§ 185. The Family, as the organic starting-point of all education, makes
the beginning. The nation looks upon itself as a family. Among all
unorganized people education is family-education, though they are not
conscious of its necessity. Identical in principle with these people,
but distinguished from them in its consciousness of it, the Chinese
nation, in their laws, regulations, and customs, have constituted the
family the absolute basis of their life and the only principle of their
education.
§ 186. The natural element of the family is found in marriage and
relationship; the spiritual, in love. We may call the nature of family
feeling which is the immediate unity of both elements, by the name of
Piety. In so far as this appears not merely as a substantial feeling but
at the same time as law, there arises from it the subordination of the
abstract obedience of the woman as wife to the husband, of children to
the parents, of the younger children to the elder. In this obedience man
first renounces his self-will and his natural roughness; he learns to
master his passions, and to conduct himself with deferential gentleness.
--When the principle ruling the family is transferred to political
relations, there arises the tyranny of the Chinese state, which cannot
be fully treated here. We find everywhere in it an analogical relation
to that of parents and children. In China the ruler is the father and
mother of the country; the civil officers are representatives of a
paternal authority, &c. It follows that in school the children will be
ranked according to their age. The authority of parents over children is
according to the principle entirely unconditional, but in actuality very
mild. The abandonment of daughters by the poorest classes in the great
cities is not objected to, for the government rears the children in
orphan asylums, where they are cared for by nurses appointed by the
state.--
§ 187. The distinction of these relations which are conditioned by
nature takes on the external shape of a definite ceremonial, the
learning of which is a chief element of education. In conformity with
the naturalness of the whole principle all crimes against it are
punished by whipping, which does not necessarily entail dishonor. In
order to lead man to the mastery of himself and to obedience to those
who are naturally set over him, education develops an endless number of
fragmentary maxims to keep attention ever watchful over himself, and his
behavior always fenced in by a code of prescriptions.
--We find in such moral sentences the substance of what is called, in
China, Philosophy.--
§ 188. The theoretical education includes Heading, Writing--i.e.
painting the letters with a brush--Arithmetic, and the making of verses.
But the ability to do these things is not looked at as means of culture
but as ends in themselves, and to fit one therefore for the undertaking
of state offices. The Chinese possess formally all the means for
literary culture--printing, libraries, schools, and academies; but the
worth of these is not great. Their value has been often over-rated
because of their external resemblance to those found among us.