Question1:- Write the summery of Education in Dynastic China
Question1:- Write the summery of Education in Dynastic China
There were at least two forms of institutional education in Tang China. One was religious, based on the written scriptures of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. The other was secular, based on Confucian classic texts as well as on works on etiquette, divination, medicine, and music; collections of jokes and poetry; short fiction; and dictionaries, almanacs, histories, and biographies. Because of their libraries, monasteries and abbeys became convenient places for lay students to pursue their learning.
The educational opportunities offered by religious establishments paled in comparison to those provided by the state. Eight days after ascending the throne in 618, Emperor Gaozu established three colleges in Changan for somewhat more than 300 students. Six years later, he ordered prefectures and counties to institute schools in their districts. In 738, the emperor vastly expanded the system. He ordered all prefectures and counties to establish schools in their villages and supply them with qualified teachers. By the mid-eighth century, the total enrollment of students in the capitals and provinces was about 63,570 (and may not have included pupils in village schools). The total number of students supported by the government—including specialized schools and those for imperial guards, militia, and others—came to about 130,000. The number of the empire's subjects at the time was almost 49 million. That means that students constituted 0.25% of the population. By modern standards, the number is small, but it is enormous for premodern societies.
Originally, Tang statutes restricted admission to the three capital colleges to sons of fathers who held high ranks, but in the eighth century access was increased. The colleges accepted young men between the ages of 14 and 19 except for commoners, who could register as late as 25. Age, not social status, determined the rank of a student in the student body. On their first day of class, students had to present their teachers with a gift of silk, jerky, and ale. Afterward, the state provided a stipend in the form of grain and a place to live.
There were two facets to education in the Tang: memorization by the students and lectures by the faculty. Teachers expected students to commit portions of a text to memory before they arrived in the classroom. Professors and assistant professors expounded on the meanings of the assigned passages during class time. In their spare time, students practiced calligraphy and composed trial answers to examination questions. Every 10 days, the masters gave an examination on the materials covered during the week. It consisted of one fill-in question for every 1,000 words of text memorized (students had to supply from memory a passage of which they received only the beginning sentence) and one interpretive question for every 2,000 words of text covered in lectures. A passing mark was given for satisfactory answers to two out of three questions. The faculty also gave a year-end examination to determine the progress of students. It consisted of 10 oral questions. A passing mark consisted of four or more acceptable answers. If a student failed that examination three years in a row or had been in school for nine years without graduating, he was dismissed and sent home.
The government also offered education in specialized fields. The areas of study included medicine, law, mathematics, calligraphy, astronomy, calendrical science, divination, and ritual. The texts for the law school were the Tang code, statutes, ordinances, and regulations. There were 10 textbooks for mathematics that students were expected to master in 14 years. Students of calligraphy studied the classics as engraved in three styles of script on stone tablets, as well as two dictionaries. The course of study had to be completed in six years. Instruction in the remaining fields took place in the appropriate bureaus of the central government.
The aspiration of most young men who received an education was to acquire a government post, civil or military. To achieve that goal, they had to take examinations given by the government. The breadth of Tang examinations was greater than those of any dynasty before or after it. Among other things, it had a test for child prodigies. The state assigned bureaucratic ranks to children nine years old or younger who could recite the Classic of Filial Piety and the Discourses of Confucius from memory and answer 10 out of 10 questions on the texts. The government did not, however, appoint them to offices at such tender ages. The ranks were presumably entitlements to take posts of those grades when they reached maturity. The state granted degrees, privileges to take political offices, to students who passed examinations in all of the fields already mentioned. The three most important examinations were the classical masters, advanced scholars, and elevated warriors.
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