Cultural or Political? Origin and Development of Educational Policy of the Tibetan Neidi Education in China

Abstract:

In order to cultivate talents and speed up development in Tibet, Tibetan Neidi¹ Classes/Schools were established in other parts of China from the mid-1980s with the approval and support of the Chinese central government. The authors provide details about the 20-year existence of the Neidi Classes/Schools, including student recruitment, teaching staff, and curriculum. They also trace the origins of this educational policy and argue that its roots go back to the Tang Dynasty and can also be found during the Republican period. Finally, the authors analyze the central governments’ methods in dealing with the relationship among ethnic groups, asserting that the methods have shifted between “culturalization” and “politicization.”

Notes

“Neidi” refers to inland and coastal regions of China, as opposed to frontier and border regions such as Tibet. In this paper, “Tibetan Neidi school (class)” indicates a school or class built in an inland or coastal region for students from the Tibet Autonomous Region. The author distinguishes between “school” and “class” in the following way: “School” refers to an entire campus established exclusively for Tibetan students in the Neidi; “class” refers to a program established for Tibetan students in an existing Han Chinese school in the Neidi.

See Liu Xu (who lived in Hou Jin Dynasty), History of Tang Dynasty: On Tibet (Chapter 146). Retrieved from www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/oldtangsu/jts_207.htm.

Tai School was established in Western Han Dynasty (260BC to 24AD), aiming to cultivate talents for the ruling group and moralize people. It was stipulated only children of very high-status officials serving in the centralized government could get access to this education.

Guo Zi School refers to schools for the children of the emperor and its relatives. It was established in Western Jin Dynasty (265–316).

Around 1900 in China, many reformists became active in politics, one of which was Wu-Xu Legislature reform. Wu-Xu refers to the year of 1898 as expressed in the traditional Chinese calendar. Among the reform package, attempts were made to change the educational system. For example, it set up “Jinshi Daxuetang,” which is the embryo of today’s Peking University. The reform also suggested abandoning the traditional examination system, adding political and economic studies into the curriculum, and setting up professional schools in the field of law, finance and diplomacy. The reform is famous for its transience. It remained effective for only around 100 days. Almost all the contents of that reform were abandoned. Nevertheless, the Qing government preserved “Jinshi Daxuetang.”.

The Court of Colonial Affairs (Li-fan yuan) dealt with the powerful peoples to China’s north and west: Mongols, Tibetans, Hui, and Turkic peoples. The hereditary elite of these were integrated into the imperial system through the granting of court titles consonant with their ranks in their respective groups. In Tibet the temporal as well as the spiritual rule of the Dalai Lama was recognized. The Court of Colonial Affairs was responsible for relations with these peoples, including the translation of documents, the solution of disputes regarding succession to titles, and the presentation of tribute. It also directed the activities of such officials as the Amban, stationed in such areas as Tibet, Mongolia, and Sinkiang to ensure the keeping of peace.

Tu’si and head belong to the native official system, dealing with the smaller and in general more primitive groups of the south and southwest in the Qing Dynasty. Under the Tu’si system, leaders of these groups were absorbed into the government hierarchy on its lower levels. They were given ordinary official titles save that they were preceded by the character “tu,” meaning “native” or “earth.”.

Resident Amban referred to the officials who were dispatched to Tibet to represent the central government in Qing Dynasty.

The Court of Colonial Affairs (Li-fan yuan) in Qing Dynasty was changed to the Department of Mongolian-Tibetan (Meng zang shiwu ju) under the supervision of the State Council in 1912. Later it was named as The Court of Mongolia-Tibet (Mengzang yuan) in 1914. After the capital of the Republic of China moved to Nanjing in 1927, the Committee of Mongolia and Tibet (Mengzang weiyuanhui) was established to administer the affairs in Mongolia and Tibet (see http://info.tibet.cn/newzt/rsxzzt/tyy/t20050217_14333.htm). Additionally, in 1923, Educational Committee for Mongolian-Tibetan was built up under the Ministry of Education.

Huaxia has been in use for more than 2,000 years. It means glorious. The Chinese people living along the Yellow River before the Christian era were proud of their achievements. They called themselves Huaxia, to distinguish them from less developed minorities. They traced their origin to the two tribal leaders Yandi and Huangdi, who forged the first federation of tribes in the third millennium B.C.

Central Plains covers the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, including most of Henan, western Shandong, and southern Hebei and Shanxi provinces.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhu Zhiyong

Zhu Zhiyong is a professor in the College of Educational Administration in the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University.

Deng Meng

Deng Meng is professor in the Institute of Special Education in the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University.