Traditional and Contemporary Chinese Classical Literature Education

Traditional and contemporary circumstances of Chinese classical literature education
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Traditional and contemporary circumstances of Chinese classical literature education
Circumstances in the classical Chinese education system
2100-1600 BCE Xia (Hsia) Dynasty, 1600-1050 BCE Shang Dynasty and 1046-256 BCE Zhou (Chou) Dynasty: Western Zhou (ca. 1046-771 BCE), Eastern Zhou (771-256 BCE)
During the pre-Qin Dynasty era, the education system was relatively undeveloped. The literature available dated to this period is known as ‘the literature of earlier ancient times.’ the education system before and during these periods was largely informal but over the next centuries it became formal and evolved from simple to complex content based on documented literature CITATION Chi60 \l 1033 (Chinese Cultural Research Institute, 1960). Information was taught in informal setups in families and they passed it on to other generations. But during the Xia Dynasty, a new system of education in formal setup started to emerge. Formal schools were established known as the Xiao.
The Zhou era divided the schooling system into two, East XU and West Xu. East Xu was exclusively for the children of nobility while the West Xu was meant for children of the ordinary citizens. The Zhou Dynasty established more schools and later divided them into state schools and village schools. State schools were exclusively for the nobility and consisted of elementary and higher-level colleges. The village schools were divided into four, Shu, Xiang, Xu, and Xiao only exceptional students who satisfied their evaluation criteria got a chance of entering college. Academies started springing up in the kingdom and they were established by the emperor’s order. The educators lectured on the 100 Schools of Thought and some of the notable educators of the period were Tzu, Zou Yan, Lu Zhonglian.
The late Xia Dynasty featured teachings on Confucianism. Confucius, 551–479 BC, an iconic figure of China and its education system lived during this period. He developed the schools of thought that were studied by students in later dynasties. The curriculum was mainly based on The Four Books and The Five Classics. The four books were, Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, Confucian Analects, The Works of Mencius and the five classics were the Book of Poetry, The Book of History, The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes, and The Spring and Autumn Annals. The primary aim of Confucianism education was to teach social behavior and political teachings CITATION QIn14 \l 1033 (Gu, 2014). Confucianism taught men how to act and behave (in ancient China education was only for men). The education was meant to enable the civilization to grow and prosper as well as establish a social order based on common knowledge. The main reason for educating children was to enable them to have good paying jobs and rise to various important ranks within the kingdom. Suitability for public office depended on memorizing the classical literature.
The early system of education necessitated children to go to school (in temples) every day from 6.00AM to 4.00PM CITATION Kar17 \l 1033 (Carr, 2017). This was for the few boys who were not enslaved and their parents could afford their schooling. Typically, most boys were not educated and they worked on the farms and helped their families if various chore. It was a privilege to go to school because each family depended on its members for labor which was largely manual. They would memorize the Confucian philosophy and write essays, paint pictures, read and write CITATION Kar17 \l 1033 (Carr, 2017). There wasn’t any math or science and the system largely centered its curriculum of memorizing the Confucian philosophy page after page. One notable education element of this era was that the system was largely divided by the social hierarchy of the people. Private schools for the nobility and the public schools for the ordinary citizens. The aim of the education system was to land good government jobs which were well paying. The private schools were better and therefore the system favored the nobility.
The circumstances for learning during this period were not favorable to many. Few people went to school to learn. The education system was largely philosophical. Since there was no Math or science, much of the schooling time was just dedicated to memorizing the Confucian philosophy. Not much was done on poetry and other literature. Additionally, the available literature was relatively small compared to later periods. It was the advent of Chinese civilization availability of learning materials largely limited the learning process.
221-206 BCE The Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was short-lived but was a transitional phase even in the education system. First, the emperor forbade private schooling. His approach to governing the vast empire he had consolidated required him to strictly control the curriculum to maintain a firm grip of power. Having radical and free thinkers in the society was a threat to his regime and he often buried Confucian scholars alive CITATION Zhe16 \l 1033 (Fu, 2016). His short-lived regime led to the loss of a lot of previously published Chinese literature.
The goal of education was to land good government works and the Qin Dynasty subverted this goal by structuring the government to be run by his family. As he was standardizing the writing scripts and scales, the education system was now supposed to mirror his wishes and teach the new standards CITATION Zhe16 \l 1033 (Fu, 2016). After the warring period, the Qin emperor thought the Confucian system of education was partly to blame for the lack of peace and unity among the states. The new education system he introduced, the legalist educations was pegged on a principle of individuals working to benefit the state and affected the commoners and elites alike. The legalist education curriculum aimed at consolidating and according all absolute power to himself.
‘believed that human beings—commoners and elites alike—will forever remain selfish and covetous of riches and fame, and one should not expect them to behave morally. Rather, a viable sociopolitical system should allow individuals to pursue their selfish interests exclusively in ways that benefit the state, viz. Agriculture and warfare; while a proper administrative system should allow officials to benefit from ranks and emoluments, but also prevent them from subverting the ruler’s power.’ CITATION Yur14 \l 1033 (Pines, 2014)
The circumstances of learning during the Qin Dynasty were primarily aimed at advancing the emperor’s goals. Since the education system had changed, and the Confucian scholars killed, the new system was administered forcefully. The system was structured to indoctrinate the learners with ‘nation serving’ ideologies. So, the learning of the new system was first disruptive as it first changed the curriculum form Confucian to legalism. It did not have many experts on the subject other than few political realists who had studied the legalist dogma.
206 BCE-220 CE Han Dynasty: Western/Former Han (206 BCE-9 CE) and Eastern/Later Han (25-220 CE) 220-589 CE"Period of Disunity" or Six Dynasties Period 581-618 CE Sui Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was short lived and the Han Dynasty took over before the Qin emperor obliterated Confucianism. Immediately, emperor Wu proscribed all the non-Confucian education and legalized private schooling CITATION Mia15 \l 1033 (Chungang, 2015). Seemingly, it was a measure to bring change after overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Confucian philosophy became the mainstream learning curriculum in both the private and public learning centers.
The Han Dynasty led to the establishment of the National University. This university only focused on teaching Confucian ideologies using the five classics. It had 50 persons in the university at first but quickly grew to thousands by the end of the Han period. A new level of education was also founded, the Directorate of Education. It was the Academy of nobility and the university became the Academy of the commoners. Partly due to the societal norms and social stratification, the directorate produced the state officials who excelled in Confucian classics while the university became center for research.
Later, new academies started springing within the kingdom which offered specialized learning. During the Sui Dynasty, new academies were added to the panning spectrum of education levels. The new academies, Law School, a Calligraphy School (Shuxue ) and an Arithmetics School (Suanxue ) offered to specialize education to the students to work in jobs related to their specialization.
Since the primary objective of the education system had been to land better paying and authoritative government jobs, the education spread widely. During the early days of the Han Dynasty, getting these jobs relied on preservation and recommendations. The existent evaluative processes during this period were largely subjective because of lack of a standard system to evaluate the mastery of Confucian philosophy. Later during the Han Dynasty, the imperial examination system (Keju) was established CITATION New14 \l 1033 (New World Encyclopedia, 2014).
The circumstances for the education were largely political and dictated by the incumbent regime. Since the primary objective was to provider state officials by selecting the students who performed exceptionally in Confucian philosophy and got good recommendations, rote learning was the best tool to teach. The system later broke into branches which were based on societal class system and highly favored the nobility. Later, academies were established and the system gradually evolved to encompass other subjects such as Math, Law, agriculture, technology etc. The imperial system was the most notable invention of evaluating students which were incepted during this period. It was abolished in the late 19th century to the user in the modern education system.
618-906 Tang (T'ang) Dynasty, 960-1279 Song (Sung) Dynasty: Northern Song (960-1127) Southern Song (1127-1279) 1279-1368 and Yuan Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty revolutionized Chinese learning. The narrow curriculum based on Confucian philosophy widened to encompass Buddhists and Daoist ideologies. A new education system was imperative since the empire slowly opening its borders to the outside world and needed a competitive edge in trade CITATION Asi12 \l 1033 (Asian Art Museum, 2012). The learning system encompassed learning science and technology. Tang Dynasty era was considered the golden age of ancient China and its education system evolved to reflect the economic and social development of the time.
During this era, Confucian philosophy was temporarily sidelined by scholars was because of the introduction of Buddhism when the kingdom had fragmentedCITATION Mon17 \l 1033 (Montgomery, 2017). There was an increasing number of free thinkers who subscribed to other schools of thought other than Confucian which had been studied for generations. The new schools of thought hinged on Buddhism and Daoism also impacted the education system. There were few elements of the older education system which were spared i.e imperial examination. The examination was still administered and it was still an avenue of landing good government jobs. There was an increased focus on arts and poetry. Many scholars of this age published poems which are still studied today. There are also a few notable women who published their poems a and this signified a relatively more gender-equality conscious society compared to the past regimes.
The Song Dynasty revived Confucianism. During the Song era, printing was invented and it greatly impacted learning which had relied on copying of the existing literature manually. The economic development of the precious dynasties still rolled over to the Song Dynasty. There was also a population explosion during this period which stood at 108 million people in 1086 census CITATION Jef09 \l 1033 (Hays, 2009). This prompted the increment of educational centers to accommodate the ballooning student population.
The circumstances which changed the education system were largely economical. The empire had entered into a new age of economic development and the education system had to mirror this element. Introduction of Buddhism and Daoism also changed the previously established system of Confucian philosophy education and diversified the curriculum. The political system also flexed its education policies and began testing for knowledge beyond Confucian philosophy which radically changed the content students learned in their respective learning centers. A lot of literature was created during this period especially in poetry which is still studied today.
1368-1644 Ming Dynasty 1644-1912 Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty
The imperial examination system was still administered during this era. It started with the local exam, capital exam and palace exam. There were no failures in the palace exam as the aim was to rank the participants rather than eliminating them. Since exams were the main focus of the education system, the curriculum and learning methods and techniques were fashioned in ways to prepare learners to excel in these exams. Relatively affluent families took their children to private schools, a practice that had lasted since the Zhou Dynasty to ensure they got the best environment for learning. Additionally, they hired private tutors to teach the students at home in private tuition arrangements. Some girls got some education CITATION Won95 \l 1033 (Lee, 1995). The primary goal was to teach not research or criticize existing literature. Rote learning had become engrained in the system because of the nature of...