Research On The Education For Children In The Chin And Han Dynasties

The Chin and Han dynasties were the foundation period of children’s education in ancient China.Various signs indicated that the children’s education system at that time had taken shape.Based on the existing research in the academic circles,this paper combines the handed down literature and unearthed materials,and mainly explores the education of children in the Chin and Han dynasties from the three aspects of cultural education,code of conduct and moral education,professional skills and production and life skills education.Children’s cultural learning in the Chin and Han dynasties usually went through two stages of basic cultural knowledge education and advanced cultural knowledge education.The first stage of learning mainly included literacy and numeracy education,but also involved knowledge of time,position and other aspects.The learning in the second stage was different due to changes in cultural and educational policies in various periods.Generally speaking,the children of the Chin dynasty mainly studied the study of laws and regulations,while the children of the Han dynasty focused on the study of Confucian Classics.In addition,there were children who learned the study of Huang Lao,astronomy,and literary.The places where children in the Chin and Han dynasties received cultural knowledge education were mostly in homes and schools.Family education and official school education were limited to upper-middle class children and the teaching scale was small.Private school education was not limited to origin and the teaching scale was relatively large.It played a vital role in the field of children’s cultural education in the Chin and Han dynasties.In contrast,the number and proportion of civilian children who could receive cultural education were significantly lower than those of upper-middle class children in society,but there were also a few civilian children who had a humble background changed their classes through education.In addition,boys in Chin-Han dynasties had much more opportunities to learn cultural knowledge than girls,and there were no restrictions on the place of learning.The place of education for girls was controlled within the family,and women professions must be studied while learning cultural knowledge.The gender differences in the education of children in Chin and Han periods had exacerbated the distinction between men and women as well as the indoor and outdoor,further solidified the Confucianism of the distinction between men and women.The education of children’s code of conduct in Chin-Han period could be divided into two parts,etiquette education and education of behaving oneself and dealing with people.The Implementation of education was influenced by multiple factors such as the historical background,the mainstream values of the times,the life experience and social status of the educator.The connotation of moral education in the Chin and Han dynasties was different.On the whole,the Chin dynasty pursued the morality of legalism while the Han dynasty respected Confucian morality.However,the rulers of the Chin dynasty also emphasized the Confucian ethic ideology of the distinction between noble and common man,the parental love and filial piety,and the differences between men and women.The Han Dynasty took the Confucian ethics as the centralcontent of children’s moral education,which was mainly reflected in the implementation of loyalty and filial piety education and female education.The rulers of the Han Dynasty connected the "filial piety" of the family morality with the "loyalty" of the national political morality,moved "filial piety" as "loyalty",and infiltrated the education of loyalty while educating children about filial piety.The moral education of girls to be effeminacy,obedient and virtuous in the Han dynasty was in the tradition of the Chin dynasty.The moral discipline of girls was continuously deepened and eventually internalized by themselves.Code of conduct education and moral education were inseparable in the field of children education in the Chin and Han dynasties.Educators often infiltrated the moral education in the code of conduct education.There were two ways in the code of conduct education and moral education.The objects of family education were mostly middle-to-upper class children,and the content combined code of conduct and ethics.Social education covered children of all classes,and the content was mainly moral education.Vocational education included official education,medical education,divination education and other aspects.Official education was a special education to train administrative talents in the Chin and Han dynasties.Students received the education in Xueshi(学室),and it usually took three years to study in it.During this period,Xue Er(学佴)served as a teacher and supervisor in Xueshi(学室).School children would receive further education of literacy and arithmetic in Xueshi(学室).Different children would receive different professional education according to the difference of the three majors of"Shi(史)","Bu(卜)",and"Zhu(祝)",and they would take the corresponding position after passing an exam and a period of internship.The official education in the Chin and Han dynasties seemed to have its own emphasis on the content of education.The Chin dynasty emphasized mathematics education,while the Han dynasty payed more attention to the education of literacy.Children who learned vocational skills such as medicine and divination learned skills from elders in family or from teachers,and would also engage in related occupations after they had completed their studies.Most civilian children learned skills that were closely related to daily production and life due to their livelihood needs.This kind of education was mainly passed on to the children by the elders in family,and the children would further master it in practice.However,there were also cases of setting up schools to teach production and life skills.Researching the education of children in the Chin and Han dynasties,we can find that the government had a significant influence in this area,and its main purpose was to train submissive people and select administrative talents.In these two aspects,there were different forms and standards between the Chin dynasty and the Han dynasty,but the educational intentions were generally the same.