Education in the Ancient Chinese Civilization
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Technology @ School Connecting Ancient China to the History of Education You can research the Internet to broaden your perspectives on ancient China as well as the other civilizations and historic periods discussed in this chapter. Access the following sites to build
your perspectives on China: (1) the British Museum for the geography, chronology, and arts and crafts of ancient China, and (2) the Chinese Cultural Studies site for the analects of Confucius.
pervades the culture.7 Confucianism’s diffusion from China to other Asian countries illustrates how educational ideas and processes transfer across cultures.8
3-2b Ancient China’s Significance in World Education
FOCUS Have family or group stories, like the oral tradition among prehistoric groups, shaped your ideas about education and schools? Did you learn specifically defined standards of behavior and manners in a way that was similar to Confucian education? Or did you learn standards of behavior in a more permissive and flexible way? In other words, how did you learn what was appropriate or inappropriate for you to do? How did you learn the “should” and “should nots” of school and society?
Ancient Chinese education remains significant in shaping schooling in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Singapore. Learning centers on students’ mastery of subjects, which is usually presented in texts, and is to be memorized rather than discussed. The teacher is to be respected, not questioned, by students and their parents as well. Practicing writing script in calligraphy classes holds its place along with the modern computer. Students strive to achieve a high academic rank in their classes. It is highly important to be admitted to schools, colleges, and universities that have a top academic ranking.9 Confucianism remains a powerful cultural force in the modern world, especially for Asians and for many Asian Americans. Adhering to the Confucian emphasis on family duties, parents hold themselves responsible for their children’s academic achievement. Parents, especially mothers, are obligated to instill the values of perseverance, diligence, hard work, and self-discipline, which are stressed as necessary to success in school and in work. When a child’s academic performance is assessed as inadequate, this not only disgraces the child but is a symptom of poor parenting that brings shame to the whole family, reaching all the way back to the ancestor.10
7 For Confucianism’s influence on contemporary globalization, see William Theodore de Bary, Confucian Tradition and Global Education (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). 8 Joelle Droux and Rita Hofstetter, “Going International: The History of Education Stepping beyond Borders,” Pedagogica Historica, Vol. 50, Nos. 1 and 2 (2014), pp. 1–4. 9 Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success (New York: Penguin Press, 2014), pp. 110, 125. Also, see Benson Tong, ed., Asian American Children: A Historical Handbook Guide (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2004), pp. 123–129. 10 Chua and Rubenfeld, The Triple Package, p. 147. Also, see Jin Li, Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 73–74, 90–92.
960–1279 CE Song Dynasty 1295 CE Marco Polo’s Tales of China published in Europe 1644–1911 CE Manchu Dynasty
206 BCE–220 CE Han Dynasty
500 CE
1000 CE
1500 CE
2000 CE
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