CHINA
=Literature.=--_Martin_, The Chinese; _Clarke_, Ten Great Religions;
_Houghton_, Women of the Orient; _Doolittle_, Social Life of the
Chinese; _Johonnot_, Geographical Reader; _Lord_, Beacon Lights of
History; _Ballou_, Due West and Footprints of Travel; _Ploetz_, Epitome
of Universal History; _Barnes_, Studies in Education; _Stoddard's_
Lectures; _Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu_, The Awakening of the East; _McClure's
Magazine_, December, 1900, A Character Study of the Chinaman.
The civilization of the "Celestial Empire" is, with the possible
exception of that of Egypt, the oldest in the world. And yet, it has
contributed but little to the advancement of mankind. Their system of
education has failed to stimulate national and individual progress, has
fostered narrow egotism, and has excluded external suggestion. It is
studied rather for its negative lessons, and therefore suggests
practices which the student of education will do well to avoid. The
result in China furnishes the best argument against a method of
instruction that appeals solely to the memory. This alone is sufficient
reason for a study of Chinese education, aside from its strange and
unique characteristics which never fail to interest the reader.
=Geography and History.=--The Chinese Empire occupies a position on the
eastern side of the Asiatic continent within about the same parallels of
latitude as the United States, extending from twenty degrees latitude on
the south to fifty-three degrees on the north. Its area is about four
and a quarter million square miles, being somewhat larger than that of
the United States. Its population is estimated at about six times that
of our country. It has an abundance of rivers, intersected by numerous
canals, which greatly facilitate internal commerce. Many parts of the
country are densely populated. The people are largely engaged in
agriculture. Tea and silk are the chief articles of export, while rice
and millet form the principal food.
The Chinese belong to the Mongolian or yellow race. They are an
industrious, frugal, and temperate people, though the opium habit is
very general and is disastrous in its effects. Doubtless the overcrowded
population, which has driven many to live in boats and in crowded
apartments, has had much to do in molding the Chinese character. Until
recently they have been slow to admit modern improvements and are
conservative in the maintenance of their customs, religion, education,
and social practices. Consequently they have for many centuries made but
little progress. Their authentic history covers, according to extant
records, a period of nearly four thousand years. The government is an
absolute monarchy; the emperor is regarded as the father of all his
people and has complete power over the lives of his subjects.
The Chinese language contains no alphabet; each symbol represents a
different word; the substantives are indeclinable, and the verbs are
without inflection. It thus becomes necessary in mastering the language
to learn by rote a vast number of signs and characters,--a prodigious
feat for the memory.
The religion most widespread among the Chinese is Buddhism (which was
imported from India), though ancestor worship is still universal. Women
are the principal worshipers, yet the Chinese believe that women have
no souls. The belief in transmigration of souls is implicit, and this is
used to keep woman in a most degraded condition. If a woman is obedient
to her husband and his relatives, and is the mother of sons, she may
hope to return to this world, in the future, as a man, and thus have a
chance ultimately to reach Buddha's heaven. The belief in the
transmigration of souls explains the vegetarian diet of the Buddhist. No
zealous Buddhist will touch meat or even eggs, neither will he kill the
smallest insect, lest he should thus inadvertently murder a relative.[2]
The men care but little for any religion beyond a veneration for their
ancestors.
Polygamy is very generally practiced, the limit to the number of wives
being determined by the ability to support them. Women usually become
more religious as they advance in years, and they spend much time in
worshiping in the temples. It is they who preserve the national religion
and make most difficult the work of missionaries.[3]
=The Home.=--The wife exists only for the comfort of her husband. It is
her duty to serve and obey him. If she abuses her husband, she receives
one hundred stripes; but abuse from him is not a punishable offense.
Instruction, at home as well as at school, is confined to boys. The
birth of a boy is indicated by hanging a bow and arrow over the door;
that of a girl, by a spindle and yarn. In naming the number of his
children, the father counts only the boys. Boys are clothed in the
finest material the family can afford; girls, in rags. Parents may
destroy their children, but only girls are ever sacrificed. The mother
can seldom read and write, her chief duty being to instill into her
children the two cardinal Chinese virtues--_politeness_ and _obedience_.
The relation of parents and children is the highest and purest
representation of the relation between the Creator and the creature, and
to venerate the parents is the first and holiest of all duties, higher
than the love of wife to husband, higher than the reverence for the
emperor; therefore the emperor's father cannot be his subject.
To the Chinaman all other duties are included in filial duties. The
bringing up of the children is left almost entirely to the mother. The
training begins very early, and greatest stress from the first is laid
upon obedience. Disobedience is a crime punishable by the father with
death.
There are no illustrated children's books, no nursery rhymes to inspire
the imagination, none of the bright and useful things so necessary to a
happy childhood. The child grows up with but few playthings calculated
to stimulate the powers of the mind.
=The Elementary School.=--At about six or seven years of age the child
enters school. Sometimes a few parents unite to employ a teacher for
their children. The government has no concern for the qualifications of
the teacher; no license to teach is required, there is no governmental
inspection or control, nor does the State assume any part of the expense
of the school. Attendance is not compulsory, and yet male education is
so universal that scarcely a boy can be found who does not enjoy
opportunities for education. Charity schools are furnished by the
wealthy for those who cannot afford to contribute toward the maintenance
of a school.
There are no public schoolhouses. The school is sometimes held in the
temple, sometimes in the home of the schoolmaster, and sometimes in the
home of a wealthy patron. The furniture of the schoolroom consists of an
altar consecrated to Confucius and the god of knowledge, a desk and a
chair for the teacher, and the pupils' desks and stools, provided by the
children themselves. No effort is made to render the room attractive.
The child is admitted the first time with much ceremony in order that
the day may be one of pleasant memories. He also receives a new name,
the name of his babyhood being dropped. Indeed, a change of name
accompanies each new epoch of his life, as the time he takes a new
degree, the day of his marriage, etc. Thus the boy enters upon his new
work. The first years of study are devoted to reading, writing, and the
elements of arithmetic, which studies complete the education of the
majority of the pupils. No effort is made to interest the child; he is
simply required to memorize and write as many as possible of the fifty
thousand characters. Not until after the names of the characters have
been learned by rote is there any effort to teach the meaning of the
words which they represent. The child's writing, too, is mechanical, for
the expression of thought is but a secondary consideration. Thought
awakening is not encouraged in the Chinese course of education. Fear,
not interest, is the motive which drives the child to study. Memory is
the chief faculty to be cultivated, and each child vies with the others
to make the most noise in study.
The teacher is greatly revered, only less so than the father. His
discipline is rigid, the rod not being spared. There are no new methods
to learn; the practice to-day is the same as that of hundreds of years
ago; it consists simply in hearing what the children have learned by
heart.
The second stage of study consists of translations from text-books and
lessons in composition. This work brings some pleasure to the child, as
it is a little less mechanical. The third stage consists of
belles-lettres and essay writing. Only a few ever reach this stage, and
the purpose of this advanced work is not intellectual development, or
even the accumulation of knowledge, but to prepare for a position under
the government, which can be reached by no other means. Even in these
last two stages of study memory is the principal faculty brought into
play. Without great exercise of this power the vast amount of material
can never be mastered.
=Higher Education.=--There are no high schools, but men who have taken
degrees gather about them young students, who are to devote themselves
to study, and give them instruction in the Chinese classics and prepare
them for the State examinations for degrees. Great attention is paid to
style, and in order to cultivate a good style, students are required to
commit to memory many of the productions of their classical authors.
They write a great many essays and verses, which are criticised by their
teachers. The attention is confined solely to the Chinese classics. The
educated Chinaman is usually ignorant of any field of knowledge not
embraced in his own literature.
There is in the royal library at Pekin a catalogue consisting of one
hundred and twelve octavo volumes of three hundred pages each,
containing the titles of twelve thousand works, with short extracts of
their contents. These works treat of science, medicine, astronomy, and
philosophy, while history has an especially rich literature. The Chinese
knew how to observe the heavens four thousand years ago, and yet were
unable to construct a calendar without the help of the Europeans. They
invented gunpowder, the mariner's compass, porcelain, bells, playing
cards, and the art of printing long before they were used in Europe, yet
they lacked the ability to use these inventions as instruments to their
advancement.
China is divided into provinces which are subdivided into districts.
Candidates must pass three examinations in their own district and those
who are successful receive the lowest degree, that of "Budding
Intellect." Many thousands enter for this degree, but only about one per
cent succeed in attaining it. The possession of this degree does not yet
entitle the holder to a public office, but most of those who have
secured it become teachers, physicians, lawyers, etc. Once in three
years there is another examination for the second degree, called
"Deserving of Promotion," conducted by an examiner sent from Pekin. A
third examination is also held once every three years, in Pekin, and
success in this is rewarded by the title "Fit for Office." Holders of
the last two degrees are entitled to an appointment to some office, the
highest aim of a Chinaman. All of these examinations are conducted with
great strictness and fairness, no one being excluded. Thus every Chinese
child of ability has the opportunity to reach the highest positions in
the country.
There is a still higher degree called the "Forest of Pencils," which is
open only to members of the Royal Academy, the _Hanlin_. The acquirement
of this degree is the greatest honor to be attained; its possessor is
highly esteemed, and may hold the highest offices in the country.
In 1905 an edict was promulgated abolishing the old system of
examinations. This marks an epoch in Chinese educational history and
will tend to place China in the line of modern political and industrial
development.
=Criticism of Chinese Education.=--1. It is not under government
control.
2. It has no interest beyond the boundaries of China, and regards no
literature save the Chinese classics.
3. It is non-progressive, having made practically no improvement for
many centuries.
4. It cultivates memory to the neglect of the other powers of the mind,
and places more emphasis on the acquirement of knowledge than on the
development of the human faculties.
5. It obtains its results through fear, not by awakening interest in or
love for study.
6. Women are not embraced in the scheme of education.
7. It produces a conservative, untruthful, cunning, and non-progressive
people.
8. It reaches practically all of the male sex, and there is opportunity
for all to rise to the highest positions of honor, but its methods are
so unnatural as to awaken little desire for education on the part of the
young.
9. Its motive is debasing to the character.
CONFUCIUS (B.C. 550-478)
The name of Confucius is the one most revered among the Chinese. To him
and his disciples are due not only the native religion, now supplanted
by Buddhism, but also the language and literature. He began to teach in
a private school at the age of twenty-two. He rejected no pupil of
ability and ambition, but accepted none without these qualities. He
said, "When I have presented one corner of a subject, and the pupil
cannot make out the other three, I do not repeat the lesson." The
following are extracts from the analects of Confucius:--
1. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not to others.
2. Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is
perilous.
3. To see what is right and not do it is want of courage.
4. Worship as if the Deity were present.
5. Three friendships are advantageous: friendship with the upright,
friendship with the sincere, and friendship with the man of observation.
Three are injurious: friendship with a man of spurious airs, friendship
with the insinuatingly soft, and friendship with the glib-tongued.
6. Shall I tell you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold
that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to confess your
ignorance.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Mrs. E. E. Baldwin, Foochow, China.
[3] Houghton, "Women of the Orient," p. 14.