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Abstract
This article focuses on how part of traditional educated literati transformed into modern teachers. It argues that teachers’ schools became a tool of social transformation that recast surplus officials and old literati into public resources as educators and professional teachers. It was teachers’ schools that provided a considerable number of individuals who were trained for imperial civil service examinations with a new and independent identity, and supplied the state more manpower for the expansion of its educational activities than it ever had before in twentieth-century China.
Notes
* This article is originated from the author's 2007 book by UBC Press. The author is very grateful that the UBC Press grants a permission for its publication.
1 This number includes elementary schools, middle schools, vocational schools, teachers’ schools, and institutions of higher education.
2 This division is based on the categories used in Xuebu zongwusi, ed., Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao [First Statistical Tables on Education] (1907).
3 “Ge sheng zhuanmen xuetang xuesheng tongji biao” [Statistical table on specialty schools and students in the provinces], “Ge sheng shiye xuetang xuesheng tongji biao” [Statistical table on vocational schools and students in the provinces], and “Ge sheng putong xuetang tongji biao” [Statistical table on regular schools and students in the provinces], in Xuebu zongwusi, ed., Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 19–20, 21–22, 25–26. Regular middle schools (putong xuetang) included both junior high and high schools, which were often separate institutions.
4 Eugene Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (Sanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), 303.
5 Jo Burr Margadant, Madame le Professeur: Women Educators in the Third Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 1–13.
6 Scott J. Seregny, Russian Teachers and Peasant Revolution: The Politics of Education in 1905 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989); Mary Kay Vaughan, Cultural Politics in Revolution: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 1930–1940 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997).
7 Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan [Educational Officials of the Ming Dynasty] (Taibei: Taibei xuesheng shuju, 1991); Ma Ma, “The Local Education Officials of Ming China, 1368–1644,” Oriens Extremus, 22, no. 1 (1975): 11–27.
8 See Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan. Since these people performed two distinct functions, I have used the terms “education officials” and “teaching officials” to discuss their activities.
9 See John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China (Cambridge University Press, 1985).
10 Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 19–20. Toi-Loi Ma estimated that there were about 4,200 state teaching positions at any given time during the Ming (see Ma, “Local Education Officials,” 18).
11 Zhang Tingyu, Mingshi [History of the Ming Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 1851–52; also see Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 8–14.
12 Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 253–54; Ma, “Local Education Officials,” 19–24.
13 Zhao Erxun, Qingshi gao [A Draft History of the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), vol. 12, 3099–119.
14 Sheng Langxi, Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu [China’s Academy System] (Zhonghua shuju, 1934), 133–34.
15 Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 12–19; Ma, “Local Education Officials,” 16–17.
16 Zhao Erxun, Qingshi gao [A Draft History of the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 3358–59.
17 Ibid., 3099–119.
18 Liu Boji, Guangdong shuyuan zhidu yange [A History of the Academy System in Guangdong] (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1939), 217–95; see also Fan Kezheng, Zhongguo shuyuan shi [A History of Chinese Academies] (Taibei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1995), 171–86; Sheng Langxi, Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu, 77–129.
19 Fan Kezheng, Zhongguo shuyuan shi, 331–32.
20 See Feng Menglong (1574–1646), “Su zhixian luoshan zai he” [Magistrate Su Is Reunited with His Family Through a Knitted Shirt] and “Zhao Chun’er chong wang Cao jia zhuang” [Zhao Chun’er Revitalizes the Cao Family], in Jing shi tong yan [Popular Tales to Warn the World], reprinted (Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chubanshe, 1994), 124–53, 467–79.
21 Liu Xiangguan, “Zhongguo jinshi difang jiaoyu di fazhan: Huizhou wenren, shushi yu chuji jiaoyu, 1100–1800” [The Development of Local Education in Early Modern China: Literati, Schoolteachers, and Elementary Education in Huizhou, 1100–1800], Jindai shi yanjiusuo jikan [Institute of Modern History Quarterly], 28 (1997), 28–35. See also Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing China (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1979), 96–97; and Stig Thøgersen, A County of Culture: Twentieth-Century China Seen from the Village Schools of Zouping, Shandong (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 22–24.
22 Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing China, 42–43.
23 Liu Boji, Guangdong shuyuan zhidu yange, 296–304. Chang Chung-li’s estimate for the salaries of teachers at famous academies is significantly higher than this, but he noted that other teachers were paid much lower salaries. See Chang Chung-li, The Income of the Chinese Gentry (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1962), 92–109.
24 Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 9–10.
25 Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing China, 54–61.
26 Alexander Woodside also noted the divorce between the political center and education in late imperial China, but he saw this in terms of the decline in the state control of education as private education expanded. See Alexander Woodside, “The Divorce Between the Political Center and Educational Creativity in Late Imperial China,” in Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600–1900, eds. Benjamin A. Elman and Alexander Woodside, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 458–92.
27 In his paper on the Guangdong academy system, Tilemann Grimm points out that in the nineteenth century there was a hierarchy in terms of administrative region and academic renown among Guangdong academies. Schools at a lower level (in both senses) sent their students to higher level shuyuan. See Tilemann Gramm, “Academies and Urban Systems in Kwantung” in The City in Late Imperial China, ed. G. William Skinner, (Stanford University Press, 1977), 475–98. This hierarchy became the basis of part of the regular schools in the new school system.
28 Chen Gujia and Deng Hongbo, Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu yanjiu [Studies of China’s Academies] (Nanjing: Zhejiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 1997), 462–63.
29 Xue bu (Board of Education), “Zhong xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for middle schools] and “Gaoden xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for Colleges], in Xuezhi yanbian [Evolution of School Systems], comp. Ju Xingui and Tang Liangyan, (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 1991) (Hereafter cited as XZYB), 317–39.
30 Xue bu, “Chudeng xiao xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for the Primary Level of Elementary Schools], “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for Primary Teachers’ Schools], and “Zouding renyong jiaoyuan zhangcheng” [Imperially Approved Regulations on the Appointment of Teachers], in XZYB, 291–306, 398–414, 428–30.
31 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng” and “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for Advanced Teachers’ Colleges], in XZYB, 398–415.
32 Qian Manqian and Jin Linxiang, Zhongguo jindai xuezhi bijiao yanjiu [Research on Comparative Schooling Systems in Modern China] (Guangzhou: Guangdong Jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996), 93–123, 100–1, 117–21.
33 Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Baixi, and Rong-qing, “Xuewu gangyao” [A Program for Educational Affairs], in Jindai Zhongguo jiaoyu shiliao [Historical Materials on the Education of Modern China], ed. Shu Xincheng, (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1927) (Hereafter cited as JZJS), vol 2, 9.
34 Xue bu, “Tongxing gesheng guiguang shifan sheng ming’e dian” [A Telegram Urging All of the Provinces to Promote Enrollment in Teachers’ Schools], in Xue bu guanbao [Official Bulletin of the Board of Education] (Hereafter cited as XBGB), ed. Xue Bu, no. 1 (1906), 6b.
35 During this period, three officials from both Han Chinese and Manchus, Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Baixi, and Rong-qing were assigned to be ministers of the Board of Education (xue bu).
36 Zhang, et al., “Xuewu gangyao,” 10.
37 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for Primary Teachers’ Schools], in XZYB, 398–414.
38 Xue bu, “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng” [Regulations for Advanced Teachers’ Colleges], in XZYB, 414–15.
39 Xue bu zongwusi, “Xuantong yuannian jiaoyu tongji biao” [Tabular Educational Statistics for 1909], in Shiye jiaoyu, shifan jiaoyu [Vocational education and teacher training], comp. Ju Xingui, Tong Fuyong, and Zhang Shouzhi (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 1994) (Hereafter cited as SJSJ), 623–25. This source lists how many programs each school had (for example, “wanquan ke” and “jianyi ke” might be established in one school but were often calculated as separate programs). Since some schools may have had more than one program, I calculated the number of colleges by looking at the listings under the category of geographic distribution—at the time it was rare to have more than one teachers’ school in a province.
40 Xue bu zongwusi, “Xuantong yuannian jiaoyu tongji biao,” 623–25.
41 Ibid., 620–25. Frontier regions such as Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Mongolia did not have teachers’ school until later.
42 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 398–414; “Bensi tongchi geshu rushu zhaojie Baoding shifan xuetang jingfei shen shao qing su chouban bi nian shicuo zha” [Notice to all subordinate branches on the insufficient obligatory funds sent to Baoding Teachers’ College: please immediately send the balance of the funds to prevent impropriety], in SJSJ, 644.
43 Luo Zhenyu, “Jiangsu shifan xuetang ji” [Memoir of Jiangsu Teachers’ School], in SJSJ, 645; “Sichuan zongdu Xiliang zou gaishe tongsheng shifan xuetang” [Memorial from Sichuan Governor Xi-liang on establishing the provincial teachers’ school], in SJSJ, 677; Zhang Zhidong, “Zha xuewuchu gai xiu Liang Hu shifan xuetang” [Memo to the provincial bureau of education on repairing the Hunan and Hubei teachers’ school], in SJSJ, 680; “Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng” [The regulations for Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers’ College], in Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan [Brochure for Guangdong and Guangxi Teachers’ College], 1910, Shanghai Metropolitan Archives, file no. Q0-12/1086.
44 Xue bu, “Zouding chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 411.
45 Ibid.
46 Yuan Shikai, “Zhili zongdu Yuan Shikai zou ban Zhili shifan xuetang ji xiao xuetang zhe (fu zhangcheng)” [Memorial from Governor-General of Zhili Yuan Shikai on establishing Zhili Teachers’ School and Elementary School [with regulations attached], in SJSJ, 628–37; “Baoding chuji shifan xuetang shuwuzhang Wang Zecheng gai tang qingxing bing” [A report from Wang Zecheng, director of admissions at Baoding Lower Teachers’ School, on the school’s situation], in SJSJ, 738–42.
47 “Sichuan tong sheng shifan xuetang de dansheng” [The birth of all Sichuan Provincial Teachers’ School], in SJSJ, 659–61, 677–80; Zheng Xiaocang, “Zhejiang liangji shifan he di yi shifan xiao shi zhi yao” [Highlights from the history of Zhejiang Compound Teachers’ College and the Number One Teachers’ School], in SJSJ, 696–712; and “Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng.”
48 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 400; “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 415.
49 Yuan Shikai, “Zhili zongdu Yuan Shikai zouban Zhili shifan xuetang ji xiao xuetang zhe (fu zhangcheng),” SJSJ, 628–37.
50 Yuan Shikai, “Zou wei sheli beiyang shifan xuetang yi guang jiaoyu zhe [A memorial on establishing Beiyang Teachers’ College in order to promote education],” in SJSJ, 659–61; “Beiyang shifan xuetang shiban zhangcheng” [The regulations for the trial program at Beiyang Teachers’ College], in SJSJ, 661–63.
51 Xue bu, “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 425. In spite of recommendation, this group of students was not guaranteed admission.
52 Examples include Baoding Teachers’ College, Sichuan Provincial Teachers’ College, Beiyang Teachers’ College.
53 “Baoding chuji shifan xuetang shuwuzhang Wang Zecheng gaitang qingxing bing,” in SJSJ, 738.
54 Xue bu, “Zou ding ge xuetang jiangli zhangcheng” [Imperially approved memorial on the regulations for degrees awarding to various graduates of new schools], XZYB, 514–23.
55 XZYB, 517–18.
56 Ibid., 514–23.
57 At the early stage of the development of modern schools, since teachers’ schools composed a major part of local secondary education, teachers’ schools also accepted students who were not qualified for the entrance examination, or not covered by government quotas, by charging them a certain amount of tuitions and fees. Their status was very much like “supplementary students” under the imperial system. See Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 412–13.
58 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 412.
59 Xue bu, “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 426.
60 Zhili xuewu chu (Education bureau of Zhili), “Benchu cheng shifan xuetang kaoxuan youji fen like wenke jiaoyou qing li’an bing, 1905” [The report from the education bureau (of Zhili) requesting confirmation on the selection of students for the advanced program of the teachers’ school and on the division of students into science and humanities for the purpose of separate teaching], in SJSJ, 643–44.
61 According to 1909 data, there were nineteen teachers’ colleges. However, I have only been able to identify fourteen that were called teachers’ colleges, including the School of Teachers’ Training at the Capital University.
62 This school later became an independent teachers’ college, the Capital Advanced Teachers’ School (Jingshi youji shifan xuetang).
63 Xue bu, “Zouding youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 414–28.
64 “Jiangsu shifan xuetang xianxing zhangcheng” [The existing regulations of Jiangsu Teachers’ School], in SJSJ, 647.
65 “Zhili zongdu Yuan Shikai zouban Zhili shifan xuetang ji xiaoxuetang zhe,” in SJSJ, 629.
66 Yuan, “Zou wei sheli Beiyang shifan xuetang yi guang jiaoyu zhe,” in SJSJ, 660–61.
67 Zheng, “Zhejiang liangji shifan he di yi shifan xiao shi zhi yao,” in SJSJ, 700–1.
68 Xuebu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao 1907, 23–24.
69 Duan-fang and Xiao-zeng, “Sufu Duanfang hufu Xiaozeng zou chen Su sheng xuetang banli qingxing zhe” [Memorial from Governor Duan-fang and Assistant Governor Xiao-zeng of Jiangsu, Reporting on Educational Affairs in the Province], in SJSJ, 644–45.
70 Yuan, “Zou wei sheli Beiyang shifan xuetang yi guang jiaoyu zhe,” in SJSJ, 660.
71 “Sichuan tongsheng shifan xuetang de dansheng,” in SJSJ, 678.
72 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 398–400.
73 Xue bu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 22–24. It is difficult to calculate the number of schools with any precision since some simplified programs belonged to formal teachers’ schools.
74 Luo, “Jiangsu shifan xuetang ji,” in SJSJ, 645.
75 Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan.
76 Xuebu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 22–24.
77 Xue bu, “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 414–28.
78 Xue bu, “Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 400–2.
79 Zhang Baixi et al., “Guanxue dachen yi fu yanxuan shifan biantong xin jinshi rutang yiye pian” [Memorial from the ministers of education in response to the discussion of how to apply rigorous standards to choosing students for teachers’ schools and of the need for flexibility in choosing newly advanced jinshi degree-holders to study in teachers’ schools], in DFZZ, no. 1, 155–56.
80 Xue bu, “Zouding chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 403.
81 Xue bu, “Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 425.
82 “Ticao zhuanxiuke biyesheng” [Graduates of the physical education specialty program], in Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan.
83 Xuebu zongwusi, “Guangxu sanshi si nian gesheng shifan xuetang xuesheng tongjibiao” [1908 statistics of teachers’ schools and students in each province], in Zhongguo jindai xuezhi shiliao [Historical materials on the school system of modern China], 4 vols., comp. Zhu Youhuan, (Shanghai: Huadong shida chubanshe, 1989) (Hereafter cited as ZJXS), vol 2b, 466–67.
84 “Yan’ge lue” [A Brief History of Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers’ College], in Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan.
85 “Ben xiao xianzai xuesheng xingming biao” [List of Enrolled Students at This School], Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan.
86 Thøgersen, A County of Culture, 65.
87 Zheng, “Zhejiang liangji shifan he Di yi shifan xiao shi zhi yao,” in SJSJ, 711.
88 Xue bu, “Zouding xuetang zhangcheng,” in XZYB, 399.
89 Xuebu zongwusi, “Guangxu san shi si nanfen di er ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao” [The Second Compilation of Educational Statistics, 1908], in SJSJ, 620–21.
90 Xuebu zongwusi, “Xuantong yuan nian fen di san ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao” [The Third Compilation of Educational Statistics, 1909], in SJSJ, 624–25.
91 Chauncey, Schoolhouse Politicians, 88–89.
92 See Xiaoping Cong, Teachers’ Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State, 1897–1937 (Vancouver: British Columbia University Press, 2007), chapter 3.
93 See Cong, Teachers’ Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State, 69.
94 Xuebu zongwusi (comp.), Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 25–26. I do not have the statistics for 1909, so I will use 1907 data. This number does not include schools in the capital.
95 Xuebu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 50–51.
96 Xuebu zongwusi (comp.), “Xuantong yuan nianfen di san ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao,” in SJSJ, 624–25.
97 Some influential literati successfully transformed themselves into modern politicians in the local constitutional movement, as is shown by Joseph Esherick, Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hu’nan and Hubei (Berkeley: UC Press, 1976), and Mary Rankin, Elite Activism and Political Transformation in China, Zhejiang Province, 1865–1911 (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1979).
98 Liu Dapeng, Tuixiang zhai riji (Diary from a retreat) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1990), passim. The manuscript of this diary was published in 1990.
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Xiaoping Cong
Xiaoping Cong is a professor of history at the University of Houston. She is the author of Marriage, Law, and Gender in Revolutionary China, 1940–1960 (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Teachers’ Schools and the Making of Modern Chinese Nation-state, 1897–1937 (Toronto: The University of British Columbia Press, 2007).