the new system, which was tainted by associations with commerce, with
barbarians, with the Christian religion. One sishu teacher is said to
have rejected with scorn a proposal that he teach his pupil about geography, A 2
on the grounds that 'ho had not converted to the foreign religion'. As
late as 1907 sishu teachers in Guangxi were said to be spreading rumours A3
and discouraging attendance at the new schools.
At the turn of the century, the future of schooling on the Western
model must have seemed precarious. On one side was ranged progressive
'public opinion'; on the other, popular indifference or aversion, expressed
in concentrated form by the destruction wrought by the boxers in North
China. Indigenous institutions were showing considerable powers of
regeneration and absorption of the new learning without fundamental
structural alteration. The balance was tipped in favour of foreign imit
ation by the foreign powers' defeat of the Boxers. Policies of naive
chauvinism, or even of constructive reform within the Chinese tradition,
were outdated: they could not compete with the allurements of the modern
school system, blazoned with the successes of Germany and Japan and promis
ing China equal strength.
The defeat of the Boxers meant the second promulgation of reform
measures rescinded after the empress dowager's return to power in 1898.
In 1901, an imperial edict ordered that a three-tier system on the Western
model be set up and all academies be converted into schools. But standardi
zation was not yet achieved, as the content of the edict was sufficiently
unspecific to allow for a certain leeway in interpretation. In Anhui, for
example, the provincial university, formed by amalgamation of the Qiushi
Xuetang and the Jingfu Academy, enrolled all scholars at the provincial
capital as supplementary students and conducted monthly examinations on
topics set by provincial officials; in short, assimilated to itself the AA
functions of an academy.
A2. Shuntian shihao, 1 October 1902.
A3. X u e b u guanbao, XXXIX (1907), Jingwai xuewu baogao, 395a-b.
Educators' freedom of action was circumscribed by the 1902 regul
ations, and restricted even further by the detailed prescriptions of those
of 1904. Although the setting up of a model by no means assured that it
was universally followed - inexperience and inadequate resources meant
that many new schools were such in name only - variations were henceforth
illegitimate departures from a fixed system rather than valid forms of
experiment.
The changes I have been discussing above had their greatest impact
on advanced education. Elementary schooling exhibits similar changes - from
a re-making of indigenous forms and content, through the introduction of
Western content into Chinese forms, to the setting up of a prescribed
Western model which outlawed all others - but the timescale was later and
effects less easily achieved.
The first school founded by Chinese to move beyond the traditional
scope of elementary education was the Zhengmeng Shuyuan in Shanghai,
founded by Zhang Huanlun in 1878. It was divided into different grades
and taught both Chinese and Western subjects; among other innovations was
the introduction of games. Texts in classical Chinese were translated
into the vernacular. Like Weijing in Shaanxi, Zhengmeng was set up out
of a sense of national need (its aim was to 'understand righteousness and 45
principles, and gain a knowledge of current affairs'), and like Weijing
it was in advance of its time: statesmen and scholars did not interest
themselves in setting up similar schools until some twenty years later.
The lag is explicable partly in terms of the traditional autonomy
of elementary education. The concept that schooling was primarily for
producing 'men of talent' for government service, and was therefore
sufficiently monitored by the examination system had left the government
with relatively little interest in the schooling of the masses, and thus
with little voice in it. Scholars who had themselves come to Western
studies in their adulthood tended to regard them as qualifications for
45. Ding Zhipin, Zhongguo jin qishi nian lai jiaoyu jishi (Shanghai, 1935), p. 3; Chen Dongyuan, Zhongguo jiaoyushi, p. 475.'
administration, and thus irrelevant to young children and to the mass of people. It was commonly believed that Western learning could be acquired by a few months spent reading new books. Furthermore, Western studies undertaken too young were a hindrance to the Chinese ones which were still the gauge of gentlemanly status, and might in addition involve the danger of the child’s picking up foreign ways. Thus the educational reforms initiated in 1898 had as their base schools which would take boys from twelve up; elementary schooling was still not conceived of as a matter for the state.
This is not to say that there was no interest in how the child learnt to read or write. The principle that
xian ru wei zhu
(/'j
fd
jl ) - what is learnt first is dominant - had directed the attention of generations of46
scholars to early childhood education. Like opposition to the eight
legged essay, criticism of meaningless rote learning had long been a counter point to the prevailing practice. The Qing educator Wang Yun (1784-1854) wrote ’Pupils are human being, not pigs or dogs; if what they read is not explained, it is like reciting the Buddhist scriptures or chewing wood- shavings’ . ^ He also criticized the use of corporal punishment as a spur to diligence, recommending instead that the pupil's interest be aroused and
48