A Study Of The Education Commissioner Of Jiaqing Period In The Qing Dynasty

Education commissioner is the chief executive appointed to manage the education of a province in the Qing Dynasty.They play an important role in promoting education and strengthening local control.Since the Yongzheng dynasty,the scope of their authority is the further expanded,and they are given the right to submit secret memorials to the emperor directly.Specifically,they can report the situation of local government and people's livelihood directly.They also have the right to impeach the civil and military governors.Therefore,they become an important force for the Qing court to circumscribe the civil and military governors and strengthen local control.There were 151 education commissioners in the Jiaqing dynasty.During the term of office,most of them fulfilled their responsibilities seriously,attached much significance to education,and they could adjust the questions related to the imperial examinations and education according to the changes of local condition flexibly.In detail,some played an important role in resolving local student quota disputes,some paid attention to prevent the disadvantages in imperial examinations,and some focused on restraining and educating students.Beside valuing education,they also paid attention to politics.Confronted with the increasingly serious social crisis,education commissioners of the Jiaqing dynasty developed a strong sense of mission and responsibility.In particular,they attached great importance to the cultivation of talents,and persuaded scholars to learn the Confucian classics,believing the Confucian classics could save the world.Also,they were devoted to practical research and created a number of practical works which combined academic research with practical issues.At the same time,they made full use of the secret memorial right,reflected local problems actively which involved many aspects including politics,economic,military and people's livelihood,and proposed corresponding suggestions,such as the Bailian Uprising and the change of Lin Qing(Tianli Peasant Rebellion in the 18 th Century).Latterly,many education commissioners of the Jiaqing dynasty entered the power center during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods.However,due to a long period of peace,discipline became lax,the tone of government became decadent,many education commissioners kept diehard conservative attitudes,and they were happy with the status quo.Therefore,as the main decision makers,they inevitably brought negative effects to the politics in Jiaqing and Daoguang periods.The paper takes the education commissioner group of Jiaqing dynasty as research object to study the general situation of the education commissioner group and the interaction between education commissioner and society.Through the discussion of the Jiaqing dynasty education commissioner group's performance and behavior,we hope we can enrich the study of the QingDynasty education commissioner and the system,meanwhile we wish we can promote the multi-angle and comprehensive understanding of the history of the Jiaqing and Daoguang dynasties.