Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1991 The foundation for revolution : educational reforms in late Chʻing China Andrea Asbell Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Chinese Studies Commons, Education Commons, and the History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Asbell, Andrea, "The foundation for revolution : educational reforms in late Chʻing China" (1991). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 4125. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.6009 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Andrea Asbell for the Master of Arts in History presented July 24, 1991. Title: The Foundation For Revolution: Educational Reforms in Late Ch'ing China APPROVED BY THE MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: A. Walton, Chair Michael F. Reardon Gil Latz ,,,....---- Historical consensus has labeled the educational reform efforts of China's scholar-officials in the second half of the nineteenth century as merely reactions to external circumstances and therefore has concluded that these reforms were "failures". The youthful revolt against Chinese cultural traditions, which culminated in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, has frequently been cited as a clear demonstration that previous educational reforms had failed. However, when viewed as the intellectual phase of the revolutionary process, reform activities among members of China's bureaucratic and scholarly elite in the four and one half decades from the 1860s to the 2 early 1900s can be seen as limited, but definite, successes, initiated from within the traditional society and assisted by the introduction of Western secular knowledge by Protestant missionaries. There were actually two phases to educational reform. The first period, 1860 to 1890, was dominated by individual efforts, which were loosely connected by a shared belief in the need for China to strengthen itself through the selective adaptation of Western technologies. The second began in the 1890s and was characterized by the development of a general intellectual climate for educational reform, which included not only the adoption of Western technologies but also the investigation of Western philosophies and political theories. The 1902 Imperial edicts, establishing the first truly public system of education in China, represented an official acknowledgment that a fundamental shift had already occurred in Chinese intellectual foundations. This shift represents the first, intellectual, phase of the Chinese revolution and was critical to the development of the following stages of the process - the political revolution begun in 1911, and the sociocultural transformation initiated in 1915. Political solutions proposed for the problem of China's national survival in the twentieth century and sociocultural debates over the the relevance of the Chinese tradition to a modem nation-state must be considered as indications that a fundamental shift had already occurred in the intellectual foundation by the beginning of the twentieth century. This shift represented a successful result of educational reform efforts in late Ch'ing China. THE FOUNDATION FOR REVOLUTION: EDUCATIONAL REFORMS IN LATE CH'ING CHINA by AN OREA ASBELL A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in HISTORY Portland State University 1991 TO THE OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES: The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Andrea Asbell presented July 24, 1991. Linda A. Walton, Chair Michael F. Reardon / Bernard V. Burke, Chair, Departmentof History C. William Savery, Vice Provost for Grad tudies and Research TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I EDUCATIONAL REFORM AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESS . 1 II CHINESE SCHOLAR OFFICIALS AND THE STATE ............. ............. 6 Traditional Education and the Examination System: The Concept of Public Structure and Private lnstituions .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 6 Traditional Scholar-Bureaucrats As the Agents of Reform: The Transitional Generations .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 11 The Chinese Intellectual Environment For Educational Reform: "Internal Choas and External Troubles". .. .. ....... 13 The Political Context of Reform in Late Ch'ing China: "Self-Strengthening" in the Provinces and "Restoration" at the Court . 2> The Problems of Reform in a Traditional System: "Official Failures" and "Unofficial Successes" . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 28 Educational Reform and The First Transitional Generation: Individual "Succeses" and General "Failure". ............ 40 III BUILDING UPON THE FOUNDATIONAL SHIFT IN THE INTELLECTUAL CLIMATE ........................................................................ 46 The Structure Developed By the Self-Strengthening Efforts: Specialized Institutions and a Traditional Base . .. .. .. .. .. .. 46 Missionary Sponsored Education Activities: Publication, Secularization, and the Search for "Common Ground" . .. $ Treaty Ports and the Introduction of Western Learning: New Interactions and Nontraditional Intellectuals . .. .. .. 63 Educational Reform Within Traditional Structures: A Continuation of the Self-Strengthening Pattern . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 72 iv CHAPTER PAGE IV THE SECOND TRANSITIONAL GENERATION AND REFORMS............ 89 The Intellectual Climate on the Eve of the Sino-Japanese War .. .. .. .. 89 New Voices in the Developing Reform Movement: Serious Questions and Growing Concerns . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 00 The Spread of "Reformism" Throughout the Intellectual Ranks A Crttical "Change of Sttuation" in China . .. .. .. .. 110 A Gathering of "Men of Talent" in Hunan Province: The Politicization of Educational Reforms .................................... 124 Educational Reform Moves To Center Stage: The 1898 Reform Movement and the Exhoratation to Learn .............. 129 V THE LEGACY OF CH'ING EDUCATIONAL REFORMS................... 141 SELECTED BJBLIOGRAPHY . .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..... ... .. 146 CHAPTER I EDUCATIONAL REFORM AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESS On May 4, 1919, the students from Peking's universities poured into the streets of the Chinese captial to protest the decisions regarding Chinese territories that had just been announced half a world away at the Peace Conference in Versailles, France. For contemporary China watchers and later Sinologists, this was a momentous occasion and one of those significant dates which mark a turning point in that vast country's development. The importance of this date to the Chinese people and in Chinese intellectual history is underlined by the popular description of May 4, 1919, as "The Day Confucius Died." Obviously, this day in the twentieth century did not mark the actual death of the Great Sage, himself, but marked the rejection of his intellectual legacy, which had stood in place as the foundation of Chinese education and sociopolitical thought for over two thousand years. If May 4, 1919 represented a rejection of the Confucian heritage of the Chinese people, then could it also be said to mark a rejection of all previous attempts to reform that heritage? One possible answer to this question was a resounding yes, and that became the conclusion for some contemporary historians and social critics. 1 However, for a group usually associated with a rejection of traditional China and 2 its reform efforts, the Marxist historians of the PRC , there was a different conclusion, as shown by this evaluation of earlier reforms issued by the 1 This was particularly true for Western writers in the early years of the twentieth century and in the years before and after the May Fourth Movement. Some examples of this attitude can be found in the following studies: Meribeth E. Cameron, The Reform Movement in China.1898-1912 (New York: Octagon Books, Inc., 1963), originally published in 1931 by Stanford University; J. Martin Miller, China: Ancient and Modern ( Copyrighted in 1900 by the author, no publisher listed); and Paul S. Reinsch, Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971) a reprint of the original 1911 publication. 2 Acronym for People's Republic of China, the communist state proclaimed by Mao Tse-tung on October 1 , 1949. 2 "Compilation Group" for "The History of Modern China Series": "As Lenin says, 'Every reform is a reform (and not a reactionary and not a conservative measure) only insofar as it constitutes a certain step, a 'stage,' for the better. But every reform is introduced 'in order to stem, weaken, or extinguish the revolutionary struggle, in order to fragment the strength and energy of the revolutionary classes.' The Reform Movement of 1898 launched by China's bourgeois reformists, though reactionary by its very nature, was precisely~ s 'step' and~- "3 Therefore, for some of the harshest critics of the Chinese tradition, nineteenth­ century reforms not only could not be considered failures but should also be considered successes, because they represented official attempts to adjust the system in reaction to the larger "process" of revolution and affected the development of that revolution. Another perspective on this question places the May Fourth Movement (