Were there primary schools, middle schools and universities in ancient China?

Were there primary schools, middle schools and universities in ancient China?

China has a long tradition of education. The Xia Dynasty ordered specialized official educational institutions such as Confucian classics, schools and schools. Later, in the Shang Dynasty, learning and school teaching were added. The official schools in Zhou Dynasty generally adopted the school name of Xia and Shang Dynasties, and further improved the education system. The official schools in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties were only for aristocratic children. In addition to official learning, private learning, represented by Confucius, rose in the Spring and Autumn Period due to the weakening of the ruling class and the downward movement of learning.

It changed education from "learning in the official" to "learning in the people" and broke the situation of aristocratic monopoly on education. Confucius' missionary land is not necessarily a school in terms of teaching facilities and teaching system, but it is also a school in terms of its educational concept and content. Regardless of government or private schools, the distinction between "primary school" and "university" in early education is not as strict as it is now, but it still exists.

For example, in the aristocratic schools of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the content of professors is different for students of different ages. For children who have just entered school, there are primary school courses specially designed for them. The specific content is "six arts", that is, "ceremony, music, shooting, imperial, calligraphy and number" Its emphasis is on basic literacy education, moral cultivation, sentiment cultivation and physical exercise; For older children, they begin to receive higher education.

In his private school, Confucius also inherited this teaching system, first teaching the "Six Arts" in the primary school, and then taking the Six Classics as the learning content in the "University" part, in order to expect students to shoulder the heavy responsibility of saving the world by learning Tao. Six Classics: The Book of Songs, the Book of Songs (that is, the Book of Songs), the Book of Rites, and the Book of Changes (that is, the Book of Changes, Jing Yue, and the Spring and Autumn Annals). Later schools inherited this early division method and formed a two-level education system of "learning" and "university".

The names of "Meng Xue" vary from generation to generation. Private schools include "Four Primary Schools", "Inner Primary Schools" and "Mengguan", which are equivalent to the present primary education. After learning, it is "university" education. Generally speaking, the ancient primary school stage refers to students before 13 years old. At this time, the teacher mainly teaches them to read and recite, and after 13 years old, he explains the meaning of the article to the students and teaches them how to write.

For the humanities, this dichotomy between "primary school" and "university" education is very wise. Su Zhe, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, said, "It's wonderful to study hard in the early years and save trouble in the later years.". In addition, although the current "middle school" education was not taken out separately in ancient times, it was not skipped, but was included in the "university" education. In the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up imperial academy in the center, which was a national institution of higher learning, and set up a learning palace in the local area.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, school-running reached its peak in ancient times, and the classification of schools became more and more. What is commendable is that the "academy" established in the Tang Dynasty reached its peak in the Song Dynasty, forming a magnificent "six academies". Sixth Academy: Shigu Academy, Yingtianfu Academy, Yuelu Academy, Bailudong Academy, Songyang Academy and Maoshan Academy. The school forms in Ming and Qing Dynasties were basically inherited from Sui and Tang Dynasties. Among them, it is worth mentioning that local or private schools, that is, private schools, are very common in both urban and rural areas.

In the late Qing Dynasty, with the rise of Westernization Movement and the wave of learning from the West, modern education developed rapidly. 1902, the school has become a new school form, and new schools have gradually become popular. After the Xinzhi Revolution, the then Ministry of Education announced the academic system again and renamed "school" as "school", which has been in use ever since. Therefore, education in China began very early, but it was not until the Republic of China that educational institutions were officially called "schools".