Liang Qichao Thought Elementary Education

Since the beginning of First Opium War, Chinese people lived in a condition fullof being humiliated. At that time, it is a strong willing for Chinese people to live in anindependent, prosperous and peaceful life. Qichao Liang is a representative of China’sreformers who lived in that period of China. He is not only a famous political activistbut also a well-known enlightenment thinker and educationist, and did outstandingcontribution to the development of China’s education modernization. This paperestablished a project according to the relationship between the formation of QichaoLiang’s education thought and Yukichi Fukuzawa’s enlightenment thought.First, I did a initial study on modern education between China and Japan in theperiod from mid-19thcentury to early20thcentury. Then, I divided Liang’s educationthought into two periods basing on the critical point that Liang escaped to Japan. Thecharacteristic of the former period was holding the centre of talent breeding to carryout the Hundred Days’ Reform. But with the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform,Liang had a clearly understanding that only raising the whole national’s quality canChina be rich, strong and prosperous. So, he did series of efforts on educationalobjective, educational system, detail and practice.Besides, Yukichi Fukuzawa was mentioned many times in Liang’s writings, andLiang gave full affirmation and praise to Fukuzawa’s outstanding achievement. Inother word, Fukuzawa had a deeply influence to Liang. Such as principles ofindependence, pragmatic learning thought and civilization thought.In conclusion, civil educational thought which Qichao Liang proposed hadepoch-making meaning at that period, and it affected many celebrities such asZedong Mao, Meruo Guo and so on. Qichao Liang did groundbreaking contributionto the development of China’s modern education.