Studies On Chinese Modern Higher Industrial Education(1840 — 1927)

To study the early development of Chinese higher industrial education, on the basis of Education Modernization Theory and modern System Theory, will give a boost to the research on the history of Chinese education and the basic theory of education, as well as provide some historical reference to the development of higher industrial education in contemporary China.The Opium Wars, especially the second one, together with the Taiping Rebellion, made the Qing Dynasty fall into serious crisis. It was definitely proved that the traditional Chinese artisan industry and education could no more satisfy the material, technology and talent requirements of the Qing Dynasty to cast off the difficulties both inside and outside, while the capitalism industrial production and technological education were booming in the west. At that time some pioneers such as Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and Feng Guifen tried to urge the people to study the western industrial technology. Their voices, as well as the large, destructive fire in the Imperial Garden Yuanmingyuan and the impressive power of new weapons used in repressing the Taiping Rebellion, made the Westernization Group begin to train modern technological personnel for military industry.Many industrial and mining enterprises for army and civilian use were set up from 1860s to 1890s, which made it possible and necessary to establish higher industrial education. With the great efforts of the Westernization Group, the first batch of schools and colleges were successively set up, on the land of ancient China, to impart the western science and technology, and train talents of industrial management and technology. These new educational institutions marked the source and origin of Chinese higher industrial education as well as the beginning of its modernization. Because of the special historical and social condition, in addition to the lack of domestic experience, the new educational experiment of this period in China presented such characteristics as coexistence of advancement and backwardness, as well as the new and old factors.From China had been defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War and the booming of Modernization Movement to the New Deal Period of Late Qing Dynasty, it witnessed an important period that the higher industrial education in China was finally moulded, and extended on a broader scale with a larger number. Meanwhile, Sheng Xuanhuai et al., referring to the American educational system, set up Peiyang University, the first formal technological university in China. It also came into being that conventional colleges were reformed and new-style ones were established all over the country, to spread scientific and technological knowledge. The idea and plan to systemize the modern education also came up. The above mentioned laid the good foundation for the further development of higher industrial education in China. Another thing to be mentioned was the missionary education, firstly emerging during the Opium Wars and becoming matured at this time, also had a significant impact on the further development of higher industrial education in many ways in late Qing Dynasty. Up until the New Deal Period, the Qing Dynasty took a broader approach to educational reform and had a greater impact on its development. Especially the issue of 1904 School System set rules for the higher industrial education to follow, on the crucial problems such as the system, level and courses. It marked the maturity of Chinese modern higher industrial education and since then the institutions were greatly increased in number.The death of the Qing and the birth of the Republic of China provided the institutional support for the free development of the national capitalism industry and commerce, and made possible faster development and modernization of higher industrial education. The bourgeois revolutionaries, with Mr. Sun Yat-sen as the leader, always attached great importance to the growth of industry and commerce, and the cultivation of the talents needed. They stressed the relevance between the education and the social political reforms. However, due to the short of special talents who were skillful at running higher-education schools, during the first years of Republic of China, the higher industrial education reform only showed the changes in the names of institutions and personnel. But the other aspects like hiberarchy, major and course framework remained almost the same as in the late Qing, which lasted until the issue of 1922 School System. In general, these years saw a hard time for the higher industrial education. But even with the long-time serious fund shortage, it kept going on, and made some great progresses, such as the sufficient system modernization, the scale expansion and the quality improvement. In the meantime, some other notable events occurred, such as the engineering as a major opened in some missionary colleges, the transferring of Tsinghua from an preparatory school for Sending Students to America to an independent technological university. All these laid the foundation of the further development of industrial education. Also the pattern was then formed that foreign and domestic powers jointly participated in running higher industrial education school in China.It's concluded that the development of Chinese early modern higher industrial education generally characterized by such factors as internationalization via"westernization", localization based on the traditional culture and education, the unbalance of regional development from beginning to end, as well as the obvious diversity of social effects. During the course of development, the industrial education were gradually matured and modernized, by timely carrying out reforms, training all-round technical personnel, building high-level schools, making bold use of foreign educational resources, and opening majors fit to local conditions. These were all the precious experience left to us. But there were also some thought-provoking lessons: the development seriously obstructed by the backward industrial production and unsteady social situation, the unbalanced development arising from the unreasonable holistic overall arrangement; the severely-restricted efficiency as a result of the official-oriented management system, the absence of leap-forward development due to the neglect of innovation. From the historical experience, it's enlightened that the steady advancement of higher industrial education must be made on the premise of national unity and social stability, its maturity lies on the highly-industrialized level of social production, while its quality improvement comes mainly from the efforts to emancipate the mind and unceasingly deepen the reforms.