The History Textbooks Of Primary And Middle Schools In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Shaping Of Modern National Ideas

Textbook is not only the most important carrier for creating citizens’national idea, but also the powerful tool for the ruling class to carry out their ideology. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China experienced a historical period of transition from the "world state" to the "modern state" and after the previous contacts to the foreign countries, the ruling class gained a preliminary cognition of the world situation and they gradually accepted the idea of "modern state". However, the old idea, behavior of the people who still kept a certain distance from new education became the fundamental constraints for Chinese society of the late Qing Dynasty when it transformed from the "world state" into "modern state". Thus, primary and middle textbooks become an important channel of shaping people’s modern nation concept, due to the character that they have close connection with ideology.The government of the late Qing Dynasty have to use the public power to edit the history textbook because of its lacks of the knowledge of modern education and abilities. Therefore, textbooks become an important platform which is used by elite of class to spread its modern national concept. The primary and middle textbooks shape students’modern national concept by spreading the concept among citizens, dividing national boundaries and inculcating the awareness of national sovereign rights. However, considering their interests, classes, such as the reform faction, the ruling group and the revolutionary class, held different attitudes towards national subjectivity and the relation between the state and individuals and so on, which were presented in history textbooks for primary and secondary school. Such differences ran throughout the entire process of compiling history textbooks for middle and primary schools in late Qing dynasty.In the late Qing Dynasty, China was in a East Asian situation where it was invaded by Western powers, and when it was so weak and in danger. National history textbooks for middle and primary schools kept telling students the concept of the supremacy of nation and weakening the description of the rights of individuals, in order to unite citizens and then save the country. Moreover, the fact that authorities of education in the late Qing Dynasty stressed on the purpose of education:"advocate the warrior" and advocated militarism in history textbooks, was one of the causes of students’preferring to radicalism. Moreover, stimulated by the national crisis, government of the late Qing Dynasty’s misconduct of the concept of "nation" in primary and middle school history textbooks became the catalyst of students’transition to radicalism. The transition from elite education to mass education in the late Qing Dynasty objectively created a student group that was huge and demands of political participation. While the concept differences between "country first" and "nation" in primary and secondary school history textbooks catalyzed by the contemporary situation, have resulted in lower class centering students to gradually tend to radicalism and have sympathy for the revolution, and then had a profound influence on the state route of modern China.