A Study On Children’s Enlightenment Education In Western And Eastern Han Dynasties

Children’s enlightenment education in western and eastern Han Dynasties occupied an important place in the ancient Chinese education history. Rich experience in education practice was accumulated with the gradual improvement of Children’s enlightenment education in the two Han periods. On the basis of the background of the formative education development in these two dynasties, the current thesis elaborately discussed the issues of education types, contents, teachers and students, female education about Children’s enlightenment education in the western and eastern Han Dynasties. Moreover, the effect of formative education in the two Han periods on Han dynasty and later generations was also analyzed deeply.In the current thesis, the development background of Children’s enlightenment education in the two Han periods was explored through the following aspects: Children’s enlightenment education before Han dynasty, flexible educational policies and social heavy demand for talents at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the development of official and private schools, the unity of the written language, and the social ethos of caring for children and the old. The types of Children’s enlightenment education could be analyzed from the aspects of state schools and private schools. The former included royal Children’s enlightenment education and the Gongdi schools, while the latter was composed of three inseparable stages, which were formative education at home, education at Shuguan, and Confucian classics reading. The content of formative education was explored through aspects of basic knowledge, preliminary study of Confucian classics, moral and ethics, a hundred schools of thought, life-skill education, learning time and learning carrier. The author found that with the significant influence of Confucianism, the learning content was comprehensive and great importance was attached to literacy copying, book reading and ethical education. The teacher-student relation was analyzed through the royal formative education, Gongdi schools, family formative education and Shuguan education. It was found that people respected teachers and valued education, and the relationship between teachers and students was good. The female formative education was discussed from two aspects, different classes and education contents. The appearance of women’s admonition and many talented females indicated that female formative education had developed to a certain extent in Han Dynasty.Overall, Children’s enlightenment education in the two Han Dynasties played an important role in not only knowledge popularization, skills continuation, talents cultivation, but also facilitating the Tongzilang system. It promoted the character development in Han Dynasty and the establishment of dictionary compiling style, making contributions to the unity and standardization of Chinese characters, which would not only facilitate the development of the culture in the whole society but also drive the emergence of a variety of Confucian classics sages. Therefore, it played an imnnrtant role in the develonment of Confucian classics...