Academy And Local Gentry

This paper systematically combs the evolution of Suzhou Ziyang Academy,focuses on the school running charter,teaching contents,funding sources and other issues of the academy,pays attention to the gentry groups related to the academy,including the relationship with principals,students and clans,and then reveals the impact of the academy on local society,and tries to take Ziyang Academy after the school system reform in the late Qing Dynasty as the research center,and discusses the transformation of the academy in the great changes of the late Qing Dynasty.Suzhou Ziyang Academy was founded by Zhang boxing,then governor of Jiangsu Province,in the 52 nd year of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty(1713),and was changed into Jiangsu Two-Level Normal School in the 30 th year of Guangxu(1904),with a total of 191 years.As the most famous official academy in Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty,previous studies focused more on the evolution of the Academy,while the emphasis of the investigation focused on the relevant figures and thoughts of the school from Qianlong to Jiaqing.This paper tries to broaden the research vision,investigate the overall development and evolution process of Ziyang Academy,and pay attention to the gentry groups closely related to the academy.During the Kangxi period,the cultural policy of the Qing government had changed greatly,that is,from autocratic and high-pressure to advocating Confucianism and Taoism.Academy policy as a part of cultural policy,the pace of the two should be consistent.Ziyang Academy was the product of the trend when the academy policy of the Qing government changed.Zhang boxing,the founder of the academy,devoted his educational idea of advocating orthodox knowledge and his political idea of cultivating talents to serve the country to the construction of the academy.Therefore,regulations,teaching contents and funding sources of Ziyang Academy in the early stage of its establishment were controlled by the government.During the period from Qianlong to Daoguang,the management system of Ziyang Academy was gradually improved.This process was accompanied by the government’s gradual deepening of the control of national academies,involving the employment of principals,the selection of students,the content of teaching and so on.Chen Hongmou and Tao Shu refined the regulations of Ziyang Academy.The academy is funded by interest earned from the government’s customs duties.The development of Ziyang Academy in this period also reached the peak of history,bringing together many local celebrities.During the period from Tongzhi to Guangxu,Ziyang Academy,which suffered from war,was rebuilt on its original site.After completion,the teaching contents and funding sources have not been changed,but the land property is paid to the Binxing Bureau of official supervision and gentry manager for rent collection.At the same time,local gentry and clans began to participate in the management of college affairs.This is an important reason why Ziyang Academy can continue to exist in the changing era.In the late Qing Dynasty,the Qing government implemented the school system reform.In this wave,Ziyang Academy did not keep up with the pace of the times,which made the Jiangsu Two-Level Normal School,which was established later,lose its leading position in Suzhou education,and the problem of students has always plagued the development of the school.In the tide of studying abroad in the late Qing Dynasty,the children of Suzhou clan groups went abroad to study,which made the school lose the support of local clan groups and failed to attract more students to study here.Most of those who finally entered the school were old intellectuals,which could not save the decline of the school.After the revolution of 1911,Jiangsu Two-Level Normal School was immediately changed to Jiangsu First Normal School,and Ziyang Academy also came to its final end.The gentry related to the academy are mainly divided into two categories:principals and students.In terms of principals,before Xianfeng,principals of Ziyang academy attracted many excellent students with its own reputation.The academy has a great reputation in the south of the Yangtze River.After Tongzhi,principals began to participate in the affairs management of the academy.In terms of students,the academy educated famous scholars such as Wang Mingsheng and Wang Chang during the period from Qianlong to Jiaqing,which can be called the prosperity of humanities.In the middle of the development of the dynasty,the social contradictions were acute,and the roles played by the students of the academy in the local society were often two-sided.In the period from Tongzhi to Guangxu,the academy educated a group of gentry with local influence.But the local influence is often not created by the individual gentry.In order to safeguard their cultural power in the local areas,the clans behind the gentry actively arranged the enrollment of their children and relatives,and built corresponding interpersonal networks within the academy and local public organizations.The gentry also influenced the academy and local society together with the clan.In the education movement of the late Qing Dynasty,the gentry made full use of their public institutions and clan background in the field of local academic affairs,which could be implemented in a specific level.The old teaching methods adopted by the gentry did not match the new education,which might be another aspect of the educational reform of the late Qing Dynasty.