History of Chinese Education

Chinese education can be traced back to about 2200 B.C. during the ancient Xia Dynasty. It was exclusively an elite privilege during this time. It wasn’t until the advent of Confucianism 1000 years later that education became, in theory, accessible to common people.

The history of Chinese education is closely related to Confucian thought. Confucianism is a philosophy that is based on the teachings of a Chinese sage, philosopher and political advisor that lived from 551 BC – 479 BC. At first Confucianism was not China’s main philosophy and at times it was even persecuted. From the Han Dynasty until early modern times, however, Confucianism was the dominant philosophy in China.

Confucianism teaches that education is the path to self-improvement and that anyone can rise up through study and perseverance. The most famous Confucian text, the Analects, mentions that “In teaching, there should be no distinction between classes.” Starting in the early 600s AD, anyone in ancient China could work their way up in life by passing a series of examinations given by the government. The higher the level of exam one passed, the higher rank one could attain as a government official.

A Confucian education emphasizes basic skills like reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as music, art, poetry and skills like horseback riding and martial arts. Confucian education also focused on creating gentlemanly scholars that would be good moral examples for others and give sound advice to rulers. Students spent years studying and memorizing classic Confucian texts.

At the end of China’s last imperial dynasty in the early 20th century, the Confucian system and imperial examinations were abolished as it was thought that this style of education didn’t encourage scientific advancement. Reformers believed that only Western-style education could allow China to become a powerful country.

In the early 1900s the new Republic of China attempted to instate its own educational program but it was largely failed because of disunity, civil war and the Japanese invasion during World War II. After the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, centralized compulsory primary and secondary education was instated under the Ministry of Education.

In the last 60 years there have been tremendous improvements in education in China. Illiteracy has fallen dramatically and the vast majority of Chinese are able to graduate from secondary school. China ranks high for a developing country of the Human Development Report’s Education Index, with a score of 0.83. The higher education system in China has seen a renewed emphasis on science and technology and the government is seeking to create a number of world-class institutions.