A Study Of Educational Documents In The Yuan Dynasty

In ancient China,different dynasties had produced a large number of documents about the theme of"education".This kind of documents truly existed,which was the close combination of the content of education and the form of the document,called"educational documents".The Yuan Dynasty’s educational documents were all kinds of documents produced around the education of the Yuan Dynasty.Compared with the plentiful study of the Yuan Dynasty,the study of the Yuan Dynasty’s educational documents is very weak,which brings great challenges to my study.Study on educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty must be based on the overall social condition of the Yuan Dynasty.Finding out historical documents and materials at that time and taking other closely related theories as a reference,I fix the starting point and supporting points of the research and then organize my thesis。Although the Mongolian was a minority,which was backward in cultural development,the Mongolian conquered the Southern Song Dynasty and established a multi-ethnic group country,which was the first time in our ancient history.It was the only way for Mongolian to turn military conquest to establishment of the governing system adapted to the historical and social conditions of the ancient China.The rulers of Mongolia adopted an acceptable attitude towards many kinds of beliefs and cultures formed by multi-ethnic groups,but at the same time they showed special tendencies and preferences for different ethnic groups and cultures.Due to the wars against Mongolian opponents,the disparity of North and South,the level of different ethnic civilizations,and the cultural preferences of the Mongol,the development of education in Yuan dynasty was unbalanced.The Mongol ruler would face many problems and challenges,such as how to solve the problem of unbalanced development of education,how to construct a relatively complete Mongolian education system,how to treat and deal with the huge number of Confucian intellectuals and so on.Researching the educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty,we must grasp the overall situation of these documents.First of all,we should do statistics,analysis,screening and sorting to make the list of educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty.After a careful reading of the text of these educational documents,nine forms of Yuan educational documents would be showed,such as imperial edicts,another form of imperial edicts,Zouyi,Ziwen,Zhafu and so on.These forms’ regulations of creation and scope of application would be analyzed to summarize their changes of character in language,appearance,formula and content.My thesis on educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty doesn’t stay in static text analysis,but focuses on their"process"and"path".According to the governing system,the regional construction,the structural establishment,the post stations and the task of reading imperial edicts publicly,the basic transmission route will be designed for publicly reading imperial edicts.Publicly reading imperial edicts is a sign of legal procedure of educational legislations going into effect,which can make the legislations spread widely under the ancient limited conditions and let the whole society know the Mongolian education policy,creating social condition for the implementation of education policy of the Yuan Dynasty.There are many related education institutions in the Yuan Dynasty.Understanding the direction of educational document transmission,the specific education institutions involved,the related forms of educational documents and the basic laws of sending、receiving and dealing with educational documents,you will find that educational document transmission of the Yuan Dynasty can be divided into three systems,including education integrated system,education special system and education supervision system.These three systems are respectively different among different school types.By comparison,their connection and distinction will be analyzed to display the change of education power of three systems.The implementation of educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty began with the release of education regulations.These education regulations are the educational programmatic documents of the Yuan Dynasty and also the highest guide to the administration of educational documents in the Yuan Dynasty.The key to the implementation of educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty is to turn the overall requirements and the basic spirit of education edicts into detailed rules and regulations,which are operable for all schools.We follow the keyword "Zhun",which is a sign in ancient official documents,where the detailed rules and regulations operable for all schools appear,and analyze and study both the central and local detailed rules and regulations by education related institutions.In the Yuan Dynasty,education symbols have been reconsidered and formally established,promoting the development of education,especially Confucian-learning education and then forming the harmony of temple and school.Fundamental policies,including respecting teachers and their teaching,building schools and their temples and believing Confucianism and knowledge,have been coming.Besides the regulation of the imperial examination,there are six kinds examination regulations in the Yuan Dynasty about hukousystem examination、official system examination、school examination system、national examination、qualification test,and hereditary official position test.In combination with the enrollment standards and careers of graduates,the actual value of the Yuan Dynasty examination regulations is discussed.These examination regulations adapt to the needs of the diverse reality of the Yuan Dynasty,offer the standards and laws of the distinction among the various talents,and bring more possibilities for personal developments,changing the traditional lead situation of the imperial examination,firstly putting the professional qualification test,assessment and identification into national education examination,and promoting the educational development and cultural exchange of the Yuan Dynasty.The actual development of the three educational elements in the Yuan Dynasty was the reflection of the implementation effect of educational documents.Through statistics of the special situations of Jixianyuan and Hanlin academy in educational documents of the Yuan Dynasty,it was found that these three education institutions were not special national educational institutions,but cultural institutions with the nature of confidential secretary institutions.They could give the advice according to the existed practice and laws not the final decision.In the Yuan Dynasty,there were numerous and various official teachers with the given requirements of morality,ability and identity.If one wanted to be an official teacher,he must pass through the process of being recommended,confirmed,guaranteed,tested,and appointed and then going to his post.Large flexible space existed in the progress of official teacher selection of the Yuan Dynasty,and even some sections of the selection became formalistic,leading to the large gap between the ideal and reality of official teacher selection standard.Educational funds are the material guarantee for the development of education,and also the key factor for the success or failure of the school.The sources of educational funds in the Yuan Dynasty were made up of three ways:government appropriation,private sponsorship and school self-support.The management right of the educational funds was controlled by local officials instead of schools in the Yuan Dynasty.The government of the Yuan Dynasty made the strict system of educational funds to supervise and standardize the use of educational funds,unfortunately which increased the difficulty of the use of funds for schools,and provide convenience for the local officials to misuse the funds.The education funds were paid up beyond the required items,resulting in the terrible wastage and low utilization rate of the educational funds in the Yuan Dynasty.The effectiveness of the Yuan Dynasty’s educational documents was the practical ability of the Yuan Dynasty’s educational documents to achieve the goal of educational documents under the historical and cultural background of the Yuan Dynasty.There were seven factors affecting the effectiveness of educational documents in the Yuan Dynasty,including the time length of dealing with educational events,the complexity of the delivery of educational documents,achievements of the Yuan Dynasty’s education,the implementation capacity of local officials,the social environmental atmosphere,the power of the special educational institutions and the external supervision.The Yuan Dynasty’s educational documents promoted,consolidated and established the national status of New-Confucianism,and meanwhile changed and influenced identity,voice and presence.There is a close relationship between the Yuan Dynasty’s educational documents and its cultural changes.On this account,let me rethink the "acculturation" in the Yuan Dynasty.The Mongol rulers attached importance to the practicality of knowledge and ignored the spiritual core of knowledge,especially no Understanding and implementing of the "Dao" of Confucian culture,which is a top-down cultural and political order with the Emperor as an all-powerful ruler.As a result,Confucians were kept out of national political power and cultural integration went on under such situation,where Mongolian was treated as the fundamental structure.Due to Mongol Empire’s innate nature,the failure of the Yuan Dynasty "acculturation" is inevitable.