Modern chinese school: traditions and foreign influence

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Modern chinese school: traditions and foreign influence

Li Ji Hua

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development of the educational thought and the secondary education in China during the XIX - beginning of the XXI century. In the article, it is noted that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, China was characterized by its extreme isolation and strong resistance to any foreign influence. Confucianism had a considerable impact not only on public administration, but also on education in China and its norms of behavior whereas value orientations were accepted and turned into a symbol of “genuine Chinese.” Therefore, regardless of age and education, every Chinese person had to become a Confucian.

The First Opium War (1839-1842) demonstrated the cultural and economic backwardness of China and stimulated the development of the education system, the emergence of educational institutions of the European type, the implementation of the class-lesson system. At the beginning of the twentieth century, an idea of pragmatism and free pedagogy had a considerable impact on Chinese schools and pedagogy.

Since the second half of the twentieth century till contemporary times, various foreign educational ideas and concepts were actively studied, summarized and adapted in China. The pedagogical views of V. Sukhomlynsky, the Ukrainian teacher, were especially popular in this country.

Keywords: education of China, Confucianism, traditional school, pragmatism, VSuk- homlynskyi

Likewise the other countries of the East, China was being characterized by its isolation and strong resistance to any foreign influence for many centuries. Even at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the content, the methods and the organization of teaching in Chinese schools were the same as two thousand years before. Therefore, taking into consideration the peculiarities of the modern information society, its mutually enriching impact on all sectors of human activity, we find it important to follow the evolution of the education system in China from the aspect of the impact of European, American and Japanese schools and pedagogy on it.

The analysis of the literature that covers the development of school education and pedagogical thought of China (N.E. Borevskaya, L.S. Borovkova, V.B. Burov, V.N. Krivtsov, S.L. Tikhviniskiy, V.Z. Klepikov, I.A. Andreev, Guo Jia Qi, Chen Yuan Hui, Zhou Han Guang, Li Mao Zhuy, Men Sien Zheng, and others) demonstrates both the topicality of the abovementioned problems and the lack of researches on it.

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the impact of the global educational thought on modern Chinese school and pedagogy.

A considerable impact on the formation and the development of Chinese schools was made by Kung Zi (551 - 479 B.C.), a philosopher, known in Europe under the name of Confucius. He summarized the existing learning experience in China and founded the ethical and political doctrine, which had been the basis of education and training till the beginning of the twentieth century. In his doctrine, the main emphasize was put on ethics, morality, moral nature of a man, and the governance principles.

Confucius developed a whole system of moral and ethical norms of human behavior: the veneration of ancestors, especially parents; humanity, and, mainly, the love for relatives; respect for elders and their subordinate; the search for the inner perfection. Since the era of Han (III c. B.C. - III century A.D.), Confucians not only controlled the state and the society, but also cared about the standards of behavior, the values that have become generally accepted and turned to be a symbol of “a genuine Chinese.” In fact, it has led to the fact that every Chinese person, regardless of birth and upbringing, mainly, had to become a Confucian. The success of the Confucian ideology was determined by two circumstances. Firstly, this doctrine was mostly based on ancient traditions, the common standards of ethics and worship which were so much close for the mind of the Chinese who had been grown up in the patriarchal clan. The second important prerequisite that made a contribution to its successful development and distribution was the fact that Confucians have paid much attention to the processing and the interpretation of ancient writings, which were used by them in the course of training and education of future generations. Confucius spent a lot of time and made much effort for the collection and editing of the oldest collections of poems, stories and historical chronicles. Furthermore, he not only collected all the most important, necessary, and typical issues, but also enhanced the edifying effects by editing. Confucian education system was not experiencing any changes for many centuries as the dynasties changed, the economics developed, and the school remained the same. The stability of the Confucian tradition in all spheres of life in China was determined, mainly, by the slow evolution. However, we should not forget that most standards and traditions had survived until the twentieth century, first of all, by means of “a suitable correspondence of Confucius' ideas to the characteristics and the peculiarities of the historical destinies of the Chinese people and their national character^' [1, p.95].

The prolonged dominance of archaic foundations in society led to the fact that by the beginning of the nineteenth century, China had got an abundance of problems in the education area. In the country, the traditional system of classical education, which had developed many centuries before dominated. Formally, at school all males had an opportunity to study (girls were educated at home only), but in practice only very wealthy parents were able to pay for 10-12-year course of study. School education was formal and was mostly limited by the overlearning of the texts in Confucian books. The long-term study of a complex hieroglyphic writing and the texts of ancient books was an end in itself rather than a way of obtaining new pieces of knowledge. Besides arithmetic, the subjects of the non-humanitarian cycle have not been studied. Bringing up in the spirit of Confucian morality was the most significant. The main task was to prepare for the school exams to provide the staff for the bureaucratic positions.

The archaism of the traditional education system appeared to be clear when China entered into a relationship with the developed countries of Europe. Even the First Opium War (1839-1842) demonstrated the cultural and the economic backward-ness of China. Attracting foreign capital has led to the penetration of many ideas and stimulated the development of the education system. In China, the institutions of the European type appeared; they either belonged to foreign missionaries or were founded by the Chinese government. Initially, the main component of the curriculum of the schools of the European type was foreign languages; gradually, teaching of natural and exact sciences was introduced, and the class and lesson system began to be used.

The first school of the European type “Tunven guan” was founded in 1862. V. Klepikov, the famous Russian explorer of China, dates the creation of modern Chinese education system in 1862 [2, p.107]. After China's defeat in the war with Japan (1894-1895), the reform movement became widespread in the society. Kang Yuwei (1858-1927) and Liang Gypsies (1873-1929), its leaders, attempted to reform the education model by the example of the developed countries in 1898. They opposed the feudal school a set of ideas of the “Western” or “new” education. The first schools of college type appeared. In accordance with the statistics of 1917, 4% of students learned in primary schools; 11% of them studied at secondary schools, and 80% of them were the students of the high schools [6, p.50].

The reformers strictly delimited the natural sciences (west) and the socio-political (national) cycles in the educational process. The slogan of the reforms of those years can be described as “national sciences are the basis; Western ones are the benefit”. They stressed on the need for young people to explore the spiritual life of the West. Therefore, in his college “The Room of Thousands of Plants”, Kang Yuwei introduced the school discipline that were unknown for the Chinese school; they were called “Western Europe humanities” [6, p.55]. Liang Qi Chao considered it necessary to assure the in-depth specialization at the secondary schools, namely, educational, medical, political, technical kinds of it. However, the activity of the reformers had a little influence on the school education nationwide.

Therefore, the first stage in the development of modern education in China failed (since 1862). In accordance with the periodization by V Klepikov, the second stage covers the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1902-1903, a series of decrees to replace the system of state exams, liquidate the old system of education and introduce the new one called “Guymao” which was based on the principles borrowed from the Japanese was published. The generality of the state ideology of two countries, namely, Confucianism and authoritarianism of the Japanese model promoted the successful and the effortless implementation of not only the structure of the Japanese school, but also the content of education in China. As in Japan, primary education was to be universal and include the children of all strata of the population, regardless of their gender. The education was commercial, and due to the duration of studying, it was almost inaccessible for the poor population.

After the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republican system, the theoretical framework for the “new education” and the practical activities for its implementation was created. Cai Yuanpey, a teacher-reformer, appealed to overcome the practical separation of the school from reality, to make it more modern, and to connect it to the science. He suggested introducing the European system of education aimed at the all-round development of a personality which includes military, industrial, aesthetic and moral education except for general education. The teacher believed that only the rejection from the traditional Confucian way of upbringing could make the Chinese school free from scholasticism and dogmatism. At the initiative of Cai Yuanpeya in 1912, China reformed education; as a result, a new school system “Zhenizy” was introduced. Cai Yuanpey made exceptions to the curriculum of Confucian texts, instead of them, he offered the aesthetic education, and civics studies that were designed to make students get acquainted with the legal, the political and the economic state of a citizen in a civil society.

In spite of the measures made by the Republican government aimed at the introduction of the compulsory, free of charge, 4-year education, the vast majority of the population was illiterate. The liberal-minded intellectuals sought ways to ensure the universality and the accessibility of education, upbringing of the youth and preparation them for life. In China, P. Monroe, M. Twist, E. Parkhurst, J. Dewey, the well-known American and European teachers were invited. Consequently, in 1919, J. Dewey delivered a series of lectures about the pedagogy of pragmatism that met the needs of the Chinese young bourgeoisie and coincided with the searches of the reformers who were trying to make education true-to-life for more than half a century. In accordance with M. Bastide, the famous French sinologist, this tendency in pedagogy remained in China because of the reason that “pragmatism was a strong trend in the Chinese tradition of life” [3, p.129].

An ardent supporter of pragmatism in China and its promoter was Hu Shi, the philosopher and literary critic, who was supported by Zhu Jiang and Menmen Tszinnun, the senior officials of the Ministry of Education. Tao Xing- zhi, Haotsin Chen, Yan Yanchu, the teachers-practitioners, introduced the ideas of pragmatic pedagogy in real life, created experimental schools, and managed the activities of such schools of a new type as “Professional Training Society” and “Education Society Improvement” [4, p.427].

The concept of “democratic education” by Yan Yanchu was popular in the 20-s; it was based on the idea of J. Dewey to create a new public school that would provide knowledge for the general public. However, Yan Yanchu considered that the requests of the people had been not intellectual but banausic. He believed that the masses should be given a minimum of knowledge for their practical work. For the purpose of the introduction of his theory in practice, he recommended the delivery of lectures for people and teaching them literacy.

The influence on the development of the educational thought was made by the ideas of “living education” by Chen Haotsin. The teacher advocated the development of the students' initiatives aimed at growing up “modern Chinese who had business skills and were speaking English” [ibid, p.14]. The theory was based on the principle of the students' self-activity, and the training included the practical material about nature and society. Tao Xingzhi's doctrine of “life education” was based on the theory of J. Dewey who had notified that “school is an organized environment and the life itself.” Consequently, if the school was the model of the society, the most important thing in it was work. Although this concept made a special emphasis on the link between education and life, its one-sided approach led to the neglect of scientific knowledge [ibid, p.67].

Society that favored the education organization published some simplified educational books for teaching workers and peasants, took part in the development of the new education reform in accordance with the American model. The new education system considerably copied not only the structure of an American school, but also the academic program. The prominent role in the theory and practice of Chinese schools was played by Dalton Plan, Vinetka plan, project method, Herbert teaching method, and the monitoring system.

Baochen Fu, a famous Chinese education theorist, disputed against the implicit and the unreasoned use of the American educational experience. He notified the transformation of a rural school into the agricultural one as well as “the restriction of its tasks and functions” [ibid, р.265]. The pragmatic principle of “the activity-based learning” was widely put into practice at the Chinese school. Under the influence of pragmatic pedagogy, the tradition of Chinese education, which “appreciated the people's interests, but neglected the interests of the individual” started retreating [ibid, p.115]. Most attention was paid to such disciplines as physics, chemistry, natural science which had been little respected before.

In this period, the works of pedagogues-Marxists aimed at democratizing education became of special importance. Thus, Li Dazhao (1888 - 1927) and Yang Jiang Sen (1895 - 1931) sharply criticized the country's common position that coincided with the concept that education was beyond politics; they connected the problem of people's education with the struggle for the democratization of the society. In the works of Jiang Yan Sen that date back to late 20-ies entitled as “The ABCs of the History of Education” and “A New Program of Education”, the achievements of the Soviet school and the main provisions of the Soviet pedagogy were propagandized; furthermore, there was an appeal to fight for the guaranteed right of all citizens for education, universal free education for children aged from 8 to 17 years, the foundation of the unified education system and the network of the cultural and educational institutions [6, p.19]. In the article The Cyhallenges of the Education of Workers [5, р.89-90], Li Dazhao introduced the idea of the need for the broad education of the public.

Before 1949, a variety of pedagogical tendencies had exited in China as the development of a pedagogical thought was very contradictory. On the one hand, the traditional Chinese pedagogy (based on Confucianism) did not tend to disappear; on the other hand, the ideas of J.-J. Rousseau and Tolstoy, German pedagogy (in China, its agitprop was Tsai Yuanpey) became popular, and then American pragmatism implemented after the First World War was the most widespread. In accordance with pragmatic pedagogy, that was actively advocated by American educators who were visiting the country to lecture numerous times in the 20's in China there were several trends: “democratic education” (Yan Yanchu), “living education” (Chen Haotsin) and “the education of life “(Tao Xingzhi). After the proclamation on September 21, 1949, China started an intensive introduction to the Soviet pedagogy, and the opportunity to use the experience that had been extremely relevant and useful for the country with the feudal hang-over for decades. At schools, the textbooks which had been translated in the Chinese language, were extensively used, and the curricula as well as the programs were adapted to the Chinese educational situation. In our view, the judicious use of this experience in future had a positive impact on the development of Chinese schools and pedagogy in the next years.

However, the realistic trends in public education did not exist for a long period of time. The eradication of illiteracy could be achieved only by a set of social, economic and cultural activities. At the back of the high enrollment education rate, the immense gap between regions, urban and rural areas remained not to be overcome. In order to reduce the education intensity for students and the development of their initiatives, to cope with such remnants of the pre-revolutionary Chinese school as scholasticism of training, programs complexity, cramming as the main method of learning, Mao Zedong proposed to put such principle of pragmatic learning of J. Dewey, the pedagogue, as progressivism in the basis of studying. He offered to abandon a classroom as the main form of the learning process, to introduce the “exams with open books” at all schools, during which students could consult with each other, cheat the solutions of the tasks. In our opinion, the main objective of the examination system reform of this period was an attempt to hide the rapidly declining level of education in the majority of schools, especially in rural areas. In the next ten years, from May 1966 to October 1976, the implemented “cultural revolution” caused a serious damage to the state and the people. The complete isolation and the rejection of not only the world teaching experience but also the expertise that had been being gathered for centuries by the traditional Chinese pedagogy, voluntarism in the management of the education system tied up the Chinese school in knots. It is difficult to overestimate the harm inflicted on people and our nation by a 10-year “cultural revolution”, which made it impossible to get a proper education by a whole generation of the Chinese youth. This chaos was a real disaster for the education system in China.

After Mao's death and Deng Xiaoping' death, all aspects of life in China began to experience modernization; one of its components was the education system reform. With the help of the new economic policy, the psychology of people gradually began to change: there was the desire for a better life, the expression of their individuality. It was becoming increasingly clear that the interests of the individual were not necessarily inconsistent with the state and the collective interest. A considerable attention was paid at the enforcement of pedagogical laws and the assurance of the scientific basis for education. The work on the study of international experience in teaching became more active and systematic. In 1979, the inter-university center for the study of international teaching experience was re-established.

In the late 80s after a long break, an interest in the use of the experience of Soviet pedagogy to address a number of pressing educational problems in China, especially the all-round education and the early personal development has revived. The works of V. Sukhomlynskyi and S. Amonashvili were studied, the interest in K.Ushinskyi was intensified.

Unlike the traditional Chinese pedagogy, which examines the ethical, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor education as the relatively independent trends, V. Sukhomlynskyi specified their interrelation and interdependence. Such integral approach had a significant impact on the development of the theory and the practice of education at the secondary school of China. For China, where the emotional development of students has traditionally been ignored, the emotional learning theory was valuable, and the presence of the emotional background training as a guarantee of its effectiveness appeared to be compulsory. The ideas of the Ukrainian pedagogue on the interrelations between education and nature, labor education and the preparation for life in society, the education of troubled teenagers, etc. became more than popular.

However, the cultural traditions were lying in the basis of the process of Chinese youth upbringing for thousands of years. Many Chinese leaders as well as the leaders of other countries of Confucian civilization could agree with the words of Zhang Chzhituna: “National Sciences are the basis; Western sciences are the benefit. The first ones treat souls; the latter are necessary for the cognition of the world” [7, p.95]. We consider that this approach, which is expressed in the conjunction of teachings of the prominent Soviet educators which cover the all-round development and the traditional Confucian pedagogy is more than effective. In Chinese schools there are no drugs and teenage pregnancy; moreover, they are peculiar for the high attendance, cooperation and solidarity between teachers and students as well as the students themselves. The negative evidence of traditional education is the lack of such Chinese graduates' essential qualities of the modern citizens as initiative and creativity.

Conclusions. Therefore, the Chinese traditional system of education successfully overcomes the difficulties of a complex transition period which was peculiar for the Chinese people a few years ago by means of the successful implementation of the humanistic ideas of the world pedagogy including the ideas of V.Sukhomlynskyi, “Take someone's thing, without losing yours one”; these are the words that are characterizing the policy of the Chinese government in the education area.

education humanistic pedagogy china

References

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2. Klepikov V.Z. Deng Xiaoping and Education Reforms in China // Pedagogy. - 1999. - № 4. - P.95 - 107.

3. Borevskiy N.E. On the Perception of the Ideas of the Worldwide Pedagogy in China // Pedagogy. - 1991. - № 9. - P. 120 - 131.

4. Mao Li Rui. General History of Education in China. - Shandong teacher Publishing house, 1989. - 232 p.

5. The Great Encyclopedia of Education (Ed. Zhong Jing-Nun. - Shanghai, 1930. - 460 p.

6. Antipova A.A., Borevskiy N.E. The Policy in the Field of Science and Education in China (1949-1980). - Moscow: Nauka, 1980. - 287 p.

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