learning 实学 111, 136 pragmatism education theory 实用主义 教育理论 168–172 Project Method 设计教学法 172–173, 205 Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeyevich 普希金  213 Qian Manqian 钱曼倩 156 n. 7, 164 Qian Mu 钱穆 2–4, 51 Qian Yishi 钱亦石 179, 182–183 Qu Baokui 瞿葆奎 214 n. 19, 234 Qu Jingchun 瞿景淳 131 Qu Taisu 瞿太素 131 Qu Yuan 屈原 62 Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius 昆体良 121 Ran You 冉有 119 Reform Movement of 1898 戊戌变法 67, 251 Regulations of Bailu Cave Shuyuan 白鹿 洞规 113 Renaissance in Europe 欧洲文艺复兴 6, 13, 133 Ren-Xu Educational System 壬戌学制  162, 164–165 Ren-Yin-Kui-Mao Schooling System 壬寅—癸卯学制 143, 156 Ren-Zi-Kui-Chou Educational System 壬子癸丑学制 160, 162–163 1911 Revolution 辛亥革命 39, 45, 81, 162, 252 Rho, Giacomo 罗雅谷 135 Ricci, Matteo 利玛窦 38, 131–134 Richard, Timothy 李提摩太节 176 rites, music, shooting, riding on horse carts, literature, and mathematics 礼乐射御书数 76, 86 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 卢梭 168 Ruan Yuan 阮元 111

Rugien, Michaele 罗明坚 131 Russell, B. 罗素 171 Sadler, Michael 萨德勒 1 Sages and Gentlemen 圣人君子 95, 108 Sang Xinmin 桑新民 243 Scheuer, H. 朔塑伊尔 226 Schneider, Friedrich 施奈德 1 Scholasticism 经院主义 101, 103, 108 School of Eclecticism 杂学派 30 School of Legalists 法 30 School of Logicians 名 30, 71 School of Political Strategists 纵横学派  30 School of Yin and Yang 阴阳 30 seminar system 习明纳尔制度 212 Shen Guanqun 沈灌群 99, 114–115, 122 n. 38 Shen Ying 沈颖 199 Sheng Xuanhuai 盛宣怀 148 Shi Jinghuan 史静寰 138 Shimbirey, Pavel Nikolayevich 申比廖夫  199 shooting (Xu 序) 76, 86, 99 Shu 塾 90, 121 Shu Xincheng 舒新城 141 n. 15, 153 n. 3, 158 n. 9, 161 n. 12, 173 Shuyuan 书院 25, 108–113, 154 Silk Road 丝绸之路 6, 35, 46, 129 Simen Xue 四门学 84 Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 甲午之役  67, 147, 151, 153, 165, 251 six subjects 六艺 99, 104 Siye 司业 85 Smirnov, Vasily Z. 斯米尔诺夫 199 Socratic Method 产婆术 72 Sole Advocation of Confucian Teachings 独尊儒学 18 Sotaro, Eguchi 江口辰太郎 166 Southern Man 南蛮 13 Spery 斯佩里 142 spread of Western learning to the East 西学东渐 7, 11–12, 28, 38 status 名分 69–70 structural theory of education 结构主义 教育理论 224–225 Structuralism 结构主义学派 10, 225 Studies of Dreams in Red Mansions 红学  13 Sukhomlinsky, B. A. 苏霍姆林斯基  222–224 Taixue 太学 84 taking-in principle 拿来主义 262



index

Tan Renmei 檀仁梅 222 Tan Sitong 谭嗣同 148, 153 Tao Xingzhi 陶行知 103, 170–172, 207 Taoism 30, 32–33, 36, 77, 126, 140 Tatribana, Sensaburo 立花铣三郎 166 Taylor, Edward 爱德华•泰勒 9 teaching method of “Red Scarf” 红领巾教 学法 213 Teinosuke, Hatano 波多野贞之助 166 Teng Dachun 滕大春 164 n. 15 Terrenz, Jean 邓玉函 38, 133 The Five Classics 五经 72, 85, 87, 99–100, 103, 105, 108, 135, 138, 140 The Four Books 四书 72, 85, 87, 99–100, 103, 105, 108, 135, 138, 140 theory of instruction by examples 范例教 学理论 225–226 Theory of the Cultural Ring 文化圈理论  9 Theories of Three Representations 三个代 表理论 83 Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues 三纲五常 32, 37, 49, 52–53, 61, 68, 78, 80, 93, 151, 252 three obediences and four virtues 三从四德 142 Tomoyoshi, Murai 村井知至 176 Tong Fuyong 童富勇 178 n. 8 Tübingen 蒂宾根 225 Unitary Evolution 单线进化论 9 using foreign knowledge in order to surpass foreign countries 师夷长技以 制夷 7 Vygostsky 维果斯基 223 Wagenschein, Martin 瓦根舍因 226 Wang Anshi 王安石 104 Wang Bingzhao 王炳照 109 n. 31, 114, 177 n. 4 Wang Guowei 王国维 166, 168 Wang Shouren 王守仁 36, 109, 116 Wei Zhongxian 魏忠贤 110 Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 62 Westernization Movement 洋务运动  7, 45, 79–80, 139–140, 146–148, 151, 156–157

297

writing 明字 99, 102–104, 141, 205, 227 Wu Xiaoru 吴小如 27, 28 n. 4 Wu Yuzhang 吴玉章 201 Wujing Boshi 五经博士 85 Xavier, Francisco de (Yasu Y) 方济各•  沙勿略 131 Xie Youwei 谢幼伟 51 Xiong Chengdi 熊承涤 199 Xiucai, or the junior scholar examination 秀才 104, 108 Xu Guangqi 徐光启 132, 135–136 Xu Xiake 徐霞客 71 Xuanxue, or Dark Learning 玄学 33–34, 36 Xunzi 荀子 95, 97–98 Yan Fu 严复 148 Yan Guohua 阎国华 114 Yan Yuan 颜元 39, 52, 70, 96, 136 Yang Xianjiang 杨贤江 81, 179–184 Yu Guangyuan 于光远 218 Yu Ziyi 俞子夷 173 Yue Fei 岳飞 62 Zancoff 赞科夫 199, 222–223, 225–226 Zeng Guofan 曾国藩 79 Zhan Ruoshui 湛若水 109 Zhang Dainian 张岱年 3, 7, 15, 28, 32, 34, 54–55, 69 Zhang Jiuzong 张九宗 108 Zhang Shi 张栻 109, 112 Zhang Zai 张载 36, 47, 56 Zhang Zhidong 张之洞 79–80 Zhao Wei 赵玮 233 Zhao Yabo 赵雅博 3, 16 Zhou Dunyi 周敦颐 36 Zhou Enlai 周恩来 60 Zhou Guping 周谷平 157, 165–166 Zhou Qu 周蕖 222 Zhu Bo 朱勃 222 Zhu Kang 祝康 180 Zhu Xi 朱熹 11, 24, 36–37, 60, 102–103, 105, 109, 112–113, 115, 117 Zhu Zhixian 朱智贤 199 Zi Lu 子路 58–59, 119 Zi Xia 子夏 120 Zuo Zongtang 左宗堂 79